An engineer of Guanyi Aviation inspects an aircraft before a test flight at Jiuzhou airport in Huangping county, Guizhou province in April 2023. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Guanyi Aviation, the first private enterprise in China that developed type-23 aircraft has obtained a type certificate from the Chinese authority, marking significant progress for China's general aviation industry.
After intensive test flights, the GA20 aircraft, developed by Guanyi Aviation, received its type certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in December.
Different from type-25 aircraft, which usually carries a large volume of passengers, type-23 aircraft is smaller and is usually used for professional flight training and the private flight market.
Zheng Lei, chief economist at cloud services provider Smydigtech, said that acquiring the certification marks that Chinese private aircraft development enterprises have the technological capabilities and foundation to participate in global competition, which will help promote the development of China's general aviation industry and gradually change the monopoly of the general aviation market by foreign companies.
Currently, aircraft developed by European and American companies dominate China's general aviation industry. However, with the rise of State-owned and private enterprises, there is hope that the situation will be changed.
"That the GA20 aircraft successfully acquired its type certificate proves our independent research and development capabilities, giving us more confidence to continue on the path of developing Chinese aircraft with independent intellectual property rights," said Zhu Songhua, founder of Guanyi Aviation.
According to Zhu, the company overcame many challenges to acquire the certificate. In the process, the domestic supply chain for important airborne equipment was not sound, and foreign suppliers were not actively cooperating with the certification work in China. Through unremitting efforts, the company has promoted the application and acquisition of airworthiness certificates for multiple key foreign airborne equipment to enter the domestic general aircraft supply chain system.
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that China's general aviation industry is estimated to reach 1 trillion yuan ($137.3 billion) by 2030.
