By: Gregory Polek from AIN.com

CFM International and ACAE in December signed an MOU to build an assembly line in China for a version of the new Leap-X engine to power the C919.

By the time the three examples of the Comac ARJ21 regional jet had accumulated some 220 flight hours by the middle of this month, China had proven that it could assemble and fly an indigenous airplane derived from a Western design. But the country’s aspirations to become a global aerospace power will demand more than an ability to adapt already mature Western technology to programs meant almost solely for domestic consumption. Hence, this month’s official ground-breaking of a new engine research and development center in Shanghai might have carried more significance to the Chinese than even the considerable publicity surrounding it suggested.