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.
China has begun flight testing a high-bypass ratio turbofan that will greatly improve the performance of the Y-20 heavy airlifter and potentially power the C919 commercial aircraft. The engine is the WS-20, according to local media that have published photographs of it in the left inboard position of an in-flight Ilyushin Il-76 used as a testbed. WS-20 is believed to be the military name of the powerplant, which has also been called SF-A for civil purposes.
As South Korea strives to build an industry that can independently make complete aircraft, it is achieving the most progress in helicopters. And it is the South Korean army, not the air force, that is offering the most support.
It has not been canceled but it is still not launched. South Korea's KF-X indigenous fighter program has received limited 2014 funding from parliament, subject to conditions that implicitly threaten to kill it if it goes off the rails.
