Wu Tongshui, Principal of the Civil Aviation University of China Receives the French Aeronautical Medal of Honor

In October, at Toulouse, the government of the Republic of France awarded Wu Tongshui, Principal of the Civil Aviation University of China, a French Aeronautical Medal of Honor and a certificate to cite the prominent achievements that the Civil Aviation University of China (CAUC for short) had gained in the Sino-France aviation exchange and cooperation in the last years. Wu Tongshui is the first one in Mainland China that has achieved this honor. Patrick Gandil, the Chief Executive of the DGAC (French Civil Aviation Authority) took a special trip from Paris to Toulouse to attend the ceremony, and on behalf of the government of France, awarded the French Aeronautical Medal of Honor and the certificate to Wu. The French Aeronautical Medal of Honor, established in February, 1945, is the blue ribbon in the French aviation sector and is awarded to those who have made outstanding contributions to the aviation industry. 66 years after its establishment, it had been awarded separately to internationally important non-French figures, including James Stephen Fossett, an American pilot who had a number of world aviation records, Daniel Calleja, Director for Air Transport at the European Commission and David McMillan, Director General of EUROCONTROL, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation and so on. CAUC and Wu Tongshui’s contributions to the global aviation industry and the exchange and cooperation between China and France gains both a high affirmation and a good evaluation from Patrick Gandil, the Chief Executive of the DGAC. Patrick said that since August, 2001 when Mr. Wu Tongshui was appointed as the principal of the CAUC, Wu had been actively pushing forward with the Sino-France civil aviation cooperation. Especially, CAUC, jointly with the French Aerospace Group of Schools, operates the Sino-European Institute of Aviation Engineering (SIAE for short), which obtained support from Airbus S.A.S., Eurocopter S.A., European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, SAFRAN Group and Thales Group. The high-level education model has gained high affirmation from the Chinese central government and the French government and has pushed the Sino-France cooperation a big step forward. The SIAE not only becomes the cradle for cultivating high-level engineers but also makes it possible for timely cooperation between China and France’s aviation enterprises and promotes further close and sustained exchange and cooperation in the aviation industry and other related high-tech fields between the two countries’ aviation enterprises.