Yilan model museum revisits aviation history

2014-09-04

A model airplane exhibition recently wrapped up in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County, tracing the history of aviation since the Wright brothers made the first powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight in 1903.

Staged by local nonprofit organization Yilan Leadership Development Association last month at Yilan Youth Communication Center, the exhibition featured 300 scale models of historic aircraft. These include the Antonov An-225, Boeing 777-200ER and a Consolidated PBY-5A flying boat in the livery of Taoyuan County-based China Airlines Co. Ltd.

All of the models were collected by Huang Jing-sheng and Huang Wei-feng, co-curators of the exhibition and undergraduate students at Tamkang University’s Department of Aerospace Engineering. They share a passion for flight and aviation history developed at a young age.

“The An-225 was designed by the Soviet Union in the 1980s,” Huang Jing-sheng said. “With a length of 84 meters, wingspan of 88 meters and maximum gross weight of 600 metric tons, it remains the world’s largest operational cargo plane.”

Huang Wei-feng was equally enthusiastic about the Boeing 777-200ER. “This reliable fly-by-wire aircraft is an aviation industry legend revered for its reliability and safety,” he said. “The loss of a Malaysia Airlines 777-200ER over Ukraine in July was an unfortunate mishap that does not reflect the peerless operation record of the jet.”

But both Huangs hold a special place in their hearts for the PBY-5A, used in a wide range of military and air-sea rescue roles from 1935 to the late 1950s. “China Airlines operated two of the Catalinas in 1959, offering charter flights from Taipei City to Sun Moon Lake,” they said.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=221271&CtNode=413)