This Day, That Year

Item from Sept 22, 1994, in China Daily: Pakistani Air Chief Marshall Farooq Khan helps his wife get into the cockpit of a new Chinesemade K-8 jet trainer.

They were in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, for the handover of six K-8s bought by Pakistan.

China’s aviation industry received a welcome boost yesterday with the delivery, which marked the export debut of the new aerobatic jet trainers.

After decades of research and development, China has seized a bigger share of the global military aircraft market.

More than 30 countries use Chinese military aircraft.

In April, the FC-1B, a dual seat trainer/fighter jet conducted its maiden flight at an airport of the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, the maker of the plane and a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corp of China.

Also known as the JF-17B, the jet is the latest variant of the single-seat FC-1 fourth-generation multirole combat aircraft codeveloped by Chengdu Aircraft Industry and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, the leading aviation company in Pakistan.

Earlier reports said that many nations including Myanmar, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia are interested in the FC-1 and its variants.

In June, the Guizhou Aviation Industry Group rolled out its first plane for export — a trainer for fighter jet pilots. The aircraft, a modified Mountain Eagle, is based on the earlier JJ-7 trainer jet.