General aviation hub reaches for the sky

The Redbull Aerobatic Team in the air during the Third Shenyang Faku International Flight Show in Liaoning province in August. ZHU XINGXIN / CHINA DAILY

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Until three years ago, only a few businesspeople involved in the dairy industry or the production of ceramic products had ever heard of Faku.

However since 2012, the county, in Liaoning province in northeastern China, has gained national renown as a hub for "general aviation", a term that encompasses all flights other than those operated by commercial airlines and the military, such as private aircraft, police aviation and air-charter services.

The local government has placed special emphasis on developing related industries, treating them as a pillar of the local economy, and setting an ambitious long-term target to manufacture at least 5,000 aircraft annually.

In August, the county hosted the Third Shenyang Faku International Flight Show - the largest air show in northern China. The five-day event attracted more than 80 aviation-related enterprises and several aerobatic display teams from China and overseas.

"In the past three years, we have made a huge investment in the general aviation sector, and we won't be satisfied until Faku becomes China's 'light air capital'," said Li Wenjie, deputy director of the Faku General Aviation Industrial Park management committee.

Established in 2010, the industrial park, which has a planned area of 68 square kilometers, has worked to attract enterprises involved in aircraft research and development, production of components, maintenance, personnel training, and flight tourism. China's air traffic control authorities have approved the park as the country's first pilot station for low-altitude aviation services, he added.

The county is also home to a small airport, the first in northeastern China dedicated solely to general aviation.

Pioneers

"We are definitely one of the few pioneers among local governments to have anticipated the growth of the general aviation sector and to have actively embarked on making that a reality," Li said. "We've been able to reap the rewards while many others are still making plans."

At the August air show, six businesses signed investment agreements with the industrial park. The projects include an amphibious aircraft manufacturing base and a plant to produce light aircraft, and will embrace the entire industry value chain, from development, production, marketing and selling, maintenance and training of personnel, Li said, adding that 37 light aircraft were sold at the show.

Feng Shouquan, the Party chief of Faku who initiated the general aviation project in 2009, said the county plans to reach an annual output of 1,000 aircraft within five years, generating goods valued at 30 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) across related industries every year.

"The industrial park currently has an 800-meter-long runway, and the county government has decided that two 1,800-meter-long runways will be built once those new projects become operational and start producing aircraft," he said.

Recalling the development path of Faku's aircraft industry, Feng said the sector could enjoy rapid growth because of the close proximity to Shenyang, the provincial capital, which is home to a number of aviation institutes and enterprises, and the county's high entry thresholds for businesses and investment.

Feng said once Faku secured the support of the air force and the civil aviation authorities, the local government began to contact "first class" general aviation enterprises to persuade them to invest in the industrial park.

"We made up our mind that we must attract the best players in the field to come here, and they should bring their best products," he said, adding that the county government believes that the park's success must be achieved through "internationalization" and "compliance with market rules".

Pointing to the rows of factories, he proudly announced, "Those facilities belong to companies from the United States, Russia, Italy, and Australia".

Privately owned Chinese businesses are also being encouraged to invest in the park, and the local authorities will help them tap into the market, according to Feng.

"We are determined to transform Faku into the Chinese version of Wichita," he said, referring to the largest city in the US state of Kansas, often called the "air capital of the world" and home to five major aviation companies, including Cessna Aircraft Co, Hawker Beechcraft Corp, and Spirit AeroSystems Inc.

Nationwide boom

As a result of Faku's efforts, Shenyang Aerospace University, one of the nation's leading aviation institutes, has established a number of research and manufacturing facilities in the industrial park.

Yang Fengtian, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the university, said the two-seater RX1E, China's first electric aircraft, will be made in Faku, although no production schedule has yet been released. With a maximum takeoff weight of 480 kilograms and a cruising speed of up to 150 kilometers per hour, the plane can fly for 40 minutes based on a 90-minute charging of each battery.

Easy to maintain, with low operating costs, and eco-friendly, the RX1E is likely to attract huge demand and serve a wide range of purposes, such as police patrols, pilot training, entertainment, and survey mapping services, Yang added.

Feng said Faku will spare no effort to boost research and development of advanced, eco-friendly general aviation aircraft such as the RX1E, and pointed out that construction has started for a 1.2-billion-yuan research and development project by Hebei Soar Aircraft Co.

That investment may appear a huge sum to Feng, but to Lin Zuoming, chairman of the Aviation Industry Corp of China, also known as AVIC, the nation's leading aircraft maker, general aviation-related business means hundreds of billions of yuan, and AVIC has announced that it will establish 50 airparks across China.

The first, in Jingmen, Hubei province, will require investment of almost 10 billion yuan and is projected to take shape before 2019, according to the company inBeijing.

The park will feature aircraft sales services, pilot training schools, aeronautical service facilities, fliers' clubs, and aviation museums.

AVIC plans to make the parks multifunctional platforms that will serve private pilots, boost aviation businesses, disseminate aeronautical knowledge and culture, and promote creative economy in the aircraft industry, according to Tan Ruisong, AVIC's general manager.

In July, the company signed an agreement with the government of Nantong, Jiangsu province, under which it will support the development of general aviation by relocating some of its related businesses in the city.

The aircraft giant is also negotiating with Guizhou province to build a large general aviation base that will include several industrial parks with an overall investment of about 30 billion yuan, it said.

Lin's expansion in the field can be traced back to 2007 when AVIC founded China's first general aviation industrial park in Shaanxi province. The following year, it joined Guangdong province to establish southern China's largest general aviation complex.

Nationwide, more than 100 general aviation industrial parks are already under construction, or are close to construction work beginning, according to Gao Yuanyang, director of the General Aviation Industry Research Center at Beihang University in Beijing.