Headquarters of COMAC in Shanghai File photo: VCG

The first of the second line of the completed 132 China-made ARJ21 aircrafts, assembled at Shanghai's Pudong manufacturing bases, took off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Friday.

The Pudong manufacturing line of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) was put into use last year, covering all the production processes from parts assembly, final assembly and painting. 

To date, the Pudong manufacturing line has resumed operations with precautionary measures taken to safeguard the health of the employees amid the coronavirus outbreak. Test flights for the production and delivery of its 132 AEJ21 flights are proceeding in an orderly manner.

The production process is streamlined with employees at different stations who work on different parts simultaneously, which speeds up the productivity.

Gu Xin, a person in charge of the ARJ21 business unit of COMAC said, "The application of automated systems has reduced manual labor input and shortened operational time. The data which took workers hours to measure can now be recorded by the device's sensing system with largely improved accuracy and efficiency. "

Before each ARJ21 aircraft is delivered to customers, it must complete an "air test", also known as the production flight test. 

"This includes ground tests and air tests. The test for situations where the plane loses speed or pressure and causes the oxygen masks to drop have to be completed in the air," Deng Xiaohong, deputy director of the commercial aircraft flight test Center of COMAC, said.

Following the completion of the production flight test of the 132 ARJ21 aircrafts, the pace of subsequent production, test flight and delivery process from the Pudong production line will further accelerate.

As of middle January, Comac has delivered 22 ARJ21 flights, connecting 38 Chinese cities with 37 routes. It has safely transported more than 690,000 passengers, with a total of 596 orders from 22 clients.