Research Catalog

Title

China pilot : flying for Chiang and Chennault / Felix Smith.

Author

Smith, Felix, 1918-2018.

Publication

Washington, D.C. : Brassey's, 1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 309 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map; 24 cm

Summary

• At the end of World War II, young American pilot Felix Smith had to chose between returning home to a steady airline job in Wisconsin and remaining in Asia. However, life in the Midwest could not compete with the excitement and seductive mystique of flying in the Orient. He stayed overseas for almost three decades.
• Smith became one of the first pilots of Civil Air Transport, or CAT, the China-based airline co-founded by Claire Chennault, the famed leader of the Flying Tigers. Ferrying troops and equipment for the Nationalists during China's civil war, CAT was also a lifeline that provided medicine and supplies to China's suffering masses during these difficult years. Later CAT flew under CIA contract during the French war in Indochina, the Korean War, American's secret war in Laos, and the Vietnam War.
• A true aviation pioneer, Felix Smith was in the cockpit from the beginning and saw it all.
• With an appreciation of the eccentric and an eye for the exotic, Smith brings to life the colorful, courageous people who kept CAT aloft despite its reputation as "the world's most shot-at airline." Foremost was the indomitable Chennault, whom Smith knew well. Then there were the rugged pilots, such as the legendary James "Earthquake Magoon" McGovern, killed flying supplies to the besieged French forces at Dien Bien Phu, and many others who risked their lives for freedom.

Subject

• Smith, Felix, 1918-2018
• Chennault, Claire Lee, 1893-1958
• China. American Volunteer Group > History
• United States. Air Force, 14th > History
• United States. Army Air Forces > Biography
• World War, 1939-1945 > Aerial operations, American
• World War, 1939-1945 > Personal narratives, American
• Fighter pilots > United States > Biography
• China > History > Civil War, 1945-1949

Note

• Includes index.

Contents

Foreword / Anna Chennault -- 1. The Yangtze River -- 2. Footsteps -- 3. Missionaries -- 4. CAT's Wings -- 5. Licking the Wounds -- 6. China's Civil War -- 7. Hong Kong Capers -- 8. Free China -- 9. A Foot in Both Wars: Korea and Indochina -- 10. Buol's Freedom -- 11. The Kingdom of Laos -- 12. Chennault's Farewell.

ISBN

0028811267

LCCN

95019838

OCLC

• 32625082
• ocm32625082

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries