A J-6 jet fighter on display at the Ba County Middle School, Chongqing municipality, on Tuesday, September 25, 2007. (Photo: Chongqing Economic Times)

Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force presented a "retired" J-6 jet fighter to a middle school in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday, to provide a real teaching tool for the school.

The fighter plane will be used as prop for trainee pilots who are attending a pilot training base which lies in Ba County Middle School, Chongqing municipality, the Chongqing Economic Times reports.

The 120 students in the pilot trainee program can get in touch with a real jet fighter in the future besides taking lessons.

Many students didn't sleep well during night before the aircraft arrived as they were so excited. When they were informed the plane had been sent to school the next day, students rushed to the playground, and touched it. Some of them even climbed onto it after teachers approved it.

As the jet fighter is retired, it will serve students only on the ground. They will become familiar with the instrument panel inside the cockpit and the assembly of spare parts, a school official said.

Ba County Middle School is the only school in Chongqing which was classified as a pilot training base in 2002 by the enrolling center of the PLA Air Force.

It enrolls 40 probationary pilots from the junior middle schools in Chongqing every year after the entrance examination for senior middle school.

(CRI.cn September 27, 2007)