According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL = Yonhap News) Korea is about to become a civil aircraft manufacturing nation as the KC-100, a four-seat civil aircraft developed by Korea Aerospace Industries, LTD. (KAI), received government certification for the first time in the history of the Korean civil aviation industry.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced on December 30 that it issued a production certificate after conducting three quality system assessments on the organizational management, design control, software quality assurance, manufacturing process control and supplier control of the KAI.

The production certificate is an approval document issued if an aerospace company possesses the competent technology, facility, human resources and quality management system to produce aircraft and abide by all necessary regulations. The entire evaluation process is also known as aircraft production certification.

Many indigenous civil aircraft were developed for testing purposes until now, but the KC-100 is the only one of its kind to receive government certification.

“Naraon is the first civil aircraft to be certified for safety by the Korean government, so we expect to be able to export the aircraft,” said Lee Sung-yong, a MOLIT official.

In March, the KC-100 received "Type Certificate", which certifies that all safety regulations have been fulfilled in terms of particular design, strength and performance.

The KC-100, also known as Naraon, is a four-seat single-piston propeller plane. The 1,633 kg plane is capable of reaching a top speed of 389 km per hour and maximum flight distance of 1,859 km, allowing it to reach most areas in Japan, Taiwan and the central region of China.

MOLIT held a certificate presentation ceremony on December 30 at Sejong Central Government Complex.

Seventeen experts of the United States' Federal Aviation Administration participated in the inspection and evaluated Korea's certification systems and aircraft design and production competency.

The ministry plans to carry out negotiations with the United States early next year to expand the Korea-U.S. Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement based on evaluation results.