Green light for the Comac C919

摘要

A ghostly silence reigned at the otherwise busy Shanghai Pudong Airport on the morning of 5 May. For a short time flight operations at the 66 million passengers-a-year hub with its four runways were on hold, giving way to a small twinjet with a band of blue around the fuselage and a green empennage. China's first modern passenger jet, the Comae C919, registration B-001A, was preparing for its maiden flight. For this first flight the authorities had demanded at least five kilometres' visibility and a cloud-base not too low.