Per reporter: Xie Tao Per intern reporter: Shi Puning Per reporter Per editor: Tang Yuan
When Yuan Yuan learned about this aviation museum, it was purely "algorithmic". As the mother of a 5-year-old child, "traveling with a baby" has always been an important part of her daily life, and a review software has become a platform for her to find a place to travel.
Putting aside other factors, from the perspective of ticket prices alone, Yuan Yuan believes that this "parent-child trip" is at least worth the money, "the exhibits are relatively rich, and there are many opportunities for simulation experience." In the museum, Yuan Yuan and his son staged a "tug-of-war" with the child, "We arrived at the museum at 10 o'clock in the morning, let him go after 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and finally we left after 3 o'clock." ”
This museum, called Chengdu Lichao Aviation Museum (hereinafter referred to as "Lichao Aviation Museum"), is located in the Global Center of "Asia's Largest Single Building" and covers an area of 5,000 square meters. The museum was put into trial operation in February 2019 and officially registered in the Chengdu Civil Affairs Bureau in 2020, becoming the first officially registered "private aviation museum" in China with an independent legal entity.
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
On April 3, 2022, the China Association for Science and Technology issued the "Decision on Naming the First Batch of National Science Popularization Education Bases in 2021-2025" (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision"), and among the first batch of 800 science popularization education bases, 14 science popularization education bases from Chengdu, such as Chengdu Lichao Aviation Museum, Chengdu Zoo, Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, and Chengdu Huaxi Insect Museum, were listed.
Behind the "Decision" is the emphasis on popular science education at the national level. In 2022, 20 years after the implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Popularization of Science and Technology, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress conducted the first law enforcement inspection of the law. According to the "Chengdu Lichao Aviation" public account, on April 28, the law enforcement inspection team of the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress and the Chengdu Municipal People's Congress went to the Lichao Aviation Museum to inspect the work.
A major reason for the emphasis on popular science education is that popular science education is closely related to the development of related industries. Taking the United States as an example, its aviation science education includes aviation theme museums, aviation towns, aircraft manufacturers and military bases stationed with various types of aircraft. Popular science education has directly provided or indirectly reserved a large number of talents for the development of the aviation industry.
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
Looking back at the Lichao Aviation Museum, as a private aviation museum with only 3 years of trial operation time, what enlightenment can it bring to us through its development process?
Sort out the complexities
Behind the Lichao Aviation Museum is the Lichao Group, founded in 2006, which started from traditional trade such as plate sales, and entered the business field of drone sales and training after 2014.
On May 9, Yang Peimeng, executive director of the Lichao Aviation Museum, said in a face-to-face interview with reporters that the founder of the museum graduated from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and has had feelings for aviation since childhood. In 2015, the founder went to the United States to inspect the general aviation industry twice, of which the second time was dedicated to the aviation museum, during which he was deeply touched, "Seeing the veterans of World War II in the museum one-on-one to the children about aviation, this is a lossless knowledge transfer." In 2016, the Lichao Aviation Museum began preparations and opened three years later.
As a highly complex high-tech industry, the aviation industry is known as the "flower of modern industry". Therefore, the knowledge involving aviation is mostly complex and professional, and it is enough to sort out the content of aviation development, which is enough to make people feel nerve-wracking. In this regard, the solution of the Lichao Aviation Museum is to take the century-old aviation history of mankind as the main line, supplemented by various types of knowledge related to aviation culture.
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
Familiarity may not be true, even the "familiar faces" in history textbooks, there are also unpopular stories behind them. Yang Peimeng told reporters that although the now recognized inventor of the aircraft is the Wright brothers, but this is only the first person in the sense of "patent", Santos Dumont, a Brazilian who lived in the same period of the Wright brothers, also successfully tested the aircraft he developed in Paris.
Aviation is full of knowledge, and santos Dumont, who is less well-known in history textbooks, has a wonderful collision with fashion. In 1904, Louis Cartier designed and produced wrist-worn watches named after Santos to facilitate the flight of his friend Santos, which is still on sale today.
It is worth noting that soon after the emergence of the aviation industry, there was a Chinese figure. Born in 1884, Feng Ru, the "father of Chinese aviation", followed his uncle to San Francisco to make a living at the age of 12 and gradually became interested in machinery, designing and building two aircraft "Feng Ru No. 1" and "Feng Ru No. 2" in 1909 and 1911, respectively. Yang Peimeng pointed to Feng Ru No. 2, which was hung in the air of the museum and reproduced according to the ratio of 1:1, "This can be called 'the most restored in China'."
Feng Ru No. 2 Image source: Provided by the interviewee
Physical objects bring intuitive experiences
In fact, this is also another major feature of the Lichao Aviation Museum, where the aircraft are generally real machines, some aircraft are even in a seaworthy state, even if they are replica aircraft, they are also made in strict accordance with the original drawings of the process and structure.
The S.E.5a replica hanging in the hall was a legendary aircraft in World War I and the first aircraft in Chinese history to be designed for military purposes – in 1919, Zhao Qian, the Overseer of Henan, ordered two S.E.5As from Handley Peggy through the British Foreign Company. According to the aviation enthusiasts "close the curtains" research, due to the age, there are only two real machines in the world.
When the museum acquired the aircraft, it obtained an unexpected surprise from the materials that accompanied the main body of the aircraft.
According to the data, the aircraft was the daughter of an American man named Brian M. J· Todd enthusiasts, based on 1971 hand-drawn paper, spent a total of 4,058.5 man-hours from 2001 to 2008 to complete the construction, and the aircraft also obtained a chartered airworthiness certificate.
According to records, the plane was then sold to an old Canadian aircraft operator named Peter Meers, who used it to fly for more than a hundred hours. Later, due to the age of the old aircraft maintenance, the aircraft was sold, "We are trying to apply for a domestic airworthiness certificate so that it can fly in the sky of China." Yang Peimeng said.
Flight logs for S.E.5.a Image source: Courtesy of respondents
In addition to aviation history knowledge and aircraft exhibits, the museum is interspersed with various simulators and has a special flight simulation experience area.
Yuan Yuan told reporters that his children and other children are basically circling around the simulator, "as long as they can get started, they are very interested." Some adults will also show strong interest, Yang Peimeng said, "there have been cases where an adult visitor in the museum has complained that a child has used a simulator for too long, and he has not been able to experience it himself." ”
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
In addition to seemingly "conventional" flight simulators, such as the Wright Brothers Aviator 1 simulator, there are also many devices in the museum that demonstrate scientific principles independently developed by the museum, and Yang Peimeng said that the development of some devices is really "forced". She cited the model of the aircraft engine made by the museum using 3D printing technology as an example, one is to greatly reduce the production cost; the other is that the museum can also export this technology to the relevant demand side, "we are also making blood for ourselves."
In fact, in addition to simple science popularization, these technologies can be used as teaching. Yang Peimeng told reporters that an old man who came to visit here once lamented to her that if the teacher could use the aircraft attitude control demonstration device in the museum to intuitively explain when teaching, he would not have studied for a month and did not understand. She went on to say, "We will continue to upgrade these devices, and if we succeed, we can continue to output." ”
Aircraft Attitude Control Demonstration Device Image Source: Courtesy of the interviewee
Let the museum grow on its own
Visitors to the Standing Nest Aviation Museum will more or less stop in front of the display cases filled with high-fidelity aircraft models on both sides.
High-simulation aircraft models originated abroad at the beginning of this century, and have gradually emerged in China in recent years. The model is made of alloy, plastic, rubber and other materials, which are strictly made according to the real machine shrinkage ratio in reality, and even completely correspond to the aircraft registration number, which is strictly distinguished from the general children's toys.
The types in the showcase are very rich in content: the aircraft operated by KLM royal air lines in its century-old history, the characteristics of the era of the world's largest airline, American Airlines, since its founding in 1930, the changes in the British Airways logo...
The 1,657 high-fidelity aircraft models in these cabinets, all at a scale of 1:400, all from a collector based in Xichang.
The history of the collection interprets the "growth" in Yang Peimeng's mouth. According to reports, this collector has been interested in aviation since childhood, and one of his childhood hobbies was to go to Xichang Qingshan Airport to see planes. Growing up, he worked in the local area, and in his spare time he was keen to collect high-fidelity aircraft models, "every plane he built a file, the file size in the computer has more than 10 gigabytes." "As the collection grew, the not-so-spacious housing was gradually filled up," he said, adding that his own showcase, which could only display hundreds of model airplanes at a time, had to be changed every three months. ”
One fact is that if it were not for the news of the establishment of the Lichao Aviation Museum, these high-fidelity aircraft models may have been scattered on a second-hand goods trading platform. Yang Peimeng told reporters that due to the troubles caused by the large amount of collection, the collector had planned to package it and sell it to the museum at one time. Later, after negotiations between the two sides, the museum rented its exhibits, "and the collector later decided that when the cost of the lease reached the original price he had purchased the models, he would donate them all to the museum." ”
High-fidelity aircraft models exhibited in the museum Image source: Courtesy of respondents
Yang Peimeng still recalls the scene when the 1657 high-fidelity aircraft models first came to the museum: the models with collection boxes filled the room, the team took two months to sort it out, and at the last moment, it almost stayed up for two all-nighters. After the exhibition was arranged, the collector said silently: "It turns out that all the models on display are like this." ”
Remembering, there will be echoes, these poured efforts, for different audiences have different touches, Yuan Yuan and his party is no exception. After Yuan Yuan's son returned home, he sorted out the high-fidelity airplane model from the toy pile and placed it in the display cabinet next to the tv set in the living room, just like the 1657 models.
In fact, there's more to the story about the audience.
Some saw the first plane in their lives here; some saw the plane they had just piloted and landed at Shuangliu Airport the day before... One spectator even stopped here for 5 hours, anonymously donating a model that was not in the display case the next day.
A similar situation occurred on the porcelain house of KLM royal dutch airlines in the museum's collection. As the oldest airline still operating under its original name, the Lichao Aviation Museum has collected a total of 100 porcelain houses released by KLM on its 100th anniversary by accepting donations, of which 85 are from the 13-year collection of an aviation enthusiast, and when another aviation enthusiast heard about it, he donated the remaining 15.
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
Behind it is the development of the general aviation industry
Behind the establishment of the Lichao Aviation Museum is the development of the general aviation industry.
According to the definition, general aviation refers to the use of civil aircraft to engage in civil aviation activities other than public air transport, covering a whole industrial chain of general aircraft research and development and manufacturing, market operation, comprehensive support and extended services.
General aviation is displayed in front of the people of the whole country with an intuitive impression, which are the two natural disasters in 2008 - the snow disaster in southern China and the "5.12" Wenchuan earthquake.
Taking the "5.12" Wenchuan earthquake as an example, when the earthquake occurred, land transportation was seriously damaged, and large rescue equipment could not be driven in the first time; in contrast, general aviation played an important role in the rescue process. In 2010, the State Council and the Central Military Commission jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Management of Low-Altitude Airspace on the Mainland. This was marked as a signal of low-altitude opening, and many provinces and cities once set off a "general navigation fever". In May 2016, the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the General Aviation Industry to vigorously support the development of general aviation manufacturing.
In addition, Chengdu itself also has abundant aviation industry resources.
From the perspective of China's aviation industry, Chengdu is a veritable aviation town. Chengdu's Shuangliu International Airport is one of the eight regional hub airports in China, and after the official operation of Tianfu International Airport, Chengdu has become the third city in Chinese mainland to have two international hub airports after Shanghai and Beijing.
Chengdu's aviation industry resources also have an unfamiliar "hidden side". Chengdu is one of the only two cities in The country with both aero-engine R&D and manufacturing capabilities, asia's largest aero-engine maintenance base; the Civil Aviation Flight Academy of China in Chengdu, the world's largest flight training institution, its Xinjin branch is located in the airport, was once the largest bomber take-off and landing airport in Asia during World War II...
737-300 fuselage segment Image source: Provided by the interviewee
"Fly" out of the future
Six months after the trial operation, the Lichao Aviation Museum has attracted the attention of people in the general aviation industry.
Li Xianyong, general manager of Yiqu Aviation and founder of the online media platform of General Aviation, once said in the article "10 Commercial Inspirations of the First Private Aviation Museum in China": "The aviation museum is currently more of a government project, the main function is youth aviation science, and it is less common to see pure commercial aviation museums. If you want to start the consumer market of general aviation, in addition to the strong support of local governments, more need the participation of market-oriented entities, and only in this way can the people really go to 'consumption', and only more people recognize that aviation culture and general aviation services are what the people can 'consume', and can they use the broadest force of the market to start the 'consumer market' of general aviation. ”
This also means that the micro-ecological construction of aviation science popularization does not stop at museums. "Everyone may say it's great, but we may only be able to score 60 points ourselves, and there is still a gap from what we envisioned," Yang Peimeng said, "so this can only be called Museum 1.0." At the same time, in the construction process, we also differentiated a lot of small teams, such as aircraft trade, content organization, demonstration device research and development, etc. ”
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
In fact, in addition to being able to watch the exhibition in the museum, the audience can also participate in the lectures held by the museum regularly, and can also go out to experience aviation flight, at the same time, the company behind the museum also provides relevant training on aircraft piloting, and organizes students to participate in related aviation events such as aviation simulation flight, model aircraft competition, drone competition, etc. "We hope that through the operation of the platform, everyone can participate in the field of aviation science." Yang Peimeng said, "After the bottom of aviation science popularization is set up, there is a foundation for the circulation of talents up." ”
(Yuan Yuan is a pseudonym in the text)
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