Women in command at air show display
Print Edition
THE first female fighter pilots to join China’s famed aerobatic team showed off their skills in J-10 jets yesterday at an air show in the southern city of Zhuhai.
The pair strode to their fighter planes in step with male pilots, all wearing identical green jumpsuits and sunglasses as part of a performance by the Chinese air force’s “August 1st” aerobatic group at the country’s premier air show.
The two are among five female fighter pilots flying for the team named for the date of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army and are the first women to join the group.
“Female pilots have learned to fly cutting-edge fighter jets in the Chinese air force,” Wang Yan’an, deputy editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, said last month.
“It means the air force has diversified its pilot pool and can recruit more female pilots,” he said.
The five women all have more than 750 hours of flying time in four types of aircraft.
Chinese defense companies and the People’s Liberation Army’s air force is putting the latest weaponry on parade at the Zhuhai air show this week, including the new J-31 stealth fighter and its biggest military transport plane.
At the last show in 2012, exhibitors displayed only a model of the next-generation J-31 fighter.
The Chinese group is performing alongside the Russian air force “Knights” aerobatic team flying SU-27 fighters, as well as the United Arab Emirates air force performance team.
A Russian SU-35 fighter, also on display at the show, has drawn admiring crowds eager to see the super-maneuverable plane.
But South Korea’s “Black Eagles” cancelled an appearance under pressure from the United States over their sensitive use of the T-50, a supersonic aircraft jointly developed by Korea Aerospace Industries and US defense firm Lockheed Martin.
Instead, organizers have placed a large photo of the T-50 on a board, so visitors can pretend to take the stick in the cut-out and pose for photos.
“It feels good, but it’s not the same as sitting in the real plane,” one said.
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