The Veterans' Stories

Stories
33
Cheng Tin Gai
Look at the fleet of aircrafts in this photo. We called them the “Black Widows” at that time…
 
Mrs. Wong
Why?  Had they been crashed, or struck someone to death?
Lau Yee Kow
No. They were in fact the fleet of CNAC and CATC, detained at Kai Tak during the “Two Airline Incident”!
Cheng Tin Gai
The “Two Airline Incident” happened in 1949, when the Nationalist Government was defeated and was retreating from the mainland. More than 80 aircrafts of CNAC and CATC arrived at Kai Tak en route, but then several tens of them, who sought to follow the Communist, mutinied. They drove 12 aircrafts back to the mainland…
The "Black Widows" of the "CNAC/CATC Defection"  
We called those planes “Black Widows” because they were sprayed with a layer of rust preventive oil in black color. They removed the wings and wrapped the engine. All the planes flew to Hong Kong, but some defected to the Communist, and CNAC had them coated with rust preventive oil.
Lau Yee Kow
The country was in a lawsuit against Taiwan at that time, so the rust preventive oil was applied to prevent the planes from rusting.
Huen Shing
Both the People’s Republic and Claire Lee Chennault, who represented the U.S, claimed possession of the 70 aircrafts of the “two airline” staying at Kai Tak. The lawsuit went on for several years, and the whole fleet was detained at Kai Tai…
The wingless “Black Widows”
The most advanced of them were CV-240, C-46 and C-47. The planes were all parked at the airport’s fringe, their wings pulled out to save space. The wings of C-47 were removable. And they applied rust preventive oil on the planes to suppress rain corrosion.
C-47 passenger aircraft of Taiwan’s Civil Air Transport in the 1960s. The airline was then under the control of Claire Lee Chennault.
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