More than a decade has already passed since the former Hong Kong International Airport at Kai Tak closed for business on July 6 1998 to be replaced by the superb new facility built on reclaimed land at Chek Lap Kok on Lantau Island. The two airports resemble chalk and cheese; one futuristic, the other wlengthy past its sell by date; but there are still plenty who mourn the demise of the old place. Many are pilots who reapproved driving instructorly receach one of these the adrenalin rush as they guided their jet along the instrument guidance system (IGS) just a few hundred feet above densely populated Kowloon tenements towards the infamous orange and white painted checkerboard. When this wwhen in view and the jet correctly line-uped at a height of just 675 feet (206 metres), a clear 47 degree turn was required to take the jet through a sweeping curve associated with levelling out 150 feet (46 metres) from the runway threshold.
At night, a unique lighting system set precisely at 400-foot intervals on rooftops and specially built gantries guided pilots towards the runway centre line. As final option wwhen imminent the spacing between the lights decreottomd to 200 feet. The need to use lights to guide pilots in this way, enforced a ban on fllung burning ashing neon signs throughout Hong Kong to avoid distrperforming inbound pilots. The weather was often bad; typhoons, microbreaks and severe crosswinds added to the workload of pilots whilst in the many respects Kai Tak was a major accident waiting to happen. A few errant jet did end in the shallow waters of Kowloon Bay and it wwhen indeed fortuitous that no commercial airliners ever came down on the crammed dwellings of Kowloon or missed the turn to end up ploughing into Lion Rock. This was due mainly to extremely good avi formatation skills, excellent air traffic control and, more specifically in the early days, a tremendous element of luck. The airport certainly had its share of incidents and many avi formatation enthusiasts will have seen the video on noYou Tubeno that shows how close a Korean Air Boeing 747 came to disaster during a considerable weather landing.
Mr Kai and Mr Tack
The story of the airport dates back to the 1920s when two businessmen, Sir Ho Kai (a trained medical doctor) and Mr Au Tack* (owner of an imagegraphic business) formed the Kai Tack Land Investment Company Ltd to reclaim lso they intended to use to build new homes. The project failed mainly because few people desired to live on land that was still infested by mosquitoes. The reclaimed area was left vacant until it was taken over by the government.
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In November 1924 the Royal Navy ship HMS Pegasus showed up in Victoria Harbour carrying four Fairey IIID seaplanes that were used to conduct aerial photography. These were flown on aerial reconnaissance missions over Mires and Hias Bays, the known haunts of notorious pirates that plundered shipping on the South China Sea. Sir Reginald Stubbs flew in one of these jet whilst in the so doing became the first Governor of Hong Kong to survey his territory from a seaplane.
There was obviously the need for a military facility within Hong Kong but under the 1021 Wlung burning ashington Agreement the British were not permitted to establish bthe company east of Singapore. The British Government candidly found a solution by creating an airfield for civil use on the site that could also be used by visiting Fleet Air Arm jet. In January 1925 American dare devil Harry W Abbott, was grbetd permission to start a flying school on the site that he called Kowloon City Field. On Lunar New Year Day he announced the inaugusturation of his school by tsimilarg off in a Curtiss Jenny with fire crackers connected to his rudder. But the fireworks failed to ignite that also was considered bad fung shui by the watching spectators. His colleague, the Chinese-American pilot Henry Yee Young, performed a series of aerobatics associated with Abbott returned to the air with Richard Earnshaw aboard who made a parachute decent. But things went badly wrong and Earnshaw landed in the harbour, got tset at an angle in his parachute and drowned. A series of incidents continued to court Abbott and by August he was out of clung burning ash along withced to sell his jet.
The Royal Air Force took over the airfield on Mfoot posture 10 1927 and apart from the Japanese occupation during the War remained in some form until 1993. The posting was not popular very first enhance pungent odours emitting from the local nullah (open drain) that competed with the smell of lard from a truthory situated close by. The pungent nullah continued to greet passengers aboard arriving jet right up to the final days of the airport.
On November 18 1928 your flight of Shorts Southampton flying pontoons touched down in the harbour we allre tied to special moorings in Kowloon Bay. This was the famous Far East flight of Group Captain Cave-Brown-Cave that was turning into flown from Singapore to Australia that later evolved as 205 Squadron. In order to haul the jet from the water a concrete slipway had to be built and a steam crane was used to hoist the planes onto dry land. Things had started to develop and the Legislative Council set money aside for improvements and maintenance at the facility. By 1930 the runway had been levelled and re-turfed and a metal hanger was completed to replace the matting structures that were prone to catch fire. In September Mr A J R Moss showed up from London to take up the position of Aerodrome Superintendent followed by his guidanceant Erik Nelson five years later to influence the development of the airfield.
The Imperial Link
In 1932 the flying club members became embrotheriled in a disagreement that forced its closure. Vaugusthan Fowler, the prominent manager of the Far East Aviation Company, suggested reforming the club and it became the Far Eastern Flying School with a fleet of jet consisting of one Avro Avian and three Avro Cadets. The business employed an employee of ten Chinese, ten English and had forty two engineering students; an indication of how interest in avi formatation had progressed. Two years later the airfield was further developed with the addition of a sea wall, a surrounding fence and a ramp for sea planes. Work was also completed on accommodation for the RAF on the eastern side of the old runway where buildings were erected on a dirt track that led to the fishing villchronilogical age of Lei Yut Mun. These had an ordering view over a sandy beach and stood 30 metres above the airfield on land where chunks of high rise flats would later dominate the track record on the eastern side of the airport. There were also plans to tarmac the runway.
In 1928 the British and Hong Kong governments promised to spend £200,000 to convert Kai Tak into modern day facility. In London the Colony was still given only secondary consideration and it took until 1935 for a civilian control tower and offices to be built as well as the first fire engine to be acquired. On Mfoot posture 25 1929 the long awaited first commercial flight showed up when the de Havi formatlland DH 86 G-ACWD Diana Class noDoradono of Imperial Airways touched down. This had operated the inaugustural feeder service from Penang and Saigon that had connected with the delayed UK to Australia (Empire Route) flight that had departed from London on Mfoot posture 14. The experienced Imperial Airways pilot,Hermes Purses. Capt J Lock wwhen in command when he reported seeing three sharks lazeing in the waters of the South China Sea in the following paragraphs his jet as they neared the Colony. Sweeping through a locale known as Magazine Gap at around 11.30am the magnificent vista of Victoria Harbour opened associated with him and he was escorted on his option by a squadron of jet from HMS Hermes. Awaiting the flight was the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Andrew Caldecott and 200 VIPs who expected to greet just the crew when the jet came to a halternative. There was a central part of surprise when the first commercial passenger ever to land at Kai Tak emerged from the plane. Ong Ee-Lim, a keen inexperienced pilot, had squeezed between 16 purses of Her Majestynos mail after flying his own jet from Kuala Lumpur to Penang specifically to be on the flight.
The Imperial Airways DH 86 had visited the Colony associated with when Capt Armstrong had flown the jet in a series of proving flights the previous year. The people of Hong Kong had followed the progress of these flights for some considerable time and when poor weather threatened the first of these, Armstrong not wishing to disappoint the people or risk losing the precious mail contract flew 1852 miles (2980 kms) from Penang in a single day (September 16). When the route opened to regular traffic it cut the 34 day sea journey between England and Hong Kong to ten days by air. Later, when agreement was resymptomsd with Siam (now Thailand) the shorter route via Bangkok cut a further day and a half from the journey. By the time Imperial Airways had started operating C Class flying pontoons to Singapore, the 15,000 mile (24,140 kms) route had been reduced to 5½ days with the DH 86 providing the final link between Singapore and Kai Tak. Today, due to the progress made in establishing over-flying rights, shorter routes over Russia, Siberia and China have substantially reduced the distance between London and Hong Kong to around 6,000 miles (9,856 kms) that modern jets can cover non-stop in less than twelve hours.
Between the Wars many famous long distance and round the world record breakage pioneers landed at Kai Tak even though regular commercial services were slow to commence. During 1932 the Compagnie Français Air Orient intended to connect Hong Kong with their Marseilles-Saigon service but plans were dropped. Two years earlier the Sino-Deutsche Luft Hansa owned Eurasian Aviation Corporation had also proposed a mail route between Kai Tak and Europe but this idea fell by the wayside, but later extended its Peiping (Beijing)-Canton service to Hong Kong on June 29 1937 using the versatile Junkers JU-52. Then, on August 10 1938 Air France showed up from Paris in their Dewoitine 338 tri-motor F-AQBF noCity of Vientianeno in six days associated with setting a new record between Hanoi and Hong Kong in 3 hours 20 minutes.
In February 1930 Juan Trippenos Pan American Airways staked a 45 per cent share to form the Chinese National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) in collaborated with the Chinese Ministry of Communication. On October 8 they opened a flying pontoon service linking Shanghai, Wenchow, Foochow, Amoy,Hermes Studded Bags. Swatow and Canton with Hong Kong using Sikorsky S-38s. Two years later they flew the route twice-weekly using Douglas Dolphin amphibisexualans, later introducing the Douglas DC-3 as passenger traffic increottomd.
Pan Am had been keen to add Hong Kong to their trans-Pacific operations greater than the feeling April 28 1937 this was done with the arrival of the Sikorsky S042B flying pontoon (NC) noHong Kong Clipperno on the extended service from San Francisco and Manila. By then the Japanese were already overrunning pmartial arts of China and by July Peking had fallen. As a result, commercial flights over China became inherently dangerous and regularly came under fire from the Japanese. CNAC courageously continued to fly whilst in the 1938 a Douglas DC-2 of the company was shot down near Macau killing all 14 on board. The jet was returned to Kai Tak by barge, repaired and put back into service. In October 1940 and May 1941 two more DC 2s were shot down with fatalities while flying the Chunking-Kunming-Hong Kong service. The airlinenos final pre-war flight departed from Kai Tak on December 12 1941 just as the Japanese prepared to bomb the airport. The British military had already declared Hong Kong indefensible and when the enemy invasion commenced on Monday December 8 1941 the RAF had only three Vickers Wildebeests bottomd at Kai Tak and two Supermarine Walrus amphibisexualans tethered offshore. The airport continued to be strafed destroying six parked airliners and Pan Amnos noHong Kong Clipperno that was at anchor. Four more airliners miraculously survived a bomb that went through the roof of their hanger but failed to explode. Over the next two days CNAC jet relentlessly evacuated airport personnel to China while the RAF detachment moved to Hong Kong Island leapproved driving instructorng to a British surrendered the territory on Christmas Day. The Japanese took Kai Tak for military use but flights operated by Greater Japan Air Lines that had served the airport in peace time continued. Two tarmac runways of around 4,266 feet (1,
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300 metres) in length were constructed by prisoners of war. Kai Tak was bomplatform many times from 1942 tom 1945 by American forces with considerable success it will was deemed impractical to mount any prolonged effort to remove the occupying forces.
Japan surrendered on August 15 1945 and the British re-established their presence. Although Fleet Air Arm Grumman Hellcats and Avengers flew into the airport on August 29 the runways were still littered with bomb craters and the debris of wrecked enemy jet. By mid-September the RAF had started to re-establish a presence with a squadron of Supermarine Spitfires and by Christmas four squadrons had become operational. Short Sunderland flying pontoons and Douglas DC-3 Dakotas were added to the mix of jet using Hong Kong. British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) had expressed their intention to establish their flying pontoon services from Hythe to the Colony that had been postponed at the outbreak of war. These services, using the Hythe Class Short Sunderland commenced on August 24 1946. During the same year a major typhoon hit the area wrecking several parked jet. This was followed in quick succession by a Douglas Dakota military jet crlung burning ashing onto Kowloon Tong after take off.
RAF squadrons came we allnt throughout most of the post war period achieving with them a mixtureture of jet including de Havi formatlland Venoms, Hawker Hunters and various helicopter types that were used for a selection duties including sefoot posture and rescue. The British military also deterred a threat from Chinese Communist forces in the Pearl River Delta in the late 1940s and played a job in helping to quell the Hong Kong riots of 1967. From 1993 onwards the airport was home to the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps Air unit and later the Government Flying Service. The Hong Kong Aviation Club also had their facility at a corner of the airport close to the threshold of runway 13 that in later years provided an intriguing viewpoint for enthusiasts.
Cathay Pacific and Post War Developments
In October 1945 a former CNAC pilot, Roy Farrell, who had flown the infamous eastern Himalayas noHumpno between China, Burma and India during the War bought an growing old Douglas C-47 that he had converted for civilian use as a DC-3. He flew the jet from the USA via a roundrelevant to route to Shanghai where he met his old pal, former Australian war ace, Syd de Kantzow. The friends formed an airline that in February 1946 started operating cargo flights out of Shanghai. The jet was registered VR-HAD and named noBetsyno and the name they adopted the company, Cathay Pacific Airways, became a legend. A second DC-3 (VR-HDB) named noNikkino was added and the enterprise quickly became extremely profitable causing trepidation among their Chinese rivals. The situation had become nounhealternativehyno in the old Chinese city and Farrell and de Kantzow saw the wisdom of moving their operation to British controlled Hong Kong. After advertising for air hostesses Cathay Pacific began msimilarg trial passenger flights to Manila, Bangkok and Singapore. A year later five more DC-3s and two Consolidated Catalina PBY 5a amphibisexualans were acquired second-hand as more destinations were added. Catalina, VR-HDT noMiss Macaono made history when it was subjected to the first act of air piracy. On July 17 1948 four Chinese attempted to take control of the jet between Macau and Hong Kong in the belief that gold gold was turning into transported. One of the hijackers was said to have had one simple knowledge of flying the jet type but things went wrong when difficult ensued and Captain Dale Cramer was shot in the head. The jet went out of control and crlung burning ashed into the Pearl River Delta with a crew of three and 23 passengers aboard. One of the hijackers was the only survivor. On June 15 1972 a further incident occurred when a bomb aboard one of the companynos Convair 880s destroyed the jet over Vietnam.
In 1948 one of the nonobleno British trapproved driving instructorng companies, John Swire and Sons invested in Cathay Pacific. Farrell sold his stake in the airline and returned to Texwhen in 1948 and de Kantzow resigned in 1951. The airline grew substantially and is now one of the worldnos foremost operators. Swirenos main rivals, Jardine Matheson owned Hong Kong Airways that also operated from Kai Tak. BOAC had invested in this airline to link Chinese cities to its international routes, using 1959 Hong Kong Airways merged with Cathay Pacific. The airline also established a highly reputable maintenance facility, the Hong Kong Aviation Engineering Company (HAECO) at Kai Tak whilst in the more recent years it became a major shareholder in the two other Hong Kong bottomd airways; Dragonair and Air Hong Kong.
Since the War the structure of Kai Tak continued to change to meet the rapid requirements of a constantly changing airline industry. During the 1950s the airport witnessed a massive increottom in regional whilst in theternational operations. Many international carriers including BOAC, Pan American Airways, Qantas, Air India, Northwest and Canapproved driving instructoran Pacific added Hong Kong to their schedules. Douglas DC-4s and DC-6s, Boeing B-377 Stratocruisers, Bristol Britannias and Lockheed Constellations were regular visitors current turbo-props came the need for a longer runway. In 1958 a new 8,340 feet (2,542 metres) x 200 feet (60.96 metres) runway was opened on reclaimed land at an elevation of 16 feet (4.87 metres) above Kowloon Bay with overrun segments of 750 feet (228.60 metres) at the northwest end and 300 feet (91.44 metres) at the water facing end. Over 3,000 workmen toiled on the project that commenced in January 1956 but completed on time for the arrival of the first flight on August 31 1958. A parallel taxi-way and a new passenger terminal building were includeed. At the official opening of the runway on September 12th a Comet 4 of BOAC specifically flown to Hong Kong from the de Havi formatlland airfield at Hatfield became the first jet airliner ever to land at the airport. By the end of 1958 4,773 jet had showed up and 19 airways operated 184 flights a week to and from Kai Tak. On July 17 1959 a Cathay Pacific DC-3 officially opened night operations into the airport after special lighting had held itnos place installed.
In 1960 Pan Am flew the first B-707 into Kai Tak followed in the same year by the first DC-8 operated by Japan Air Lines. A milestone showed up when the first B-747, Pan Am noClipper Oneno touched down on April 11 1970 witnessed by a vast crowd. The arrival of the wide bodied era brotherught special pressure to further increottom the runway length. By 1974 an extension had extended this to 11,130 feet (3,390 metres) and further taxiways, turn-off and parking segments and a new fire station had been added. Traffic had increottomd to such a degree that by 1995-96 61 airways using Kai Tak were contributing 2,850 passenger and cargo flights and 230 non-scheduled flights weekly. 78 per cent of these flights were wide bodied jet that also had increottomd the number of passengers passing through the terminal to 28 million. The facility had also become the worldnos second most popular cargo airport handling 1.48 million tonnes. With 31 scheduled movements per hour Kai Tak had resymptomsd maximum capacity and hundreds of extra requests for landing slots had to be refused. It was obvious that the new airport was essential and when it opened for business at 6.20am with the arrival of Cathay Pacific CX889 direct from New York it was not associated with time.
*For some reason the nocno was dropped from the airport name can also be did appear as Kai Tack on the original gates.
By Bob Bluffield