Civil Air Transport was another airline with General Claire Chennault connections founded on the mailand China after World War II.
The place was Shanghai, a city that was born and lived and died unlike any other city in the world.
The time was October 25, 1946, the day CAT was founded.
The story begins with two talented and adventurous men - General Claire Chennault and Whitey Willauer - started a small airline in postwar China. The airline was to be known as China National Relief and Rehabilitation air Transport (CNRRA Air Transport), it hauled vital relief supplies from coastal ports to the war-torn interior. The airline played a major role in the rehabilitation of the country, flying nearly two million miles in fifteen thousand hours and carrying almost seven million ton-miles of cargo.
After more than a year of flying United Nations cargo, Chennault and Willauer managed to secure a commercial contract. They changed the name of the fledgling airline to Civil Air Transport CAA-MOC on January 1, 1948. By the end of 1948, CAT was deeply involved in China's civil war. CAT pilots evacuated more than 100,000 desperate epople from doomed city Mukden in Manchuria. They brought in supplies and carried out wounded during the epic battle of Hsuchow. In one of the most heroic and least known airlifts in history, CAT flew long missions to Taiyuan in Shansi Province, supporting the governor, Marshal Yen Hsi-shan, in his struggle against the Communists. CAT retreated toTaiwan during the winter of 1949-1950, broke economically but with its precious assets of aircraft, personnel and spirit intact. Later CAT went to work for the CIA during the 1950s.
From the day it began operations in Taiwan, the character of CAT began to change. Though the capabilities CAT built up as a cargo carrier on the mainland were to be used to support and implement the airlift to Korea when the war broke out on June 25, 1950, and were to be used again in Indo-China and in Laos. CAT was beginning to build up its scheduled passenger services. First, the scheduled flights went to Hong Kong; then to Japan and Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and Thailand, as well as Taiwan. In addition, CAT instituted its "round-island" flights which fly a domestic route in Taiwan of 244 unduplicated route miles.
The first flights were carried out with plushed up C-46s; then came Skymasters and then in 1958, CAT inaugurated "The Mandarin Flight" DC-6B services. "The Mandarin Flight" which was to become a favorite with passengers throughout the Orient, represented an innovation of personalized services and unique Chinese decor that mirrored its heritage as a carrier for the Republic of China. On July 12, 1961, CAT inagurated Convair 880M "The Mandarin Jet" with specially designed Chinese palatial interior decor. It was the first airline to operate pure jet scheduled passenger services on regional routes in the Far East. The Convair 880M was replaced by the Boeing 727 jet in January 1968 and continued the traditions of "The Mandarin Jet".
On February 16, 1968, The only Boeing 727 jet enroute from Hong Kong to Taipei crashed near Linkou. This tragedy brought CAT to end its glorious 23 years of service in Orient.
Email : vmasf@aol.com
Vincent Ma