China's Y-12F versatile aircraft was granted a type certificate by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on Friday, according to its developer, marking another step forward for its dive into the international market.

This is the second time the plane has been granted a type certificate by a foreign agency, having also received the type certificate from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2016, according to China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC).

As a subsidiary of the state-owned AVIC, the developer of Y-12F is headquartered in Harbin in northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province, under the name of AVIC Harbin Aircraft Industry Company Ltd (AVIC HAFEI).

The new European approval for the Y-12F is a successful practice of China-EU bilateral aviation safety between the AVIC and the EASA, with significance to bilateral airworthiness cooperation between China and the EU, said its developer.

Chinese-made plane meets international standards

The Y-12F aircraft conducted its maiden flight in 2010, with a maximum take-off weight of 8.4 tonnes and can carry up to 19 passengers.

Its airborne automatic flight control system is capable of self-navigation and automatic piloting, and it is widely applied in passenger and cargo transportation, ocean monitoring, airdrop parachute, aerial photography, geological exploration, medical rescue and other fields.

In mid-June 2018, the Y-12F aircraft passed the Chinese civil aviation authorities' verification flight tests for its automatic flight control system.

The twin-engine propeller-driven Y-12F aircraft is designed according to airworthiness standards of China and the U.S., and it completed the FAA evaluation flight tests for its automatic flight control system in 2018, with its performance meeting the requirements, said AVIC HAFEI.

The FAA conducted ground tests and flight tests for the automatic flight control system of the Y-12F plane in support of the Chinese civil aviation authorities. The automatic flight control system of the Y-12F was developed by the aviation system provider Honeywell Aerospace.

(With input from Xinhua)