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Aviation History
2000
2000-1 - 1594.PDF
CHINES* AVIATION ANDRZEJ JEZIORSKI /SINGAPORE OVER A year after China's bloated aero space industry was split into two, with the promise of further internal restructuring and increased competition to come, little evidence of progress has emerged. The split was intended to foster competition within the industry, forming two new aerospace giants: China Aviation Industries I (AVIC I) and AVICII. The companies have since continued to pick up co-operative deals with foreign man ufacturers in the hope of boosting their techno logical capabilities. They are also continuing to pursue studies into an indigenous regional air craft, and programmes to upgrade existing types to make them more attractive to the market. On the military front, efforts by AVIC I subsidiary Chengdu Aircraft to produce the long-awaited FC-1/Super 7 light fighter and the advanced J-10 continue, although more attention and energy has been focused on co-operation with Sukhoi, including licence manufacture of the Su-<27SK/J-ll fighter at Shenyang and China's order for 60 Su-30MKK thrust-vectoring aircraft, which could also lead to licensed manufacture of this type. Shenyang has a licence to produce up to 200 Su-27SKs, signed in 1996 after the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) had already bought 50, including about 10 tandem, two-seat Su-27UBKs. The first of the licence- produced aircraft flew from Shenyang in 1998, and observers say the programme's sheer scale calls into question the need for the J-10. Nor has the PLAAF shown any inclination to order the much-delayed FC-1, despite continued inter est from Pakistan for an order for 150. With these programmes crawling ahead, the pace of restructuring within the industry itself remains sluggish. Any assessment of the effects of restructuring is hampered by lack of trans parency and tight-lipped Chinese officialdom. Industry observers maintain that AVIC I and AVIC II "compete with each other significant ly" for civil, defence and maintenance contracts. AVIC I, the larger of the siblings, encom passing 104 enterprises, absorbed all China's military aircraft and air weapons programmes except those developed by Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing: the K-8 jet trainer and Q-5 Fantan strike aircraft. It also acquired 31 of China's 34 aerospace research centres. AVIC II absorbed 79 enterprises and fewer employees - 220,000 compared with AVIC I's 2 81,000 - and officials declared that only about 11 % of its business is in the aerospace field. AVIC II also absorbed helicopter and general aviation production capacity. CUTTING CAPACITY There is some overlap in the capabilities of the two companies: both have civil turboprop programmes (the Xian Aircraft Y-7 twin comes under AVIC I, while the four-engined Shaanxi Aircraft Y-8 belongs to AVIC II), engine manu facturing and airborne systems capabilities. But their differences are more conspicuous. Soon after the split, both AVIC I and AVIC II were talking about the need for internal changes. AVIC I director general of marketing and international co-operation Tang Xiaoping said that within two years the workforce would 38 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 31 October - 6 November 2000
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