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It's a day that I'll not soon forget - the culmination of the past 7 years of my life's work, as well as those of many of my closest friends and colleagues, as AC101, the first airworthy COMAC C919 narrow body commercial jet liner, took flight for the very first time.
After days(!) of coordinating with COMAC, our joint ventures, and our colleagues from China to Florida to Iowa, I started the day by heading to the rendezvous parking lot. I got there a tad early - no one else besides the bus drivers were there yet!
Before long, however, the guests started arriving, and we boarded the bus towards the flight test center:
Jeff C and Jim
TT and Me
Guests starting to pile into the viewing area - you can see the plane in the distance through the haze...
We met up with our JV colleagues and mingled with our friends from the other suppliers who have worked on this huge project for the past several years:
Me with my spiffy First Flight hat with Jim and Guanglu
It took some serious coordination majik to get JT to the venue! His flight in from Beijing was delayed, but we got him here!
Finally, it was time for the main event! We listened to the government officials give their opening comments and issue the flight instructions before we finally got to see what we all came for - take off! Unfortunately, no one told the guards not to stand in the way...
Taxiing out to the runway
Building up to takeoff speed!
After takeoff, the plane flew up north to around Nantong and back for roughly 90 minutes as the pilots tested various flight control laws and observed the behaviors of the flight deck.
The First Flight Path
COMAC figured out some way to live-stream the flight deck as well as a camera on the nose gear back to the monitoring center and broadcast it live on CCTV-13 - pretty cool!
Sadly, this very same jumbotron also blocked the view when the plane was taking off...
Sitting around waiting for the plane to come back
After about 90 minutes, the plane back back into view at Pudong airport! The landing was buttery smooth - almost too smooth looking, at least for my taste. I prefer my landings a little harder to know that we've actually made contact!
From this angle it looks like the plane is sitting on the hangar!
Getting towed back to the viewing area
I like this shot!
Finally, the hotshot crew deplaned to thunderous applause and gave their interviews - very "Top Gun-esque"!
Of course, we couldn't leave the venue without a group selfie, courtesy of Jim's selfie stick!
Mission Accomplished! Glad to have been able to share the moment with these great friends!
A historic day for COMAC, for the aviation history, and for Grant's Pad! Congratulations to COMAC, and thanks to all of my friends and colleagues for the years of hard work that we have put in!
