China’s Air Force: from Shield to Sword

... occupying forces, or captured from the Kuomintang. The primary objective of the PLA – to raise the Chinese air force to a modern global level worthy of a superpower – was essentially achieved. www.xjkunlun.cn P-51 Mustang, the first PLAAF fighters As a result the profile of the PLAAF was quite extraordinary – at its first air display, on 1 October 1949 (to mark the formation of the PRC), the young communist republic’s air force was represented by American Mustang fighters and ...