Civil Air Transport

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Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Air America C- 123 The CAT/Air America Archive Jn 1987 , th e CAT Assoc iati on and the Air Ameri ca Assoc iation des ignated the Hi story of Aviation Coll ec ti on at the Uni versity of Texas at Dallas as their o ffi c ial archive. The CAT/Air America Archive at the Universit y of Texas at Dallas is the onl y resource of its kind in the world. Hundreds o f personal paper and manu-script cn ll cc tinns are held in the Archive ranging from pilot s and ground crew to corporate officia ls. The Archive also holds the CIA Corporate Records. More than 400 archival boxes of processed material s includ-ing correspondence. legal briefs, logbooks, maintenance records. accident investigations, govern ment documents, corpo rate records, photographs, audio and video tape, and film make up thi s diverse coll ection. Chronologi-call y. the holdings cover the ori g in of CAT in China to Air America's evac uation of South Vi etnam in 1975. The History of Aviation Collection The Uni ve rs it y of Texas at Dallas houses a unique resource of aeronautical hi story known as the Hi story of Av iati on Collection (HAC). Located on the third fl oor of the Eugene McDe rmott Library in the Special Collections Department, the core of the History of Aviation Collection consists of four large main co ll ections: the CAT /Air America Archive, the George Williams World War I Aviation Library, the Admiral Charles E. Rosendahl Lighter-Than-Air Co ll ection, and the General James H. Doolittle Collection. The HAC also holds several hundred individual collections ranging from aviation pioneer Omar Locklear to commercial aviation. Jn addition. the Hi story Aviation Coll ect ion includes an aeronauti ca l library of over 50,000 books, magazines. and ne wspapers . Air America Pilatus PC-6B Porter The CAT/ Air America Archive: The Future The history of CAT/ Air America must be pre-served for future generations. The historic events in which CAT and Air America employees played a role are key to understanding the history of the United States in the post-1945 period. Since 1987 the History of Avia-tion Collection at the University of Texas at Dallas has collected and preserved documents that explain the CAT/ Air America story. Materials safeguarded in the Archive have been used by historians and researchers to write books and produce documentaries on the CAT/Air America experience. The archival staff at the History of Aviation Collection encourages the donation of any CAT and Air Amerig1 related materials: correspondence, dia-ri es, logbooks, documents , photographs, film and the like to the CAT/Air America Archive. Over the years, members of the Air America Association and the CAT Association have been gener-ous in their financial support of the Archive. Currently the CAT/ Air America Archive supports several endeav-ors: the CAT Oral History Project and the CAT/Air America Photograph and Film Project. To contribute funds to the CAT/Air America Archive or any of the above projects please send your tax-deductible donation to the following address . Special Colle.:tions Department P.O. Box 830643 Eugene McDerri1otl Library Richardson, Texas 75083-0643 phone: (972) 883-2570 fax: (972) 883-4590 http://www.utdallas.edu/library/special/cataa.html THE CAT I AIR AMERICA ARCHIVE THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS HISTORY OF AVIATION COLLECTION r 11 CAT Pilots The History of CAT/Air America Civil Air Transport (CAT) was a unique airline formed after World War II in China by General Claire L. Chenn~ ult and Whiting Willauer. The history of CAT is marked by adventure and international intrigue. Us ing surplus aircraft from the war, in 1946 CAT bega n to airlift supplies and food into war-ravaged China. During the Chinese Civil War, under contract with the Chinese Nati o nali s t go vernm e nt and late r the Ce ntral Intelligence Agency, CAT fl ew supplies and ammunition into China to assist the Chinese Nati onalist forces on the Chinese mainland . With the defeat of the Nationali sts in 1949, CAT helped to evacuate thousands of Chinese by air to the island ol Ta iwa n. In 1950 the Ce ntra l In te lligence Agency (CIA) bought the airline lo use in c landestine mi ss ions to fi ght communi sm in As ia. CAT continued to fly scheduled passenge r fl ights whil e simultaneously using other aircraft in its fket to fl y covert miss ions. During the Korean War, CAT airli fted thousands of tons of war material s to suppl y United States military operations. In 1954 CAT aircrews airdropped supplies to the French at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina. Throughout the 1950s CAT fl ew thi s fasc inating combination of scheduled commercial fli ghts and clandestine miss ions. With the spread o f communi sm throughout Southeast As ia , CAT's mi ssion changed. fn 1959 CAT was renamed Air America. Under the new corporate name, (though CAT continued to fl y scheduled passenger fli ghts out of Taiwan), Air Ameri ca fl ew all other type of air operations in Laos and South Vietnam . Operating in mountainous terrain , Air America crews fl ew with sk ill and courage in supplying the anti -commuinst forces The CAT/Air America Memorial Pl aque in Southeast As ia. Air America fl ew a variety of fi xecl-wing aircraft ancl ~he li copters because of the region' s unfo rgiving topography. Miss ions included airdropping thousands of tons of food, evacuating civilians, rescuing cl o wn ed U .S. a ircrews, and e merge ncy medi ca l evacuations. In 1975, Air Ameri ca he licopter crews helped to evacuate Ameri cans and South Vietnamese fro m South Vietnam during the fa ll of the country. In 1976, Air America 's twenty-s ix year tenure as the CIA's airline came to a close. The CAT/ Air America experience is unparalle led in commercial av iation history. More th an two hundred and forty c ivilian CAT and Air America employees gave their li ves in As ia from 1946 to 1975. The CAT/Air America Memorial Plaque The CAT Association and the Air America Assoc iation se lected the Special Collections Department of the Eugene McDermott L ibrary at the Uni versity of Texas at Dallas to di spl ay the CAT/ Air America Memori al Plaque. The CAT/A ir Ameri ca Memori al Plaque was des igned and paid for by funds from the memberships of both the CAT Assoc iation and the Air America Association. In 1987 , the CAT and Air America . Memorial Plaque was dedicated during a solemn service. The plaque stands as a memori al to the sacrifi ces made by CAT/Air Ameri ca personnel during the Cold and Vietnam wars. Each year dozens of fa mily members and friends visit the pl aq ue to honor the memory of those who died in the defense of freedom. CAT Convair 880 Mandarin Jet 

The CAT/ Air America Archive

https://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=aviation-pioneers-association

The CAT/ Air America Archive

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