Islamabad, May 1: Pakistan’s air chief Tanveer Mehmud Ahmad will visit China next week to witness the inaugural flight of the JF-17 (Thunder) combat aircraft, jointly manufactured by Pakistani and Chinese experts.

“The inaugural flight is scheduled for May 10,” Air Commodore Athar Bokhari, a senior Pakistan Air Force (PAF) official, associated with the project said in Islamabad.

The fourth prototype of the jet had successfully carried out the final test flight in the Chinese city of Chengdu last Friday.

China will start production of a small batch of JF-17s by June for their induction in the PAF in early 2007. A spokesman said in Islamabad that they hoped to induct the first small batch of [four] aircraft in early 2007.

Conceived in 1992, the JF-17 project was jointly undertaken and pursued by Pakistan and China until the first prototype carried out its maiden flight in September 2003.

“The purpose behind jointly undertaking the project was to gradually achieve expertise to locally manufacture the aircraft,” Bokhari said.