2012 年9月14日星期五
Asia Connection 亚美通
Friday, September 14, 2012 Indy Asian American Times
Asia
Headlines
A fledgling Airplane Company Boeing which today accounts for four tenths of the world’s commercial air
fleet got an industrial footing in the early 1900s, due to the creative talents of its first engineer – a Chinese
graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Wong Tsu, born in Beijing, in 1893, designed
Boeing’s first mass-produced product – the Model C
training seaplane. The airplane became Boeing’s first
financial success. Wong Tsu also introduced aviation
innovations on two continents, and it could be said that
he set the stage for Boeing China today. Wong was
dedicated to advancing aeronautical science as both an
inventor and as an ambassador.
At 12 years of age Wong was selected for the
Manchu government’s Yang-Tai naval academy. Four
years later he was one of the first Chinese naval cadets
sent to England, where he earned a bachelor’s degree
in naval architecture and mechanical engineering from
Armstrong Technical College.
With the commencement of World War One, the
Chinese government sent Wong Tsu to the United
States and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to
study the new science of aviation. Chinese-born Wong
Tsu was The Boeing Company’s first engineer and
helped put the company on a sound footing. The MIT
aeronautical engineering program was the first in the
country, started in 1914 by Jerome Hunsaker, helped
by graduate student Donald Douglas. One of its first
students a Navy engineer George Conrad Westervelt, in
1915 was in Seattle with William Boeing designing the
first Boeing plane – the B & W.
Wong graduated from MIT with a Masters in
Aeronautical Engineering in June 1916 and learned
to fly at the Flying Boat School of the Curtiss Co.,
Buffalo, N.Y. After Wong talked with Westervelt, he
headed to Seattle to work for Pacific Aero Products on
the Model C, using data from the MIT wind tunnel and
research from Gustav Eiffel.
Because Wong knew how to fly, he tested his theories
in the air. According to a Seattle newspaper of the time,
Boeing allowed employees to fly the planes they were
building. “Among the most enthusiastic members in the
newly established aviation school now being conducted
by the Pacific Aero Products Company at the Lake
Union testing and trial grounds is a young Chinese, T.
Wong ... who in addition to cherishing the ambition to
become a proficient birdman, is a mechanical engineer
and draughtsman,” the reporter wrote.
The Model C first flew on Nov. 5, 1916. It was the
second plane designed by the new company but was
designated the C-4 because it was the fourth airplane
owned by Boeing.
An improved Model C, with a bigger rudder, made
a first flight April 9, 1917. Two weeks later, Boeing
changed the name of Pacific Aero Products to Boeing
Airplane Company.
On May 22, 1917, a month after President Woodrow
Wilson declared war on Germany, Boeing issued Wong
a check for $50.77 for “payment in full for services
rendered.” Wong returned to China where he started
the first Chinese airplane factory in an old engineering
works at Foo Chou.
Conrad Westervelt wrote: “When he [Wong] returns
to China ... he will of course be one of the few men
in that country fluent in aviation matters and I would
look forward to the possibilities of some business in
that country through him.”
By 1918, Wong was building the first Chinese
floatplanes at a shipyard in Mah-Wei, including the
Sea Eagle and the River Bird. During the next decade,
Wong produced dozens of aircraft there, helping to
establish China’s aircraft manufacturing business.
Model C training seaplane 1916
When Westervelt was stationed back east by the
U.S. Navy before the B & W was finished and Boeing
formed Pacific Aero Products. Westervelt asked
Hunsaker to recommend a skilled aviation engineer,
Hunsaker recommended Wong. “Wong is a good
man,” Hunsaker wrote. “Intends to spend two more
years working in this country and wants a chance on
aeroplane design and construction.”
7
Building Sino-American relationship Westervelt’s
words proved prophetic. In 1928, Westervelt went
to Shanghai as a representative of the Curtiss Wright
Corporation, working with the Chinese government
to found the China National Aviation Corporation
(CNAC), and inaugurate commercial air service in
China. He selected Wong to be chief engineer in charge
of CNAC services and maintenance operations.
Wong Tsu
By 1934, Wong, now a Lieutenant Colonel, became
the first general manager of the Central Hang Zhou
Aircraft Company, building Curtiss Hawk pursuit
planes and Douglas observation planes. In that
capacity, Wong visited the Boeing Company in Seattle,
the Douglas Aircraft company in California, and the
Boeing School of Aeronautics in Oakland, Calif. There
is also a record of him visiting the Stearman Aircraft
Company in Wichita, Kan. Wellwood Beall, Boeing
sales representative to China in 1935, recorded friendly
meetings with Colonel Wong Tsu..
Innovations during wartime in 1938 continued when
the Japanese invaded the Chinese coastline, Wong’s
factory moved inland – first to Wuhan and then to
Kunming. In 1940, Wong established the Chinese
Bureau of Aeronautical Research (later the Aviation
Industry Development Center).
During World War II, it was hard to get materials
to Chinese airplanes built inland, so Wong designed
and built a unique troop-carrying glider made out
of bamboo. By the war’s end in 1945, Wong headed
the Aviation Research Academy in China. When the
Kuomintang government was defeated in the civil war,
Wong went to Taiwan where he became professor of
aviation for his last decade at Cheng Kung University.
He died on March 4, 1965 in Tainan, Taiwan.
During his lifetime, Wong is believed to have had a
hand in designing 30 aircraft. In 2004, at a time when
it was hoping to increase its ties to the Chinese aviation
industry, Boeing unveiled a plaque and exhibit at its
Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington, honoring his
work as its first engineer.
From China (source: Associated Press)
C
hina sends patrol ships to islands held by Japan.
Beijing’s anger has been accompanied by heated
reporting in China’s state media. The tabloid Beijing
Morning Post ran a full-page color photo of one of
the islands with the headline: The Diaoyu Islands
China’s Territory. China on Tuesday also started
broadcasting a daily marine weather report for the
islands.
T
aiwan’s Foreign Ministry also lodged a strong
protest to Japan. In a statement it called the
island purchase an “extremely unfriendly move”
that “not only harms the longtime cooperation
between Taiwan and Japan but will also aggravate
regional tensions in East Asia.”From Korea (source:
Associated Press)
From Korea (source: Associated Press)
S
outh Korea said Tuesday it will launch a rocket
next month carrying an observation satellite,
its third attempt to put a satellite fired from its own
territory into orbit. The announcement by South
Korea’s Science Ministry came five months after
North Korea drew international condemnation for its
own rocket launch.
A
ministry statement said the two-stage Naro
rocket will blast off between Oct. 26 and Oct.
31 from a space center on the country’s southern
coast. The rocket’s first stage was designed and built
by Russia and the second stage by South Korea,
ministry officials said.
f successful, it would be the first rocket South
Korea has launched from its own territory —
attempts in 2009 and 2010 failed. Since 1992, the
South Korean government has launched eight
domestically-made satellites from other countries
aboard foreign-made rockets, according to a separate
ministry release.
I
From India (source: Headlines India)
Mr. Berman was a native of Chicago, has made Indianapolis his home since 1980. Before his retirement in
2010, he was an entrepreneur sourcing for U.S. companies in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He had made over
50 trips to those localities and traveled extensively throughout China. He and his lovely wife Jane, a Hong Kong
native, currently reside in Carmel, IN. They travel frequently to Asia and Mel generously shares his travel and
cultural experiences with Indy Asian American Times readers.
Our next Port of Call after leaving the beautiful
city and nearby countryside of Glasgow, Scotland was
the city of Kirkwell, Scotland in the Orkney Islands
which lie just north of the mainland of Scotland. The
Orkney Islands are washed by the furthest reach of the
Gulf Stream and the chain consists of over 70 islands
of varying size and landscapes that range from sea
cliffs rearing 1000 feet over the waves to sweeping
white sand beaches. Bird watchers flock to the islands
drawn by multitudes of sea birds and divers explore
the wrecks in the clear waters of famed Scapa Flow
which was the British Royal Navy’s fleet anchorage
in both World Wars I & II.
Most fascinating of all the Orkney Islands boast
the greatest concentration of pre-historic sites in all
Europe including the mysterious Ring of Brodgar and
the 5,000 year old Skara Brae. To be honest, the tour
we chose did not include these sites but as to The Ring
of Brodgar it is thought that it was once used to study
the stars. It is a perfect circle of immense standing
stones. We didn’t go there because we knew later in
the trip we would go to the Salisbury Plain in England
and visit the Stonehenge site.
Skara Brae is a Neolithic village on the island of
Papay which also dates back 5,000 years and has well
preserved features including beds and dressers in the
remaining houses as well as coursed flagstone walls
and a central hearth and a system of underground
sewers. The monument is part of the Orkney World
Heritage site, the Heart of Neolithic Orkney. The 1st
settlers were Neolithic people called Orcadians who
arrived some time in the 4th Millennium B.C.. They
were essentially farming people also skilled as stone
masons. At the time the pyramids were being built
I
ndia and Canada on Wednesday hold talks to fasttrack the implementation of their civil nuclear deal
and look for ways to scale up their cooperation in
hydrocarbons, an emerging area that is set to energise
relations between the two countries.
in Egypt, the Orcadians were constructing their sturdy
houses and fine stone tombs with multiple burial chambers.
The tour we chose featured a visit to the famed
Highland Park Scotch Distillery to include a tour of
how Scotch is distilled as well as a tasting and a tour of
the Scapa Flow anchorage area which also included a
stop at The Italian Chapel well known in the area as it
was entirely built by Italian prisoners of War who were
interred nearby.
The Highland Park distillery is located in the rolling countryside of the Scottish Highlands. The distillery dates back over 200 years and the single malt scotch
they distill there is still done the old fashioned way.
The unique flavor of their Scotch comes from the fire
ovens they use to dry the malt and the local peat they
use which has absorbed centuries of sea spray from the
nearby seashore. We were escorted to every stage of
production before being given s sample dram to taste.
Scapa Flow is well known to any students of World
Wars I & II. It was a perfect anchorage for the British Fleet arrayed against Germany because of its commanding position on the North Sea. The only drawback
was the fear of submarine attack even back in the years
of WWI. It was from Scapa Flow the British Fleet
sailed to meet the German’s in the indecisive famous
Battle of Jutland and it was the only time the full naval
might of the two sides ever met. The Germans performed well but British control of the North Sea was
not broken.
The most spectacular moment in Orkney history
came at the end of World War I. The finest ships of the
C
anadian Foreign Minister John Baird, who
Sunday began his five-day trip from Mumbai,
India’s commercial hub, will hold talks with his
Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna in New Delhi on
Wednesday.
German Navy had to be surrendered as part of the peace
treaty. The fleet was sailed to Scapa Flow by their own
crews. On June 21, 1919, the Germans scuttled their
ships in the harbor hoping to avoid further humiliation.
Many of the wrecks were broken up for scrap in later
years but the remnants of some of those giant for the
day battleships and cruisers can still be seen above and
below the surface.
With the coming of World War II, the base was
re-activated and in October 1939 a German sub penetrated the defenses and torpedoed the British Royal
Oak with the loss of over 800 seamen and that disaster
exposed the weakness of the anchorage. London decided to close off the 4 gaps which were entries into the
harbor with the so called Churchill Barriers which were
also built by Italian prisoners who had been captured in
North Africa. Those same prisoners also built the small
but beautiful Italian Chapel using plaster board and cast
concrete to transform two ugly Nissen huts into a chapel of great beauty. The builders’ skill even provided
the illusion of brick and carved marble even though no
such materials were available.
Needless to say the ride from our ship as well as
the return included endless scenes of the Scottish Highlands beauty. It was a bright, warm and sunny perfect
day.
T
he implementation of the nuclear deal the two
countries signed in 2010 will figure prominently
in the discussions. India is also expected to press
Canada, a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group,
for supply of uranium which is embroiled in issues
regarding finding a mechanism to verify atomic
material.
From Indonesia (source: ANTARA News)
ndonesia is prepared to chair the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2013
and set a target of promoting regional cooperation
as one of the foundations of the world`s economic
growth. Indonesia will also invite businessmen from
Asia and the Pacific to a similar forum to be held
in Bali in October 2013, President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono said during his keynote address before
participants of the APEC CEO Summit here
Saturday. All parties are also invited to participate in
the APEC Summit in Indonesia next year, he stated.
I
From Japan (source: Japan Today)
undreds of police and coast guard officers were
Tuesday searching for the remains of around
2,800 people still missing 18 months to the day after
a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.
H
T
he disaster, on March 11 last year, left 18,684
people dead or missing and sparked reactor
meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant on
the coast, figures from the National Police Agency
(NPA) showed.
O
f those, 2,814 people remain unaccounted for.
Of the missing people, Miyagi has the most
at 1,394, followed by Iwate with 1,205 and 211 in
Fukushima. In addition, 1,632 people have died
of disaster-related causes, such as fatigue and bad
health from living in evacuation shelters in Iwate,
Miyagi and Fukushima, Kyodo news agency said.
From Vietnam (source: The New York Times)
I
n Vietnam there are growing fears of an economic
meltdown. In Vietnam’s major cities, a oncebooming property market has come crashing down.
Hundreds of abandoned construction sites are the
most obvious signs of a sickly economy. A senior
Vietnamese Communist Party official, speaking
in the ornate drawing room of a French colonial
building, compared the country’s economic problems
to the market crash 15 years ago that flattened many
economies in Asia.
Italian style church in Orkney Island, Scotland
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