Harbin Aircraft Industry

Harbin Aircraft Industry Group (Hafei) is a Chinese state-owned aerospace manufacturer founded in 1952 in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, as an aircraft repair facility before moving into licensed production of Soviet-designed aircraft from 1958. It is a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the country's dominant state aerospace conglomerate.

History and products

Harbin's product line has historically centred on helicopters and light transport and patrol aircraft rather than unmanned systems: the company builds the Z-9, Z-15, Z-19, Z-20 and Z-21 military helicopters, the HC-120 light helicopter, the H-5 and SH-5 bomber/patrol aircraft, and the Y-11 and Y-12 light transports. Its unmanned-aircraft work centres on the BZK-005, a medium-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance UAV first shown publicly at the 2006 Zhuhai Airshow and since operated by both the PLA Navy and PLA Air Force, reportedly under the names "Sea Eagle" and "Giant Eagle" respectively. An armed BZK-005C variant with a revised centre fuselage appeared in 2018, and Norinco markets an export version as the Sky Saker FX1000A.

Products on this site

The BZK-005 is Harbin's long-endurance reconnaissance UAV, used by the People's Liberation Army for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, including repeated appearances near Taiwan, Japan and the South China Sea.