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In Shanghai, China Marks 100-Year Anniversary of First Powered Flight - China Real Time Report - WSJ
In aviation, China may well be the future, judging from global aircraft makers eagerness to sell here and simultaneous discomfort with Beijings plans to develop domestic planes.
But for one group of enthusiasts, now is the moment to consider aviation history: Chinas first powered flight, which happened 100 years ago this week in Shanghai.
On Feb. 21, 1911, Frenchman René Vallon took off from a racecourse and flew a Sommer Biplane above Shanghai to mark the birth of flight and aerospace marketing in China.
Reporting on the show, the North China News, one of the citys top English-language newspapers at the time, said the Sommers 50 horsepower engine cackled like a maxim gun and that the 12-meter-long crafts 10-minute flight over north Shanghais Jiangwan Stadium included a figure-8 maneuver. Mr. Vallon negotiated it with consummate skill before he worked the two control levers and brought it down lightly like a fastidious butterfly approaching a flower, the account said.
Mr. Vallons muscular flying wasnt mere entertainment. Like so many Boeing and Airbus executives today, he had come to China to sell planes.
The event was commemorated Monday evening by Aerospace Forum Asia and Odyssey Publications in the Peninsula Shanghai hotels Rosamonde Aviation Lounge with a plaque unveiling. The lounge, complete with the fuselage of a full-scale model of a green 1930 Loening Amphibian seaplane, is named for the English moniker of Sun Yat-sens second wife, and trained pilot, Soong Ching-ling.
The event included a visit to the (unused) hotel helipad, which offered unparallel views of the Bund and an opportunity for the invited aviation executives to muse about when the rich city might crack open its airspace to private helicopters.
Mr. Vallons heroics were short lived. The 31-year-olds crash in May 1911 during another air show reportedly happened so quickly that thousands of spectators at Jiangwan Stadium, including Mr. Vallons wife, had barely stopped applauding his skill when the machine began to descend head first in a graceful tragic curve, according to a newspaper account at the time. (He thus earned the distinction of being not only the first to fly, but also to crash and die, in an airplane in China.)
Flight had come relatively late to China; the Wright Brothers hoisted their controlled glider in 1903 and the first powered airplane journey was in New York in 1908.
A month or so after Mr. Vallons flight, flying debuted in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. (The planes were transported by boat.) A Russian flew first in several other Chinese provinces in 1912, according to Hong Kong Historical Aircraft Association, including over Beijings Forbidden City a milestone Aerospace Forum Asia hopes to commemorate next year.
Chinas first aviator, Feng Ru (aka Joe Fung), was a contemporary of Frances Mr. Vallon but actually did most of his flying in the U.S. He died in a 1912 crash in Guangzhou shortly after returning to China. Like Mr. Vallon, he was trying to land airplane sales.
Shanghai is now positioning itself as a global transport hub and is the manufacturing home for Comac, the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, which sent a representative to Mondays event. Comacs much anticipated C919 is slated to be the countrys first commercial aircraft. The Peoples Daily says it will be on the market in 2016 to compete with Boeing and Airbus, which have their own big ambitions in China.
In November at the Zhuhai air show, a model of Chinas ARJ-21 regional jet flew a test flight and reports say the first orders will be taken this year for a plane meant to compete with Brazils Embraer and Canadas Bombardier.
Foreign companies are suppliers for the guts of the C919, but Beijings lopsided approach to technology sharing has discomforted the international industry. Anxiety about Chinas modest achievement in January in flying a stealth-shaped aircraft is another story.
After Mr. Vallons crash, the North Daily News reported Chinas government had abandoned plans to buy Sommer Biplanes.
Mr. Vallon, known as Huan Long (环龙
in Chinese, is mostly forgotten in Shanghai: A winding road through the former French Concession, once known as Rue Vallon, is now called Nanchang Lu, while a stone dedication was removed from Fuxing Park in 1950.
Just over a year after Mr. Vallons flight of obvious amazement and excitement, as a newspaper said, Li Ruyan became the first Chinese to fly in China. Within 12 years, China could claim the first airplane designed and built in the country (with the help of three Americans contracted to work with the Chinese government, according to documents in the Rosamonde lounge) a small yellow bilpane aptly called China Airplane No. 1 and packing twice the horsepower of the Sommer Biplane.
In aviation, China may well be the future, judging from global aircraft makers eagerness to sell here and simultaneous discomfort with Beijings plans to develop domestic planes.
But for one group of enthusiasts, now is the moment to consider aviation history: Chinas first powered flight, which happened 100 years ago this week in Shanghai.
On Feb. 21, 1911, Frenchman René Vallon took off from a racecourse and flew a Sommer Biplane above Shanghai to mark the birth of flight and aerospace marketing in China.
Reporting on the show, the North China News, one of the citys top English-language newspapers at the time, said the Sommers 50 horsepower engine cackled like a maxim gun and that the 12-meter-long crafts 10-minute flight over north Shanghais Jiangwan Stadium included a figure-8 maneuver. Mr. Vallon negotiated it with consummate skill before he worked the two control levers and brought it down lightly like a fastidious butterfly approaching a flower, the account said.
Mr. Vallons muscular flying wasnt mere entertainment. Like so many Boeing and Airbus executives today, he had come to China to sell planes.
The event was commemorated Monday evening by Aerospace Forum Asia and Odyssey Publications in the Peninsula Shanghai hotels Rosamonde Aviation Lounge with a plaque unveiling. The lounge, complete with the fuselage of a full-scale model of a green 1930 Loening Amphibian seaplane, is named for the English moniker of Sun Yat-sens second wife, and trained pilot, Soong Ching-ling.
The event included a visit to the (unused) hotel helipad, which offered unparallel views of the Bund and an opportunity for the invited aviation executives to muse about when the rich city might crack open its airspace to private helicopters.
Mr. Vallons heroics were short lived. The 31-year-olds crash in May 1911 during another air show reportedly happened so quickly that thousands of spectators at Jiangwan Stadium, including Mr. Vallons wife, had barely stopped applauding his skill when the machine began to descend head first in a graceful tragic curve, according to a newspaper account at the time. (He thus earned the distinction of being not only the first to fly, but also to crash and die, in an airplane in China.)
Flight had come relatively late to China; the Wright Brothers hoisted their controlled glider in 1903 and the first powered airplane journey was in New York in 1908.
A month or so after Mr. Vallons flight, flying debuted in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. (The planes were transported by boat.) A Russian flew first in several other Chinese provinces in 1912, according to Hong Kong Historical Aircraft Association, including over Beijings Forbidden City a milestone Aerospace Forum Asia hopes to commemorate next year.
Chinas first aviator, Feng Ru (aka Joe Fung), was a contemporary of Frances Mr. Vallon but actually did most of his flying in the U.S. He died in a 1912 crash in Guangzhou shortly after returning to China. Like Mr. Vallon, he was trying to land airplane sales.
Shanghai is now positioning itself as a global transport hub and is the manufacturing home for Comac, the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, which sent a representative to Mondays event. Comacs much anticipated C919 is slated to be the countrys first commercial aircraft. The Peoples Daily says it will be on the market in 2016 to compete with Boeing and Airbus, which have their own big ambitions in China.
In November at the Zhuhai air show, a model of Chinas ARJ-21 regional jet flew a test flight and reports say the first orders will be taken this year for a plane meant to compete with Brazils Embraer and Canadas Bombardier.
Foreign companies are suppliers for the guts of the C919, but Beijings lopsided approach to technology sharing has discomforted the international industry. Anxiety about Chinas modest achievement in January in flying a stealth-shaped aircraft is another story.
After Mr. Vallons crash, the North Daily News reported Chinas government had abandoned plans to buy Sommer Biplanes.
Mr. Vallon, known as Huan Long (环龙
in Chinese, is mostly forgotten in Shanghai: A winding road through the former French Concession, once known as Rue Vallon, is now called Nanchang Lu, while a stone dedication was removed from Fuxing Park in 1950.Just over a year after Mr. Vallons flight of obvious amazement and excitement, as a newspaper said, Li Ruyan became the first Chinese to fly in China. Within 12 years, China could claim the first airplane designed and built in the country (with the help of three Americans contracted to work with the Chinese government, according to documents in the Rosamonde lounge) a small yellow bilpane aptly called China Airplane No. 1 and packing twice the horsepower of the Sommer Biplane.
