Just as the year 1998 had begun for the author (see here), it also ended: with a highlight, this time in the form of Airshow China in Zhuhai. Once it became known that the world's only MiG-21 (J-7) aerobatic team "1 August" would be seen in public for the first time at the event, the visit was a must. Besides the formation there were of course many other Chinese exhibits to see that were not shown abroad, or only much later.
An imposing sight: the team's J-7Es lined up on the airfield.
Within sight of the public, the ground crew carried out the work on all aircraft simultaneously on command. Orders for engine start ...
... and taxiing are given by flag signals.
The team with its eight aircraft, six of which were in the air at a time, took off in the morning and in the afternoon of each show day for its displays of about 20 minutes ...
... and caused loud enthusiasm among the audience of many thousands.
The end of the display, too, was carried out in precise lockstep.
There were further interesting MiG-21 exhibits on the ground: besides an FT-7 two-seater ...
... a prototype designated F-7MG was shown, which already featured the characteristics of the later production version J/F-7G with the one-piece windscreen.
In the exhibition halls, the Italian Grifo radar, with which the newer variants of the export version F-7 are equipped, ...
... and the Russian Kopyo for the MiG-21-93 could be seen.
Other Chinese exhibits included the Y-8 derived from the An-12 and ...
... the F-8IIM, supposedly an indigenous development, but in its original J-8 version very closely based on the Soviet Ye-152.
The indigenous N5A, which was extensively demonstrated in flight, is to become the future replacement for the An-2, at least in agriculture.
The Z-9 is based on the Aérospatiale (today Airbus) SA 360 Dauphin.
The flying programme also featured the K-8 Karakorum trainer (today Hongdu JL-8), a version of which equipped as a flying simulator with fly-by-wire flight control was shown on the ground under the designation IFSTA.
As part of the Russian export efforts, which were later to prove successful, the Russkiye Vityazi and further Su-27s ...
... were on site with support aircraft of the Il-76 and Il-78 types ...
... and showed, among other things, a simulated air-to-air refuelling.
