Name a jet and win RMB50,000!
Not content with making cars and computers for the world, China is now on to its next big thing -- aircraft. The long-awaited ARJ-21 (pictured here) is China's very first homegrown commercial aircraft and has been launched amid much fanfare by the aircraft maker AVIC I. Now only a name is lacking, and if you can come up with a creative Chinese name of between two and four Chinese characters before September 28, RMB50,000 will be yours! (Sorry apparently English names are worth nothing).
The state-owned AVIC I aims to rival other makers of smaller passenger jets such as Canada's Bombardier and Brazil's Embraer, and a BusinessWeek report says the ARJ-21 is expected to grab up to "60 percent of the domestic market for mid-size regional airliners over the next 20 years". We have no doubt that will swiftly come to pass since almost all airlines in China are state-owned, but lest you think the China-made jets will only have a market domestically, AVIC I has already delivered the first two of 15 MA60 jets (another of its planes which can seat 50-60 passengers) to Indonesia's Merpati Nusantara Airlines. Nine MA60s have also been delivered to Zimbabwe, Laos, Zambia and the Republic of Congo. A humble beginning perhaps, but who knows where they'll go next!
