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 — A Japanese program to develop a cheaper solid-propellant space launcher has achieved successful first launch, with the Epsilon rocket putting a planetary observation satellite into orbit. The first Epsilon launch cost ¥5.3 billion ($53.6 million), compared with a ¥3.8 billion target quoted for the rocket’s initial version by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2011.
Avicopter will build cabins for the Sikorsky S-76D helicopter as a second-source supplier. The work will be done by Avicopter’s Changhe factory at Jingdezhen, which has previously made eight cabins for the S-76C++. Czech company Aero Vodochody also makes S-76D fuselages. Avicopter will deliver its first cabins in 2016, according to the schedule. The cabins — fuselages forward of the tail booms — will be delivered to Sikorsky fully fitted with equipment.
Avicopter has joined the trend for developing high-speed helicopters. The Chinese manufacturer is building a technology demonstrator with a compound configuration that combines coaxial rigid rotors and nose-mounted, counter-rotating propellers.
