The Shenyang JJ-1, also known as the Hong Zhuan-503 or ''Red Special'', was a jet trainer developed in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(PRC) during the 1950s. It was the first jet aircraft designed in China, with

Xu Shunshou Xu Shunshou (; 21 August 1917 – 6 January 1968) was a Chinese aircraft designer and a founder of the aircraft manufacturing industry in the People's Republic of China. He was the founding director of the PRC's first aircraft design organizatio ...

as the chief designer. Two prototypes flew, but further development was abandoned.

Design and development

Due to differences in ideology the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

severed relations with the PRC in the late 1950s, robbing the PRC of access to modern Soviet technology, particularly aircraft and aviation-related items. To ensure that the

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 ...

could re-equip and train to fly jet fighters

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 ...

were approached by the PLAAF to design and build a prototype jet trainer.

served as the director designer, and

Huang Zhiqian Huang Zhiqian (; 24 January 1914 – 20 May 1965) was a Chinese aircraft designer. He served as Chief Designer of the Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute and was in charge of designing the Shenyang J-8, China's first high-speed, high-altitude in ...

and Ye Zhengda were deputy designers. Xu led a team of 108 people, whose average age was only 22. Most team members were recent university graduates, and only three people: Xu, Huang, and

Lu Xiaopeng Lu Xiaopeng (; 19 August 1920 – 16 October 2000) was a Chinese aircraft designer who spent most of his career at Hongdu Aviation (formerly Nanchang Aircraft). He was the chief designer of the Nanchang Q-5 supersonic attack aircraft, one of the ...

, had any aircraft design experience. To fill the PLAAF requirement, the designers at Shenyang produced the JJ-1, a straight-winged aircraft, with a retractable tricycle undercarriage, tandem cockpits with a side hinged canopy over the front cockpit and rearward sliding canopy over the rear cockpit (very similar to the Shenyang JJ-5) and intakes either side of the front cockpit. Power was supplied by a Shenyang Aircraft Development Office PF-1A, (Chinese copy of the

Klimov RD-500 The Klimov RD-500 was an unlicensed Soviet copy of the Rolls-Royce Derwent V turbojet that was sold to the Soviet Union in 1947. The Klimov OKB adapted it for Soviet production methods and materials. Development Producing metric drawings and anal ...

itself a copy of the

Rolls-Royce Derwent The Rolls-Royce RB.37 Derwent is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine, the second Rolls-Royce jet engine to enter production. It was an improved version of the Rolls-Royce Welland, which itself was a renamed version of Frank ...

), centrifugal compressor turbojet fitted in the centre fuselage, exhausting through a jet pipe extending to the tail of the fuselage. Armament was to have been a single calibre automatic cannon. Production was not carried out as it was found that pilots could transition to basic jet fighters from propeller driven fighters with few problems. Nevertheless, as the first jet aircraft designed in China, the JJ-1 marked a new era of China's aircraft manufacturing industry.

Operational history

Testing was carried out on the two prototypes and static test airframe before development was cancelled.

Specifications (JJ-1)

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

Airliners .net photo
{{Chinese Military Aircraft JJ-01, Shenyang Shenyang aircraft Low-wing aircraft Single-engined jet aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1958