The wide-body aircraft project jointly developed by Russia and China finally has a timetable.

"Russia and China are set to develop the wide-body aircraft next year," said Jin Zhuanglong, chairman of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) when attending the 18th World Management Forum hosted by School of Management, Fudan University, China Youth Daily reported.

COMAC is mainly engaged in development and production of two types of aircraft - ARJ21 and C919. The ARJ21 is a small-size regional jet with twin engines, and the C919 is a domestically-made large narrow-body aircraft with 168 seats.

Jin revealed that the ARJ21 will gain its airworthiness certification this year, and the C919 will complete the assembly of fuselage structure this year.

However, COMAC did not disclose matters related to the research and development of the new wide-body aircraft, a jetliner with a large diameter fuselage cabin and two aisles, as well as a capacity of more than 300 passengers.

Earlier, there was report that China and Russia have been in discussion of cooperation in the wide-body aircraft since 2012. Other sources said that Russia mainly provides technology and China supplies money in the Sino-Russian cooperation, but none has been officially confirmed.

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