Training planes sold to Turkey

Korea Aerospace Industries Co., Korea’s biggest aircraft maker, won a contract to supply as many as 55 of its KT-1 basic training aircraft to Turkey for about $500 million, its biggest overseas order ever.
The company signed an agreement for 40 of the propeller-driven aircraft and expects a contract for 15 more next year, it said in a faxed statement yesterday. Delivery will be completed in 2013, the company said.
The contract boosts Korea Aerospace’s ambition of receiving its first overseas order for the T-50 advanced trainer jet, developed with Lockheed Martin Corp.
The plane is part of a $2 billion program by the Korean government to train the country’s air force pilots about tactics and weapons.
Korea Aerospace won its first overseas order for the KT-1 from Indonesia in 2001. The company also makes wingtips and other parts for Airbus SAS and Boeing Co., the world’s two biggest commercial aircraft manufacturers.
Korea Aerospace is held in equal shares of 20.5 percent by Hyundai Motor Co., Samsung Techwin Co. and Doosan Infracore Co. The company was formed through a merger of the aerospace businesses of the Samsung, Daewoo and Hyundai groups in 1999.
Bloomberg