Alan Lonsdale “Pat” Patterson (1900-1991) was a pilot, barnstormer, and early aviation pioneer who worked extensively in China and Hong Kong during the majority of the 20th century. He was involved in the aeronautical shipping industry, as well as in aircraft design and building. He established numerous companies in East Asia and the United States all related to aircraft manufacturing and sales. He was known for his association with individuals such as Chiang Kai-shek, Claire Chennault, and Howard Hughes, among others.

Patterson was raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada where he was likely born in 1900; although some records state his birth on April 10, 1899 in Illinois. Patterson served in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I from 1916-1918. He attended Asbury College in Ottawa in addition to colleges within the United States. First, he attended the Huntington College in Boston, Massachusetts and then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied engineering, history, and mathematics.

Patterson eventually moved to Los Angeles, California in 1919. It was during this time that he began barnstorming and ran a flying school out of Dycer Airport in Gardena, Los Angeles. While Patterson was operating the Dycer Airport, William Waterhouse came to him with sketches for a new high-wing monoplane design. They, along with retired Navy Commander Eston B. Koger, financed and built the aircraft on the Glendale Field. This plane, the Cruzair, was the prototype for the Spirit of St. Louis.

For a period in 1920, Patterson lived in Chicago, Illinois where he took over the James Levy Aircraft Co. and later became the Vice President and General Manager of the International Air transportation Co. During this time he also acted as President of the Aviation Club of Chicago. This furthered his interest in establishing his first aeronautical sales company, the Pacific Airmotive Corporation, in 1928. After the stock market crashed in 1929, Pacific Airmotive closed.

In 1931, after moving to China, Patterson established the China Airmotive Company, with main offices in Shanghai. China Airmotive, an aeronautical shipping company intended to serve Asia and specifically China, was particularly closely linked the Chinese National Air Force, as well as the Royal Thai Air Force and the Dutch East Indies Air Force. He worked during this period with General Chiang Kai-shek, famously skywriting a birthday greeting, the first ever skywriting in Chinese, for Chiang’s 50th birthday celebration. Patterson claimed to have been the driving force behind bringing General Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers to work with the Chinese National Air Force. Patterson was present for early skirmishes between Japanese and Chinese forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War, such as the Battle of Shanghai. But when World War II broke out, Patterson was forced to shut down operations and leave China, flying out on the last plane out of Hankou, China in 1938. The China Airmotive Company was then managed in the United States as part of the Consolidated Trading Company.

During World War II, Patterson had several business ventures: he was the Far East Representative for the U.S. Bureau of Air in the Department of Commerce; he founded Allied Engineering Corporation in 1940 in attempt to manage his China ventures from the United States; and he ran Bristol Aeronautical Corporation at the behest of the United States Navy to design and produce experimental wooden aircraft technology. Bristol Aeronautical was eventually shuttered by the Navy, but not before producing the technology that would later be used for the de Havilland Mosquito Bomber and Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose.

Immediately after the war, Patterson founded and then sold Aero Industries Corporation within the space of a year. He then returned to Shanghai, where he replaced the Consolidated Trading Company with the Allied International Company Fed. Inc., which in 1951 would be sold and renamed Allied International Corporation. During the 1950s, as part of the Allied International Corporation he worked with the Royal Saudi Air Force and the Royal Thai Air Force. Patterson traveled extensively before settling in Hong Kong and founding Air Services Company Ltd. in 1960. Patterson remained in Hong Kong until 1989, when he moved to San Diego, California due to health issues. He passed away on August 21, 1991.

Patterson married Martha Miller in 1919. They had two children together but Diana Patterson was the only child who survived to adulthood. Patterson and Martha divorced a year later in 1920. Sometime in the 1930s, Patterson married his second wife, Alexandra Leriou. They shared a home together in Shanghai, China until their divorce in 1946. He married his third wife, Eleanor Quillan, in 1953. Then in the 1960s he was married to his fourth wife Annette [maiden name unknown]. He was briefly married to Sheila Wong from 1980 to 1982. In 1983, Patterson married his sixth and last wife, Tyne Sau Wah, to whom he remained married until his death.

Biographical note derived from collection materials.

General Airplanes Corporation was established in Buffalo, New York in 1928. Alan L. Patterson worked as the Vice President and General Manager and coordinated sales of the GAC’s Aristocrat aircraft series and their mail-airplane. The company manufactured a small cabin monoplane and the first all-metal monocoupe constructed in the world.

China Airmotive Company Fed. Inc. was established by Alan L. Patterson in 1931 and ceased operations in 1941, due to the onset of World War II. ALP served as president and operated in China, with headquarters in Shanghai. The company formed due to ALP's partnership with Leslie A. Lewis of United Aircraft Corporation. The two secured the export representations for numerous American manufacturers. The company represented American aircraft manufactures and sold aircraft materials throughout Asia. It materially assisted in the establishment and growth of the Chinese Air Force and supplied training planes used by the United States Air Force.

Consolidated Trading Co. was the first company to extend long term credits for the purchase of American aircraft and machine equipment. The company imported aeronautical supplies between the U.S. and Asia, predominantly China.

A pre-war and wartime engineering company, Bristol Aeronautics Corporation was established under a special management contract with the United States Navy to design and produce experimental aircraft, and particularly wood technology, for the U.S. Navy and Air Force. This company was terminated at the end of World War II. Alan L. Patterson functioned as the Vice President and General Manager for the company with headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut.

In 1940, Alan L. Patterson established Allied Engineering Corp. in New York as the American agent for both China Airmotive and Consolidating Trading Co. The company moved to New Haven, Connecticut with the onset of World War II. During this time, it operated with the United States Air Force, Navy, and other contractors in development of radar and electronic items. It was a wartime organization of approximately 185 engineers and technicians working on a top secret radio and mechanical equipment.

Alan L. Patterson organized Aero Industries Corp. in New Haven, Connecticut and took over the U.S. Air Force facility at the airport. The corporation established a maintenance base for converting surplus war planes from four engine transport to small trainers. It disbanded after war surplus became too costly.

Allied International Company functioned out of New York, New York where Alan L. Patterson was the sole owner and proprietor. The company dealt in export and import of general commodities, raw materials, and heavy industry units, automotive, aeronautical and electrical and mechanical equipment.

Alan L. Patterson established Airservices Company Ltd. in Hong Kong, China to continue similar operations to his pre-World War II business, China Airmotive Company. The company sold aeronautical equipment, provided services and technical assistance, and made sales all throughout Asia.