China had during the Interwar era a rather limited knowledge, skills and manufacturing capacity to produce planes. been a unstable country at that time, China was a waste land ruled by a dozen provincial government who’s struggle to control each other.
While the provincial government was often more of warlord than actual part of a government, the most powerful of them was having their own army and air-forces. the Guangdong Revolutionary Government was one of them controlling one of the most important provinces of China.
The Guangdong Revolutionary Government was founding the aircraft repair plant, and was more capable to import rather modern material. Due to the large variety of planes in China, there was a need to build up a few factories capable of repair and maintain the planes in flight condition. One of them, the Guangdong Aircraft Repair Factory, was created.
“Guangzhou” is the city called “Canton” in English. The Aviation Department of the autonomous Canton government set up a factory that built aircraft from 1928-37. They were of various designs and in several cases were based loosely on Western designs.
Late in 1928 the factory built its first airplane, a three-seat biplane called “Chengkung” (Success), powered by a Curtiss OX-5 V-8.
In 1929 the factory built four airplanes, called Yang Ch’eng (“City of the Five Rams”, i.e. Canton) 51-54.
It was with the return of Menongan in 1927, a Chinese engineer who went to study in USA, that the ambitious Yangcheng program was established. this program was to build new planes from whatever spare part they had in hand. The Yangcheng was the first large scale domestic plane family of China, with nearly 60 planes built in different variants from 1928 to 1936, the first was the Yangcheng No. 51 and the last was the Yangcheng Kesai No.108.
In 1930 the factory built another four aircraft, Yang Ch’eng 55-58. Both were powered by 200-hp Pratt and Whitney Wasp radials and carried a single rear-mounted machine gun.
By 1933, about 22 aircraft of various types had been built, including four copies of the Avro Avian called Yang Ch’eng 70-73.
In 1934, the factory built Yang Ch’eng 74-78, loose copies of the Douglas O-2MC.
In 1935, it built at least one parasol monoplane based on the O-2MC (designation not specified).
Due to the success of the “Yangcheng 77” and “Yangcheng 78”, in 1935 Lin Fuyuan succeeded Menongan as the third director of the Guangdong Aircraft Repair Factory and continued to manufacture this type of aircraft.
The Canton government then ordered six two-seat light bombers powered by 200-hp Wasps and resembling smaller Vought Corsairs. These weighed 725 kg empy and 1139 kg loaded.
At the same time, the government ordered a single-seat fighter powered by a 300-hp Wright Whirlwind.
Guangzhou/Kunming 1st Aircraft Manufacturer built the Yang Ch’eng(羊城號) series of 60 aircraft.
The development of the Yangscheng family was halted in 1936 in favor of funding the FuHsing family, who was another indigenous plane built by China.
Production continued in the First Aircraft Factory of Kun-Ming in Yunnan Province in 1938. After a new attack they moved to Loiwing by mid-1939, but the new location was destroyed in the bombing of 26 October 1940 and occupied by Japanese troops on May 1942.
In 1943 the Aircraft Factory was dispersed in several locations, around Kun-Ming, where seven Hawk 75 A-5 and two CW-21 were built using parts recovered from the destroyed factories. The Aviation Research Institute was installed in one Yangling cave, where General Major Chu Chia-Jen designed the new Chinese XP-0 fighter in 1941.
In 1943 the Aircraft Factory was dispersed in several locations, around Kun-Ming, where seven Hawk 75 A-5 and two CW-21 were built using parts recovered from the destroyed factories. The Aviation Research Institute was installed in one Yangling cave, where General Major Chu Chia-Jen designed the new Chinese XP-0 fighter in 1941.
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