The domestically developed Y-20 heavy-lifting transport plane will soon be delivered to buyers, a project manager said on Thursday.

The manager expects that China will need at least 1,000 of the huge aircraft.

"I can't tell you the exact time planned for delivery, but ... it will be carried out very soon," Zhu Qian, head of Aviation Industry Corp of China's Large Aircraft Development Office, said at a technology exhibition in Beijing.