Trainer Jet

[Anchor Lead]

Korea's locally-built trainer jet KT-1 is about to post the record of flying 300,000 hours with no accident. It is a world record for a single airplane. The prospect for the trainer jet's exports is bright thanks to its high performance.

[Pkg]

A military aircraft soars into the sky with a powerful and vigorous sound from its engine. It reaches the height of 5,000 meters in just five minutes to begin full-scale training. This is Korea's domestically developed basic trainer jet KT-1 Woongbi. Since its launch in 2003, the jet has nurtured some 2,500 pilots by flying 115.8 million kilometers and traveling around the globe 2,900 times. The technology accumulated during the development of the KT-1 has led the nation to build the advanced supersonic trainer jet T-50. As a result, Korea has become one of the few nations that conducts all Air Force training with home-grown military aircraft. With its excellent basic performance, the KT-1 is used in all maneuver exercises from formation flights to inverted flights, which are required for fighter jet pilot trainees. This month, the KT-1 is expected to set a record of flying 300,000 hours with no accidents. It is the world's first single aircraft model to post such a record.

[Soundbite] Lt. Hong Seong-kyu (3rd Flight Training Squadron): "The KT-1 is a home-grown trainer jet built only with domestic technologies from designing to manufacturing. It boasts stable operational performance and great recuperative powers. It is very suitable for the training of new pilots."

Nearly 100 KT-1s have been exported to other countries, including Turkey, Peru and Indonesia. The prospect for exports is brighter, as the Spanish Air Force is also considering introducing the trainer jet.