How long did it take to prepare for these shots of the aerial flag formation?
At the military parade held on September 3, 2025, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the aerial flag formation served as the vanguard of the entire marching formation. It flew over Tiananmen Square first, unfurling the Party flag, national flag, military flag, and banners, becoming one of the most iconic scenes of the event.
This flag-carrying mission was completed by a group of domestically produced helicopters. Not only did they carry the flags, but they also formed the number "80" in the air, cooperating with hanging banners.
This segment continued to follow the conventional operational standards of the military parade, that is, using a three-helicopter formation as the basic flag-carrying unit, with the middle helicopter carrying the flag, and the two side armed helicopters providing escort. At the same time, they maintained precise speed, altitude, and formation spacing at high altitudes.
Before the formation took off, they completed the entire flight test, including checks of the stability of the flags, wind direction assessment, verification of coordination between ground loading teams and pilots, and other procedures.
According to the 70th anniversary military parade, just these few shots of flying over Tiananmen Square actually required months of arduous training.
At that time, half a year before the military parade, the helicopter formations involved in the mission had already moved into their designated training grounds, conducting intensive joint exercises, repeatedly refining the formation, speed, altitude, and even the visual effects of colors.
To ensure that the flag-carrying helicopters could complete the flag-hanging flight with millisecond precision in complex air currents, AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation of China) specially dispatched technical teams for round-the-clock support. Not only were they present at the scene for full-time monitoring, but they also arranged remote teams to monitor simultaneously, ensuring that no mistakes occurred in any flight.
The seemingly smooth flight and the flags that appear to be unfurled without wind actually involve extremely precise mechanical calculations and flight coordination - the flags need to be heavy enough to hang down and spread out, yet not affect flight safety; the planes need to be close enough to form clear numbers, yet must maintain absolute safe distances. Any mistake in any link would make it difficult to achieve such a perfect effect.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1842206577888260/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.