Thanks again to Steve Michiels for this big batch of CNAC-related 1940s aviation photos. He has been one of China’s Wings biggest enthusiasts.
(This is my first attempt at using WordPress’s photo gallery feature. I’m interested in feedback about whether or not people find it more useful than the lists of individual photos I’ve used in other posts.)
Last weekend, I was interviewed by Marshall Poe of New Books Network, a superb and exciting website devoted to discussing recently published books.
He was an excellent interlocutor with a lifelong interest in the Flying Tigers, so predisposed to love China’s Wings, and I was truly happy to hear how much he’d enjoyed the book.
Here’s the link to the podcast.
(It’s amazing how much better it is to get interviewed by someone who has actually read the book…)
Breaking this week’s run of 1940s aviation porn, CNAC Association stalwart, Cannonball editor, and daughter of CNAC Hump pilot Bert Coulson, Eve Coulson brought a CNAC-inspired song to my attention yesterday. Here it is, written and performed by Bo Veaner, Eve’s longtime friend. Although Veaner never met Eve’s father, his lyrics are based on Bert Coulson’s experiences with the airline during the Second World War.
It’s a good song, worth taking the time to enjoy.
The crash referred to in the song is one which nearly killed Eve’s father, Bert on August 31, 1944.
That’s 68-years ago this week.
Here’re more full-color, late 1940s aviation photos from Steve Michiels, son of CNAC pilot Joe Michiels. If you click on the photos, they enlarge well.
Continuing this week’s run of CNAC-related photos from Steve Michiels, son of CNAC pilot Joe Michiels. The top photo enlarges beautifully.
Here’re some full color aviation pictures to start the week, again courtesy of Steve Michiels.
All were taken by his father, most in 1947.
These photos come from Steve Michiels, son of CNAC pilot Joe Michiels. Steve has been tremendously supportive of China’s Wings, for which I’m very grateful. He recently mailed me a disk with about 20 high resolution photo scans, and I’ll feed them onto the site in the coming days, three at a time.
A photographer friend, Robert Cassidy, recently emailed these photos he took in Shanghai’s famous Astor House Hotel, the hotel in which Moon Chin completed the deal that led to him leaving CNAC and becoming operations manager of Central Air Transport Corporation, CATC. (A scene described between pages 372-375 of China’s Wings.)
Aside from Moon Chin, a host of famous people stayed in the Astor House during its heyday, among them former U.S. President Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Edgar Snow, and Guglielmo Marchese Marconi. It’s a strange and beautiful place, and I enjoyed a drink or two in the hotel cafe while taking notes for China’s Wings during my research trip to China in 2005.
