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Developing Civil Aircraft

In implementing military - civil combination, no matter whether " centered on military production" in the past or was " centered on civil production" later, aviation industry had always insisted on aviation as its profession, making best use of its advantages, putting the development of civil aircraft in the first place in an attempt to provide Chinese civil airlines with Chinese made aircraft.

Transports with different payloads had been developed in China as early as in the 1970s, including Y-11 with 8 seats and 940 kg payload, Y-7 with 50 seats and 4.7 tons payloads, Y-8 medium sized transport with 20 tons payloads and Y-10 mid-range jet passenger plane with 150-seats and 21.4 tons payload. These aircraft all had been flight tested. After successful maiden flight, Y-10 flew to cities of Beijing, Hefei, Harbin, Urumqi, Guangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu and Lhasa respectively, which reflected the continuous increase of China's civil aircraft development capability. But because of the stress on development of fighter aircraft at that time, development of civil aircraft was slowed down. Except for the Y-11 which had been certified and batch produced in 1977, all other types of civil aircraft were not batch produced and operated, therefore all aircraft operated on both trunk lines and branch lines in China were bought from abroad.

Encouraged by the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Congress of the Central Committee, the Ministry of Aviation Industry began to work on the development of civil aircraft in order to change the situation of civil aircraft. The work was first concentrated on tackling difficult technical problems and flight test of the already developed types of aircraft - Y-11 and Y-12. Simultaneously the manufacturing of Z-9 helicopter introduced from abroad was also started. Then the Y-11 aircraft agricultural service team was set up in May 1980 in Harbin Aircraft Factory to provide services for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, mining and wild life resources surveying after the approval of the State Council and the Military Commission of CCCPC. This was the first time in China's aviation industry to organize a professional team using Chinese designed and manufactured aircraft for direct business.

To support China's own aircraft to enter into operations on domestic air routes, Deng Xiaoping pointed out in October 1981 in his speech at the enlarged politburo meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: " Chinese made aircraft should be considered on domestic air routes operation." On January 2 1982, the State Council working meeting presided over by Premier Zhao Ziyang defined that using Chinese made civil aircraft operating on domestic air routes would be one of the government policies in accordance with the above proposal by Deng Xiaoping. This decision was the new starting point for the development of China's civil aircraft. To implement this policy, Duan Junyi and Zhao Jianmin, members of the Central Advisory Commission, put forward detailed proposals again in May 1985 to the State Council, which gained active support immediately from Premier Zhao Ziyang, Vice Premiers Wan Li and Li Peng and State Councillor Gu Mu.

Under the guidance of the correct policy and with concern and support of State leaders, China's civil aircraft manufacture had since enjoyed an unprecedented good situation on the foundation of the previous work. During the 7 years since 1980, all together 8 types of 202 transports and helicopters had been manufactured, among which 6 types were been put into production in this period. After its type certification in February 1980, Y-8 was released for production and delivered for service consecutively with the first successful flight to Lhasa on May 19 1984. It successfully transported cargo for the 20th anniversary celebration of the found¬ing of Tibet autonomous region in September 1985. Y-8 aircraft has been widely used in China for cargo transportation nowadays.

As soon as it had passed technical approval in December 1984, Y-12 I aircraft was immediately put into service for geographical exploration in Hebei and Inner Mongolia. The Y-12 II aircraft modified according to international civil airworthiness regulations had passed technical evaluation at the end of 1985. Having been awarded CAAC airworthiness certificate, Y-12 II is now entering into the international market. Z-9 commercial helicopter made its maiden flight in 1982 and it was soon batch produced and delivered to the Air Force, airlines and China's Ocean Helicopter Service Company. Y-7, the commuter plane, was type certified and batch produced in July 1982 and been delivered for operational test at the beginning of 1984. The newly developed large multi-purpose helicopter Z-8 made its successful maiden flight in December 1985. The 150-seats MD-82 large trunk line passenger plane, jointly manufactured by Shanghai Aviation Industry Company and the McDonnell Douglas Company of U.S., had its first aircraft riveted in Shanghai in April 1986, which made its first flight in July 1987.

The bright future of military - civil combination of China's aviation industry relies on the vigorous development of commercial aircraft and, the development of the Chinese made civil aircraft depends largely on flight safety, which drew people's attention especially at the time when disastrous accidents occurred with passenger planes in some technically advanced countries. The Ministry of Aviation Industry regarded the issue of safety and reliability of Chinese made aircraft as an outstanding task. A great deal of careful work had been done with the active support and cooperation of CAAC. Y-7 aircraft acted as a demonstrator and pioneer in opening domestic airline service by Chinese made passenger planes, which had been tested by long time trial use with safety and reliability.

With modified WJ5A-I engine, and the equivalent power increased from 1,875 kW (2,550 hp) to 2,132 kW (2,900 hp), i.e. an increase of 13.7%, the Y-7 aircraft could take-off and transport 20 tons full load in hot and high areas with a better take-off and climb performance than that of similar aircraft bought from abroad and operating on domestic lines.

To further test the safety of the aircraft, a "single engine take-off and landing flight test" - with one of the tWo engines shut down was performed in April 1982 in Tianjin. This kind of flight test was risky. The flight test team was headed by He Wenzhi, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Aviation Industry and joined by leading members from CAAC fleet No.8 and Xi'an Aircraft Factory. This flight test, the first ever done in China, had ended with great success, which demonstrated that in case of one engine being damaged or lost control, the Y-7 aircraft could still be able to perform full load take-off and landing with the other engine. Because of the success of this record breaking test, 49 people of the test team including Zhang Yun, Cheng Yuanyong and Zhang Qinliang had been cited and received by Vice Premiers Geng Biao and Zhang Aiping.

The Y-7 aircraft had flown to 28 provinces, cities and autonomous regions to test its suitability in different environment conditions and airports. When it was type certified in July 1982, Y-7 had already flown 3,665 sorties, 1,656 hours and 700,000 kilometers, once again created a safety record.

Starting from early 1984, the batch produced aircraft had been delivered to Shanghai and Wuhan aviation administrations for cargo transport. The aircraft has since been shuttling between cities of Shanghai, Wuhan, Hefei, Zhengzhou, Jinan, Dalian, Fuzhou and Xiamen. It accumulated more than 1,000 flying hours of cargo transportation in the last two years, withstood complicated climatic tests of thunderstorm, icing and high temperature and long time flight far away from maintenance base. These actual facts demonstrated that the Y-7 aircraft was fully up to the standard for passenger transportation, therefore the CAAC Wuhan Administration pioneered in putting the Y-7 into airline service in November 1985.

In the process of trial use of Y-7 by CAAC, the Ministry of Aviation Industry continued work on its modification. Its communication, navigation, radar equipment and cabin facility were modified with advanced technology and equipment in 1985. The wing was modified with the addition of winglets to improve its safety and comfort. The aircraft was renamed Y7-100.

When the Chinese made commercial aircraft of Y7-100, Y-12 11 , Y-8 and Z-9 with complete new look flew in Beijing for demonstration at the end of 1985 and beginning of 1986, people from all walks of life paid their great attention to it. On November 22 1985, Vice Premier Wan Li and Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Hao Jianxiu visited the aircraft, and on December 1 1985, Vice Premiers Li Peng, Yao Yilin and Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Hu Qili visited the aircraft and took a flight aboard Y7-100. Vice Premier Li Peng also presided over a State Council Meeting on Civil Aviation held on the spot of the demonstration. He declared at the meeting that the purpose of the meeting was only one - to support Chinese made civil aircraft. He also pointed out that the Chinese made aircraft must be of good quality to ensure "safety, comfort and economy".

The first large scale Chinese made civil aircraft exhibition was held in Beijing's capital airport in April 1986, which attracted more than 20,000 people from all walks of life, such as the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Advisory Commission of CCCPC, the State Council, the Military Commission of CCCPC, Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the Commission of Defence Science, Technology and Industry, the Air Force and Navy. More than 1,000 people took a flight of the aircraft, their speeches and remarks brimmed over with concern, love and expectations. Member of the Advisory Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Yang Xianzhen on his wheelchair flew the Y-8 aircraft at his high age of 90 and said excitedly: "I am very pleased on board of our own aircraft and I am feeling very well." A veteran pilot who flew the aircraft for many years praised the advanced equipment and comfort of the modified Y7-100 aircraft and, a man who named himself " a man who wanted to fly all his life" had written on a visitors' book with warmth: "Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! At last I have seen the aircraft made by ourselves," "the Chinese people should love and support with every effort China's aircraft manufacturing industry and China's aviation cause. China's aircraft should fly to the world!"

"The fragrance of the plum blossom came from bitterness and the cold" . Having confirmed the flight safety, CAAC held a grand inauguration for the formal passenger operation of Y-7 aircraft in Hefei, Anhui Province on 29 April 1986. When the first anniversary of the inauguration was celebrated on 29 April 1987, there already had 18 Y-7 aircraft flying on 5 routes of Hefei, Shenyang, Wuhan, Xi'an and Huhhot with more than 18,400 flying hours and over 24,000 sorties in one year, maintaining safety flying record. The operation of Y-7 aircraft for passenger service by Chinese airlines had since ended the history of using all foreign aircraft on China's main regional airlines and turned out a new page in China's civil aviation history.