MA600 rolls off the assembly line

A milestone was achieved on June 29 when the first MA600 rolled off the assembly line in Yanliang, Xi’an in Shanxi Province.
The MA600 is a new China-made regional turboprop aircraft, a domestic civil aircraft type newly developed by Xi’an Aircraft Industry Group Co. of AVIC 1. It is the newest member of the Modern Ark (MA) series aircraft. The MA600 is a new version of the MA60, the first Chinese-owned brand of civil airliner. It adopts the turboprop engine widely used for international regional aircraft. It is lighter than the MA60, making it fuel efficient. The MA600 can operate on a runway with a length between 1,200 and 2,000 meters. It can also land and take off on an unpaved runway, a gravel runway, or even a snow-covered runway. The MA60 has been put into operation in China, asw well as some countries in Southeast Asia and Africa. The MA600 is estimated to be delivered to its first customer in 2009.