Bradley Perrett covered China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. He is a Mandarin-speaking Australian.
Before joining Aviation Week in 2006 he was a macroeconomics, politics and aerospace journalist with Reuters. Perrett holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Macquarie University, Sydney. He left Aviation Week in 2020.
XIAN, China — China’s new medium-heavy space launcher, the Long March 7, should fly late next year, entering service in an initial version capable of lifting 13.5 metric tons (30,000 lb.) to low orbit, making it significantly larger than current Chinese rockets. The Long March 7 will have four boosters, says the principal engineer of manufacturer CALT, Shen Lin, adding that China is also planning new upper stages and launch vehicles, some using solid propellants and others fueled with methane.
Chinese airlines, struggling to find flight crews, were offering three-year pilot contracts with salaries 70% higher than the U.S. average at job fairs in Miami and Las Vegas in the past week, says one of the organizers, Pan Am International Flight Academy.
China, as almost everyone in the business aircraft industry knows, is seen as the great new sales opportunity. But how long before it will also become the great new competitor?
