The information was part of an unsealed indictment dated October 25.

It seems that for the last five years, two Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) spies ran a team of hackers focusing on the theft of designs for a turbofan engine used in US and European commercial airliners.

In a statement, the DOJ said a Chinese state-owned aerospace company was simultaneously working to develop a comparable engine.

The MSS officers involved were identified as Zha Rong, a division director in the Jiangsu Province regional department (JSSD), and Chai Meng, a JSSD section chief.

At the direction of the MSS officers, the hackers infiltrated several US-based aerospace companies, including California-based Capstone Turbine, among others in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oregon, the DOJ said.

The officers are also said to have recruited at least two Chinese employees of a French aerospace manufacturer -- insiders who allegedly aided by installing Sakula, a remote access trojan, onto company computers.