OBITUARY | Huang Xuhua, mechanical engineer and co-designer of China's first nuclear-powered submarines

The China Shipbuilding Group has confirmed the news of the passing of Huang Xuhua, a mechanical engineer best known for his role in the development of China's first nuclear-powered submarines, on Thursday, February 6.

Born in 1926 in Shanwei City in what is now part of Guangdong Province, Huang graduated with a naval architecture degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1949, the same year that he joined the Chinese Communist Party.

Huang became part of the Nuclear Submarine Overall Design Group established by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). He became deputy chief designer and later chief designer of the first generation of nuclear-powered submarines to enter service with the PLAN.

With the completion of the submarine Changzheng 1 in 1970 and its entry into service in 1974, China became the fifth country in the world to operate nuclear-powered submarines after the United States, the Soviet Union, the UK, and France.

Huang secured numerous appointments to other key positions within the academe and China's shipbuilding industry in his later years. His last official posting was as a senior professor at the Chinese Academy of Engineering from 1994 to 2018.

He also became director emeritus of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation's 719 Research Institute, alternately known as the Nuclear Submarine Institute. His honours included the Medal of the Republic, the highest honorary medal of the People's Republic of China.