CHINA’S first homegrown large passenger plane — the twin-engine, narrow-body C919 jet — rolled off the assembly line in Shanghai yesterday, moving the country one step closer to its high-flying goal of becoming an advanced industrialized nation by 2020.

With its blue-and-green livery, a prototype of the airliner went on show at COMAC’s (Commercial Aircraft Corp of China) assembly and manufacturing center in the Pudong New Area, Its maiden flight is scheduled for next year.

The single-aisle C919 can carry 158 passengers in a two-class layout, 168 in all-economy mode and 174 in a high-density arrangement.