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.
When Japanese industry launched Mitsubishi Aircraft and the MRJ in 2008, the regional jet was intended to enter service late in 2013 as the only aircraft in its class with the decisive advantage of an advanced new engine. In accepting the cost and risk of the unconventional geared engine and in adopting a long, slender wing optimized for modest cruise speed, the developers were betting on high fuel prices.
Comac's eight-year schedule for developing the C919 158-seat airliner has always looked doubtful, even though it was at least two years longer than Bombardier gave itself for the technologically similar CSeries. It is looking even more questionable now that the first flight has been delayed by up to a year.
