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.
BEIJING — China’s Avic Defense will use rapid prototyping centers like the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works for future military aircraft developments, with the aim of overcoming what it says are inefficient production processes. The prototyping centers are being set up at the fighter plants at Shenyang and Chengdu, the latter of which has just begun test flying the large J-20 combat aircraft.
WASHINGTON and BEIJING — China’s newest combat aircraft prototype, unofficially tagged as the J-20, made its first flight shortly before 1 p.m. Beijing time on Jan. 11, ending three weeks of anticipation as to when taxi tests would begin on the new stealthy design that surprised U.S. intelligence officials. But one issue surrounding stealth designs is how long they can continue to offer protection as air defenses adopt even larger and more powerful advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) radars.
China Southern Airlines will operate Embraer 190s in Xinjiang, the western territory of China that rival Comac sees as a natural market for its ARJ21 regional jet. The leasing arm of China Development Bank will buy 10 Embraer 190s to be operated by China Southern, with deliveries beginning in the second half of this year, Embraer and the lessor say in a joint statement. CD Leasing and Embraer signed a framework agreement covering aircraft sales in 2009.
