On the Huangpu River, a nearly 100-year-old factory has been renovated and renewed. It used to be the site of a workshop in the Jiangnan Shipyard, and the traditional Chinese script "Navy Aircraft Manufacturing Department" can still be seen on the outer wall.
The Naval Aircraft Manufacturing Department was founded in 1918, as China's first official aircraft manufacturing plant, known as the cradle of the modern aviation industry. It was originally located in Mawei, Fuzhou, and later belonged to the Jiangnan Shipyard of the Navy.
The first director of the department, Ba Yuzao (1892-1929), was a native of the Mongolian Keshiketeng Banner and was born in Zhenjiang. In 1910, he went to England to study mechanical engineering, and later transferred to the United States to study aeronautical engineering. After graduating, he worked for the American company Kotis and General Aircraft. In 1917, he and his classmates Wang Zhu, Wang Xiaofeng, Zeng Yijing and others resigned and returned to China, and the following year set up an aircraft factory in the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, named "Naval Aircraft Engineering Office", with Ba Yuzao as the director. In Mawei, Ba Yuzao and his team successfully developed China's first seaplane: the A-1. However, in 1929, after an expedition to Europe, Ba Yuzao suddenly fell ill and died at the age of 37.
Wang Zhu (1893-1965) took over as director and continued to promote the development of aviation. He is an outstanding figure in China's modern aviation industry. After studying in the United Kingdom and the United States with Ba Yuzao, they returned to China together to devote themselves to China's aviation industry. Wang Zhu was the first aeronautical engineer hired by Pacific Aircraft Corporation (the predecessor of Boeing) and designed the first commercially successful aircraft. Boeing used praise like "the first and the best" in its evaluation of Wang. Unfortunately, due to many reasons at that time, Wang Zhu's talent was not fully utilized. He later moved to Taiwan with *** and taught in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Cheng Kung University until his death in 1965.
In 1935, Qian Xuesen went to the United States to study at Wang Zhu's alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1931, the Nationalist Aircraft Department moved the Navy's aircraft manufacturing department from Mawei, Fujian Province to Shanghai, and merged it into the Jiangnan Shipyard. Wang Zhu became the chief engineer of China Airlines. The research and development work here was taken over by Ba Yuzao's classmate Zeng Yijing. Under his leadership, the team successfully developed two new seaplanes, the "Jiang He" and the "Jiang Feng". By early 1937, they had developed about 20 aircraft.
However, with the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, the work of building aircraft was forced to move in order to preserve technological strength. First to Yichang, Hubei, and then to Chengdu, merged into the ** Aviation Committee, and finally reorganized into the 8th Repair Factory, the "Naval Aircraft Manufacturing Department" has since disappeared in the long river of history. Unfortunately, there is very little information about Tsang, except that he died in 1960. Only a reminiscence article was left, "A Review of the Aircraft Made by the Mawei Ship Administration Bureau of the Old Chinese Navy".
Finally, let us conclude with a passage from Ba Yuzao: "The tool of human competition in modern times is scientific knowledge, and it is the manufacturing capacity that has been put on the track of science. The ability of various scientific battles is closely related to the academic community and equipment;If our navy wants to be able to stand firm in the world, at home and abroad, there is no other way to get rid of it and hurry up to the scientific track."