Taipei Times
Date: Nov 28, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA
The military is launching a contest to come up with a name for its advanced
Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi invites the public to enter a contest to name the nation’s advanced supersonic jet trainers at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
supersonic jet trainer aircraft currently under development.
Taichung-based Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) is scheduled to deliver 66 advanced trainer aircraft to the government by 2026 to replace the air force’s aging AT3 trainers and F5 fighters, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The government-funded AIDC had provisionally named the new jets “Blue Magpie,” after the endemic bird species, but when asked at a news conference in Taipei yesterday why the military was ditching the name, Major General Tang Hung-an (唐洪安), the head of the air force command’s planning division, sidestepped the question.
He would only say that the military wanted to allow public participation in the naming process. [FULL STORY]
