US deal in Zhuhai Airshow puts China planes on world map
More than 100 Avic aircraft are ordered at the mainland's top international air fair, including a contract to supply Y-12s to a California company
Orders for more than 100 Avic planes and helicopters at the Zhuhai Airshow, including a breakthrough deal in the United States, have boosted China's ambitions to move into advanced aviation markets overseas.
Aviation Industry Corp of China's general aviation subsidiary Avicopter said yesterday it was looking to tap the US express delivery market with its Y-12 family of utility planes, which will be sold to the US for the first time in a deal with a Californian-based company that was among a raft of contracts involving 111 aircraft it has bagged at this week's airshow.
The South China Morning Post reported on Monday that the model to be exported to the US for the first time was Y-12F, a 19-seat turboprop transport aircraft that is the latest version of a plane made by Avic since the 1980s.
Li Xianzhe, the director of the Y-12 programme at Avicopter, said the deal included four Y-12Fs - expected to gain US Federal Aviation Authority certification "in half a year hopefully" - and 16 Y-12Es, which gained that certification in 2006.
"The Y-12 is the only FAA-certified Chinese civil aircraft … this purchase marks the first time for any Chinese-made planes to enter an advanced market, and the US has the highest standards, so this testifies to the achievement of Chinese aircraft manufacturing," Li said.
Coptervision, the US company buying the planes, would mainly use them to fly tourists over the Grand Canyon, Li said.
"We plan to do some testing for the Y-12F in the US next year," Li said. "Express delivery will be a very important market."