China's only university to train carrier-based fighter pilots makes debut

[onebyone]

China's only university to train carrier-based fighter pilots makes debut
SOCIAL
By Wang Lei

2017-05-29 19:07 GMT+8

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Naval Aviation University, China's only educational establishment to train pilots for carrier-based fighters, will start recruiting students among high school graduates nationwide this year, according to Navy Today, the PLA Navy's official magazine.

The official account of Navy Today on WeChat, an instant messaging application, announced on Sunday that the PLA Naval Aviation University would be established after the regrouping of the PLA Naval Aviation Academy and the PLA Naval Aeronautical Engineering Institute in 2017. It was the first time official news about the PLA Naval Aviation University was released.

China conducts taking-off and landing exercises of J-15 fighter jets on the country's first aircraft, the Liaoning on June 19, 2013. /VCG Photo

The PLA Naval Aviation Academy and the PLA Naval Aeronautical Engineering Institute were both founded in 1950, with the former as the only Chinese college to train pilots for carrier-based fighters.

The new PLA Naval Aviation University "will cultivate more and better military talent of the new type" for naval air force and coastal defense force, the report said.

The university will be located in Yantai in east China's Shandong Province with a campus and a training base in Shandong's Qingdao, as well as training bases in Huludao in northeast China's Liaoning Province, Changzhi in north China's Shanxi Province and Qinhuangdao in north China's Hebei Province.

China's second aircraft carrier is transferred from dry dock into the water at a ceremony in Dalian shipyard of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province on April 26, 2017. /Xinhua Photo

China debuted its first domestically built aircraft carrier on April 26, which was the country's second aircraft carrier after the Liaoning, a refitted Soviet Union-made carrier put into commission in the PLA Navy in 2012.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d517a4e3241444e/share_p.html

 

[Beast]

I thought only elite PLAAF pilot has the chance to join the carrier pilot wing? Not pick from potential high school student?

Just like space Taikonauts. They are picked from experience fighter pilots.

 

[Makarena]

I thought only elite PLAAF pilot has the chance to join the carrier pilot wing? Not pick from potential high school student?

Just like space Taikonauts. They are picked from experience fighter pilots.

u can't expect PLAAF to keep sending its cream of the crops to PLANAF now can u?

 

[Beast]

u can't expect PLAAF to keep sending its cream of the crops to PLANAF now can u?

Why not? Carrier landing is one of the most dangerous and difficult task in flying.

Same like astronaut who will not take a rookie pilot. They are all experience pilot before convert to spaceman.

 

[gambit]

I thought only elite PLAAF pilot has the chance to join the carrier pilot wing? Not pick from potential high school student?

Pay attention. Read what I post carefully...

If the PLA is modernizing, which it is, and if it is patterning itself after the US military, which it is, then recruiting high school graduates is not for pilot slots but for the many aircraft carrier duties.

The PLAN is entering new territories, and am including the current Liaoning. What the Liaoning is doing is to prove that China can be a projection force sea power. Now that idea is proven, the really hard work of creating that projection force begins. With naval aviation, you do not start off with the pilots but with QUESTION on whether you can support those pilots. Once that question is settled, then you can begin recruiting landlocked pilots for sea duty.

How many deck hands does it take to launch one pilot off the deck of an aircraft carrier ? That is your homework assignment.

China can take the route of creating a common military aviation program that focuses on basic flight training, then once a candidate became a pilot, he/she can select which type of aviation -- PLAAF or PLAN -- as a career choice. Naval aviation have different needs than air force aviation so this idea will require serious study before implementation. Then as the PLAN's carrier aviation matures, the PLA can spin off that common pilot training program into a separate naval aviation training program runs by the PLAN.

 

[Makarena]

Why not? Carrier landing is one of the most dangerous and difficult task in flying.

Same like astronaut who will not take a rookie pilot. They are all experience pilot before convert to spaceman.

this isn't like astronaut program where you only need to send few pilots. PLANAF will need hundreds of pilots for future carriers, do you think PLAAF will be happy to train its top guns only to send them to join other branch? besides like gambit said, there are different needs too.