COMAC ARJ21 ARJ21B (C909 CBJ)

Spanish-language sources call it the ARJ21B and describe it as the business-jet version of the -700; Comac's later catalogue lists it as the CBJ, for Comac Business Jet. In 2018, while the freighter was still only a proposal, an executive aircraft was already in final assembly. The version is not built on the baseline airframe but on the extended-range one: in the manufacturer's specification tables the CBJ sits under the official ARJ21-700 ER designation, inheriting its 43,500 kg maximum take-off weight and its longer legs — exactly what a corporate customer is buying.

The change is almost entirely internal. Where the airline aircraft fits 90 single-class seats — or 78 in two classes, at a 31 in pitch and 45.5 cm width — the CBJ installs twenty VIP places with executive-standard pitch and seat width. Operating empty weight comes to 24,900 kg, marginally below the passenger aircraft, and maximum payload is set at 8,000 kg. External dimensions are untouched at 33.46 m long, 27.28 m in span and 8.44 m high, with the same CF34-10A engines, an 11,900 m ceiling and a normal cruise of Mach 0.78, or 828 km/h.

The CBJ holds its CAAC type certificate, which it needs to operate commercially in China, but its commercial trail is thin: the programme's order tables record nothing in the ARJ21B column. It is a niche product in a niche market — airliner-derived corporate jets, a segment dominated by conversions of Western types — and its main draw in China is simply that it can be bought at home. The version illustrates Comac's approach to the ARJ21 rather well: once the airframe was certified, wring every configuration out of it — executive, cargo, medical, emergency response — instead of starting new aircraft.