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Photo by ROKAF (2013) wikimedia.org
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2017/11/10 17:06
(ATTN: ADDS U.S. aircraft bid in paras 6-7; CORRECTS
Surion helicopter's name in 8th para)
SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- Korea Aerospace Industries Co.
(KAI), the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, said Friday it is in talks
with nine countries to export its trainer aircraft.
The company exported a total of 145 trainer planes --
made up of the turboprop KT-1 basic trainer and the supersonic T-50 advanced
jet to countries in Europe and emerging markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America
and the Middle East. The total value of sales has reached US$3.7 billion so
far.
In a press meeting, KAI President and Chief Executive Kim
Jo-won said talks with Botswana and Argentina are at an "advanced
stage" and "good results" are expected later this year or early
next year.
"As the countries with which KAI are in talks are
developing economies, they require financial loans from South Korean banks in
order to place the aircraft order with KAI," Kim said.
KAI plans to ask the Korea Export-Import Bank of Korea
and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation to extend a loan to help those
countries purchase Korean-made trainers, he said.
In other efforts to export its aircraft, KAI has
partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp. to participate in the Advanced Pilot
Training (APT) project, to supply T-50A advanced trainer jets to the U.S. Air
Force.
Lockheed Martin has repeatedly asked KAI to cut the
trainer jet prices to win the bid. KAI will do its best to cut the unit price
with Lockheed Martin deciding whether to submit an unreasonably low price to
beat its archrival Boeing.
With regard to an icing issue in the KUH-1 Surion
helicopter, the president said the company will persuade the authorities to
allow it to resume deliveries of the rotorcraft by the end of November or late
December at the latest.
The suspension came after the Board of Audit and
Inspection of Korea (BAI) released a report in July saying that engine parts of
the Surion ice up at minus 30 degrees Celsius and could cause serious safety
problems. Icing can allow a chopper to lose lift and crash.
The KAI president said Surion helicopters will have no
safety problems due to the icing issue if they are deployed domestically. In
Korea, the temperature does not fall below minus 30 degrees Celsius during the
winter season.
But the company said it will put the Surion to another
icing test in Michigan from December to March as it seeks to export the
helicopter to countries with sub-zero weather conditions.
Deployment of the Surion helicopters to the Korean
military forces began in 2013 and the process has yet to be completed.
The icing issue emerged during the helicopter's winter
testing in the United States between October 2015 and March 2016.
kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
(END)
Original post: yonhapnews.co.kr
KAI T-50 Golden Eagle: Details
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