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Li Zhiqiang and his team put together the tens of thousands of parts that make an aircraft engine. And there is no room for error.

Li and his team are ordinary assembly workers at the Shenyang Liming Aircraft Engine Group Corporation in northeast China’s Liaoning province. Their job is to put together aircraft engines that send fighter jets roaring into the sky.

“An engine to a plane is like a heart to a human, so we need to make sure every engine is strong enough,” he said.

Li Zhiqiang

Li’s workplace is where China’s first aircraft engine was born. Every aircraft engine assembled there can bear a temperature of more 1,500 degree Celsius, high enough to melt steel. In addition, the engines can at present only be assembled by Li and his team.

“To tell the truth, the time when I first stepped into the workshop, I was scared. The aircraft engine is too complicated that I even doubted if I was capable of making all parts in it right. But look, thirty years have passed, and I have assembled hundreds of them,” he said.

This is the assembly guide, which used to be consulted every day. But for Li Zhiqiang, there is no need to thumb through the book, as all procedures have long been learned by heart.

Assembling an aircraft engine is fine work, and is similar to putting together the core of a mechanical watch. Moreover, the assembly work currently can only be done manually.

“During the process of assembly, tightening a screw is the easiest. But to tighten it perfectly, i.e., not too loose or not too tight, is not as easy. There is no room for error,” he said.

Li Zhiqiang and his team put together the tens of thousands of parts that make an aircraft engine.

Nowadays, most of China’s domestic fighter jets are equipped with aircraft engines assembled by Li and his team. Those fighter jets have not only had flown throughout raging storms, but also over Tian’anmen Square during military parades.

Before Li’s father passed away, he too worked for years in the country’s aviation industry. Deeply influenced by his father’s passion for aviation, Li Zhiqiang’s son has also chosen the same path.

Li Zhiqiang and his team put together the tens of thousands of parts that make an aircraft engine.

Li Zhiqiang and his team put together the tens of thousands of parts that make an aircraft engine.

“I am now working as a tester for the company. After my father has finished assembly, I will test whether he is doing a good job,” he said.

“When I was little, I had to do almost everything by myself, because my father was too busy. And our neighbors always blamed my father for not taking care of me. But I feel very proud of my father.”

For Li Zhiqiang, his devotion to the country’s aviation industry is the pride of his family. Li says although his father is gone, he believes he would be proud of him, too, if he saw China’s fighter jets flying through the sky.