After 30 years on the drawing board, China will resume manufacturing jumbo aircraft in its new five-year plan to meet the country's increasing demand for air travel.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said last Sunday in his government work report that China will start manufacturing jumbo aircraft during the 11th Five-Year Plan, from 2006-2010.

This is the first time the idea has been raised since an early attempt was aborted in the 1980s.

China has already purchased Boeing 747s for international flights.

The jumbo aircraft project will speed up technology advances in China's aviation industry and promote  development of related industrial sectors.

Jumbo aircraft refers to airliners with a capacity of over 150 passengers and a range of up to 4,000 kilometers.

Building a jumbo aircraft is feasible, said Guan Zhidong, a professor with Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. While China has the basic technologies to build a jumbo aircraft, international cooperation is needed, he said.

China started to build jumbo aircraft in 1970, just two years after Europe's Airbus went into production. Its first jumbo aircraft named "Yunshi" made its maiden flight successfully in 1980, but failed to gain a foothold in China.

"If the 'Yunshi' project had not been halted, China would be ranked as one of the countries with a first-class aviation industry," said Hu Xitao, an official of the former aviation ministry.

With air travel soaring by 95 percent in the past five years, China has the second largest civil aviation market after the United States.

Boeing predicts China will need over 2,600 new airliners, mostly large aircraft, in the next 20 years, valued at about US$213 billion.

Insiders agree that China should first aim at meeting the demand of the domestic market with smaller aircraft and gradually achieve its goal of producing jumbo aircraft.

At the end of 2005, the ARJ 21, China's regional jet, was making test flights and it is expected to be put in service by 2008.

So far 41 orders have been received for the ARJ 21.

The third "Xinzhou60," another middle-scale jet aircraft manufactured by China, was delivered to Zimbabwe last year. The Xinzhou60 has received 20 foreign orders.

China has worked with international aviation companies to manufacture aircraft parts, which have laid a  foundation for its own jumbo aircraft manufacturing. China manufactures about a quarter of Airbus airliner parts and a third of Boeing's parts.