Feng Ru Biography
From http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_26559.htm
Feng Ru, born in Enping County in Guangdong Province on December 15, 1883, is
China's first aircraft designer and aviator. He went to the United States when he was a little
boy. In 1903 when the Wright brothers' airplane made a successful test flight, Feng Ru was
deeply impressed. Then he devoted himself to aircraft manufacturing.
Funded by local overseas Chinese, he began to manufacture planes in a factory in
Oakland in 1907. Two years later, Feng Ru set up the Guangdong Air Vehicle Company and in
this very year, he succeeded in producing a plane. Soon, the plane made a test flight in
Oakland on September 21, 1909. San Francisco Observer reported the news of the trial flight
on its first page on September 23.
In 1910, Feng Ru manufactured another plane and staged on a series of flight exhibitions
in Oakland from October to December, winning acclamation from Sun Yat-sen, China's
revolutionary pioneer, and overseas Chinese in the USA.
Soon Feng Ru won the first grade pilot certificate awarded by the then American
International Aeronautics Society. Feng Ru returned to his motherland with the two planes in
1911 to prepare development of aviation business in China and establish a flight team for the
Guangdong Revolutionary Government. On August 25, 1912, Feng Ru died in a plane crash
when staging a performance in Guangzhou City. He was buried in the Huanghuagang Cemetery
of Guangzhou Uprising Martyrs, and Sun Yat-sen ordered the words "Chinese Aviation
Pioneer" engraved on a monument in his honor.
Fung Joe Guey Biography
Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fung_Joe_Guey
Fung Yue or Fung Joe Guey was a pioneering Chinese aviator, born in 1883 in the Enping
District of Kwangtung province.
Fung moved to the United States at the age of twelve, living and working in various
parts of California before trying to settle in San Francisco in 1906, the year that the San
Francisco earthquake struck. The earthquake spoiled his plan and sent him fleeing to Oakland.
Fung was fascinated by the Wright brothers' plane and because he was always interested in
machinery, one of the first things he did after arriving in Oakland was to organize an airplane
manufacturing company, only a few years after the Wright Brothers' Kitty Hawk flight.
Within two years of founding the company in 1908, Fung Guey constructed his first
airplane and even manufactured his own motor. The airplane consisted of two planes, 25 feet
long and 6 feet 3 inches broad, placed one on top of another, driven by a six horsepower
engine.
On September 22, 1909, (several newspapers report date as Tuesday, September 21,
1909) Fung was the first Chinese man to fly in America (and first aviator of any nationality to
fly in California and the West Coast of the United States). He had constructed his own biplane,
improving on the Wrights' blueprints. Fung flew in a wide circle, despite the harsh winds; after
twenty minutes, however, the bolt holding the propeller to the shaft snapped off, and he was
brought to a stop, suffering only minor bruising. The flight was reported in several papers,
including the San Francisco Call and the Oakland Tribune.
Fung returned to China on March 21, 1911, upon the request of Chinese revolutionary
Sun Yixian, who wanted to use Fung's planes to aid the rebellion against the Qing dynasty.
However, on August 26, 1912, he was killed when his plane crashed during an aerial exhibition,
in front of 1,000 spectators. Sun Yixian insisted that he be buried at the Mausoleum of the 72
Martyrs, and that his tomb be inscribed with the words "Pioneer of Chinese Aviation".
On 21 September 2009, a bronze bust of Fung, the
"Father of Chinese Aviation", was unveiled in a ceremony
at Laney College in Oakland. One of Fung's workshops,
where he designed and built parts of his biplane, was on
a site that is now part of the Laney campus, near the
heart of commercial Chinatown.
A book named Dragonwings was partially inspired
by Fung Joe Guey.