Jason Chou, son of CNAC co-pilot Bing Zhou, passed along these photos.
After completing college in Kunming, Bing Zhou joined the China National Aviation Corporation in 1944, and he flew more than 130 Hump trips before the war ended. He stayed with the airline after the war, and when the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek collapsed, he opted to stay on the mainland. In November, 1949, he piloted a C-47 north from Hong Kong into China. He worked in China’s domestic aviation industry, for CAAC, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, until he retired in 1987.
Capt Fred Chin, the left-most figure in the left-most photo above, lives in Shanghai today, and Jason Chou told me yesterday that he is coming to the United States in April for Moon Chin’s 100th birthday party. I hope I get to meet him.
There’s an excellent story about Bing Zhou and Dick Rossi on Bing Zhou’s page at cnac.org. As well as some nice photos.
And of course, Moon Chin is one of the main supporting characters in my book, China’s Wings, and one of the most amazing individuals I’ve ever met.
I’ve posted a lot about Moon in the last two and a half years. Here are some of my favorites:
How the SF Earthquake made Moon Chin a citizen, part I (of three, which are linked)
Ceiling 500 feet, intermittent drizzle
