Twelve reforms since 1951

AVIC in its current form dates from November 2008, but its roots go back to April 1951, when the new People’s Republic set up an aviation industry bureau under the Ministry of Heavy Industry. Over the following decades the industry was reorganised at least twelve times: as bureaus of successive machine-building ministries, as the Third Ministry of Machine Building, as a Ministry of Aviation Industry in 1982, as part of a combined aerospace ministry in 1988 and, from 1993, as the China Aviation Industry Corporation, a state company with ministerial rank.

Split in two, then rejoined

In July 1999 Beijing split the corporation into AVIC I and AVIC II, each with military and civil aircraft plants, hoping competition would sharpen them. It mostly produced duplicated projects and divided resources, and in November 2008 the two were merged back together as AVIC, shedding unrelated businesses such as motorcycles and car parts. The new group then gave away two of its crown jewels: civil jetliners went to COMAC, in which AVIC kept about a quarter, and in 2016 aero-engines went to the new Aero Engine Corporation of China. In 2017 AVIC became a wholly state-owned limited company supervised by SASAC.

Buying Cirrus and Continental

What remains is vast. AVIC lists some 200 subsidiaries and institutes, including the Shenyang, Chengdu, Xi’an, Guizhou, Hongdu, Harbin, Changhe and Shaanxi aircraft plants, more than 20 listed companies and about 500,000 employees. It was ranked 140th in the Fortune Global 500 in 2021 and sixth among the world’s defence contractors in 2022, with total revenue of about 79 billion dollars. Abroad it bought the American engine maker Continental Motors in 2010, Cirrus Aircraft in 2011 and parts supplier Align Aerospace in 2015.

The Mighty Dragon

The best-known AVIC product is the Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon, a twin-engined stealth fighter that first flew on 11 January 2011 with test pilot Li Gang and chief designer Yang Wei looking on. It entered service in March 2017, making China the second country to field an operational stealth fighter, and production rose to an estimated 100 or more a year; by mid-2025 around 300 were in service. A two-seat J-20S, the first two-seat stealth fighter, was revealed in 2024. In 2009 The Wall Street Journal reported that hackers had stolen Joint Strike Fighter data, and AVIC has been alleged to have used it in the J-20 and FC-31.

Airlifters, flying boats and sanctions

AVIC’s Xi’an Y-20, first flown on 26 January 2013, gave China its own large strategic airlifter and a tanker version. The AG600 amphibian, which AVIC calls the largest in the world, flew from Zhuhai on 24 December 2017, received its type certificate in 2025 and began deliveries that October. The group’s links with the People’s Liberation Army have brought sanctions: from November 2020 a US executive order barred Americans from holding shares in it, and in 2023 researchers reported AVIC shipments of Su-35 parts to a sanctioned Russian defence company.

Fábricas

• Chengdu Aircraft Corporation · Chengdu, Sichuan — J-10 and J-20
• Shenyang Aircraft Corporation · Shenyang, Liaoning — J-11, J-15, J-16, J-35
• Xi’an Aircraft Industry · Xi’an, Shaanxi — H-6, Y-20, MA60
• Harbin Aircraft Industry · Harbin, Heilongjiang — Helicopters and joint ventures with Embraer and Airbus
• Hongdu Aviation · Nanchang, Jiangxi — Trainers

Pessoas

• Yang Wei · J-20 chief designer
• Li Gang · test pilot — Flew the J-20 on its first flight, 11 January 2011

Recordes e pioneirismos

• J-20S: first two-seat stealth fighter, spotted 2021, revealed 2024
• AG600: claimed by AVIC as the world’s largest amphibious aircraft in production