China Air Museum
ex-CATC Convair CV-240 XT-610
Road That Traverses 1,000 Years Super Natural Flight What are the difficulties involving in flying to Tibet? The answer: air routes that challenge pilot skills, airports that are hard to land on and takeoff, and a changeable climate hard to forecast. Forbidden Air Zone Tibet, in southwestern China, covers an area of 1.2284 million square km, and is widely known as the “ roof of the world ”. With an average elevation of some 4,000 meters, it has 11 peaks each towering at least 8,000 meters above sea level, and some 50 others over 7,000 meters. CAAC Southwest Airlines provides service on most of the air routes to Tibet. They include the Chengdu-Lhasa, Chengdu-Bamda, Lhasa-Bamda, Lhasa-Deqen and Lhasa-Kathmandu routes. The Chengdu-Lhasa route, for example, involves a distance of 1,300km. Within 10 minutes of taking off from Chengdu, pilots face peaks with an average elevation of 5,364 meters. On the Bamda-Lhasa air route there are peaks with an average height 6,692 meters some 265 km from the former city, followed by mountains averaging 6,870 meters. On the Lhasa-Kathmandu air route, the mountain summits range from 6,000-8,000 meters, and the air route lies close to Qomolangma (8,848 meters). The test pilot for a foreign aircraft manufacturer once said after a test flight to Bamda: “I wouldn't fly to this kind of place even if they paid me US$1,000 an hour.” Hard takeoffs and landings. In Tibet, it is very hard to settle on the location of the airports. The condition of takeoff and landing as well as clearance in Lhasa Gonggar Airport, Qamdo Bamda Airport, and Deqen Zhongdian Airport is very bad. Gonggar Airport lies beside the Yarlung Zangbo River, and there mountains on both sides of the river. Surrounding the airport, within a radius of 30 km there are peaks with up to 5,362 meters, rising to 6,126 meters within 60 km. In the region of Bamda Airport, there are continuous peaks and sheer gullies. On the western side of the airport are eight great gullies, and the highest peak has an elevation of 5,950 meters. Surrounding Deqen Airport, within 50 km there are peaks with an elevation up to 4,738 meters. Because of these factors, it is very hard for pilots to takeoff and land, and go-around if they have to abort a landing. Pilots must be very familiar with the terrain, and extremely proficient in flight procedures and use of the available technology. Weather is perplexing and changeable. Along the air routes, the weather is perplexing and changeable throughout the year. In winter and spring, upper air currents can reach 300 km/h. Encountering serious wind shear, people can even be thrown out of their seats because of the violent jolting. Wind haunts Lhasa Gonggar Airport in winter and spring, and it causes quite severe jolting as planes land. Sand and dust greatly reduce visibility. In Bamda Airport, from April to October every year, the weather is very changeable, and it will even snow and hail, again making navigation and aircraft handling a great challenge. Penetrating the Air Forbidden Zone In the mid-1950s, soon after the founding of New China, leaders in Tibet proposed to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council many times that an airport should be built in Lhasa and this won Central Government approval. In early 1956 the PLA Air Force, the Tibet Military Area and the Lanzhou Military Area made associated efforts to open up an air route to Tibet. They spent three months in Tibet constructing Damxung Airport, the highest in the world, on the eastern side of Tanggula Mountain at an elevation of 4,300 meters. In the same month, after three different PLA aircrews in an IL-12 had successfully landed at Damxung, a crew headed by Pan Guoding, in a CV-240 aircraft with the insignia of “Beijing” personally inscribed by Chairman Mao, flew from Guanghan? in Sichuan to Damxung Airport, thus proving the feasibility of a civil air route from Chengdu to Lhasa. However, it was another four years before this route was really opened for civil passengers. In October 1959, Zhang Rui'ai, then Deputy Director of the Beijing Administrative Bureau, was given the task of overseeing a test flight to Lhasa by the new IL-18. At that time, this plane had not been put into formal operation; was it fit for the special environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau? How much of the runway would it need to take off? If something was wrong with one engine during takeoff, could it fly safely on the other three? Would people be able to bear the drastic changes in air pressure over the plateau? After consulting with the Ministry of Aviation of the former Soviet Union, they got the answer: “We have never flown at such a height, so we cannot be responsible for it.” After consulting the IL-18 airplane operating manual, they got the answer: “When this aircraft was designed, we did not consider a flight at 4,300 meters.” While many thought New China's pilots could not complete the flight to Tibet, the Chinese pilots said: “If we fail in the test flight, we will return to Beijing on the back of donkeys.” On April 19 1960, Civil Aviation Bureau issued formal instructions for the flight to Lhasa. Zhang Rui'ai was in overall control, and the aircrew included crew commander Sun Quangui, pilot Wang Min and Bi Chunfang, and some stewards. The aircrew conducted test flights successively from Beijing Airport, at an elevation of some 30 meters, Kunming Wujiaba Airport at 1,895 meters, and Qinghai Golmud Airport at 2,540 meters. Damxung Airport lay 180 km northeast of Lhasa; at an elevation of 4,300 meters, it is located in a valley 50 km long and 20 km wide. The runway extends from east to west, and is 40 meters wide and some 4,000 meters long. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the mountains on the flanks rise to over 6,000 meters above sea level. At the eastern end of the runway is Chokexi mountain pass at a height of 5,090 meters and some 4,000 meters wide; aircraft could only land from east to west by passing through this mountain pass; takeoffs also had to be in this direction so that it was impossible to abort a landing and undertake a go-around! To ensure the successful formal opening of the air route, the aircrew conducted test flights five times before the formal opening. On May 31, 1960, an IL-18 flew from Beijing Capital Airport to Golmud. The following day, it was sunny. Zhang Rui'ai, Sun Quangui, Wang Min, Bi Chunfang and other crew members conducted their first test flight and completed a safe landing at Damxung Airport. But they did not get off and continued with the test. In the thin plateau air, the aircraft roared down the runway, becoming airborne at 2,600 meters down the runway and flew safely over the Chokexi Valley at a height of 6,000 meters. Soon afterwards, the same crew completed four more test flights from both south and north. The northern line involved flying from Golmud to Damxung via the Tutu River, and the southern route was hat direct from Chengdu to Damxung. Only on two occasions, did the crew stay at Damxung to test the plane and also themselves. All of them suffered some sort of reaction to the high altitude. In particular, there were problems starting the plane's engine again after an overnight stay. On one occasion, more than 10 abortive attempts were made to start the engine. At last, they developed the technique of starting one engine and then using the gliding speed of the plane to get the others started. First Civil Aviation Passengers On June 16 1960 the air route to Lhasa was opened formally. On June 15, airplane No. 206 flew to Golmud Airport first. The next day, it flew on to Lhasa. Looking around, we could see blue sky and white clouds, and there were white snow peaks stretching to the horizon under our feet. The borderline between snow and cloud was indistinct. Snow peaks showed a crystal-like charming color in the sunshine. Bayankela Mountains swept past the wings, and the plane entered the heartland of the Nyangqentanggula Mountain. The land was all covered with snow, and the surrounding was silver color like in a dream. The plane kept to a height of some 8,000 meters above sea level and flew between the mountains on the plateau. Zhang Rui'ai said that when flying over the snow-covered mountains, “you just feel the peaks passing by under your feet. Looking down, you see the Nyangqentanggula Mountain below and the Chokexi mountain pass looms before you. At Nyangqentanggula Mountain, the airplane turned south and descended slowly. At a height of 7,500 meters, the airplane seemed to fly neck and neck with the jagged mountain tops; at a height of 6,000 meters, the plane was in the valley, and the peaks seemed to rush past each side. When the airplane entered the Chokexi mountain pass, it had reached the height of 5,500 meters. Zhang Rui'ai and his crews adjusted the speed, calculated the glide and performed a perfect landing. It was one of the great pioneering flights in world aviation history. On June 18th, the crew returned. After taking off, the airplane circled over Lhasa where residents rushed into the streets to wave their hands. The plane then flew to Golmud. On the 19th, it flew back to Lhasa to pick up members of the China Mountaineering Team who had just succeeded in climbing Qomolangma and bring them back to Beijing. They became the first group of returning passengers after Lhasa was opened to air navigation. |