During 15-years of reconnaissance operations code-named
Project Razor, ROC pilots flew 102 missions that penetrated the bamboo
curtain, including overflights over North Korea and Northern Indochina.
Surface-to-air missiles shot down five U-2s over Mainland China. Three ROC
pilots were killed, two taken prisoner.
During this same period, American U-2s penetrated Soviet airspace
twenty-four times. One aircraft was lost. No one was killed. Combined, ROC
and American U-2 operations lost seven pilots in routine training flights
and coastal patrol missions. This Black Cat site is intended to honor and
provide recognition to our ROC Roadrunners. The contributions made to this
site by generals Pao and Lua are commendable and greatly appreciated.
From 1959 to 1971, 30 ROCAF pilots were sent to US to receive training on
U-2. Twenty-seven of them completed their training. The first two U-2Fs
were delivered to the ROCAF in July 1960, another two in December 1962. In
December 1964, Article 342 replaced 359 until 359 returned to Taoyuan in
late spring, 1965. Article 348 (U-2G) was ferried to Taoyuan around June,
1964, and flown by Lockheed pilot, Bob Schumacher, as well as the Chinese
and CIA pilots on hand in a test program to cure a flameout problem that
had developed after a new fuel control had been installed in all the
aircraft a few months earlier.
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The N801X tail number remained on it the whole time it
was at Taoyuan. Article 359 operated out of Taoyuan for most of 1964
before being delivered back to the U.S. for a dorsal canoe modification..
Article 359 returned to Taoyuan in mid 1965 and remained through December,
1965. Article 372 was first aircraft deployed to Taoyuan in "Black
Velvet" finish. All the earlier planes were "midnight"
blue. On 19 March 1961, pilot Yao-Hwa Chih was killed when his aircraft
veered of the runway and burned during take off from Taoyuan on a night
flight training.
9 September 1962, Huai-Sheng Chen took off from Taoyuan at 0600 for a
mission on military deployment in Jiangxi region in U-2C "378".
He was shot down by SA-2 fired by PLAAF 2nd Surface-to-Air Guided Missile
Battalion over Nanchang. Chen was alive when he was found but died at the
hospital.
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November 1963, Chang-Di Yeh flew a mission on nuclear weapons facility
in northwestern China where he was shot down by SA-2 fired by PLAAF 2nd
Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Battalion over Jiangxi. He was captured
alive by the Chinese Communists and not released to Hong Kong until
November 10, 1982.
23 March 1964, Te-Pei Liang was flying a photo training over Taiwan when
his aircraft lost control due to improper handling. Liang ejected but
was drowned.
7 July 1964, Nan-Ping Lee took off from NAS Cubi Point, Philippines on a
mission on China's supply lines to North Vietnam. He was shot down by
SA-2 fired by PLAAF 2nd Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Battalion over
Fujian and was killed when his ejection seat failed to fire because of
it not being armed.
14 August 1964, Shih-Li Sheng survived the crashed his aircraft on a
training mission near Boise, Idaho, USA.
19 December 1964, Shih-Li Sheng was on a training mission from Davis-Monthan
AFB when he lost control while climbing through thunderhead. The
aircraft crashed and though Sheng survived, he was forced out of the U-2
program. He was killed in a crash some years later.
10 January 1965, Li-Yi Chang departed from Taoyuan and was shot down in
Inner Mangolia by missiles fired by PLAAF 1st Surface-to-Air Guided
Missile Battalion. Chang was captured alive and not released until
November 10, 1982.
22 October 1965, Cheng-Wen Wang was flying a photo training over Taiwan
when his aircraft is believed to have lost control due to improper
handling. The pilot remains missing and is presumed dead.
17 February 1966,Tsai-Shi Wu was undergoing a high-altitude photo
training. After shutting down the engine, he got an overtemp warning. In
an attempt to land on the divert field in CCK, he landed on the wrong
airstrip. The airstrip was too short, causing the aircraft to overshoot
the runway during forced landing and crash into civilian housing. The
pilot and five civilians perished.
22 March 1966, Hung-Di Fan lost his U-2 when ejected from his first
training flight.
21 June 1966, Ching-Chang Yu was on a long-range, high-altitude flight
training when the engine flamed-out due to ruptured fuel supply line. He
then attempted an unsuccessful forced landing in Okinawa. He bailed out
but died of wounds sustained.
8 September 1967, Jung-Bei Huang was flying over the Jiangsu province,
Shanghai, and Hangzhou when he was shot down and killed by Chinese-made
Red Flag 2 by PLAAF 14th Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Battalion over
Jiaxing.
16 May 1969, Hsieh Chang was killed during a mission along Hebei
seacoast where his aircraft lost control approximately 100nm south of
Cheju Island, ROK.
24 November 1970, Chi-Hsien Huang crashed and perished during take-off
and landing training in Taoyuan.
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