Wen Chuanyuan

Wen Chuanyuan (; 22 June 1918 – 1 October 2019) was a Chinese aeronautical and automation engineer. He was a professor and co-founder of the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering at Beihang University. He developed China's first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 1959 and first flight simulator in 1983. He was awarded the State Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class) in 1985.

Early life and education Wen was born 22 June 1918 in Xinqiao Township, Hengshan County, Hunan. His father, Wen Bingnan, was a farmer. He entered Yue Yun Middle School in Changsha in 1933, and Hunan No. 1 Normal School in 1936. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, Wen and other high school students received military training organized by the provincial chairman Zhang Zhizhong.

After the 1938 Changsha fire, Wen attempted to organize a guerrilla force to resist Japanese invasion in Hunan, but was unsuccessful. He moved to Northwest China, which was free from Japanese occupation, and studied aeronautical engineering at the Northwestern Engineering Institute.

In 1975, Wen was appointed the lead designer of China's first flight simulator. The system was approved for use in 1983, and won the State Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class) in 1985.

Although nominally retired in 1988, he taught at Beihang until 2003. He donated more than 150,000 yuan to the university for student scholarships. In September 2018, he was conferred the "Lide Shuren Achievement Award" by the university.

Wen died on 1 October 2019 in Beijing. He was 101 years old.