David Corcoran; Helped Organize Flying Tigers

David Corcoran, 86, who helped organize the American Volunteer Group known as the Flying Tigers that fought under Gen. Claire Chennault against the Japanese in China and Burma in the late 1930s. Along with the Flying Tigers, he managed the lend-lease operation known as China Defense Supplies providing war materiel to the Chinese. After World War II, Corcoran helped set up Chennault’s Asiatic airline, Civil Air Transport. He began his business career with the Tokyo office of General Motors and for 40 years served as president of the international division of Sterling Drug Inc. In Waterville Valley, N.H. on Thursday.