28 FLYPAST June 2018
MUSEUMS BEIJING
I visited in mid-August – the
weather was humid and hot. Given
the hours of walking required for a
thorough tour, I would recommend
making the trip during the milder
months of March to May or
September through to November.
‘Buried’ treasure
Dominating the site is a U-shaped
underground bunker that was
designed to hold up to 40 combat
jets, and to accommodate their
pilots, groundcrew and support
equipment. The taxi-way outside
could also serve as a runway.
Now known as the Cavern
Exhibition Hall, it features
educational displays,
engines, weapons and
scale models.
Also here are64 airframes, including a replica
of the Feng Ru No.2 of 1910, taking
its name from the first Chinese
aircraft designer. A bizarre exhibit is
a full-scale mock-up of a McDonnell
Douglas AH-64 Apache attack
helicopter, built by a PLAAF colonel
in his spare time.
Lining the walls of the long, curving
tunnel are aircraft from around
the world, exchanged for ‘spare’
examples within the China Aviation
Museum’s reserve collection:
for example, a Lockheed F-104S
Starfighter from Italy and a Percival
Provost T.52 from Zimbabwe.
Among many jets from the
1950s are some
raretreasures, perhaps the most
significant being a Japanese
Tachikawa Ki-36 Ida army
co-operation type used in the
Second Sino-Japanese War that
raged from 1937 through to 1945.
Soviet-supplied World War Two
types are represented by a pair of
Lavochkins, an La-9 Fritz and an
La-11 Fa n g. There is a de Havilland
Mosquito, but this is believed to be
a replica, a North American P-51D
Mustang and a Stinson L-5 Sentinel.
Much to my disappointment, the
entire undercover area had been
closed in July 2017 so although
I was tantalisingly close to these
machines, they remained
out of sight. LikeDatangshan features several rows of jet
fi ghters. This one is headed by a Shenyang J-8.
The airborne early warning KJ-1 is one of two
heavily modifi ed Tu-4s on show.