Storage Center for Fighters, Transport Planes, Bombers of Air Force

Storage Center for Fighters, Transport Planes, Bombers of Air Force
Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao, 17 March 1997 page E3
In June 1993, the U.S. intelligence agency acquired, through its reconnaissance satellites, information that China had gathered over 1,000 fighters, transport planes, and bombers in a certain place in central China, as if it was preparing for a war. However, after taking great pains, the U.S. military finally found out the truth: The Chinese Air Force was building an exceptionally big aircraft depot to accommodate retired planes outside the establishment equipment series. It ranks first in Asia and second in the world in scale.
The peace-time storage and management of surplus equipment is a new task for the military leadership of all countries. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union gathered their surplus aircraft for storage, and adopted advanced and scientific methods to manage them. Their experience accumulated in maintaining, renovating, and using the aircraft has attracted the attention of military scientists of various countries.
Surrounded by Mountains on Three Sides, the Depot Is Several Thousand Meters Long; It Was Formerly Lin Biao's Stronghold for Operations
In late 1980's, the Chinese military made a major decision to reduce the size of the Armed Forces. The troops were cut by 1 million. A large number of planes were released from military service and became surplus, of which those which were still useful were to be stored properly to meet the needs of training and possible warfare. Senior officers of the Air Force racked their brains to work out ways to manage this colossal wealth. After carrying out many kinds of feasibility study, they decided to set up an "Air Force aircraft storage center," and appointed Lieutenant General Lin Hu, then deputy commander of the Air Force, as general director to take care of the project.
The storage center, which is located in a certain place in central China, was formerly an airport, surrounded by mountains on three sides. The spacious several-thousand- meter-long cave [meaning the defunct airport], which was built during the "Cultural Revolution," when the authorities called for "preparing against war and natural disasters" and for "digging deep holes in the earth and accumulating great stores of grain," provided a comparatively ideal place for storing airplanes. According to a report, when planning to stage a military coup, Lin Biao made this cave one of his operation centers. A hollow on the right side of the aircraft depot was designed to store Lin Biao's special plane, but it finally could not be put to use.
The aircraft storage center, which took over three years to build, can really be called a military aircraft museum. The storehouse and the runway, which were built in a cave and were newly renovated, are lined with more than 1,000 retired aircraft of different periods and different types, including fighter series manufactured by China and the Mig series manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 1950's and 1960's. Among them, the most seasoned may be a big U.S.-manufactured C-46 transport plane, which scored brilliant military success during World War II. This giant can no longer operate properly because of being out of use for a long time. The personnel sent by the storage center to collect it from a place 1,000 li away had to disassemble it into several parts before loading it onto trucks for transport.
The storage center has three purposes: One, taking over and storing retired aircraft from all Air Force units armywide; two, routine maintenance for those planes still functioning well; and three, renovating old and broken aircraft.
The United States Has Aircraft Storehouses Built in Deserts, While Russia Has Stored Aircraft Under the Sea
It is not easy to store aircraft for a long time. Special and strict conditions are usually required to achieve this. Relevant information proves that the United States has aircraft storehouses built in dry deserts, while Russia has its aircraft stored under the sea. China is not provided with the above two natural conditions for building aircraft depots, so it can only store them in a cave or in the open as it is doing now, making the job extremely difficult. This is because if aircraft are stored in the open for a long time, the sheeting sealing the cabins will gradually age and break, leading to pools of water in the cabins on rainy days. Again, excessive humidity in a cave also easily erodes aircraft components.
To overcome above difficulties, the storage center has developed a whole set of brand new maintenance and management measures. For those aircraft stored in the open, they use new materials to mothball the whole aircraft to keep them at the anti-rust and anti- bacteria critical temperature and humidity. They also subject precision instruments to partial de-oxygenation treatment. The new techniques can protect aircraft stored in the open from damage for as long as six years. When the aircraft are unsealed, they will have preserved their original performance and function well.
Mothballing Whole Aircraft in Open Air, Storing Aircraft in Caves by Controlling Temperature, Humidity
With regard to the aircraft stored in caves, the center has adopted another, totally different mothballing measure. Through experiment, it has attained the aim of controlling airframe humidity, temperature, and anti-rust oil molecule density and adjusting them at any time according to changes in the micro-climate of the caves. They call this method of mothballing "meteorological mothballing."
Apart from maintaining aircraft that function satisfactorily, another job of the center is to dismantle and reprocess old and useless aircraft. There is an aluminum metallurgical workshop in the center. In this simple and crude workshop, they have dismantled more than 100 aircraft and smelted more than 100 tonnes of aluminum ingots from abandoned parts. The useful parts and components, however, are delivered to the air-material maintenance plant for renovation. The plant currently can repair more than 300 items and annually recover hundreds of aircraft engines, as well as 10,000-odd pieces of other equipment.

[PTS Translated Text for FBIS "CHINA: Column on Air Force Aircraft Storage Center" 7 Mar 1997 FBIS-CHI-97-051]
THIS REPORT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.