Shenfei Aviation Expo Park (Shenyang Aviation Corporation)
A while ago, pre-Covid days, I had the opportunity to visit the Shenfei Aviation Expo Park, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China. The park is located at Lingbei Street, in the Huangqu district of Shenyang, located in Northeast China. Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) is an alternative name for the Shenfei manufacturing plant.
The Shenfei Aviation Expo Park covers an area of 25000 sq metres, which includes a museum dedicated to the history and development of Chinese fighter aircraft and aviation science. Outdoors, there is a fighter planes display park area showing important landmark fighter aircraft.
The main indoor exhibition hall is on the first floor (no ground floor in China!), which is the science museum. The factory history floor is on the second floor, which is sub-divided into seven exhibition areas.
In the museum foyer there is a Shenyang J-ll fighter aircraft scale model, and a 2 metre plus high, 60th anniversary vase celebrating 60 years of Shenfei.
Construction of the Shenfei aviation manufacturing facility began in 1953 and was completed in December 1956. It was China’s first factory to produce fighter jets and is known as the cradle of jets. The first domestically produced jet at Shenfei was the Shenyang J-5 fighter jet, based upon the Soviet Mig 17. By 1959 more than 700 J-5 fighters had been built. The Shenyang F-7 first flight was in January 1966, and the Shenyang J-8 ll ACT (advanced Control Technology) first flight took place in September 1999.
It was a very stormy day, the day I visited the museum; nevertheless, I was able to photograph a number of the aicraft. I have also included a picture of a Shenyang J-6 lll being installed at Bayi Park, Shenyang. Click on the gallery images to view:
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