Chinese helicopter designers are focusing on the development of an ultrafast tilt-rotor aircraft capable of flying 500 kilometers per hour, the nation's top helicopter researcher said.

Wu Ximing, chief helicopter designer at State-owned aircraft giant Aviation Industry Corp of China, told China Daily on Monday that researchers at the company's Helicopter Research and Development Institute are developing the Blue Whale tilt-rotor aircraft, China's equivalent of the United States' Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey.

"We will design two variants of the Blue Whale - a medium-duty type and a heavy-duty one. The medium-duty model will have a maximum takeoff weight of 20 metric tons, and the heavy-duty model 40 tons. They can fly as fast as 500 km/h," Wu said.