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Korea
Aerospace and Defense Exhibition 2005
Korea Aerospace and defense
exhibition 2005 was held at Seoul Airport in Seoungnam area located
south of Seoul between Oct. 18 and Oct. 23. Alternatively known as
Seoul Air Show, this premier international aerospace exhibition and
air show in Korea was first held in 1996. The exhibition has grown
into a large biennial aerospace fair attracting 225 companies from
24 countries worldwide this year. My last visit was in 2001 and show
was beyond my expectations. After travelling 2 1/2 hours by subway
and in taxi, I barely managed to arrive just before closing on last
day and missed afternoon flight demo of world's best fighters. In
last phase of F-X competition to select future multi-role fighter
for ROKAF, Boeing, Dassult, Eurofighter and Sukhoi dominated 2001
exhibition. I was surprised at stunning scale mock-ups of F-15K, Rafale,
Typhoon and Su-35 in exhibition halls. Tons of posters, brochures
and booklets promoting their fighters and companies were available
for tens of thousands of public visitors. Out of exhibition hall,
I was lucky to see full-scale Typhoon and Su-35 displayed on dark
runway. At the other end of runway, Dassault Rafale just took off
and soared into dark evening sky and Su-35 was getting towed into
runway to depart from Korea, leaving dozens of air force machanics
and viewers behind. Rafale's two SNECMA turbofans made deafening roar
over runway and whole airfield rumbled along for another 5 minutes.
Way cool! That was what I love.
I was on the venue on Oct.
20 and 21 but I did not see much of daily flights due to bad weather
and inconsistent flight schedule. While taking pictures of aircraft
on main runway on first day, I found an Su-31 running engine at full
throttle to take off from a faraway runway. Su-31 was quick in the
air and showed us spectacular aerobatic for 15 minutes. Aerobatic
was sponsored by Lithuanian AF to celebrate Seoul Air Show 2005 and
pilot was FAI World Grand Prix champion Jurgis Kairys, a famed professional
aerobatic pilot and test pilot of Sukhoi Design Bureau who designed
Su-26, 29, 31 aerobatic planes. Flights of KT-1, T-50, F-15C, B-1B
and U-2 were scheduled but there was nothing other than Su-31 aerobatic
on Oct. 20. Unfortunately it rained hard next day and absolutely all
aircraft were grounded. Out of over a hundred pictures I had taken
only two dozens looked good but local aerospace and defense sources
came to the rescue with brilliant pictures. Korea Aerospace Industries(KAI),
Monthly Aerospace Korea and two local webzines kindly allowed me to
use very nice pictures of ROKAF Black Eagles aerobatic team, Jurgis'
Su-31 and other aircraft that highlighted Korea Aerospace and Defense
Exhibition 2005.
© Jay Kim 2006 |
In
2002, our government and air force finalized Boeing F-15K as winner
of F-X program and contracted with Boeing for 40 F-15Ks. Two F-15Ks
from first production batch flew into Korea in time for the opening
and made public debut during Seoul Air Show 2005. Rollout of two gunship
grey F-15Ks were made in static display area on main runway. After
taking off from Boeing facilities in St. Louis, two F-15Ks in serial
number 003 and 004 flew across the Pacific via Hawaii and Island of
Guam and landed at Seoul Airport 10 days before opening of Seoul Air
Show. 6 refuellings were made by a USAF KC-10 during over 20 hours
of flight. Basically advanced version of F-15E, ROKAF F-15K has up-to-date
APG-63(V)1 radar, 3rd generation FLIR, helmet-mounted cueing system
and can be armed with JDAM, SLAM-ER, AMRAAM and AIM-9X Sidewinder.
New F-15Ks fully complement KF-16C, F-16C and F-4E frontline fighters
in ROKAF with superior multirole capability, heavy payload and long
combat radius. Next big focus of show were brand new T-50 advanced
supersonic trainer and KT-1 basic trainer from domestic aerospace
manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries(KAI). Highly polished T-50
and KT-1 in exhibition hall quickly caught my eyes under dazzling
spotlights. There was something I could not feel at the sight of brand
new aircraft of foreign origin. T-50 advanced trainer and lead-in-fighter
has been developed by KAI and Lockheed Martin and undisclosed number
of T-50s are operational in ROKAF with fleet of T-38 and T-59(BAe
Hawks) jet trainers. Featuring digital fly-by-wire for precision maneuver,
variable camber wing with strakes, HUD, MFD cockpit, HOTAS and maximum
speed of Mach 1.4, T-50 prepares future pilots for rapid transfer
to current and next generation fighters like advanced F-16, F-22,
F-35, Typhoon or Rafale. As current jet trainers from 50's and 60's
are approaching limit of service life, KAI and Lockheed Martin expect
robust sales in advanced trainer market worldwide. Aermach M-346 and
Yak-130 are its rivals. KT-1 turboprop basic trainer will replace
aging ROKAF T-37s and T-41s. KO-1 is observation and forward airborn
controller based on KT-1 to replace Cessna O-2A in near future. Indonesia
imported KT-1s for Indonesian AF. 
