Kai Tak 1994 and 2009

Kai Tak 1950s

Thanks for the posts and aerial shot, I did experience ‘The Aroma’ of the Nullah walking up from the ferry pier towards Haeco, it was a very dark colour too as if everything was in it!. The authorities have stopped all the pollution now and are cleaning the Nullah up to incorporate it in the leisure complex that is planned in the re-generation of Kai Tak.

Ken you might recognise the layout in the following pics before your helping hand in building runway 12/13!, the second one shows the flying boat moorings where you were shown over the Sunderland presumably, both pics are from the late 40s early 50s I think.

Gerry R

I actually helped build Kai Tak………

Well alright, I exagerate – as a 10/11 year old back in 1957/8 we lived near the old Kai Tak and I would go up on the roof of our flat and watch as DC-7’s, Constellations and Britannias flew over at 100 ft to land on the old runway.

Nearby was a fenced-off dirt road – and large dump trucks would travel down it carrying boulders and earth from a hill that was ‘sliced off’ down to the waterfront to be dumped in the sea to make the new runway jutting out to sea.

This went on 24/7 and the noise and dust were tremendous.

I used to play around the Kai Tak building site, in amongst the bulldozers and graders – and threw a few stones into the water (that’s me helping to build it :rolleyes: )

I can remember being ‘chased off’ by a low flying Hong Kong police helicopter – a Westland Widgeon IIRC.

Great days !! – no H&S then – I played for hours around Kai Tak – before we moved to Sek Kong and later onto the island at Fort Stanley.

My forces school – St Georges – was directly under the curving flight path near Lion Rock when the new runway was in use – the hill that had been sliced off was nearby with a large marker board, IIRC.

IIRC, the new runway was officially opened by John(?) Cunningham in a Comet – making the first landing.

Although there were rumours about a Royal Navy Wessex cheekily landing on the new runway the day before the official ceremony!!!

As a keen aircraft recognition fan, I remember looking up and seeing my first Boeing 707 flying over the barracks at Stanley where my father was stationed.

Happy memories.

Ken

A really interesting set of photos. Judging by the usual pace of land development in HK, I’m surprised about the land still out of use.

Thanks for posting.

Flew in / out of there in ’80 / 81,SCARY. seem to remember a group of “Hulks” (Cathay Pacific) resting about the perimeter.:dev2:

Yes China airlines, not Air China

Avro Avian,
Thanks for that info, yes it was China airlines (Taiwan) not Air China, I stand corrected, the local enthusiasts did say the former, I made the mistake, your piece was of much intertest though, thanks again.
Gerry R

Ah yes! China Airlines. I was told the aircraft was nearly new (it had only around 400 hours total time) and the SAS were called in to “remove” the fin with explosives so the airport could be reopened. I am also led to believe that a Cathay skipper bought the salvage rights to the aircraft and made his money back by selling the cockpit windows. The rest was profit…

747 hulk at Kai Tak

Threespool,
The 747 fuselage was the remains of the Air China one, that ended up nose down in Kowloon Bay having ran out of runway!, I believe its touchdown point was too far down runway 13, this incident happened about 18 months before my visit, I had confirmation from the local enthusiasts about this hulk and its former identity, they also said Haeco was involved in parting it out.
Gerry R

What is the cut-up 747 fuselage all about in the first photo? :confused:

Nice to see those, all my photos are from 1975-7 🙂

Larger Pics!

Please find larger pics, apologies, still a bit of a novice with the images.[ATTACH]198549[/ATTACH]

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[ATTACH]198551[/ATTACH]

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Interesting subject. Any chance you can make the pics a bit bigger?