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Artifacts

Civil Air Transport (CAT) Notepad

Artifact Details

Two CAT notebooks, one black and one red, both with the CAT logo

Promotional handouts and regular commercial flights helped disguise CAT as a normal airline.

Given as a souvenir to guests on CAT’s Mandarin Jet, this notepad includes a calendar from 1967.

In August 1950, the Agency secretly purchased the assets of Civil Air Transport (CAT), an airline that had been started in China after World War II by Gen. Claire L. Chennault and Whiting Willauer. CAT would continue to fly commercial routes throughout Asia, acting in every way as a privately owned commercial airline. At the same time, under the corporate guise of CAT Incorporated, it provided airplanes and crews for secret intelligence operations.