Li Tian (; 2 October 1938 – 11 April 2018) was a Chinese physicist and aircraft designer. An expert in aerodynamics for aeronautics, he served as chief scientist of the

Shenyang Aircraft Corporation Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) or Shenyang Aerospace Corporation is a Chinese civilian and military aircraft manufacturer located in Shenyang, Liaoning, a subsidiary of the state-owned aircraft manufacturer AVIC. Founded in 1951 as the cl ...

. He was also an adjunct professor at

Beihang University Beihang University, previously known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (), abbreviated as BUAA or Beihang ( zh, c=北航, p=), is a national public research university located in Beijing, China, specializing in engineering, t ...

Biography

Li was born in October 1938 in

Jilin City Jilin City (), alternately romanized as Kirin, is the second-largest city and former capital of Jilin province in northeast China. As of the 2020 census, 3,623,713 people resided within its administrative area of and 1,895,865 in its buil ...

Jilin Jilin (; alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea ( Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, Ryanggang and Chagang) and Russia (Prim ...

province. He graduated from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Projec ...

in 1963 with a degree in fluid mechanics. He was assigned to the then 601 Institute as a technician afterwards, and was banished to western Liaoning during the Cultural Revolution. Li was responsible for the aerodynamic projects when developing

Shenyang J-8 The Shenyang J-8 ( Chinese: 歼-8; NATO reporting name: Finback) is an interceptor aircraft developed by the 601 Institute (Shenyang) in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was conceived in the early 1960s as a low-risk program based on e ...

and

Shenyang J-11 The Shenyang J-11 ( Chinese: 歼-11; NATO reporting name Flanker-B, -L) is a twin-engine jet fighter of the People's Republic of China whose airframe is derived from the Soviet-designed Sukhoi Su-27. It is manufactured by the Shenyang Aircraft ...

, he is known as one of the founders of Chinese stealth technology for aircraft. He improved Chinese fighter configurations and stealthy designs by combining electromagnetic scattering characteristics with aerodynamic theory. Li was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005. Li's father, Li Pengshu, taught Chinese literature at a high school. Li was the third of five children. After his mother died in 1948, his father remarried in 1950 and had two more children. Li died on 11 April 2018 in Shenyang, aged 79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Tian 1938 births 2018 deaths Academic staff of Beihang University Chinese aircraft designers Engineers from Jilin Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences People from Jilin City Physicists from Jilin Scientists from Jilin Tsinghua University alumni