Into the skies

The World Fly-in Expo (WFE), an aerobatics fest hosted by the World Air Sports Federation, kicks off in Wuhan, Hubei Province from Saturday to Tuesday. It’s the first time the event is being held in China, and is set to boast 788 aircraft, 588 of which will take part in air shows while the other 200 will go on exhibition.

The more than 1,000 aircraft and flying vehicles at the event include various kinds of parachuting planes, transporters, renowned historical aircraft and light sport planes innovated in China.

Attended by more than 1,000 participants from 37 countries and regions, the international aircraft expo is regarded as a good opportunity to push forward the air sports industry in China.

In recent years, air sport has become one of the newly emerging sports industries with great potential that the Chinese government has put great emphasis on, as it involves the use of high technology and can also stimulate the development of related industries.

For the same reason, the World Fly-in Expo is part of the development plan for the air sports industry as put forward by the General Administration of Sport of China and other authorities last year. The plan aims to make the exhibition an international event popular with air sports lovers all over the world and further extend it into normalized air sports activities. Experts say that the coming several years will see rapid development in this industry.

As well as regular aerial displays and flight competitions, this year the exhibition also features interactive events such as flight simulators and virtual reality.