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.
Canberra also has decided to add facilities at RAAF Amberley, the major Royal Australian Air Force base that accommodates the C-17 unit, 36 Squadron. The aircraft and new facilities will cost AUS$1 billion ($770 million), Defense Minister Kevin Andrews says, confirming the intention to order.
The first flight-test aircraft apparently needs modification following unstated discoveries in ground testing. “In order to fully incorporate the verification results of the various ground tests and related feedback into the first flight-test aircraft, the timing of the first flight has been reviewed and is now scheduled for September or October of this year,” Mitsubishi Aircraft.
The duration of the government’s campaign to catch bribe-taking officials and their business cronies is probably the biggest question for manufacturers looking to China as a potentially enormous market. When showing off a jet is no longer asking to be investigated, the theory goes, buyers will come back.
