(MENAFN- Asia Times)
A clutch of retired British pilots have been banned from re-entering the United Kingdom's defense sector after they were found to have trained the People's Liberation army (PLA) in China two years ago.
The pilots were among those from the United States, Europe, South Africa and South America who served in a flight training school in Guyuan, Ningxia, China, according to the UK-based Livingston Aerospace Ltd, which was sanctioned by the US in July this year.
In an exclusive interview with Asia Times, a Livingston Aerospace spokesperson who requested anonymity sought to set the record straight on the company's controversial work in China.
“The work has always been for TFASA (Test Flying Academy of South Africa),” the spokesperson said.“I would describe it as business development and project management of test flying-related matters in and for China.”
“The biggest thing that took up most of the time was establishing a test pilot school in China, which was a big undertaking, and it was all going very well until Covid struck,” he said.“The school was in a couple of locations based around the Guyuan test base, not far from Xi'an. We had about 10 instructors and 100 students go through.”
He said the students were in their late 20s and early 30s and had all been flying for some time. He said some students were very good while the remaining were just average.
“The school is all about teaching them how to be an effective test pilot,” he said.“What they go on to do is their test pilot job. I've got no idea where they went. It's not part of our knowledge.”
He said the 15-month-long flight testing course included a hundred hours of flying 40 different types of airplanes, plus academics, communicating and report writing. He said test pilots play a vital role in the safety and certification of any airplane.
He said, during that time, Livingston Aerospace was aware that its flight test techniques would be used by the PLA. But he said flight testing is a completely different matter from what TFASA was engaged in – the training of operational military pilots with techniques, tactics and procedures.
“Nobody was teaching anything that would jeopardize the interests of our friends and colleagues who stayed in the Royal Air Force,” he stressed.“We're not giving away secrets. There's nothing that was being taught that's not available online anyway.”
“The stuff that is important is the technical frequencies and transmitted powers and all that sort of stuff. Even if we as a pilot knew that, it's of very little value, unless you have the engineering background to put it into practice.”
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