Chang Qiankun is one of China's first batch of air force pilots and a member of the air force leadership group. He has a profound revolutionary background and the theoretical technology of the Air Force, but in the course of the development of the Air Force, his achievements and status are not outstanding.
He entered the Whampoa Military Academy in 1925, joined the Communist Party, and after graduation, he studied aviation. During the period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, he went to the Soviet Union for further study, became the navigator of the Soviet Army's independent air force, and later studied aeronautical engineering. When the April 12 incident occurred in the country and Chiang Kai-shek attacked the Soviet zone, he did not return to China, but continued to stay in the Soviet Union.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he returned to China and successively engaged in aviation education in Dihua and Yan'an. During the Liberation War, he was sent to the Northeast to participate in the establishment of the first aviation school of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, using the parts left over from the Japanese army to cobble together more than 100 aircraft, making contributions to the training of air force talents.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as deputy commander of the Air Force and director of training. During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he was responsible for building an airfield, fighting wits and courage with the enemy, and at the same time serving as a liaison between the Volunteer Army and the People's Army. He fought in Korea for three years and showed strong will and loyalty.
In 1957, the Air Force merged with the Air Defense Force, and he remained one of the deputy commanders, but ranked seventh out of the nine deputy commanders, only Liu Zhen and Xu Shenji were behind him. Air Force Commander Liu Yalou is a capable leader, but his style of doing things is relatively strong, and he also has a lot of criticism of Chang Qiankun and other deputies. Wu Faxian said in his memoirs that Chang Qiankun felt depressed and emotional.
Chang Qiankun's revolutionary qualifications were very early, but he spent the period of the agrarian revolution in the Soviet Union, and he also worked in the rear during the War of Resistance and the War of Liberation. After Liu Yalou's death in 1965, Chang Qiankun was not promoted higher. He died in Beijing in 1973 at the age of 69.