The Dawn of Indigenous Aircraft Production

150 Northrop Gamma-2E single-engine light bombers were ordered by China in 1934, the first batch of them arrived in Shanghai in February of this year, including the various versions of 2 2Es, 7 3ECs, and 15 2EDs. In 1935 25 more kits were received by the Chinese Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (中央飛機製造廠). Initially laid out at Jianqao, the China-US joint-adventure CAMCO was founded by an agent of Curtiss-Wright in China, William D. Pauley. After 5 years operation with the loan paid off, China would be the full-owner of CAMCO per contract. Most Gamma-2ECs in service with the 1st and 2nd Bombardment Groups were assembled here.

For graduating training the Chinese workers, these 25 kits were evenly divided into 5 batches. The final assembly training was done on the first 5 aircraft, which were directly built from fuselage, empennage, wings, and landing gears sub-assemblies. On the next 5 machines the workers learned from components to sub-assemblies fabrication. The 3rd batch was a shop practice for manufacturing process for basic components and parts, including welding and riveting, followed by the 4th batch which familiarizing parts machining and heat treatment. On the last 5 units, the workers performed the overall procedure from parts acquisition to final assembly.

Outside of the primary endeavor CAMCO, there was a secondary effort on indigenous aviation growth. Around 1932 an Italian contingent, under Gen. Roberto Lordi arrived in China to assist aircrew training and aircraft production. In 1935-37, the CAF Nanchang Aviation School in Jiangxi Province was run under the sponsorship of Italian. Beside the assistance in training, a Fiat-subsidized aircraft assembly plant began production at Nanchang in 1936. Instead of the original planed 6 Savoia-Marchetti S.M.81B bombers, only half were completed due to Benito Mussolini cut the official ties with China.

Military historians and enthusiasts will find the informative captions in my drawings useful for reference purposes: Chinese copies of Douglas O-2MC, Northrop Gamma-2EC, Polikarpove I-16-UTI(忠-28甲), I-15bis(忠-28乙), and Boeing/Stearman PT-17.