Liang Shoupan

Liang Shoupan (; 13 April 1916 – 5 September 2009) was a Chinese aerospace engineer. The chief designer of China's first generation of anti-ship missiles including the HY-1 and HY-2, he is regarded as the "father of China's cruise missile program". He also designed the C-101, C-801 and other missiles. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Astronautics. In 2006, he was one of the five scientists who received the Highest Achievement Award of China's aerospace industry.

Early life and education Liang was born on 13 April 1916 in Fuzhou, Fujian, Republic of China. His father Liang Jingchun was an official in the Ministry of Justice of the Beiyang government and served as an advisor to the Kuomintang government in Taiwan after 1949. He spent his childhood in Beijing and attended secondary schools in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai.

In June 1933, Liang entered Tsinghua University to study aeronautical engineering. As soon as he earned his bachelor's degree in June 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. He enlisted in the Republic of China Air Force and studied at its advanced aeronautical engineering program. In August 1938, he went to the United States to study aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his master's degree in just a year and returned to China in February 1940.

After the Fifth Academy was upgraded to the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building in 1965, Liang served as head of the Third (Sub-) Academy, in charge of the development of anti-ship missiles for coastal defence. and the C-101 supersonic missile.

Liang died on 5 September 2009 in Beijing, at the age of 93. In 2006, he was one of the five scientists who received the Highest Achievement Award for the first 50 years of China's aerospace industry, together with Qian Xuesen, Ren Xinmin, Tu Shou'e, and Huang Weilu.