Avic has launched full-scale development of its MA700 78-seat turboprop airliner, aiming at a first flight in 2016 and first delivery in 2019. New details show the MA700’s cabin width has shrunk during pre-development, with the manufacturer retreating from a plan for more comfortable seats than are normal for such aircraft. Adoption of a narrower fuselage and shorter wingspan than previously planned partly explain a reduction in what already looked like an aggressive weight target.

BEIJING — China’s Chang’e 3 lunar probe, despite encountering unexpectedly extreme temperature disparities on the Moon’s surface, has six of its eight scientific instruments activated and operating properly. Optical and ultraviolet imaging experiments have begun, but as of Dec. 17 controllers had not yet activated an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and an imaging spectrometer operating in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The probe arrived on the Moon on Dec. 14 GMT.

Comac has decided or is close to deciding to use large amounts of aluminum-lithium alloy in the structure of its C919 narrowbody airliner, maintaining a quota of advanced materials despite the decision not to use carbon fiber for the center wing box.