KAI KC-X Military/Civil Transport
The Brazilian KC-390 is generally similar to the aircraft depicted by Korean Aerospace Industry Corporation (KAI) in a short promotional video released 12 May 2021 introducing the design of a self-made military jet transport aircraft they were planning. It adopts a high single-wing, T-tail, and dual-engine layout, and its appearance is quite similar to the Japanese C-2 transport aircraft and the Ukrainian An-178. The video depicts a rather extensive variety of mission sets for the aircraft, including air assault, aerial refueling, drone mothership, maritime patrol / ASW, and a [rather fanciful] bomber / attack configuration. In April 2021 KAI announced a plan for "to develop a military transport aircraft." It is estimated to spend 7 years on research and development with a research and development cost of US$2.7 billion. He also stated that KAI has reached a consensus with the US Defense Procurement Planning Administration that the US is willing to provide technical support for important components.
The senior director of KAI said: "Our goal is to replace imported aircraft with domestically-produced aircraft. At present, the large military aircraft operated by the Army, Navy and Air Force are all purchased. We hope that after the completion of the self-made transport aircraft, we can also enter the overseas market." The South Korean military's current transport aircraft are mainly C-130 and CN-235, which are mainly used for airdrops and transportation-related tasks. KAI also added that in addition to air transport and special missions, future self-made transport aircraft can also be used as electronic reconnaissance aircraft, maritime patrol aircraft, or aerial tankers and other roles.
Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI), South Korea's sole aircraft manufacturer, said 04 April 2021 it aimed to develop its own transport and multipurpose aircraft for the military. South Korea is among the world's seven major aircraft manufacturing countries along with the United States, Britain, China, Japan, Russia and the European Union. If developed, the transport aircraft would be used for multiple purposes, including as a reconnaissance plane and a maritime patrol aircraft, as it shares the same platform as a midsized aircraft.
KAI had reached agreement with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) on the need to develop transport and multipurpose aircraft to meet domestic demand for the planes, the company's Executive Vice President Ryu Kwang-su told Yonhap News Agency on the sidelines of a press conference. "Currently, there are 30 multipurpose and 70 transport planes operated by the Army, Navy and Air Force. We are targeting to replace the imported aircraft with domestically developed ones and advance to overseas markets with our own planes in the long term," Ryu said. "In the long run, our goal is to replace the advanced models with domestically-produced aircraft, and also allow our domestically-produced aircraft to enter the overseas market," KAI An executive said at the press conference.
The South Korean Air Force is currently equipped with the C-130 transport aircraft, Airbus A330 MRTT multi-purpose aircraft and CN235 transport aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin of the United States. In the reconnaissance mission, the South Korean Air Force uses the French Dassault’s Falcon and Hawker 800 aircraft; the South Korean Navy is equipped with P-3C and P-8A maritime patrol aircraft.
From the end of 2020, the news that South Korea started to develop jet transport aircraft began to circulate. A source from KAI revealed in November 2020: "For KAI, the transport aircraft market is a field that has never been involved in, but South Korea has great potential for domestic manufacturing. The technical difficulty of transport aircraft is lower than that of fighter jets. The maintenance and repair market for transport aircraft is profitable."
KAI hoped to invest US$2.7 billion in domestically produced transport aircraft projects within 7 years. The company is focusing on cooperation with Airbus, Antonov, Embraer and other companies. After developing a military version of the transport aircraft, KAI also envisioned converting the aircraft into a commercial aircraft capable of accommodating 100 people. But the high-wing design unveiled in May 2021 did not seem well suited to serving as a passenger aircraft.
Such a dual use strategy is not uncommon. Probably the most famous example is the Boeing Company's model 367-80, which was the basic design for the commercial 707 passenger plane as well as the KC-135A Stratotanker. In 1954, the Air Force purchased the first 29 of its future 732-plane fleet. The KC-135 Stratotanker provides the core aerial refueling capability for the United States Air Force and has excelled in this role for more than six decades.
KAI has the technology and infrastructure including composite processing, structure manufacturing, final assembly, and painting to produce cutting-edge aircraft. As a system integrator in Aerospace, KAI has been taking the leading role in the aerospace industry in Korea. KAI has successfully developed of the T-50 (Advanced Jet Trainer), KT-1 (Basic Trainer), KUH-1 SURION (Utility Helicopter), and the RQ-101 UAV SONGGOLMAE.The KF-X (Korean Fighter eXperimental), LAH (Light Armed Helicopter), and LCH (Light Civil Helicopter) are the growth engines at KAI.
Based on the commercial aerostructure technology and know-how, KAI is laying the foundation for the development of commercial aircraft. KAI is participating in the international co-development project of the Airbus A350XWB as a Tier 1 partner and has been acknowledged in the world by our technological capabilities. KAI is also participating in Boeing's next generation commercial aircraft projects such as B787 and B777X, as well as Embraer and Bombardier, Bell Helicopter, IAI structure programs.
Virtually all aircraft are designed and engineered to optimize their configurations for specific mission requirements. As a result, aircraft manufacturers have developed a wide array of aircraft having major differences in their configurations in order to optimize those configurations for their intended missions or operations.
The aircraft system can be equipped as a fuel tanker to supply inflight refueling to other manned or unmanned aircraft. The fuselage can include a retractable refueling line, i.e., hose, rigid boom, etc., deployable from the payload bay and selectively connected to an on-board fuel supply carried within the fuselage and/or wings and/or external tanks on the wings. The flight management system can include software for managing the dispensing of onboard fuel to another aircraft, as well as managing the control of the aircraft for joining up with the fuel receiving aircraft and deploying the fuel dispensing hose or boom.
A narrow-body aircraft (or single-aisle aircraft) is an airliner with passenger seats arranged along a single aisle and typically up to six-abreast seating due to the diameter of the fuselage. In contrast, a wide-body aircraft is a larger airliner usually configured with multiple aisles due to a larger diameter of the fuselage. While multiple-aisle vehicles are able to provide more passenger seats with aisle access, such vehicles are often too large, costly, or otherwise impractical to use in certain settings (e.g., for short haul flights).
Aircraft fuselages have to satisfy a number of criteria. A fuselage design, for example, has to take into account the corresponding aircraft's structural and performance requirements, as well as the aircraft's functional requirements. Moreover, the fuselage should be designed such that the respective aircraft can meet both current and future commercial and regulatory requirements. Aircraft designers accordingly have to balance all of these considerations when designing a particular aircraft.
An aircraft's internal cabin configuration is directly related to the configuration of the aircraft's fuselage. For example, commercial aircraft typically have multiple cabins configured to carry passengers and/or cargo. The fuselage configuration (e.g., cross-sectional dimension, length, etc.) of such aircraft directly affects the passenger seating arrangement and cargo hold arrangement within the aircraft. Many smaller commercial aircraft (e.g., Boeing 737s), for example, typically have a single aisle seating arrangement including (a) a business class or first class passenger cabin with a 2-2 seat-row arrangement (two seats on each side of the aisle), and (b) an economy class passenger cabin with a 3-3 seat-row arrangement (three seats on each side of the aisle).
The leaders in the production of aviation equipment are two major companies – American Boeing and European Airbus, followed by companies such as Embraer and Bombardier. Boeing and Airbus, in turn, compete with each other in the segment of large civil aircraft. A new aircraft technology of Russian (MS-21) and Russian-Chinese production (CR929) is trying to compete with them in this segment. The Brazilian conglomerate Embraer and the Canadian multinational company Bombardier occupy an important niche in the segment of regional passenger aircraft; here they are trying to compete with the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100.
Nowadays, the largest number of aircraft belongs to countries from the Asia-Pacific region (APR), followed by America and Europe. There is every reason to consider that the countries of the Asia-Pacific region will continue to have the greatest demand for new aircraft in the future. Along with the shift in demand towards the Asia-Pacific region, there was also a shift in demand towards narrow-body aircraft, which was reflected in the growth of their production. At present, the narrow-body aircraft are the most popular ones are and the demand for them, according to United Aircraft Corporation estimates, will only grow in the future.
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