Helicopters in the porcelain city

Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province is famous for a thousand years of porcelain. Since 1969 it has also been home to Changhe, a state enterprise that has become one of China’s two main helicopter makers and a contractor to the People’s Liberation Army. Today it is part of AVIC, employs about 4,300 people on two sites, and once made cars too: its Changhe machinery arm became a major Chinese car maker.

The Super Frelon, Chinese-style

China bought the French SA 321 Super Frelon in the 1970s and began licence production at Changhe in 1976. It did not go smoothly. Work stopped until 1984, and the first Chinese Z-8 flew only on 11 December 1985. Production was slow in the 1990s, but the 2008 Sichuan earthquake showed what a heavy helicopter could do, and the type was reborn as a dozen variants and the improved Z-18, able to work from the Tibetan Plateau. The Army alone had 135 Z-8Fs by 2025.

Z-10 and the cars

Changhe also built the Z-11, a light helicopter that first flew in December 1994 and was billed as China’s first indigenous design, though it owes much to the Eurocopter AS350. Then came the Z-10, designed by AVIC’s 602nd Institute with preliminary work by Kamov. It flew on 29 April 2003 and entered Army service in 2009 or 2010; 208 were in service by 2022. Changhe also builds parts for Sikorsky and ran a joint venture with Agusta.

Fabrieken

• Jingdezhen works · Jingdezhen, Jiangxi — Two production sites, 1.29 million and 0.22 million sq m of floor area

Mensen

• Wu Ximing · chief designer — Chief designer of the Z-11 and the Z-10

Records en primeurs

• Z-11 was the first Chinese helicopter designed entirely with CAD/CAM
• Z-18A reached 9,000 m in high-altitude trials, January 2015