Sunday, August 28, 2011

J-11B on public display.

While announcing two new air demonstration teams to the public, the PLAAF is placing its domestic  J-11B heavy fighter on display for the first time (1st Fighter Regiment, 1st Air Division). This stunt should put doubts about J-11B’s operational status to rest.
Notice the PL-8 AAM



Two PLA Air Force air demonstration teams established

(Source: PLA Daily) 2011-08-26


Team badge of the Sky Wing Air Demonstration Team of the PLA Air Force (Yuan Jian/PLA Daily)

The reporters learned from a press conference on the first collective appearance of three air demonstration teams of the Air Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held on the morning of August 25 that the newly established air demonstration teams of the PLA Air Force, i.e., the Sky Wing Air Demonstration Team and the Red Eagle Air Demonstration Team will stage a joint performance at the Changchun First Aviation Open Day September 1, 2011 in northeast China’s Jilin Province with the August 1st Aerobatics Team established nearly 50 years ago. With the two newly established air demonstration teams, three flying demonstration forces with the August 1st Aerobatics Team as the main body of the PLA Air Force came into being.

The Sky Wing Air Demonstration Team is from the Aviation University of the PLA Air Force, which is the alma mater of “Space Hero” Yang Liwei, while the Red Eagle Air Demonstration Team is from the Third Flight Academy of the PLA Air Force, which is the alma mater of “Space Hero” Zhai Zhigang, and also where China's first batch of women fighter pilots are trained.

Zhao Jingbo, deputy director of the Military Training Department of the PLA Air Force Headquarters, said, “The two newly established academy-based air demonstration teams aims at constructing an international exchange platform for the promotion of open-minded contacts and cooperation in military education, so as to adapt to the changing world.”

The Sky Wing Air Demonstration Team of the PLA Air Force has 16 pilots, all of whom flying instructors with over 2000 hours flying time.

Among the 18 members of the Red Eagle Air Demonstration Team of the PLA Air Force, three are special-class pilots and 15 first-class pilots.

The flying time of the members of the August 1st Aerobatics Team of the PLA Air Force is over 1,000 hours and that of J-10 fighter pilots more than 300 hours.

The demonstration planes used in the three air demonstration teams are all independently developed and constructed in China. The demonstration planes of the Sky Wing Air Demonstration of the PLA Air Force are primary trainer-6 jet trainers, while that of the Red Eagle are advanced trainer-8 jet trainers.

By Shen Jinke and Li Jianwen


The other birds on display












6 comments:

Rick Joe said...

Awkward, the J-11Bs in the pictures are using Al-31s... Only new build J-11Bs are using WS-10s

Steven said...

China has 3 Aerobatic teams now? Isn't that... excessive? The US has 2 (the Blue Angels and Thunder Birds) but one's Navy the other is Air Force. All 3 Chinese Aerobatic teams seem to be PLAAF, now there are 2 jet aerobatic teams and a prop one!

Stephen said...

Actually, the US has three if you consider the Air Force Heritage Flight to be one.

Arnold said...

Anyone notice the use of the North and South American continents on the badge?

TLAM Strike said...

There is also the US Army Golden Knights parachute team.

in addition there are several private aerobatic demonstration teams. There is one that files the L-29 or L-39 trainer/light attack (forget which), another that flies the F-104 Starfighter and another that flies several P/F-51 Mustangs.

Sans Life said...

There is also the Viper West demo team:

http://viperwest.hill.af.mil/