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’s state-controlled ABC Financial Leasing has ordered 45 Comac C919s, bringing claimed orders for the 158-seat jet to 280 aircraft. The actual number of aircraft that the lessor has ordered, however, is unclear because Comac previously has counted options as orders. Comac also counts orders from some contracts that are not binding, according to industry officials who have seen the documents. A Comac representative did not immediately respond to a request for delivery dates and a breakdown of orders and options in the ABC contract.
BEIJING — A tightly wrapped object the size and shape of a combat aircraft was hauled along Chinese highways in June, sparking speculation that the country was deliberately revealing a new twin-engine fighter from Shenyang Aircraft. Although a real fighter would not normally ride about 1,800 km (1,100 mi.) on a truck with its wings attached, a full-scale model for testing its radar cross section or another purpose might.
