In January of 1913, the first Chinese aviation school was established in Nanyuang, 13 km south of Peking. It was outfitted with mostly imported French Caudron aircraft. Pan Shi-chong was appointed manager of the connected workshops. Starting in 1914, experiments started on the construction of indignenous aircraft. Information about this period and the aircraft designed and build is sparse, with further details existing for only one.
The first was completed in November 1913, designed by Emile Obre. Obre was part of a French delegation which supervised the new Flying school. This was a monoplane using a 50 hp Gnome 7 Omega* engine.
By October 1918 three biplanes using an American 90hp Gyro Duplex Model K* engine in tractor configuration, with one more under construction.
By October 1918 three biplanes using an American 110hp Gyro Duplex Model L* engine in tractor configuration, with one more under construction. In total 10 of these engines were ordered, with likely thus 10 aircraft planned. It is not know if these were all completed.
These were named the Pan Shi-chong type, after the manager of the workshop.
Somewhere in 1915 ~1918 a single two-seat pusher; the nanyuan Gunbus No. 1
槍車, the Nanyuan Gunbus
In the autumn of 1913, the Beiyang Government established the an aviation school, commonly referred to as Nanyuan Aviation School (南苑航校, Nányuàn Háng Xiào) in Nanyuan, Beijing. As part of its initial setup, 12 Caudron G-II and G-III trainer aircraft were purchased, and an attached repair workshop was established. In this workshop, under the supervision of Pan Shizhong, the team not only reverse-engineered the imported aircraft but also successfully designed and built a new biplane. The new plane took heavily after the aircraft from Farman and Caudron. The plane was called 槍車 (Qiāng chē), gun vehicle. This is often translated as gun bus or gun cart as well in western sources. A single plane was build using a 80ph Gnome1 (Gnome 7 Lambda most likely) engine taken from an unserviceable Cauldron (G.III most likely). It was armed with a single Hotchkiss machine gun operated by a gunner in the nose.
The dates surrounding this plane differ from source to source ranging from early 1915 to 1918. It is featured in the 1919 version of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, which is also the source of the photographs.
The plane was successfully test-flown by pilots Jiang Kui (蔣逵) and He Shilong (何士龍).
Sources
- Andersson, L. (2008). A history of chinese aviation: Encyclopedia of aircraft and aviation in China until 1949. AHS of ROC.
- Xiaoci, H. 中國飛機外篇(之二) 槍車 1 號 (Gunbus No.1). 中國飛機尋根. (n.d.). http://cwlam2000.epizy.com/cafx02.htm
- Likely a Gnome 7 Lambda, as this was widely in service from ↩︎