The Veterans' Stories

Bob
For the raw recruits, do they have to pay tuition fee to receive training in HAECO?
Liang Yee Ming
Of course not. On the contrary, the company gave subsidy to apprentices!  That said, newcomers of the “Overhaul Department” had to buy something from the seniors…
Mrs. Wong
Protection money?  Contribution to the loan club?
Liang Yee Ming
The remuneration of new employees at HAECO  
In the Overhaul Department, you had to buy your own tools of the trade. The old hands would sell theirs to the new boys. They didn’t charge you in the first month because they knew you hadn’t earned anything yet. After you got the salary, you had to settle the account. My first month’s pay was $500, but it turned out I could only pocket $200.
Lee Ming Chien
Let’s look at our lives in HAECO in the 40s to 70s!
The photo shows the only engine testing site for HAECO in the 40s. This outdoor engine testing site is built by digging a large hole in the ground to minimize the effects of jet blast.
The open-air jet engine test area. The long tube in the rear portion was a silencer.
The electrical shop in the 1940s. The workshop started to employ female labours at that time. They are rewinding the generator armature and field coils.
Sir Robert Brown Black, the Governor of Hong Kong, visiting HAECO’s electrical workshop in 1958, accompanied by the HAECO tai-pan. 
Engine repairing.
The old storage section held over 50,000 stock items.
Electrical workshop in the late 1950s. 
Maintenance workshop of aircraft safety equipment. In the photo we can see the aircrafts’ rubber lifeboats, inflated on the ground.
A corner of the workshop.
Workspace for the testing of different types of electronic equipment.
Electrical workshop.
HAECO workman operating cylinder honing machine.
Repairing the propeller engine inside the hangar.
Engine installation room in the 1950s.
Assembling a jet engine.
Engine test after a crank-up inside the cockpit. (啟動引擎進後測試)
Repairing the wing of a Cathay Pacific DC-6.
Workers removing from the freighter an airframe component of the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
In the old days, the hangar gate had to be closed by manual labour.
A corner of the workshop.
Office built out of wood in the 50s.
Abacuses were used in the Accounting Department in the 1960s.
Office in the 70s.
Office in the 70s.
Photo taken in 1969 at the construction site of the new hangar.
Photo taken outside the hangar.
Christmas party of the management.
Christmas party of the management.