KongZhong Launches Project to Salvage Flying Tigers Fighter Aircraft in China

BEIJING, Aug. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- KongZhong Corporation (NASDAQ:KONG), a leading provider of digital entertainment services for consumers in the PRC and operator of the Wargaming War Saga game, "World of Warplanes", announced today the launch of the "Flying Tigers Salvage Project" in Dian Lake of Yunnan, China, to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the Sino-Japanese War victory as well as the history of alliance between the U.S. and China.  This undertaking received the approval and full support of relevant authorities including: Yunnan Provincial Dept. of Culture, Kunming Culture Radio & TV Sports Bureau, Dian Lake Management Bureau of Kunming, Kunming Marine Bureau and the Chinese Aviation Museum.  The search and recovery work has commenced in Dian Lake in cooperation with the Marine Exploration Team of the Shanghai Marine Bureau.

The pilots of The American Volunteer Group (AVG), nicknamed the Flying Tigers for their distinct shark-tooth design on their P-40 fighter aircraft noses, fought side-by-side with the Chinese against Japanese forces in China and Burma. The Flying Tigers achieved remarkable success as they were reported to have destroyed 298 Japanese planes while only losing 12 P-40s in combat from 20 December 1941 to July 1942. In early March 1943 the Flying Tigers were absorbed into the U.S. 14th Air Force, which continued the fight against the Japanese until the end of the war. 

According to historical documents, one P-40 crashed into Dian Lake during a gunnery training flight on 28 May 1942.  It is estimated that the crash location is in a 40 square kilometer area around Daqing Shan in the west bank of Dian Lake.  Since all the other Flying Tigers fighters with shark-tooth design were destroyed, this could be the only surviving, and possibly intact, Flying Tigers fighter in the world.

Since the end of the last century, many institutions in China have made attempts to salvage the aircraft but failed due to various difficulties.  The official of the Shanghai Marine Bureau in charge of the salvage work commented, "The environment at the bottom of Dian Lake is quite complex, and this aircraft has been dormant for 71 years in the water; therefore, general detection equipment will not suffice.  This time our team will use a variety of advanced detection equipment to do the salvage work, including sonar, magnetic detectors, and shallow stratigraphic section instrument to scan underwater.  Based on information from previous attempts, the team has determined multiple high probability locations to perform a comprehensive survey."

Why would a leading Internet company want to get involved with the underwater salvage project of a WWII relic?  Mr. Wang Lei Lei, CEO of KongZhong Corporation explained, "KongZhong has strong influences among many young people today.  As an influential Internet company, we are committed not only to commercial success but also to social responsibility.  We hope that salvaging the WWII aircraft will educate the young and shed light upon this memorable period in China's history, and through the introduction of the war themed games including "World of Tanks," "World of Warplanes" and "World of Warships," we can help enhance Chinese people's national defense awareness and sense of patriotism."

The surveying work will be ongoing for several weeks, after which the divers will investigate high probability locations one by one, trying their best to confirm the P-40 crash site within a month. When conditions permit, Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Research Institute will perform the underwater salvage work.  Upon a successful salvage, the aircraft will be donated to the relevant government agency for preservation and permanent display.

About KongZhong:

We are one of the leading providers of digital entertainment services for consumers in the PRC. We operate three main business units, namely WVAS, mobile games and Internet games. We are one of the leading providers of WVAS to mobile phone users and have been in cooperation with all major telecommunications operators in the PRC since 2002. In 2005, we began providing feature-phone mobile games on the networks of China Mobile with the acquisition of Tianjin Mammoth, a feature phone mobile games developer. To further expand our mobile games development capabilities, we acquired Noumena in 2012 in order to develop smartphone mobile games on smartphone mobile operating systems, such as iOS and Android. We commenced our Internet games business in 2010 through our acquisition of Dacheng, a developer and operator of Internet games in the PRC. In addition to developing and operating our self-developed Internet games, such as Loong, Demon Code and Kung Fu Hero, we are the exclusive operator of the popular World of Tanks game for the PRC Internet games market. In May 2012, KONG entered into a strategic partnership with Wargaming.net's granting KONG exclusive rights to all of Wargaming.net's future games in mainland China, including but not limited to World of Tanks, World of Warplanes and World of Warships. In addition, KONG is the also the exclusive China partner for Guild War 2 from ArenaNet, Offensive Combat from U4iA Games and Hawken from Meteor Entertainment.

SOURCE KongZhong Corporation