History
Wujiaba is among the oldest airports in China, with a history that can be traced back over 100 years to the early 20th century, when Wujiaba Airport was first built under the supervision of local warlord, General Tang Jiyao.
During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), which began before World War II, the airport was expanded. It was a base for operations of the legendary "Flying Tigers", the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG), of the Chinese Air Force, led by Claire Lee Chennault before the United States entered the war. After the US entered the war in December 1941, and starting in 1942, Wujiaba Airport was the headquarters of numerous United States Army Air Forces units, including the Fourteenth Air Force and later the Tenth Air Force.
The USAAF Air Transport Command (ATC) established a major air transport facility at the airport, which connected flights west to Chabua Airfield, India, with other routes within China Jiangbei Airport (Chunking); Chenstu Air Base, and Banmaw Airport (Bhamo, Burma). After the war ended in 1945, a 1,390 mile (2,224 kilometer) route east to Clark Air Base in the Philippines was established. The route to Clark AB established a complete worldwide transport route for ATC
The Flying Tigers Association visited in October 1982 and again in September 2005. and took photos.
Read more about this topic: Kunming Wujiaba International Airport
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)