http://english.people.com.cn/200501/20/eng20050120_171288.html
[quote]
China’s leading aviation company reports 215 percent profit rise

China Aviation Industry Corp II (AVIC II), one of the country’s leading minicar and helicopter makers, revealed its profits rise of 215 percent in 2004 over a year earlier, China Daily reported Thursday.

But the company, parent of the Hong Kong-listed AviChina Industry & Technology Co Ltd, did not disclose the monetary value of these profits.

The company achieved a sales income of 35.7 billion yuan (4.3 billion US dollars) in 2004, an increase of 12.2 percent, President of the company Zhang Hongbiao was quoted as saying.

In 2003, the company’s sales income was 23 billion yuan (2.8 billion dollars), a year-on-year increase of 11.4 percent.

AVIC II is the largest minicar maker in China with more than 30 percent market share. And it is also the only domestic mass producer of helicopters and regional jets in China.

The company sold 314,000 cars in 2004, Zhang said, sales of auto parts grew 25.1 percent and car exports rose 200 percent year on year.

While the car business continued to generate a majority of the company’s income, aviation products including helicopters and regional jets began to contribute more, he said.

The company delivered 88 helicopters and aircraft to its customers last year, and as China’s economy expands further, AVIC II is pinning hopes on the aircraft business to drive future growth, Zhang said.

AVIC II has a 49 percent stake in a joint venture with Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer to assemble the Brazilian firm’s jets in China, the paper said.

Last year, the company delivered five ERJ145 jets to China Southern Airlines, which has agreed to buy six of the aircraft.

Industry experts said China is set for a boom in regional aviation, due to the pace of the economy, the central government’s decision to develop western regions and the upcoming Beijing Olympics in 2008.

They expect there will be demand for as many as 500 small aircraft across China over the coming 20 years.

This year, the company aims to increase all its major economic indicators by 10 per cent, according to Zhang.

[quote]

In two weeks from now I am going to have a long talk with a former J-6/MiG 19 pilot from the PLAAF, if you have questions in particular let me know, it is going to be first hand info, he flew 3000 hours on J-6 & J-7

Great opportunity! Good for you. Ask him to compare the J-6 and J-7. Would love to know what he thinks of the differences between the two.

Also asked if he ever fired an AAM from the J-6. The J-6 was not designed with a misile in mind and was an all-gun fighter in most of its combat action.

Thanks in advance.

Don’t tell you missed the various chicken threads here? 😀

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30889
Thai AF: Chickens for fighter jets talks

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32202
Swedish PM Rejects Jets-For-Chicken Trade

Strictly speaking, the Hun was outclassed by the MiG-19 performance-wise: climb, turn-radius, max speed.

In practicality, the two was very unlikely to have met in a classic “fighter versus fighter” situation because the Hun was used mainly as a ground support fighter-bomber (especially in SE Asia where any such meeting might occur) while the MiG-19/J-6 was nearly entirely used for point defense.

If you are talking about “versus” as in comparing the abilities of the two in the ability to do work, the F100 actually comes out ahead as the more versatile aircraft.

Those two Indonesian a/c have some really cool markings/camo patterns. Great for modeling.

Here’s a rumor to be filed away under the speculation heading:

According to a post in the Chinese forums, China was in contact with the Yugoslavian government during the F-117 shootdown in 1999. Parts of the plane were supposedly brought over to the compound and were being studied in the basement of the Chinese embassy when the US caught wind of it and sent a LGB into the diplomatic mission.

GD’s note: the English paper, The Guardian had a story in 1999 that the US deliberately bombed the embassy because it relaying was used military communications for the Serb military, among other things.

A story that we missed last month in the PRC mouthpiece. A policy of pushing excess military capacity into competing in the civilian sector.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-12/27/content_403608.htm

Defense industry emphasizes civilian production
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-12-27 10:13

The output value of civilian products accounted for more than 65 percent of the total output value of China’s defense-related science, technology and industry in 2003, says a government white paper issued here Monday.

“China has made remarkable progress in putting military industrial technology to civil use in the past two years. In 2003, the output value of civilian products rose by 20 percent as compared with that of the previous year,” says the white paper on China’s national defense in 2004, released by the Information Office of China’s State Council.

The white paper gives a briefing of the latest developments of the industry in the construction of nuclear power plants, space technologies for civil use, research and production of civilian aircraft and ships.

Nuclear power production is being industrialized. China’s mainland now has nine nuclear power generating sets in operation, the total installed capacity of which is 7.01 million KW. Another two, each with an installed capacity of 1.06 million KW, are now under construction.

In 2003, China’s nuclear power production was 43.3 billion KWH, accounting for 2.3 percent of its total power production. Steady progress has been made in the construction of auxiliary projects for nuclear energy. A nuclear fuel production system tailored to nuclear power production has by and large taken shape, and the production of nuclear fuel has been technologically upgraded.

Major breakthroughs have been made in space technologies for civil use. Since October 1996, China has succeeded in 41 space launches. The successful launching of the “Shenzhou 5” spaceship in October 2003 sent China’s first astronaut into space. The key technological problems for the new generation of carrier rockets have been tackled.

China has successfully launched various application satellites, including SSO (Sun Synchronous Orbit) and GEO (Geostationary Orbit) meteorological satellites, the HY-1 oceanographic satellite and CBERS (China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellite). The R&D of a DMEC ( Disaster Monitoring and Environmental Control) satellite constellation, a large GEO satellite platform and a new generation of SSO meteorological satellites is going on smoothly.

A lunar probe project was officially started in January 2004, and a lunar orbiting exploration is scheduled to be carried out by the end of 2007.

The aviation industry for civil use has made important headway in the R&D of feeder liners and general-purpose aircraft. ARJ21, a new jet feeder liner with 70 seats, is being independently developed, and is scheduled for delivery in 2008. The Y-12E general-purpose aircraft for use in high-temperature and plateau conditions and the Z-11 and Z-9 helicopters have all received airworthiness certificates and been put on the commercial market. The newly developed “Xiaoying 500” general-purpose plane made its first flight in 2003.

The ERJ145 jet feeder liner jointly manufactured by China and Brazil has been delivered to users. An agreement has been formally signed on the building of an assembly line in China for the EC120 helicopter jointly developed by China, France and Singapore. Subcontracting business for the manufacture of foreign aircraft parts has been developing steadily, and begun to be integrated into the large-scale circulation system of the international aviation industry.

The shipbuilding industry for civil use has witnessed sustained rapid growth, with an output ranking third in the world for many years. In 2003, China’s accomplished shipbuilding output, newly received orders and on-hand orders amounted to 6.41 million DWT, 18.95 million DWT and 26.23 million DWT respectively, accounting for a world market share of 11.8 percent, 18.9 percent and 17.7 percent respectively.

Products manufactured by the shipbuilding industry for civil use have been exported to more than 90 countries and regions. The R&D and designing capability of the shipbuilding industry for civil use has been remarkably raised. It can now build and repair large ships, and has made new breakthroughs in building high-tech ships.