Displaying great dramatic flair, the two would proceed to tie one end of the rope to his own plane’s wing braces and the other end to Chennault’s left or right wing braces. The two outside pilots, McDonald and Williams, would clamber out of their aircraft, each carrying a 20-foot length of rope. Williams, flew Boeing P-12 biplanes The peppy little aircraft were equipped with 450-hp engines and could achieve a top speed of 194 mph.Īt each performance site, the three-man team would zoom in, land and taxi to a stop, then line up wingtip to wingtip before the waiting crowd. Calling themselves ‘Three Men on a Flying Trapeze,’ Chennault, joined by Staff Sgts Billy McDonald and J.H.
Virtuoso teamwork was the highlight of the Army’s flying team. The war ended before he had his wings, but he spent the postwar years honing his skills as an aerobatic flier and working on aerial maneuvers, especially the use of three-plane teams. Chennault, who was born in 1890 and grew up in Louisiana, had tried unsuccessfully to become a pilot during World War I. Army Air Corps’ precision flying team in performances across the United States. The story of the Flying Tigers also began in the early 1930s, when Captain Claire Lee Chennault formed and led the U.S. Peking and Shanghai quickly succumbed during ruthless attacks on strategic military targets and civilian population centers. The carnage continued as the Japanese swept nearly unopposed across the fertile agricultural plains of eastern China. The world’s three great powers-the United States, Britain and France-tried to influence the Japanese through diplomatic dialogue, efforts that had little effect on Japan and largely failed to muster any interest from other nations. Torn by many years of civil war and battles between warlords, the Chinese found it beyond their power to halt the Japanese aggression, which escalated in the following years. The battle for China officially began in 1931, when a resource-depleted Japan took advantage of an opportunity to invade Manchuria. These, in the day when heaven was falling, To him it was clear that paid soldiers could play a vital role in aerial combat, and in his attempts to sell his sometimes radical ideas to military officials he frequently quoted lines from ‘Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries,’ his favorite A.E. Navy, Marine and Army Air Corps pilots who quietly entered China posing as artists and missionaries-Chennault established his own version of an ideal mercenary band. In creating his legendary group of airmen-composed of former U.S. Chennault was a unique individual who could inspire great accomplishments from all those who served under him. Chennault, whose genius for leadership in the face of overwhelming odds made him a hero in the United States as well as in China.
In just seven months of intense aerial combat, the AVG earned a lasting niche in aviation history, reportedly destroying nearly 300 Japanese aircraft for the loss of only 69 planes.Įqually famous is their brilliant and controversial commander, Claire L. The nickname was bestowed by the grateful Chinese after the American pilots attacked a large number of Japanese fighters over Kunming on December 20, 1941.
The handful of American mercenaries who scorched earth and sky in defense of China were officially known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG), but, of course, are best remembered as the ‘Flying Tigers’-the English translation of Fei Hou. Chennault and the Flying Tigers | HistoryNet CloseĪ secretly recruited group of American pilots led by a former aerobatics performer achieved hero status in two nations during World War II and won a permanent place in the annals of aviation history.
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