Aerobatics in an attack helicopter

The Thunder team (Fenglei in Chinese) is the first helicopter aerobatic team of the PLA’s army aviation. It was formed in 2013 and flies the CAIC Z-10, China’s dedicated attack helicopter. In July 2015 Chinese state media showed its leader, Li Kuiyuan, flying a Z-10 display at a base in Liaocheng, Shandong. They described him as having 7,000 accident-free hours and as the first pilot in China to loop an armed helicopter. The team was preparing then for the third China (Tianjin) International Helicopter Exposition that September.

Under the 81st Group Army

In the 2017 reorganisation of the PLA into theatre commands and group armies, the team was placed under the army aviation brigade of the 81st Group Army in the Central Theater Command. That army’s headquarters is at Zhangjiakou, Hebei. Lists of Z-10 operators still name the Thunder team as a separate unit of the Central Theater Command army aviation. It has displayed at the Tianjin helicopter exposition.