Large archive of materials related to CIA front companies Air America, Air Asia, and Civil Air Transport

Archive includes rare internal company memos, reports, budgets, manuals, some remarkable vernacular photographs, ephemera, and other items such as meticulous designs for uniforms of CAT employees to make it seem like a "real" airline. Spans over 30" of shelf space. Very Good+ condition overall.

The archive's compiler, Joseph Louis Orlowski, was an engineer by trade who worked in China before the country's 1949 revolution, leaving for Taiwan, and then rising through the ranks of CAT as it became Air America to become Vice President in the 1960s. He began using his wife's maiden name, Madison, as an alias, eventually legally changing his name to it. His journey through the ranks of these airlines-- with their ever-present need to pretend to be regular airlines while paradoxically carrying out espionage, drug dealing, and acts of outright war-- is chronicled in these stacks of documents, mostly minutiae. His black and white photos, many of which are labeled or housed in envelopes with locations and context, are particularly fascinating, offering a vivid glimpse of wild, dangerous lives belied by all the technical specs and dull documents: landing strips on plateaus in remote jungles, parachuters in mid jump, sacks of what may very well be heroin being loaded into a plane, soldiers in jeeps, Asian peasants, and acrid plumes of black smoke rising above French colonial mansions and palm trees.

CONTENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

BOUND MATERIALS
1. Civil Air Transport, Company Circular Manual No. 68, Traffic Office, Kaitak, HKG. Thick gray binder with gilt lettering to front board. Soiling to binder, some light foxing and marking to contents. Roughly. 400 pages, mostly printed on rectos only. Spans the years 1952-1957 with most docs being from 1954 and 1955.

2. Civil Air Transport, Company Circular Manual No. 75, Office of A/VPAGM. Thick gray binder with gilt lettering to front board. Light soiling to binder. Roughly 250 pages, mostly printed on rectos only.

3. Air America Circular 3. Black leatherette binder with silver lettering. Roughly 150 pages, spanning from the 1960s to the early 1970s.

4. Personnel Manual, Civil Air Transport. Black leatherette brad-bound file, lettered in gilt, Asian patterned endpapers. Roughly 100 pages. Spans the early 1950s, covering procedures for CAT hiring and firing, sick leave, etc.

5. Air America Organization – 1951. Bradbound leatherette with silver lettering. Contains two copies of the company’s organizational chart with some pencil markings. [2], 4, 22, 10 pp. printed on rectos only.

6. Operations Manual No. 115, Operations Division CAT Incorporated. Red leatherette with gilt lettering, title label taped onto front board. Approx. 200 pages. Contents consist of the “Operations Manual,” “Operations Circular,” “Operations Bulletin,” and “Flight Manual.”

7. General Maintenance Manual, Civil Air Transport, General Maintenance Division. Dark green leatherette with gilt lettering. Roughly 150-200 pages. Contents span from the mid ‘50s to the late ‘60s, including a section of Air Asia Maintenance Division info ca. 1968.

8. Tokyo Organization—Personnel Survey and Recommendations to Regional Director J.L. Orlowski, December, 1953. Civil Air Transport Japan-Korea Region. Submitted by Henry T. Samson, Personnel Consultant. [2], 215 pp. printed on rectos only. Bound in black leatherette with spine label. Additional photocopied memos laid in.

9. Sales Manual, Sales Division, Civil Air Transport. Bound in black leatherette with title label. Contents dated from the late ‘50s to 1968. Includes instructions for measuring unspecified “tied packages” weighed in kilos, for freight shipment.

10. Aircraft Accident and Incident Rates, Graphs and Tables from 1960. Black leatherette with gilt lettering to front board. Roughly 100 pp. Contents consist of accident and incident rate tables for Air Asia from 1960 to 1969.

11. Air America Base Manual, Thailand 2. Bound in black leatherette with silver lettering. Mid ‘60s to ‘70s. Primarily a base manual for Udorn, Thailand including emergency procedures for the base, accounting, personnel, etc. with info about Club Rendezvous (a vacation spot for Air America employees) and Bangkok and Chiang Mai bases as well.

12. Air America Base Manual, Laos 42. Bound in black leatherette with silver lettering. Contents generally date from early ‘70s. Roughly 100 pages.

13. Supply Manual, Civil Air Transport. Stringbound with handmade wrappers. Roughly 300 pp.

14. Uniform Manual, Personnel Division, Civil Air Transport, July1, 1956. Bound with sliding metal brads. Roughly 50 pages. Covers the proper uniforms for CAT personnel.

15. Proposal: Technical Services Building – VTE. Company leatherette wraps with silver lettering. Roughly 25 pp. Includes laid in memo from Frank L. Dunn, signed and dated April 8, 1968.

16. Compensation and Rules of Employment for Vietnamese National Pilots of Air America, Inc. January 29, 1973. Brad bound in wraps. [vi], 76 pp.

17. Compensation and Rules of Employment for Philippine National Pilots of Air Asia Company Limited. January 29, 1973. Brad bound in wraps. [vi], 73 pp.

18. Compensation and Rules of Employment for Chinese National Pilots of Air Asia Company Limited. January 29, 1973. Brad bound in wraps. [vi], 75 pp. Stamp to front wrap.

19. Fiscal Reports to Base Managers, March 1970. Stapled wraps.

20. Statistical Reports, Intercompany Contracts: Air Asia Company Limited, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, Air America Inc., October 1970. Prepared by Air Asia Company Ltd. Brad bound. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

21. Cost and Revenue Statement (Intercompany Contracts) September 1970. Prepared by Air Asia Company Limited. Staple bound. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

22. Financial Statements, Intercompany Contracts: Air Asia Company Limited, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, Air America Inc. March 1971. Prepared by Air Asia Company Ltd. Brad bound. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

23. Financial Statements, Intercompany Contracts: Air Asia Company Limited, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, Air America Inc. March 1970. Prepared by Air Asia Company Ltd. Brad bound. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

24. Financial Statements, Intercompany Contracts: Air Asia Company Limited, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, Air America Inc. March 1968. Prepared by Air Asia Company Ltd. Brad bound. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

25. Appropriations Proposed for Six Months, Ended March 31, 1967. Intercompany Contracts: Air Asia Company Limited, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, Air America Inc. Prepared by Air Asia Company Ltd. Brad bound. Front wrap stamped “Confidential.”

26. Statistical Reports, Intercompany Contracts: Air Asia Company Limited, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, Air America Inc., March 1971. Prepared by Air Asia Company Ltd. Brad bound. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

27. Financial Statements, Intercompany Contracts: Air Asia Company Limited, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, Air America Inc. October 1970. Prepared by Air Asia Company Ltd. Brad bound. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

28. Cost and Revenue Statement (Intercompany Contracts) March 1970. Prepared by Air Asia Company Limited. Staple bound. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

29. Fiscal Reports to Base Managers, September 1970. Stapled wraps. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

30. Cash Forecast for Twelve Months Ending March 31, 1967. Intercompany Contracts: Air Asia Company Limited, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, Air America Inc. Book III. Prepared by Air Asia Company Ltd. 2 pp. Brad bound. Front wrap stamped “Confidential.”

31. Fiscal Reports to Base Managers, October 1970. Stapled wraps. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

32. Fiscal Reports to Base Managers, March 1971. Prepared by Treasurer-Controller’s Office. Stapled wraps. Front wrap stamped “Company Confidential.”

33. Pay Standards and Allowances. Brad bound in manila folder with stamped title, tabbed pages. Revised April 1, 1958 according to Table of Contents.

34. Personnel Manual. Brad bound in manila folder with stamped title, tabbed pages. Revised August 12, 1958 according to Table of Contents.

35. Employment. Brad bound collection of documents relating to Orlowski’s career and travels around the world with Civil Air Transport.

36. Proposal for the Administration’s Participation in a Board of Trustees of the Rehabilitation […]. Committee of the Council for the Far East. November 14, 1947. 30 pp. printed on rectos only. Corner stapled sheets. Orlowski’s name written on front wrap.

37. Action of Central Committee at 62nd Meeting re Board of Trustees. Committee of the Council for the Far East. November 19, 1947. 2 pp. printed on rectos only. Corner stapled sheets. Orlowski’s name written on front wrap.

38. Yokota Daily Performance 15 Dec. 1970. Corner stapled sheets.

LOOSE DOCUMENTS:
1. Approximately 150-200 vernacular photos, presumably by Orlowski, mostly black and white, housed in envelopes that loosely describe settings and contents: “Destroyed Planes,” “1969 Laos,” “Air America Danang, Vietnam,” “Saigon 1965,” “Air America,” “Air America Laos,” etc. There are some remarkable images in here of combat, Air America’s airplanes, air fields, explosions, parachuting soldiers, and interesting large sacks of some sort of materials being loaded into planes. Generally in Very Good to Near Fine, although a four or five pictures show wear and have paper stuck to them.

2.Collection of General Maintenance Manuals for Civil Air Transport from the 1950s. Roughly 200-250 pp. Unbound, temporarily housed in a vintage Ziploc bag. Contents date to the ‘50s. Includes info on maintaining automobiles as well as a schematics of a barge suggestively named “Buddha” and a seagoing vessel dubbed Narcissus.

3. Small collection of documents relating to the Taiwanese unveiling of a statue for Flying Tigers head and co-founder of Civil Air Transport Claire Chennault including two TLS from his widow, Anna.

4. S.A.M.E. folder. Folder of documents relating to the Society of American Military Engineers, minutes of meeting with handwritten notes, diagrams of airports, two pieces of Asian artwork by an unknown artist.

5. Collection of patterns, mockups, and prototypes for Civil Air Transport uniforms. Approximately 49 items. Includes designs for captain’s wings, stewardesses’ handbags, aircraft maintenance workers’ overalls and more.

6. Two bags of loose document relating to Orlowski’s life and CAT, including signed documents, TLS from various people within organization, materials relating to S.A.M.E.

7. Around six documents relating to the American Association of Shanghai, slightly oversized.