Aircraft Carrier Pioneer Dies Watching Jet Test

It has emerged that the scientist who has pioneered China's aircraft carrier and jet aircraft technology died of a heart attack at the weekend as he watched the country's first successful landing at sea.

Luo Yuan, who was 51, was chairman and president of the Shenyang Aircraft Company and in charge of China's fighter-jet programme. He was on board China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, to watch a series of successful test landings when he suffered the heart attack.

News of his death was the headline story on state television on Monday, a demonstration both of the importance of the aircraft carrier programme and the significance of his loss.

The successful landing was revealed on Sunday morning with the release of footage by state media.

The video showed a Chinese-made J-15 jet, designed by Mr Luo, touching down on the Liaoning sometime over the past week.

The development is seen as a further attempt by Beijing to project its military might beyond its borders.

China has been locked in a series of territorial disputes with almost all its neighbours in the region including Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

According to local media reports, the successful landing was completed by pilot Dai Mingmeng from the Sea Eagle Regiment of the East China Sea Fleet.

His jet, the J-15, is still in its trial stages. Nicknamed the 'Flying Shark' it is based on a similar Russian plane and is said to carry anti-ship, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles.

Chinese state media claim that it is comparable to the US F-18, but given the secrecy surrounding Chinese military hardware, those claims cannot be verified.

The Liaoning was unveiled to the world in a lavish ceremony in September attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Named after the province where it was refitted, the ship is a former Soviet aircraft carrier. It was built in Ukraine but mothballed after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In 1998 a Chinese tour operator bought the ship in an auction with plans to convert it into a Macao casino.

But on arrival in Chinese waters, after a lengthy and problematic journey around the world, the plans changed and an extensive military refit began.

Traditionally, China had what is known as a 'green water navy' whose sole objective is to provide coastal defences.

The acquisition of the aircraft carrier is a sign of Beijing's desire to become a 'blue-water' navy: projecting its might far from its shores.

China has a longstanding but historically dormant claim to a large swathe of the South China Sea and a number of small islands in the East China Sea.

But recently China has been much more vocal with its claim. This has caused significant diplomatic and military tensions with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Japan.

Islands in the disputed waters are important to each of the nations involved because of what might be beneath them but also because of the domestic fallout that losing or capturing them could provoke.

Nationalism has played a significant role in stoking tensions particularly between China and Japan.

Japanese elections next month could once again escalate the tensions over a series of rocky outcrops known in China as the Diaoyu Islands and in Japan as the Senkaku Islands.

Posters have been erected in Beijing telling people that the islands 'Belong to China'.

China, Japan and South East Asia all have vital import and export markets for Europe and the West. Any escalation of the maritime dispute could have broad consequences.