South Korea records First Successful Maiden Flight Test of its KF-21 fighter jet.
30SEOUL — Korea Aerospace Industries and the country’s Air Force on Tuesday confirmed the first successful test flight of Seoul’s indigenous 4.5th-generation fighter jet, the KF-21 “Boramae.”
The test puts South Korea on the map as the world’s eighth country to have developed supersonic fighter jets, 20 years after former president Daejung Kim ordered the development of a Korean fighter.
The Air Force and KAI previously conducted a successful ground-based engine thrust test late last month.
The KF-21, armed with 4 METEOR air-to-air missiles and piloted by Maj. Junhyeon Ahn of the Air Foce Test and Evaluation Unit, took off from an Air Force base near KAI’s headquarters in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, at 3:40 p.m. local time.
The fighter jet flew at a speed of 400 km/h (200 knots) for 30 minutes to check basic functions of the jet’s body, landing safely at 4:13 p.m.
KAI plans to conduct around 2000 test flights with six prototypes until June 2026, followed by mass production in the same year. The Korean Air Force considers deploying 120 KF-21s by 2032.
Video credit- ROKAF