BEIJING: A new aircraft metal testing laboratory in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in north-west China, has become the country’s first such facility to use independently developed Chinese equipment, promising to make aircraft checks in the region more convenient. The lab, located in the Xinjiang base of state-owned China Southern Airlines, began operations recently, and is expected to cater to growing demand for air travel. Equipped with domestically produced electron microscopes, the facility is considered a landmark achievement as Chinese-made high-precision testing instruments are being used for the first time in China’s civil aviation industry’s aircraft metal testing process. Before the lab was established, the metals used in the fuselage of local aircraft had to be tested at facilities in…
