Air show China

The International Air Show China takes place bi-annually

International air show China 2012 show took place on 13-18th November 2012. Hosted by the city of Zhuhai in the Guangdong. Located in the Pearl River Delta, Zhuhai borders Jiangmen to the northwest, and Macau to the south. Zhuhai is also one of China’s premier tourist destinations, being called the Chinese Riviera.

OK, to get to the show I took Virgin airlines to Hong Kong £601 return cattle class a 11.5hrs over night flight sleeping for a good part of the journey. After that you catch a ferry to main land China. WARNING on arrival at Hong Kong, DO NOT do immigration and get your bags, look for a desk/ sign that says ferry transfers, present your airline baggage ticket and they go find your bags and get them onto the same ferry. The hydrofoil carries approx 200 pax at 22kts and takes just over 1 hour. So after 24 hrs traveling beginning and ending in the dark i arrive at destination hotel.

The next morning I meet Yves Rossy in the lobby, he’s the Worlds only Jet Man having developed a carbon wing with 4 x 22kgs thrust jet engines giving the ability to loop and swoop like a bird for 10 minuets before pulling his chute to land.

Yves is a trail blazer progressing his design and concept for 10 years now, from wing suits to the 4 engined ridgid wing seen today. The first flight with jet engines was in 2005.

So, its off the Zhuhai international airport a 1 hrs drive from the town. The closer we got the more people we saw walking to the show. The airport has a 4000 meters runway. As with all weather I’ve seen in China the dust haze varies from 1.5 – 3 km, all 5 days of the show were the same which restricted the displays to flat shows by most of the teams.

The Jet team from Pakistan Air Force who bought there JF-17 Thunder fighters to the show. The display was tight and impressive. The JF-17 is a Chinese  light-weight, single-engine, multi-role combat aircraft developed jointly by the Pakistan Air Force, the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and the Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation of China

The PLAAF team flying the Chengdu J-10 put on a busy show with passes over the crowd and really impressive wing tip coloured smoke, not often seen.

Breitling Jet team managed by Nigel Lamb flew twice per day putting on a tight show with variations of formation and opposition passes. Also there was Vic Norman with his stand on Stearman girls. Breitling was the major sponsor of the show and had ample exposure. They are touring Asia for the whole of 2013 going to Avalon Australia, LIMA in Malaysia  and 5 others shows in China before working there way westwards to display in Dubai.