DESIGNER UNKNOWN TAIWAN / CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT. Circa 1960s.
39¾x24½ inches, 101x62¼ cm.
Condition B+: repaired tears, creases, abrasions and restoration in margins; cracking in ink in text and image; remnants of pencil outlines in image. Silkscreen.
The Civil Air Transport (CAT) was an airline formed in China after World War II, and airlifted food and supplies into the country. It also aided in evacuating thousands of Chinese citizens by air to Taiwan in 1949. In 1950, CAT inaugurated weekly round trip service to Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo. Later that year, the airline was secretly purchased by the CIA in 1950 to run passenger flights, while providing airplanes and crews for secret intelligence operations. An entire brand identity was developed - a unique typeface, dragon logo, and color scheme - with calendar notebooks, flight bags, dragon pins and other souvenirs to proliferate this image. Several posters were also produced advertising the scenic destinations that could be reached via CAT. The airline was renamed Air America in 1959, and eventually the CAT - Air America - Air Asia complex closed in 1975 (https://www.catassociation.org/).