Scott No: 2661-64
Serial number: 1996-9
Values in set: 4
Date of issue: April 17, 1996
Designers: Wang Huming; Liu Lijun
Size: 50*30mm
Perforation: 12
Sheet composition: 40
Printing process: offset

From 1909 when Feng Ru, an overseas Chinese staying in the United States, successfully launched the trial flight of China's first plane, to 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, China did not set up its aviation industry. The world situation and the needs of the national defense prompted the New China to set up its Aviation Industry Bureau on April 17,1951 to make preparation for the plane manufacture industry. The bureau decided to develop the industry by repairing, imitating, remodeling and then independently designing planes.

Up to now, China has manufactured more than 14,000 planes, which fall into 27 varieties and 60 sizes. They include Primary-5, F-5, F-6, F-7, B-5, B-6, T-5, T-7, T-8, T-10, T-11, T-12, F-8, F-8II, H-5, H-8, H-9, Agriculture-5, A-5, China has become one of the world¡¯s largest plane manufacturers. Some planes have been exported to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Peru and other Asian, African and Latin American countries.

Through more than 40 years of efforts, China has established some large-sized State-owned aviation manufacturing enterprises and accessory plants in cities including Harbin, Xi'an, Chengdu, Changhe and Nanchang, and the plane and missile producing industry system has begun to take shape. In recent years, plane manufactures in Shanghai and Xi'an have cooperated with the US aircraft giants Boeing and McDonnell Douglas to produce the whole sets of MD-82, MD-90 planes and components of Boeing-737.

China now boasts of a group of aviation higher institutions, including the Beijing Aeronautics and Astronautics University, Shenyang Aeronautical Engineering Institute, Nanjing Aeronautical Engineering Institute, and Northwest Industrial University, which are capable of providing teaching and science and research facilities for undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates.