An escort for Sukarno

The team began as an escort. When Indonesian President Sukarno visited China in 1961, his side asked for eight fighters to escort his aircraft once it entered Chinese airspace, and Premier Zhou Enlai had air force commander Liu Yalou put together an escort group for the visit. On 1 February 1962 Liu ordered the formation of a PLA escort and display group, which the Central Military Commission confirmed on 15 February. Its job was to welcome foreign leaders and fly ceremonial and aerobatic displays. It took the name August 1st, after the PLA’s founding date in 1927, on 1 August 1987.

Seven aircraft types in six decades

Chinese Wikipedia lists seven aircraft types. The team started on the J-5, a licence-built MiG-17, moving to the J-6 in 1974 and to the two-seat JJ-5 in 1980. In 1995 it went supersonic with the J-7EB, followed in 2005 by the J-7GB. Because these were all front-line types or close derivatives, the team has always flown aircraft that the air force also used operationally. For most of its history it was the PLAAF’s only display team. Two training-school teams, Sky Wing and Red Falcon, joined it in 2011.

The J-10 era

The J-10 arrived in 2009, with display-modified single-seat J-10AY and two-seat J-10SY aircraft. The new aircraft made their public debut in November 2009, the month of the PLAAF’s 60th anniversary. Chinese Wikipedia gives the fleet as eleven aircraft, flown in blue, white and red. In 2023 it re-equipped with the J-10C and first showed it abroad at LIMA in Malaysia that May. The team is based at Yangcun near Tianjin. After the 2016 reforms it moved from the Beijing Military Region air force to the Central Theater Command air force. In 2015 its pilots had to be under 36, with 800 flying hours, including 200 on the J-10.

Accidents and Yu Xu

Several accidents are recorded, with few details released. Three aircraft crashed in Tianjin during practice in June 1997. One aircraft came down near Chongming Island, Shanghai, on 15 September 1998, and a J-7GB crashed at Yangcun on 14 July 2009 while the team was practising for the 60th-anniversary National Day parade. The most widely reported came on 12 November 2016. A two-seat J-10 crashed in Hebei during training, and Captain Yu Xu, one of the first four Chinese women qualified on third-generation fighters, was killed. She ejected but struck another aircraft. Her male crewmate ejected and was injured.

A diplomatic instrument

The team has also been a diplomatic instrument. By the time of its first overseas trip, to MAKS near Moscow in August 2013, it had performed more than 500 times for delegations from 166 countries and regions. It has since flown at the joint PAF-PLAAF show at Samungli in 2017, at the Pakistan Day parade in Islamabad in March 2019, at the Singapore Airshow in 2020 and 2026, at LIMA in 2015 and 2023, and at the Royal Thai Air Force’s 88th anniversary in 2025. At home it flies regularly at the Zhuhai air show.