Karachi

  1920's to present

  Pakistan

CITY: Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan (Sindh, India until 1947)

IATA/ICAO CODES: KHI / OPKC

COORDINATES: 24°54'N / 67°10'E

OTHER NAMES: Drigh Road Airstrip (1920's-1930's), Karachi Port Trust (WWII), Jinnah International (present)

Karachi airport was originally conceived by Britain as the India terminal for the 1924 Imperial Airship Communications Scheme. As part of this project, a massive airship hangar (261 x 61 x 52 m), a mooring mast and a hydrogen plant were built on the site to host R101 & R102 dirigibles. Construction work started in 1927 and was complete in 1929, at the cost of £93,000. However, after R101 crashed in France in October 1930, the whole project was abandonned and no airship ever came to Karachi.

As America entered World War II, the USAAF Air Technical Service Command was looking at places where to set up air bases and air depots. With its huge, unused airship hangar and the close proximity of a major harbor, Karachi was designated as the base for the newly formed 80^th Air Depot Group, which would use the place to assemble, repair and overhaul aircraft for the China-Burma-India theatre. In these extensive facilities, aircraft were received, assembled and tested prior to being flown to their combat units at forward airfields. It also functioned as a major maintenance and supply depot for the 10^th Air Force in Eastern India & Burma and the 14^th Air Force in China. Karachi quickly became a major transhipment base for USAAF units and equipment, being used by both air forces. Several operational bomber and fighter units flew into Karachi for short organisational periods prior to their deployment.

Air Transport Command flew numerous cargo and passenger flights to the Middle East and to points within British India and China from Karachi. After the war, hundreds of Commandos were stored in Karachi, awaiting their fate from the Army-Navy Liquidation Commission. Most of them ended up broken up there.

1306^th AAF Base Unit (Karachi)

80^th Air Depot Group (1942 - February 1945)

Air Transport Command India-China Wing Station 16 (December 1943 - August 1944)

• Curtiss C-46A-5-CK Commando: 43-46995