All Aero

In late 1923 Flight reported on what was claimed to be the first successful aircraft constructed in China. It was designed by the German engineer Leopold Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Schoettler (born April 7, 1881, in Bruchhausen-Vilsen, Germany; died September 27, 1948) but the only major components imported from Europe were the engine, instruments, wheels and dope for the fabric covering; everything else was locally produced from local materials by workers without aviation experience or modern machinery.