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Carrying on Scientific Research in Advance, Strengthening Aeronautical Scientific Research and Education

After smashing the "gang of four", the aviation industry immediately began to strengthen scientific research and speed up the work of developing new generation aircraft. This was the central task for aviation industry in the new period. Because of fierce arms race and commercial competition in the world from the 1960s to the 1970s, the industrially developed countries of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France used large investment, manpower and material to strengthen their aeronautical scientific research and developed many new types of high performance military and civil aircraft for the armed forces and civil aviation market, causing fast development of aeronautical technology and active international aircraft trade. But just during that period of time, China's aviation industry suffered severe destruction from the "great cultural revolution".

China lagged behind in scientific research, slowed down the development of new generation aircraft leaving the Air Force a shortage of main force equipments. By 1976, the J-6 aircraft had already been manufactured for 16 years, but still could not be replaced by J-7 aircraft. The Y-5 civil aircraft had been there for 20 years without any new generation for replacement and the development of a new generation transport aircraft had not been certified for production over a long period of time. The gap between China's aviation industry and the advanced aviation industry in the world had become greater.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council and the Military Commission of CCCPC all showed great concern to the situation of China's aviation industry. Not long after the downfall of the "gang of four", state leaders like Deng Xiaoping, Ye Jianying, Luo Ruiqing and Wang Zhen heard reports several times and gave their instructions. In October 1977, Deng Xiaoping delivered an important speech concerning the development of defence industry, pointing out that scientific research in defence industry should be unified, both scientific research and production should be subject to strategic requirement, plan should be worked out and manpower should be concentrated on tackling problems one by one. He also pointed out that the present fighter fleet should be mainly the J-7. A certain time should be fixed to transfer production capability to the production of J-7 aircraft, then concentrate on the development of one generation after another for replacement.

At the National Science Convention in March 1978, Deng Xiaoping put forward the correct thesis that science and technology were productive forces and confirmed the position and role of scientific research in economic construction. Having heard reports twice from the Minister of Aviation Industry Deng Xiaoping stressed: science and technology were great productive forces, which was more the case with aviation industry. The key point is to work out a plan and take measures to set the strategic objective of aircraft replacement by new generation and try every effort to put qualified personnel in important positions. These instructions provided correct guiding policy for the development of aviation industry in the new period.

In order to act in the spirit of the National Science Convention and to meet the requirement of Deng Xiaoping's speech, the Ministry of Aviation Industry held a working meeting on aviation science and technology in Tianjin in July 1978. The meeting summed up historical experience of aviation industry, mainly discussed the special important role of aviation scientific research in the development of aviation industry and clearly defined the task of speeding up the design and development of a new generation aircraft and the policy of scientific research going ahead of the rest.

The meeting put the stress on correct handling of five relations: i.e. the relation between scientific research and production, adhering to scientific research going ahead of production and eliminating wrong thinking of "production is more important than scientific research"; the relation between project development and advanced research which provides technical base for project development, there was no way of "cooking without rice"; the relation between aircraft, engine and airborne equipment, more attention should be paid to strengthening weak link of engine, taking care of airborne equipment development, especially electronics equipment to improve general performance of aircraft; the relation between present and future, wasting no time in solving the present issue and simultaneously taking a broad and long-term view for the future; the relation between learning from abroad and self creation, breaking through the isolation of the country and actively introducing foreign advanced technology on the basis of self-reliance to raise the starting point of development of aviation science and technology.

At the meeting the objective of aircraft development was planned "to produce a generation, to develop a generation and to explore a generation". This meeting was important in the new period of development of, aviation industry, after which the strategic change started in aviation industry i.e. stress shifted from production to scientific research and development of new generation aircraft.

The shortcoming of this meeting was the overestimation of the capability of our national strength and the planned task was too much and with a too high speed. According to the policy of the Central Committee in 1981 regarding reorganizing national economy, the whole industry clarified the guiding policy of "acting according to our capability and doing something feasible", and reorganized and compressed those tasks that were beyond the national strength and the capability of aviation industry primarily planned in Tianjin meeting, making the objective and task more practical.

The biggest change in scientific research work during this period was that the advanced research was strengthened. The direction and task of the advanced research were assessed and planned and, adjusted and supplemented in practice. The task could be divided into two parts: one was the new technology needed by the development of new generation aircraft and, the oth¬er was the critical technology needed by the future advanced aircraft in the 1990s, including advanced aircraft aerodynamic distribution, high thrust / weight ratio engine, active control technology, inertial navigation technology, diffraction optical head up display and fire control technology, electronic flight instrument system (EFIS), environment control, application of electronic computer, composite material and new type of aeronautical material etc. It was also confirmed that 30% of aeronautical scientific research expenditure should be used for advanced research and the rest 70% for project development so that the previous practice of advanced research being subject to project development and no expenses for advanced research had been changed.

Scientific research is to explore the unknowns. Once it is guided by correct line and supported by good environment, people's talents will be brought into full play and scientific research achievements will spring up continuously. The harvest period of aeronautical scientific research was after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Congress of the Central Committee, CPC. Until 1986, aviation industry had 287 items of achievements which won National Science Convention prize for major scientific achievement, 68 items of science and technology achievements were awarded national prize for science invention, 53 items were awarded national prize for scientific and technology progress, 152 items were awarded prize for major scientific and technological breakthrough in defense industry and 1,377 items were awarded prize of science and technology achievement of the Ministry of Aviation Industry. There were also 4 items of achievements being awarded gold medal at Geneva Invention Exhibition, 2 items were awarded gold plated medal and 4 items were awarded silver medal.

All these achievements were gradually used in aircraft development and production, and some of the achievements also found applications in other industries. The use of CAD / CAM greatly shortened the development time of J-8 II aircraft; achievement of advanced research in fracture fatigue raised aircraft design standard; research results in finite element by Zhou Tianxiao raised alternating induction method from experience level to scientific theoretical level which could be applied to strain analysis of aeronautical structure, mechanics and nuclear engineering; Gao Ge, a post graduate of Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics invented "barchan dune flame holder", putting forward the new standard of stabilization and fast computation method for calculating eddying numerical value. When this was used on WP6A engine, the engine performance was effectively improved, bringing China into the front line in this field of technology in the world. This achievement was awarded first class national prize for science invention and the inventor was entitled ph.D..Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang met with him and his teacher on February 4, 1985. It only took 4 years from starting research to the theoretical breakthrough, then to the practical application, which could be hardly realized before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Congress of CCCPC.

In order to provide solid material foundation for implementing the policy of conducting advanced research, the construction of scientific research test facilities were greatly enhanced in the new period. The method of combining independent design with the introduction of foreign equipment was adopted. First, major institutes, design offices and universities and colleges, were further equipped with large quantity of test and measuring equipments. These equipments included real time data acquisition and processing system for handling flight test data, loading data processing system for structural strength test, simulation test system for fire-control system, material constant static pressure test equipment, micro-wave anechoic chamber and thermal fatigue test control data processing system, and aerodynamic and aeroengine test equipments, etc. Then forces were concentrated on continuously constructing large test facilities including aeroengine altitude simulation test bed (first stage construction finished, second stage started), standard ground rocket sled and wheel brake inertia test rig etc. Construction investment for research and test facilities during this period was increased greatly and work was done in a down-to-earth manner, therefore the result was better.

The real-time data acquisition and processing system for flight test shortened the time for preparing flight test, reduced test flight sorties and improved cost effectiveness of flight test. After the completion of the first phase construction of the altitude test facility for aeroengines, a simulated certification test of a turbojet engine inlet distortion with 65 kN (6,600 kg) thrust was done in 1985. The test was finished with complete success, which marked that the use of the altitude test facility had reached a new level. The wheel brake inertia test rig started service in 1985. It not only carried out tyre and brake tests for the Chinese customers, but also undertook tests of large aircraft tyres for foreign companies and is entitled to issue the worldwide recognized quality certificate.

Construction of aviation education was also stressed at the same time of enhancing construction of scientific research. Since 1978, the number of universities and colleges of aviation industry increased to 6 from 3, two post graduate institutes, three secondary technical schools were set up by the industry and 28 workers universities and 45 skilled workers schools were established by enterprises and administrative organizations, formulating a multi-level education system of aviation industry. From 1979 to 1986, there were 22,252 university and college graduates, 1,254 post graduates, 600 students returned from abroad, 4,555 professional college graduates, 31,000 skilled workers school graduates, 2,523 secondary technical school graduates and a large number of workers who had experienced different kinds of short term training. These graduates not only eased the short term need for qualified personnel, but also prepared a back force for the future development of aviation industry.