Sun Yat-Sen's WW-1 Aeroplanes in Courtland, California

[AAC Cadet Leader]

i have heard different variations on the story of Sun Yet-Sen and the four to twelve WWI aeroplanes he purchased to take back to china that were burnt up in a fire in the early 1920's. today, one of the residents here told me of a conversation he had with one of the town elders who said that the engines of all those aeroplanes may still be in a barn in courtland, california, which is very nearby here. he asked me if i knew where that barn is. well, no, i don't. hmm... but i just found the following in a sacramento delta document from 2001 posted online.

QUOTE: " Due to the large numbers of Chinese residents residing in the Delta, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen visited Courtland to raise money for his fight against the Communists. Chinese in the Delta raised substantial money for his cause; they bought ten or twenty airplanes that were stored on a wharf below Hood prior to shipment. However, saboteurs sent the warehouse and planes up in flames. (3) "

does anyone have any more clues to add?

[Varese2002]

There is much on Sun Yat-sen and the father of Dan-San Abbott in a 2005-thread on the Forum here.

In the text of Dan-San are pieces of information about flying in Courtland, California in 1922.

Young Sen-yat had recruited my Father, Harry Wayne Abbott to instruct a group of Chinese-American how to fly and maintain Curtiss aircraft.(Courtland, California, 1922).

There has appeared recently a comprehensive study on Chinese aviation by the prolific Swedish writer Lennart Andersson. Surely he will cover in his book the first steps in aviation development in China.

Andersson, Lennart. 2008. A history of Chinese aviation: encyclopedia of aircraft and aviation in China until 1949. Taiwan: AHS of ROC. ISBN 9789572853337, 320 pages.

Cheers

Kees

[AAC Cadet Leader]

kees,
thank you! i was unaware of that thread and info.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

AAC Cadet Leader;
In a conversation I had about 18 years ago, with Barlett Chan, the son of Chancey Chan, it was his farm where my Father trained the Chinese-Americans in the art of flying and maintaining Curtiss airplanes in 1922. When the course was completed around September 1922, the two Jennys were disassembled and store in the huge barn on the farm. Later the barn was burned to the ground along with the two Jennys, it was sabotage and arson.
I never thought about it, but the engines may still be there. In October 1922 the group including my Mother and Father sailed for Shanghai, China via Honolulu. From 24 September 1923 to January 1924, my Father commanded the South China Air Service at 23 years of age!. It is a long story. There is a possibility of a movie by a Canadian film company.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[buzz1941]

Originally Posted by Dan_San_Abbott

Blue skies,
Dan-San

You know, Dan-San, if you posted information about your father's work every day on an Aerodrome thread, in a year you'd have a history book.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Originally Posted by Dan_San_Abbott

AAC Cadet Leader;
In a conversation I had about 18 years ago, with Barlett Chan, the son of Chancey Chan, it was his farm where my Father trained the Chinese-Americans in the art of flying and maintaining Curtiss airplanes in 1922. When the course was completed around September 1922, the two Jennys were disassembled and store in the huge barn on the farm. Later the barn was burned to the ground along with the two Jennys, it was sabotage and arson.
I never thought about it, but the engines may still be there. In October 1922 the group including my Mother and Father sailed for Shanghai, China via Honolulu. From 24 September 1923 to January 1924, my Father commanded the South China Air Service at 23 years of age!. It is a long story. There is a possibility of a movie by a Canadian film company.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

Dan-San,
Thank you very much for this! This story is getting more intriguing as it unfolds. Tomorrow, I will call my friends, the Chan's, who and have a large pear farm, south of Hood, in Courtland. (In 2001 I did an oil painting of their historic home.) Their father, Lincoln Chan, was quite well-respected and a famous pear farmer. He passed away just last year and hundreds attended his memorial service. I wonder if perhaps "Barlett" and Chancey were Lincoln's father and grandfather.

How interesting that your father was such a young commander in the South China Air Service. Did he speak Chinese before he went to China in 1923? Did your father ever speak or write anything about meeting Sun-Yet-Sen when he was in California?

[Dan_San_Abbott]

AAC Cadet Leader:
when I spoke to Bartlett Chan, he told me the Bartlett Pears were named after him by his Father. I think the generation link is Chancey Chan>, Lincoln Chan >, Bartlett Chan. I would guess Bartlett Chan was about 45 to 50 when I spoke to him around 1990.
My Mother, Father, Grand Father Wayne Armstrong Abbott, and the nine Chinese American student stated at the Walnut Grove Hotel, in Walnut Grove, a couple of miles south of the Chan Farm, on the Sacramento River. The Walnut Grove hotel burned to the ground sometime after WW2. The two Jennys did not have king posts on the upper wing, but had two lift struts on each side. The flight instruction was in the morning and early evening. All nine pilots received their FAI licenses at the end of the program.
My Father did not speak Chinese (Cantonese) before he met the Col. Young Sen-yat or the students. HeI know he did learn to swear in Cantonese, I picked up a couple of his favorites. I asked a Chinese friend, what one of them meant, he replied, No, no, very bad! He would not translate them for me. He did tell me, I spoke them correctly. Dr. Sun, promoted Col.Young to Major General posthumously. Dr.Sun's diaries are in English as was the day to day log kept by Eugene Chen. So it would make the research much easier.
I don't know of any writings by my Father, I have newspaper clippings where he spoke of his service under Dr.Sun Yat-sen, but only as an instructor. No mention of the two battles in which he was wounded, Waichow and Shuclung.
none of his other activies, bombing of Canton. The attempt on his life by a rebel warlord. Those stories I got from my Mother.
Our connection with Dr. Sun was close, up until I was born, we lived together in a large concrete building on Honam Island. I was named by Dr.Sun. Dr. Sun had his quarters offices on the top floor of the three story building. other staff had rooms on the second floor. My Mother and Father had an apartment on the second floor.
The United States and some european countries had established a military embargo against selling airplanes and military equipment to the various war lords in China. It is my understanding that Chancey Chan was Dr. Sun's purchasing agent in the USA. He would buy whatever was needed ship the sfuff to an intermediary that was not a signor of the embargo, and they would ship it to an address in China specified by Dr.Sun.
I know specifically that six Curtiss Jennys and the Friestly Giant, twin engine passenger plane were shipped to Foochow by this method. Harry (Dad) and his boys were sent to Foochow to assemble test and fly the Jennys an the transport and then bomb Canton. These were eventually shipped to Canton in 1923. It is my belief that the two Curtiss H16s, three Curtiss N-9s, several Aeromarine 39b, Curtiss F and some Jn-4 were shipped through a Frenchman name Ricou in Portugese Macau to Canton in 1922 in order to circumvent the aircraft embargo.
The establishment of the aircraft factory with Guy Colwell as the engineer and Arthur Wilde as the Constructor and Harry and his boys as the workers built the Rosamonde, airplane No.1. was to get around the problem of foriegn suppliers. The spares for the Curtiss N-9 and the Jennys is what the material and parts source was for the Rosamonde. Four were eventually ordered , I am not sure if all were built, I think they were. Col. young established tfe design requirements for a light reconnaissance bomber, siple to build by minimum trained workers from local "materials."
My Mother, Mary Alice Carr Abbott, started a book in the mid 1930s, a few years after my Father's death. It is her writing's and oral history that I have worked from.
Blue skies AAc Cadet Leader,
Dan-San

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Thank you, Dan-San,
What an interesting family history you have! Thank you for your extensive and informative post.

Last week, I spoke with Doug Chan and he said his grandfather, Lincoln Chan, was very actively involved with Sun-Yet Sen and that the aeroplanes (two of them, he thinks) burnt up due to arson on the shipping docks in Hood, California and not in a Courtland barn. Doug Chan thinks you may have spoken to his older brother, Wally Chan in 1990, as he would have been about fifty at that time and he had a dog named "Bartlett."

Yesterday, at the annual Courtland Pear Fair in 2009, Wally Chan was the Grand Marshall of the parade. I spoke to him briefly on the subject of Sun Yet Sen's aeroplanes. He also said that the aeroplanes burnt up on the Hood, Calif shipping docks (just north of Courtland), not in a Courtland barn and doesn't think anything is left to find of their engines.

[Varese2002]

More on the Chinese situation of specifically aircraft procurement during 1919 - 1929 can be found in the study

Xu, Guangqiu. 2001. War wings: the United States and Chinese military aviation, 1929-1949. Contributions in military studies, no. 211. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.

A large part of chapter 1 (Aircraft sales and the China Arms Embargo 1919-1929) can be read here.

There are quite a few references to Sun Yat-sen, for instance p.75



Kees