DESTINATION: INNOVATION
ASIAN AMERICANS’ CONTRIBUTIONS TO AVIATION
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Asian Americans have made significant contributions to aviation and aerospace, and have overcome many barriers in the process. In fact, Asian American aviators often faced serious hardships and challenges to be able to fly and contribute. Today, only 2.5 percent of airline pilots in the US are of Asian American/Pacific Islander decent. Below are a few unsung heroes who overcame obstacles to blaze a path forward paving the way for all people to fly as we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month.
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Katherine Sui Fun Cheung (pictured at top) – was born in China in 1904 and moved to California at age 17. After only twelve and a half hours of flight training, Cheung made her first solo flight. She earned her aviation license in 1932, becoming the first woman pilot of Chinese descent to earn a pilot's license in the US – at the time only about 200 (1%) of American pilots were women. Cheung started performing at air shows in California. In 1935, she acquired her international license, and in 1936 she became a US citizen.
Cheung hung out with Amelia Earhart, and became proficient at hair-raising aerial stunts, barnstorming around the country and dazzling the crowds with her loops, spiral dives, and barrel rolls. Cheung became the pride of the Chinese-American community—at one point reportedly raising $2,000 to buy a 125-horsepower Fleet biplane. In 1936, she joined the Ninety-Nines Club, an international group of female pilots founded by Earhart. After Japan invaded China in 1937, she traveled to Chinese American communities across the country, raising more than $7,000 to buy a Ryan ST-A plane, which she planned to fly to China and use to train volunteer pilots.
However, on the day she was to receive the aircraft, her cousin crashed the aircraft killing him and ending Cheung's dream of training Chinese pilots. Cheung was eventually inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame and the International Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame. Cheung died at the age of 95 in 2003.
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Arthur Chin – was born in Portland, Oregon in 1913. He was a Chinese-American pilot who was World War II's first American flying ace. In 1933, Chin and his classmates went to China to defend against Japanese attack. Chin eventually became an instructor, squadron commander, deputy group commander, and then a major.
In December 1939, he led a formation of planes against the Japanese army, of which he shot down two. However, his plane was hit and caught fire and he was badly burned. Despite it taking many years and several surgeries to heal, Chin continued to crusade for the war effort, speaking on the radio and at war bond rallies. Five years later, Chin returned to flying, this time with the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). In 1945, he transported U.S. supplies over the dangerous Himalayan "Hump" route between India and China, then continued working for CNAC, eventually becoming a fully qualified airline captain.
He returned home to Portland, but could not find work as a pilot. He began what was to become a thirty-year career with the postal service, retiring in 1980. In 1986, he finally graduated from high school with his grandson. In 1995 Chin was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal. He died in 1997 and was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Airpower Heritage Museum. In 2008, a post office in Beaverton, Oregon was named in his honor.
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Hazel Ying Lee – was born in Portland, Oregon in 1912 and took her first flight in 1932 at age 19 earning her pilots license that same year. She holds the distinction of being one of America's first female pilots, and one of the first Chinese-American female military pilots. Lee went to China to fight for the Chinese Air Force upon invasion by Japan, but was declined due to her sex. In 1944, Lee was invited to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), an American group created by famed aviator Jacqueline Cochran that transported newly assembled fighter aircraft out of factories to service centers all over the country.
Lee once had to make an emergency landing on a Kansas farm where the farmer thought that she was a Japanese enemy pilot and would not release her until he was notified by WASP authorities. Later in 1944, Lee attempted to deliver a new P-63 to Great Falls, Montana where she and another plane collided. Lee was pulled from the wreckage, but died two days later. Her brother was killed three days afterward while serving in France. Upon attempting to secure plots at Riverview Cemetery in Portland for the two siblings, the Lee family learned that Asians were not allowed to be buried in the cemetery - after the family wrote to President Roosevelt the cemetery finally conceded.
After over three decades of campaigning, the women of the WASP were finally granted full military status in 1977, and in 2010, WASP members were awarded Congressional gold medals. In 2004, Lee was inducted into the Oregon Aviation History Evergreen Aviation Museum.
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