Factory 132

On 18 October 1958 builders broke ground in Chengdu, deep in Sichuan province, for a fighter plant that the Soviet Union had agreed to help China build two years earlier. It had no name, only a number: the National 132nd Factory. Construction took six years. When it was essentially finished in October 1964 the plant covered 507.4 hectares, had cost 180 million yuan and employed 10,485 people — and the following month its first J-5, a Chinese-built MiG-17, made a successful maiden flight. A two-seat trainer version, the FT-5, followed in May 1966. That same year the Cultural Revolution swept the country, and the factory was placed under military control until 1972.

A MiG without the full manual

The aircraft that made Chengdu’s name arrived as a gift with pieces missing. In February 1962 Nikita Khrushchev unexpectedly offered Mao Zedong the MiG-21, and complete aircraft, kits, parts and documents followed. Chinese engineers found the paperwork incomplete — by one Chinese account, 256 important items of technical data were missing — and set about reverse engineering what the Soviets had left out. The result was the J-7. Production began at Shenyang but moved to Chengdu and Guizhou, and Chengdu turned it into an export staple: by 1985 a new 80,642-square-metre workshop could build almost 200 J-7s a year. When the line closed in May 2013, after 16 F-7BGIs for Bangladesh, about 2,400 J-7s had been built across all three plants.

Motorcycles, maglevs and MD-80s

The 1980s brought a stranger chapter. Introduced to the outside world as Chengdu Aircraft Company in 1979, the plant went looking for civilian work. It built motorcycle engines — becoming one of China’s 19 motorcycle production sites — as well as moulds, model aircraft, windows and dry-cleaning machinery. In 1988 it became a subcontractor on the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, delivering its first nose section in 1991, and it went on to build tail sections for the Boeing 757 and parts for Airbus. It even built two cars of a trainset for the Shanghai maglev line. A secret fighter factory had learned to work to Western standards, and that lesson would matter.

The Vigorous Dragon

Chengdu’s design brain came from the north. In May 1970 the Shenyang team designing the J-9 interceptor was moved to Chengdu under the Third Front policy of shifting defence industry inland, and became the 611 Institute. The J-9 was cancelled in 1980 without flying, but its canard layout lived on. In February 1984 the institute’s proposal — a design in the mould of Saab’s Viggen — won China’s new fighter competition, and Song Wencong, a Korean War veteran who had worked on the J-9, became chief designer at 56. The J-10 flew on 23 March 1998 with Lei Qiang at the controls. Western reports linked it to Israel’s cancelled Lavi; Song and Chinese officers credited the J-9 instead.

Thunder for Pakistan

The JF-17 grew out of sanctions. Pakistan’s Project Sabre II, an F-7 redesign studied with the American firm Grumman, died in 1989; Grumman also walked away from China’s Super 7 after the Tiananmen Square protests. In its place came the Fighter China-1 project in 1991, and in June 1999 China and Pakistan signed to develop and build it together. Under general designer Yang Wei, the prototype flew on 25 August 2003, less than four years from a standing start. Pakistan named it JF-17 Thunder. The first 50 Block 1 aircraft were completed in December 2013, 58 per cent of them in Pakistan, and more than 200 have since been built, with sales to Myanmar, Nigeria and Azerbaijan.

A stealth fighter on the day Gates came

On 11 January 2011, while US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was visiting Beijing, the first J-20 prototype, numbered 2001, flew for about 15 minutes with a J-10B chasing it. Gates asked President Hu Jintao about the timing directly; Hu said the test had nothing to do with the visit and appeared surprised to be asked. The J-20 entered service in March 2017, making China the second country to field an operational stealth fighter, and a two-seat version, the J-20S, began flight testing in 2021 as the first two-seat stealth fighter. Its designer, Yang Wei, had become director of the institute at 38. In 2026 his name was removed from the Chinese Academy of Sciences roster during an anti-corruption crackdown on the defence industry.

Tested in battle, seen in the sky

In May 2025 Chengdu’s fighters went to war. Pakistani J-10CEs, firing Chinese PL-15 missiles, fought the Indian Air Force in a stand-off battle involving more than 114 aircraft. Pakistan claimed five Indian aircraft, including three Rafales; a US official told Reuters he assessed with high confidence that J-10s had shot down at least two Indian jets. It was the J-10’s first combat use, and shares in Chengdu’s listed parent jumped. Months earlier, on 26 December 2024, a huge tailless three-engined aircraft had flown over Chengdu chased by a J-20S. Analysts call it the J-36. Chengdu showed a structural mock-up in September 2026; it is expected in service in the early 2030s.

Factories

• Chengdu airframe plant · Huangtianba, Qingyang District, Chengdu — Original Factory 132 site and main fighter assembly plant
• Wenjiang airfield · Wenjiang District, Chengdu — Company-owned flight-test airfield with its own railway siding; JF-17 taxi trials began here in 2003
• Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute (611 Institute) · 89 Wuhouci Street, Wuhou District, Chengdu — Design partner since 1970; designed the J-10, J-20, FC-1 and Wing Loong
• Chengdu Engine Company · Chengdu — Founded as Chengdu Aero-Engine Factory in 1958 on a 137-hectare site

People

• Song Wencong · chief designer of the J-10 — 1930–2016; Korean War veteran, worked on the J-9 before leading the J-10
• Yang Wei · general designer of the FC-1/JF-17 and J-20 — Born 1963; director of the design institute at 38; removed from the Chinese Academy of Sciences roster in 2026
• Lei Qiang · test pilot — Flew the J-10 on its first flight, 23 March 1998
• Li Gang · test pilot — Flew the J-20 on its first flight, 11 January 2011
• Tu Jida · former chief designer at the design institute
• Wang Guangya · chairman

Records and firsts

• J-20: made China the second country to field an operational stealth fighter, March 2017
• J-20S: the first two-seat stealth fighter
• FC-1/JF-17: first flight less than four years after work began from scratch, described as a Chinese record
• J-7: production ran for almost 50 years until May 2013
• J-10: first combat use in May 2025, in a battle involving more than 114 aircraft