The 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition has concluded. Over the past decade, what changes have occurred at the China Airshow? According to industry reporters, the most prominent changes mainly include the following aspects:

Comprehensive and Professional

From an aerospace expo to the current arms pavilion, low-altitude economy pavilion, etc., the scale of the China Airshow is growing larger.

Walking from the westernmost Hall 1 to the easternmost Arms Pavilion and Halls 11-13, if visitors take a detailed look at the exhibits, they will need at least two days at the China Airshow.

Walking from Hall 1 to Hall 13, the variety of exhibits spans "land, sea, air, space, electricity, and network". Considering that while moving through the halls, one can also hear the roar of engines from the flight demonstrations outside, this combination of sounds creates a strong sense of a multiverse, as if one ticket allows access to multiple exhibitions.

At the 15th China Airshow, up close is the FTC-2000G under a telephoto lens, and in the distance is the Z-8L performing a flight demonstration. The "combination of movement and stillness" does not stop there; ground equipment is also in motion.

It can be said that as a comprehensive aerospace and defense industry exhibition, the China Airshow is currently irreplaceable in the country and even in the Asian region. This also makes it a platform for communication and cooperation across various categories and business fields.

For example, during the first professional day of the 15th China Airshow, if you stop to closely examine a certain exhibit or display board, staff from the booth will approach to introduce their product technology, proudly discussing how their technology leads in the field or has been practically applied. Finally, after exchanging identities, they will swap business cards or "scan each other's QR codes".

In addition to the leading domestic and foreign enterprises gathered here, there are also many small booths of a few square meters around the center of each exhibition hall. The exhibitors include universities and research institutes, companies that have been incubated or started by these institutions, companies founded by industry veterans, as well as independent enterprises after "mixed ownership reform"; there are listed companies, "specialized, refined, unique, and innovative" enterprises, local "little giant" companies, and startups targeting "unmanned", "low-altitude economy", and "commercial space"...

The anti-drone niche market is also becoming more refined. For example, regarding how to "non-lethally" drive away or intercept drones or ground personnel that intrude into military training areas during exercises, the image shows a solution provided by a private enterprise: a multi-rotor drone equipped with a "net projectile" for interception.

There is a widely circulated story: more than 30 years ago, when the director of the Black Sea Shipyard, Makarov, said that the "Varyag" could not be completed, he left behind a sorrowful remark... What he referred to as "600 related specialties and 8,000 supporting manufacturers" has been vividly materialized at the 15th China Airshow—these enterprises hidden in "cubicles".

Although the vast majority of them are not known to the public and rarely make it to the headlines of major media, this does not diminish their industry status: they are an organic part of China's aerospace industry chain and defense industry, continuously exerting the power of "gathering sand to form a tower".

From the "Varyag" to the Liaoning ship, then to the Shandong ship and Fujian ship, from ski-jump takeoff to catapult takeoff (in the image below, the J-15T of the naval aviation is performing the "reverse landing" maneuver during a flight demonstration, pulling up and retracting its landing gear), the development of China's aircraft carrier program cannot be separated from the support from "cubicles".

Frontier, Forward-looking, and Exclusivity

The biennial China Airshow is also an important "official announcement" platform.

During the "Airshow Week", when the curtain was lifted on the world's only twin-seat stealth fighter—the J-20S, the audience raised new questions: Is the rear seat a command seat? Is it a remote control seat for drones?...

Similarly, when the J-35A, adorned with the 75th anniversary emblem of the People's Air Force, made its first "official announcement" and left a stunning glimpse over Zhuhai, how will these two fifth-generation fighters coordinate in the future? How will the J-20 and J-35A work together? From "Three Musketeers" to "Four Musketeers", how will the People's Air Force forge a new quality of combat capability?

These questions are considered frontier topics for everyone. The answers may be hidden in more news in the future.

The J-15T in the ground static area, with its folded wings, cannot hide the "blade" under its wings.

The PL-15E internal buried version (with folding wings) makes its debut, "hidden" in the weapon bays of the J-20 and J-35 families.

Similar "happy troubles" also exist with the J-15T, which is making its first public appearance.

Compared to the J-15 "Flying Shark", the J-15T has a launch tow bar "growing" on its front landing gear. How will this unique heavy carrier-based aircraft perform in the deep blue sea? How will it team up with the new generation carrier-based aircraft, the J-35?

Additionally, we cannot forget that at the 15th China Airshow, the Y-20, which diligently performed flight demonstrations every day, showcased a powerful and battlefield-like "Afghan-style landing".

"Wings of a Great Power". The Y-20's wings are "supercritical wings", with the upper surface almost flat, a blunt round leading edge, and the lower surface near the trailing edge being concave, with the trailing edge thinning and bending down.

The Chinese military workers who achieve these "uniques" continue to explore in various cutting-edge technical fields, constantly providing "Chinese-style solutions".

For example, the various unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipment showcased intensively at recent China Airshows have become quite comprehensive in performance. However, while achieving heavy and long-endurance capabilities, high-end UAVs inevitably face issues such as high unit costs and significant combat losses. In response, a Chinese-style solution is "distributed operations": decomposing multifunctional and reconnaissance-strike capabilities, deploying them onto consumable, low-cost UAV platforms, and achieving the core capabilities of "high-end UAVs" through their scale networking and clustering. On the real battlefield, even if one such UAV is shot down, another in the network can immediately take over reconnaissance, strike, and other tasks.