CHINA NATIONAL AVIATION CORPORATION CAPTAINS: (CNAC)

CHINA NATIONAL AVIATION CORPORATION CAPTAINS: (CNAC)
Six former CNAC “Hump” Pilots are seen inside the “China Doll,” a fully restored and flying Curtiss C-46 “Commando” transport during a CNAC Reunion in northern California. From left to right are; John “Dick” Rossi, 735 missions over the “Hump,” Fletcher “Christy” Hanks, 347 missions over the “Hump,” Moon Chin, Carey Bowels, 197 missions over the “Hump,” Bill Maher and Peter Goutiere 680 missions over the “Hump.”

All six CNAC Captains were Founding Board Members of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation.

“Dick” Rossi was one of the original Flying Tigers who as a member of the American Volunteer Group, attained the status of Fighter “Ace,” by being officially credited with the destruction of 6 and a 1/3 Japanese aircraft in aerial combat. Additionally, as a CNAC pilot, “Dick” Rossi holds the absolute record for the number of Second World War flights flown over the “Hump,” an amazing 735 flights over the often deadly “Hump” air route.

Moon Chin, an American citizen who was born in China and raised in the U.S., returned to China to fly with CNAC in 1933, becoming the 3rd Chinese born pilot to earn a commercial pilot’s rating. Following the historic April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raiders bombing mission over the Japanese Home Islands, Moon would fly the then Colonel Jimmy Doolittle out of China, via Myitkyina, Burma, where Moon and Colonel Doolittle loaded 80 terrified refugees onto Moon’s C-53 just as Japanese troops were about to capture the airfield. Once airborne, Moon flew the future General Doolittle and their tightly packed passengers to Calcutta, India. Moon didn’t know who his famous passenger actually was until after they arrived in Calcutta and Doolittle was quickly spirited away by American Embassy officials.