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.
Deer Jet has begun offering China’s first fractional ownership service, partly responding to requests from business aircraft users who have found they were getting little use out of their aircraft. In its first stage, the company is offering shared ownership of Gulfstream G450s, G550s and Dassault 7Xs, beginning with one of each type, says Wu Wending, deputy general manager of Deer Jet’s aircraft asset management department. For the second stage, the offerings will be Bombardier Global 6000s and 5000s, Challenger 605s and Gulfstream G280s.
China’s first business aircraft, the five-seat Primus 150, is progressing toward first flight following the delivery last year of its GE Aviation H85 turboprop engine. “It’s in the process of being installed in the airframe” by Avic general-aviation subsidiary Caiga in Zhuhai, says Brad Mottier, vice president and general manager of business and general aviation for GE Aviation. Ranging from 750- to 850-shp, the Czech-built H80 family has been selected on three programs in China, including the Primus 150 and Hongdu N5B crop duster.
If South Korea builds its proposed KF-X stealth fighter, it will need to export it. So one key question hanging over the much-delayed project is whether the country can build the aircraft cheaply enough and attract adequate demand. Another is whether South Korea can build it at all.
