Manchuria Aviation Company (

traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

Kyūjitai ''Kyūjitai'' () are the traditional forms of kanji (Chinese written characters used in Japanese writing). Their simplified counterparts are '' shinjitai'' (). Some of the simplified characters arose centuries ago and were in everyday use in bot ...

: 滿洲航空株式會社;

simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

: 满州航空株式会社;

Shinjitai are the simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in ''shinjitai'' are also found in simplified Chinese characters, but ''shinjitai'' is generally not as exten ...

: 満州航空株式会社;

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Hepburn: ''Manshū Kōkū Kabushiki-gaisha, "MKKK"'') was the

national airline A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by that government for international operations. Histo ...

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

. Manchuria Aviation Company was established on 26 September 1931 in Fengtian by order of the Japanese

Kwantung Army The Kwantung Army (Japanese language, Japanese: 関東軍, ''Kantō-gun'') was a Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army, general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945. The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for th ...

, out of the Manchurian branch office of

Japan Air Transport was the national airline of the Empire of Japan from 1928 to 1938. History Commercial aviation began in Japan with the privately held Japan Air Transport Institute, which pioneered passenger service between Sakai, Osaka and Tokushima, Tokushim ...

, the forerunner of

Imperial Japanese Airways was the national airline of the Empire of Japan during World War II. History With the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, there was a tremendous need for air transport capability by the Japanese military, which had traditionally drawn on th ...

. It officially adopted the name Manchuria Aviation Company on the proclamation of the independence of Manchukuo. Major

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

s were the Manchukuo government, the

South Manchurian Railway Company The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from ...

and the

Sumitomo The is a Japanese corporate group and '' keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. I ...

zaibatsu is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signifi ...

''. From the beginning, the Manchuria Aviation Company was a

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

airline, whose primary purpose was to provide transport and logistical support for the military, and for the transport of mail. Civilian passengers were carried and charter operations undertaken on a lower priority. In 1936, an "Independent Volunteer Battalion" of the MKKK consisting of 13 aircraft fought on the side of the

Inner Mongolian Army The Inner Mongolian Army, also sometimes called the Mengjiang National Army, referred to the Inner Mongolian military units in service of Imperial Japan and its puppet state of Mengjiang during the Second Sino-Japanese War, particularly those l ...

against

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

-held

Suiyuan Suiyuan () was a historical province of China. Suiyuan's capital was Guisui (now Hohhot). The abbreviation was (pinyin: ). The area Suiyuan covered is approximated today by the prefecture-level cities of Hohhot, Baotou, Wuhai, Ordos, Bayan ...

. The airline had a " hub" in Xinjing and was linked by regular flight routes from

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

, Shamussi (Jiamusi),

Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...

Mukden Shenyang,; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly known as Fengtian formerly known by its Manchu name Mukden, is a sub-provincial city in China and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. It is the province's most populous city with a p ...

Andong Andong () is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in South Korea, and the capital of North Gyeongsang Province. It is the largest city in the northern part of the province with a population of 167,821 as of October 2010. The Nakdong Ri ...

Jinzhou Jinzhou (, zh, s= , t=錦州 , p=Jǐnzhōu), formerly Chinchow, is a coastal prefecture-level city in central-west Liaoning province, China. It is a geographically strategic city located in the Liaoxi Corridor, which connects most of the la ...

Chengde Chengde, formerly known as Jehol and Rehe, is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, situated about northeast of Beijing. It is best known as the site of the Mountain Resort, a vast imperial garden and palace formerly used by the Qing e ...

Qiqihar Qiqihar (also spelled Tsitsihar) is the second-largest city in the Heilongjiang province of China, in the west central part of the province. The built-up (or metro) area made up of Longsha, Tiefeng and Jianhua districts had 959,787 inhabitants, w ...

Hailar Hailar District, formerly a county-level city, is an urban District (China), district that serves as the seat of the prefecture-level city Hulunbuir in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China. Hulunbuir, due to its massive size, is a city in administr ...

, and the

Kwantung Leased Territory The Kwantung Leased Territory () was a Concessions in China, leased territory of the Empire of Japan in the Liaodong Peninsula from 1905 to 1945. Japan first acquired Kwantung from the Qing dynasty, Qing Empire in perpetuity in 1895 in the Tre ...

and

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

areas, for connections with

(Dai Nippon Koku KK) to Japan itself or foreign routes. In May 1937, MAC established a subsidiary, ''Kokusai Koku'', to open a long-distance route between Hsinking and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

using two German

Heinkel He 116 The Heinkel He 116 was an extremely long-range mail plane designed and produced by the Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel. It was designed during the latter half of the 1930s to fulfil a request by the German flag carrier Deutsche Luf ...

aircraft, in bilateral partnership with

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

. The route was planned to operate through Central Asia with stops in Xinjiang, Kabul, Baghdad, and Rhodes. However, the outbreak of war with China made the route unfeasible. The He 116s, named ''Nogi'' and ''Togo'', were ultimately used on the Hsinking-Tokyo route. Manchukuo Airlines Tag

The repair shops of the MKKK produced copies of the

Fokker Super Universal ] The Fokker Super Universal was an airliner produced in the United States in the late 1920s by Fokker America, an enlarged and improved version of the Fokker Universal, fitted with cantilever wings and an enclosed cockpit. It was also called th ...

(

Nakajima Ki-6 The was a licensed-produced version of the Fokker Super Universal transport built by Nakajima Aircraft Company in the 1930s. Initially used as an airliner, the militarized version was used by the Imperial Japanese Army in a variety of roles, ra ...

) and the De Havilland DH.80 "Pussmoth." The Manchuria Aviation Company ceased operations in August 1945 during the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation or simply the Manchurian Operation () and sometimes Operation August Storm, began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet Union, Soviet invasion of the Emp ...

. However, wartime fuel and equipment shortages had previously curtailed its operations considerably. Remaining aircraft, goods and equipment were confiscated, to the benefit of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

, after the conflict.

Fleet

* 30x Manshū MT-1 ''Hayabusa'' airliner * 27x de Havilland DH.80 ''Pussmoth'' * 15x

Messerschmitt Bf 108 The Messerschmitt Bf 108 ''Taifun'' (English: "Typhoon") is a single-engine sport and touring aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). It was the first aircraft of its size to feature all ...

A/B ''Taifun'' liaison aircraft * 12x Nakajima AT-2 ''Thora'' transports * 10x Mitsubishi MC-20 ''Topsy'' transports * 10x Junkers Ju 86Z-1 transports/bombers * 10x Junkers Ju 86Z-2 transports/bombers * 2x Heinkel He 116A communications planes * 2x Fokker F.VIIb-3m/M transports * 1x

Tachikawa Ki-54 The Tachikawa Ki-54 was a Japanese, twin-engine advanced Training aircraft, trainer used during World War II. The aircraft was World War II Allied names for Japanese aircraft, named Hickory by the Allies. History The Ki-54 was developed in resp ...

''Hickory'' transport * 1x de Havilland DH.85 ''Leopardmoth'' * 1x

General Aviation GA-43 The General Aviation GA-43 was a single engine low-wing monoplane airliner produced in small numbers in the United States in the mid-1930s, also known as the Pilgrim 150, Fairchild 150, and sometimes but erroneously as the Clark GA-43 for the desi ...

transport * ?x Tachikawa Type LO ''Thelma'' transport (license build Lockheed Model 14-38 Super Electra) * ?x

Airspeed Envoy The Airspeed AS.6 Envoy was a twin-engined light transport aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Ltd. The Envoy originated as a heavier twin-engine derivative of Airspeed's Courier light transport aircraf ...

(license build Mitsubishi Type Hinazuru transport) * ?x Manshū Super Universal (license built Fokker Super Universal) * ?x

Kawasaki Ki-56 The Kawasaki Ki-56 (, Type 1 Freight Transport) was a Japanese, two-engine light transport aircraft used during World War II. It was known to the Allies by the reporting name Thalia. One-hundred twenty-one were built between 1940-43. Design and ...

''Thalia'' transport * ?x

Kokusai Ki-59 The was an early 1940s light transport monoplane built by Nippon Kokusai Koku Kogyo K.K for the Imperial Japanese Army as a development of the Teradako-ken TK-3, which had first flown in 1938. Development The Teradako-ken TK-3 was a prototype ...

transport

Accidents and incidents

* On June 20, 1941, Mitsubishi MC-20 (registration M-604) crashed in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

, killing all 18 on board.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * Mikesh, Richard C. and Shorzoe Abe. ''Japanese Aircraft, 1910-1941''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1990. . {{Authority control Defunct airlines of China Companies in Manchukuo Kwantung Army 1945 disestablishments in China Chinese companies established in 1931 Transport companies disestablished in 1945 Airlines established in 1931 Airlines disestablished in 1945