SKorea, Turkey sign 500-million-dollar plane deal

South Korea's state-funded aircraft maker said Monday it had signed a 500-million-dollar contract to sell trainer aircraft to Turkey's air force in Seoul's biggest aviation deal.

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) said in a statement that 55 upgraded KT-1 trainers would be supplied by 2013 under the contract signed in Istanbul Friday.

KAI said the latest deal marks the country's biggest aircraft export and second largest arms export, after a one-billion-dollar licensing deal for the K-9 self-propelled howitzer with Turkey in 2001.

KT-1, jointly developed with the state-run Agency for Defense Development from 1988 to 1998, has a turbo-prop engine and is designed largely to train military pilots.

"With Turkey, which has used US-made trainers, choosing KT-1, the Korean trainer has been recognised as a highly efficient and economic weapons system," said Park Jea-Jeom, KAI chief executive officer in charge of the deal.

"It is expected to take the upper hand in the global market."

KT-1 was first sold to Indonesia, with seven aircraft sales in 2001 and five in 2005.

KAI has said that it aims to grow into one of the world's top 10 aircraft manufacturers by 2010.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=188379