WUHAN FLY-IN EXPO,A Big Feast for World FLIERS

By Xu Kuang

Translation by Yu Lan

WUHAN FLY-IN EXPO,A Big Feast for World FLIERS

By Xu Kuang

Translation by Yu Lan

“The sky is blue, the Yangtze River is vast,and the citizens of Wuhan are cheering for the pilots. It is a magnificent aviation sports event,” said Frits Brink, president of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). The 2017 FAI World Fly-in Expo in Wuhan was an unforgettable event.

The four-day expo was held in Hannan Airport,Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. It was the only comprehensive aviation sports event in the Asia-Pacific area that was authorized by the FAI. Thousands of pilots and athletes from over 40 countries and regions initiated a grand “flight gala” here.

At 9 a.m., on November 4th, a white lightwinged aircraft flew over the expo and displayed a 500 meter poster, marking the opening ceremony.Elite pilots from America, Spain, and Latvia presented extraordinary performances. They skydived in many glittering patterns such as “the fireworks setting,” “the fairy dancing,” “the flag floating,” and “the air relay” one after another.At 4 p.m., over 100 paramotors took off, bringing the performance to a climax. There were 192 performances that day, in which 107 aircrafts participated.

“Aircrafts are soaring into the blue sky. City of the sky... In the night of a foreign land, I’m feeling the flicker of your lights.” At 8 p.m., the local folk singer Li Zhi highlighted the night by singing the song “City of the Sky.” Up till then, the highspirited atmosphere had lasted for 12 hours.

The second day, the weather was perfect for the performances. The blue sky and white clouds constituted the best background for the display.Paramotors, delta wing paragliders, rotorcraft,and aerobatic planes came to the stage one after another. The record-breaking performance of the paramotors team and the taking off of the experiential hot air balloon took this expo to a new level, igniting the audience’s passion and curiosity.

Boris, a French paramotor pilot, who was invited to perform at the expo, said that he had met a lot of flying experts in Wuhan. “I’ve never seen a night paramotors performance like what we did on the night of the 4th before. Just this one event alone was worth the trip.”

On the 6th, the hot air balloon weddings of 100 couples were held at the expo. The air was filled with romance.

“藍色的天空，寬闊的長江。熱情的武漢人為飛行員加油鼓掌，這是一次盛大精彩的航空體育盛會。”國際航聯主席福瑞斯·布蘭克聲言，武漢世界飛行者大會是一屆讓人印象深刻的盛會。

2017國際航聯世界飛行者大會為期四天，在武漢經濟開發區漢南通用機場隆重舉辦。這是國際航聯在亞太地區唯一授權的綜合性航空體育活動。來自全球40多個國家和地區的千余名飛行員、運動員，開啟一場盛大的“飛行狂歡”。

11月4日9時，一架白色輕型飛機拖拽500平方米的巨幅海報飛過會場，揭開此次盛會的神秘面紗。來自美國、西班牙、拉脫維亞等國家的表演隊駕駛各自的滑翔機、動力傘、旋翼機，表演“禮花飛舞”“仙女下凡”“彩旗天降”和“空中造型”等項目，一撥接一撥，讓觀眾目不睱接。16時許，近100架動力傘相繼升空，將飛行表演推向高潮。當天的飛行表演共192架次，參加表演的飛行器107架。

“飛機飛過天空，天空之城……此刻我在異鄉的夜里，感覺著你忽明忽暗……”晚8時許，當民謠歌手李志唱響《天空之城》，瞬間全場觀眾嗨翻，在世界飛行者大會，這種熱度已經持續12個小時。

大會第二天，天氣給力，藍天白云成為飛行表演最好的背景。動力傘、三角翼滑翔傘、自旋翼飛機、特技飛機等表演，你方唱罷我登場，動力傘編隊創紀錄的表演，體驗式的熱氣球升空，將盛會掀向新的高度，讓觀眾直呼過癮。

法國動力傘飛行員博瑞斯受邀參加此次表演，他興奮表示，來到武漢后結識很多飛行高手。“4日晚我們進行動力傘夜航表演，這在法國還沒見過，真是不虛此行。”

6日，大會舉辦100對新人的熱氣球婚禮，浪漫情調彌漫全場。

“太讓人興奮，這是我做的最率性的事，沒有事先計劃，真不可思議。兩周前，尚恩在跳傘錦標賽中獲得銀牌，上周，我們在美國亞利桑那州參與創造217人同時跳傘的世界紀錄，今天，我們就結婚了，一切都充滿驚喜。”編號100的一對新人來自英國，他們相戀十年，新娘喜不自勝。

“It is so exciting. This is one of the most spontaneous things I’ve ever done. I had no plans beforehand. It is all so incredible. Two weeks ago, Shawn got the silver medal at the Skydiving Championship. Last week in Arizona, we took part in setting a new world record of 217 people skydiving. And today, we are married. Everything is full of surprises,”the bride of couple No. 100 said with joy. The couple was from Britain.

In this expo, Wuhan held the Third New Private Economy Investment Promotion Conference and General Aviation Industry Signing Ceremony. Wuhan Development Zone signed 19 projects and attracted investments totaling 1.45 billion yuan. The projects ranged from the fields of navigation manufacturing,assembling, maintaining, training, and operating to even satellite technology application.

Mr. Brink spoke highly of Wuhan’s efforts,applauding the expo as an event integrating sport, contest, and industry, which set a new modality for air sports and navigation industry. “I’ve seen a lot of contracts being signed here. Everything is very unusual here.Since there is such a platform, we’d love to participate and offer help.”

He also believes China, as one of the fastest developing countries, is going to play a more important role in air sports. “In my homeland in the Netherlands, air sports are developing very well. We are only a small country with ten million people. With China’s enormous population, the future of air sports in China is going to be even more wonderful.”?

Journalist Li Yuan and pilots from Team AeroDynamix,who averaged about 60 years old記者李源與爺爺飛行隊合影

Team AeroDynamix performing爺爺飛行隊在表演

本次大會中，武漢市舉行第三批新民營經濟招商大會暨通用航空產業專場集中簽約儀式。武漢開發區簽下19個項目，攬下1450億元投資。項目覆蓋通航制造、組裝、維修、培訓、運營服務和衛星技術應用等領域。

布林克稱贊武漢將運動、賽事和產業結合起來，為航空運動和通航產業樹立新樣式。“我看到此次大會上簽訂不少合同，這里發生的一切很不尋常。既然有這樣的交流平臺，我們也愿意參與進來，提供幫助。”

他還堅信，作為世界發展最快的國家之一，中國將在飛行運動中扮演更重要角色。“在我的祖國荷蘭，航空運動一直發展得很好，但我們只有一千多萬人，考慮到中國龐大的人口，未來將更加精彩。”?

40國飛行者的盛宴

文/許曠 譯/于蘭