WUHAN FLY-IN EXPO,A Big Feast for World FLIERS

By Xu Kuang

Translation by Yu Lan

WUHAN FLY-IN EXPO,A Big Feast for World FLIERS

By Xu Kuang

Translation by Yu Lan

“The sky is blue, the Yangtze River is vast,and the citizens of Wuhan are cheering for the pilots. It is a magnificent aviation sports event,” said Frits Brink, president of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). The 2017 FAI World Fly-in Expo in Wuhan was an unforgettable event.

The four-day expo was held in Hannan Airport,Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. It was the only comprehensive aviation sports event in the Asia-Pacific area that was authorized by the FAI. Thousands of pilots and athletes from over 40 countries and regions initiated a grand “flight gala” here.

At 9 a.m., on November 4th, a white lightwinged aircraft flew over the expo and displayed a 500 meter poster, marking the opening ceremony.Elite pilots from America, Spain, and Latvia presented extraordinary performances. They skydived in many glittering patterns such as “the fireworks setting,” “the fairy dancing,” “the flag floating,” and “the air relay” one after another.At 4 p.m., over 100 paramotors took off, bringing the performance to a climax. There were 192 performances that day, in which 107 aircrafts participated.

“Aircrafts are soaring into the blue sky. City of the sky... In the night of a foreign land, I’m feeling the flicker of your lights.” At 8 p.m., the local folk singer Li Zhi highlighted the night by singing the song “City of the Sky.” Up till then, the highspirited atmosphere had lasted for 12 hours.

The second day, the weather was perfect for the performances. The blue sky and white clouds constituted the best background for the display.Paramotors, delta wing paragliders, rotorcraft,and aerobatic planes came to the stage one after another. The record-breaking performance of the paramotors team and the taking off of the experiential hot air balloon took this expo to a new level, igniting the audience’s passion and curiosity.

Boris, a French paramotor pilot, who was invited to perform at the expo, said that he had met a lot of flying experts in Wuhan. “I’ve never seen a night paramotors performance like what we did on the night of the 4th before. Just this one event alone was worth the trip.”

On the 6th, the hot air balloon weddings of 100 couples were held at the expo. The air was filled with romance.

“藍(lán)色的天空，寬闊的長(zhǎng)江。熱情的武漢人為飛行員加油鼓掌，這是一次盛大精彩的航空體育盛會(huì)?！眹?guó)際航聯(lián)主席福瑞斯·布蘭克聲言，武漢世界飛行者大會(huì)是一屆讓人印象深刻的盛會(huì)。

2017國(guó)際航聯(lián)世界飛行者大會(huì)為期四天，在武漢經(jīng)濟(jì)開發(fā)區(qū)漢南通用機(jī)場(chǎng)隆重舉辦。這是國(guó)際航聯(lián)在亞太地區(qū)唯一授權(quán)的綜合性航空體育活動(dòng)。來自全球40多個(gè)國(guó)家和地區(qū)的千余名飛行員、運(yùn)動(dòng)員，開啟一場(chǎng)盛大的“飛行狂歡”。

11月4日9時(shí)，一架白色輕型飛機(jī)拖拽500平方米的巨幅海報(bào)飛過會(huì)場(chǎng)，揭開此次盛會(huì)的神秘面紗。來自美國(guó)、西班牙、拉脫維亞等國(guó)家的表演隊(duì)駕駛各自的滑翔機(jī)、動(dòng)力傘、旋翼機(jī)，表演“禮花飛舞”“仙女下凡”“彩旗天降”和“空中造型”等項(xiàng)目，一撥接一撥，讓觀眾目不睱接。16時(shí)許，近100架動(dòng)力傘相繼升空，將飛行表演推向高潮。當(dāng)天的飛行表演共192架次，參加表演的飛行器107架。

“飛機(jī)飛過天空，天空之城……此刻我在異鄉(xiāng)的夜里，感覺著你忽明忽暗……”晚8時(shí)許，當(dāng)民謠歌手李志唱響《天空之城》，瞬間全場(chǎng)觀眾嗨翻，在世界飛行者大會(huì)，這種熱度已經(jīng)持續(xù)12個(gè)小時(shí)。

大會(huì)第二天，天氣給力，藍(lán)天白云成為飛行表演最好的背景。動(dòng)力傘、三角翼滑翔傘、自旋翼飛機(jī)、特技飛機(jī)等表演，你方唱罷我登場(chǎng)，動(dòng)力傘編隊(duì)創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的表演，體驗(yàn)式的熱氣球升空，將盛會(huì)掀向新的高度，讓觀眾直呼過癮。

法國(guó)動(dòng)力傘飛行員博瑞斯受邀參加此次表演，他興奮表示，來到武漢后結(jié)識(shí)很多飛行高手?！?日晚我們進(jìn)行動(dòng)力傘夜航表演，這在法國(guó)還沒見過，真是不虛此行?！?/p>

6日，大會(huì)舉辦100對(duì)新人的熱氣球婚禮，浪漫情調(diào)彌漫全場(chǎng)。

“太讓人興奮，這是我做的最率性的事，沒有事先計(jì)劃，真不可思議。兩周前，尚恩在跳傘錦標(biāo)賽中獲得銀牌，上周，我們?cè)诿绹?guó)亞利桑那州參與創(chuàng)造217人同時(shí)跳傘的世界紀(jì)錄，今天，我們就結(jié)婚了，一切都充滿驚喜?！本幪?hào)100的一對(duì)新人來自英國(guó)，他們相戀十年，新娘喜不自勝。

“It is so exciting. This is one of the most spontaneous things I’ve ever done. I had no plans beforehand. It is all so incredible. Two weeks ago, Shawn got the silver medal at the Skydiving Championship. Last week in Arizona, we took part in setting a new world record of 217 people skydiving. And today, we are married. Everything is full of surprises,”the bride of couple No. 100 said with joy. The couple was from Britain.

In this expo, Wuhan held the Third New Private Economy Investment Promotion Conference and General Aviation Industry Signing Ceremony. Wuhan Development Zone signed 19 projects and attracted investments totaling 1.45 billion yuan. The projects ranged from the fields of navigation manufacturing,assembling, maintaining, training, and operating to even satellite technology application.

Mr. Brink spoke highly of Wuhan’s efforts,applauding the expo as an event integrating sport, contest, and industry, which set a new modality for air sports and navigation industry. “I’ve seen a lot of contracts being signed here. Everything is very unusual here.Since there is such a platform, we’d love to participate and offer help.”

He also believes China, as one of the fastest developing countries, is going to play a more important role in air sports. “In my homeland in the Netherlands, air sports are developing very well. We are only a small country with ten million people. With China’s enormous population, the future of air sports in China is going to be even more wonderful.”?

Journalist Li Yuan and pilots from Team AeroDynamix,who averaged about 60 years old記者李源與爺爺飛行隊(duì)合影

Team AeroDynamix performing爺爺飛行隊(duì)在表演

本次大會(huì)中，武漢市舉行第三批新民營(yíng)經(jīng)濟(jì)招商大會(huì)暨通用航空產(chǎn)業(yè)專場(chǎng)集中簽約儀式。武漢開發(fā)區(qū)簽下19個(gè)項(xiàng)目，攬下1450億元投資。項(xiàng)目覆蓋通航制造、組裝、維修、培訓(xùn)、運(yùn)營(yíng)服務(wù)和衛(wèi)星技術(shù)應(yīng)用等領(lǐng)域。

布林克稱贊武漢將運(yùn)動(dòng)、賽事和產(chǎn)業(yè)結(jié)合起來，為航空運(yùn)動(dòng)和通航產(chǎn)業(yè)樹立新樣式?！拔铱吹酱舜未髸?huì)上簽訂不少合同，這里發(fā)生的一切很不尋常。既然有這樣的交流平臺(tái)，我們也愿意參與進(jìn)來，提供幫助?！?/p>

他還堅(jiān)信，作為世界發(fā)展最快的國(guó)家之一，中國(guó)將在飛行運(yùn)動(dòng)中扮演更重要角色?！霸谖业淖鎳?guó)荷蘭，航空運(yùn)動(dòng)一直發(fā)展得很好，但我們只有一千多萬人，考慮到中國(guó)龐大的人口，未來將更加精彩?！?

40國(guó)飛行者的盛宴

文/許曠 譯/于蘭