 "Harry G. Smith - first Operations Manager of China National Aviation Corporation, taken in 1929." The plane is a Loening Air Yacht (Photo Courtesy of Nancy Allison Wright) Harry Smith was on CNAC's inaugural flight, October 26, 1929. Per Wings Over Asia Vol 1 page 9: Harry Smith, personal pilot for Chiang Kai-shek died and was buried in China in 1938. From Shirley W. Mosley the daughter of Oscar and Katy Wilke - Harry died in Chungking of typhus. He was survived by his wife Hazel Smith (1896-1981). From the 1979 CNAC Mailing List: Hazel Smith B22 1763 Royal Oak Drive Duarts, CA 91010 (but it's really "Duarte")  (News clipping courtesy of Damaris Reynolds) For some additional details see Wings for an Embattled China by W. Langhorne Bond, page 168. August 4, 2003, from Patti Gully. Thanks Patti. In the 19 October 1929 edition of CWR (China Weekly Review), a 4-page article, written by Edgar Snow and entitled The Middle Kingdom From the Clouds," mentions Mr Johnsen on page 276, along with other CNAC staff. Mr Snow was a passenger on this, the first CNAC trial flight, which apparently took place the same day as the article was printed ("This morning I was in Hankow. Tonight I am back again, in Shanghai..."): Our cabin, amply roomy for six passengers, besides the two pilots who are forward in the cockpit, now is occupied by the following: Mr W.P. Loo, director, China National Aviation Corp; Mr Roy Ott, mechanic, Aviation Exploration, Inc.; and myself. In the cockpit are Mr Harry G. Smith, vice-president and operations manager of Aviation Exploration, Inc., and a pilot of more than 4,000 hours flying experience; and Mr Birger Johnsen, an equally experienced air mail flyer who will be one of the regular pilots on this Shanghai-Hankow service. I (Tom Moore) agree with Patti, "The photo accompanying the article is very poor and (almost) useless for your purposes - I attach it so you won't think you're missing out on anything". Patti (Gully)   or would like to be added to the CNAC e-mail distribution list, please let the CNAC Web Editor, Tom Moore, know. Thanks! |