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Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC; 漢翔航空工業 or 漢翔航空) is a

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan (Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, r ...

aerospace company based in

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of T ...

. It is one of only two Taiwanese companies with the capabilities of a traditional American or European defense prime contractor.

History

Government ownership

AIDC was established on 1 March 1969 as the Aero Industry Development Center of the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

. From 1969 to 1976 AIDC co-produced 118

UH-1H The Bell UH-1 Iroquois military helicopter, first introduced in 1959, is the first production member of the prolific Huey family of helicopters, and was itself developed in over twenty variants, which are listed below. XH-40 and YH-40 The firs ...

's for the Taiwanese Army with

Bell Helicopters Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, as well as commercial helicopters in ...

. In 1983, AIDC was transferred to the

Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST; ) is a Taiwanese state owned corporation, formerly part of the Republic of China Ministry of National Defense's Armaments Bureau, which is active in the development, manufacturi ...

under the

Armaments Bureau The Armaments Bureau () is the affiliated authority of the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of China. History With the National Defense Law and revised Organization Law of the Ministry of National Defense went into effect on 1 Ma ...

. In 1996, AIDC was reorganized into a

government-owned company A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

. In 1998 AIDC entered into an agreement with

Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923 and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian and military use. Pre ...

to service the S-70 helicopter. In 2000, AIDC was divided into four units: the Aerostructures Division, the Engine Division, the Technology Division, and the Administration Division. In the early 2000s AIDC was contracted by Bell to produce the tailbooms for the AH-1Z and

UH-1Y The Bell UH-1Y VenomDoD 4120-15L, ''Model Desi ...

Public ownership

AIDC was

privatized Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

through a public stock offering on August 25, 2014 with the Taiwanese Government retaining a 39% stake. In 2016 AIDC launched a project with international partner

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

to develop an upgraded version of the F-16 called the F-16V. AIDC will share revenue from all future international sales and upgrades. Upgrades to 142 of Taiwan’s F-16A/B fighters to the F-16V standard began in 2016. The first four aircraft upgrades had been completed by December 2017 and American

test pilots A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing ...

had arrived to begin their testing and certification. The first domestically upgraded fighter was delivered on October 20, 2018. The project is to be completed by 2023. In October 2019 it was announced that the program had been delayed by a manpower shortage at AIDC and a delay with the US based software testing program, AIDC hired 200 additional employees in Taichung to bring production back to schedule. By December 2020 18 upgrades had been completed. In 2018 AIDC signed an agreement with GE for the production of 17 parts for the LEAP engine including hot section components. In 2019 AIDC entered into 10 year agreement to supply engine parts to

Industria de Turbo Propulsores ITP Aero (Industria de Turbo Propulsores) is a Spanish aero engine and gas turbine manufacturer. It was established in 1989 as a joint venture between Spanish engineering conglomerate SENER and Rolls-Royce Plc. By 2015, it had grown to become ...

of Spain, a subsidiary of

Rolls-Royce plc Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for ...

. In October 2019

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...

cut orders to AIDC which were associated with the troubled

737 MAX The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with th ...

program as monthly production figures were decreased. In 2019 AIDC was reported to have 2,137 employees involved in confidential projects.

Facilities and equipment

In 2016 AIDC completed a NTD 1.5b composite materials manufacturing plant in

. The facility, called the Taiwan Advanced Composite Center, has 5,500 square meters of floorspace and primarily produces components for the

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the fam ...

. AIDC operates one

Astra SPX The Gulfstream G100, formerly known as the IAI Astra SPX, is an Israel Aerospace Industries-manufactured twin-engine business jet, that was produced for Gulfstream Aerospace. Deliveries began in 1986. The United States Air Force employs the air ...

aircraft as a target tug.

Headquarters

AIDC’s headquarters occupies a large suburban campus in the Northwest of Taichung next to

Overseas Chinese University Overseas Chinese University (OCU; ) is a private university in Xitun District, Taichung, Taiwan. History OCU was founded in 1964. Academic Units * School of Business and Management * School of Information Technology and Design * School of ...

. The campus features historical aircraft, a restaurant, and a swimming pool for the more than 3,000 onsite employees.

Products

IDF F-CK-1A 1462 Outlet Nozzles and Underloaded Weapon 20120811

Aircraft

AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo The AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-Kuo (), commonly known as the Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF), is a multirole combat aircraft named after Chiang Ching-kuo, the late President of the Republic of China. The aircraft made its first flight in 1989. It ent ...

Indigenous Defence Fighter - began as XF-6 indigenous fighter project * AIDC T-5 Brave Eagle (supersonic advanced jet trainer) *

AIDC AT-3 The AIDC AT-3 Tzu Chung (; "Self Reliance") is an advanced jet trainer operated by the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF). A total of sixty-two aircraft were manufactured by the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation of Taiwan in co ...

(advanced jet trainer) ** variant XA-3 Lei Ming (single seat attack aircraft prototype) * AIDC T-CH-1 (Basic Trainer derived from

North American T-28 Trojan The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan is a radial-engine military trainer aircraft manufactured by North American Aviation and used by the United States Air Force and United States Navy beginning in the 1950s. Besides its use as a trainer, ...

) * AIDC PL-1B (Primary Trainer and licensed version of Pazmany PL-1, a two-seat trainer from Pazmany Aircraft Corporation) * AIDC XC-2 (Civil transport, prototype only) *

(utility helicopter and licensed version from

Bell Helicopter Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, as well as commercial helicopters in M ...

) *

OH-58D The Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine single-Helicopter rotor, rotor military helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support. It was produced by the American manufacturer Bell Helicopter and is closely related t ...

(Observation, attack and reconnaissance helicopter and licensed version from

) * F-5E/F Chung Cheng (license built and locally modified

Northrop F-5 The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models, the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants and t ...

)

Components

* Doors for all

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

aircraft since 2003 * Cockpit for

Sikorsky S-92 The Sikorsky S-92 is an American twin-engine medium-lift helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft for the civil and military helicopter markets. The S-92 was developed from the Sikorsky S-70 helicopter and has similar parts such as flight control ...

* Rear Fuselage, Engine Pylon and the Vertical and Horizontal Stabilizer for Challenger 300/350 * Composite belly panels for the

and

Airbus A321 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the b ...

* Both designed and produces five composite components for the Mitsubishi MRJ *

Honeywell/ITEC F124 The Honeywell/ITEC F124 is a low-bypass turbofan engine derived from the civilian Honeywell TFE731. The F125 is an afterburning version of the engine. The engine began development in the late 1970s for the Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Force ...

produced in partnership with Honeywell. * Cooperation on the Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 Advance 2 engine

References

External links

Official Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation website
{{Wikisourcelang, zh, 漢翔航空工業股份有限公司設置條例 Military history of Taiwan