SHANGHAI, Oct 31 (BusinessAviationNetwork.net) - China will announce a major foreign order for its self-developed regional jet ARJ21 next week valued at roughly 5 billion yuan ($731 million), an industry executive said on Friday. China will sell 25 jets to a US company in a "breakthrough" deal that marks the country's entry into the big-plane market dominated by European and US players. The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (CACC), developed the ARJ21-700. The ARJ21, an acronym for Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century, is China's first homemade regional jet.

An executive close to The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (CACC), which developed ARJ21, told BusinessAviationNetwork.net the deal will be signed with a U.S. firm during the Zhuhai airshow in south China.

The executive, who asked not to be identified, did not disclose the size of the order. But China Daily, an official English-language daily paper, cited another domestic paper as saying the order would total 25 jets.

In March, GE Commercial Aviation Services, General Electric's (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) aircraft leasing arm, signed a preliminary agreement to buy 5 ARJ21 jets with an option to buy 20 more.

China's homegrown  ARJ21-700 regional jet, which rolled off the production line on Dec 21 last year, as shown in this picture, will be exported to the US.

The Chinese industry executive declined to say if GE Commercial was the buyer of the 25 ARJ21 jets.

CACC was incorporated earlier this year after the merger of China's two state aircraft makers AVIC I and AVIC II.

Orders for the ARJ21 jet, unveiled last December and due for commercial deliveries from the third quarter of 2009, have already exceeded 100, mostly from domestic carriers. The deal, to be inked on the opening day of the 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, proves China's homemade aircraft have won international recognition, experts said Thursday.

Asian buyers have showed interest in ARJ21 jets, with Lao Airlines having signed a letter of intent to buy two, CACC said in May.

But "it is very difficult to enter North America and Europe," Chen Fusheng said. Chen is in charge of marketing another homemade turboprop aircraft, MA600. Their (US and Europe's) markets are mature, and aircraft makers have to pass time-consuming and high-standard tests before selling their planes," he said.

The deal shows global buyers have confidence in ARJ21, Chen Jin, a CACC marketing manager, was quoted by as having said.

The ARJ21 can carry 70 to 110 passengers and has a maximum range of 2,000 nautical miles. It is scheduled to take its first commercial flight by the end of November, Xinhua said.and rolled out of a Shanghai factory in December last year. It has yet to take its maiden commercial flight and get a certificate from the US-based Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

General Electric and Parker Hannifin Corp (PH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are among companies which supply parts for the ARJ21 jet. ($1=6.838 Yuan)