Chinese
Military Aviation 1911-1937
Volume 1 Air Forces in
Beijing and Guangzhou,
1911-1927
Series : Asia@War
Author : Lennart Andersson
Details
General
- Pages : 96 | Images : 152
b/w photos, 2 colour
illustrations, 43 colour
profiles, 3 b/w maps
Paperback - Size : 297mm x
210mm | ISBN : 9781804519646
| Helion Book Code : HEL2110
Print Editions Paperback
To be published
January 2026 - in Spring
2026 list
Orders:
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Chinese
Military Aviation 1911-1937
Volume 1 Air Forces in
Beijing and Guangzhou,
1911-1927
This landmark volume offers
the first detailed and
comprehensive study of the
earliest Chinese military
aviation forces, focusing on
their establishment and
development in Beijing and
Guangzhou between 1911 and
1927. Drawing on a vast range
of archival sources in
Chinese, English, French,
German, Russian and
Japanese—many of them newly
accessible or previously
overlooked—this work
reconstructs the emergence of
aviation as a tool of state
and warlord power in early
Republican China. In the wake
of the 1911 Revolution, both
the Beijing-based central
government and the rival
regimes in the south
recognised the potential of
aviation to project power and
prestige. The book documents
the foundation of the Nanyuan
Flying School near Beijing in
1913 and Sun Yat-sen’s
competing efforts to build an
air arm in Guangzhou. It
explores in depth the
personalities involved—Chinese
pioneers, foreign instructors
and advisers, warlords, and
political leaders—and reveals
how fragile institutional
frameworks attempted to
sustain these fledgling air
services amidst political
chaos, financial constraints
and shifting allegiances.
The study charts the
acquisition of French,
British, American, Japanese
and Italian aircraft, the
involvement of Western
aviation companies, and the
effects of international arms
embargoes on Chinese
procurement efforts. It also
details China’s early attempts
to manufacture its own
aircraft and the creation of
local repair and production
workshops. Operations during
internal conflicts such as the
White Wolf Rebellion, the
Zhili-Anhui and Zhili-Fengtian
Wars, and anti-bandit
campaigns are analysed,
revealing how aviation was
applied—sometimes
symbolically, sometimes
operationally—in China’s
fractured military landscape.
Through meticulous research
and a critical approach to
sources, this volume overturns
simplistic narratives of
Chinese aviation as merely
derivative or dependent.
Instead, it presents a nuanced
picture of a complex and often
chaotic process of
technological and
institutional adaptation under
extreme conditions. Dozens of
rare photographs and extensive
appendices listing aircraft
types, air force leaders, and
aviation students further
enhance its value as a
reference work. Volume 1 sets
the foundation for a
multi-volume series that will
trace Chinese military
aviation from its inception
through to the eve of the war
with Japan. It is an essential
resource for historians of
modern China, air power,
interwar military innovation,
and international arms
transfers.
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