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.
How does a maker of military aircraft systems, with roots in a command economy, transform itself into a profit-oriented business that can win the trust of the world's airlines? With a little help from its friends. Avic Electromechanical Systems, part of the Avic conglomerate, aims to become part of the global civil aviation supply chain. But it has a serious problem in corporate culture, partly because of its defense heritage.
If there is one area in which China has had persistent difficulty catching up with Western aerospace technology, it is aviation gas turbines. Chinese aero-engines are known for poor efficiency and low reliability, and it would well suit China's neighbors and the U.S. if they kept that reputation. So the prospect of MTU Aero Engines and Avio working on a major Chinese commercial turbofan program prompts a critical question: will technology transfer be strictly contained?
BEIJING—Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance & Engineering (Gameco) will try specialization as a way to drive up efficiency by allocating one of its sites to Airbus A320 maintenance.
