News from China: Panda/Skywings/HYJLwings

It's been a few months since I wrote about the releases from the less mainstream manufacturers in China - since late April in fact. That doesn't mean lots hasn't been happening however with plenty of new model releases and both Skywings and HYJLwings branching out into collaborations with JC Wings.

For my last update see - May 2017 Announcements from Panda/Skywings

Panda Models Releases - June/July

Since the Beijing Expo Panda have been very active and have been pumping out new releases on their core mould sets - namely A320, A330, 737-300 and 737-800. Note however that all new releases now come with aerials - really well sized ones too. Here's the full list from June and July:

The airlines do not diverge far from Panda's usual fair of playing to the Chinese market with more Shandong and their first examples of Lucky Air and 9 Air aircraft:

Despite Cathay's crackdown on the production of models of their aircraft Panda continues to push out both Dragonair and Cathay A330s. These look very nice and some are livery combinations that have never been made before. The Dragonair A330 with the Cathay nosecone in particular looks like it sold out quickly indeed.

As much as I dislike the livery and concept Panda have also been catching up with some Hello Kitty Eva Air A330s - yuck:

The only non-Chinese release by Panda in the past 2 months continues their interest in manufacturer demo schemes (after the Airbus A320-100 and A320neo versions in May). This looks like a really nice model:

So on the whole Panda continue doing what they've always done. Their models appear to enjoy a high reputation and for an aviation Sinophile like me there's a lot to like. It would however be nice to see a wider range of airlines and what has happened to their A330F?

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Skywings Releases - June/July

I had treated Skywings as just a branch of Panda previously but I am wrong as recently they have shown they are independent and begun searching out the moulds they need from other manufacturers - namely JC Wings. This means that although they are still using Panda's moulds they also are doing more. Most obviously this is visible in the pair of CAAC 747SPs and the Air China 747SP they released recently. They are covered in an earlier blog post of mine - see The Saga of the CAAC 747SPs

In addition they have produced a pair of Shanghai Airlines 737-300s and a Dragonair A330 (which is included in the photos above).

The latest announcement from them sees another raid on the JC Wings catalogue, this time using the CRJ900 mould for a pair of China Express regional jets - B-7760 and B-3382:

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HYJLwings Releases - June/July

Lastly HYJLwings has been showing its own independence by also using JC Wings moulds. The pair of A380s that were announced back in April are out using the JC mould. I have been in conversation with the HYJLwings founder recently and they have big news coming in 1:200 scale. I hope to also bring an interview with their founder to Yesterday's Airlines soon so keep an eye out on this up and coming manufacturer.