China's first institute for the design and research of light aircraft for civil use has been founded in Xi'an, capital of the northwestern province of Shaanxi.
Li Dajiong, head of the new institute which is affiliated to the Xi'an Aircraft Design and Research Institute, said he and his colleagues would focus on developing new models of China-made light civil aircraft to meet the growing domestic market demand.
Light civil aircraft refers to small planes used for civil purposes outside of aviation industry. They are widely used in agriculture, forestry, fishing, weather and ocean monitoring, scientific research, exploration of resources, and even sports and tourism.
Statistics show that currently the United States, with a fleet of 200,000, has 60 percent of the world's light civil aircraft.
However, in China there are only 301 such aircraft in service, most of which are aging and outdated, and are used only for limited purposes such as forest preservation and oil exploitation.
(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2003)
