The 3rd Fighter Aviation Division was a formation of the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). Initially established in 1950. PLAAF fighter divisions generally consist of about 17,000 personnel and 70-120 aircraft. The division is currently headquartered in

Wuhu Air Base Wuhu Wanli Airport () , often called Wuhu Air Base, is a Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) air base in Wuhu, Anhui Province, China. History Wuhu Airbase was originally constructed in 1934 in response to Imperial Japanese aggres ...

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

. The 3rd Division is considered the most elite division in the PLAAF. Until 2017, the 9th Brigade was known as the 1st Flying Brigade of the 9th Regiment of the 3rd Fighter Aviation Division, at which time the division was abolished and the surviving 7th,

8th 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, and 9th regiments beneath it were reorganized into independent fighter brigades. Thus the

9th Fighter Brigade The 9th Fighter Brigade (9th BDE, ), sometimes called the 9th Air Brigade is a fighter brigade of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) based at Wuhu Air Base in Wuhu, Anhui province. Called "the elite of all elite divisions in t ...

was established.

Notable Members

Wang Hai Wang Hai (; 19 January 1926 – 2 August 2020) was a Chinese fighter pilot and general. A flying ace of the Korean War, he served as commander of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) from 1985 to 1992. He was awarded the rank of gener ...

Fan Wanzhang Fan Wanzhang (, 1927 in Qixia, Shandong - August 8, 1952) was a MiG-15 pilot of the People's Republic of China. He was a flying ace during the Korean War, with 8 victories. A member of the 3rd Fighter Aviation Division, he was also known as F ...

* Sun Shenglu *

Zhao Baotong Zhao Baotong (, 1928 in Fushun, Liaoning - 2003) was a MiG-15 pilot of the People's Republic of China. He was a flying ace during the Korean War, with 9 victories. A member of the 3rd Fighter Aviation Division,. He was the first Chinese Korean W ...

* Liu Yudi * Zhang Jianping

Notable Members

References

See also