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.
Japan will fly a testbed reusable sounding rocket in the fiscal year beginning in April 2018, aiming to demonstrate vertical landings and 24-hr. turnarounds—capabilities that could later be applied to the first stage of a space launcher.
How many ARJ21s will finally be built remains a matter of speculation, although the manufacturer is planning to deliver the 67th unit by the end of 2020.