Civil Aviation Flight University of China

The Civil Aviation Flight University of China, referred to as "China Flight University", was founded in 1956. It is a full-time general college directly under the Civil Aviation Administration of China and a college jointly established by the Civil Aviation Administration of China and Sichuan Province. As the main college for cultivating high-quality talents in China's civil aviation, after more than 60 years of construction and development, the college has become the largest, most capable and highest-level institution of higher learning in the world for cultivating professional pilots in civil aviation. It is well-known in China and has a high influence in the world's civil aviation. More than 70% of pilots and more than 80% of captains of China's civil aviation graduated from here, and it is known as the "cradle of Chinese civil aviation pilots."

Historical evolution

China Flight University originated from the People's Army, and its predecessor was the 14th Aviation School of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. In 1956, the college was established with the approval of Premier Zhou Enlai and the military and political leadership appointed by Chairman Mao Zedong. It was established with the special mission of training qualified civil aviation flight talents for the country. It was established along with the start of the civil aviation industry of New China. The college changed its name several times. On May 26, 1956, with the approval of the State Council, the Civil Aviation Administration of China Aviation School was established with the support of the Air Force. On September 22 of the same year, it was approved by the Ministry of National Defense and named the 14th Aviation School of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. On October 25, 1963, according to the instructions of the Central Military Commission, it was renamed the China Civil Aviation Senior Aviation School and reported to the State Council for approval to be included in the list of higher education institutions. On May 19, 1971, with the approval of the Central Military Commission, it was renamed the 14th Aviation School of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. On August 7, 1980, with the approval of the State Council and the Central Military Commission, it was renamed the China Civil Aviation Flight College. On December 15, 1987, with the approval of the State Education Commission, it was upgraded to a full-time general undergraduate college and renamed the Civil Aviation Flight Academy of China.

School Resources

The college is located in Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, in the heart of the Chengdu Plain, adjacent to Qingbaijiang District, Chengdu City. The campus spans seven campuses in five cities in Sichuan and Henan provinces, covering an area of ​​more than 19,000 acres. The college has established 5 flight training branches in Xinjin, Guanghan, Mianyang, Suining, Sichuan and Luoyang, Henan, and cooperative flight training bases in Zigong, Wuzhou and Harbin. It manages and operates 5 general and transport aviation airports. It owns Citation CJ1/M2 (Cessna525), MA600, Piper PA44-180, Cessna 172 (Cessna172R/S), Cirrus SR20, Diamond 42 (DA42NG), Diamond 20 (DA20-C1), Agusta (AW109sp), Robinson 66 (Robinson R66), Robinson 44 (Robinson R44) and other models, a total of 21 types of more than 400 primary, intermediate and advanced trainer aircraft, as well as 40 full flight simulators, fixed simulators and trainers such as Airbus and Boeing, and more than 500 aircraft engines of various types.

The college library has a collection of more than 1.5 million paper books, more than 5.8 million electronic books, and 52 databases. It has established 6 civil aviation databases with flight training and aviation safety as the theme, and has jointly built a special collection room for domestic commercial aircraft with COMAC. The college has a world-class aviation engine maintenance training center, with 10 large turbofan engines in service for teaching, covering the mainstream matching engines of the global transport aviation fleet. It is the world's largest LEAP series engine training center and one of CFM's four major global training centers. The college has the largest and most powerful general aviation maintenance base in China to assist teaching and scientific research. It is an authorized maintenance center for the world's mainstream general aviation aircraft manufacturers, covering three major areas: whole machine repair, engine overhaul, and aircraft parts and accessories repair. The college has a civil aviation pilot license theory test site authorized by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, a pilot language level test site, a civil aviation controller English test center, an aircraft maintenance license training test center, a flight dispatcher training center, and an engineering technology training center, and provides technical support and training for China's civil aviation standards and legislation.

In 2018, the Tianfu Campus of the college was approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Sichuan Provincial Government for construction. The campus is located in the Jiangxi South area of ​​Tianfu International Airport New City in the eastern new district of Chengdu, about 5 kilometers away from Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, with a total investment of about 10 billion yuan and an area of ​​1,606 acres. The campus is designed to meet the needs of 25,000 students in 2030 and is expected to be completed and put into use in 2023.

Disciplines and majors

Based on civil aviation and adhering to characteristic development, the college has formed a discipline and major system with engineering as the main subject and coordinated development of science, engineering, literature, management, law, and art. There are 14 secondary colleges, 5 first-level discipline master's degree authorization points, 8 professional degree category master's degree authorization points, and 37 undergraduate and junior college majors, covering all professional fields of civil aviation. Among them, flight technology majors and computer science and technology majors were selected as national first-class undergraduate major construction points; transportation, aircraft power engineering, and electronic information engineering majors were selected as provincial first-class undergraduate major construction points; 6 new engineering research and practice projects of the Ministry of Education were approved, and 2 of them have been successfully completed.

The college has 3 Sichuan Provincial Advantageous and Characteristic First-level Disciplines, 23 Provincial First-class Courses, and has obtained 1 Sichuan Provincial Key Discipline and 2 Advantageous Disciplines; 1 National Talent Training Model Innovation Experimental Zone Project Construction; 2 National Featured Majors, 3 Provincial Featured Majors; 3 Provincial and Ministerial Undergraduate Major Comprehensive Reform Projects; 5 Excellent Engineer Talent Training Program Projects. In September 2020, it was included in the list of "Sichuan Provincial High-level Universities".

In 2018, the Ministry of Education reviewed and evaluated the college's undergraduate teaching work, fully affirmed the college's achievements in school-running, and gave a high evaluation of the college's flight professional talent training work.

Faculty

The college currently has 1,372 full-time teachers, including more than 400 "dual-teacher" teachers, more than 600 teachers with senior titles such as senior pilots, professors, and researchers, and young and middle-aged teachers with doctoral and master's degrees account for more than 75% of the total number of teachers. Among them are "specially appointed experts" of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, chief scientists of the National Key R&D Program, recipients of the State Council's special allowance, meritorious pilots of civil aviation, leading talents in civil aviation science and technology innovation, top talents in the first batch of civil aviation science and technology innovation, members of the ICAO expert group, specially appointed experts of civil aviation, academic and technical leaders of Sichuan Province, and young and middle-aged experts and professors with outstanding contributions in Sichuan Province, forming a high-level faculty team of civil aviation-specific specialties such as flight technology, air traffic management, and aviation engineering that enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad.

Talent Training

The college currently has more than 26,000 full-time students, including 12,000 students majoring in flight technology. After more than 60 years of construction and development, it has trained nearly 200,000 civil aviation professionals of various types, and more than 5,000 management talents and heroic alumni who have led the safe development of the civil aviation industry in different historical periods and different professional fields. They include anti-hijacking heroes Yang Jihai, Wang Yixuan, Zhang Yuansheng, and Yan Wenhua who bravely fought against criminals and protected people's lives and property; the heroic captain Ni Jiexiang who moved China; the heroic captain Liu Jinping who flew over the war in Kosovo; the chief test crew of domestic large aircraft ARJ21, C919, and AG600; members of Sichuan Airlines' "China Civil Aviation Hero Crew", etc.

Nearly 90% of the college's graduates entered the civil aviation system. The average employment rate of graduates in 2021 was close to 90%, of which the employment rate of flight technology majors reached 100%, and the employment rate of major majors such as transportation and aviation engineering approached 90%. In 2021, there were 20 provinces where the college's minimum admission score exceeded the local first batch line, and the first choice admission rate of civil aviation specialty majors was basically 100%.

After more than 60 years of teaching practice, the college has formed a transport aviation pilot training system with Chinese characteristics, and has deeply participated in the formulation of civil aviation regulations and standards, systematically constructed a complete civil aviation flight training standard, and achieved seamless connection from flight students to airline transport aircraft pilots. It is a pilot unit of the "Multi-Crew Pilot License Course (MPL)" promoted by the United Nations. The college won the "Five-Star Award for Flight Training Safety" of the Civil Aviation Administration of China for its excellent flight training safety performance, creating and maintaining the highest record of global general aviation safety. The flight training volume in 2020 reached 270,000 flight hours.

The college is fully committed to building a world-class civil aviation inspector training college and contributing to the modernization of China's civil aviation governance system and governance capabilities. On September 10, 2020, Feng Zhenglin, Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, awarded the Civil Aviation Inspector Training College.

The college has helped the development of China's civil aircraft industry, and has jointly built the "Large Aircraft College" and the "Civil Aircraft Flight Technology and Operation Joint Laboratory" with COMAC, and has in-depth cooperation in the fields of pilot and engineering and technical personnel training, aircraft performance optimization, and market competition research.

Technological innovation

The college insists on taking technological innovation as the support for building a strong civil aviation country in the new era. The level of technological innovation and the ability to serve the society are constantly improving. The construction of innovation platforms has reached a new level. Major national research projects have achieved new breakthroughs. The transformation and application of results have taken new steps, forming a scientific research resource system of a certain scale, covering flight technology and flight safety, aircraft fire prevention and rescue, smart civil aviation, general aviation, air traffic management, aircraft maintenance and other fields. According to the provincial, ministerial and college classifications, build a multi-level technological innovation platform. The school has obtained provincial and ministerial recognition and co-built 6 key laboratories (engineering technology research centers) and 2 school-enterprise joint laboratories; obtained the "four types of scientific research institutes" (basic technology research, applied technology development, technology policy and service think tank) and "five major bases" (basic technology research base, innovative talent development base) of civil aviation; participated in 6 industrial technology innovation alliances; reviewed and recognized 13 key laboratories of 3 categories of the college; reviewed 12 research centers and 24 research institutes according to standards, and gradually cultivated scientific research teams with certain industry influence; has an "Academician Workstation for Aircraft Fire Prevention and Rescue"; and was approved as the "China Civil Aviation Flight Academy (Deyang) Collaborative Innovation and Scientific and Technological Achievement Incubation Center". The three-dimensional layout of the college's scientific and technological innovation platform has been preliminarily completed.

Over the past five years, the college has undertaken more than 2,000 scientific research projects at all levels, including national key R&D programs, natural science funds, social science funds, and soft sciences; it has won more than 300 scientific and technological achievements and technological improvement awards, including 21 provincial and ministerial science and technology awards, and more than 300 national invention patents and utility model patents; it has published more than 1,100 achievements in high-level academic journals at home and abroad, and published more than 50 influential academic monographs; it has formed more than 200 achievements such as industry standards, specifications, advisory notices, and policy recommendations, which have been adopted and applied by government and industry decision-making, playing the role of a think tank and producing good economic and social benefits.

International Exchange

The China Flight Academy has established extensive exchanges and cooperation with international and regional civil aviation organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), civil aviation agencies and aviation colleges in countries and regions such as the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, and well-known aviation manufacturing companies such as Boeing, Airbus, General Electric, and International Aero Engines.

Relying on its own advantageous disciplines and civil aviation specialty, CAAC actively responded to the country's "Belt and Road" initiative, took the initiative to participate in the construction of a strong civil aviation country, focused on cooperating with the "domestic civil aircraft export" strategy, and vigorously carried out "foreign education and training", and has trained nearly 300 civil aviation professionals such as flight, maintenance, air traffic control, and flight attendants for countries along the "Belt and Road". In 2020, CAAC will effectively promote the internationalization of school-running, relying on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' "Lancang-Mekong Cooperation" foreign aid training project and the Civil Aviation Administration's "Belt and Road" countries along the internationalization of civil aviation talent training capacity building project, to provide strong talent support and intellectual support for the construction of civil aviation in relevant countries, and contribute to the comprehensive improvement of the level of aviation connectivity. At the same time, CAAC has signed cooperation agreements with universities and teaching and training institutions in various countries to select outstanding students and teaching and research personnel to study abroad and exchange for short periods of time, with a total of more than 6,000 people so far.

In order to accelerate the implementation of the international talent project, CAAC "builds platforms and expands channels" to encourage teachers and students to study abroad. In 2020, CAAC actively applied for the "Western Project Local Innovation Sub-project" of the China Scholarship Council of the Ministry of Education and was approved. This project is the only civil aviation project in Sichuan Province.

During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, CAAC held or hosted many international civil aviation conferences, which were fully recognized by the industry. It successively held the 2016 International Symposium on Aircraft Complex State Prevention and Handling Training (UPRT) and hosted the 2018 Global Drone Conference (RPAS 3 & DRONE ENABLE 2). As the first full-time university in Asia selected for the ICAO's "Future Aviation Talent Program", CAAC students were invited to participate in the first ICAO Next Generation Aviation Professionals Global Summit (NGAP2017) and won the first place in the capacity building and aviation security (Air Capacity and Security) competition, and the second ICAO Next Generation Aviation Professionals Global Summit (NGAP2018) and won the championship of the simulated ICAO forum event.

For more than 60 years, the college has always fully adhered to the education policy of the Party and the country, inherited and carried forward the "red gene" of the people's army, adhered to the school motto of "flying high, learning and practicing", promoted the school spirit of "loyalty and unity, diligence and rigor, safe and precise flying, truth-seeking and innovation", and cultivated the purpose consciousness of "the people sent me to learn flying, and I learn flying for the people", inherited the "nine-character classic" teaching style of "helping with ideas, teaching technology, and leading style", and formed a university culture with the characteristics of the China Flight Academy. The college relies on the industry, supports civil aviation, and contributes to the blue sky of the Republic. It is praised by the central media as "a university supporting an industry".

(Data as of November 2021)