Chen Guang of Beihang Airlines: "The engine is like my child"

Chen Guang of Beihang Airlines: "The engine is like my child"

On September 28, the J-20 fighter unveiled at the Zhuhai Air Show was replaced with a domestic engine, which made Professor Chen Guang of Beihang University particularly happy. He spent his life studying aero-engines and regarded them as his "children".

"If you don't wear a hearing aid, the whole world is quiet." Chen Guang, 91 years old this year, has not heard much, but he insists on walking twice a day on the Beihang campus, 40 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes in the afternoon. The old colleagues and friends he met on campus would take the initiative to greet him, enthusiastically give him a thumbs up and praise him, and the juniors who came home from school greeted him from a long distance.

In his old age, he was still in good spirits and took a strong step. He lived to be old, learned, dedicated to old age, gave lectures, gave online classes, wrote articles, and did not give up anything that was beneficial to the country's aerospace cause.

Learn one, love one

Chen Guang, born in 1930, reached the age of school and caught up with the continuous war. Due to the chaotic situation, he traveled with his family to Yichang City, Badong County, Sichuan Wanxian and Changshou County (now Changshou District, Chongqing) and other places, and changed 6 schools in 6 years of middle school.

After graduating from middle school, Chen Guang was admitted to the then Hubei Provincial Medical College and began a short journey of studying medicine. However, two years later, due to the family's difficulties, the family could not solve the problem of the 3 children's schooling, and Chen Guang's university could not go on. In order to have a degree of learning, he turned his goal to the supply-oriented School of Engineering of North China University (one of the predecessors of Beihang University).

"The idea of studying aerospace is very simple – it's flying in the sky, it's very spirited, and it's going to school in the capital Beijing, which is the dream of many young people." Of course, the most important thing is that the school belongs to the supply system, not only does not charge, but also issues uniforms and living expenses. At that time, the supply standard was 18 yuan per month for meals, 2 yuan for pocket money, eating according to the table, 8 people per table, the dishes were also very rich, and sometimes I also ate prawns. 2 yuan of pocket money is also more, then go to the grocery store, spend 5 cents to buy a bunch of peanuts.

An oilcloth bag, containing futons and sheets, is Chen Guang's "belongings" from Wuhan to Beijing to study. These objects followed him for decades, witnessing his youth staying up late to study and study professionally.

After enrolling, Chen Guang and his classmates did not have a fixed school building, and once lived and studied in the courtyard, Gongzha and other places, and lived the longest time at No. 9 and No. 13 Qianliang Hutong in Beijing. In the winter, the students took turns to make stoves, Chen Guang was a southerner, and it took two hours to make stoves each time, making his face black before he lit the stove. It was not until the beginning of the school year in 1954 that they moved to the second student building of the Aviation Academy, which was considered to have a special dormitory.

The harsh conditions could not stop the momentum of Chen Guangguang's expertise. Confused into the engine major, he liked it more and more, and every year the test results were among the best. After entering the school, Chen Guang was assigned to study engine design. At that time, the teacher first listened to the lectures of Soviet experts, and then translated the lecture notes into Chinese and mimeographed them to the students, so everyone cherished each study material. "At that time, the learning conditions were more difficult, and I still used a slide rule and a hand-cranked computer. In the electrician class, because there is no projection equipment, the old man must announce the outline in advance every time he goes to class, write it on a large piece of paper with a brush, and then post it on the blackboard one by one during the class, as if it is 'pulling foreign pieces'. ”

On September 13, 1955, Chen Guang, who had excellent grades, stayed in school to join the work, and his life after that was tightly tied to the engine.

A debate avoided an international lawsuit

On the evening of May 30, 1988, about 10 minutes after the B-2604 Su Tutu-154M airliner of civil aviation of China took off in Guangzhou, the tail engine had a serious shaft failure, and one of the 3 engines was thrown off the fuselage, leaving a large hole in the tail of the engine for 1 person to pass. Fortunately, the debris thrown out at that time did not cause damage to the fuselage and the control system, and the aircraft was able to return safely without causing major difficulties.

According to the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Civil Aviation Administration of China is responsible for fault investigation and analysis, and the Soviet side sent experts such as the chief engineer of the engine production plant to China. In the analysis, both China and the Soviet Union agreed that the sudden subsidence of the insulating sleeve in the engine caused the accident, but there was disagreement on the cause of the sinking. Soviet experts believe that the accident was caused by improper use by the Chinese side. The Chinese experts felt that they could not agree with this statement of the Soviet side, but for a while they were struggling to find a strong argument.

Four months after the accident, Chen Guang, Xiong Changbing and Zhu Gujun were given the task of participating in the analysis and investigation of the accident - to find out the real cause of the failure and come up with an analysis and demonstration report that could be approved by the Soviet side.

In the face of a faulty insulating sleeve, it is not easy to analyze the cause. In the first few days of receiving the task, Chen Guang couldn't eat or sleep well, and he pondered what was going on with this sinking. Soon, he came up with a test method of "simulating the image of the fault" to analyze, simulate the conditions of the accident, and figure out the cause. If you use a metal analog part, it is time-consuming, laborious, and costly. At that time, Chen Guang loved to play tennis and had a lot of tennis barrels. So he started the "how fast and good to save" method - using cheap and easy-to-obtain objects such as tennis balls, steel pipes, water and valve cores to make a simulation tester.

Relying on this device, Chen Guang simulated a variety of possibilities, but according to the analysis of Soviet experts, the damage to the tester and the damage to the accident engine were not consistent. Finally, he put the tester into the water and used the pump to apply pressure to the tennis ball, and after a while the water in the basin bubbled up, indicating that the simulated specimen had been deformed. Chen Guang excitedly took out the simulated specimen from the "tester" and found that the shape of the deformation of the simulated specimen was diamond-shaped - consistent with the depression on the accident plane!

This test proved that the thermal insulation sleeve is unstable deformation under the action of external pressure, rather than the Soviet side said that the "internal temperature change" caused, that is, the Soviet experts said that the pilot operation error is not established, the engine failure parts do not make it deformed by the pressure, Chen Guang did further analysis and research, found that the fault parts of the structural design is wrong, improper materials, rough processing, etc., resulting in far less than the required pressure, the parts are deformed, so the fault is caused by the Soviet side.

The cause of the accident was found by Chen Guang, and the Civil Aviation Administration quickly organized a failure reproduction test. On the day of the test, the rescue train on the tarmac was waiting. Once the test conditions were applied, only a "bang" sound was heard, the engine failed, dismantled and looked at, and sure enough, it was exactly the same as the engine in the accident - the diamond-shaped depression was impressive, which verified Chen Guang's analysis conclusion.

Give full play to the residual heat and cultivate aviation talents

Chen Guang, who has been engaged in aerospace teaching and research for a long time, understands the importance of cultivating talents. "The baton of the older generation of aviation people will eventually be handed over to the hands of young people, and the key to national scientific and technological innovation is to cultivate innovative talents." Chen Guang has not only cultivated a large number of outstanding talents in his decades of teaching career, but also participated in engine consulting, achievement evaluation and failure analysis in China's aerospace field for many times after his retirement in 1998, exerting his residual heat.

"The papers, research, and results produced must be used in the actual aerospace industry!" This is Chen Guang's original intention to set up the "Aviation Power China Heart" education fund, and it is also an important criterion for the selection of this award.

In 2014, Chen Guang, who was not economically wealthy, resolutely set up a scholarship fund of 500,000 yuan to support the cultivation of innovative talents in the field of aero engines. Subsequently, his students Academician Chen Maozhang and Academician Liu Daxiang also donated 500,000 yuan each to support this cause. So far, the fund has received more than 13.92 million yuan in donations, all undergraduate and graduate students engaged in engine research can apply for prizes with scientific research achievements with application value, and the education fund also supports poor students with aero engine dreams, and there are currently 9 young scholars and 60 outstanding students in the country.

Nowadays, Chen Guang, who is old enough, is still working hard, and every year he publishes several articles analyzing aero engine failures, structures and other issues, maintaining his attention to the frontier fields of aero engines and contributing to the country's aerospace industry.

After his retirement, Chen Guang participated in the old professor science popularization report group of the Beihang Old Professors Association, and he is also a member of the old scientist science popularization lecture group of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sharing aviation professional knowledge for audiences of all ages and different occupations every year, and also won the title of "Capital Citizen Learning Star" in 2020.

During the epidemic last year, Chen Guang also gave students online classes at home, and "dreamed of the starry sky" with young students. In just two hours, the number of online viewers of the video is close to 10,000 people, ranking first in the popularity list of the video chat area of the live broadcast platform.

Chen Guang's lectures are illustrated and textual, and all the pictures, texts and videos are collected and produced by himself. Due to his advanced age, his eyesight has declined year by year, there are 3 scanners and two printers next to his desk, newspapers and magazines need to be cut, scanned, and enlarged on the computer.

"I have a lot of planes and a lot of medicine here." Chen Guang's home is not large, and there are large and small airplane models on the cabinet, followed by various medicine boxes and medicine bottles. Opposite is Professor Chen Guang's desk for work and reading, and he practices "living to old age, learning old, and dedicating to old age" with actions.

Talking about his expectations for the aviation industry, he hopes to have more independently designed results into practice, and he needs self-confidence in the development of national science and technology, and "Chinese monks" must also "chant well". "I hope that more young talents will actively participate in the cause of aero engines in the motherland, work hard, and pioneer and innovate!"

Intern Wang Junli Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily