BEIJING, Mar 8 (AP) -- China's first homegrown jet airliner, the ARJ-21, is scheduled to roll off the production line by year's end, with the first test flights scheduled for next March, newspapers reported Thursday.

The plane's wing was delivered to manufacturer China Aviation Industry Corp. I's assembly base in the central city of Xi'an on Wednesday, the China Daily said.

That delivery "signaled the manufacturing has made a significant breakthrough and guarantees the jet's final assembly (will be) on schedule," AVIC I General Manager Lin Zuoming was quoted as saying by the paper.

Seating 70 to 110 passengers with a maximum range of 3,702 kilometers (2,300 miles), the ARJ-21, or Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century, has been put forward as a possible challenge to Boeing and Airbus's dominance in the Chinese market, particularly for relatively short feeder flights.

Its GE turbofan engines and avionics are imported, but the airframe and other parts were produced in various AVIC I plants around China.

Design and production of large aircraft was listed among 16 major projects under a government science and technology development program launched in 2006 and referred to in Premier Wen Jiabao's speech to the national legislature on Monday.

Test flights were originally scheduled for late 2006 and there was no word on the reason for the delay. The project was approved in 2002 and China's government invested 5 billion yuan (US$645 million;€491 million) in its original stage of development, the report said.

Smaller domestic carriers such as Shanghai Airlines, Shandong Airlines and Xiamen Airlines have ordered 71 of the planes, while AVIC I is also targeting export markets in Asia, Africa and South America, it said.