It also had to do with a key personality involved. In the early '30s, W.D. Pawley had been the Curtiss-Wright representative in China. He then became President of a Curtiss-Wright subsidiary - Intercontinent Corporation. By extension, that also made Bill Pawley head of CAMCO - an Intercontinent part-subsidiary (together with Chiang Kai-shek's KMT government).
CAMCO relocated to Hengchow in 1938, and began assembly of Vultee V-11. In November of the following year, AVCO's Vultee Aircraft Division was reorganized as an independent firm. Pawley and CAMCO represented Vultee in China where the ROCAF was interested in an improved V-11 - the V-12. China would eventually order 26 Vultee V-12Cs (Wright GR-1820-G105A Cyclone) and 74 V-12Ds (Wright GR-2600-A5B Double Cyclone) ... but that all came too late for China.
Its worth noting that Bill Pawly had also became a director of the Harlow Aircraft Company. This followed the 1941 take-over of Harlow by Intercontinent. The Intercontinent Corporation then turned around and sold Harlow Aircraft to Vultee Aircraft. All of this give Pawley direct connections with Vultee, Harlow, and Curtiss. Meanwhile, due to Japanese advances in southern China, CAMCO was forced to relocate south from Hengchow to Burma.
CAMCO set up a maintenance and staging base at Loiwing (or Loi-Wing) on the Burmese-Chinese border. Actual assembly of aircraft was performed at Mingaladon on the outskirts of Rangoon. CAMCO's Burmese facilities were intended to funnel aircraft north or move parts and supplies up the Burma Road. But, as soon as Japanese attacks through Indo-China threatened Rangoon, CAMCO's Burma activities became non-viable. Bill Pawley was then invited to establish Hindustan Aircraft, Ltd (HAL) in Bangalore (that invite coming from HAL-founder, Walchand Hirachand, whose acquaintance Pawley had made on a 1939 trans-Pacific PAA Clipper flight).
China then placed orders with HAL for 74 Vultee V-12D attack aircraft, 30 Harlow PC-5A trainers, and an unknown number of Curtiss 75A-5P fighters - all products of firms with some connection to Bill Pawley. HAL was quick to set up - with assembly sheds erected and tooling at sea intended for Mingaladon being redirected to Bangalore. But, as far as I can tell, three of those V-12Ds may have been completed. Certainly no PC-5As were built by HAL (those usually quoted as HAL machines were actually imported Harlow-built airframes). And, as is better know, HAL assembled five Curtiss 75A-5Ps (out of 48 ordered) which went to the RAF as a Mohawk. (Mind you, the sources claiming five Mohawks also insist upon local Harlow production ... make of that what you will.)
So, why did the Chinese HAL order fizzle? I speculated in the Harlow Designations thread that Chinese access to Lend-Lease meant Chiang lost interest in paying for this order after April 1941. (Why spend Chinese treasure now when the Yanks were offering loaned equipment?) Further to that, HAL may have anticipated approved Lend-Lease supplier status being extended to India (as it had been for Canada). That never happened and Bangalore became mainly a maintenance facility for the duration of the war.
