Song Wencong

Song Wencong

Biography

Song Wencong was a Chinese aeronautical engineer responsible for the creation of the famed J-10 fighter jet. Today, the J-10 holds many independent intellectual property rights for its Chinese developers and manufacturers, and is considered a massive success. Historically the J-10, and thus Song Wencong, have significantly assisted to the development of China's impressive military and will continue to serve as prime contributions to its global dominance.

Song Wencong was born in the town of Dali, Yunnan in the year 1930, a historical time in which he would witness much turmoil and change during his childhood. Entering into World War II, in 1937 during the War of Resistance against Japan seven-year-old Song spent most of his time hiding in air-raid shelters. In an interview, he noted that "at the time, an alarm rang when Chinese aircraft were defeated by the Japanese ones. The Chinese Air Force had no power to resist rivals, which proved an old saying- falling behind will make you take more blows." Moving forward in his life, these events that transpired at an early age will motivate Wencong to develop the J-10 aircraft in order to insure China would have aerial dominance.

After the eight year war with Japan had ended, in July of 1948 just before the Republic of China was founded, Wencong chose to join as a youth member into the Communist Party of China. Leading into 1949, just after the Republic of China was founded, Wencong as a young man felt strong patriotic feelings toward his country, and enlisted into the Yunnan-Guangxi-guzihou border region column of PLA as a scout. Eventually, song joined the Chinese People's Colunterr Army to fight against American-led U.N. forces in the May of 1951 during the Korean War.

Coming back from the Korean War, Wencong waited three years till he entered into the Harbin Institute of Military Engineering in the August of 1954, where he majored in aircraft engines at the Air Force Engineering Department in 1959. After graduation, he was assigned to work in the Shenyang Aircraft Factory as a leader of the general layout group in 1961. Working there for 9 years, in 1970 he eventually began his work in the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute as the director of the general layout and aerodynamic research department, vice director, and then chief designer of the institute.

Within the 1970's, Wencong predominantly spent a majority of his time initiating and organizing research into a short interval canard layout, undertaking a great deal of wind tunnel tests, and calculating analysis and general scheme demonstrations. Following the planning, him and the institute made a great deal of perpetration for the third generation fighter's development .

Leading into the early 1980's, the western powers were striding forward in developing aircraft technology, and in China's circumstances were falling significantly behind in professional and experimental conditions. But Wencong was determined to bring modern superiority to China. In 1986 Wencong established the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute in China's southwestern Sichuan Province, where he officially began to develop the J-10.

Over years of testing design models, wind tunnel test, and researching statistics, Wencong and his team were able to successfully make significant strides in the J-10's development. Thus, in only a year, him and the team had performed over 10,000 wind tunnel tests, and accumulated millions of test data statistics. The data successfully reduced the weight of the plane body by 26 kilograms, setting a world record for fighter weight control.

Eventually, after 10 years of development, the team finally produced the first J-10 for trail. Checking if everything was in check, the plane took its first flight on March 23rd, 1998. It was rumored that on that day, Wencong had begun to cry tears of joy when he saw the J-10 successfully land. Later that day, Wencong also made the decision to change his official birthday to March 23rd, the official day in which it took off.

Following the successful flight of the J-10, Wenchung went on to publish many academic papers regarding the study and development of aerodynamics. From his Development Strategy Study on China's military Aviation Technology in year 2000, he was awarded the first Prize of Science and Technical Progress by the ministry of Aviation Industry. In the year 2000, the state council conferred him the name of "National Advanced Worker." In 2001, he was awarded the "Aviation Golden Prize of Dedication to the Country" by Avic I.

In the year 2003, Wencong was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Eventually on December 29, 2006, the Chinese Air Force had equipped the new-generation J-10 as their primary model; to this day it is believed that the J-10 will continue to assist in the Chinese Air Force to improve its defense capabilities and expedite weapon modernization . Wecong was also honored as one of the top ten people touching China in 2009. But in the March of 2016, at the age of 85 at the 301 Military Hospital in Beijing, Song Wencong passed away at the age of 85.

Despite recently passing away, Wencong can historically be seen as a fundamental contribution to the development of modern day China. The development of the J-10 not only heavily impacted China's military dominance as a nation, but also was fundamental to the growth of modern aeronautic studies. His story is one to be remembered, and cherished, by China and the engineering community.