It is an airline that is as modern as tomorrow combined with the gracious heritage of a nation and a people who have contributed perhaps more to civilization than any other nation and people on earth.
It is an airline that was founded to meet a tragic humanitarian need ... the need of a great nation which had been shattered, dislocated, bled white by nearly two decades of war, which started long before World War II and was destined to go on long after the formal surrender of the Axis powers. The founders of the airline were among the greats of our time - both Chinese and American. There was Major General Claire Lee Chennault; there were noted Chinese industrialists such as Wang Yuan-ling, Dr. Wang Wen-san, and Hsu Kuo-mo; there was that man with the keen mind and great heart, the late Whiting Willauer, later to be ambassador to several countries in Latin America, and others.
They were great men. The times demanded great men.
In the backward glance into history, it would be difficult to single out the greatest of these. But certainly one of the most colorful and perhaps the true guiding spirit behind the founding of CAT was General Chennault, the leathery leader of the old American Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers, and later commander of the U.S. 14th Air Force.
After the war, the general had every intention of devoting most of the rest of his life to fishing for catfish in the Tensas river he had known as a boy in Louisiana. He'd seen enough fighting. Now he wanted the peace that a fishing rod and a quiet stream could give him.
But it was hard to hold with a dream when the world was filled with such stern realities. Thus it surprised few that General Chennault returned to China, just four months to the day after the Japanese surrender, to find a nation trying to rise from the devastation of conflict. The nation's transportation system was badly crippled, leading to serious dislocation of national resources. Food was rotting in certain areas while in others the people were starving. Tons of relief supplies cluttered the docks of China's major port cities; in the interior hunger was abroad in the land. In the interior, vital exports were stockpiling and there was no way to get them to the ports.
Cargo Airline
General Chennault's way of attacking this chaos was to form a civil airline devoted to the moving of cargo. In Mr. Willauer he found a partner; in Mr. Wang Yuan-ling, Dr. Wang and Mr. Hsu he found backers.
Refugees wait for evacuation by CAT from Tsingtao. (File photo)
Thus it came to pass that, after concurrence of the Executive Yuan of the Central Government, CAT came into being. The contract was signed in Shanghai's Broadway Mansions on Oct. 25, 1946, with P. H. Ho of the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and C. M. Li, Deputy Chief of CNRRA, by General Chennault and Mr. Willauer.
The original name was CNRRA Air Transport, and the company later was reorganized as Civil Air Transport CAA-MOC. The initials signified Civil Aeronautics Administration—Ministry of Communications of China.
Once the contract was signed, General Chennault and Mr. Willauer set about building up the company's manpower and fleet of aircraft. Young men barely out of the military service were interviewed, men like Robert E. Rousselot, Doug Smith, Var Green, Lew Burridge, Harry Cockrell, Stuart Dew, Frank Hughes, and a tall, drawling young man from Wisconsin by the name of Felix Smith, a man with a background both in the air and at sea—he still carries a third mate's license in the merchant marine.
All of these young men expected to stay in the Orient only a few months, make their grubstake, and go back home to the United States. Virtually every one of them stayed for years. Captain Rousselot was to become vice president of operations; Var Green was to become vice president of traffic and sales; Doug and Felix Smith, Harry Cockrell, Stuart Dew, Paul Holden, Weldon Bigony—all stayed on and have become CAT's senior pilots of the Mandarin Jet. Others, such as Lew Burridge, were to leave the flying business—but not the Orient - to become business executives in the Far East.
With the crews assembled, the search was on for aircraft. Weed-filled surplus depots were combed in the Philippines, in Hawaii, in the United States. Finally, a fleet of C-46 and C-47 aircraft was put together. And at 0930, January 30, 1947, a CAT C-46 made its first commercial flight from Shanghai's Hung Jao airfield to Canton. The plane carried fourteen employees of CAT and of the Chinese Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, as well as a cargo of medicine and relief supplies. The plane was flown by Captain Frank Hughes; Doug Smith was co-pilot. Among the passengers were General Ohennault and Col. P. Y. Shu, the general's long-time "good right hand."
That was the beginning.
Cargo Carrier
By 1948, CAT had become the largest cargo-carrying airline in the world. The airline had a motto—CAT flies anything, anywhere, at any time. And it lived up to its motto—sheep from New Zealand, tin, tobacco, cattle, you name it, CAT flew it in China. But suffering, tortured China still was not to be spared. Out of the troubled peace came a new threat, a Communist bandit rebellion. Thousands fled the Communist menace and CAT, more by accident than design, started carrying passengers - refugees - as well as cargo. More and more CAT pilots found themselves supplying isolated areas. For many months, for instance, CAT pilots supplied Weishien, a city of two million, while the! Communist hordes pounded away at the city's defenses, frequently strafing the landing field itself.
"Miss Sing Thong", 3/4-ton elephant, travels via CAT. (File photo)
CAT pilots were branded as "criminals" by the Reds. Two of them were imprisoned—Bob Buol and James "Earthquake McGoon" McGovern. From his five years in a Communist prison, Bob Buol came out a broken man and died of a heart attack only six months after his release. McGovern was shot down over Dienbienphu while flying under contract for the French Government; he went down the day before Dienbienphu fell, spelling the end of a great CAT legend.
Entirely new concepts for airline operation were brought into being during these strenuous days. The so-called packaged principle of flying was put into operation. Under this principle, all components of airline operation-mechanical, meteorological, operations, etc.—were assembled and ready to be flown to remote bases on short notice. CAT pioneered in night flying on the China mainland.
But, despite heroic resistance, the Reds crashed forward. And on January 15, 1950, the airline reluctantly departed the mainland. CAT had been forced to evacuate 30 bases before it finally found haven on Taiwan.
Korean War Service
The airline was; clearly at its lowest ebb. Money was so short that at times employees had to finance themselves. Despite the bleak future, no one gave up. When the Korean War broke out, the capabilities that CAT had built up on the China mainland were immediately put to use to supply the hard-pressed United Nations forces in Korea. These capabilities—operating under a different company—are still being used today in Laos, where mercy flights and mercy airdrops are being carried out daily.
From Taiwan, CAT began regularly scheduled flights. First established was the domestic service—the so-called "round-the-island" flight; then international flight to Hongkong, Tokyo, Bangkok, Okinawa, Seoul, and Manila. A booking office has been in operation in Saigon for some years and further route expansion is in the planning stage.
CAT's aircraft now fly 7,071 unduplicated route miles on their scheduled flights and have an unblemished safety record. As the Republic of China's designated air carrier, CAT is a member of the world's greatest airline organization, the International Air Transport Association (IATA). CAT also is a member of the Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA) and the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA).
CAT has been awarded a Safety Certificate by the Chinese Civil Aeronautics Administration. Behind this award lies the story of Air Asia, maintenance contractor to CAT. Air Asia's aircraft maintenance facilities are approved by the Civil Aeronautics Administration of the Republic of China and also have been awarded an Air Agency Certificate by the Federal Aviation Agency of the United States.
The Air Asia maintenance base at the southern tip of Taiwan is one of the stories behind the story of CAT's remarkable performance record. It is here that CAT contracts for the maintenance which keeps its aircraft in up-top condition. Other airlines and military organizations also contract for maintenance at this base, which employs some 2,000 persons.
To this base, which had to be organized from scratch (from schools to printing presses) came the cream of skilled Chinese expert when the mainland fell. Today, after a decade of dramatic progress, the Tainan base has completed a US$1,000,000 consolidation and equipment program which further improved Air Asia's jet aircraft and piston engine repair capabilities.
Pure Jet Service
But as important as are the sweat and grease of first-class maintenance, the glamour of an airline—to the public at least—goes to its aircraft and the men who fly them. During the early days, no attempt was made to glamorize the old cargo planes flying the line on the mainland. But as the scheduled services developed, the planes were "plushed up". First came the old C-46; then, in the early 1950s, came the DC-4 Skymaster; and on October 15, 1958, CAT introduced its now famous DC-6B Mandarin Flight, offering an innovation in rich interior decor and personalized service.
On July 11, 1961, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the First Lady of China, christened CA T's spanking new Mandarin Jet in colorful ceremonies at Sungshan Airport in Taipei. With the inauguration of the Convair 880-M, the flag-carrier for the Republic of China became the first regional carrier in the Orient—and among the first in the world—to offer pure jet service.
Mandarin Jet is decorated in red, black, gold, with touches of silver and peacock blue. (File photo)
The new aircraft is the latest in modern design, but its interior decor reflects the rich heritage of old China. There are two authentically styled moon-gates. The dragon and phoenix symbols are prominently displayed along with lion knobs, the long-life symbol, and a running panel of figures depicting travel in the time of Confucius, China's greatest scholar, diplomat, and stateman. The predominant colors are Chinese black and gold, with splashes of silver and Chinese red, the color for happiness. Praise heaped upon the new aircraft by travel writers, tour directors, and aviation officials made even CAT officials blush.
As picturesque as the aircraft is, it is also a working machine. In the first weeks of operation, the Mandarin Jet set unofficial speed records on every route that it flew—records that still stand. In a major aviation development, the cities of Asia have been brought only minutes apart.
During its first two years of operation, the Mandarin Jet flew more than 100,000,000 passenger miles; just recently it was put on the Taipei-Manila run, linking the two cities with pure jet service for the first time.
In CAT, Chinese and Americans—as well as a virtual United Nations roster of other nationalities—work side by side. Dr. Wang Wien-san is Chairman of the Board, which also includes Y. C. Chen, H. K. Yuan, CAT's Vice President of General Affairs, George A. Doole Jr., and Hugh L. Grundy, who is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
CAT's head office is loca1ed at 46 Chung Shan North Road, Section II, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.