Li Yongtai

Li Yongtai (Chinese: 李永泰; Korean: 리영태; 4 November 1928 – 5 October 2015) was a Chinese fighter pilot and lieutenant general of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). An ethnic Korean, he fought in the Korean War and later served as deputy commander of the PLAAF.[1][2]

Li Yongtai
李永泰
Deputy Commander of the PLA Air Force
In office
1982–1993
Serving with Lin Hu, Liu Zhitian
CommanderWang Hai
Personal details
Born(1928-11-04)November 4, 1928
Tonghua, Jilin, China
DiedOctober 5, 2015(2015-10-05) (aged 86)
Beijing
Military service
Nickname(s)Tank in the Sky
Allegiance People's Republic of China
Branch/service People's Liberation Army Air Force
Years of service1945–1993
Rank Lieutenant general
Battles/warsKorean War
Li Yongtai
Chinese李永泰
Li Yongtai
Hangul
리영태
Hanja
李永泰
Revised RomanizationRi Yeong-tae
McCune–ReischauerRi Yŏngt'ae
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Li.

Military career

Born in Tonghua, Jilin Province, China to an ethnic Korean family, Li joined the Eighth Route Army in October 1945, and became a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) the following year. He began learning to fly in October 1949, and after China's entry into the Korean War, served as a member of the People's Volunteer Army Air Force. He shot down four American F-86s, earning him the nickname "tank in the sky". After the war he continued his rise through the ranks, and in 1975 was named commander of the Wuhan Military Region Air Force. From 1982 to 1993 he served as deputy commander of the PLAAF. He was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1988.[1]

Political career

Li served as a representative to the 10th and 12th National Congresses of the CPC, and to the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th National People's Congresses (NPC). In the 8th and the 9th Congresses he was named a member of the NPC Standing Committee, and also served on the NPC Ethnic Affairs Committee.[1]

gollark: backtick.
gollark: ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
gollark: This is a UK keyboard.
gollark: I'm not on a dvorak board.
gollark: My ` key has ¬ on shift.

References
  1. "Archived copy" 探访空军中将李永泰的两次阅兵情缘. People's Daily (in Chinese). 2009-09-18. Archived from the original on 2017-07-15. Retrieved 2014-07-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. 空军原副司令员李永泰逝世，曾参加抗美援朝被誉“空中坦克”. thepaper.cn (in Chinese).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.