Air, Land and Sea
Pioneer aviators, viewing the colony's craggy coastline, advocated the use of flying boats that required only a pier and a landing stage tower. By the 1930s flying boats between Manila and Hong Kong were a familiar sight lying at anchor in the harbour.
Original Negative
From 1928 light aircraft were touching down, sometimes upside down, at Kai Tak on a square of grass just big enough to accommodate them.
Original Negative
Kai Tak Airport ended up in just about the last place you would expect an airport - jutting out into the crowded shipping lanes of Victoria Harbour. In its frenetically busy closing years when jet aircraft got bigger and faster and planes were arriving and departing just minutes apart, it was obvious that an alternative solution had to be found.
This China Airlines 747 was the last aircraft to land at Kai Tak on its final day of operation. The new airport at Chek Lap Kok came into operational service on 6 July 1998.