[People's Daily Online]

Sci-Edu

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 04, 2003

China, Canada to Jointly Manufacture Bell-430 Helicopters

China's Hafei Aviation Industry Co.,Ltd. signed an agreement Wednesday with
Bell Helicopter Textron Canada to manufacture multipurpose Bell-430
helicopters.

Based in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Hafei
will be the only provider of airframes for Bell-430 helicopters, according
to the agreement.

Hafei will make the whole sets of airframes, tails and wings for the
helicopters.

The Bell-430 helicopter is a kind of nine-seat multi-purpose helicopter,
with a maximum flying speed of 258 kilometers per hour. It can fly a maximum
distance of 654 kilometers.

Borith Hakim, Bell Helicopter Textron Canada global procurement chief, said
at Wednesday's signing ceremony that the reason his company chose Hafei as
its cooperative partner was that they were confident in its technologies and
product quality.

The Hafei company was the first Chinese enterprise to cooperate with foreign
firms in processing aircraft parts. It has established cooperative relations
with several aircraft manufacturers of the United States, Britain, France
and Singapore.

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