Bond, W. Langhorne, 1893-1985

American airline executive; vice president, China National Aviation Corporation; vice president for the Orient, Pan American Airways Corporation.

From the description of W. Langhorne Bond papers, 1931-1998. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 123438817

Biography Note

• 1893 November 12: Born William Langhorne in Petersburg, Virginia, son of Thomas Baker Bond, a tobacco buyer, and Mary Potter Langhorne
• 1917: Enlisted in World War I, serving in the army in France for the duration of the war
• 1929: Started working for Curtiss-Wright Corporation
• 1931: Accepted the position of Operations Manager for the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), in Shanghai
• 1933: When Pan American Airways purchased Curtiss-Wright interests in CNAC, Bond became a Pan American employee
• 1935 May 15: Married Katherine (Kitsi) Dunlop in Shanghai
• 1937: When fighting broke out between Japan and China, Pan American withdrew from active operations in China during the United States policy of political neutrality. Bond became a CNAC employee to ensure the continued operations of CNAC as a Chinese civilian air transport company. After the war, he returned to work for Pan American
• 1937 - 1942 : CNAC continued to be active through the war despite evacuations from the main operating bases of Shanghai, Hankow and Hong Kong
• 1941: Pioneered the "Hump" route between China and India, an essential air link to China during World War II
• 1947: Promoted to vice president, Orient by Pan American Airlines
• 1949: After the fall of the Nationalist Chinese government, CNAC assets were sold to China for the Civil Air Transport
• 1950: Retired to his farm in Warrenton, Virginia
• 1985 July 16: Died, Ponte Vedra, Florida
• 2001: Author, Wings for an Embattled China, ed. James E. Ellis, Lehigh University Press, 2001. Posthumously published autobiography and history of the CNAC

From the guide to the W. Langhorne Bond Papers, 1930-1998, (Hoover Institution Archives)