Chopper ride thrills father of helicopter industry's widow
(english.jsjyt.edu.cn) Updated：2020-01-10
Wang Yunming embarks on her first helicopter ride at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Jan 1. [Photo/jschina.com.cn]
As helicopter AC311 gradually lifted off from the grounds of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics – or the NUAA -- and cruised over the Yangtze River on Jan 1, 93-year-old Wang Yunming finally experienced her first helicopter ride.
"I felt nice as the wind blew softly and warmly on my face," she said excitedly.
"That's what it's like to be in a helicopter and I can feel in my heart just how much I loved it," Wang added.
Wang was the wife of Wang Shicun, father of the Chinese helicopter industry and a professor at NUAA, who passed away in 2011. He has witnessed China's position in the helicopter sector rising from almost nothing to become an international leader.
From the "Wang Shicun Vortex Theory" to China's first in-house developed helicopter the Yan'an II, the master devoted his life to cultivating research and sowing the education seeds in the NUAA.
He helped lay a solid foundation for the school to become the one and only university in China that operates undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral education in the field.
Flying high into the sky, Wang Yunming sang My Motherland to memorialize her husband, as well as the beloved helicopters he was so dedicated to.
