Mass production of the country's most advanced fighter-pilot training aircraft is expected to start next year, one of the country's major military aircraft developers said Monday.

Tests on the "Mountain Eagle", China's new home-designed and developed trainer plane, are going so well that the Guizhou Aviation Industry Group is producing parts and components to prepare for mass production, according to company Vice-President Zhang Shangdao.

A subsidiary of the Beijing-based China Aviation Industry Corp I (AVIC I), the Guizhou group, in Southwest China, has manufactured more than 1,100 military aircraft of different types since it was founded in 1964.

"We have begun making parts and components for the Mountain Eagle," Zhang told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"Our goal is to see to it that a number of the new trainers go to the military in 2006."

As well as being used for training at home, the new aircraft is also aimed at the foreign market, Zhang said.

Enough parts and components will be produced this year to assemble up to 10 planes, he added.

However, that does not necessarily mean 10 trainers will be built as some parts or components will be scrapped in the course of further design improvement.

The Mountain Eagle, or Shanying in Chinese, has been in the public eye since its successful test debut on December 13, 2003.

"The sophisticated trainer satisfies the country's need to train pilots for third-generation fighter aircraft, while at the same time serving as a basic trainer," Zhang said.

Asked how the new plane would contribute to the country's national defence, Zhang said the trainer jet was designed to improve training performance and speed up the fighter-pilot training process.

The plane's performance and cost-effectiveness will also give the Mountain Eagle an edge in the international market, he said, even though it is not the most advanced trainer in the world.

Since it is both a fighter and trainer, some small countries, lacking a large fleet of fighter planes, could use the Mountain Eagle to train their fighter pilots in peace time, arming it for use as a fighter in wartime, Zhang said.

Over the past 18 months, the Guizhou company and a flight testing and experimenting institute in Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province have been testing the new plane, fine tuning it to meet needs of potential buyers at home and abroad.

By last week, two pre-production Mountain Eagle's models had each made more than 300 takeoffs and landings, recording at least 200 hours flying time, Zhang said.

Results show the Mountain Eagle has met all test criteria, and the company may be able to confirm the plane's final design specifications by the end of the year before proceeding to mass production next year.

Zhang did not say exactly how many planes will be needed domestically. As yet the company has received no orders from overseas.

Source: China Daily