Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has started final assembly of the prototype T-50 advanced trainer, developed in partnership with Lockheed Martin three months ahead of schedule.
The aircraft is being assembled at the South Korean manufacturer's Sachon plant, and mating of the prototype's forward, centre and aft fuselage sections with the tail surfaces was performed on 15 January. The event marked the start of the mate-through-delivery (MTD) phase, originally scheduled to begin on 20 April.
According to Lockheed Martin, the early start of MTD - 17 months after the outer mould line design freeze - was due to "a disciplined design, development and fabrication approach". This decreased the typical drawing release time by eight months, and parts fabrication and subassembly time by five months, says the US partner.
Almost 50% of the programme's development objectives have been achieved, says Lockheed Martin. Prototype roll-out is now scheduled three months early, on 28 September, with the first flight due in mid-2002.
The development contract is worth about $2 billion and includes four flying prototypes and two ground test aircraft. Some 70% of the development cost is being provided by the South Korean Government, says KAI, while the remaining 30% is split between the industrial partners.
Production contract negotiations are due to start this year, and a final signature is expected in early 2003. "Our plan is to deliver the first serial production aircraft in the fourth quarter of 2004," says KAI. It says the contract will cover about 100 airframes - a roughly 50:50 mix of T-50A trainers and T-50B lead-in fighter trainers.
KAI says it cannot reveal exact air force requirements, but it had been understood that the air force will order 95 T-50s and take options on 100 A-50s.
While KAI believes it can export 800 T-50s over 20 years, some industry officials express doubts about the project, saying that it could come under renewed scrutiny as Seoul seeks defence cuts as it attempts reconciliation with North Korea. "They [the South Korean air force] now have numbers of fast jet trainers, and they would seriously need to consider the need for a new, indigenously-developed trainer when there are other options available at a fraction of the budget," says one source.
KAI says that it has had "detail product information requests" from "several air forces", but industry sceptics say that the main market for the aircraft could end up being third world air forces which may not be able to afford a high-end product.
Source: Flight International
