Comac has collected a new order for 30 C919s from China Merchants Bank, the company announced at Airshow China in Zhuhai on Tuesday. In a statement released to wire services, Comac claims now to have collected orders for 430 of the new narrowbodies from 17 companies, primarily from China. One U.S.-based leasing company—GE Capital Aviation Services--signed an MOU for 10 of the 156- to 168-seat airplanes at the 2010 Zhuhai show. Two years later, at the same show, it ordered another 10.

Officially scheduled to fly for the first time by the end of 2015, the C919 should have made its first flight this year under Comac’s previous development schedule. Under current certification plans, the program appears unlikely to yield an airplane ready for delivery to a launch customer until 2018.

Assembly of the first prototype officially got under way in Shanghai in mid-September, when Comac announced the arrival of the middle and aft section of the fuselage. On October 15 the company announced the arrival of the nose section, and on October 30 the forward section of the aft fuselage. That part embodies the first Chinese attempt to use composite materials on a large area of a commercial airframe’s main structure.

Engine testing got under way on October 6, when CFM partners GE and Snecma ran the Leap-1C turbofan for the first time.