How dreams become reality
A few years ago Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (СOMAC) and Russian Federation have begun a joint project on developing a new wide-body airliner. Many young people from China, dreaming about a career in the aerospace industry, had arrived in Russia for studying in the best technical universities.
Sha Minggong was born in a farmer’s family. While studying at school, he dreamed about the sky; at the lessons of the Russian language, he listened to the stories about great Russian aircraft designers — Tupolev, Ilyushin, Sukhoi.
After he left the school, he entered Shenyang Aerospace University to study propulsion engineering. The university has an Exchange Program with Komsomolsk-na-Amure State Technical University in Russia. Having shown high results in education, Sha Minggong was selected for studying at KnASTU.
When Sha Minggong arrived in Komsomolsk-na-Amure it was an amazing period of time; Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant had started test flights of T-50 (PAK FA), a stealth, single-seat, twin-engine jet multirole fighter aircraft.
"We constantly heard the roar in the sky and saw planes,"— Sha Minggong shared his memories, — " Once we were watching a documentary about T-50, when I heard the name of Dr. Mikhail Pogosyan, the creator of aircraft, for the first time."
He returned to China and applied for a job vacancy at Civil Aviation Administration of China. He was successfully hired by CAAC because the Bachelor’s degree received in Russia was highly recognized.
Soon he had been offered to continue his studies and enter the Master´s degree program at Moscow Aviation Institute. He came to Russia again and had been pleasantly surprised to hear that the rector of the institute was Mikhail Pogosyan.
Comparing his experience in studying at KnASTU with the training in MAI, Sha Minggong admits that it is more difficult to study at our university. He studies and works at Department № 101 «Aircraft Design» under the guidance of Ms. Darya Vorobyova.
Many Russian and Chinese undergraduate and graduate students take intensive training, dreaming to join the international team that has gathered for developing a new COMAC C929 wide-body twinjet airliner. Sha Minggong pays special attention to studying the possibility of using PD-35 Russian jet engine for the new Chinese airliner.
"China is a very rich country and can afford to have its own aviation industry,"— Sha Minggong said,—"Russia has a rich experience in aerospace technology. Together, our countries can achieve impressive results."
