Google – AFP, Tom Hancock (AFP), 1 Aug 2013
 |
Wang Qiang
flies his home-made plane during the Air Nadaam festival in
Hexigten, Inner
Mongolia on July 28, 2013 (AFP/File, Mark Ralston)
|
HEXIGTEN,
China — Buzzing like an oversized electric razor, hairdresser Wang Qiang's
home-made airplane skids over grassland before soaring into a vast blue sky, in
a rare flight allowed by Chinese authorities.
Wang spends
his days trimming and shaping at a hair salon in eastern China's Zhejiang
province, and his evenings working on the rickety one-seater craft.
He is one
of a tiny -- estimates say their numbers stand at around 2,000 -- but growing
number of Chinese private aircraft owners who are grouping together to challenge
restrictions which ban them from almost all the country's airspace.
Wang's
machine -- with a stainless steel frame, wheels from a motorised wheelchair,
and a seat scavenged from a go-kart -- took eight months to build and cost
30,000 yuan ($5,000).
It can
reach altitudes of 3,500 metres and speeds of 90 kilometres an hour (56 mph),
he says.
 |
Wang Qiang
stands beside his home-made
plane at the Air Nadaam festival in Hexigten,
Inner
Mongolia on July 28, 2013 (AFP/File,
Mark Ralston)
|
"We
want the government... to give us more room to enjoy the skies, and enjoy
flying," he said. "If ordinary people, even vegetable-cutting
housewives can fly, that would be best."
Around 20
private planes, microlights and motorised paragliders took to the air in a
valley in Hexigten Banner, in China's remote Inner Mongolia region at the
weekend, in the country's first festival of its kind after organisers obtained
special permission from the authorities.
The
gathering was inspired by the "fly-ins" of the US, which can see
thousands of aviators converge on a single location -- but the private flying
restrictions meant enthusiasts had to reach the festival overland.
Plans for
an earlier gathering in Beijing in 2011 were cancelled by officials citing
safety concerns.
"We
are very far behind the US," said organiser Zhang Feng, of China's
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. "We want to use this event to
promote the opening up of China's airspace."
Ding Lin, a
retired Chinese air force pilot who owns a two-seater plane made in France,
added: "We are trying to push towards freedom of flight.
"In 10
years you will come back and the whole sky will be full of planes," he
said, before wiping down his plane's shining red propeller.
But such
aspirations face formidable opposition. China's military controls nearly all of
the country's airspace, and despite promises of reform has only opened a few
areas to private flights. "You can barely fly anywhere... some people have
travelled here because they don't have the opportunity to fly anywhere
else," said Zhang.
In the
shadow of green hillsides dotted with Mongolian yurts, the aviators lamented
that flight is a symbol of liberty, but one only open to those well-connected
enough to strike deals with local authorities, or wealthy enough to afford
fines of up to 100,000 yuan for taking to the air illegally, a practice known
as "black flying".
"Often
there is no alternative to black flights," said Zhang, adding: "If
you have to report flights in advance, you lose the sense of freedom."
Most
private Chinese pilots are wealthy, given the costs of training and licences --
up to 200,000 yuan, visitors to the festival said -- but there are signs of an
emerging interest in flight among China's army of backyard DIY inventors and
tinkerers.
"Flying
is a beautiful thing," said Shu Bin, a mechanic from Zhejiang who soars
over hills and rivers near his home in a self-built helicopter.
 |
Shu Bin, a
machine repairer from Zhejiang
province, is seated in his home-made
helicopter in Hexigten on July 28, 2013
(AFP/File, Mark Ralston)
|
He took
design ideas from foreign websites, he said. "I downloaded pictures and
looked at them again and again."
The amateur
builders' experiments come at a time when China is pouring billions into its
domestic aircraft industry in the hope of creating firms capable of competing
with Western rivals such as Boeing and Airbus.
But Wang's
flimsy-looking craft is more reminiscent of the biplanes flown by Feng Ru, an
immigrant to the US who in 1909 became the first Chinese person to build a
plane, using designs by the Wright brothers.
Feng met an
untimely demise in 1912, when he crashed during a display after returning to
China at the invitation of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen.
Wang has
had near-misses of his own, his engine cutting out several times in mid-air,
forcing him to glide down to earth.
"I
told myself: there's no time to panic, just land!" he said of one
near-death experience, adding cheerfully: "I once performed an emergency
landing in a lake."
No comments:
Post a Comment