SOUTH KOREA is re-assessing plans to develop its civil-aerospace industry, following the final collapse of talks with China on the joint development of a proposed new 100-seat regional jet.
Leading Korean Commercial-Aircraft Development Consortium (KCDC) partners, Daewoo Heavy Industries, Korean Air and Sam-sung Aerospace, together with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), are now reviewing alternatives to collaboration with China.
One option under consideration is to continue to pursue a 100-seat regional-jet programme with new international partners. South Korean industry has already made tentative approaches to Boeing. "We've knocked at the door slightly and there might be some room," says one senior source.
Boeing is also looking for potential new partners, after its own recent setback in trying to partner China's planned AE-100 programme. Several studies are under way involving Japan's Aircraft Development and Canada's Bombardier (Flight International, 29 May-4 June).
An alternative proposal is to produce a smaller aircraft, either as an international collaboration, or as a go-it-alone South Korean programme.
Before its discussion with China, South Korean industry attention had been focused on planned 50-seat "Project Phoenix" turboprop development.
Any prospect of South Korean participation in the AE-100 programme appears to have finally died with the breakdown in high-level discussions in Beijing on 16-17 June.
"It has become impossible for the two countries to promote the joint aircraft project any further," says MOTIE deputy minister Choo Jun-Sok.
Source: Flight International
