Reporter in China exposes illegal aircraft manufacturing industry

Posted by heavyarmormecha@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 56 comments

An investigative journalist from CCTV-2 (China Central Television's channel for economic and business programs) posing as a potential buyer, was able to get footage from an "illegal aircraft manufacturing workshop" in Shandong province and Sichuan province.

The "workshop" in Shandong is actually a noodle making factory, but also makes custom ordered aircraft in their free time. The reporter noted that many aircraft components in the factory is badly kept, and shows signs of rusting. The "workshop" even converts a patch of farmland nearby into a 800-meter runway for "flight-testing".

The "workshop" in Sichuan is mass-producing their self-designed aircraft, with 20 aircrafts off the assembly line, and 18 already sold. The person in charge claimed their aircraft can reach speeds of 180+km/h, and heights of 3000+meters.

The reporter noted that none of the aircrafts were certified for airworthiness, none of the sellers nor buyers have any sort of formal training or certification to handle aircrafts.

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mithie007@reddit

There are no regs for ultralights.

There's also a lot of ultralight enthusiast influencer content on Douying (Chinese tiktok).

I'm in the Shanghai Yacht Club (not for yachting but it's basically a big franchise club now for hobbyist aviation. I fly drones.) and some of the members here on the ultralight side of the room are very, very, very insane.

Easy access to hobbyist aviation parts + a huge RC market + plentiful aftermarket workshops + lack of regs on ultralight + lots and lots of relatively empty land to fly around in + influencers building their own stuff in a cave with a box of scraps for views = redneck ultralights. Redneck ultralights everywhere.

Rotor and autogyro craft are fairly rare though. Most are just UL gliders with RC jet engines/turbines strapped to the frame and diving off of scenic spots like Mt. Taishan.

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Recoil42@reddit

So what's the CCTV angle here, then? Isn't this basically just like every one of the other tens (hundreds?) of thousands of toolshed operations making redneck machinery across China?

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mithie007@reddit

CCTV believe it or not does a lot of investigative journalism and while there are a ton of private workshops doing customized work probably none of them are moonlighting as a completely separate business.

Also, when I say no regs for ultralight, I mean no *additional* regs for ultralight. Any workshop doing commercial manufacturing work needs the bare basics of the usual ISO certifications which includes, among others, audited financials, work permits, proof of training, etc, etc.

For example I fly a few jet turbine drones I put together myself and all my aftermarket parts are from qualified vendors with the proper certifications... and I still keep track of my BOM fully knowing I will probably never need to share it with the authorities. But in the event my drone crashes into some aunty's house and kills her dog - that then becomes an aviation incident, and I will need to provide full BOM/specs/datasheets for my drone.

... and if it turns out the engine was made in, say, some rickety-ass noodle shop by 3 guys, a CnC, and literal scraps who aren't paying taxes and have no engineering degrees, that's... that's on me. I go to jail for that.

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souvik234@reddit

Can you give me some other examples of CCTV investigative journalism?

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mithie007@reddit

Uh... Aviation related? I can't think of any... but recently they did a lot of undercover work for Lisa's murder which you might have heard of...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg3p5u_u-R8

Also a few years ago there was that pinhole camera scandal where some venues were hiding pinhole cameras to spy on guests.

https://v.cctv.com/2021/12/06/VIDEOWvSrzaoSz5Tp73trhiF211206.shtml

... and people selling fake guns that sometimes shoot real bullets.

https://news.cctv.com/2020/09/16/ARTIwV50YsvwT4F1zJzmRB3U200916.shtml

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antifocus@reddit

I think in the context of the first youtube link, the CCTV just means the street surveillance camera instead of China Central TV

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Dominus_Redditi@reddit

This is all fascinating stuff. Thanks for the insight!

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heavyarmormecha@reddit (OP)

There's a influencer that died in September, killed when the helicopter (an uncertified design) he brought from an uncertified manufacturer, which he flew without training nor certification, crashed during take off. The incident was live-streamed on his channel, prompting a lot of calling for regulation on the safety side.

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agouraki@reddit

this is why we cannot have nice things

Hodgetwins32@reddit

ridiculous!! 6 minutes in and all i can think is…

fuck i wish i knew chinese.

Regent610@reddit

Some additional info since I know Chinese.

None of the aircraft are certified because according to the workshop bosses there's no process for certification of home-made aircraft.

None of the sellers or buyers have flying certification because it costs 100k+ RMB.

The first guy in Shandong knows at least 70 social media groups (presumably Wechat or Xiaohongshu) of buyers and sellers for this kind of thing, and there's even specialization of sellers, eg for powerplants and wheels.

His 800 meter "runway" is actually just a road.

Apparently no one reports to an authority of some kind when they're going for a spin.

The buyers and sellers are presumably exploitting some loophole or flying under the radar by signing contracts for individual parts instead of whole aircraft.

The aircraft in the second workshop has some rust on it. The boss reassures the reporter that it'll be fine with some rust remover and that he sold an aircraft in July with a second-hand powerplant and there's been no issues yet.

Small-Policy-3859@reddit

China is portrayed as this authoritarian all-knowing technocracy but it's actually the wild west.

lordkhuzdul@reddit

One thing to know about authoritarian systems is that they always end up corrupt as fuck. Most of them also start out corrupt as fuck, but even if they somehow didn't, the nature of the beast makes sure that corruption sets in very quickly and deeply.

Add to that the pressure to select for loyalty over competence, and you inevitably end up with shitshow. Sadly, one thing said shitshow often does well is propagandize, so people keep thinking it is a good system.

Remarkable-Refuse921@reddit

India is a democracy and the corruption in India makes the corruption in China look like a joke.

There are corrupt democracies and non-corrupt democracies. There are no non-corrupt authoritarian regimes.

(Also, India is currently led by an authoritarian chucklefuck, even if it is a democracy. That tends to make corruption even worse.)

szu@reddit

The era of the wild west in terms of finance and business is long over. That said, this attitude is still very much prevalent among Chinese people both in the country and abroad.

Like Deng Xiaoping says, To Get Rich is Glorious. By any means necessary is the postscript..

WaIlstreetBots@reddit

It’s the former and not the latter. After all, he was caught.

How many planes has this guy sold in his entire life? Remember the population of China is 1.4 billion, so surely there are much larger issues than one man making custom planes in his noodle factory.

OhYeahSplunge4me2@reddit

…no issues yet.

No-Arugula8122@reddit

Why do we care if Chinese people want to kill themselves in ultra lights?

MAFFSEA@reddit

Searching "personal helicopter" on temu now.

pdp_8@reddit

Ah yes, those menacing gyrocopters people might buy to escape to freedom... how terrifying...

Orruner@reddit

How do you plan on escaping in a 110 mph flying doohickey? These things are clearly built for unsanctioned fun

MrOvd@reddit

Crazy side hustle 😭

Frosty-Elevator6022@reddit

For content: A Chinese youtuber died few weeks ago because of a similar aircraft

Professional_Low_646@reddit

r/brandnewsentence

I mean come on, „illegal“ and „aircraft manufacturing“ is a combination I‘d never think I‘d hear. Or read.

takinie44@reddit

You have to add "noodle factory" in that sentence.

StarskyNHutch862@reddit

I hate china passionately and see nothing wrong with this.

Phoenixmaster1571@reddit

It's one thing to make a piece of flying junk. It's 18 entirely other things to trust them with your life.

These look like ultralights. I'm not sure what the Chinese regs are for ultralights, but elsewhere in the world this is pretty common. Goes without saying — don't fuck around with these if you don't know what you're doing.

kiwiphotog@reddit

Wasn’t it the case that in the states you didn’t need any formal flight training for an ultralight?

Correct.

According to the guys in the video the situation in China currently is that certification for this type of homemade gyros simply doesn't exist. As in there's no certification process.

Reatona@reddit

That's both surprising and scary, considering the number of dumbasses out there.

UpbeatAssumption5817@reddit

May he rest in peace

Makoto_Kurume@reddit

The journalist or the business owner?

Yes

Just FYI by the voice the reporter's a she.

cookingboy@reddit

This is government sanctioned investigative journalism, and the targets are illegally operated private businesses.

This happens a lot in China, the government actually try pretty hard to rein in private businesses’ and very often punish egregious behaviors.

In fact, all investigative journalism in China are government sanctioned/sponsored, most of the time the targets are private businesses, rarely they are local governments, and never the central government.