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Gathering Qualified Personnel

Aviation industry is a kind of high know-how and technology intensive industry, which could not be moved forward without setting up organizations with a wide scope of qualified personnel, including aviation scientists, professors, designers, engineers, directors, managers and technical workers, etc. Qualified personnel were badly needed at the initial stage of establishing the aviation industry. There were only about 500 technical persons of different professions, far from the number needed at the end of 1951. Chen Yun, Chairman of the Central Finance and Economy Commission, pointed out at a meeting held in April 1952 that of all conditions needed for producing aircraft, the most difficult ones were the problems of technical personnel and raw material. With regard to this problem, the government adopted important measures of organizing qualified persons in China while setting up schools with every effort, the so called walking with two legs, which quickly formed and strengthened the force of aviation industry.

The Communist Party of China took great care to win over and search for aviation technical personnel even on the eve of the founding of new China. Before the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, Wang Yuqi and other 40 high and middle level technical persons of the Kuomintang air force agreed to stay in the mainland thanks to the efforts and work by Li Yangqun, the underground Party member of the Communist Party of China. Right after the liberation of. Shanghai in May 1949, the City Military Control Committee made announcement in news papers of recruiting aviation professional personnel.

Vice Chairman of the Military Commission of CCCPC Zhou Enlai instructed at once: " Assemble these aviation technical persons first and their work will be assigned later." According to this instruction, the Aviation Department of the East-China Military Region assembled aviation technical persons who studied and were trained abroad and had returned to China and a research laboratory of East-China Aviation Engineering was set up. In August 1949 and with regard to the uprising of personnel of the two aviation companies of China Air and Central Air of China ( hereinafter called " Two Aviation Cos." ) who were staying in Hong Kong, Vice Chairman Zhou Enlai instructed: "To mobilize staff and workers of the ' Two Aviation Cos.' to revolt together and stop inciting individual aircraft defection," " The most important thing is to win over the people."

About one hundred aviation professional personnel, most of them were the Kuomintang high and middle level technical personnel who refused to be forced to go to Taiwan, were transfered into the Bureau of Aviation Industry not long after its establishment. Uprising personnel of the "Two Aviation Cos." and overseas students and aviation professional personnel who returned to motherland from abroad with hardships were dearly cherished by the government. Proper arrangement was made according to their professions and lots of them were appointed to important positions with the development of aviation cause.

Xu Shunshou, Huang Zhiqian, Wu Daguan and Yu Guangyu who studied in the U.K. and U.S.A. were appointed to be responsible for setting up the first aircraft design department and engine design department; Lu Xiaopeng, who studied in England, was appointed designer of aircraft and later led the design work of China's first generation attack aircraft; Zan Ling who came back from the USA was appointed to set up first Chinese Aero Instrument Design Department; Rong Ke who studied in England and was a specialist in casting was appointed Vice Director of Aviation Material Research Institute and Shen Yuan, who studied earlier in England and was a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, was appointed Vice President of BIAA (Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics).

The government assigned about one hundred students who just graduated from universities to work in the aviation industry from 1951 to 1953. With the help of engineering personnel of the old generation, the new comers and the old generation formed a combined team of technical backbone during the initial stage of the aviation industry. They made important contributions to the development of production, research and development, construction and education of China's aviation industry.

To strengthen the leadership of aviation industry, many intelligent and capable people were transfered to work in the industry by the government. A number of leaders who experienced the rigorous trials of revolutionary wars and stood severe tests went to work in aviation industry from all parts of China. Two days after the Chinese delegation went to the Soviet Union to negotiate for their assistance to the Chinese aviation industry in January 1951, Premier Zhou Enlai sent a telegram to the North-east Bureau of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China, saying that chief leaders and key members in the management of the Jian Xin Company ( a military enterprise ) in Dalian were to be sent to organize the Bureau of Aviation Industry in the Second Ministry of Machine Building which was established in 1952. The leading members of the Bureau of Aviation Industry were Wang Xiping, Duan Zijun, Wang Bi, You Jiang, Fan Ming, Chen Yimin, Xu Changyu, Chen Shaozhong, Fang Zhiyuan and Li Zhaoxiang. These people were transfered to the Bureau from Jian Xin Company, South-central Military Region and the Air Force. They were given the responsibility to make transition of the aviation industry from repair and overhaul to manufacture and hence laid a good foundation for the development of the industry.

The Party and the government paid great attention to the leadership of the aircraft and engine factories. All the chief executives were appointed directly by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Selected leaders were not only politically reliable and capable, but also well educated, young and promising. Gao Fangqi and Mo Wenxiang, Director and Party Secretary of the first model factory in the early 1950s, were appointed directors of the Shenyang Aircraft Factory and Engine Factory respectively. Managers with educational background like Niu Yinguan, Wu Jizhou, Yang Cheng, Zou Wenxuan, Tang Qinxun and Xu Xizan were also appointed Director, Party Secretary and Chief Engineer of the major factories.

In the period before and after the First Five-year Plan, many executives were transfered to aviation industry from Party organizations, administrative departments and army units by the government. Fairly large groups of people were transfered into the industry in 1954, more than 70 cadres at prefecture and divisional level, about 200 cadres at county and regiment level came to factories handed over from the Air Force and civil aviation industry. These cadres forcefully strengthened the leadership at each level of the aviation industry. Some of them, like Xong Yian, Yu Hui, Ma Zhen, Lu Hongan, Zhou Hongen, Diao Junshou, Su Zhi and Li Zhongyuan were assigned to important leading posts then.

The government also showed deep concern to the transfer of technical workers. Premier Zhou Enlai instructed personally to Li Fuchun, Vice Chairman of the Central Finance and Economy Commission to transfer 2,500 technical workers to the industry from the Bureau of Weaponry Industry and automobile assembly factories. In March 1952, with the instruction of the State Council, more than one thousand technical people were transfered to work in aviation industry from departments of railway, transportation and communication in North-east, North-China, South-west and East-China and in Tianjin. The instruction required that among those people the model workers had to occupy 2%, hence most of the workers transfered to the industry were with high political consciousness, hard working and with superior skills.

Those leaders, technical persons, workers and students, who came to work in the aviation industry from all parts of China, were honored to have the opportunity of taking part in the construction of new China's aviation industry. They left their familiar work for completely new posts at one order, some of them went to the freezing Shenyang and Harbin from the big southen city of Shanghai and the rich area of Zhejiang. Although they were not accustomed to northern food and climate, none of them complained. They threw themselves in the hard struggle of establishing aviation industry, their common target.

Collecting people and forming a labor force did not mean a capability of accomplishing the task because lots of those people were unfamiliar with the repair and manufacture of aircraft. The best and quickest effective method of solving the problem was to make good use of the Soviet assistance, to invite Soviet experts to China and to send people out for training. There were totally about 847 Soviet experts and advicers being invited to China by the Chinese government. Lots of those invited people were with rich experience and excellent skill. They were friendly and worked actively. Each of them was assigned 3 to 10 Chinese people as their students, who were requested to reach the standard of doing the work by themselves when the experts left. At the same time, 353 cadres, technical persons and workers were sent to study in U.S.S.R. Large number of good students were also selected from universities and colleges and sent to the Soviet Union and other east European countries for further study. These measures were just taken to cope with the urgent need.