Taiwan’s new indigenous T-5 Brave Eagle advanced jet trainer conducts first flight

The T-5 Brave Eagle during its maiden flight. Photo c/o Taiwan MND.

Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), together with the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) conducted the maiden flight of their T-5 Brave Eagle supersonic advanced jet trainer prototype on 10 June 2020.

This was announced by the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense (MND) on the same day, was conducted from Ching Chuan Kang Air Base near Taichung, and took 20 minutes.

More test flights are to be conducted over 3 days after being cleared of pre-flight dynamic and static tests. An official test flight will be held on 22 June 2020 on the same air base.

The T-5 Brave Eagle, previously known as the Blue Magpie, was developed under a joint program between the National Chun-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, AIDC, and ROCAF. It was first introduced in September 2019, and will be built for the ROCAF to replace its existing fleet of AIDC AT-3 trainers by 20206.

AIDC and ROCAF are also planning to develop a light fighter variant that would replace the ROCAF’s fleet of Northrop F-5E/F Tiger II fighters.

The T-5 Brave Eagle was developed after Taiwan decided to drop a previous plan to acquire the Leonardo M-346 Master.


[1] Jane’s
[2] Flight Global