He is the "Founding Flyer of China"
Recognized as the "Father of China's Aviation"
His name was Feng Ru
August 25, 2021 is the 109th anniversary of the martyrdom of Feng Ru, the "father of Chinese aviation". Party members and cadres of Enping City, teachers and students of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and villagers at home and abroad respectively carried out activities to pay tribute to Feng Ru in Guangzhou, Enping, Beijing, and overseas to commemorate Feng Ru's meritorious deeds and carry forward Feng Ru's spirit of loving the country and the hometown, advocating science, making unremitting efforts to improve himself, and daring to be the first.
Li Peirong, Secretary of the Enping Municipal Party Committee of the Communist Party of China: "Mr. Feng Ru is revered as the 'Father of China's Aviation', is the founder of China's flight, and is the first Chinese to put forward the idea of aviation to save the country. Feng Ru's spirit is a pure feeling of loving the country and the country, a scientific attitude of advocating science and daring to explore, an innovative spirit of unremitting self-improvement and continuous pioneering, and a tenacious will to dare to be the first and not to be afraid of hardships and dangers. For contemporary Chinese, Feng Ru's spirit is a spiritual and cultural wealth that cannot be forgotten and is extremely precious. History is the best textbook, we organize a series of activities to commemorate Feng Ru, commemorate Feng Ru's achievements, carry forward the spirit of Feng Ru, that is, to use the spirit of Feng Ru to condense and inspire the people of Enping to strengthen confidence, enhance the spirit, pioneering and innovative, adhere to the strong foundation of strengths, strengthen the foundation, abide by the high standard of development, and strive to build a livable, workable, and tourist-friendly ecological demonstration city. ”
Guangzhou tribute to Feng Ru activities
On the morning of August 25, the Enping Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government held a memorial service at the Huanghuagang 72 Martyrs Cemetery in Guangzhou. Liu Bing, deputy secretary of the Enping Municipal Party Committee and mayor, Li Jianzhong, director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, Xuan Ling, chairman of the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Liu Dixiong and Deng Yongxin, leaders of the municipality, attended the event.
The scene of the event
Lay wreaths and baskets
Liu Bing delivered a speech
In his speech, Liu Bing stressed that the "Feng Ru Spirit" is a pure feeling of caring for the nation and serving the country with aviation; the "Feng Ru Spirit" is the innovative spirit of self-improvement and continuous pioneering; the "Feng Ru Spirit" is the tenacious will of being loyal to the cause, not afraid of hardships and dangers, and being indomitable; and the "Feng Ru Spirit" is a scientific attitude of loving science, studying carefully, and being diligent in exploration. "Feng Ru Spirit" is also a spiritual and cultural wealth that cannot be forgotten and is extremely precious. It is precisely because of the inspiration of Feng Ru's spirit that the people of Enping have always maintained a high spirit to create a happy life. As the people of Feng Ru's hometown, we pay tribute to Feng Ru in order to use Feng Ru's lofty ideals, fighting spirit, and immortal merits to wash our minds, purify our souls, and elevate our realm, so that we can always maintain a strong entrepreneurial passion for entrepreneurship, turn patriotic feelings and aspirations to serve the country into practical actions, and build the motherland into a better place.
He Qiang delivered a speech
He Qiang, executive chairman of the Guangdong Aviation Friendship Association, said that the Guangdong Aviation Friendship Association will, as always, work together with Enping, publicize and inherit the great Feng Ru spirit, carry forward the great spirit of aviation under the leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, and strive to realize the great Chinese dream of rejuvenating the Chinese nation.
Deng Yongxin presided over the event and made a speech
Enping memorialized Feng Ru's activities
On the morning of August 25, Niujiang Town, Enping City, held a memorial service for Feng Ru at the Feng Ru Wenshi Museum. Representatives of Niujiang Town, the Municipal Education Bureau, Feng Ru Memorial Middle School and Feng Ru Memorial Primary School attended the event.
On August 25th, Feng Ru Memorial Middle School held the "109th Anniversary of Feng Ru's Death" activity at the school.
Beijing tribute to Feng Ru activities
On August 25, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics held an event to commemorate Feng Ru.
Feng Peide, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee of the China Aviation Industry Corporation, and doctoral supervisor of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said that Feng Ru was the first person in China to develop a powered aircraft, and his patriotic, hard-working, and innovative spirit inspired generations of Chinese aviation people to forge ahead, and was a valuable spiritual wealth for China to build an aviation power. Academician Feng Peide said emotionally: "I am an Enping person of the same village as Mr. Feng Ru, and I have also fought in the field of aviation science and technology for decades. In the future, I hope to carry forward the spirit of Feng Ru with the villagers in their respective posts, patriotic dedication, hard work and innovation, and contribute our share to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. ”
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Overseas tribute to Feng Ru activities
On this special day, the villagers on the other side of the ocean were not absent.
On August 24, local time, the Enping Hometown Association in New York, usa, organized some overseas Chinese leaders from Feng Ru's hometown, Feng Ru's descendants and overseas Chinese compatriots to hold a symposium in the clubhouse to commemorate the 109th anniversary of the martyrdom of Feng Ru, the father of Chinese aviation, to commemorate Feng Ru's great achievements and pay tribute to Feng Ru in silence. Feng Wenping, chairman of the New York Enping Hometown Association, said: "Feng Ru is not only an example that the people of the motherland respect and study, but also the pride and pride of our overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese. We must vigorously publicize Feng Ru culture, so that the world can know Feng Ru and understand Enping. Feng Ru's great-grandson Wu Tierui said excitedly: "Feng Ru is my mother's grandfather, my great-grandfather Feng Ru has made contributions to the motherland, I feel so happy as a descendant, we must continue to work hard to build the motherland and hometown better." ”
On August 25, local time, in San Francisco, California, due to the impact of the epidemic, Tang Yongjian, chairman of the Enping Office, led several overseas Chinese leaders to represent the enping villagers, with reverence for Feng Ru, drove to Oakland, the city where Feng Ru developed the aircraft, found the Aviation Museum of Oakland Airport after several twists and turns, and paid tribute to the statue of Feng Ru in the exhibition area introducing Feng Ru's deeds and took photos.
At the same time, Zheng Jianliang, president of the Enping Chamber of Commerce in Chicago, organized members of the chamber of commerce and representatives of overseas Chinese leaders to hold a symposium to commemorate the 109th anniversary of the martyrdom of Feng Ru, the father of Chinese aviation. Zheng Jianliang took the lead in speaking: "In the new era, we must remember Feng Ru's achievements, carry forward the spirit of Feng Ru, build and polish the feng ru cultural brand, and make unremitting efforts to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." "Other overseas Chinese leaders also talked freely about Feng Ru's deeds and said one after another: Feng Ru is the pride and pride of our overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese, and the spirit of Feng Ru will always inspire us to love the country and our hometown even more, forge ahead, make unremitting efforts, and contribute the wisdom and strength of the overseas Chinese community to the construction of the motherland and hometown."
It is understood that the overseas Chinese in the United States have always been proud of Feng Ru and worked hard to polish the brand of "Feng Ru's Hometown - Enping" on the other side of the ocean.
Let's take a look
"The Father of Chinese Aviation" - Feng Ru
(Pictured: Feng Ru 1884-1912)
Eagle strikes the long sky, and the father of aviation remains in the heavenly river
Under the shade of the green trees of the Peanut Liao Community in Linhe Street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, there is such a statue: he is dressed in a flight suit and wears a flight hat, standing tall, looking firmly into the distance...
Statue of Feng Ru in the Peanut Liao Community on Linhe Street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou
Feng Ru is known as the "father of Chinese aviation". On August 25, 1912, Feng Ru died in a flight accident at Yantang, at the age of 29. His short life is like a meteor falling here in the Tianhe River, but his heroic soul rises here like a rising sun, illuminating the way forward for the development of China's aviation industry.
With reverence in mind, let us look back on Feng Ru's short but magnificent life, and see how the old teenager was fearless and unrestrained with the dreams of a generation, eagle strikes the sky.
Ambitious, far away from the United States to find the dream of national salvation
Feng Ru, formerly known as Feng Jiuru, was born in 1884 to a poor peasant family in Xingpu Village, Niujiang Town, Enping, Guangdong Province, ranking fifth. Enping is a famous overseas Chinese township in Guangdong, and many people go overseas to earn a living. When Feng Ru was 12 years old, his uncle Wu Yinglan, who was doing a small business in the United States, returned to his hometown to visit his relatives, when Xiao Feng Ru had dropped out of school for many years due to family poverty, and after hearing his uncle talk about the development of American society, he hoped to follow him to the United States to make a living.
Feng Ru Memorial Hall
With her parents' consent, Feng Ru followed her uncle to San Francisco. There, he witnessed the strength of the American machine industry, and his heart was greatly touched, and he wrote in his diary: "The wealth and strength of the country, because the technology is developed, and the process is developed, it must depend on the machine." Non-learning machines are not enough to help develop the process. He deeply recognized the importance of the machine industry to the prosperity of the country. During the day, he works in factories and at night he learns various technical knowledge and English. After ten years of study and accumulation, he has mastered the professional knowledge of machinery and motors, and skillfully designed and manufactured a number of machines such as small generators, pumps, tsubaki machines, wireless telegraphs, etc., which have been widely praised in American society.
Feng Ru Memorial Building in Xingpu Village, Niujiang Town, Enping City
Famous, the test flight success is well-known in the aviation industry
On December 17, 1903, the first aircraft made by the Wright Brothers in the United States was successfully tested. In February 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out on northeastern Chinese soil and ended in May 1905. In September 1905, under the mediation of the United States, Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Portsmouth, which stipulated the transfer of Lushunkou, Dalian and the nearby sea areas at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and the railway from Changchun to Lushunkou was also transferred to Japan. These two things gave Feng Ru great stimulation, he said: "Yes (referring to the manufacture of machines) is enough to save the country." I have heard of the military weapon, Mo Feiruo, vow to be the initiative of the body, into a masterpiece to return to the motherland, no success, rather than death! Since then, he has established the great ideal of saving the country through aviation and is determined to serve the motherland with a skill.
In 1906, feng Ru returned to San Francisco from New York, and he said to Zhu Zhuquan, a young overseas Chinese: "The war between Japan and Russia is very unfavorable to the motherland, and in this era of competition, aircraft are indispensable to the military, and it costs millions of dollars to make a battleship. If a thousand planes are separated from the Chinese ports, the mainland can be safe. Feng Ru realized the military importance of aviation earlier, which was the earliest understanding of air supremacy in the world. In 1909, the Italian military theorist Giulio Dohei proposed this theory.
Feng Ru test-drove a self-made aircraft - Feng Ru No. 1
In order to build Chinese's first airplane, Feng Ru sold his family property such as gold, silver and jade, and with the support of Huang Qi, Zhang Nan and Tan Yaoneng, raised more than 1,000 US dollars. In May 1908, they established the "Guangdong Manufacturing Machine Factory" in a 7.4-square-meter house on East Ninth Street in Auckland. In September 1909, Feng Ru finally made the first airplane. On 17 September, he flew the plane at an altitude of no more than 15 meters. Due to engine failure on landing, it descended too fast, resulting in damage to one wheel. On September 21, he conducted a second test flight, flying about 800 meters at an altitude of no more than 15 meters. Due to the sudden stop of the propeller, the plane fell, and the tail landing gear and wheels were damaged, but fortunately Feng Ru was not injured. After inspection, it was found that the screws at the base of the aircraft propeller were too tight to cause the propeller to break, but the design and manufacture of the aircraft was still successful.
American newspapers published photographs of Feng Ru at work
Feng Ru's success has attracted widespread attention from American society. On September 23, 1909, the American "San Francisco Explorer Newspaper", "San Francisco Voice" and other newspapers respectively reported on Feng Ru's construction of aircraft and test flights under the titles of "In the field of aviation, Chinese left white people behind" and "Chinese flying in the air with self-made aircraft", which greatly encouraged overseas Chinese in the United States, and they expressed their support for Feng Ru.
On September 23, 1909, the San Francisco Explorer reported on the front page of Feng Ru
In January 1911, Feng Ru finally made an improved new aircraft. On January 18, he made a public test flight at Elrawhurst Square in oakland city, where the plane flew 1,600 meters at an altitude of about 12 meters, then towards san Francisco Bay and finally landed in the square, lasting 4 minutes. The test flight was perfect and proved that the new aircraft had been further improved in design and manufacturing.
In January 1911, Feng Ru and his assistants took a group photo with the modified aircraft
Landed in Tianhe, full of enthusiasm to return to China to build an airplane
In January 1911, Zhang Mingqi, the governor of Liangguang in the Qing government, invited Feng Ru to return to China and asked him to help establish an aviation team. At that time, many American entrepreneurs wanted to hire him to guide aircraft manufacturing work, but Feng Ru resolutely refused and returned to the motherland with a passion for serving the country. In March 1911, Feng Ru arrived in Hong Kong with two aircraft parts and manufacturing equipment, and Zhang Mingqi specially sent the warship Baobi to meet him. After arriving in Guangzhou, the Qing government demarcated the aircraft manufacturing and flying space for it in the area of present-day Tianhe Yantang.
Feng Ru is assembling aircraft at the aircraft factory in Yantang, Tianhe
In October 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out and the Qing government fell. Feng Ru lived in the United States for a long time, was inclined to revolution in his thinking, actively supported the revolutionary government, and was appointed as the captain of the Guangdong Revolutionary Army. He established the Guangdong Aircraft Company in Yantang, the second aircraft manufacturing company in China (the first being the Nanyuan Aircraft Factory opened by the Qing government in 1910).
Feng Ru is building an 8-cylinder engine
Feng Ru responded to the call of the revolutionary government and worked overtime to build reconnaissance aircraft for the Northern Expedition. In March 1912, Feng Ru finally built the first aircraft in China in Yantang.
In 1912, Feng Ru and the plane he made were at Yantang Airport
He died young, and his dreams did not fall with his life
On August 25, 1912, Feng Ru gave a public air show for the masses at Yantang Airport. He first introduced the basic knowledge of the manufacture and piloting of the aircraft to people, and then took off in the air, and the aircraft flew about 8,000 meters at an altitude of about 36 meters from the ground, and the audience applauded and appreciated. In order to further show the performance of the aircraft, Feng Ru wanted to fly higher, so he vigorously raised the nose, who knew that the aircraft became difficult to control, and quickly fell into the bamboo forest in the Shahe area, Feng Ru was thrown out of the aircraft and seriously injured. Later, due to excessive blood loss, he was martyred at the age of 29.
On the occasion of his death, Feng Ru still encouraged his assistant: "Don't hinder his enterprising spirit because of my death, you must know that this is a necessary stage." It can be seen that Feng Ru has struggled all his life to develop China's aviation industry, unswervingly to death, and it is admirable to future generations.
In 1912, Feng Ru and his development of an airplane were at Yantang Airport
At that time, all sectors of society expressed their condolences for Feng Ru's death, and Chinese and Western newspapers and periodicals reported this painful news one after another to commemorate Feng Ru's great achievements. Feng Ru's body is buried on the left side of the Tomb of the Seventy-two Martyrs in Huanghuagang, and the front of the tombstone is engraved with the inscription "Tomb of Feng Junru, the Founding Flying Master of China", and the back is engraved with the order of the Provisional President of the Republic of China to "Die from the Death of Major General Youzhao to The Mercy", and the epitaph of Feng Ru is engraved on both sides. Afterwards, the Army Department of the Guangdong Military Government ordered commendations, allocated funds to benefit his family members according to the death of major generals in the army, and publicized the facts to the National History Museum in order to educate future generations and pass on for hundreds of generations. In 1933, the Guangdong Air Force moved the grave to the Yunheling Air Force Cemetery. It was destroyed in 1966 and the remains were moved to the Barren Mountain of Sanbaowei in Guangzhou. In 1980, it moved back to Huanghuagang, and in 1985 Enping County established the Feng Ru Memorial Hall, and the Feng Ru Memorial Pavilion, The Memorial Building and the Feng Ru Memorial Middle School were built in his hometown.
On September 10, 1912, the Shanghai "Declaration" reported that Feng Ru had crashed an airplane
A full-body statue of the Memorial Middle School in Feng Ru's hometown
In memory of the pioneers, the Tianhe District Government erected a monument to commemorate
In 1988, the Shahe Cultural Fair erected the "Monument to the Crash of Feng Ru" at the feng ru crash. In 2004, the Tianhe District Government rebuilt the monument and built a granite statue of Feng Ru next to it. The stone statue is 1.85 meters high, standing on a black pedestal, and Feng Ru is dressed in a flight suit, his eyes are like a torch, and he stands proudly.
Monument to the crash of Feng Ru in the Peanut Liao community of Linhe Street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou
In 2009, the Los Angeles Post Office issued a commemorative envelope commemorating the centenary of Feng Ru's first flight
In 1984, the little book was published by shanghai people's fine arts publishing house
Various circles have published research works on Feng Ru
Photo by Xu Weiliang
Enping von Ru Square
"Feng Ru Spirit"
It is the pure feeling of caring for the nation and serving the country by aviation
It is the innovative spirit of self-improvement and continuous pioneering
It is a tenacious will to be loyal to the cause, not afraid of hardships and dangers, and to be indomitable
It is a scientific attitude of loving science, studying carefully and being diligent in exploration
Feng Ru's life was short though
But the light shines for a long time
We must learn from his fearless spirit of not being afraid of sacrifice
Strive for the rise of China
Pass on this spirit from generation to generation