Aviation Industry Corp of China, the nation's major aircraft maker, is developing an airship to meet potential demand from tourists, according to a project insider.

Zhang Jinhua, a senior designer at the Special Aircraft Research Institute, an AVIC subsidiary in Jingmen, Hubei province, that designs blimps and other types of special aircraft, said engineers are finalizing the design work for the AS700 airship and expect to carry out its maiden flight in the second half of this year.

Propelled by piston engines, the airship will be able to carry one pilot and nine tourists and will be capable of flying 700 kilometers and staying in the air for 10 hours.

Aviation Industry Corp of China, a State-owned defense conglomerate, is developing a large manned airship and plans to conduct its maiden test flight in 2020, according to its designers.

Propelled by two engines, the airship will be capable of carrying 840 kilograms and will be able to stay airborne for 24 hours, Zhang said.

The institute head said the airship program was approved in June by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and construction formally began in late August.

It hopes that the new model's development will help Chinese engineers narrow the technological gap between Chinese airships and foreign ones, and also help to boost the country's aerospace industry, said Zhou Lei, the airship's program manager.

Qian Taiyang, a senior designer at Beijing Near-Space Airship Technology Development Co－a subsidiary of CASIC－said his company has designed and built several types of airships, including at least one manned model.

With a capacity of one controller and eight passengers, the airship can fly for 5 hours and reach an altitude of 1,000 meters above ground.

China's top legislature "strongly condemns and firmly opposes" a US House resolution which hyped up China's civil unmanned airship and "China threat" theory, the legislature's foreign affairs committee said on Thursday morning.

The straying of a Chinese civilian unmanned airship into US airspace was purely accidental and was caused by force majeure, and it didn't pose any threat to US personnel or security interests, the statement said, underlining China's responsible response to the incident.