The Kai Tak flightline, DC-3, DC-2, Curtiss Condors
William Langhorne Bond, main character in China’s Wings
William Bond on the left
My son Ryan dressed as Bond for Historical Halloween
Mail delivery in China, pre-CNAC
Loening at Lunghwa
Early days in Shanghai
Another view of the Loening, which could carry six passengers the cabin framed between the fuselage and hull (cnac.org)
In the water at Lunghwa
The nose of a Loening Air Yacht
Loening Air Yacht
the Yangtze Gorges over the tail of a Loening, early 1930s
Yangtze Gorges
Yangtze Gorges
At Shanghai’s Lunghwa Airport
CNAC hangar at Lunghwa Airport, early 1930s. (Nancy Allison Wright)
Harry Smith next to the cabin door of a Loening
Stinson Detroiter
Stinson Detroiter
First Flight Cover, 1933
Charles Lindbergh in China
Ernie Allison, 1933
Ernie Allison
William Langhorne Bond at Shanghai’s Lunghwa Airport, in front of a Loening
CNAC luggage label, early 1930s (cnac.org)
Joy Thom, Moon Chin, and Donald Wong in front of a Stinson Detroiter
Joy Thom
Always with swagger: Moon Chin and China’s Wings in 2012
Moon Chin in 1941
Moon Chin tells me what’s what
Not technically the Bund, but close: the Shanghai Post Office with CNAC sign on its clock tower, middle 1930s
Lunghwa Pagoda, near Shanghai airport used by C.N.A.C. from 1929-August, 1937, and then again from late-1945 until 1949 (cnac.org)
Lunghwa Pagoda in 2011
Moon and Elsie Chin, 1930s or early ’40s
Best Man Harold Bixby and groom William Bond, 1935
Katharine Dunlop Bond
William and Kitsi Bond at their wedding, Peking, May 1935
Together forever: William Langhorne Bond and Katharine Dunlop Bond
With Moon Chin
CNAC reunion in Moon Chin’s poolhouse
Pete Goutiere holding court
Ernie Allison on the left and Ernest Batson Price in the middle (see below)
Harold and Debbie Bixby and their four daughters (Shirley Wilke Mosley collection)
The Dolphins arrive in Shanghai, October, 1934
The Dolphins arrive in Shanghai, October, 1934
The Dolphins arrive in Shanghai, October, 1934
The Dolphins arrive in Shanghai, October, 1934
Maiden flight of CNAC’s Douglas Dolphin, Oct 1934
Broadway Mansions and Garden Bridge behind the plane’s tail
Maiden flight of CNAC’s Douglas Dolphin, Oct 1934
Maiden flight of CNAC’s Douglas Dolphin over Shanghai, Oct 1934
Douglas Dolphin over the Whangpoo River, October, 1934
Photo of the Douglas Dolphin in Moon Chin’s poolhouse, his favorite airplane
Douglas Dolphin at Lunghwa Airport, 1934
Douglas Dolphin in Shanghai, Oct 1934
Three Chinese beauties and the Douglas Dolphin, October 1934
Pen and Ink Drawing by Edward P. Howard (Edward P. Howard collection)
CNAC travel brochure, circa 1935
CNAC travel brochure
CNAC Travel poster, probably 1934 or 1935
Ernie Allison & a Douglas Dolphin
Ford Trimotor, “The Tin Goose”
Harold M. Bixby
Donald Wong
Donald Wong, 2nd from left; Harold Bixby, 2nd from right; in front of a Ford Trimotor in China
One of CNAC’s “Tin Goose” Ford Tri-motors in Western China
The DC-2 comes to China, CNAC’s first DC-2 arriving at Lunghwa Airport, 1935
The DC-2 arrives in China
Coming ashore
DC-2 center section
CNAC’s first DC-2, assembled and ready to fly
CNAC’s first DC-2 crew: Hewitt Mitchell and Moon Fun Chin (with three airport porters)
DC-2 preparing for takeoff
The maiden flight of CNAC’s first DC-2 over the Shanghai Bund, 1936 (Edward P. Howard collection)
Maiden flight over Shanghai, 1935
Maiden flight over the Shanghai Bund, 1935
Edward P Howard drawing
CNAC promotional poster, 1936 or 1937 (cnac.org)
Hand fueling a DC-2, 1936
Loading a DC-2, probably at Chengdu, 1936
Repairing a DC-2 tail wheel, 1935 or ’36
A DC-2 in Pan Am livery
C.N.A.C. luggage label, late 1930s (cnac.org)
CNAC travel sticker
CNAC office, Shanghai
(cnac.org)
Four DC-2s at Shanghai 1937 (Courtesy of Tom Moore at cnac.org)
CNAC hangar at Lunghwa Airport, on the Whangpoo River
S-43s at Shanghai, 1937
S-43 “Baby Clipper” in Hong Kong, 1937
Martin M-130 lands in Hong Kong
Martin M-130 in Hong Kong
The Grovenor House
The Grovernor House, Shanghai
Warships in the Whangpoo
USS Augusta in Shanghai, 1937
Shanghai burns, August 1937
Shanghai, 1937
Killed in Shanghai, 1937
Killed in Shanghia, 1937
Evacuating Shanghai: Bixby on the dock, bidding goodbye to his wife and daughters, Aug 17, 1937 (Shirley Wilke Mosley collection)
The tender departed from the dock directly in front of the Customs House, the building in the center with the tall spire.
Cartoon in the China Weekly Review
The China Weekly Review, 1937
G3M Nells
G3M Nell showing plexiglass in the nose
Chungking in 1938
O.C. Wilke,the airline’s chief mechanic from 1929-1940 & from 1945-1949 (Shirley Wilke Mosley)
Two Loening carcasses at Chungking’s Sanhupa Airport, 1938
The dolly used to get the Loening in and out of the river at Chungking, 1938
DC-2 on Chungking’s Sanhupa Airport
Eurasia JU-52 on Chungking’s Sanhupa Airport
Consolidated Commodore sunk by storm, 1938
Consolidated Commodore anchored at Chungking’s Sanhupa Airport, 1938
Consolidated Commodore
Hong Kong harbor, 1938
Eu Gardens, Hong Kong, 1938
Chuck Sharp and the DC-2 (courtesy of Edward P. Howard)
Chuck Sharp and Sylvia Wylie in 1938
Hong Kong, 1938
Hong Kong, 1938
Repulse Bay, 1938
Hugh Woods, 1938
Salvaging Woody’s DC-2, shot down by the Japanese, 1938
Raising its prop
Mechanics salvaging one of the Kweilin’s engines
dismantling its wings
raising its center section
prepped for travel back to Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport, 1938
Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport
CNAC #46 with its wing blown off at Suifu (Xipin), May 1941
#46 with its wing blown off, May 1941
Repaired with a DC-2 wing: The China National Aviation Corporation’s famous DC-2 1/2
Hal Sweet on the left. (With Sydney De Kantzow and Pop Kessler)
Mickey Hahn and Mr. Mills
Chuck Sharp
DC-2 destroyed in Hong Kong, Dec 8, 1941
Hong Kong, probably 1941
Hong Kong, probably 1941
Hong Kong, probably 1941
Dec 8, 1941 in Hong Kong: Chuck Sharp, Fred Ralph, Pop Kessler, Madge Woods, Hugh Woods
Frank Higgs, Dec 1941
Pop Kessler, Dec 1941
Lee Taylor and Hugh Chen in the 1934 Vultee they flew out of Hong Kong, Dec 1941
Mechanic Lee Taylor and pilot Hugh Chen, Dec 1941
Pilot Hugh Chen, Dec 1941
CNAC Maintenance Chief Zygmund Soldinsky, Dec 1941
DC-3 arrives in Chungking during the Hong Kong evacuation, Dec 1941
The “chung” painted on the fuselages of CNAC airplanes (J.L. Johnson collection)
CNAC wings and a map of the Hump
Chuck Sharp, CNAC Operations Manager
Likiang Mountain, just north of the normal flyway
Early morning over the hump
The Hump under the wing of a CNAC transport
Fueling at Suifu (Xipin)
C-53 over Assam
CNAC C-47 on a Hump mission
Chinese soldiers loading a CNAC C-53
C.N.A.C. on the cover of Fortune, May 1943
William Langhorne Bond
Moon Chin
Pilots’ bungalow, Dinjan, Assam, India
The pilots bungalow in Dinjan
Pete Goutiere in 1944
Pete Goutiere mixing me a cocktail in 2005
Pete Goutiere
Pete Goutiere and Moon Chin, both still going strong in their late 90s.
Ridge Hammell and Joe Rosbert at the end of their ordeal
Interviewing Joe Rosbert, 2004
Interviewing Joe Rosbert, 2004
Ridge Hammell and Elmer the Bear
The mechanics had it flying again the next day…
Harold Chinn, 1944
Gifford Bull in a C-47 cockpit, Suifu, China, May 17, 1945 (Gifford Bull Collection)
CNAC pilot captain Gifford Bull
Power failure on takeoff, CNAC C-46
Awaiting rescue…
They didn’t even get their feet wet
The Bond family
CNAC C-46 at Calcutta’s Dum Dum Airport, 1945 (Charles Klewin/cnac.org)
The Shanghai Bund, 1945
Fred Chin on the left; Bing Zhou in the white shirt, second from the right.
Bing Zhou enjoying a coke in the cockpit, late 1940s
Bing Zhou and a friend, late 1940s
Maintenance at Shanghai’s Lunghwa Airport, late 1940s
Late 1940s, at Shanghai, dismantled
Unloading cargo from a C-46, late 1940s
Chinese street scene, late 1940s
Hand fueling or adding oil to a CNAC DC-3 or C-47
Control tower
Hand fueling an airplane, location unknown
CNAC mechanics Bill Sanford and Fred Pittenger, 1947 or ’48
CNAC mechanic Henry “Red” Schaus
One of CNAC’s radio operators
CNAC mechanic Bill Sanford and a CNAC DC-4, Shanghai, 1948
Nationalist Chinese soldiers, 1947
Unidentified CNAC taking a quick bath
Lunghwa Airport, Lunghwa Pagoda in the background, late 1940s
CNAC C-46 and DC-3 at the end of the Shanghai’s Lunghwa airport runway, late 1940s
CNAC C-46, late 1940s
CNAC C-46 in flight, late 1940s
Ox-powered service vehicle, location unknown, late 1940s
Late 1940s, tower at “BAMO.” (I’m not sure where that is. Does anyone know?)
CNAC C-46, location unidentified, late 1940s
Approaching Shanghai’s Lunghwa Airport, late 1940s
Approaching Shanghai’s Lunghwa Airport, late 1940s
Final approach to Shanghai’s Lunghwa Airport, late 1940s
CNAC flyers Earl Norman and Steve Kusak in Shanghai, late 1940s
Late 1940s
Buying rugs in Tientsin, late 1940s
CNAC planes on the ramp in Peking, 1948
CNAC DC-3 undergoing maintenance at Lunghwa Airport, late 1940s
CNAC mechanic Henry “Red” Schaus in Shanghai, 1947
DC-3 or C-47 in the hangar at Shanghai, late 1940s
Possibly US Navy airfield at Kiangwan in Shanghai, 1947 or 48
CNAC C-46 in Kunming, late 1940s
Two CNAC stewardesses at the door of a C-46, late 1940s
Loading a C-46 with rice for an air drop, probably to the Nationalist Army, late 1940s
Bill Sturgess and Pat Emory under the nose wheel of a DC-4
Fueling a C-46 somewhere in the Chinese interior, late 1940s
CNAC people Bill Sanford and Oliver Glenn and a huge pile of Chinese money, on the balcony of their house in Shanghai, 1947
Pilot-Captain Oliver Glenn, one of the CNAC veterans attending
Two C-46s and two DC-3s or C-47s on the tarmac, 1946 or 1947
CNAC luggage sticker
Loading for a rice drop
CNAC Captain Felix Smith in front of a C-46
loading a C-46
Old and new transportation, China, 1940s
Kunming, late 1940s
ground transportation at the Kunming airport, late 1940s
Loading a C-46, late 1940s
CNAC ground crews maintain a DC-3
Loading cargo from the back of a truck
CNAC cargo handlers
CNAC ground crews maintain a DC-3
CNAC fan, front, showing one of the airline’s DC-4s
CNAC fan, back, showing the airline’s routes
Margaret Mun
With her in 2011
Loading wounded soldiers
CNAC C-46 evacuating wounded Nationalist soldiers – Pilot Joe Michiels standing in background
CNAC C-46 aloft during the Chinese Civil War
CNAC Pilots, 2002: Dick Rossi, Fletcher Hanks, Moon Chin, Carey Bowles, Bill Maher, Pete Goutiere
Bill Maher and his daughter, Peggy
Cedric Mah in his C.N.A.C. uniform (photo credit: cnac.org and Judy Maxwell)
CNAC pilot Cedric Mah
T.T. Chen mixing a martini at Moon’s house in 2004 (cnac.org)
Moon Chin presiding over the 2005 reunion (cnac.org)
Notebooks, and some of my handwritten rough drafts. I paged through one of those yellow legal pads yesterday — 49 pages, NOT ONE WORD of which made it into China’s Wings.
I believe I have located four pictures of Douglas Dolphin NC14240 on the Internet that you don’t have in this portfolio. They can’t be found by Google because the reference to the photo isn’t the airplane itself. I stumbled across them because I was looking for something pertaining to my family history. I am also a private pilot.
My paternal grandparents went to Foochow, China in 1907 to work with Methodist missionaries. My grandfather was an agricultural teacher and vocational school administrator. My father was born in Foochow in 1911 and grew up there until graduating from high school in 1929, actually at the Shanghai American School. My grandfather spent his entire career, 40 years in Foochow, returning to the U.S. in 1947. My grandmother left China in 1944 via the Hump to India and by ship across the very southern Pacific but that is a different story. My grandparents had a summer house in Kuliang which stands to this day and I have visited it several times. It is now equivalent to a National Historic Monument and is being restored.
I have always been interested in the Pagoda Anchorage on the Min River as it was the embarkation point for the ships my grandparents traveled on between the U.S. and Foochow. While researching photos of the Min River I ran across a photo of a seaplane on the Min River in a portfolio by a student. The portfolio is in the Yale University Library Digital Collections. Yale University is a vast repository of China missionary information. When I traced the N number of the seaplane, I found you.
Dear Dean, sorry to be so slow on the uptake. YES! That’s definitely one of CNAC’s two Douglas Dolphins. Excellent find. I’d be interested in the links to the three others if you were able to send them along. Your family’s history in China sounds fascinating. Thanks for reaching out, Greg.
All four pictures were in the Yale portfolio file. They were pictures 14-17 of Huang Wei Shih’s examination portfolio: http://findit.library.yale.edu/?id=digcoll%3A4205455&page=2&q=Huang+Wei+Shih&search_field=all_fields&utf8=%E2%9C%93. Wish I knew where the anchorage was. In two of the pictures it appears the Dolphin is in the vicinity of a floating dock. I’m assuming mail and passengers were brought to the dock by a small tender, then boarded the airplane. One picture shows it on the step, taking off and the definitive picture is big enough to make out the N number.
Thank you Greg! And thank all who have contributed pictures from their private collections! Because of your efforts my sister and I have a wonderful record to remember our grandfather. Thanks for all the efforts.
Langhorne Carter Bond and Prescott McCook Gunther
grandson and granddaughter to William Langhorne Bond
Dear Langhorne! So delighted to hear that you enjoy the CNAC-related stuff on my website and China’s Wings. Grandaddy had a fascinating life, and I’m glad I got a chance to write about him. ;-)
I think I recognized a couple of water color renderings by Schiff. My mother and I were born in Shanghai. She and my father, born in London, were regulars at the Maski, a popular nightclub in the thirties. They met and became friends with Schiff at that nightclub. To the best of my recollection, Maski is sort of slang for ‘never mind’ in Shanghai dialect. They lived in an apartment in the Broadway Mansions on the Bund.
Thank You Greg. Once again you are keeping those guys and times alive in our heart and minds. Pulling this collection of pictures together for all to see and share yet another example of why we are forever appreciative and grateful for your wonderful book, significant ongoing efforts, and valued friendship. Great sharing of some great pictures.
–Steve & Patty Michiels and The Michiels Family
A consolidated gallery of photographs pertaining to the life and times of the China National Aviation Corporation, a Chinese-American civil aviation partnership that flew and fought in China during the 1930s and 1940s–and the subject of my book, China’s Wings: War, Intrigue, Romance and Adventure in the Middle Kingdom During the Golden Age of Flight (Bantam, 2012).
I believe I have located four pictures of Douglas Dolphin NC14240 on the Internet that you don’t have in this portfolio. They can’t be found by Google because the reference to the photo isn’t the airplane itself. I stumbled across them because I was looking for something pertaining to my family history. I am also a private pilot.
My paternal grandparents went to Foochow, China in 1907 to work with Methodist missionaries. My grandfather was an agricultural teacher and vocational school administrator. My father was born in Foochow in 1911 and grew up there until graduating from high school in 1929, actually at the Shanghai American School. My grandfather spent his entire career, 40 years in Foochow, returning to the U.S. in 1947. My grandmother left China in 1944 via the Hump to India and by ship across the very southern Pacific but that is a different story. My grandparents had a summer house in Kuliang which stands to this day and I have visited it several times. It is now equivalent to a National Historic Monument and is being restored.
I have always been interested in the Pagoda Anchorage on the Min River as it was the embarkation point for the ships my grandparents traveled on between the U.S. and Foochow. While researching photos of the Min River I ran across a photo of a seaplane on the Min River in a portfolio by a student. The portfolio is in the Yale University Library Digital Collections. Yale University is a vast repository of China missionary information. When I traced the N number of the seaplane, I found you.
This is the link to the four photos: http://findit.library.yale.edu/catalog/digcoll:4205455
Click on “Next” to scroll through the four photos. The one that led me to you is the fourth photo.
Needless to say, I have many questions.
Dear Dean, sorry to be so slow on the uptake. YES! That’s definitely one of CNAC’s two Douglas Dolphins. Excellent find. I’d be interested in the links to the three others if you were able to send them along. Your family’s history in China sounds fascinating. Thanks for reaching out, Greg.
All four pictures were in the Yale portfolio file. They were pictures 14-17 of Huang Wei Shih’s examination portfolio: http://findit.library.yale.edu/?id=digcoll%3A4205455&page=2&q=Huang+Wei+Shih&search_field=all_fields&utf8=%E2%9C%93. Wish I knew where the anchorage was. In two of the pictures it appears the Dolphin is in the vicinity of a floating dock. I’m assuming mail and passengers were brought to the dock by a small tender, then boarded the airplane. One picture shows it on the step, taking off and the definitive picture is big enough to make out the N number.
Thank you Greg! And thank all who have contributed pictures from their private collections! Because of your efforts my sister and I have a wonderful record to remember our grandfather. Thanks for all the efforts.
Langhorne Carter Bond and Prescott McCook Gunther
grandson and granddaughter to William Langhorne Bond
Dear Langhorne! So delighted to hear that you enjoy the CNAC-related stuff on my website and China’s Wings. Grandaddy had a fascinating life, and I’m glad I got a chance to write about him. ;-)
I think I recognized a couple of water color renderings by Schiff. My mother and I were born in Shanghai. She and my father, born in London, were regulars at the Maski, a popular nightclub in the thirties. They met and became friends with Schiff at that nightclub. To the best of my recollection, Maski is sort of slang for ‘never mind’ in Shanghai dialect. They lived in an apartment in the Broadway Mansions on the Bund.
Shanghai was an amazing place, Susan. Its municipal history was one of my favorite China’s Wings discoveries. Thanks for reaching out! GC
Greg: A wonderful experience, thank you. I will view the collection at least weekly. John Johnson
Good news! Glad to hear you enjoy it. (And thanks for subscribing.) GC
Greg, I think China’s Wings has legs!
I think I’d rather it have Wings. ;-)
Incredible collection of photos. You sneaked in Ryan too. I specially like DC 2-1/2 picture.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you, Sam… I was just looking at Scouting pictures, circa 1980. Happy New Year to you, too. Cheers, GC
Greg:, great collection! Best wishes for 2015!
Thanks, Jerry! Happy New Year to you and yours.
Thank You Greg. Once again you are keeping those guys and times alive in our heart and minds. Pulling this collection of pictures together for all to see and share yet another example of why we are forever appreciative and grateful for your wonderful book, significant ongoing efforts, and valued friendship. Great sharing of some great pictures.
–Steve & Patty Michiels and The Michiels Family
CNAC Forever, Steve! (And thanks for letting me use so many of your family photos!)
Incredible collection!! Best ever CNAC photo gallery – Thanks Greg!
Glad you like it, Doug! I think I can find a few more to add, too.