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 ...

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

(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,

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 aircraft, fighter brigade of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) based at Wuhu Wanli Airport, Wuhu Air Base in Wuhu, Anhui province. Called " ...

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 * Sun Shenglu * Zhao Baotong * Liu Yudi *

Zhang Jianping Zhang Jianping (; born April 1956) is a lieutenant general (''zhong jiang'') of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) of China. He has been deputy commander of the PLAAF since 2013, and previously served as commander of the Jinan Militar ...

Notable Members

References

See also