China boosts helicopter industry
China is planning massive investment in helicopter production with a goal of increasing its fleet tenfold by the end of the year.
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Helicopters have been incredibly rare in the country until now, with only around 180 civilian helicopters spread across the country.
However, the failure of emergency teams to reach inaccessible regions in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 has convinced China's leaders that they must dramatically increase their helicopter fleet.
The target is now to have 2,000 civilian helicopters by the end of 2010 and to rival the US for helicopters by 2020, with a fleet of 10,000.
To reach its goals, Beijing has built a new £750 million helicopter factory and research centre in the northern city of Tianjin.
Li Daguang, a professor at the National Defence University, said: "The rescue work during the earthquake revealed China's weakness in the helicopter industry. It does not match China's current status in the world.
"A few months after the earthquake in Sichuan, there was a major earthquake in Japan but they had few casualties because helicopters were sent in large numbers."
Civilian helicopters are seen a crucial tool, not only for disaster relief work and as air ambulances but also for construction work in cities and in situations where road conditions limit transportation.
Foreign firms have rushed to take advantage of the sudden helicopter boom. Agusta Westland, the Italian manufacturer, has established a joint venture with Jiangxi Changhe Aviation Industries Corporation to build A109E light twin-engined helicopters to China.
Pegasus, the US kit helicopter manufacturer, has also signed a deal with Shanghai Fei Tian. "China is poised to become the world's largest single market for light helicopters," noted Robert Zummo, the chief executive. Sikorsky, another helicopter manufacturer, said it had "been busy in China for the past few years".
A joint venture with EADS, the French defence firm, delivered its first Eurocopter helicopters over Christmas, in a sign of China's intent to dramatically boost its production.
However, Professor Li said China still had "a long way to go" before it would be able to build a helicopter from scratch without Western input.
"We are still a long way behind the developed countries, especially in engine technology," he said. "We cannot produce the same hardness and elasticity in our steel and the engines often overheat," he added.
"It is still too early to say when China will become a leading global manufacturer of helicopters, but it is bound to be one. China will have advantages in manufacturing helicopters just as it has in manufacturing everything else," he said.
China boosts helicopter industry - Telegraph
