Restored aircraft to make honorary Hump flight

A restored World War II military transport airplane will fly the famed Hump route next month to honor the pilots who flew the air passage under treacherous conditions.

The flight was conceived a year ago by the Flying Tigers Historical Organization (FTHO), a California-based non-profit group. The group then started a worldwide search for a Hump airplane; a C-47 showed up early this year in Australia.

The C-47 is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner and used extensively by the Allies over the eastern Himalayan Mountains to resupply the Chinese war effort during World War II.

With a donation of $175,000 from Florence Fang, a Chinese-American entrepreneur, and $50,000 they raised themselves, the organization purchased the aircraft for $150,000 and fitted it with modern equipment, Larry Jobe, FTHO president, told a press conference at the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco on Thursday.

The aircraft has been completely restored in Sydney. It is ready to fly from there to Calcutta, a port of entry for India during the war and also the starting point for the Hump flight, after checks and certification from the Australian civil aviation authority, Jobe said.

The flight will start in Calcutta and arrive in Kunming, China, and then continue to Guilin, where the airplane will be on permanent display at the Flying Tigers Heritage Park and Museum.

The airplane was named Buzz Buggy, the handle of a B-24 bomber that delivered cargo and fuel over the Hump. "We decided to keep the name," Jobe said.

The image of Buzz Buggy (whose name is a take on the American cartoon character Bugs Bunny) was painted on one side of the airplane and the markings of China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) on the other to recognize CNAC's contribution to establishing the Hump route and delivering much of the war material, according to Jobe.

It was planned to arrive in Kunming on Nov 15, but many factors, including weather, aircraft condition, pilot health and air traffic control clearances may affect the actual flight, he said.

Seventy years ago, China and the US put more than 2,200 aircraft in the war against Japan in three years, and 81 percent of the supplies were delivered to China over the Hump route, said Zha Liyou, deputy Chinese consul general in San Francisco.

"Without the Hump, the history of the Chinese War Against Japanese Aggression would be rewritten," he said. "The friendship between the American and Chinese people forged during the war has never been broken off. The Hump is a witness to the friendship."

Captain Dale Mueller, 65, an Air Force Academy graduate with extensive C-47/DC-3 experience, will fly the Buzz Buggy.

"The aircraft is old, the route is old, the pilot is old," said James Whitehead, chairman of the Flying Tigers Historical Organization. "The only difference is no Japanese."

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com