China starts exporting L15 aircraft with Ukrainian engines
KYIV, November 19 /UKRINFORM/. China says it has signed the first foreign contract on the supply of 12 trainer aircraft L15 equipped with Ukrainian engines.
This announcement was made at the end of China's 9th International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai (Airshow China-2012), a correspondent of UKRINFORM reported.
"China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation - CATIC) and the company Hongdu Aviation signed the first contract for the supply of training aircraft, according to which 12 L15 will be delivered to an unnamed foreign buyer at the beginning of next year," the official publication of the exhibition, ShowNews, says. The document was signed, according to the report, on November 13.
Ukrainian experts taking part in the creation of this aircraft have not yet commented this information.
The supersonic trainer Hongdu L-15 Falcon is intended for basic training of fighter aircraft pilots. This is the first aircraft designed independently by Chinese experts of Hongdu Aviation Industry Group.
It is equipped with the AI-222K-25F afterburning and non-afterburning turbofans of Ukrainian origin, created by Zaporizhzhia's OJSC Motor Sich and Design Bureau Progress n.a. Ivchenko.
Experts of the Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) emphasize that L15 “is the first product in many years, which is really completely close to other aircraft in its class, available on the world market, and has a competitive price." It is specified that L15 can be modified in accordance with the customer's wishes.
CATIC, which is responsible for the AVIC export and import operations, has recently organized several visits of promising foreign customers to the manufacturer company, where they were shown this aircraft.
L15 is a competitor of such analogies as the Russian Yak-130, Korean T-50 Golden Eagle, Italian M-346 Master, Alenia Aermacchi SF-260F. The afterburner allows the aircraft to show great maneuverability at low altitudes and supersonic flight at high altitudes. The training of military pilots could be carried out not on military aircraft such as MiG-29 or Su-27, but on L-15.
