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President Ha Sung-yong of Korean Aerospace Industries.(photos: KAI)

Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) President Ha Sung-yong declared the company’s new mid-term strategic vision calling for KAI to jump to 15th largest in the global rankings with annual sales revenue rising to 10 trillion won in 2020 during a ceremony held at the company’s auditorium on Oct. 18. The airplane maker currently ranks 57th.

With the KAI observing its 14th anniversary, the vision calls for pushing exports of Korean-made airplanes and the joint development of civilian airplanes with international plane makers to strengthen its airplane manufacturing business.

The company also plans to expand the airplane maintenance operation and its support for the production of airplane parts. It will also get ready to build launching pads for mid-sized satellites and other space businesses to enter the space industry. 

The vision also includes diversification of its business of airplane manufacturing to mixing aerospace industrial technologies with information technologies (IT).

With the plan as a base, the KAI hopes to boost its rankings to 15th in the global aerospace industry by 2020, having turned its main business around as an exporter, which accounts for some 80 percent of its annual sales, or 8 trillion won, with exports of airplanes and airplane parts and other civilian airplane manufacturing businesses including the MRO business.

During the process of expansion, total number of its employees will grow to 7,300 from the current 3,000 and the number of employees at its cooperative firms would also grow to 10,000, four times what they have now.

President Ha said at the ceremony that KFX and LAH/LCH projects drawn up by the government will be pushed hard by the KAI to create a base for the airplane manufacturing industry’s great takeoff by exploring overseas markets so that the KAI will grow to become a first-rate global aerospace firm.

In the meantime, the KAI received the certificate for a type for its T-50i plane, which is to be exported to Indonesia through a contract with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration on Sept. 27 during the 16th military aircraft aviation certificate deliberation meeting, which analyzed the safety of T-50i plane.

The military plane type certificate, which began in 2009 under the laws on aircraft design, acknowledges the aircraft’s safe flight by the government and the T-50i is the first supersonic domestic aircraft to receive that certificate in Korea.

Since the KAI signed an agreement to export 16 T-50 aircraft to Indonesia, the company has been engaged in modification of the test supersonic fighter jet based on requests from the Indonesian military, creating the T-50i. The air force, the Defense Science Institute, and the Defense Technology Quality Institute jointly set up a team consisting of 24 experts to inspect the aircraft in terms of its flight safety against 1,325 flight standards and awarded the aircraft the safety certificate.

With the T-50i getting the certificate, its exports to Indonesia began as scheduled in September. Six Indonesia air force pilots came to Korea in February to learn to fly the new test fighter training jet model using the T-50 and strategic fighter plane TA-50 to be fighter jet pilot trainers. Airplane maintenance crews from Indonesia have also been receiving training on the maintenance of the new Korean-made supersonic fighter jet trainer.

KAI, in the meantime, signed an agreement with Boeing to supply parts for B787 and Apache helicopters’ bodies valued at $1.1 billion. The agreement calls for KAI to supply tail wing parts, the fixed landing edge for the B737, and the pivot bulkhead for two of Boeing’s best passenger aircraft, the B737 and the B787, which is also called the Dreamliner. KAI also extended the agreement to supply body parts for Apache helicopters until 2016 valued at 160 billion won.

KAI signed an agreement with Airbus last year to supply the wing structure for the A320 passenger jet worth 1.3 trillion won and last month the company signed a new agreement to supply body parts for the A321 worth 400 billion won.

The paradigm of the global aircraft manufacturing industry has been shifting to Asia from the U.S. and Europe, allowing countries like Korea, who are equipped with excellent technologies for aircraft manufacturing, to advance in the aircraft industry.