China gets its ARJ up

Imagethief was interested to see that the ARJ-21, the Chinese regional commercial jet that is currently in development, had its maiden flight on Friday. China has big ambitions to grow its capabilities in commercial aviation, and there is much riding on the ARJ program. So I was not surprised at all to see that the pilots were complementary after the flight:

"The plane flew normally and it handled well," the report quoted pilot Zhao Peng as saying.

I am sure that the plane probably did handle well. But I'm also sure that even if it had flown like a dead quail fired from a slingshot Captain Peng would have been complementary, lest his captain's wings fly away and doom him to a career in the second-seat of the yak dung cargo route from Golmud to Hohhot.

This is not particularly Chinese. Test pilots for the commercial aircraft manufacturers do are advocates for their employers, who are in the business of selling those aircraft. Remember the A380's heavily hyped maiden flight?

Jacques Rosay, who flew the A380 during take-off, said
the plane behaved "immaculately" and that as a pilot "you handle it
like you handle a bicycle."

Yes. Exactly like you'd handle a jet-powered bicycle with a maximum takeoff weight of 590 metric tonnes. But it gets the positive point across, both to airlines, who will need to train and qualify their flight crews, and to potential passengers. This is important in an era when maiden flights are a big part of the marketing push for new aircraft.

Anyone want to guess on the tone of the comments from the guy on the stick during the Boeing 787's first test flight? Heavy on the smooth-and-easy, I'm betting. Even if the plane handles badly, which it almost certainly won't, you're not going to hear, "Handles like a giant chicken on meth," during the press conference. At least, not if the pilot wants a job when they get around to testing the 797, or whatever comes next.

See also:

Silicon Hutong: The ARJ-21 and China's long, slow climb to the skies

Nice lines on the Chinese model.