A female engineer who graduated from a Chinese university subjected to US sanctions and started out designing air defence systems is now steering the C929 programme aimed at producing a home-grown airliner as advanced and spacious as the widebodies made by Boeing and Airbus.
Having left her mark on China’s decades-long endeavour to launch the C909 and C919 regional and narrowbody models, Zhao Chunling has been lead designer for the ambitious widebody jet programme since 2023 as Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) attempts to play catch-up with the Western duopoly.
Zhao graduated from Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, in 1991.
The university is frequently included on United States sanctions lists for its close ties to China’s military, with staff and students banned from buying or using American technology, including mathematical software.
Despite the sanctions, NPU has taken part in the development of numerous weapons, including powerful fighter jets.
But Zhao’s career flight path did not lead to civil aviation engineering immediately after graduation in 1991.
