Flying high at the beat of his own drum
The success of the COMAC C919 aircraft owes perhaps a little to sheet metal worker Chen Shengchao.
Parts that Chen has made are on all COMAC aircraft, leading the 33-year-old to spend more time in the factory than he does at home.
“He is like a man possessed,” said Hu Xiaoli, Chen’s wife. “All he talks about is sheet metal!”
Sheet metal work is a precise profession in aircraft manufacturing, and one that cannot be performed by machine. A tiny error could cost the lives of everyone on the plane.
In 2014, Chen won a national skills competition and joined COMAC in 2016. Behind the honor were hundreds — thousands even — of beats of Chen’s little mallet.
A soldier from 2006 to 2008, Chen knew as little about sheet metal as the next man when he first took up his hammer.
“I was lucky to have a good teacher,” he said. His teacher Wang Wei was a national technical master. “The first lesson Wang gave me was just three words: practice makes perfect."
Patience, the ability to bear hardship and skills Chen learned in the army held him in good stead. He went to the workshop to practice on weekends and even on holidays.
In 2013, he took part in a competition organized by COMAC. He became confident that he could take the title but lost after a simple mistake.
“I was distraught,” he said. “But I knew it was more important to find the reason for my failure and fix it rather than dwelling on it.”
The next year, he won the title.
Chen's sacrifices are almost a joke among his family. “He promised to go to the parents' meeting at our daughter’s school last month,” Hu said. “But he 'had to' work overtime.”
Chen says it’s all worthwhile when he sees the C919 soar across the sky. He now trains apprentices, like his teacher Wang Wei once did.
“I realized my dreams thanks to this aircraft,” Chen said. “It is now time for me to help the others do the same. Practice makes perfect.”