China’s aerospace industry has experienced too many hardships. What are the sad stories of those who have contributed to the aerospace industry?

Xu Shunshou, the famous Chinese aircraft designer, passed away on January 6, 1968.

Xu Shunshou was born on August 21, 1917 in a family of enlightened sports workers in Wuxing County, Zhejiang Province. His father, Xu Yibing, followed Mr. Sun Yat-sen and joined the Tongmenghui in his early years. In 1905, he traveled to Japan to study at Omori Physical Education School. After returning to China, he founded my country's first sports school in Shanghai. On the eve of the Revolution of 1911, he led students from the sports school to attack the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, writing a glorious page for the democratic revolution.

In 1933, Xu Shunshou, who had just turned 16, passed the Mechanical Department of Tsinghua University with excellent results. After graduation, he was assigned to Hangzhou Jianqiao Aircraft Manufacturing Factory as an inspector. On August 13, the Japanese army invaded Shanghai, the Jianqiao Bridge was bombed, and the factory shut down. With the hope of saving the country through aviation, he was admitted to the Mechanical Special Research Class of Central University to study aviation technology. After graduation, he served as an assistant researcher at the Chengdu Aviation Research Institute. He works hard, studies hard, and has made great achievements in the research of flight mechanics. In 1940, he co-wrote the first paper "Aircraft Performance Algorithm", which was published in the first issue of the institute's "Technical Series" and won an award from the institute. In May 1941, Xu Shunshou was sent to the Yining Air Force Training Team, which was aided by the Soviet government, to teach flight mechanics.

In August 1942, he was transferred back to the Translation and Translation Department of the Chengdu Aviation Commission as the Translation Specialist. He participated in the compilation of my country's first "English-Chinese Dictionary of Aeronautical Engineering Terms", which was officially published in 1944. In August of the same year, while on his way to be transferred to the Indian Military Academy of the National Government Air Force in Chongqing, he happened to be recruiting publicly funded interns to study in the United States. He took the exam and was accepted, so he went to Wedel Company in the United States to study plastic parts manufacturing. Half a year later, he became an employee of McDonald Aircraft Company and participated in the design of FD-1 and FD-2 aircraft.

He entered the University of Washington in 1946 and majored in mechanics. After returning to China in August of the same year, he engaged in aerodynamic research and aircraft design at the Second Aircraft Manufacturing Plant of the Nanjing National Government Air Force. He was responsible for the overall design and performance calculation of Zhongyun No. 2 and No. 3 aircraft, and was promoted to the head of the research section. In the spring of 1949, the Nanjing National Government ordered him to prepare to move to Taiwan. With the help of my underground party, Xu Shunshou resolutely moved his family to Peiping (today's Beijing), which had been peacefully liberated.

In May 1949, Xu Shunshou was assigned to work in the Maintenance Department of the Northeast Aviation School. Soon he went south with the People's Liberation Army to investigate the Nanjing National Government Air Force Airport and aviation industry facilities, participate in the airport construction project, and cooperate with the liberation of all China. The Great March. In September of the same year, he was transferred to the deputy team leader of the aircraft group of the newly established Aeronautical Engineering Research Office of the East China Military Region, and participated in the compilation of the "Overview of the Puppet Air Force Aviation Industry", as well as the aircraft manufacturing plant construction plan and air force combat training materials.

Aircraft design is a comprehensive system engineering based on basic science and applied research, and widely adopts modern science and technology. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's aviation industry was extremely weak. There were only a few and very small-scale aircraft and parts repair factories, and there was no in-house design at all. In order to get rid of this backward situation, the country listed the aviation industry as a key construction project in 1953. Premier Zhou Enlai proposed a strategic development policy for the aviation industry of "from repair to imitation, and then to self-design". Under the guidance of this policy, Xu Shunshou adopted the principle of creating and designing at the same time, successfully developed a batch of new aircraft, and trained and trained a large number of technical backbones in practice.

High subsonic fighter aircraft, and based on the initial accumulation of experience in production, use and maintenance. In September 1956, when the Aviation Industry Bureau was studying how China's aircraft design started, Xu Shunshou, based on his years of practical experience in aircraft design research at home and abroad, believed that the propellers and tricycle landing gear commonly used in air force aviation schools at that time The -11 intermediate trainer aircraft can no longer meet the training requirements of jet aircraft. Based on the principle of combining China's needs and possibilities, he drafted an aircraft with performance equivalent to similar foreign aircraft, with a maximum speed of 700 to 800 kilometers per hour, a range of about 1,000 kilometers, and a ceiling of more than 12 kilometers. It adopts all-metal, top-three The overall aerodynamic plan of a subsonic jet trainer with point landing gear, air intakes on both sides, two seats, and swept wings (later named the JJ-I aircraft).

The plan requires that the development of materials and finished products be based in China. After the plan was approved, he immediately established professional settings and staffing as needed, established the aeroelasticity and shape majors, personally presided over the drafting of the design work system, and organized the design office to compile the "Designer's Manual" as a guide for design work. . Together with the other two deputy chief designers, he organized and led a young team with an average age of only 22 years old and most of whom had never been involved in aircraft design to try to design their own aircraft.

In the overall design, in order to break through the limitations of the "MiG" aircraft and prevent China's self-designed aircraft from becoming imitations of the MiG aircraft, he required designers to extensively collect and study various models Aircraft data, compare multiple options, and explore a design path that suits China’s national conditions. In his words, he should "read three hundred Tang poems by heart", but should not be "megalistic".

To this end, he broke through the limitations of the nose air intake of the Soviet aircraft and personally presided over the formulation of the air intake pattern on both sides, which provided a suitable space for the installation of radar and antenna. -5. It laid the foundation for the design of the J-8II aircraft inlet.

The structural type and landing gear design of the JJ-I aircraft were optimized based on the requirements of the overall plan. In order to control quality, he established a strict three-level (proofreader, team leader, and office chief designer) review system. For the overall design of large components, he required a collective review method in which designers report and then defend. These methods not only ensure the design quality of the JJ-I aircraft, but also enable the overall wisdom and level of this young design team to be fully utilized and improved.

In practice, we have summarized a set of our own and effective calculation methods from aircraft performance, control stability to aerodynamic load, and solved the problem of using small wind tunnels to measure the force of the whole aircraft and components. Technical key points such as the hinge torque and the similar model launch test of external animals and animals provide reference for future model design.

It only took 1 year and 9 months from the beginning of the design of the JJ-I aircraft to the successful first flight, and its main technical performance exceeded the original design indicators. Its development speed is also rare in the history of foreign aircraft development.

After August 1957, Xu Shunshou was ordered to organize and lead the overall design of Chujiao-6 and Qiang-5 aircraft. At that time, the JJ-I (Yak-18) primary trainer aircraft commonly used by Air Force aviation schools had a tricycle landing gear, which was no longer suitable for the training requirements of jets with a tricycle landing gear. The fuselage frame of the Chujiao-I is welded by seamless steel pipes, which requires imported materials, and there are many problems with the welding joints. The wings, tail and rear fuselage parts are all made of cloth structure. It is necessary to further improve the performance and improvement of the aircraft. Maintenance performance is difficult; the equipment of the aircraft is also relatively backward. To this end, Xu Shunshou proposed a preliminary trainer aircraft plan with self-designed tricycle landing gear and an all-metal skin structure.

After approval by superiors, under his organization and leadership, the overall demonstration and blowing test were completed in early 1958, and the overall plan was initially determined. In May of the same year, the prototype design of each system was completed and a 1:1 wooden prototype was produced. After the aircraft was handed over to Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, the design office worked with the factory to complete detailed design, trial production and testing, and named it Chujiao-6 aircraft. It successfully made its first flight on August 27, 1958. Afterwards, it was continuously developed and improved by Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Factory. In December 1961, it was approved for finalization, mass production, and equipped with troops. In 1979, it won the National Gold Medal. By 1984, the Chujiao-6 aircraft was not only equipped with a large number of troops, but also exported in batches. The successful self-development of this aircraft marks a new stage in China's aviation industry from repair and imitation to self-design.

Xu Shunshou has unique insights in educating people and employing talents. He believes that engineering design units need to have "conventional experts (experts) and key experts." The former refers to general engineers, who are quick at conventional calculations and analysis and experts in proofing and drawing. In design work, they can "know the way"; the latter refers to experts in key theories and subject research, who have experience in theoretical exploration and application. With profound attainments, you can make final decisions when deciding on a plan. He cultivated talents, adhered to the "optimal training method" and "natural elimination method", and cultivated a large number of outstanding talents for China's aviation industry. When it comes to employing people, he appoints people on their merits. As long as it is beneficial to the national cause, he dares to stick to the truth and speak for scientific and technological personnel. After the "anti-rightist" struggle began in 1957, many technical cadres suffered unfair injustices, some were dismissed from their posts, and some were classified as rightists. As the chief designer of the office, Xu Shunshou was deeply saddened to see the damage to the party's cause.

Xu Shunshou has a strong sense of professionalism and responsibility for the aviation industry of the motherland. He always stands at the height of national interests, speaks out to leaders and serves as a good adviser to leaders. Even if he had different opinions, he would speak out and argue with reason, never following the crowd. Soon after the establishment of the aircraft design office, he followed the principle of combining needs and possibilities and proposed to the country to design preliminary and intermediate trainer aircraft on its own; during the "Great Leap Forward", when he was asked to organize the design of supersonic fighter jets, he started from the practical point of view. set off and bluntly dissuaded him; not long after the Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute of the Aviation Research Institute was established, out of his strong desire to design a supersonic fighter by himself, he jointly signed a letter with Huang Zhiqian and others, proposing that after imitating and studying the MiG-21 aircraft drawings and materials , starting in 1962, there was a proposal to design a fighter with a Mach number of 2.2 or 2.3 using the MiG-21 as the original aircraft. These foresighted suggestions he made at critical moments and on major technologies have all been proven correct by practice.

Xu Shunshou is hard-working, quick-thinking, creative and pioneering. Colleagues commented that he has "clear thinking and meticulous style", "has outstanding talents and the ability to grasp the essentials"; "is technically far-sighted" and "does not engage in red tape and advocates a scientific style that emphasizes practical results" at work. ; He is "very different from some complacent and complacent mediocre people", "He is a person who weaves professional knowledge in various specialized fields into one aircraft model to complete a 'system engineering'".

Character Encyclopedia

Xu Shunshou (1917.8.21 - 1968.1.6), a native of Wuxing County, Zhejiang Province, is a famous Chinese aircraft designer and aviation industry technical expert.

He is a pioneer in China's aircraft design and development and one of the founders of the first aircraft design and research institution. He has trained a large number of scientific and technological talents. He has organized and presided over the design tasks of various military aircraft and solved a number of cutting-edge technologies, making important contributions to the construction and development of China's aviation industry.

In the development process of China's aviation industry, especially the aircraft design industry, Xu Shunshou has a milestone status and contribution. He is a master of aircraft design in New China. The aircraft designers trained under his direct leadership are all in important positions in independent design of aircraft models in our country. The aircraft he presided over, organized and personally designed include: J-1, JJ1 Teaching 6, Qiang 5, J-8, H-6, Yun-7... He is China's Mikoyan, Sukhoi, Tupolev.

Source: Popular Science in China - Collection of Famous Technological Masters