China Bay exists because of Trincomalee’s deep natural harbour, a British naval base. The British built a first airfield here in the 1920s, and RAF Station China Bay was established in March 1942.

Wikipedia’s list of units shows how busy it became: Hurricanes of Nos. 17, 258, 261 and 273 Squadrons, Liberators of 159 and 357, Catalinas and Sunderlands of 205 and 240, Dutch Catalinas of No. 321 Squadron from 1942 to 1945, photo-reconnaissance aircraft of 684 Squadron in 1944–45, and no fewer than 38 Fleet Air Arm squadrons that came ashore while their carriers were in harbour.

Admiral Nagumo’s carriers came for Trincomalee on 9 April 1942. Wikipedia puts the strike at 91 Nakajima B5N ‘Kate’ bombers and 41 Zeros. Seventeen Hurricanes of No. 261 Squadron and six Fulmars of No. 273 Squadron went up to meet them, with Fleet Air Arm Fulmars.

The British lost eight Hurricanes and a Fulmar in the air, and several unserviceable aircraft on the ground; the Japanese lost three Zeros and a Kate, by the figures Wikipedia gives. The airfield and the port were heavily bombed and the monitor HMS Erebus was damaged. Later that morning Japanese aircraft found the carrier HMS Hermes off the coast and sank her with the loss of 307 men.

In March 1944 work began to adapt four Ceylon airfields for the American B-29 Superfortress, with China Bay first in line. By mid-July it could take 56 B-29s. On the night of 10–11 August 1944 XX Bomber Command dispatched 54 of them from China Bay against the Pladjoe refinery at Palembang in Sumatra, a mission of about 19 hours and 3,855 miles (6,204 km) there and back.

Thirty-nine reached the target area. The bombing achieved little, Wikipedia says, but aircraft laying mines in the Musi River sank three ships and closed the river for a month. No B-29 was lost to the enemy; one ran out of fuel and ditched 90 miles from China Bay, with one gunner killed. Wikipedia quotes the verdict that upgrading China Bay for the operation was “a glaring example of the extravagance of war”.

The Royal Ceylon Air Force took over China Bay in November 1957. Its first jets, the Jet Provosts of No. 5 Squadron, were based here from 1959, and No. 1 Flight, the flying school formed at Katunayake in 1951, followed in 1963. When the JVP rose in April 1971 the Jet Provosts, in storage by 1970, were serviced and armed in three days and flew to Katunayake attacking insurgent positions on the way.

The Air Force Academy was established here in 1976 and the flying school became the Flying Training Wing, formally named No. 1 Flying Training Wing in 1985. Civil war changed the base: it became an operational station in January 1987, and on 11 August 1988 flying training moved inland to Anuradhapura. It returned on 1 January 2009, months before the war ended, and absorbed the K-8s of No. 14 Advanced Training Squadron in 2010. Six new PT-6 trainers from China were accepted for the wing in May 2018.

The Academy China Bay is now a cluster of schools as much as an airfield. Besides No. 1 Flying Training Wing, its own site lists the Ground Training Wing, which marked its 33rd anniversary on 13 January 2026, the Non-Commissioned Officers’ Management School, 26 years old on 1 September 2026, and the Junior Command and Staff College, which runs the command and staff courses for mid-ranking officers. Wikipedia adds No. 6 Air Defence Radar Squadron and No. 112 Surveillance Squadron to the units on the base.

Wikipedia describes a two-year programme of basic flight training here, and records that the Academy’s degree, a Bachelor of Science in aeronautics, is accredited through the University of Kelaniya. When the Flying Training Wing turned 75 on 1 September 2026, the air force called it the “Cradle of Military Aviators”: the wing that began with Chipmunks at Katunayake in 1951 now teaches on Cessna 150s and PT-6s, and still keeps K-8s for advanced training and a limited air defence role.