TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) has announced that its new Brave Eagle advanced jet trainer will make its first series of flight trials before the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on June 25.

The Brave Eagle previously completed its first runway taxiing test on Tuesday (June 2) at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Force Base. Prior to its first flight mission at the end of the month, several more taxiing tests will be conducted.

A person familiar with the upcoming flight stated that the tests will be carried out by the same two AIDC test pilots who conducted the taxiing tests on June 2, according to Liberty Times.

One of the test pilots is flight instructor Kuan Yen-nien (管延年), who has flown Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF) with 2000 hours under his belt and in 2017 became one of the members of AIDC's flight test team. The other pilot is also a former senior Air Force pilot who transferred to become an AIDC test pilot; AIDC did not comment on exactly which test pilot will conduct the inaugural flight mission.

For the first flight, an IDF fighter will accompany the jet trainer to showcase Taiwan's old and new generations of aircraft.