Air show set to celebrate flight anniversary in Shanghai

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 13, 2003

Air show set to celebrate flight anniversary in Shanghai

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China's Air Force will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight with an air show and parachuting performance over Chongming Island in Shanghai on October 21, assuming the weather cooperates.

The performance is one of five shows the team will put on to mark the anniversary, with other shows slated for Tianjin, Nanjing, Chongqing and Beijing.

The Shanghai's commemoration event will feature 30 minute of acrobatic flying followed by the parachute performance, organizers said.

Six pilots will perform 21 stunts in China's self-made F-7 EB Fighters. Among them, 14 tricks require the cooperation of more than two aircraft.

The team will fly in diamond and tower formations with the planes only five meters away from each other.

Lu bin, 36, will help perform the most thrilling trick, which involves two planes flying straight at each other before passing just a few meters away from each other.

"I will fly the No 5 fighter head-on at the No 3 fighter," Lu said. "The relative speed of the two planes will reach 1,300 kilometers per hour, so I dare not wink at the moment."

Established in 1962 originally to escort and perform for foreign VIPs visiting the country, the acrobatics team named Ba Yi - which means August 1, China's Army Day - belongs to the Air Force and has put on 303 performances over the years.

After the acrobatics, 28 parachutists from the Ba Yi parachute team will jump from 1,200 to 1,800 meters.

In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully flew their self-made aircraft 120 feet on the sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

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