It might be the beginnings of a giant of commercial aviation. The ARJ21 regional jet is shaping up as China’s equivalent of the Airbus A300—a project that in its time seemed merely interesting but later was recognized as the origin of a product range that would challenge the established order of civil aircraft makers.

The design of the ARJ21 wrings out extra efficiency by using flow into the engines to accelerate air over the top of the wing, boosting lift without additional drag. Chief designer Wu Guanghui tells Aviation Week & Space Technology that careful placement of the engines relative to the wing may add more than 1% to the aircraft’s lift/drag ratio, although it’s a new concept and so he’s waiting for flight testing next year to confirm the theoretical prediction.

The Chinese aircraft industry may still be in the early stages of developing its own range of commercial jets, but Western executives say it already ranks with the world’s best aviation parts suppliers. The businesses grouped into conglomerates Avic I and Avic II still have challenges to overcome, but they no longer need to rely on favoritism from Western manufacturers in seeking work—even if they still enjoy that advantage from time to time.