Sad news for the CNAC family…
CNAC lost another one of its senior members recently, Captain Carey Bowles. He was a friendly and fascinating man, and he will be sorely missed. Here’s a ...
Category: China’s Wings
Posts related to my book, CHINA’S WINGS
Text design
The text design came in last week, and it looks marvelous. Tracy Devine, my editor, has promised page proofs by the end of the month. Which means soon, very soo...
The reason I’ve been neglecting this blog
With Tracy Devine’s blessing, it went to one of Bantam’s copy editors last Thursday, nearly nine years after I discovered the CNAC story. There̵...
Damn, we’ve lost another one
Damn, we’ve lost another one. Cedric Mah was a fine man, an incredibly experienced pilot, and a very lively interview. It’s an honor to have known h...
Lunghwa Pagoda — now and then
Lunghwa Pagoda was a major landmark for pilots and passengers flying in and out of Shanghai in the 1930s… here a few photos showing the pagoda then and no...
A sign commemorating Lunghwa Airport today…
Note the disparity of spelling… I’ve been going with “Lunghwa,” which is how MOST of the company letters and operational records spelled...
Off-topic: Eugene Fluckey and U.S.S. Barb, or, how a submarine sank a train
This is off-topic, but a friend brought the story of the USS Barb to my attention this morning. Her commander, who was awarded the Medal of Honor, died in 2007,...
The Consolidated Commodore
Photo of the Consolidated Commodore flying boat
Why interviewing Moon Chin is like interviewing a jazz riff…
As my understanding of CNAC improved, so did my ability to extract maximum value from my Moon Chin interviews, but even though I was getting more and more out o...
A DC-2, most important plane in the CNAC airfleet, 1935-1939
DC-2s were the most important airplanes in CNAC’s air fleet from 1935-1939.