ARJ21 Aircraft Completes Special Flight Test at Highest Civil Airport in the World

ARJ21 AC103 completed a maximum take-off/landing height expansion flight test at Daocheng Yading Airport (4411 meters above sea level), the highest civil airport in the world, and returned to Shanghai on July 30th, 2020. After half a month of flight test, the take-off and landing capabilities of ARJ21 aircraft in the environment of a high plateau airport were fully verified, which marks that the operating range of ARJ21 aircraft can cover all the high plateau airports, laying a solid foundation for the opening of plateau routes in the future.

Plateau airports refer to the airports with an elevation of greater than 1,500 meters, among which those with an elevation of 1,500-2,438 meters are general plateau airports, and those with an elevation of 2,438 meters and above are high plateau airports. Plateau airports have thin air, complex terrain and changeable weather, which place higher requirements on aircraft performance and operation supporting capability. China has the most plateau airports, among which there are 19 high plateau airports mainly located in western China. At the beginning of the design of ARJ21 aircraft, the operational needs of western China were fully considered, and the plateau performance was taken as one of the most important design objectives. ARJ21 aircraft has carried out plateau flight tests at Golmud Airport (2,842 meters above sea level) and Huatugou Airport (2,905 meters above sea level) respectively in June 2013 and September 2017. With the special flight test at Daocheng Yading Airport, the maximum take-off/landing height is further expanded, and the reliability and plateau performance of ARJ21 aircraft are verified.