Korean Air to Manufacture Bobsleds for National Bobsleigh Team

Korean Air is to begin manufacturing sleds for the Korean national bobsleigh team.

The airline will establish a consortium which consists of experts group from Korean major universities and University of Southern California in the U.S. and work together on manufacturing sleds and blades for both two and four-person bobsleds.

The industry-academic collaboration team will establish a development team this month and commence developmental work from May.

The carrier has a plan to supplement it through the first test from November 2014 to February 2015 after securing related parts and completing a prototype. Also it will upgrade the sled every year until the time of 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

By participating in this project, Korean Air will become the first airline to manufacture bobsleds. So far, mainly European automobile manufacturers such as Germany’s BMW and Italy’s Ferrari have been taking part in producing sleds, which have been regarded as the most cutting-edge equipment among winter sports.

Yang Ho Cho, the Chairman and CEO of Hanjin Group and Korean Air, also the Chief Vice Chairman of Korean Olympic Committee, who helped PyeongChang to win the rights to host the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, has been making a great contribution in developing sports in both home and abroad. He was appointed as an official ambassador for the Peace and Sport Foundation, the international organization to promote world peace through sports. He also supported the Youth Leadership Camp initiated by United Nations Office on Sports for Development and Peace (UNOSDP). Korean Air is an official sponsor of 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

Chairman Cho heard that the Korean bobsleigh national team members use Dutch sleds in practice and have difficulty in setting better records since the sleds were not tailor-made for them. This is one of the reasons Chairman Cho decided to design new sleds for the team.

Kwang Bae Kang, vice president of International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation and professor of Korea National Sports University, said, “I appreciate Korean Air and Chairman Cho’s great support to develop winter sports, especially bobsleds. If we win a medal in the Winter Olympics with the bobsleds manufactured with our national technology, it will be an opportunity to promote Korea‘s sports science technology to the world.”