Rising above all to touch the 'heart of an aircraft'

Shan Xiaoming is now one of China's top aero-engine designers who has played a leading role in the research and development of several advanced aircraft propulsion systems.

But back to 42 years ago, the then 19-year-old woman had never ever seen a single plane, let alone had any basic knowledge about aircraft. "I was born in May 1965 in a small township in Guizhou province. My father was a retired soldier of the People's Liberation Army and worked at the local government at that time, and my mother was an employee at a food store. Neither my parents, my brother, my two sisters nor I knew anything about aircraft," she said.

During her primary and middle school years, Shan was an excellent student, often ranking first in terms of test scores at school. Besides doing well in school, she was able to handle every kind of farm work and often helped her parents.

After taking the national college entrance examination in the summer of 1984, when it came time to choose her major, the girl applied for the aero-engine design program at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Jiangsu province.

"When I was filling out my application form, no one was there to advise me on which major to pick. I chose the aero-engine major at NUAA simply because of one particular line in the school's colorful admission brochure. In bold letters, it read: 'Aero-engine is the heart of the aircraft.' That was all I saw. I thought to myself: I don't know anything about it, but the 'heart of an aircraft' sounds really cool! So I decided right then: that's the major I'm going to study," she said.

While at the university, she met her husband, who was also a gifted student.

After four years, they both graduated with bachelor's degrees. Her husband, who was her boyfriend at that time, was assigned to Zhuzhou, Hunan province, to work at an aero-engine factory, while Shan chose to pursue a master's degree at NUAA.

When she earned her master's degree in 1991, she turned down many job opportunities in big cities and decided to accept the offer from Hunan Aviation Powerplant Research Institute, which is also located in Zhuzhou, to begin her career in design and testing on aero-engines.

For the first 10-plus years at this institute, the woman was primarily engaged in aero-engine testing and experimentation. This work aligned with her postgraduate studies, where she specialized in engine control technology.

She excelled consistently in this field and was gradually promoted to a team leader and then deputy chief designer for testing and metrology at the institute.

In 2008, the institute began cooperating with Turbomeca of France, which later became Safran Helicopter Engines, to develop the WZ-16 turboshaft engine, which would serve as the powerplant for medium-sized helicopters like the AC352.

As Shan has a good command of English and is highly proficient in testing and measurement, she was appointed deputy chief designer of the WZ-16 program. She also became the institute's first controller for airworthiness certification.

During the development of the WZ-16, a key component called the filter unit emerged as a formidable obstacle standing in the Chinese team's way, as it is sophisticated and had never been designed by Chinese engineers. Faced with such a tough challenge, Shan and her team refused to back down.

"The pressure was overwhelming, but we had no way out — we simply could not afford to give up," she said.

Under her leadership, the team started entirely from scratch, pioneering innovative structures and methods. Time and again, they rose from failure and kept pushing forward, determined to find a way through. Against all odds, the team not only conquered critical technical hurdles, but also achieved extraordinary results: compared with original design requirements, they cut the number of parts by 65 percent and reduced weight by 40 percent, with several technologies registered as national patents.

Due to Shan's contribution and devotion, she has been named a member of several expert panels of aviation industry standardization.

The designer has been a deputy to the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, since 2018.

Looking back at her career, Shan said: "I've essentially witnessed the gradual improvement of research conditions at our institute over the years. For instance, back when we were running certain tests, we had only one piece of specialized equipment. All it produced was raw punched-paper data tapes. After each test, we had to stay in the office, measuring, calculating and marking the data with a ruler, before we could discuss it with other engineers.

"What's more, we often had to carry the equipment on a bicycle to different laboratories for use. We also had very few sensors at hand, so we frequently had to unscrew them from one instrument and reuse them on another."

Thanks to the rapid rise of China's aviation industry over the past years, tremendous changes have taken place at her institute.

"Now, we already have advanced hardware and software. As soon as we finish a test, the test data is generated instantly and is uploaded remotely in real time, transmitted directly from the test facility to our office, so designers can view it right on their computers," she said.

In terms of the number of models, the designer said, when she started working at the institute, it only had one or two aero-engine models under development.

"Today, after decades of State investment and our hard work, we have successfully built a number of advanced models, and dozens of new types, with different functions, are under research and development," she said.