CFM International has delivered the first CFM Leap-1C turbofan to China’s Comac for installation on the new C919 narrowbody, the engine company announced Thursday. CFM and Comac held a delivery ceremony to mark the occasion in Shanghai, where Comac vice president Wu Guanghui confirmed plans to finish assembly and roll out the first C919 test article by the end of the year.

“It is a great day for the Leap engine and CFM,” said CFM executive vice president Allen Paxson. “This engine is the culmination of more than six years of hard work between the CFM and Comac teams and represents the launch of the next exciting phase of the C919 aircraft development.”

Launched in December 2009, when Comac picked the Leap-1C as the sole Western powerplant for the 150-passenger C919, the Leap family of engines has logged a total of more than 4,730 certification ground- and flight-test hours and 7,900 cycles. The program, which includes the Leap-1A for the Airbus A320neo and the Leap-1B for the Boeing 737 Max, now consists of 28 CFM ground- and flight-test engines, along with a total of 32 flight-test engines for aircraft manufacturers.

The first Leap-1C engine completed a flight-test program in late 2014 on a modified 747 flying testbed at GE facilities in Victorville, California. Along with gauging engine operability, stall margin, performance, emissions and acoustics, the flight-test program also validated technologies including the woven carbon fiber composite fan, the Twin-Annular, Pre-Mixing Swirler (TAPS) combustor, ceramic matrix composite shrouds in the high-pressure turbine and titanium aluminide blades in the low-pressure turbine.

Meanwhile, C919 development has entered a critical phase and Comac has nearly finished final assembly of the first airframe structure. The company reports that the wind tunnel test, iron-bird test, avionics integration, and power system tests continue to progress, and following delivery of the first Leap-1C engine and hydraulic systems, installation of the airborne systems will begin soon.