[1] In 1933, Chiang Kai-shek signed an agreement with Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini to establish a joint venture in China to manufacture airplanes.

The company, called Sino-Italian National Aircraft Works (SINAW), was established in 1934 in Nanchang, with factories located at both Laoyingfang and Sanjiadian airports.

[2] After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, SINAW factories were severely damaged by Japanese aerial bombing.

It was likely from Laoyingfang that the Unit 731 launched germ warfare against the city of Changde in nearby Hunan province.

[3] In September 1945, after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, China Airlines started to operate scheduled Shanghai–Fuzhou–Nanchang–Hankou flights from Laoyingfang Airport.