The Aviation Corps (hangkongbing) is the primary branch of the PLA Air Force (PLAAF), consisting of fighter (jianji hangkongbing), attacker (qiangji hangkongbing), bomber (hongzha hangkongbing), transport (yunshu hangkongbing), and reconnaissance (zhencha hangkongbing) troops.
The largest tactical aviation unit is air division, normally consisting of 2~3 air regiments and 2~3 air stations (changzhan). The administrative structure of an air division includes a commander department, political department, air stations, and maintenance factory. The seven air force flying colleges are equivalent to air divisions in term of administrative structure, each with 3~4 subordinated air regiments and few air stations.
Most air divisions are only equipped with a single type of aviation troops. However, as the Air Force is growing smaller, some air divisions are now equipped with two or even three types of aircraft. For example, the 15th Air Division has a fighter regiment and an attacker regiment. The 26th Air Division has an airborne early warning regiment, a search & rescue regiment, and a reconnaissance regiment.
Each air regiment is equipped with 20~30 aircraft, and its troops are organised into three flying groups (feixing dadui) and a maintenance group (jiwu dadui). The headquarters of an air regiment includes a commander department, political department, and maintenance department. An air regiment is only equipped with a single type of aircraft, though in some regiments two variants (for example, J-8B and J-8D) are deployed in mixture.
There are few independent air regiments which do not belong to any air division. These are mostly reconnaissance aviation, or flight test units.
Each flying group has three flying squadron, each with 4 fighter aircraft or 3 bombers or transport aircraft.
