oral history transcript: Captain Moon Fon Chin, China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC)

 

Interviews conducted by Mauree Jane Perry on February 9 and 11, March 5, and April 30, 2004. Final transcript The interview describes Captain Moon Fon Chin’s career as a mechanic, co-pilot, pilot, and administrator between 1933 and 1954, including his work with China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) and Central Air Transport Corporation (CATC), and his role in the establishment of Foshing Airlines (now TransAsia Airways); arrival in the United States in 1924; training at the Curtiss-Wright Aviation School; decision to move to Shanghai; early history of CNAC and partnership with Pan American Airways in 1933; airplanes he flew: Curtiss Robin OX 5, Curtiss Challenger Robin, unspecified model of a Stinson aircraft, Keystone-Loening Air Yacht, Douglas Dolphin, DC-2, DC-3, DC-4, DC-6, Consolidated Commodore, Ford Trimotor, C-53, Dragon Rapide, Beechcraft Stagger Wing; lack of flight instruments and navigation; condition of various airfields he flew into; routes he flew: Shanghai to Haichow (Lianyungang), Tsingtao (Qingdao), Tientsin (Tianjin), and Peking (Beijing), Chunking (Chongqing) to Chengtu (Chengdu), Hangkow (Hankou/Wuhan), Nanking (Nanjing), and Shanghai (the Yangtze River route), Chunking (Chongqing) to Kunming, Dinjin, Calcutta (the “Hump” route), Chunking (Chongqing) to Lanchow (Lanzhou), Urumqi, Hami/Kumul, and Yining (the Russian border route), and Chunking (Chongqing) to Hanoi, Rangoon, Hong Kong, and Guilin; competition for business between CNAC/Pan American and Lufthansa; relationship between CNAC and the Chinese Air Force during World War II; working conditions at CNAC, including salary issues; Japanese attack on the airfield at Nanjing; last pilot out of both Hankou/Wuhan in 1938 and out of Myitkyina, Burma in 1942; first pilot to survey the route between northwest China and Calcutta over the western Himalayas; transition from CNAC to CATC in 1946, role as operations manager; decision to leave mainland China in 1949; activities at Foshing Airlines in 1951; relationships with CNAC personnel, including William Langhorne Bond, E. M. Allison, George Sellett, Floyd Nelson, Harold Bixby, Charles L. Sharp, Jr., and Charles S. “Chili” Vaughn; encounters with Chiang Kai-Shek, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), Soong Tse-ven (T.V. Soong), Lt. General James “Jimmy” Doolittle, and General Claire Chennault.

https://collection.sfomuseum.org/objects/1746755677/

https://collection.sfomuseum.org/objects/1746755677/qr/