Aviation History 2005-01

Editorial nHISTORY

Those who set aviation records today contribute to tomorrow's challenges.

OnlineCxtras January 2005

From left, Dick Rutan, Steve Fossett and Clay Lacy were photographed at the NAA's 2004 Spring Awards Ceremony (Robert A. McComas).

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EACH YEAR THE National Aeronautic Association (NAA) in Arlington, Virginia, recognizes those who have set aviation records in the United States. NAA is the U.S. representative to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (the worldwide governing body of aeronautical records) and keeps all the records for U.S. aviation. Want to set an aviation record? Have it certified by the NAA, and you're in the record books. Among the many speed, altitude and distance awards given by the NAA were eight chosen as the most memorable aviation records of the year. These are good examples of the aviators who continue to find new aeronautical mountains to climb, and make a mark on aviation history in attaining their chosen heights. ; Bruce Bohannon contintied a string of previous record feats by climbing to ' 47,067 feet in his piston-engine homebuilt Flyin' Tiger, after taking off from Angleton, Texas. Fred Coon and Mark Stolzberg flew a Grumman Cheetah from Santa Ana, Calif., to the site of the Wright brothers' ^ first flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 14 hours 4 53 minutes, averaging 159 mph to break a U.S. transcontinental airspeed record for piston-engine aircraft. By the way, the granite monument at Kitty Hawk that marks the Wrights' first flight was erected by the NAA in 1928. Steve Fossett and Douglas Travis set a westbound transcontinental flight record for jet aircraft in a Cessna Citation X, and then flew back eastward from San Diego, Caiif., to Charleston, S.C., in 2 hours 56 I minutes at an average speed of 726 mph. I Maynard Hill, Barrett Foster and David fi AVIATION HISTORY JANUARY 2005

Brovra became the first to fly a model airplane across the Atlantic Ocean when their radio-controlled TAM-5 flew from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, to Mannin Beach, Ireland, in just under 39 hours. The flight set a record for distance in a straight line, traveling 1,882 miles. The trip was planned to approximate the first nonstop Atlantic crossing by air in 1919 by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, flying for 16 hours in a converted World War I Vickers Vimy bomber. fon lacohs also set a record for distance in a straight line—with the constraint of limited fuel—when he flew his Mitchell Wing b-10 ultralight 170 miles with only 7.5 kilograms of fuel (about 2.7 gallons) to break a 15-year record. Randolph Pentel and Mark Anderson set a national record in a Cessna Citation Ultra for the fastest time to fly around the border of the continental United States, taking off from International Falls, Minn., and landing back at the same airport 45 hours and 27 minutes later. The December flight also promoted the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program, in that the fliers gave out 100 toys along their way. Joseph Ritchie and Steve Fossett set a transcontinental record for turboprop aircraft when they fiew a Piaggio Avanti from San Diego to Charleston in 3 hours 51 minutes for an average speed of 546 mph. William Watters, Raymond Wellington and Ahmed Ragheb flew in a Gulfstream G550 from Savannah, Ga., to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in under 14 hours. In the process, they set a record for distance without landing during their trip of 7,546 miles—at an average speed of 549 mph. A,H.S.

Discussion: In the aftermath of a goodwill trip soutli of the border by Charles Lindbei^h, Mexican Captain Emilio Carranza was pressured into departing Mitchel Field for Mexico City in a fierce storm on luly 12,1928, and died when he crashed soon after takeoff. Was Carranza a victim of politics, or should his death be attributed to the buccaneering spirit of the day?

Goto ufwiv.TlieHistoryNet.com/ahi for tliese great exclusives: Robert Scott: God Was His Co-pilot—A Radio Tokyo broadcast revealed to Colonel Robert L. Scott how effective his 23rd Fighter Group was. "They were making the point that we were weak because we only had 500 planes," said Scott. "At that time we had only 35!" Flying With Chennault's Tigers in the AVG—Secretly recruited, a group of American pilots led by a former stunt flier gained hero status in two nations during World War 11 and won a permanent place in the annals of aviation history. Strike of the Aztec Eagles in World War //—Pilots of Mexico's Fuerza Aerea Mexicana earned praise and decorations from the U.S., Mexican and Philippine governments during WWII. Richard Byrd: Beating the Pack to the Pote—The FokkerTrimotor/osep/zme Ford survived mishaps and beat fierce competition to be the first aircraft to fly over the top of the world, carrying Richard E. Byrd into histoiy

ITS A BIRD! In the September/If/arion /f/5tori/article"From Autogiro to Gyroplane," by Bruce H. Charnov, which includes a photo (shown below) on R 49 of a race between a Pitcairn PCA-2 Autogiro and a biplane, the caption mistakenly stated that the biplane was a Curtiss-Wright aircraft. As several alert readers have informed us, it was actually a Brunner-Winkle Bird BK. Thanks to all ot you who wrote and e-mailed us to set the record straight. ^Ed.

to-ground and high-altitude bombing experience in the course of the Spanish Civil War, the cost of that education was high. Out of a little less than 500 aircraft of all types committed to the war, the Condor Legion lost almost half: 72 in combat and 160 due to accidents, accounting for 27 fighter pilots and 102 air crewmen. One of the 12 American volunteers flying and fighting for the Republic, Frank G. Tinker, became America's first ace in the war against fascism, shooting down eight enemy planes, including two Messerschmitt Bf-109s of the Condor Legion. Two more of those airmen went on to combat in China with the "Flying Tigers." Carl Sederquist Surry, Maine A personal comment on the bombing of Guernica appeared in a letter written on April 26.1937. by Condor Legion 2nd Lt. Harro Harder: "It has been totally destroyed, and not by the Reds, as all the local newspapers report, but by German and Italian bombers. It is the opinion of all of us that it was a rotten trick to destroy such a militarily unimportant city as Guernica." None of the American volunteers officially served with the AmericanVolunteer Group, but at least one, Albert J.Baumler,"unofficialfy" attached himself to theAVG when he scored his fifth victory on June 22.1942. and scored four more flying in its successor, the23rd Fighter Croup (see P28 in this issue). —Senior Editor Jon Guttman

CONDOR LEGION REVISITED I read with interest Walter Musciano's article "They Flew for Franco," in the September issue. I especially enjoyed the sharp pictures that clearly portrayed the Condor Legion aircraft, equipment and crew. To me they are remarkably similar to depictions in John C. Edwards' book Airmen Without Portfolio: Mercenaries in Civil War Spain, which chroniclestheexperiences of 12 American aviators who flew and fought for the Republic (Loyalists) against Franco's Nationalist air force, including the Condor Legion as well as the Italian Legion. A lot has been written about the Condor Legion as compared to the Republican Spanish air force, with its Russian support and international flying volunteers. The course of the civil war was not determined by the fairly evenly matched opposing air forces; its outcome was the result of the suicidal infighting and disorganization within the political elements of the Republican government, and was further complicated by the civil war between its militias and organized uniformed armed forces. in Mr. Musciano's article he mentions the German revisionist position on the bombing of Guernica. Major General Hugo Sperrle initially denied that the bombing ever happened, and Francisco Franco blamed the Communists for blowing up the cit)' to slow the Nationalist advance on Bilbao. It was only wben international reporters and photographers as well as civilian eyewitnesses proved that the city was bombed by Junkers Ju-52/3ms in clear weather that the accident story was fabricated. Nationalist bombers had a habit of bombing the civilian population of Loyalist cities on a regular basis, whenever they could manage to fly through defenses. While the German Luftwaffe gained significant air-to-air, air8 AVIATION HISTORV JANUARY 2005

I read Walter Musciano's article with considerable interest but feel it presents a very narrow snapshot of air combat during the Spanish Givii War. Mr. Musciano dismisses the input of the Spanish Nationalist fliers and makes essentially no mention of the Italian contribution to Franco, which dwarfed the German effort. In fact, the 10 top Spanish Nationalist fliers accounted for some 160 victories, and the top ace in Spain was Joaquin Garcia Morato of the Nationalists, with 40 victories. The Spaniards also carried out joint missions vrith the Italians and the Germans. The Italian aid to Franco was massive—at one stage some 50,000 men, of whom 6,000 became casualties. Italy sent 763 planes to Spain, including 405 Fiat C.R.32 fighters, considered by many the best fighter aircraft of that war. Also dispatched were 99 SIAl Marchetti S.M.79 three-engine bombers, which later achieved fame as one of the best torpedo bombers of World War II. Franco realized that he could not possibly have won without the Italian aid. At the hig victor^' parade held in Madrid, he insisted that the Italian Legionari march in a place of honor. LV.de Chellis New York City CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE On R 31 of "They Flew for Franco," in the September issue. Patrol Over Teruel. a painting by artist Fernanda de la Cueva, depicted a flight by two Heinkel He-51s in Spanish markings. The artist's name was misspelled in both caption and credit information. We regret the error. Send letters to Aviation History Editor. Primedia History Croup. 741 Miller Drive, Suite D-2, Leesburg, VA 20175, or e-mail to [email protected]. Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.

People & Planes A rash of mysterious airship sightings piqued the curiosity of Americans in the late 1800s. BYJ.D. HAINES

IN MARCH AND APRIL 1897 thousands of Midwestern Americans reported sightings of airships. On April Fools' Day. as many as 10,000 reportedly observed a huge aerial machineflyingover Kansas City. Prior to this mass sighting, hundreds of residents ofTexas, Oklahoma, Nehraska, Missouri, California and Arizona had reported similar apparitions. Witnesses said the huge maciiine hovered over farms, ranches and small towns, often sweeping a hrilliant spotlight along the ground as it traveled. It was the height of the great American airship scare, which actually hegan in California some 20 years before, in the fall of 1876, according to modern-day writer Jerome Clark. The Sacramento Evening Bee reported that between 6 and 7 p.m. on November 17, 1876, a light resembling an "electric arc lamp propelled by some mysterious force" was seen by hundreds as it passed over the city. The object seemed to take evasive action as it approached buildings and hills. Some observers claimed to hear voices coming from it. 12 AVIATION HISTORV JANUARY 2005

The 1876 sightings resulted in enormous excitement and speculation. Some theorists claimed that an airship had been secretly developed in nearby Oak Park or flown in from the East Coast. The San Francisco Chronicle called the airship "probably one of the greatest hoaxes...ever sprung on any community," but noted, "it is hard to account for the evident sincerity of those who claim they saw the machine and heard the voices." The following day the Chronicle quoted professor George Davidson, who believed the incident was the "outcome of a sort of freemasonry of liars." He added: "Haifa dozen fellows have got together, sent up a balloon with some sort of an electric light attachment, and imagination has done

The San Francisco Chronicle called the airship sightings "probably one of the greatest hoaxes...ever sprung on any community," but added, "It is hard to account for the evident sincerity of those who... saw the machine...."

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the rest. It is pure fake." The airship made return appearances over Sacramento on November 20 and Oakland on the 21st. The craft was described as a "peculiar looking contrivance" with a headlight and a searchlight on the bottom. One witness likened it to a "balloon traveling end on...and with what appeared to be wings both before and behind the light." Throughout November, sightings continued in California. The appearances were usually nocturnal, and many were undoubtedly planets, such as Venus, or pranksters getting into the act by sending lighted kites aloft at night. But not all the sightings could be explained by planets or pranks. Electrician lohn Horen told the San Francisco Fxaminer that he had actually boarded an airship and sailed to Hawaii (Horen's wife later said her practical joker husband was sound asleep at home on the night of tbe "Hawaiian cruise"). Colonel H.G. Shaw upped the ante by claiming to have met the crew of an airship, who he asserted were Martians trying to abduct him, marking the first such reported attempt in UFO history. In Februarv' 1897, a rash of mysterious sightings were taking place much farther east. On February 2, citizens of Hastings, Neb., reported seeing an airship. As writer lerome Clark has surmised, "If we can judge from newspaper accounts, many, perhaps most, sightings were of Venus, meteors and kites; evidently the publicity was inflaming the imaginations of the suggestible and proving irresistible to pranksters." Clark also pro\'ided a representative report of an airship sighting: To many observers the airship was a brilliant nocturnal light, often compared to an arc light, which moved through the heavens at a notable speed, A number of these reports are apparently of Venus or a kite. Others seem not to be. Frequently the object would appear first as a light, then at some point as a structured craft. For example at Quincv', Illinois, late on the evening of April 10 hundreds of onlookers saw a "bright white light," with red and green lights on either side of it, flying low over the Mississippi River on the city's west side. As they watched, it rose in the air, headed east over Quincy, then south, then west. It hovered over a park for a few minutes before moving north and stopping balf a mile later to hover again. It reversed direction and left in a southerly direction at "tremendous speed." The Q»/ncvMonn'/7gW/i/g of April 11 reported: "At times it did not appear to be more than 400 or 500 feet above the ground.... Men who saw the thing describe it as a long, slender body shaped like a cigar, and made of some bright metal... .On either side of the hull extending outwards and upwards were

14 AVIATION H I S T O H V lANUARY 2005

what appeared lo be wings....At the front end of the thing was a headlight.... similar to the searchlights used on steamboats." Also on April U, 1897, 400 persons supposedly sighted an airship over Norman, Okla. The Daily Oklahoman devoted one sentence to the report: "And now Norman has seen the air ship, and hy a bank cashier, a devout churchman and prominent citizen, Mr, Wiggins." The Norman Transcript of Apri! 23 skeptically commented, "Some of the airship stories that are afloat could be more readily believed if the occurrence occasionally took place in the day time." On April 19, the Dallas MorningNews reported a spectacular crash of an airship: The early risers of Aurora, Texas were astonished at the sudden appearance of the airsiiip that has been sailing around the country. It was traveling north and much nearer the earth than before. Evidently some of the machinery was out of order, for it was making a speed of only ten or twelve miles an hour, and gradually settling towards the earth. It sailed over the public square and when it reached the north part of town it collided with the tower of ludge Proctor's windmill and went into pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres of ground, wrecking the windmill and water tank and destroying the judge's flower garden. The pilot of the ship is supposed to have been the only one aboard and, while his remains were badly disfigured, enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this wodd, Mr. T). Weems, the U.S. Army Signal Service officer at this place and an authority on astronomy gives it as his opinion that the pilot was a native of the planet Mars. Papers found on bis person—evidently tbe records of his travels—are written in some unknown hieroglyphics and cannot be deciphered. This ship was too badly wrecked to form any conclusion as to its construction or motive power. It was built of an unknown metal, resembling somewhat a mixture of aluminum and silver, and it must have weighed several tons. Tbe town today is full of people who are viev^ng tbe wreckage and gathering specimens of strange metal from tbe debris. The pilot's funeral will take place tomorrow. On April 23,1897, rancher Alex Hamilton of Le Roy, Kan,, provided what may represent the first of many livestock mutilation reports. The Yates Center Farmer's Advocate printed the story: "Last Monday night, about 10:30," said Mr. Hamilton, "we were awakened by a noise among tbe cattle. I arose.

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thinking that perhaps my bulldog was performing some of his pranks, but upon going to the door saw to my utter astonishment an airship slowly descending upon my cow lot. about forty rods from the house. "Calling my tenant, Gid Hesiip, and my son Walt, we seized some axes and ran to the corral. Meanwhile, the ship had been descending until it was not more than thirty teet above the ground, and we came withinfiftyyards of it. "It consisted of a great cigar-shaped portion, possihiy three hundred feet long, with a carriage underneath. The carriage was made of glass or some other transparent substance alternating with a narrow strip of some material. It was brilliantly lighted within and everything was plainly visible—it was occupied by six of the strange5t beings I ever saw. They were jabbering together, but we could not understand a word they said. "Every part of the vessel which was not transparent was of a dark reddish color. We stood mute with wonder and fright, when some noise attracted their attention and they turned a light directly upon us. Immediately on catching sight of us they turned on some unknown power, and a great turbine wheel, about thirty feet in diameter, which was slowly

revolving below the craft began to buzz and the vessel rose lightly as a bird. "When ahout three hundred feet above us it seemed to pause and hover directly over a two-year-old heifer, which was bawling and jumping, apparently fast in the fence. Going to her, we found a cable about a half inch in thickness made of some red material, fastened in a slip knot around her neck, one end passing up to the vessel, and the heifer tangled in the wire fence. We tried to get it off but could not, so we cut the wire loose and stood in amazement to see the ship, heifer and all, rise slowly, disappearing in the northwest, "We went home but I was so frightened I could not sleep. Rising early Tuesday, 1 started out by horse, hoping to find some trace of my cow. This I failed to do, but coming back in the evening found that Link Thomas, about three or miles west of Le Roy, had found the hide, legs and head in hisfieldthat day He, thinking someone had butchered a stolen heast, had brought the hide to town for identification, but was greatly mystified in not being able to find any tracks in tbe soft ground. After identifying the hide by my brand, I went home. But every time I would drop to sleep I would see the cursed thing with its bigligbts and hideous people. "I don't know whether they are devils

or angels, or what, hut we all saw them, and my whole family saw the ship, and I don't want any more to do with them." Sometime later, both the editor and Hamilton cheerfully acknowledged that they'd made the whole story up. He and several others in the community, including the newspaper editor, were apparently members of the local Liar's Club, who frequently concocted outlandish tales for their own amusement. By the summer of 1897 the airship sightings had ceased and were mostly forgotten. The first full-length hook to address the subject was Daniel Cohen's Tlie Great Airship Mystery, published in 1981. He linked it to fascination with developments in aviation, science fiction tales of marvelous flying machines, and tensions between the United States and Spain over Cuba. Though he admitted that "all of these people could not have been mistaken or lying," he concluded, "there is not a single piece of tangible evidence to support any story." The great airship mystery was likely a collective delusion. But while the vast majority of UFO sightings can be logically explained, tliere remains the nagging suspicion—in the minds of some people, at least—that those few unexplained incidents might have been the real thing. ~t*

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Aerial Oddities The Heinkel He-280 could have heen operational a year hefore Messerschmitt's vaunted Me-262. BY E.R. JOHNSON An Allied artist's impression of the Heinkel He-280, which featured twin jet engines and tricycle landing gear.

was demonstrated before Generaloberst Ernst Udet, chief of the RLM's Technische Ami or technical office. Afterward Udet expressed skepticism about the aeronautical potential of tbe new propulsion system and evinced little interest in its continued development. In spite of official indifference, von Ohain continued to improve upon engine performance, and Heinkel's technical director, Robert Lusser, initiated design studies for a twinengine jet fighter. In fact, the program to de< velop an advanced airframe was commenced , i by Heinkel as a private venture without any i consultation with RLM's Technische Amt. In late 1939, von Ohain began work on the HeS THE HEINKEL HE-280 ENJOYS THE distinction of 8A engine, which was smaller in diameter than the HeS 3A being the first twin-jet airplane and the first jetfighterto while producing 200 pounds greater tbrust During that fiy. But it was not the first jet to see combat. Its failure to same time, Lussers' team forged ahead on the design of enter production in 1941 reveals the German fldcfo/u/i- the fighter, which was designated the He-280. fahrtministerium's (RLM's) official apathy toward jet In addition to its jet engines, the He-280 featured a trifighter development until 1944—too little, too late. cycle undercarriage that would give the aircraft a horiThe He-280's origins can be traced to early 1936, when zontal takeoff axis {thereby avoiding the problems that Hans-joachim von Ohain was hired by Ernst Heinkel A.G. later arose with early Me-262 prototypes) and a cockpit of Rostok-Marienehe to develop a gas turbine engine. The equipped with a compressed-air ejection seat, the first conceptual design for von Ohain's jet engine embodied a such escape system. Plans were also made to introduce a centriftigal compressor that generally resembled the patent pressurized cockpit in later models to complement the filed by British designer Frank Whittle in 1930 but was in plane's expected ability tofiyat stratospheric altitudes. All-metal, stressed-skin construction was used throughfact an independent design. His first demonstration model, the HeS 2A turbojet, was tested in September 1937, pro- out. The fuselage was an oval-section monocoque, and ducing 176 pounds of static thrust, and was shortly fol- the horizontal stabilizer was set above tbe thrust line with lowed by the HeS 2B with 287 pounds. By early 1939, the twin vertical fins and rudders. The wing planform feafirst engine intended for flight, the HeS 3A rated at 992 tured straight leading edges and elliptical trailing edges pounds of static thrust, was carried below a piston-engine that employed conventional ailerons and plain trailing edge fiaps. The two jet engines would be housed in naHe-118V2 experimental dive bomber for initial trials. In 1938 work had started on the He-178Vl, a small celles slung under the wings at 23 percent chord and in(4,400 potinds loaded) monoplane prototype intended to corporated into the main spars. Landing gear operation function as a pure-jet flying test-bed. The newer HeS 3B would be fully hydraulic, with the main legs retracting engine delivering 1,102 pounds of static thrust was in- fiush into the wing inboard of the nacelles. stalled in the completed airframe, and the He-178Vl Construction of the first prototype He"280Vl was commade its first flight on August 27,1939, claiming the dis- plete by September 1940, and work had also begun on two tinction of being the world's first aircraft to be powered additional prototypes. Installation of the turbojet engines solely by a turbojet. On November 1,1939, the He-178VI was postponed, however, in order to evaluate the plane's (which by then had achieved a level airspeed of 435 mph) Continued on page 60 20 AVIATION HISTORV JANUARY 2005

GOD IS

ThefirstAmerican double ace of World War II, Robert L. Scott Jr. can still run the Eneipzer Bunny into the ground. BY DAVID T.ZABECKI

STILL HIS CO-PILOT

Marc Stewart's The Day I Owned the Sky depicts Colonel Robert L. Scott Jr. piloting a Curtiss P-40K Warhawk moments after he targeted two Japanese Kawasaki Ki.48s over China on December 26,1942 (Aviation Art by Marc Stewart).

E Scott as a West Point cadet. Soon after graduation he served as an airmail pilot on the Newark-Cleveland "Hell Stretch."

arly 1942 was a bad time for the United States. The battleships of the Paeific Fleet lay in ruins at the bottoni of Pearl Harbor. German Uboats were rampaging off America's East Coast, often sending merchant shipping to tbe bottom within sight of land. In Britain, fewer than 250 Americans were fighting tbe Germans in the Royal Air Force's Eagle squadrons. Half a world away, an even smaller group of American volunteers was striking back at the Japanese in China. Formed in late 1941 hy retired U.S. Army Air Corps Captain Claire L. Cbennault, the American Volunteer Group (AVG) was the backbone of the Chinese air force. Flying obsolescent Curtiss P-4OCs, hut using Chennault's revolutionary air tactics, tbe "Flying Tigers," as they were popularly known, managed to sboot down 299 Japanese aircraft in slightly less than seven months ofoperations. During that same period, only six of the Tigers were killed in air-to-air comhat with the enemy. Despite its brilliant operational record, the AVG passed out of existence on July 4, 1942, when the contracts of the pilots and ground crews expired. Almost all bad left the U.S. military to join tbe AVG, and all were offered the opportunity to rejoin and continue flying against the Japanese. ChennauJt himself was recalled to active duty as a colonel and put in command of the China Air Task Force (CATF), a subordinate command of the U.S. Tenth Air Force, headquartered in India. The

CATF would later evolve into tbe Fourteenth Air Force, and Chennault would finish the war as a major general. The immediate problem was that only a small handful of tbe Tigers agreed to rejoin tbe American military and stay in Cbina—although many of those who returned to the United States eventually rejoined and flew again in other theaters. Another problem was that both the American and Chinese governments insisted a regular U.S. Army Air Forces officer should be placed in command of the remaining AVG pilots, who would form the nucleus of the CATF's 23rd Fighter Group. Fortunately, such an officer who had been in China for several months had accumulated some experience in the air against the Japanese. That was Colonel Robert L Scott Jr., a man with an almost supernatural affinity for tbe air. Scottwas born inWaynesboro,Ga., on April 12,1908. Growing up in nearby Macon, he developed a fascination for fiying early in life. When he was 4 years old, his mother took him to see a barnstorming pilot at the local fairgrounds. After the pilot, F.ugene B. Ely, crashed, young Scott dragged his mother to the crash site so he could see the dead pilot's body Despite that grisly scene, be decided then and there that flying was all he ever wanted to do. At age 12 Scott was almost killed in the process of working on bis Boy Scout aviation merit badge. To earn the award, he was required to build a model of a glider that would fly 75 feet. Scott decided he would build it life-size. He constructed his contraption from 2-by-4s and 50 feet of canvas he "borrowed" from a revival meeting tent. He and his friends tried to get the glider into the air by towing it behind a car, but tbe local police took a dim view of that activity. Scott then convinced a neighbor who owned a large house to let him fly it from her roof. The thing actually worked—for a few feet. Then the main spar snapped right at the point where there was a knot in one 2-by-4. Scott plummeted 60 feet to the ground and landed in a rose bush. He walked away covered with scratches and bruises, hut no broken bones. The following year Scott bougbt a war surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny at an auction for $75 and learned to fly it witb the help of a local streetcar conductor who had been a pilot in World War I. In exchange for the fiying lessons, Scott had to let his instructor use the aircraft on weekends for barnstorming. That partnership came to an end when the conductor crashed in the JN-4 and died. A good athlete, Scott became an Eagle Scout. Academics, however, were not high on his list of priorities. Eventually he realized that the only way he would ever get to be a fighter pilot would be to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He made several unsuccessful attempts to gain admission, working his way back and forth to Europe as a deckhand on a freighter in the meantime. He finally realized that he had to go back to bigb school to take more courses in his weak areas, particularly math, He also joined the National Guard as a means of enlisting in the Regular Army and getting into the West Point preparatory school. Scott finally entered West Point in 1928. He did well his first year because the prep school's course of instruction almost duplicated the Military Academy's plebeyear. But the next three years were a running struggle just to hang on, while bis academic standing continued to slip lower and lower. When be finally graduated in 1932, he stood

24 AVIATION HISTORV JANUARY 2005

* . -E

sixth from the bottom in his class. But he received his commission and was selected for pilot training. Scott reported to Randolph Field, Texas, that fall, but not before spending his fin^ summer break making a 15,000-mile solo motorcycle ride across Europe, ending on Turkey's eastern border with what was then the Soviet Union.

S

ince Scott already knew how to fly, pilot training was relatively easy for him, but he spent most of his weekends driving 1,300 miles one way at breakneck speeds to see his girlfriend back in Georgia. He wore out two cars before he graduated from flight school, and he finally convinced Katherine Rix Green to marry him. Scott's first operational assignment was to the 99th Aero Squadron at Mitchell Field in New York, during the period when airmail was in its infancy. After a series of major accidents with commercial carriers, the Army Air Corps temporarily took over carrying the airmail. Scott wound up fiying what was known as the "Hell Stretch," from Newark, N.J., to Cleveland, Ohio. Bad winter weather over the Alleghenies and the primitive and unreliable navigation systems of the day made the route especially hazardous for the pilots flying open-cockpit Boeing P- 12s. Scott, however, flew every chance he could get, because it gave him more flight time and valuable ex-

perience in navigation. He was, however, forced to make an emergency landing in bad weather at least once. His next assignment was a three-year tour in Panama, where he commanded a pursuit squadron and supervised the construction of air bases. Upon his return to the United States, he was reassigned to Randolph Field as a flight instructor. By the time his country entered World War II on December 7,1941, Scott was a pilottraining division chief at the West Coast Training Center in California. During his four years as an instructor, he taught some of the most notable pilots of World War 11 tofly,including Colin Kelly and several of the pilots who would later fly witb the AVG. Scott immediately volunteered for a combat assignment. When the military personnel system was slow to respond, he started writing to generals and congressmen. All of his requests were denied, however, because at age 34 he was considered too old for combat. Then one night in March 1942 Scott received a telephone call from Colonel Merian C. Cooper, a Hollywood producer who had served as a U.S. Army pilot during World War I and then had flown as a volunteer in the Polish air force's all-American Kosciuszko Squadron in Poland's 1920 war against the Soviet Union. Recalled to active duty. Cooper was working for Army Air Forces intelligence. {Cooper's and Scott's paths would cross again

"

^

Assigned to the Assam-BurmaChina Ferry Command in the spring of 1942, Scott befriended Brig. Gen. Claire L Chennault of the China Air Task Force. Here, Lt. Col. Herbert Morgan, Chennault, Scott and Colonel William E. Basye confer before a CATF raid.

JANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORY 25

Promoted to command the 23rd Fighter Group, Fourteenth Air Force, Scott flew this P-40K, which he dubbed Old Exterminator.

months later, when Cooper became Chennault's CATF chief of staff.] When Cooper asked Scott how many flying hours he had in Boeing B-17 bombers, Scott almost responded that he had the wrong man, but then he realized his only chance to get into the war might hang on the answer. Scott replied, "Over a thousand hours." The real answer was zero, Scott had never even been inside a B-17. Nonetheless, he was selected for Operation Aquila, which was supposed to be the second phase of the bombing attack on mainland Japan, following right behind Lt, Col. Jimmy Doolittle's North American B-25 strike from the deck of the carrier USS Hornet. The plan called for 12 B-17Es and one Consolidated B-24D to fly from South America to Africa, India, the Philippines and then on to Japan. The Aquila force was led by Pilots of the 23rd frequently escorted Fourteenth Air Force bombers— such as this formation of Consolidated B-240 Liberators— on missions into occupied China.

ts^^

26 AVIATION HISTORY JANUARY 2005

Colonel Caleb V Haynes, who later became Chennault's CATF bomber commander. Ironically, Chennault's three principal CATF subordinates—chief of staff and fighter and bomber commanders—were all linked to die abortive Operation Aquila. Scott continued with his grand bluff, and with the help of his crew and Haynes he managed to learn to pilot the B-17 while flying across the Atlantic. By the time the force reached Karachi, Jndia, however, the Philippines had fallen, and Operation Aquila was scrubbed. They were stranded, but as a newly qualified multiengine pilot, Scott was pressed into service as the deputy chiefofoperations for the Assam-Burma-China Ferry Command. That organization's mission was to fly supplies over "the Hump," the Himalaya Mountains, Among their customers in China was Chennault's AVG. Scott had a number of memorable experiences in his short period with the ABC Ferry Command. In May 1942, while making a routine test flight in a single-seat Republic P-43A fighter, he became only the second pilot in history to fly over the top of Mount Everest. That feat got him into instant trouble with the British government, ostensibly because Scott had violated the religion of Nepal by crossing a sacred peak. (Nepal was the source of critically needed Gurhka soldiers for the British army.) More likely the real reason was tbe fact that a Calcutta newspaper made a big deal out of the fact that the British had required several months of planning and expensive preparations to make the first overflight of Everest in 1927. Scott accomplished his flight—planning, preparation atid all—in about five hours. That same month Scott was flying as Haynes' co-pilot

in a Douglas C-47 on a run from India to China. When they were on the ground in China, they received an immediate order to divert to Shweho, Burma. The Japanese were in the process of overrunning Burma, all Allied forces were withdrawing, and Scott and Haynes were supposed to evacuate Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell and his staff. After making the flight through Japanese-controlled airspace in the unarmed cargo plane, they finally landed at Shweho. They picked up most of StiJwell's staff, but "Vinegar Joe" himself refused to fly out. Thus started StilweJl's famous march out of Burma. For the next several weeks, Scott and other C-47 pilots tracked the column from the air and dropped supplies. On his various flights over the Hump into China, Scott managed to befriend Chennault and some of the AVG pilots by ensuring that his supply runs carried the ammunition, fuel and spare parts they needed to keep their dwindling fleet of P-40s in the air. Scott pursuaded Chennauit to loan him a P-40E to provide some limited escort cover to the unarmed C-47s and Curtiss C-46s bringing in the critical supplies. By painting the P-40's propeller spin ner a different color every time he went up, Scott hoped to deceive the Japanese into believing thai the Americans had an entire extra squadron patrolling the Hump route. Writingin t//e magazine, correspondent Theodore Wliite dubhed Scott "a one-man air force." Eventually, Chennault allowed Scott to fly unofficial missions with the AVG pilots to learn their tactics firsthand. When the end came for the AVG, Scott was selected to command the newly formed 23rd Fighter Group—a selection endorsed by General Stilwell and Generalissimo (Chiang Kai-shek. In addition to the small handful of AVG

As the Army Air Forces'first double ace, Scott became a national hero, inspiring comic book stories as well as a feature-length film.

members who rejoined the American military in China, at least six other AVG airmen remained for two weeks beyond the end of their contracts to help train the new influx of U.S. Army Air Force pilots. During Scott's brief

FROM ONE EAGLE TO ANOTHER I read ever\- book that Robert L. Scott wrote when J was a kid in high school in the early 1960s. Along tJie way I also read everything ever wTitten about Major General Claire L. Chennault, the "Flying Tigers" and its successor organization, the Fourteenth Air Force. My interest in the air war in China undoubtedly stemmed from the fact that my father, Tech. Sgt. lulian T. Zabecki, served in the Fourteenth Air Force. An aircraft eiectriral systems mechanic in the 396th Service Squadron, 12th Ser\ace Group, he had known niiiny of the great combat pilots of the ChinaBurma-India Theater. The stories 1 heard while growing up, and later read in Scott's books, inspired me to want to become a fighter pilot too. Somewhere along the way I got diverted, and I wound up spending more than 38 years in the U.S. Army. I ast forward tf) 1989, when my son Konrad became an l:agle Scout. Whenever a boy achieves Eagle, his parents are provided a list of all sorts of people who are always happy to provide the young man a letter of congratulations upon request. Among the various requests for a letter that I sent out

was one to General Scott. The letter that came back was dated November 15, 1989: Dear Konrad, Congratulations upon achieving the rank

of Eagle Scout. There could be no better honor to guarantee you a life of great service to our country. 1 note that your grandfather, T/Sgt. Julian T. Zabecki, served in the Fourteenth Air Force in China, alJ of which causes me to feel especially close to you hecause I commanded the 23rd Fighter Group in WWII, which of course formed the nucleus of that air force. Keep up the good work Konrad—you can have anything in this world if you want it bad enough and will ir,' hard enough. Sincerely, Robert L. Scott, Jr. B/Gen., USAF (ret.) With the letter General Scott sent an autographed photo. On the back was written, "luly 25,1988, when I flew the F-15 at Dobbins AFB, Georgia." The snapshot itself showed the then 80-year-old Scott in an Air Force flight suit, complete with his general's stars and command pilot wings, standing in front of an F-15 with an open canopy. On the front Scott wrote, "To Brother Eagle Scout Konrad Zabecki," and he signed it "Bob Scott." D.TX lANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORV 27

six months in command of the 23rd, that unit included some of the greatest American comhat pilots of World War II—Bruce K. HoUoway, John C. Herhst, John R. Alison, Albert J. Baumler and former AVG aces David I.. "Tex" Hill, Charles H. Older and Edward F. Rector. Several of these same fliers later hecame general officers, and HoUoway, Hill and Rector all followed Scott as commanders of the 23rd Fighter Group. ByThanksgiving 1942, Scottwasthefirst official U.S. Army Air Forces douhle ace of World War II. He had dubbed his P-40K Old FMerminator. When he was ordered back to the United States to make war hond speeches, hv had 13 confirmed and six probable air-toWith a total of 388 combat missions to his credit during WWII, Scott received two Silver Stars, three Distinguished Flying Crosses and three Air Medals.

tions at the School of Applied Tactics at Orlando, Fla. In 1944 Scott managed to return to China as a liaison officer from Army Air Forces Headquarters, with strict orders not to fly combat missions. Ignoring those orders, he flew North American P-51s armed with what were then experimental aircraft rockets against Japanese rail traffic in eastern China. Just before the war ended, he went to Okinawa to direct the same type of strikes against |apanese shipping. For his service in World War II, Scott received two Silver Stars, three Distinguished Flying Crosses and three Ai r Medals. He had fiown 388 combat missions. After the war Scott served briefly as the deputy national director of the Civil Air Patrol. From 1947 to 1949, he commanded America's first jet fighter school at Williams Air Force Base, in Arizona. In late 1949 he assumed command of the 36th Fighter Bomber Wing at Flirstenfeldbruck, Germany From there he attended the National War College in Washington, D.C., ajid finally was promoted to brigadier general. He had been a colonel for 12 years. Scott's first assignment as a general officer was to the Pentagon as theAir Force's director of information. With his long-established reputation for "telling it like it is," one can only wonder what officer in personnel thought that Scott would be a good fit in the highly choreographed world of public affairs. It seemed like he was always putting his foot in his mouth in that job, such as the time he said that the launching of Sputnik proved the Soviets were way ahead of America in the space race. That may have been a simple statement of fact, but in 1956 It was the last thing the Pentagon wanted to see in print.

S air kills. During one of those speeches in Buffalo, N.Y., Scott met publisher Charles Scribner, who persuaded him to write a book about his experiences. But the flier was on a tight schedule. Asking to borrow a Dictaphone, Scott locked himself in a room at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, and in three days he dictated the text of God Is My Co-pilot. The book became an instant bestseller, remaining in print for almost 50 years. In California Scott met Jack Warner of Warner Brothers, who decided to buy the screen rights to God Is My Co-pilot before Scribner's had even completed editing the manuscript. The resulting film, starring Dennis Morgan as Scott and Ra>Tnond Massey as Chennault, was more of a wartime home front morale booster than an accurate portrayal of Scott's experiences. Among other things, it had him being shot down, which never actually happened. Both the book and the movie made Robert L. Scott a household name in the United States, but they also generated a great deal of resentment and jealousy within the military that would dog him for the remainder of his career. After the war bond tour Scott became deputy for opera28 AVIATION HISTORY lANUAKY 2005

cott's last assignment was as commander of Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. He retired in October 1957. But "retirement" is hardly an accurate term to describe Scott's life after theAir Force. During the Vietnam War he was an outspoken critic of Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara. In 1980, at age 72, Scott returned to China and walked the entire 1,900-mile length of the Great Wall. In addition to God Is My Co-pilot, Scott wrote eight other books, including a biography of Chennault. Since 1984, Scott has heen a director of the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, Ga. For many years after his retirement from active duty Scott continued to stay current in the Air Force's top-ofthe-line fighters. As long as he could pass the standard military flight physical, the Air Force allowed him to take a fighter up every year on his birthday Retired Brig. Gen. Robert L. Scott last fiew an F-15 in 1995, at age 87. The following year he ran with the Olympic torch for the summer games in Atlanta. He still goes to his office at the museum every day "t" Major General David T. Zabecki. U.S. Army Reserve, is the author of WorldVJai II in Europe and other books, as loell as the editor o/Vietnam Magazine. For additional reading, he recommends Robert L Scott's God Is My Co-pilot andThe Day 1 Owned the Sky. For more on Robert Scott, go to TbeHistory Net.com at www.thehistorynet.com/ahi and see "Robert Scott—God Was His Co-pilot," by Jamie H. Cockfield, which will be appearing beginning the week of December 3,2004.

BYRD

at Baker's Point

During World War I, future polar explorer Richard Byrd gained a wealth of experience while searching the Atlantic for German submarines. BY JOHN BOILB\U

30 AVIATION HISTORY (ANUARY 2005

T

w o CURTISS HS-2L flying boats roared across the Atlantic in September 1918, heading skyward and seaward in response to a reported sighting of a German submarine some 30 miles southeast of the entrance to tlie harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Behind them, serving in the role of airplane guard, a torpedo boat brought up the rear. In the lead aircraft, the two pilots and an aviation mechanic—the latter seated well forward and pressed into service as an observer— anxiously scanned the water's surface. The land rapidly disappeared heliind them, but mean while something else had also disappeared—the other aircraft. The Curtiss crew circled back, eventually spotting the other plane on the surface of the ocean. They then went in search of the torpedo boat and directed it to the downed plane. Finally, they turned back to the matter at hand: finding the sub. Suddenly, there it was—what looked to he a periscope jutting out of the water. Elated at finally seeing some action, the pilot banked his craft and swooped in low for the kill. The crewmen tensed, adrenaline pumping. Just as they were about to release one of their two bombs, the "periscope" came into clear view. It turned out to be a floating spar. Opposite: U.S. Navy personnel at Baker's Point, Halifax, Nova Scotia, prepare to Disappointed, Acting U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard launch a Curtiss HS-2L flying boat. In August 1918, Acting Lt. Cmdr. Richard Evelyn "Dickie" Byrd Jr. turned his plane and headed Evelyn Byrd Jr.—shown above with his constant companion Violet—set up a back to the hase at Halifax. His first mission as officer in "hustling camp" on Halifax Harbor and started patrolling the coastline for charge, U.S. Naval Air Force in Canada, had just come marauding German submarines. to an anticlimactic end. Byrd is of course best rememhered for his May 1926 flight to the North Pole with Floyd Bennett. But liis earlier appear- if necessary. And it did. ance as an aviator in the North Atlantic—and the inventions that By 1917, the German high command considered it essential to came out of that experience—are less well known. start another U-boat campaign. Germany's underu'ater fleet had The story of how Byrd came to be in Canada during World War I has continued to expand since 1915, and leaders felt they could now its roots in a new type of warfare introduced by Germany during that force Britain to surrender through a renewed onslaught. If that was conflict—the large-scale use of submarines (Unterseeboote, or U- to happen, they reasoned, its allies would certainly follow suit. For boats) as commerce raiders. Germany's antishipping campaign even- the campaign to be successful, however, the U-boats had to be used tually brought the United States into the war and B>Td to Nova Scotia. ruthlessly—against belligerent and neutral vessels, warships, merThe U-boat war began in earnest on February 1,1915, after the chantmen and liners. Battle of Dogger Bank in the North Sea the previous month. There, an Sucb activity would undoubtedly bring the United States into the outnumbered German battle cruiser force suffered severe damage to war. but that was a gamble the Germans were prepared to take at itsflagship,Seydlitz, as well as the loss of the arinored cruiser Bliicher. that point. On February 1,1917, Germany proclaimed unrestricted sunk by 70 shell hits and seven torpedo hits, viith 782 of its crew. submarine warfare against all ships found in British waters or bound In reaction to that disaster, KaiserWilhelm II ordered his navy to for Britain. Following the sinking of a number of American ships. avoid all further risks of losing any more capital ships. The result President Woodrow Wilson and the U.S. Congress declared war on was a U-boat campaign against merchant vessels, including neu- Germany on April 6. trals, with the aim of starving Great Britain into submission. Germany now had a limited time to achieve success before The move met with considerable success at first, as few effective American forces could weigh in on the battlefields of Europe. Its antisubmarine weapons had yet been developed. But the political naval planners reckoned it would take two years before American cost was great. The sinking of British passenger liners—^in particu- intervention would be fully felt, and they expected the British to lar Lusitania, with the loss of 128 Americans—resulted in sucb out- capitulate v^dthin six months. rage in the United States that Germany discontinued unrestricted Allied shipping losses mounted rapidly, even though the British submarine warfare on September 1, 1915. In the eight months of instituted a number of defensive measures—most notably the the offensive, however, U-boats sank nearly 1 million tons of Allied convoy system, as well as improvements in antisubmarine warfare shipping. Here was a method Germany might decide to use again such as hydrophones, depth charges, extended minefields and |ANUAI!Y 2005 AVIATION HISTORV 31

World War I's U-boat war began in earnest after British battle cruisers sank the German armored cruiser Bliicher (above) off Dogger Bank on January 24,1915, with the loss of 782 crewmen. Determined to protect Germany's capital ships, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered submarines such as this UB-class boat (below) to strike merchant vessels, aiming to starve Britain into submission.

32 AVIATION HISTORY lANUARY 2005

It was at this point that Byrd entered the picture. After graduation searchlights. During that same period another new weapon, the airfrom the Virginia Military Institute, Byrd entered the U.S. Naval plane, made its debut against the submarine. Glenn Curtiss, the father of naval aviation, developed the world's Academy Class of 1912. Its members were the first to graduate as enfirst practical floatplane in 1911, and the next year he built the first signs rather than after two years of service at sea. flying boat. Curtiss went on to design America, a large twin-engine Injuries and illness plagued Byrd while he was at Annapolis and flying boat, the forerunner of H-12, H-16 and HS-1 boats that oper- continued after graduation. In particular, injuries to his right leg at ated from shore bases for the protection of shipping during the war, the Academy and aboard the battleship Wyoming, flagship of the Generally, however, the idea of naval aviation was slow to catch Atlantic Fleet, left him with a limp that raised questions about his on. It was not until 1916 that the British and French intensified their fitness for duty at sea. aerial patrols against Germany's underwater fleet. During his second year of active duty Byrd had a new experience. The U.S. Navy had only a dozen aircraft for training in 1914, but its his first airplane flight. A few minutes in a Curtiss flying boat as it pilots, air bases and training establishments all increased in number skimmed the surface of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were enough to convince him he wanted to be a pilot. But as the country's entry into the war approached. before he could pursue his new dream, he reNevertheless, America's declaration of war tired from the Navy. found it short of aircraft. Manufacturers in both Europe and the United States were unable to Byrd's game leg had affected his career; after meet the demand, and the first U.S. Navy and four years he was still an ensign while his AnMarine pilots arrived in Europe without airnapolis classmates were promoted to lieuByrd was anxious craft. tenant junior grade. Disgruntled, he retired to get into the from active duty, On the day before his retireBefore the perfection of the aircraft carrier, ment in March 1916, he received his promotion the flying boat was the best way to conduct war, but his injured to lieutenant, and five days later was appointed maritime reconnaissance patrols against Uto a position v^ath the Rhode Island State Miliboats. The Marines stationed a squadron of leg counted tia. This was followed by assignment to the various types of Curtiss seaplanes on the Azores against him. Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, as a in January 1918, where the potential existed to retired officer on active duty. Dissatisfied with control a substantial part of the mid-Atlantic. deskwork, Byrd managed to obtain an apShortly afterward, the British Admiralty said pointment as a naval aviation cadet. Off he enemy submarines were expected off the Canawent in the fall of 1917 to Florida's Pensacola dian coast in the near future and recommended Naval Air Station to learn to fly, that aircraft be employed by tbe Canadian government as an antisubmarine measure. There was only one probByrd received his pilot's wings on April 7 the next year and relem with that: The Canadian government did not own any military mained at Pensacola on staff. He was anxious to get to Europe and aircraft, and Britain had no spare aircraft to lend it. into the war, but his injured leg counted against him. Beside, he was Founded in 1910, the Royal Canadian Navj''s main efforts were di- very valuable right where he was, rected to ship procurement. The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Byrd studied the newfieldof aviation thoroughly, and within a short had not yet been created, although many Canadians served with time he had become an expert in flight safety, administration of air Britain's Royal Naval Air Service and RoyaJ Flying Corps, including services and the conduct of flight programs. He became convinced four of the top 10 Allied aces. in 1917 that the next major step would be the crossing of the Atlantic To sort out the issue of maritime air patrols over Canadian coastal Ocean, and he dreamed of becoming the first man to do so. His vision waters, a meetingwas held inWashington.D.C, on April 20, 1918, coincided with the start of construction of the Navy-Curtiss NC-l in attended by representatives of the U.S. Navy, Royal Canadian Navy January 1918, a giantfiyingboat with a wingspan of 126 feet, and powand Royal Na\7. The participants drew up a comprehensive plan to ered initially by three 400-hp Liberty engines (later upgraded to four establish air stations at Halifax, Sydney and Cape Sable in Nova engines). The press referred to the huge new aircraft as "Nancies." Byrd suggested the way to deliver this plane to the war in Europe Scotia, and Cape Race in Newfoundland, which was not then a part of Canada. Their concerns were real; in April 1917, the most suc- was to fly it to England via the Azores, and he initially sought civilcessful month for the Germans, more than a half million tons of ian assistance while he made preparations. In addition to studying Atlantic weather patterns and fuel consumption rates, he installed Allied shipping were sunk by U-boats. Halifax and Sydney, major seaports for convoys, were to receive compasses on planes and began to make fiights out of sight of land, the top priority—each station was to have six seaplanes, three air- an unheard-of innovation. In early July, he requested permission ships and four kite-balloons. The Canadian government approved from Washington, this time through official channels, to make a the establishment of the two air stations in May. Estimated costs for transatlantic flight in NC-l. the first year were $2,189,600, which included 12 seaplanes at $15,000 Byrd's requests were considered at some length in Washington: each, eight balloons at $32,000 each and six airships at $50,000 each. Admirals did not yet place much faith in flying boats or any other Base locations were chosen at Baker's Point in Eastern Passage on type of aircraft, nor were they prepared to be rushed into things by the Dartmouth side of Halifax Harbor and at Kelly Beacb in North pressure from outside the department. But they felt that the young Sydney on Cape Breton Island. Throughout the spring and summer, lieutenant's ideas did have some merit. surveys were undertaken and plans dravwn up for the new facilities. Two weeks later, Byrd received orders to report to Washington. The Americans agreed to supply the equipment and loan the per- He was overjoyed—confident the Navy Department had approved sonnel to man it until such time as Canadians, who were to be trained his plans for the transatlantic fiight, firm in the belief he would be in the United States, were ready for their new dnties. The Americans on his way across in NC-l by October 1 at the very latest. When he would also let their personnel live in tents if permanent accommo- got to the nation's capital he received what he called "the greatest disdations were ready by mid-October. To tie in witb the air patrols, the appointment of my life." Initially, he had great difficulty finding out U.S. Navy would lend six submarine chasers, two torpedo boats and Just what he was supposed to do. No one would make a firm commitment whether NC-I was or was not tofiyto Europe, and whether a submarine. lANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORY 33

German submariners look on as a British fishing steamer goes down, in a watercolor by Ciaus Bergen, in the course of the first German offensive, U-boats sank nearly 1 million tons of Allied shipping.

or not Byrd was to be on board. Then, two weeks later, Byrd received from the chief of naval operations convinced him that the departadditional orders that surprised him: He was to report for duty to ment actually did intend to bridge the ocean. They directed him to Halifax, Nova Scotia, as commanding officer of a U.S. Navy air sta- investigate, with Newfoundland authorities, the possibility of the establishment of a seaplane refueling station somewhere on the east tion that did not yet exist. He would have to establish it. The orders went on to say that Byrd was "in direct command of coast of the colony. the U.S. Air Forces in Canada" and "responsible to the Senior British Byrd later recalled, "It was evident now that the Navy Department Naval Officer.. .at HMS Dockyard, Halifax, N.S., for prompt response was at last underway with final preparations for the great flight." to all demands made upon your forces for coBut he continued to worry over the lateness of operation in carrying out the General Mission the season and the growing unsettledness of of the Allied Naval Force in Canada." He was the weather. also advised that his "situation as a United In early August 1918, Byrd anived at Halifax States Naval Officer commanding air forces in along with the first men of his detachment and A bare plot of ground several train carloads of equipment. After they another country, though the relations with this country be intimate and though the United was transformed into discovered the site chosen for them by the States and this country be striving toward the Canadians was almost seven miles across tbe defeat of a common enemy," required the "exa 'hustling camp' with barbor, and that there were no trucks to haul ercise of the utmost tact in every situation them around the coastline, the officers and a temporary steel which arises." men opted to float the wingless bodies of the HS-2L seaplanes across the water and roll them At first Byrd did not know what to make of seaplane hangar. onto the heach with poles, the orders. Was he being sidelined, or was this Tbe HS-2L was a two-seat general reconnaisa golden opportunity? He asked an old friend sance and patrol aircraft powered by a 360-hp in the Nav>' Department what it all meant, His Packard Liberty liquid-cooled V-12 piston engine. colleague told him he was being given "an exIt had a range of 517 miles at a maximum speed cellent assigrmient and one full of possibilities." With German subs raising hell in the northwestern Atlantic, he of 85 miles per hour and a service ceiling of 9,200 feet. would be responsible for keeping them clear of the coast and esShortly, a bare plot of ground was transformed into what was decorting Europe-bound convoys out of Halifax and Sydney. His friend scribed as a "bustling camp" with a temporary steel seaplane hangar, then went on to state confidentially that when these duties were known as" Y" hangar, built close to the water. On August 19, the hoistover, Byrd could "turn the station over to the Canadians" and take ing of the Stars and Stripes signaled the assignment of B>Td as offihis men to France. cer in charge, U.S. Naval Air Force in Canada, with the rank of acting Byrd was somewhat relieved, but he was still concerned that tbe lieutenant commander. He was also to act as liaison officer between war would end before be could get overseas. A further set of orders the U.S. and Canadian governments in naval aviation matters. 34 AVIATION H I S T O R Y JANUARY 21)05

Four Curtiss HS-2L fiying boats were assembled, and on August 25 two of them made their initial flights over the citizens of Halifax. A letter sent from the garrison's senior military staff officer to the naval authorities the next day indicates just how surprised the public was by the initial fiights: Considerable excitement has been reported to me arising out of the unexpected appearance of the air ser\'ice machines yesterday. No information has reached us regarding the addition of this service to the garrison. This I would be glad to get as the fortress is equipped with anti-aircraft defenses. Enquiries from the civil population make it apparent that some notification is expected by the public. As additional officers and men arrived, a similar station was started at North Sydney under the direction of a Lieutenant Donahue of the U.S. Coast Guard. Soon a friendly spirit of rivalry- sprang up between the two camps, each vying to be tbe superior station with the best planes and pilots. Byrd worked out a patrol plan for the two stations with Canadian

and British naval authorities on August 26. Europe-bound fast convoys would be met off the harbor mouth and escorted 65 miles to sea, while Halifax-hound ones would be escorted from 80 miles out. Slower convoys, traveling under 8 knots, would have air cover for 50 miles outbound and 60 miles inbound. Patrols from Baker's Point started immediately, but construction delays postponed the North Sydney ones until the tbird week of September. Once patrols begaji, the two stations built up an impressive log of fiying hours in convoy protection, spotting for harbor defense guns and coastal surveillance for U-boats. With four planes initially available at each site, Byrd developed a policy that two were to be used for convoy escorts, one for emergency antisubmarine operations and one in reserve. Each plant could remain airborne for four hours, cruising at 60 knots. One morning Byrd received a surprise addition to his personnel complement when one of his men appeared at his tent with a huge Great Dane, which Byrd wrote was "the largest dog of any sort I have ever seen." The man explained the dog had followed him and be thought that Byrd might like to have him. B\Td felt sure that such a magnificent beast must have an owner.

A1920 aerial view of Baker's Point provides a vivid contrast to the ftrturisticlooking Admiral Richard E. Byrd Building, dedicated at the same location in 1995.

Byrd Re

Baker's Point

AFTER NO I MADE ITS INAUGU RAL flight in October 1918, orders were given to build three more "Nancies." Those orders changed tbanks to the end of World War I. But it was only a temporary setback. Interest in a transatlantic flight was soon revived with support from Assistant Nav>' Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt. Approval for the project finally came in lanuary 1919 from Navy Secretary josepbus Daniels. ByTd's hopes that he could participate in that flight were dashed when he read: "No officer or man who has had foreign dut>' will be permitted to be a member of the TransAtlantic Flight Expedition. This includes those who have been on Canadian detail." He understood the decision but was severely disappointed. He managed to wangle a position on the project's navigation team, where he contributed two important instruments—an air

drift indicator and an aerial sextant. He also accompanied the planes as far as Newfoundland to test his inventions. On May 8, 1919, NC-I. NC-3 and NC'4 (A/C-2had been cannibalized for spares) departed tbe Naval Air Station at Rockaway Beach on New York's Long Island. NC-1 and NC-3 safely reached tlie expedition's first stop at Halifax, while NC-4 ditched off Massachusetts due to engine trouble. NC-1 and NCS also had difficulties—the strain of the flight cracked four of their propellers. Byrd, who UewNCS, recalled baving extra propellers at Baker's Point, and set off in search of them, finding six. With tbe damaged propellers replaced, Byrd completed tbe next leg of the flight to Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, where he left the expedifion. All three Nancies reached the Azores, where NC-l sank and /VC-3 was damaged after ditching in rough seas. That left

only NC-4, which flew on to Plymouth, England, via Portugal and Spain, landing to a tumultuous welcome on May 31. For tbe first time the Atlantic had been bridged by air. Byrd stilt has a presence at Baker's Point to this day On April 10,1995, Admiral Byrd's daughter, Mrs. Boiling Byrd Clarke, visited Wing Shearwater, as the base is known today, for a special ceremotiy For the first and only time in Canada, an armed forces building was about to be named after a non-Canadian. Mrs. Clarke opened tbe Admiral Richard E. Byrd Building as the new base headquarters, dedicated to the memory of her father, 77 years after Byrd founded his seaplane station there. Of the futuristic-looking building, his daughter said, "It's a most stunning and attractive building, and I know that if my father knew of this honor he would say, 'Well, I don't really deserve this...but I'm human enough to like it just the same.'" J.B.

lANUARY 2005 AVIATION H I 5 T O R V

was convinced that he was in every way prepared to fly the Atlantic. Then came November 11,1918, when the armistice was announced, and there was no longer a need for NC-l in Europe. Byrd was ordered to turn the stations over to the Canadians and return to Washington. He was happy the bloodshed was finally over, but he felt bitter disappointment that he had failed to achieve his personal goal of bridging the Atlantic by airplane. In spite of his frustration, B>Td had enjoyed his relations with the Canadians. He had been warned beforehand that he might encounter anti-American feeling from Halifax's citizens, who annually celebrated the burning of Washington by the British during the War of 1812. But to his delight, he encountered no animosity. "Never could any people in the world When Byrd and his men departed Nova Scotia after Armistice Day, they left behind their be more tolerant, helpful, cordial and aircraft, equipment and hangar for the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service. hospitable than were our Canadian neighbors of 1918," he wrote. "It was His advertisement in the Halifax papers was answered two days later there I learned the great truth that knowledge makes for underwhen the dog's master appeared. But by that time the animal, some- standing and tolerance." The Canadians were equally impressed. At the end of Byrd's miswhat inappropriately named Violet by the men, had attached himself to Byrd—who was very pleased when the airmen chipped in sion, the director of the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service (RCNAS) wrote to his opposite number in Washington that "Lieutenant Comand convinced the owner to sell the dog to him. Violet soon became the station's mascot, joining in nearly every mander Byrd has been a particularly outstanding case and has shown aspect of camp life. For example, when the great flu epidemic himself to be full of energy and resource and, at this same time, most began sweeping the world, B^Td took certain precautions to protect tactful in his dealings with the naval authorities at Halifax." his men. Once a day those not on flying duty lined up in front of the When Byrd and his men departed Nova Scotia over the next few medical tent to gargle with disinfectant, for example. Violet regu- months, they left aircraft, equipment and the temporary' hangar to larly got into line and gargled along with his two-legged pals. be taken over by the RCNAS, a force only established on September During the period from May to October, five German subs oper- 5. Unfortunately this group was very short-lived. With the end of ated in the area between Newfoundland and Cape Hatteras, three the war and the process of demobilization, the RCNAS was disof them simultaneously from August to October. Between them, banded after only three months of existence, and the air base B)Td they managed to sink 110,000 tons of Allied shipping before they had established at Baker's Point lay dormant. Sadly, Violet had to be were recalled. In spite of reports of their sightings, none was ever left behind as well; she presumably returned to ber former ovmer after the Americans departed. seen by any of Byrd's aircraft. In May 1919, two of the flying boats were loaned to the St. MauAlthough no German U-boats were sighted, the pilots got plenty of practice in flying in marginal weather. According to Byrd: "The rice River Valley Fire Protection Association in Quebec, where they highlands and cliffs of Nova Scotia made the air rough and die fog were employed on patrols. Tbe local Indians called tbem Kitchi Chghee, or "higDuck." kept it thick. Changes were sudden and violent." He also recalled how he went up one morning in bright sunshine, In 1920 Byrd's abandoned seaplane base became the first east flying out about 20 miles to sea liefore he noticed a black cloud in coast station of the Canadian Air Force (CAF), formed in February the distance: "Before I could get back to the station I was fighting a of that year. Using tbe HS-2L fiying boats left behind, tbe CAF conhalf gale that whipped the bay into a running sea. Just before I ducted photographic flights, as well as work for fisheries and forest landed, a wall of fog swept over the lower arm of the harbor. I slipped fire patrols for government departments. down not two minutes too soon." The CAF became the RCAF in 1924, and the flying boats conBy the end of the war, both stations operated their full establish- tinued their earlier tasks. To these were added new ones such as ment of six flying boats as well as two of the proposed eight bai- transporting officials to inaccessible areas, assisting against smugloons, the latter operated from a Royal Canadian Navy patrol vessel glers and illegal immigrants and flying traders, trappers, farmers fitted with special winches for the purpose. Due to equipment short- and Indians from remote outposts to medical facilities. ages, no airships were ever used. Baker's Point today forms the tower part of the air base at 12 Wing As the war slowly ground to an end, B>Td remained ever hopeful Sbearwater, the center of naval aviation in Canada. After all these die next dispatch from Washington wotild hring news that NC-1 was years, Byrd's "temporaiy" hangar, now a historic site, is still in use ready to start its transatlantic journey. Wbile he waited, he carried by a naval diving unit, "tout additional experiments at sea, using a sextant from an airplane to take the altitude of the sun and the stars, and achieved limited John Boileau retired as a colonel from the Canadian anny after 37 success. years. He is the author ofarticles in a variety of American. British and He spent hours plotting the course on charts, studying weights Canadian pubiicatiom. For additional reading, he recommends: and calculating food, fuel and clothing requirements. As a result, he Richard E. Byrd's Skyward; and Atlantic ¥evei, by Edward Jablonski. AVIATION HISTORY JANUARY 2005

For many recipients, earning the Medal of Honor was the climax to a military career. For U.S. Marine ace Jim Swett, it was just a warm-up. BYJONGUTT 38 AVIATION HISTORY lANUARY 2005

n contrast to the often elaborate individual color schemes that graced fighters of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, most aircraft of the U.S. Nav)' and Marine Corps were identified jttst hy white numerals on the fuselage—and there was no reason for any further decoration. In theory, Navy and Marine pilots were assigned a specific airplane, but more often than not they tlew whichever one was available for the mission. Cases in point were the first and last fighters to be fiouii in combat by Marine ace lim Swett. On the day he earned the Medal of Honor, SwettflewGrumman F4F-4 number 77, with the name of an Al Capp cartoon character, "Meivin Massacre," inscribed in white on the base of Lhe rudder. Swett lost his Wildcat that same day and, having learned his lesson, never personalized an airplane again. He did not remember the persona! numbers of his aircraft either, except for the Vought F4U-1C in which he flew his last mission. "That number was burned in my brain," he said, "because of all that took place the one day I flew it." James Elms Swett was born on lune 15,1920. "I was born in Seattle, Washington," said Swett, "but my family moved to San Francisco when I was 3 weeks old." After entering San Mateo Junior College in September 1939, he entered the Civilian Pilot Training Program, and by the time he left in June 1941 he had a pilot's license and had logged 240 flying hours. In August 1941, he enlisted in the Naval Aviation Cadet program, training at the naval air station in Corpus Christi, Texas. "I wanted to be a Navy pilot, but then this Marine adviser at Corpus Christi talked me into becoming a Marine—he was a good guy and a good salesman," Swett remembered. "I was in the top 10 percent of cadets there who were chosen to be Marines. At Corpus Christi we went to basic, primary and secondary' flight training, then on to fighters. I got a 3.82 out of 4 in my class." After receiving his second lieutenant's commission on April 12, 1942, and taking a communications course at Quantico, Va., Swett shipped out to Hawaii in November 1942 and was assigned to Marine fighter squadron VMF-221. Afirstlieutenant by then, he was put in charge of a four-plane division of F4F-4 Wildcats. After further training ,VMF-221 was transferred to the New Hebrides in January 1943, and moved on from there to Fighter 2 airstrip, a recently completed satellite of Henderson Field on Cuadalcanal. By the time Swett reached Guadalcanal on March 16, the sixmonth struggle for the island was over. For the next two months there was little to do other than accompany bombing strikes on Japanese bases farther up the Solomon Islands chain. "We had no auxiliary gas tanks at the time," Swett recalled. "We could escort bombers to Munda or Rekata Bay, but that was about it." That was soon to change, however. Japan's Admiral Isoroku Ya- In Spite Of a 40mm hit in mamoto had been concentrating tiie wing of his Grumman naval air strength in the Solomons F4F-4 Wildcat, 1 St. Lt. James for an air offensive. He hoped the Elms Swett picks off the last offensive would annihilate Allied of seven—or possibly naval and air power in both New eight—Aichi D3A2s off Tulagi Guinea and the lower Solomons on April 7,1943, in The and reverse the Allied advance that Unlucky Eight, by Stan Stokes he knew the fall of Guadalcanal (The Stokes Collection). would presage. Called I-go Saku-^ sen. or Operation I, it involved not only the land-based air groups or kokutais based at Rabaul, Buka, Kahili and Ballale but also reinforcements taken from the aircraft carriers Zuikaku. Zuiho, Hiyo and Jiinyo. The prelude to Operation I occurred on April 1,1943, when Allied reconnaissance planes reported a sizable buildup of Japanese air strength in the upper Solomons—aJmost immediately followed by reports of 58 Mitsubishi A6M3 Zeros {code-named "Zekes" by the Allies) coming down the chain on a fighter sweep. Radar and coastTANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORV 39

watchers had given ample warning for 28 Wildcats, eight new Vought F4U-1 Corsairs ofVMF-124 and six Lockheed P-38F Lightnings of the 12th Fighter Squadron to intercept the enemy over the Russell Islands. The Americans claimed a total of 18 Zekes for the loss of five F4Fs and one P-38. The Japanese claimed 40 victories and seven probables for the loss of nine Zeros and eight pilots. VMF221 had seen no aerial action since the Battle of Midway, but some of its members got to mix it up with Zeros of the 253rd Kokutai. with 1st Lt. William N. Snider claiming three, 2nd Lt. Eugene Dillow getting two and Staff Sgt. lack Pittman Jr. one. In contrast, the role

to be joined by some Corsairs from newly arrived VMF-213. No sooner did VMF-221 arrive overTulagi than Swett could see the lapanese coming—67 Aichi D3A2"Val" dive bombers and about 110 Zekes. Swett was half a mile ahead of his wingmen, who were going full throttle to catch up when they were jumped by Zeros. For all intents and purposes Swett was alone when he saw the first gaggle of D3As go into their dives. "The Vals were also strung out in loose V formations of six," Swett recalled, and he simply dived with them, sidling his Wildcat to the right to get behind the first sextet. Swett's six .50-caliber machine guns were bore-sighted to con-

This gunner knew what he was doing/ Swett said. 1 was coming in played by Swett's flight was limited to circling Henderson Field. "I saw the fight way off in the distance and heard a lot of the action on the radio, but we didn't get into it at all," he said. "It was boring."

S

wett's ennui finally lifted on April 7, when Operation I got underway in deadly earnest. At 4:30 that morning he led Fighter 2 with seven other F4Fs and circled over the new airfield heing built in the Russells, code-named "Kniicklehead." Meanwhile, a Lockheed F-5A (the photoreconnaissance version of the Lightning) reported 100 enemy aircraft staging at Kahili airfield in southern Bougainville and 95 at Buin. After returning from a second uneventful patrol over Cape F-sperance at 9 a.m., the Marines were ordered by tiie air commander in the Solomons, Rear Adm. Marc A. Mitscher, to replenish their fuel and ammunition for another mission. VMF22rs two divisions were directed to Tulagi Harbor, 40 miles northeast of Henderson Field. At the same time VMF-214's Wildcats were taking off from nearby Fighter 1 airstrip to patrol Cape Esperance,

verge 150 yards ahead, but he was only about 50 yards from his first target. Firing two- to three-round bursts, he saw his first adversary catch fire—as did two more in quick succession. He was over his initial nervousness by that time. Although the Japanese gunners had been firing at him, none had hit him, and he was surprised at how easily their planes had gone down in flames—"like shooting fish in a barrel," he remarked. But he also noticed bombs striking a tanker and a destroyer, and realized that he was down to 1,000 feet. As he pulled out of his dive, a 40mm round—fired hy an Allied shipboard anti-aircraft gun—punched a hole about a foot in diameter in his wing, destroying his landing flaps and one of his guns. Swett hastened away to the east until he found a break in the clouds over Florida Island. That got him clear of the flak, but it also led him to what he described as "ahout a dozen more Vals, scattered all over the sky." As one swung to the left, Swett matched its turn and came up to its tail. A short burst of gunfire sent it down in flames, and he repeated the performance on three more. Swett later confessed, "I was cocky at the time," and that led to his undoing as he confidently closed to within 30 feet of one more D3A. "This gunner knew what he was doing," Swett said. "I was coming in from the side, and he just let me have it in the engine and the cockpit." Wounded in the chin, Swett brushed the blood from his face, managed to get some rounds into the enemy plane and was sure he killed the gunner before leaving it "smoking like the dickens." With his ammunition spent and his oil cooler hit, he tried to get back to Cuadalcanal. He had crossed Tulagi Harbor and was one or two miles off Florida Island and about 1,800 feet above Ironbottom Sound when his engine seized. At that point, all he could do was try to glide in while a Marine machine gunner fired at him from the shore. With no flaps, the Wildcat struck the water, bounced and promptly sank. Swett was 20 feet under before he struggled free of his seat belt. shoulder straps and his snagged parachute harness. Upon reaching the surface, he inflated his Mae West and half-inflated his seat raft. His nose was broken from hitting his gunsight, and his face was scratched from shards of his shattered windshield, but otherwise he was uninjured. He caught the attention of a nearby Coast Guard picket boat by firing tracer rounds from his pistol into the air. "They asked, 'Are you an American?'" Swett recalled. "My answer: 'God-

Left: Medal of Honor recipient Captain Jim Swett poses for a publicity photo before resuming training in carrier takeoff and landing in the Vought F4U-1A Corsair prior to his last deployment aboard the carrier Bunker Hill. Right: This Mitsubishi A6M3 Model 32 Zero, abandoned on a New Guinea airfield in 1943, served in the 582nd Kokutai, a composite fighter and dive bomber naval air group that Swett engaged several times in the Solomon Islands. 40 AVIATION HISTORY JANUARY 2005

damn right I am!'" He was out of the water 15 minutes after splashing down. According to Japanese naval records, 15 D3A2s from junvo's air group, led by Lieutenant Toshio Tsuda, stmck at U.S. Navy ships off Lunga Point, scoring a direct hit and four near misses on the destroyer ylflro/; Ward, as weU as six damaging near misses on the landing ship tank LST-449, for the loss of one dive bomber. Hiyo's 17 D3As, led by Lieutenant Toshizo Ikezuchi, attacked transports in Sealark Channel, damaging the 14,500-ton oiler Kanawha with five near misses, also for the loss of one plane. Tulagi was the target of

are matched by Zuikaku's and the 582nd Kokurai's losses. In addition to the nine dive bombers, the lapanese admitted the loss of 12 Zeros destroyed and two others force-landed, as well as the deaths of 10 pilots—one each from the 204th, 253rd and Hiyo air groups, and seven from Junyo. The Japanese claimed 28 victories and 13 probables, but actual American lasses amounted to six F4Fs and a P-38, whose pilots all survived, and a Bell P-39 whose pilot—Major Waiden Williams, who had just arrived to take command of the 70th Fighter Squadron the day before—was killed. Among the other Wildcat pilots who contributed to the total of 39

from the side, and he just let me have it in the engine and the cockpit.' Zuikaku's 17 dive bombers, led by Lieutenant Sadamu Takahashi, and 18 D3As from the 582nd Kokutai, led by Lieutenant Tomotsu i akahata. Zuikaku lost three of its D3As, while the 582nd Kokutai iost four—including that of Lieutenant Takahata, who force-landed on the beach and was killed by islanders. They turned papers found on him over to intelligence officer Lt. j.g. Pete Lewis. Takahata's gunner. Chief Pett>' Officer Kazuma Komazawa, had been killed by Swett. In exchange for those heavy losses, Zuikaku's planes sank the Royal New Zealand Navy corvette Moa. Six bomhs also straddled the American sub chaser SC-66d. "I watched Aaron Ward attempt to reach Guadalcanal with stern down," Swett said, "hut it sank after I hit the water." Kanawim was beached and also sank the next day. The oiler Tappahannock and cargo ship Adhara were also damaged in the attacks. Anti-aircraft gunners claimed 11 Japanese aircraft on April 7, but there was clearly a lot of duplicating of pilots' and ships' claims. Two D3As came down soon after clearing Tuiagi Harbor. One of their pilots was captured alive and stated that the damage that forced him to ditch was caused by fragments from an explosion on the ground, while the other dive bomber was hit by 13mm (i.e., .50-caliber) bullets, but ultimately brought down by a 20mm anti-aircraft shell hit in the engine. Whatever the actual cause of their demise—air or shipboard gunfire, or both—all seven of Swett's accredited victories

victories claimed by the Americans was 2nd Lt. Donald L. Balch of VMF-221,v\'ithoneZeke destroyed and another damaged. VMF-214 apparently took on Junyo's air group, claiming six Zeros and four Vals for the loss of two F4Fs—Captain John R. Burnett, who drove a Val into the water before being hit by a Zero and forced to bail out, and 2nd Lt. Hartwell V. Scarborough Jr., who claimed a Zero before crash landing at Fighter 1 with more than 100 7.7mm and three 20mm hits in his Wildcat. These first nonfatal combat losses to the unit that would later attain notoriety as the "Black Sheep Squadron" while flying Corsairs under Major Cregor>' Boyington were credited 10 Junyo's fighter commander. Lieutenant Yasuhiro Shigematsu, who would be credited with 10 victories by the time he was killed in action on July 8,1944, and Pett\' Officer 3rd Class TomitaAtake, who survived the war with 10. Zeros were also claimed by Wildcats of Navy squadron VF-27, including one by future squadron leader and ace Lieutenant Sam L Silber, and the first of an eventual 24 by Lt j.g. Cecil E. Harris. Corsair pilot 2nd Lt. Herman H. Spoede also claimed a Zero in flames on April 7 for VMF-213's first victory. Admiral Yamamoto launched more airstrikes on April 11,12 and 14 before terminating Operation I on the 16th, satisfied with the reported results. His air offensive had indeed done considerable damage, but nowhere near as much as his overoptimistic aircrews claimed. Moreover, it had taken a heavy toll on the best-trained, most

experienced airmen in the Japanese nav>', and those losses could not be replaced as easily as those suffered by the Allies. Yamamoto did not live long enough to reassess his limited achievement, however. Wliile flying to inspect the air base at Ballale on April 18, he was waylaid and shot down by P-38Gs of the 339th Fighter Squadron. While Swett was in Australia recovering from his facia! injuries and a possible concussion. Admiral Mitscher was reporting his feat—which only one American, U.S. Nav>' Commander David McCampbell, would exceed when he downed nine Japanese planes on October 24, 1944—and recommending Swett for the Medal of

the way," Swett said, "because the nose got in our way" Promoted to captain on May 31, Swett got his next opportunity to score on June 30, when Allied forces landed on Rendova and New Georgia islands. The Japanese reacted by dispatching 16 Mitsubishi C4M1 "Betty" bombers of the 702nd Kokutai and 10 from the 705th Kokutai to attack the invasion fieet, escorted by 24 Zeros. They were met by fighters of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Nav}' and Marines, as well as Curtiss Kittyhawks of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The 705th Kokutai landed one torpedo hit on the attack transport McCawley, flagship of Rear Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner, but lost four of its

'When Bunky Ottinger offered us F6Fs, we said, "No, we won't go unless Honor. As that request was being processed, Swett was offered an early retum to the United States, but he rejected it. He had only been a year out of flight school, and the April 7 donnybrook had been his first combat. He was eager to put that experience to good use and amass some more.

W

hen Swett returned to the Solomons in May 1943, VMF-22] had exchanged its Wildcats for Corsairs. Rejected by the Navy because it proved difficult to land on aircraft carrier decks, the F4U-1 was issued to land-based Marine squadrons, whose pilots were delighted to find that for once their Navy "hand-me-down" was a winner. Capable of 400 mph, the Corsair could take terrific punishment, and its six .50-caliber machine guns could dish out plenty of it. Swett discovered what the Navy disliked about the F4U, however. "We would still be bucking when we landed," he said, "but we soon learned to land main gear first. Later we changed the landing gear strut shock absorbers from air and oil to water—that made them more resilient. We also installed spoilers on the starboard wing so both uings would be level at the same time as we came in slow for a landing." Those modifications solved much of the Corsair's landing problem, to the extent that it later did operate from carriers, although the cockpit's position down the fuselage compelled its pilots to employ a special landing technique in order to keep the flight deck in sight. "We'd hang on the prop, and we'd he in a turn all

planes, while a fifth crash-landed upon returning to base. The 702nd fared worse, losing 13 G4Ms, while another ditched short of home (its crew was rescued). Only three of the 702nd's bombers, including that of its commander, Lt. Cmdr. Genzo Nakamura, returned. Contributing to the carnage were 16 Corsairs of VMF-221, vectored to the bombers by the destmyer Jenkins with the superfluous instructions: "Go get "em, boys! Protect your shipping!" First Lieutenant Frank B. Baldwin downed a Zero and a Betty, probably got a second Zero and damaged another Betty; 1st Lt. Eugene Dillow got two Bettys and probably another Bett\' and Zero; and 1st Lt. Harold E. Segal downed a Betty between Rendova and Munda and possibly got a second bomber. Swett ended the day's fighting with two Bettys and shared credit on a Zeke, as well as probably downing a second Zeke. Admiral Turner transferred his flag and staff to the destroyer Farenholt, and McCawley was towed back for repairs. At 8:23 p.m., however, two more torpedoes finished the foundering transport. The cause was discovered the next mornitig, when Lt. Cmdr. Robert B.KellyoftheNewGeorgiaMotorTorpedo Boat Squadron reported sinking an "enemy" transport in Blanche Channel. In an ironic note, Swett claimed that "USS McCawley was sunk by Lieutenant |ohn Kennedy Icommander of P7-709 and future U.S. president] during towing operations that night." The 705th Kokutai embarked on a mission to Enogai, north of Munda, on July 11, escorted by Zeros from the 582nd Kokutai. whose aces known to have been flying that day included Chief Petty Officer Kiyoshi Sekiya (11 victories) and Pett\' Officers 1st Class Kiichi Nagano (19) and Tomezo Yamamoto (141. The lapanese were imercepted over Kula Gulf by VMF-221, of which 1st Lt. Albert Hacking Jr. claimed a twin-engine fighter northwest of Vella Lavelia. Harold Segal claimed two Zeros before he was shot down and wounded, but he was rescued by the destroyer Taylor. J • "I downed a Zero who was chasing Segal," Swett f A\. ^aitl. "I cut off his wing, much to the pilot's surprise! Later on I spotted a crippled Betty flying low on the water, with two Zeros covering, t waited 'til they were out of position, then went in and splashed the Betty. 1 didn't see the second Zero, which dove on me as I

Left: Swett in the cockpit of his F4U-1 while operating from the Russell Islands in July 1943. Right: Rocket-carrying F4U-1 Ds of Swett's Marine squadron VMF-221 and Eastern Aircraft-built TBM-1 Avengers of Navy Squadron VT-84 prepare to take off from Bunker Hill tiurinQ the Okinawa campaign. 42 AVIATION HISTORV JANUARY 2005

was splashing the Betty—1 would sure like to find the man who did that!" Once again, Swett learned the cost of underestimating the enemy. "As I came down to ditch I opened the cockpit, the Corsair skidded along and then it was gone," he said. "The F4U had a glass panel at the bottom of the fuselage to help us see below when we landed, and when I hit the water at 180 to 200 mph, mine just popped out and suddenly there was a rectangular column of water hitting me in the face with 200 pounds of pressure^I almost drowned. It slowed me down, but that damn airplane just fell apart." This time

was hit by a bomb during the previous evening and she was hurt." During the escort mission, Swett was credited with two Vals and damaged a Zero. "1 left him smoking but running away, and I couldn't chase after him," Swett recalled, "because I would leave the cover over the ships." On November 19, VMF-221 returned to the United States, having added 77 enemy planes to the 12 it had previously claimed at Midway After reorganizing at Miramar, Calif., in January 1944, the squadron was transferred to Santa Barbara to train at taking off and landing from carrier decks. In December 1944, VMF-221, now com-

we get Corsairs!" Ottinger said he wouldn't go with anything but Corsairs!' Swett spent four days in his rubber raft before being rescued; he was puzzled hut relieved to encounter no sharks in all that time. "Segal and I shot down two Jap aces, we learned after the war," Swett claimed. "They were the only two Zeros shot down that day." Actually, three Zero pilots died on July 11, including Petty Officer 2nd Class Yoshio Osawa of the 582nd Kokutai, but the group may have written off more downed or riddled Zeros than that suggests. After a final sortie the next day, the 582nd s fighter element was disbanded, leaving it exclusively a dive bomber unit. Hacking's victory over the "twin-engine fighter" may actually have crippled the G4M1 that Swett later finished off—in any case, the 705th Kokutai noted the failure of one of its aircraft to return. On October 9, Maj. Gen. Ralph J. Mitchell, commander of Marine Air in the South Pacific, awarded Swett the Medal of Honor. Nine days later, Swett was credited with destroying a Zeke and probably downing another over Kahili. Major Nathan T. Post Jr. of VMF-221 claimed two Zekes in that same melee, while 2nd Lt. Pittman was credited with downing three Zekes and probably getting two more. The 201 st Kokutai lost Reserve Ensign Yoshio Aizawa and Petty Officer 1st Class Yoshio Mogi on October 18. \ ^ F - 2 2 1 had another occasion to fight while supporting the Marine landings in F.mpress Augusta Bay on Bougainville Island on November 2. "We got word that the light cruiser Denver needed a fighter escort—it was under tow by a destroyer," said Swett. "She

manded by Major Edwin S. Roberts Jr., and VMF-451 were assigned to the carrier Bunker Hill, as components of Carrier Air Group 84 under Commander George M. Ottinger. In spite of the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat's superior ability to take off and land on a carrier deck, the Marines remained fiercely devoted to their "bent-winged birds." "When Bunky Ottinger offered us F6Fs," Swett remarked, "we said, 'No, we won't go unless we get Corsairs!' Ottinger said he wouldn't go with anything but Gorsairs!" As VMF-221 's executive officer. Captain Swett was breaking in some new replacements during a combat air patrol (CAP) when one suddenly cried out on the radio, "Gaptain, you have a Jap on your tail!" Swett responded with a fast "split S" maneuver—as did every other captain flying in the area. The "threat" turned out to be a Japanese reconnaissance plane that had just been shot down in flames by the fleet's GAP After returning to Bunker Hill, Swett gave his three neophytes a pointed training session on radio procedures. Serving as Vice Adm. Marc Mitscher's flagship. Bunker Hill took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima in February 1945 as well as in airstrikes on mainland Japan that month and in March. During one of those raids, Swett recalled an incident that reinforced his faith in the durability of Gorsairs—and Pratt and Whitney R-2800 engines. "My wingman, 1st Lt. Walter Goggel, lost the bottom of his engine during an attack on Kyushu," he said. "With cylinders flapping in the wind and his oil pressure gone, he flew that thing 200 miles back

JANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORY 43

Hangar crewmen of the stricken Bunker W///fight fires under the No. 2 elevator on May 11,1945. Swett had just downed a Nakajima B6N1 for his final victory when he saw Bunker Hill hit by two suicide planes. Forced to land on the carrier Enterprise, he then watched aghast as his new 20mm cannon-armed F4U-1C, No. 155, was pushed overboard to make room for more of Enterprisers aircraft.

toward the ship. As my flight neared the fleet, there came aVought 0S2U frotn the light cruiser Wilkes-Barre—he swung around and flew formation with us. Before we could reach Bunker Hill however, Goggel radioed, 'Gaptain, my engine just quit,' to which I replied, 'I can see that.' We watched as Goggel landed with this 0S2U in formation, and Walt wouldn't have got his feet wet if he hadn't slipped off the wing getting off," The floatplane flew Goggel to Wilkes-Barre, but Swett noted: "The cruiser wouldn't release him 'til Bunker Hill gave it 40 gallons of ice cream. When we agreed to the deal, it transferred him to the destroyer English—-which wouldn't let him go without a ransom of 20 gallons of ice cream." By that time the desperate Japanese were sending hastily trained pilots on suicidal kamikaze missions, which reached their horrific climax when the Americans landed on Okinawa on April I. Between April 6 and mid-June, waves of kamikazes were thrown at the American and British fleets. On one such occasion on April 11, Swett and three other pilots damaged a Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bomber but failed to bring it down.

O

n May 11, 1945, Swett received F4U-1C Bureau No. 82280, bearing the identification number 155 and armed with four wing-mounted 20mm cannons. During the day's GAP he encountered a Nakajima B6N1 "Jill" torpedo bomber. Judging the American fighter screen impregnable, the Japanese pilot turned back, and Swett gave chase. "I made a high-side run as he was trying 44 AVIATION HISTORY JANUARY 2005

to get back to Japan," he recalled. "When those four 20s fired, the whole plane shook. When it hit the enemy—wow, I couldn't believe it. 1 tore him to pieces. He didn't know what hit him." Swett's official score now stood at 15^, but his return to Bunker Hill would be less than triumphant. "I was preparing to land, and while we waited, 16 more aircraft joined up—12 Gorsairs and four Grumman F6F photo planes," he recalled. "We watched, much to our horror, two Japs dive on the carrier." A Zero and a Judy had slipped in from the clouds. "One smashed into the rear deck," Swett said, "dropping his 500-pound bomb before crashing into the parked aircraft on the deck. His bomb exploded after penetrating the flight deck and went off alongside the ship, killing most of the flight deck crews who were manning their 20mm guns. The second plane did a wingover off the port side of the ship and dived toward the deck where it meets the island, dropping his 500-pound bomb into VF-84's ready room, which killed 50 U.S. Navy pilots. The second plane hit the deck and exploded. "We watched the whole thing and saw people jumping overboard, with and without life jackets," he continued. "I ordered my flight to dive down and drop their dye markings, boats and even their Mae Wests, and all 20 of us dropped our gear—later we were thanked profusely by those who were rescued. How many were attacked by sharks in the water I have no idea, but sailors have told me that the dye marker sure helped, as did the life rafts that we sat on." While Wilkes-Barre and three destroyers fought Bunker Hill's fires. Continued on page 61

B U I L D

Y O U R O W N

Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat IT WAS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED as a biplane in a time when monoplanes were coming of age. Some detractors described it as a "barrel with wings." But in combat Grumman Aviation's F4F-4 Wildcat was able to ahsorh serious punishment and return a full meastire of devastation with bursts from its six .50-caliber machine guns. Marine Corps pilot First Lieutenant James E. Swett took advantage of the rugged fighter's resilience and armament to shoot down seven Aichi D3A "Vals" during one mission. To build a replica of Lieutenant Swett's Wildcat, we'll useTamiya's l/44th scale kit, considered by many modelers to be the hest example. Note that Cutting Edge produces a decal sheet that contains all of the markings for Swett's F4F-4. A reference photo of an F4F-4 cockpit appears in Cockpit, by Donald Nijboer. Construction begins with painting the cockpit walls "interior green," FS-34151. After the sidewalls are painted, glue the fuselage sides together. Then slip the horizontal tail into a slot in the vertical tail and cement it into place. Adjust the horizontal plane so that it is absolutely perpendicular to the vertical tail. The rudder can then be set into place to complete the empennage. The cockpit interior is made up of nine pieces that should be painted interior green or flat black, FS-37038, according to the instructions. Place dots of clear gloss or Future floor polish on the faces of the instruments to simulate the glass lenses. Make a set of paper seat belts, painted tan, to finish off the interior. Before inserting the completed cockpit into the fuselage, paint the upper portion of the landing gear struts and gear bay bulkhead gloss white, FS-17925. Carefully insert tbe cockpit and upper landing gear assembly into place. Skip the assembly and painting of the lower portion of the landing gear for now. Glue the upper portion of the wings to the lower piece. Before cementing the completed wing assembly to the fuselage, paint the lower, interior portion of the landing gear bay gloss white. I cut a tiny circle of brass mesh to fit the front of the oil coolers and then attached their covers to tbe underside of the wings.

The wing-to-fusel age fit is excellent, and little or no filler should be needed. Next assemble and paint the Pratt & Whitney R-1830-86 Twin Wasp engine. 1 used "gunmetal gray" on the cylinders and light gray, FS-16320, on the crankcase, Using white glue, temporarily attach the cowling, without the engine, to tiie fuselage. In preparation for painting, stuff some damp tissue into the cockpit, cowling opening and gear bay to keep out any overspray. Apply a coat of light gray over all the seams.

toon figure that appeared on the vertical tail for a short time. (Indications are the cave man only appeared on the starboard side. Shortly after it appeared, it was removed.) It should be noted that, after shooting down the seven Japanese Val dive bombers on April 7, Swett himself was shot down on the same mission, so applying the kill markings included on the decal sheet to this model would be incorrect. Be sure to check your references. Using a wet cotton swab, remove the tem-

then check to see if any filling and sanding is necessary. On April 7.1943,1st Lt. James Swett was assigned to VMF-221, based at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. Wildcats located there were painted "Nav>' blue-gray," very close to FS-35190, on the topside and light gray on the undersides, FS-36492. There are few markings for the aircraft. The national insignia, consisting of white stars on blue disks, are found on the wings in all four positions and the fuselage sides. White identification numbers are centered at the extreme front of the cowling and just ahead of the national markings on the fuselage. Cutting Ldge decal sheet GFD-48120 has the complete set of markings for Lieutenant Swett's Wildcat, including the cave man car-

porarily attached cowling, glue the engine inside, and recement the engine and cowling to the front of the fuselage. Then go back to step seven in the instructions, assemble the lower portions of the landing gear struts and paint them gloss black, FS-17038, This assembly is tricky, so follow the instructions closely Slip the lower landing gear assembly into position inside the gear bay. E-Z Masks, Sheet No. 31, includes precut vinyl masks that fit neatly over the clear parts and produce excellent results when you are painting the canopy and windscreen. Paint the propeller and tires flat black and attach them to the model, Now your replica of Jim Swett's Wildcat is complete. Dick Smith JANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORY 45

"\V \VIi\vatoM B d o e Madonaill! Lindbergh's landmark flight ignited an explosion of enthusiasm for aviation in Mexico, sparking risky record attempts and goodwill flights, and launching the manufacture of modern aircraft. BYRONGILLIAM

r

he banquet at the army tent camp at Laguna Salada, a dry lake used for aircraft testing, was over by 10 p.m., but the musical entertainment was just starting. So when General Abelardo Rodriguez abruptly ordered him to bed, Roberto Fierro Villalobos, the guest of honor, turned in reluctantly. Four hours later he was up and making a final walk-around of a high-wing monoplane with Baja California painted on its silver fabric-covered fuselage. Then, taking a last gulp of coffee and exchanging abrazos with fellow fliers and the genera!, also governor of Mexico's territory' of Baja California, he climbed into the open cockpit, checked the instruments and advanced the throttle. The 223-hp roar of a Wright J-5C Whirlwind shattered the nocturnal silence. Moving ponderously with its 1,75f)-pound load of gasoline, the plane—often referred to as BC-2— lumbered 750 meters across the salt flats, slowly gaining speed, then heaved itself aloft and disappeared into the starry black sky. General Rodriguez telegraphed Mexico City that Major PA. [piloto aviador) Fierro had taken off from Mexicali at 2:05 a.m, PST, May 30, 1928, en route to Mexico City nonstop. Fierro throttled the engine back to its 12-gallon-perhour cruising power at altitude over the Colorado River delta. Then, over the Gulf of California, the engine began to cough. In the excitement of takeoff, Fierro had forgotten to switch from the reserve to the main fuel supply He twisted the valves and desperately worked the emergency pump. When the engine was running smoothly once again, he mused, "The flight [was almostl over at the start, and as for me, most likely the sea would have swallowed me up." Using dead reckoning, Fierro followed the route Captain Emilio Carranza, his friendly rival, had blazed five days earlier. Carranza had flown from San Diego in Mexico-Excelsior, a special Ryan B-1 Brougham like the one presented to Charles A. Lindbergh when he donated his Ryan NYR Spirit of Si. Louis, to the Smithsonian Institution. And in August, in a venture funded

4fi AVIATION HISTORV lANUARY 2005

by Mejdco City's daily Excelsior through public subscription, Carranza would fly it nonstop to Washington, D.C., returning the courtesy of Lindbergh's immensely popular Mexico City goodv^ill flight of December 1927. Since Carranza's pioneering Mexico City-Ciudad luarez nonstop flight in September, the Mexican and American press had been calling the modest 22-year-old great-nephew of Mexico's first constitutional president "the Mexican Lindbergh." The sun rose in clear skies four hours into the flight, and Fierro spotted Guaymas off his port wing. Now he could easily follow the coast. Over Mazatlan three hours later, he turned a few degrees eastward and soon ran into thick cloud banks looming over the Sierra Madre Occidental. He put BC-2 into a steady climb and broke out into bright blue sky at 13,000 feet. He descended after dead reckoning past the solid cloud layer, and at 1:05 p.m. made out a familiar city in the distance, Guadalajara. "Once I glimpsed the 'Pearl of the Occident,' I said to myself, 'I've made it!' Guadalajarato-Mexico City we know like the back of our hand." Crowds had been gathering all morning at Mexico City's Balbuena Field, though Fierro's arrival was announced for between 3 and 4 p.m. Around noon the wind picked up and dark clouds hid die horizon. Then came rain, and the spectators' enclosure became a sea of umbrellas and car awnings. At 3:35 a telegraph operator 150 miles west reported that 6C-2—which carried no radio—had jtist passed. Immediately an escort of seven Bristol F2B fighters took off. At 3:55 Fierro was reported 100 miles out, and a procession of limousines arrived with civil and military aviation chiefs, the secretary of war and the president. President Plutarco Elias Calles addressed the crowd. As he finished, a cry of "Here he comes!" went up. But only biplanes appeared—the escort returning, unable to find BC-2. At 4:50. El Universal's Manuel Cadenas reported, a speck appeared against the black clouds and slowly materialized into a monoplane. Turbulent winds had forced Fierro off his course into the Valley of Mexico.

Major Roberto Fierro Villalobos poses in 1928 with Baja California-2, a high-wing monoplane buiit by CACyT, the CompaniaAereade Construccion y Transporte, S.A. at Tijuana, Mexico {All photos: San Diego Aerospace Museum).

In May 1928, Captain Emilio Carranza—nicknamed "the Mexican Lindbergh" by the press—is greeted by U.S. Army representatives in San Diego near the Ryan B-1 Brougham Mexico-Excelsior, a modified version of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis.

The escort took off again to perform aerobatics, salut- flovm 1,612 miles nonstop—in a plane built in Mexico, ing their victorious colieague. Then, to an exuberant by Mexican labor and capital. ovation, the elegant silver monoplane made a lowRoberto Fierro and Emilio Carranza were following level pass over the full length of the field, turned the example of Charles Lindbergh, whose landmark smoothly and, gradually losing altitude, lined up for a New York-Paris flight the year hefore had sparked a landing. Fierro touched down at 4:55 p.m., for an offi- worldwide record-flight frenzy. After meeting Lindcial flying time of 14 hours 50 minutes. Western Flying bergh as one of his five Mexican army aides-de camp magazine considered his average speed of 108.72 mph during his December visit, Fierro wrote, "Lindbergh's "a record for a Wright Whirlwind-powered plane of arrival gave us the confidence to pursue our dreams that type, made possible |by| the narrow fuselage and of conquering spaces, at home and abroad." general pursuit type of construction." More than confidence would he needed—namely As BC-2 taxied to a stop, the hand of the capital's aircraft like Lindbergh's Spirit ofSL Loim. The relatively Mounted Gendarmerie gave forth on their trumpets, heavy biplanes—all wood construction with waterand crowds surged forward yelling" Vim Fierrof" Viva cooled engines—then being built in Mexico's Talleres Mexico!" and" Viva la aviacion nacional!" Spectators NacionalesdeConstruccionesAeronauticas (National were heard to proclaim, "Now we have real fliers" and Aircraft Factory) had payloads that were too small for "Now we have an aviation industry!" The flight was long-distance fuel needs. Some American manufacindeed a double triumph for Mexico: Fierro had just turers, however, were using chromium-molybdenum-

JANUARY 200r. A V I A T I O N HISTOffTT 47

Lindbergh (fourth from right) poses with Mexican army pilots during his December 1927 goodwill tour of Mexico.

steel frame tubing. The alloy's strength permitted lightweight, thin-dravm tuhe walls and drag-reducing streamlined designs. And tadial engines made air-cooling more efficient. The metal-framed, radial engine Wtight-Bellanca monoplane had reportedly impressed Lindbergh because it could cruise at least 15 mph faster, burn only half the amount of gasoline and carry double the payload of the old de Havilland D.H.4 in which he had flown the mail. The planes Carranza and Fierro flew to Mexico City in May 1928 utilized these modern technologies. The Ryan Brougham, a commercial version of Spirit of St. Louis, could lift 2,000 pounds more than theTallereshuilt Quetzalcoatl that Cartanza had flown to Ciudad Juarez. And BC-2's 2,068-pound payload was 50 percent greater than that of Talleres-built two-place fighter-bombers. But while Carranza's Mexico-Excelsior was built in the United States, Fierto's BC-2 had been made at Tijuana, Mexico. Fierro received orders to report to General Rodriguez in Mexicali, Baja California, in February 1928, while commanding a ground-attack squadron in the Cristero Rebellion. He had fought in the 1910-1920 Revolution, both for and against Pancho Villa, with some time out for movie work in Hollywood. When his Chihuahua auxiliary cavalry regiment was demobilized after Villa's "retirement" in 1920, Fierro, then a 23-year-old captain, requested admission to Mexico's military aviation school. Rodriguez's first task for him was to collect Baja California-} [BC-l] from the Tijuana Airplane Factory and test it at Mexicali with Captain Luis Farrell, the chief test pilot. On March 8, after several days of racing it against a Liberty engine Douglas 0-2K biplane, Farrell took off to deliver it to the Army Air Service in Mexico City, with refueling stops in Hermosillo, Navojoa,

'IB AVIATION HISTORY JANUARY 2005

Mazatlan and Guadalajara. Between Hermosillo and Navojoa the temporarily fitted BMW engine failed and Farrell crash-landed in the mountains. Fortunately, he was not injured, but the badly damaged BC-l eventually arrived in Mexico City hy rail. After that inauspicious start, General Rodriguez assigned Fierro to deliver BC-2 when it rolled out at the end of March. Fierro knew Carranza had ohtained permission to fly Mexico-Excelsior from Mahoney-Ryan in San Diego nonstop to Mexico City, so he asked the governor to let him make his flight nonstop. Rodriguez, who would write in San Diego magazine's August 1927 aviation issue that "Mexico represents a particularly suitable field for the operation of airlines, owing to the existing geographical obstacles...especially...in Baja California," jumped at the chance to demonstrate his company's ahility to huild aircraft for duration flights. Fierro had two additional fuel tanks fitted in the front cockpit to augment the two 50-gallon wing tanks, providing a capacity of 350 gallons of gasoline plus 15 of oil, and flight-tested the plane to 13,000 feet under fall load. It handled easily, with no tendency to turn difficult in the course of any test he gave it.

Emilio Carranza took off on his nonstop MexicoWashington flight with great fanfare 12 days after Fierro's arrival from Mexicali. Restless, Fierro decided to take advantage of the prevailing patriotic mood and proposed flying BC-2 nonstop from Mexico City to Havana, Cuba—which no one had yet done—and making a goodwill tout of Central America on the rettirn leg. Since the (light would advertise Mexico's aircraft industry to the region, approval was granted. Fierro planned to depart about July 1, but three consecutive weeks of tain softened Balbuena's packedearth runways and created huge mud puddles. Fach time Fierro announced a new departure date, storms were forecast somewhere along his route. His colleagues counseled patience. But the public grew impatient. The flight—and Fierro himself^became the butt of newspaper cartoons and nightclub comedians. For Fierro, it was "a period full of great hopes, but at the same time full of torments." The torment reached a peak when General Jose Luis Amezcua. director of militar\' aviation, though not an aviator, told him the repeated delays were embarrassing the army. "Wliy don't you leave now?" he asked bluntly "Right, general," Fierro replied, "Just give me the order in writing and Fll take off at once." Naturally, Fierto noted, the general refused to accept die responsibility of sending him to his death by written order. While Fietto waited, Cartanza crashed on his return flight to Mexico City. Inclement weather had forced him to postpone his departure three times. Meanwhile, public pressure—including telegrams to him and the Mexican government—motivated him to "get on with it." Then on July 12, 1928, hours after postponing his departure indefinitely because of storms forecast for the next several days, he took off from Mitchel Field, N.Y., and disappeared over New Jersey in a fierce

storm. Mexican aviation historian Ruiz Romero maintains that a cablegram from Carranza's superiors ordering him to depart immediately accounted for the sudden change of plan. The following day, a couple collecting wild cherries in the woods around Mount Holly came across the wreckage of Mexico-Excelsior, with Cartanza's lifeless body lying neatby On August 10, the weather finally looked favorable over Fierro's entire route. At 5 a.m. he flight-checked BC-2. While the engine warmed up, Fierro walked the entire runway, inspecting it for damage. Just after Fietto climbed into the cockpit and tewed the engine. a car came roaring up bearing General Jesus Palometa Lopez, who climbed up, embraced him and, stripping the watch off his ovm wrist, strapped it onto Fietto's, saying he had no other memento to give him but wished him great success. Before Fietro could recover his composure, another car taced up. General Fernando Cue gave him an abrazo and a piece of paper, telling him, "When you feel alone in the immensity of space, read this poem to fortify your spirit in your solitude." It was Rudyard Kipling's "If." BC-2 accelerated slowly down the soggy runway but lifted off smoothly. Fietro headed northeast over the great pre-Aztec pyramids of Teotihuacan, slowly gaining the altitude needed to exit the Valley of Mexico. As the first tays of the rising sun lightened the horizon, he passed eastward between Mount Perote and Orizaba's smoking crater, visible from both Mexico City andVeractuz.TiirningsoutbeastoverVeracruz, he followed the coast as far as Fronteras, then cut 160 miles across the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan Peninsula. He felt relieved when he finally spotted Campeche's ancient battlements; it was the first time he had been out of sight of land for an hour and a half. Fietro passed Progreso—the last Mexican telegraph A crowd greets FietTo at Balbuena Field iti Mexico City, just after his returti frotn a tour of Cetitral America undertaken to advertise Mexico's aircraft industry in September 1928.

JANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORY

I'l

In 1930 Fierro hoped to fly the Atlantic Ocean in the Lockheed Sirius Anahuac, the same aircraft type Lindbergh had used during route explorations for Pan American Airways.

station on his route—eight hours into the flight, and followed Yucatan's north coast, to where Canciins great hotels would later rise; then he started across the Yucatan Channel. Again out of sight of land, he scanned the surface of the sea for anything that might help him in an emergency and found he was completely alone. He later recalled that the scene impressed him with tlie infinite smallness of man on earth, hut gradually a sense of calm enveloped him, and he studied the shoals and submarine channels far below, thinking he could see how Yucatan and Cuba had once been joined. Two hours out he spotted a low cloud curtain on the horizon. It was over land—Cape San Jose. Elated, he turned toward it, He was still two hours from Havana, but felt he had already made it. Then strong headwinds buffeted the plane and black storm clouds gathered. He accelerated the engine to maximum rpm. Finally, dead ahead under heavy rain, he made out El Morro castle and knew he bad nearly reached bis goal. He cireled Columbia I-ield three times to make sure he was landing into the wind and touched down 11 hours 49 minutes after taking off from Mexico City. Of the 220 gallons of gasoline he had loaded, 50 remained. As news of Fierro's arrival spread, cheering throngs lined Havana's streets from the airport. He craved sleep but had to appear with the Mexican ambassador on the embassy balcony to greet crowds yelling "Viva Mexico!" Tbe following days were filled with receptions, decorations from tbe president and the geographical society, official tours and formal calls on tbe Cuban military and civil aviation cbiefs to deliver honorary messages from their Mexican counterparts. Before Fierro could take off for (Central America, tbe weather once again deteriorated. He passed the days

50 AVIATION HISTORV lANUARY 2005

poring over maps and weather studies, fine-tuning his flight plan. Tben an audacious idea struck him: Rather than returning directly from Central America, he would fly the Atlantic to Europe, like Lindbergh. BC-2 could carry enough gasoline to cross the equatorial Atlantic between Brazil and French West Africa, which the French fliers Dieudonne Costes and Joseph Lebrix had done the year before. Tben be could follow the African coast to Madrid, capital of the mother country; an acbievement of special significance for Mexico. On August 20, fair weather was finally forecast. Fierro took off at 9 the next morning with an aerial escort as far as Pinar del Rio. In the middle of tbe Yucatan Channel, however, the weather worsened. He managed to cross British Honduras [now Belize) into Guatemala before burricane-force winds over the mountains drove him back, and he put down near Belize city, landing on the beach, as there was no airfield. Fierro had no idea wbat to expect, as British Honduras—a colony—was not on his itinerary of Latin American republics and he bad no visa or landing permit. A huge English-speaking black policeman in a blue uniform and white pith helmet took the bewildered flier into custody and drove him into town on what Fierro thought of as the "wrong side of tbe road." The British governor turned out to be friendly and helpful, and overlooked the irregularity of Fierro's arrival. Ordering a guard put on BC-2, he bad Fierro taken to a workshop, where two mecbanics welded wheel spokes broken in the beach landing. Meanwhile, tbe Mexican consul cabled Mexico City word of Fierro's safe arrival and expected departure time for Guatemala. Fierro's visits to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica were of a pattern witb bis Cuhan experience—two to four days of ceremonies, banquets and official meetings, and tben an aerial escort to the border. Coming down at San lose de Gosta J^ca, Fierro found Las Sabanas airport so overrun witb spectators tbat he was afraid to land. Then be spotted a cart track along tbe edge of the field. Too late he realized tbat what looked like minor ruts from the air were deep furrows, whicb caught his wbeels, forcing one off its axle and bringing the plane to an abrupt stop. Mounted staff officers came galloping over and brought tbe sbaken flier to the reception platform to meet the president. After four days in Costa Rica, during which two new wbeels were fabricated for BC-2. Fierro flew on to Panama, where he was met witb a warm reception from the American military authorities in tbe Ganal Zone. He always remembered the toast an American colonel offered at a banquet in bis honor: "I wish not that you he the world's best pilot, but rather tbe oldest pilot." (Fierro, who rose to command tbe Mexican air force, died in 1978 at age 81.] The Mexican ambassador was enthusiastic about Fierro's plan to fly on to Spain. But word soon came tbat Fierro must return home immediately. Heartsick, Fierro blamed tbe cbange on sbock at Carranza's deatb. "As a soldier," be wrote in frustration, "I bad no other alternative than to obey, and returned." To Fierro, his arrival September 9 seemed "practi-

M\ Miplmne IFcaKctoiry ii Iff Mexico seems an unlikely venue for Jlaircraft manufacturing, Tijuana—a border town long associated with gambling and vice—may appear outlandish. Yet in November 1927 Brigadier General Abelardo L Rodriguez incorporated the Compania Aerea de Construccidn y Traiisporte, SA (CACyT) in Tijuana, Baja California. Rodriguez had become acquainted with the aircraft market while negotiating the Mexico-Excelsior purchase with Miguel Zuniga, MahoneyRyan's Latin American sales representative. And having organized several enterprises during his six years as territorial governor. Rodriguez must have realized that if Mahoney-Ryan could make modern aircraft in a former fish-packing plant in San Diego, then a small-capitalization company in nearby Tijuana, importing American engines, instruments, tooling, materials and technical expertise, could compete. In 1927 the Mexican government, apparently awakened to the Talleres National Aircraft Factory's technology' lag by Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic triumph in Spirit of St. Louis, discontinued its in-house aircraft design and construction to encourage private enterprise. CACyT received a contract for three planes. For the firm's president, Rodriguez hired jose Flavio Rivera, described as "an audacious and talented young man." Rivera's lack of aircraft experience was compensated for by California aviation pioneer EE. Van Cleave, temporary vice president. Captain RA. Luis Farrell Cubillas, army aviation head at Mexicali, became the firm's chief test pilot, and aeronautical engineering consultant William Waterhouse was engaged to draw construction plans. Waterhouse had produced the final design of Ryan's M-1 monoplane, and the Tijuana-built planes would bear a family resemblance to it and to VVaterhouse's own commercially unsuccessful Cruzair. In January 1928, the company began work in a former Tijuana flour mill with 10 Mexican mechanics, at least three of whom were "men with experience on this lU.S.I side," an American observer reported. That summer General Ro-

CACyT's board of directors included Brig. Gen. Abelardo L Rodriguez, Mexican army Captain RA. Luis Farrell Cubillas and Jose Flavio Rivera.

driguez recruited a Mexican engineering student on vacation from Stanford to help interpret Waterhouse's plans. Tbe government's specifications called for building three semicantilever, higb-wing monoplanes; two parasolwing, open-cockpit models intended as military observation and prototype mail planes; and afive-place,enclosed-cabin model for official transportation of the secretary of war. All three planes were to be framed with electrically welded chrome-molybdenum-steel tubing. fabric-covered and powered by aircooled radial engines. Baja California-1 rolled out around March 1 with a 41 -foot wingspan, a 30foot fuselage and a 1,900-pound empty weight; it was said to have cost $15,000. A 185-hp, water-cooled BMW engine— probably shipped from Talleres' stocks before a Whirlwind was available—was temporarily installed. The sister ship, Baja California-2, rolled out about the end of March. It had a 41.5-foot wingspan, 28.5-foot lengtb, and 310-square-foot wing area, weighed 2,100 pounds empty and was powered

by a Wright Whirlwind I-5C procured by Zuniga. Baja California'3 was completed in November. A "Brougham" of similar dimensions, it was powered by a 420-hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp. In April 1928, the government suddenly announced CACyT's transfer to Mexico City. Official reasons were "better facilities.. .competent personnel, a larger plant in longer operation, and lack of federal funds to carry on the [Tijuana! project unaided." But San Diego historian T.D. Proffitt believes a more likely reason was that the plant could be kept under closer surveillance in the capital. In the revolts of the 1920s, northern rebels had obtained airplanes and mercenary pilots from across the U.S. border. In Mexico City CACyT was to rent space in the Talleres factory and manufacture aircraft for the government—for which 25 Wright Whirlwind engines had been ordered through Zuniga in June 1928. Tbe transplanted company never produced another plane, however, and it was dissolved early in 1929—owing to "obstacles of a bureaucratic and budgetarv nature." R.G.

JANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORV 51

telegram was drafted in such terms," he recalled, "that it was not at all difficult for me to figure out that the rommittee didn't really feel that I •ihould obey the order." He headed straight to the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, near Los Angeles, where he kept a low profile for the 25 days it took for the Sirius to be completed. After flight-tesfing the aircraft himself (Lockheed's test pilot had been killed that same week), Fierro christened it Andhuac. He paid General Manager Carl Squier $30,000 for the plane, special instrumentation, two parachutes and $50,000 life insurance policies on himself and his mechanic, Arnulfo Cortes, for the New York-Mexico City flight.

After touching down on June 22, 1930, in Mexico City

\nAnahuacMovjing a 12-hour nonstop flight from New York's Mitchel Field, Fierro got word that no more record-setting flights would be authorized by the Mexican government.

cally a surprise." Although the president, key cabinet officers and his flying friends greeted him, few spectators had turned out, in contrast to his May arrival from Mexicali. "Months later the government of the Republic rewarded me for the successful execution of my flight abroad," Fierro commented acerbically, "giving me in solemn ceremony the Medal For Aeronautical Merit—second class." (In 1957 the Federation Aeronaudque Intemacionale awarded General Roberto Fierro its Paul Tissandier diploma "for his pioneering flights and his nonstop flights from Mexicali to Mexico City, and from Mexico City to Havana, in an airplane of Mexican manufacture.") By early 1930, the public was again interested in speed and distance record flights. Fierro proposed a New York-Mexico City-Natal-Dakar-Madrid flight, with the flrst leg flown nonstop in honor of Emilio Carranza. The government agreed to let him go, but as it was already sponsoring Lt. Col. Pablo Sidar's Mexico City-Buenos Aires goodwill flight, declined to provide any financial support. Fierro resorted to public subscription, recruiting three friends for a support committee. Journalist Manuel Ramirez Cardenas managed publicity, raising $35,000 in less than 20 days. Gustavo Fspinosa Mireles, vice president of the Compafiia Mexicana de Aviacidn, arranged a course in instrument navigation for Fierro at Mexicana's Brownsville, Texas, base. And Adan Galvez Perez, a fiier and Fierro's former army pal, handled everything else. Fierro assumed he would fly BC-2 until he learned it had crashed March 19 on a nonstop flight from Mexicali to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico's two most distant state capitals. "Stunned by that sad end of my 'little cockroach'," as he recalled, Fierro opted for a Lockheed Sirius—Lindbergh's choice for his Pacific route explorations for Pan American Airways. Fierro was at Brownsville when he learned that Sidar and his co-pilot had crashed off Costa Rica on the highly publicized Buenos Aires flight, killing both aboard. On his last day of classes, a message arrived telling him to drop everything and return. "But the

52 AVIATION HISTORY lANUARY 2005

In New York, Fierro was aided by old friend Alfredo Miranda and Miranda's brother Ignacio, vice president of Detroit Aircraft Corporation. They had Andhuac serviced at Mitchel Field, where Carranza had taken off in 1928. "At exactly 3:30 a.m.. 21 June, 1930," Fierro recalled, "I accelerated the engine to its maximum. The plane, very loaded, ran about 800 meters down the runway and slowly, majestically, began the flight. We had scarcely begun to climb when we ran into a thick fog which covered the land like a Turkish bath." The flight down the Atlantic coast and across the Gulf of Mexico was uneventful, but between Tampico and Pachuca strong headwinds would cost him 40 or SO mph. Near Pachuca, the sky clouded over and heavy rain began. Bouncing along in turbulence and unable to find a pass over the mountains in the clouds, he throtfled back and told Cortes to look for somewhere to land. Then, just as they were descending, he spotted a clearing in the clouds and slipped through it, over the mountains and into the Valley of Mexico. The rain cleared, and Fierro could see crowded Balbuena Field. Waiting on a reception platform were the president, high officials, diplomats and the press. Moved and excited, Fierro touched down in the only spot clear of people. He had covered 2,250 miles nonstop in approximately 12 hours. Equally excited. President Ortiz Rubio gave him a firm abrazo—then the bad news: "These nonstop flights are over. You may not go on south as you planned, because we want to have you alive—though we're not going to put up any statues of you." Fierro told him his flight to Spain was a commitment to the Mexican people, but Ortiz said: "Don't you worry, I'll take the responsibility of explaining to our nation the reasons I've ordered this kind of flight suspended." It would be 1949 before Mexican aviators flew the equatorial Atlantic. The three short years that Fierro called "the heroic period of Mexican aviation" had passed into history, "tAfrequenTcontribiitortoAwdXion History, Ron Gilliam writes from Ensenada. Mexico. He recommends Ryan. The Aviator, by William Wa^er.

Reviev\/s Laced with little-known tidbits of information, a new compendium tours military aviation's first 100 years. BY C.V. GLINES IT IS A DAUNTING TASK FOR TWO knowledgeable aviation writers to choose 100 of the world's outstanding military aircraft and give us detailed characteristics and interesting rationales for their choices. Norman Polmar, especially noted for his several books on U.S. Navy ships and aircraft, and Dana Bell, archivist at the National Air and Space Museum and a specialist on military aviation colors and markings, have done just that in One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md., 2004, $32.95). They have chosen planes over seven time periods, from the preconflict days of the planes built by Louis Bleriot, Glenn H. Curtiss and the Wright brothers to the era of relatively new technologv aircraft like the McDonnell F-15 Eagle, Mil Mi-26 Halo and Panavia Tornado. While some of the choices made by the authors may he arguable, they have selected aircraft "that were the 'first' of their type, or the largest, or had the hest performance. or aircraft that influenced political or military decisions (such as the Lockheed U-2 spy plane) or puhlic attitudes toward aviation (such as the Savoia-Marchetti S.55)." They do not include strictly civilian aircraft, experimental or research planes, unmanned aeriai vehicles or lighter-thanair craft. What makes One Hundred Years much more interesting than a mere recital of airplane statistics are the tidbits of fascinating information that the writers provide to supplement the data on their choices. For example, we learn that after Glenn Gurtiss won a $10,000 prize from the New York World newspaper for his successful 1910 flight from Albany to New York, the paper editorialized that battles of the future would be fought in the air and "the aeroplajie will decide the destiny of nations." As a demonstration intended to back up its claim, the newspaper launched a float the size of a battleship on Lake Keuka and Curtiss "bombed" it with lead pipes—which resulted in the World's prediction that "an aeroplane costing a few thousand [would be] able to destroy the batdeship costing many millions." Other bomb-throwing contests against simulated ship targets conducted that same year have rarely been mentioned by any other historians. A broad range of topics and analysis ensure that every reader can find compelling facts and figures in One Hundred Years. For example: • The Junkers |u-52/3m, workhorse of the German transport forces, was improved after World War II. and nearly 600 were produced in Spain and France and used by the French air force in the Indochina War. • The Japanese developed the rocket-propelled Mitsu54 AVIATION HISTORY lANUARV 2005

bishi I8M Shusui (Sword Stroke) based on the German Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet. • The British Avro Lancaster was considered as the carrier for the atomic bomb when It seemed that the weapon might not fit into the bomb bay of the Boeing B-29. • About one-third of the nearly 13.000 Boeing B-17s built were lost in the European theater. • A total of 13,906 Waco GG-4A 15-troop Hadrian gliders were delivered to U.S. and British forces. • The molded plywood de Havilland Mosquito, which the authors say was "one of the most successful aircraft of the war," had a profound influence on U.S. planning for pbotoreconnaissance and night fighting. However, there was a reluctance to build them in the United States, and a comparable American night fighter was not produced until after the war. • Six camera-equipped Convair B-36s reportedly flew a high-altitude photoreconnaissance mission over the Soviet base at Murmansk, Russia, in Januar>' 1951. • No combat aircraft has remained in frontline service longer than the Lockheed C-130 Hercules. It has been flovm by more than 60 nations and is still in the inventory of all four U.S. uniformed flying services. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, while still in service after more than 50 years, is no longer in production. B-52H models are forecast to remain in the inventory until 2024, • The Russian Mil Mi-26 Halo twin-engine helicopter is the largest rotary-wing aircraft ever built. It can carry a

crew of five, 82 troops and five medical attendants, or lift a total of 123,500 pounds. Polmar and Bell have illustrated their compendium with a wealth of photographs. All in all, One Hundred Years is a fast-moving tour through the first century of military aeronautics. Their work is not only a valuable aircraft statistical reference but one that is also enjoyahle and unique in its presentation. Afterbumen Naval Aviators and the Vietnam War, by John D. Sherwood, New York University Press, 2004, S32.95. John D. Sherwood has done it again, matching and perhaps exceeding the extremely high quality of his celebrated Ojfi' cers in Flight Suits: The Story of American Air Force Fighter Pilots in Korea and Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience. Afterburner: Naval Aviators and the Vietnam War is a compelling read, for the author has a rare gift in his sometimes magisterial writing, that of projecting situational awareness. Sherwood is able to slap you into the cockpit of a McDonnell F-4 Phantom, throw you into combat and keep up a continuous stream of cockpit nanative—simultaneously making you aware of the total battle as you close in on a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG. And that is the least of it. Far more important is his ability to penetrate the characters of the many naval aviators he introduces and translate them with vivid imagery into individuals who you feel you actually know. He has the same aptitude for ships, giving the carriers from which his pilots and weapon systems officers fought a personality of their own. This ability to humanize not only people but also aircraft and ships extends to campaigns. That approach enables Sherwood to craft his book into six sections, each dealing with an individual facet of the naval aviator as a class, or the naval aviator experience in Vietnam. It is particularly useful in addressing the often overlooked story of naval flight oificers. He provides a more than adequate background to understand the war in Southeast Asia (as much as that war couid ever be understood) and begins with an interesting review of the lesser-known operations in I^os. He follows this with a section dealing with the technological advances that created a new situation, the appearance of the nonpilot aviator. His Chapter 8, "War and Ejection from the Squadron," is the most honest, telling and graphic exposition of service life that I have ever read, and I salute the author for telling it exactly as it was. In it, Sherwood continues his tale of lames B. Souder, taking him ft^om washing out of flight training because of a perceived night-vision problem through his difficulties with his frontseater on the carrier all the way to his bail-out over North Vietnam. In essence, Souder was the victim

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of discrimination, not for his sex, religion or gender, but for being a backseater. A similar stupid piienomenon used to exist in tbe U.S. Air Force, with piiots being condescending and worse to navigators, bombardiers and radar operators. Sherwood then uses Souder's subsequent experiences to segue into a brilliant exposition of the bitter experiences of prisoners of war in Vietnam from 1969 to 1973. Here we meet many of the renowned heroes—Robinson Risner, Bud Day, lames Stockdale and others—and see just how vicious the North Vietnamese were in their on-the-spot treatment of captured airmen and the subsequent systematized brutality of life in tbe "Hanoi Hilton." Souder, the despised backseater, becomes a de facto medical ofificer, and a hero to the group. Sherwood's description of the sadistic treatment of prisoners was written long before the current flap over the treatment of a few Iraqi terrorists, but it is worthwhile to compare the two. As ugly as the Iraqi prison incidents were, they simply do not equate to the omnipresent ritual beating—often to death—of wounded prisoners, the policy of years of starvation and the sadistic random torture that was exercised not to gain information but for the sheer pleasure of it. Yet as the author describes, many American prisoners of war not only endured but also managed to triumph spiritually and morally over their despicable captors, wbo greatly reduced their harsh treatment during Linebacker II, as they began to worry about their own sorry hides. Afterburner is an important book. It shows how a small group of highly trained personnel responded to year after year of intense personal challenges, always trying to excel, even when they were well aware that tbey were actually fighting for a politically forfeit cause. Walter J. Boyne War in Pacific Skies: Tbe Aviation Art of Jack Feliows, by Charlie and Ann Cooper, MBI Publishing, St. Paul, Minn., 2003, S39.95. You've often seen paintings by Jack Fellows in the pages of this magazine. 1 see one of them every day—a print of bis Squirlbate hangs on my office wall, depicting Lieutenant DickVodra in his Curtiss P-40 flaming a lapanese Zero that was on the tail of anotber P-40. My print was signed by Vodra himself when we met to discuss his article about that event and his wartime activities in New Guinea [Mmtion History, Ianuar>' 1995}. I always enjoy looking at a Fellows painting whenever I see one used as an illustration in Aviation History or elsewhere, although I somehow missed many of them and just lost track of others. But now that War in Pacific Skies: The Aviation Art ofJack Continued on page 68

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JANUARY '05

60 AVIATION HISTORY JANUARY 2005

summer of 1942 the He-280V2 prototype, newly equipped with two axial-flow Junkers Continued from page 20 Jumo 004s, was achieving speeds of close to 500 mph. Jt was fitted with three nosemounted 20mm MG151 cannons, about half aerodynamic qualities through a series of again the firepower of the Me-109G-1S and glide tests. Fitted with dummy nacelles and Fw-19OAs going into service at that time. ballast, the prototype was towed aloft for the The He-280V5, proposed as the producfirst time behind an He-111 on September 11, tion standard aircraft, was completed in late 1940. After 40 further gliding flights were 1942 and equipped with Heinkel-Hirth 001 carried out, the aircraft was returned to the turbojets (improved and renamed HeS 8s}. hangar in March 1941 for installation of the Trials indicated a maximum speed of 509 HeS 8A turhojets. With Fritz Shafer at the con- mph and a service ceiling of 37,730 feet with trols, the He-28OV1 made its initial powered a combat radius of 300 miles. When the RLM flight on April 2,1941 (keep in mind that the failed to show any definite intention to place Me-262 did not fly until July 18,1942). Due the He-280A-0 interceptor version in quantity to fuel accumulating in the nacelle bottoms production, Heinkel issued a new proposal during ground run-ups, the engines were left for an He-280B-l fighter-bomber version uncowled, and the plane was flown at pat- that would be armed with no less than six tern altitude with the landing gear extended. 20mm cannons and powered by Jumo 004 Three days later, with its engine cowlings turbojets. Maximum speed for that version restored, the He-28OV1 was demonstrated was estimated at 547 mph. at Rechlin before Udet; Roluf Lucht, chief of By early 1943, nearly two years after the Technische Amt's engineering division; and He-280 had flown, the RJ.M's dilatoriness Wolfram Eisenlohr, chief of the power plant enabled competitor Messerschmitt to catch division. Weighing 9,436 pounds, the VI up with and surpass Heinkel's efforts. In fact, achieved a top speed of 485 mph at 19,683 flight trials of the Me-262V4 indicated that, feet. The offlcial reaction to the new aircraft with similar turbojet power, Messerschmitt's was mixed, however, with Udet questioning entry could outperform the He-280 in virtuwhether the Reich's resources should be de- ally all respects. With the Reich's aircraft provoted to an unproven type of warpiane. Fol- duction resources now being pushed to lowing Udet's suicide on November 17,1941, critical capacity in a two-front war, it came his successor, Erhard Milch, was equally un- as no surprise that Technische Amt ordered enthusiastic about the jet fighter. The RLM, Heinkel to abandon further development of however, did agree to the construction of six the He-280, limiting production to the nine more developmental aircraft in addition to prototypes already authorized. the three previously authorized. The He-280V2, V4, V6 and V9 all went on The He-280V2 was completed and flown in May 1941, followed by the He-280V3 in July At the same time, the HeS 8 engine program was encountering problems. Efforts to boost thrust resulted in turbine blade failure, causing the V3 prototype to make an emergency wheels-up landing in the fall of 1941. In January 1942, the He-28OV1 was transferred to Rechlin, where the turbojets were replaced by six Argus As 014 pulse jets (the same type that later powered V-1 "buzz bombs"). Because the pulse jets could not deliver sufficient takeoff power, the aircraft was towed aloft behind two Messerschmitt Me- llOCs. During the ascent, the He-280Vl started to take on ice, and at 7,875 feet test pilot Helmut Schenk released the towline and jettisoned himself from the cockpit, the first pilot to make use of an ejection seat in the history of aviation. Despite those setbacks, by the spring of 1942 officials at Heinkel believed the He-2B0 had shown adequate promise to be considered for production. To compel RLM officials to make a decision, he arranged a mock combat demonstration against a Focke Wulf Fw- 190A, in which the He-280V2 reportedly outperformed its prop-driven adversary. As a result, the RLM endorsed plans for 13 He-280A-0 preproduction aircraft. By the

to serve as test-beds in either the Junkers Jumo 004 or the BMW 003 engine development programs. The He-280V9 with BMW engines was the last delivered in August 1943. The He-280V7 and V8 were transfened to Ainring for aerodynamic investigation of the V-tail planform, though only the V8 was actually converted to this configuration. The converted He-280V8 was first flown in July 1943 and in August of the same year attained a maximum speed of 435 mph in level flight. After 10 flights, the engines were removed and further testing was carried out on the aircraft as a glider. Both planes were to have been equipped with Heinkel-Hirth 109-011 (HeS U) turbojets rated at 2,425 pounds of static thrust each, but the engines were not available. The Jnmo-poweredHe-280V6 was subsequently modified with a single fin and rudder but crashed on its first high-speed test near Berlin in early 1945. Had Udet and his Technische Amt supported Heinkel's efforts from the very beginning, the He-280's fate might have been different. At the least, the existence of such fighters in 1943 in significant numbers would have impaired the U.S. Army Air Forces' daylight bombing campaign; at the worst, they might have delayed the Allied invasion of Europe, "t"

Solomons Continued from page 44

Mitscher transferred his flag to the carrier Enterprise. "We were then getting low on fuel and requested a 'deck,'" Swett said. "Enterprise responded, and we proceeded to land aboard. As I roiled to a stop, a crewman frantically told me to 'Get out!' and he proceeded to push my brand new F4U-1C... overboard! There wasn't enough room for our 20 plus Enterprise's own aircraft. I was fuming! One small—read iarge^coincidence is that the guy who was responsible for pushing my plane over the side, Aviation Mechanic's Mate Lee Hayes, lives where I do now He's a nice guy, and we've grown to be good friends, but I tell him every so often, 'I'm still pissed off at you!' They did save six planes, and the next day we bade goodbye to Admiral Mitscher and staff and went to Okinawa. From there we frantically tried to bum a ride to Ulithi, where our ship, after extinguishing her flres, was headed." Bunker Hill was saved, but its casualties totaled 396 killed or missing and 288 wounded, including one Marine pilot of VMF-451 and 28 enlisted Marines. The ships extensive damage ended the war for Air Group 84, whose personnel were shipped home. In its final tour, VMF-221 was credited with 66 victories, giving the squadron a wartime total of 155. In addition to receiving the Medal of Honor, by the end ofWorld War II Swett had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross eight times, along with 22 Air Medals and two Purple Hearts. He commanded VMF-141, and when the Korean War broke out on June 25,1950, he tried to get into the conflict. "They wouldn't tJike me for Korea," he said, "because I had the Medal of Honor, it was an undeclared war and I was a lieutenant colonel—they only took flying officers up to the rank of major. I flew to Washington to argue my case, but the commandant of the Marine Corps, General Glifton B. Cates, told me, 'Sorry, Jim, we can't take you—we could hust you down to second lieutenant if you want....'" Jim Swett then transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, retiring in 1970 as a full colonel. He also ran his father's marine pump and turbine company in San Francisco fi-om his father's death in 1960 to 1983, when Swett passed It on to his son. In recent years be underwent an eye operation that restored liis failing vision to an impressive 20/25. •*-

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For further reading, Aviation History senior editor Jon Guttman recommends: Covsairs and Flattops, Marine Carrier Air Warfare, 1944-1945, by John Pomeroy Condon; and Aces Against lapan; The American Aces Speak, Volume 1, by Eric Hammel.

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JANUARY 2005 AVIATION HISTORY 61

Art of Flight Conceived as a morale booster for lonely flyboys, nose art reflects the bumor of WWII aircrews. BY LISA MANN Sack 7/me's nose art was inspired by artist Alberto Vargas' Patriotic 6a/—who donned a nightshirt in deference to U.S. Post Office censors.

THE GIRLS BACK HOME who inspired Lady Luck. Mutz and Yankee G/r/—images painted on the noses of World War 11 bombers—may be octogenarians now, and they surely never appeared in public in the skimpy nighties or underwear that their likenesses wore into battle. But their scantily clad images live on in an extensive nose art collection at the American Airpower Heritage Museum (AAHM). Located at the Commemorative Air Force Headquarters in Midland. Texas, the museum houses 33 original panels cut from the fuselages of World War II aircraft in a new6,000-square-foot gallery. The "Save the Girls" exhibit also features videos, audio recordings, photographs and murals to explain the historical and cultural forces behind this unique art form^the bomber crews who flew the aircraft, the graphic artists and pinup calendar girls who inspired the art, and the frequently nameless servicemen who created what is now considered folk art. Fortunately, we do know who painted some of those images—among them Ha! Olsen. Back in 1944, before they shipped off on a 32-day voyage to the southwest Pacific, most of Olsen's buddies stocked up on cigarettes, Olsen, then a 24-year-old Navy airplane mechanic, had visions of painting tropical scenes of the Mariana Islands, so he spent his last $50 on oil paints. It turned out to be a profitable investment for a young man whose take-home Navy pay came to less than $80 a month at the time. Ten days after Olsen arrived in the Marianas, the Japanese bombed a locker that held the paints of the resident nose art painter. Olsen tucked his own oil paints under his arm and volunteered to depict a pinup girl on the nose panel of a Navy bomber. "I stood on an oil drum and 62 AVIATION HISTORY (ANIJARV 2005

painted the first one for free," he recalled. "By the time I was done, they were lined up to ask me to do more—at $50 a shot. I painted in the mornings, and then did a noon to midnight shift for the Navy. I almost didn't need to draw pay from the Navy. I probably painted hundreds, but a lot of the planes were shot down, and most of the planes are lost. I sent money home to my mother so fast that the post office thought I was gambling." The core of the AAHM's collection of nose art can be traced to one man—Minot Pratt Jr., the general manager of tbe Aircraft Conversion Company in Walnut Ridge, Ark. At the end of WWII, when many aircraft were being scrapped by the company, Pratt ordered some of the more colorful or popular pieces removed from the fuselages before the planes were smelted down. The paintings were kept in storage until the mid-1960s, wbenTully Pratt III requested that they be donated to die AAHM. Although nose art existed prior to WWII and is still being produced today (the nose panel of a KC-135 Stratotanker was recently painted with passenger Todd Beamer's phrase "Ler^flo//,"to honor 9/Us Flight 93), tbe art form reached its zenith during tbat war. Gary Valent, the author of Vintage Aircraft Nose Art, wrote: "The difference is not in the tail number. Few crew members would talk about 24763 or 34356, but many tales would be told about Sack Time or The Dragon Lady." Nose art names were carefully chosen, usually by members of the crew. Bravery, luck and—you guessed i t female imagery were common. Nose art in tbe Save the Girls collection includes: Sack Time, Mama Foo-Foo. Mis Behaving, Sloppy but Safe, Nobby's Harriet and Southern Comfort. As for Hal Olsen, be remembers creating Easy Maid. Lady Luck and Miss Sea-ducer. Some names referred to particular missions or duties. For example, a Consolidated B-24 dubbed Hump Time got its name because that aircraft saw service in the China-Burma-india Theater, where it regularly flew over the Himalayas v\1tb the 308tb Bomb Group. Other planes got tbeir names as well as their nose art from artists. Olsen recalled: "The pilot for a B-29 bomber—the camera plane for Hiroshima—came and got me after tbe event was over. He wanted me to paint the nose, but he didn't have a name yet. 1 suggested Up and Atom because of tbeir most Continued on page 70

Enduring Heritage The Grumman Restoration Team reconstructed aviation history—one piece at a time. BY HENRY K. MACDONALD After months of cleaning and renovation, a Grumman F4F-3A Wildcat is on its way to a new paint job.

The retirees also restored the first of 646 Grumman F9F-6 Cougars to be produced. Bureau No. 126670. Built in 1951, the F9F-6 was a follow-on to earlier-model F9F Panthers, introducing a 35-degree sweptwing and "flying" tail. When the Cougar reached the team, a lot of sand and otber debris had to be removed before members could even begin tbeir restoration work, as it had apparently been parked outside at a Florida naval air station for years. Upon completion, tbat aircraft was sent to tbe Smitbsonian Institution. Next to be restored was a 1941TBM-3 Avenger torpedo homber tbat bad been used as a crop duster, a gift from Mabel Schwendler in memory of ber late husband, William T. Schwendler, one of tbe Grumman Corporation founders. Tbat plane is now at tbe Cradle of Aviation Museum. IN 1973 ARTHUR ROMEO, A RETIRED Grumman CorTbe Grumman Restoration Team works only one day a poration employee witb 28 years of service, was asked if week, so it takes at least four to five years to restore an airhe would be interested in restoring tbe control surfaces craft. Romeo worked every week until bis deatb in March of a damaged Grumman F4F owned by the Smitbsonian 1995. Leadership of tbe team then passed to August "Augie" Institution. Romeo accepted the job and ended up lead- Ripp, a 45-year retired Grumman production manager. ing a small group of other retirees wbo volunteered to Tbe team worked long and bard on two badly damaged work with him. Tbe completion of tbat project in Marcb F4F-3A Wildcats that had been submerged in Lake Michi1975 marked tbe start of the Grumman Restoration Team gan for nearly 45 years. These two aircraft had gone into at a hangar in Bethpage, New York, part of the original the water during carrier landing and takeoff practice from Grumman plant. For 15 years I served as a member of that Sable and Wolverine, training carriers tbat bad been congroup, wbere I was known as tbe "cockpit man." verted from side-wheeler excursion boats. Romeo, a pilot instructor and Federal Aviation AdminWben one of tbe two Wildcats, Bureau No. 3956, was istration-certified aircraft inspector, was just tbe rigbt pulled out of Lake Michigan, its tires sdll bad air in them person to lead the newly formed team. Under bis guid- and there was fuel in tbe gas tank. When tbe "remains" ance the team restored many Grumman-produced air- reacbed the restoration work area, however, all the team craft, including a one-of-a-kind G-72 Kitten. Targeted at bad was a forward section, which included tbe cockpit military pilots who would presumably want small private and a tail section, with nothing in between. Tbe fuselage aircraft of tbeir own after World War il ended, the G-72 contour was made using tbe little information found in never reacbed production. Tbe Kitten's dismantled re- company files. Much of that aircraft had to be laboriously mains were turned over to tbe Grumman team, and tbe re-created by hand, including stringers and contour defully restored aircraft is now in tbe Cradle of Aviation tails to bold tbe skin panels. Museum at Mitcbel Field on Long Island, Upon completion of its restoration. No. 3956 was dediTbe team also restored tlireeF HA Tiger jets built in tbe cated on tbe aircraft carrier Yorktown at tbe Patriots Point 1950s, tbe same type used by the Navy Blue Angels aero- Naval & Maritime Museum at Charleston, S.C. The batic team. Today tbe first tbing you'll see as you enter tbe number 15 was painted on tbe fuselage in memory of Cradle of Aviation Museum is an FlIA Tiger hanging Medal of Honor recipient Edward H. "Butcb" O'Hare. overhead, glowing in its ricb blue and yellow livery. Tbe otber F4F recovered from Lake Michigan, Bureau Another famous Grumman figbter that the team took No. 12297, had been flown by Ensign Horace Little, wbo on was an F6F-5 Hellcat, the U.S. Navy's top carrier fighter was making carrier qualification landings and takeoffs for a good part of WWII. Continued on page 72 64 AVIATION HISTOPV JANUARY 2005

Airv\/are Discover a wealth of information on aviation history Web sites. BY BERNARD DY

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THIS ISSUE, I'LL POINT OUT SOME USEFUL aviation history resoutees on the Internet. An entry-level PC or Mac and an account with an Internet service provider (ISP) are all you need to enjoy an abundance of largely free content, The Web sites I list here are just a fraction of the resources you can discover through any Internet search. Also note that these Weh pages earned a mention for being good general references, and a site's omission does not indicate a lack of relevance or quality. Searching Whether your interest is in a particular aircraft, or company, or pioneering aviator or engineer, the Internet is bound to have some information on the subject. Search engines at Google (www.google.com) or Yahoo [vvww.yahoo.com) can draft a treasure map for you on any topic. Civil Aviation Aviation reaches us every day through events as dramatic as a rescue helicopter's role in saving a life, or as mundane as the delivery of seafood shipped across the continent overnight. Whether you're interested in commercial carriers or want to learn mote about a stunt pilot, these sites offer useful resources: Boeing (www.boeing.com) Cessna (www.cessna.com) Piper (www.nevvpiper.eom) The DC-3 Aviation Museum (www.centercomp.com/dc3) Los Angeles International Airport (vmav.lawa.org/lax/ laxframe.html) Patty Wagstaff (www.pattywagstaff.com) Russian Aviation (aeroweb.Iucia.it/-agretch/RARhtml) Military Aviation Performing a search on military aviation topics or aircraft 6fi AVIATION HISTORY lANUARY 2005

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can leave you staggering under an avalanche of great links. Here are some starting points: World War I Aviation (www.wwiaviation.com) American Aces of WWII (www.acepilots.com) Randy Wilson's Aviation History Site (rwebs.net/ avhistory) U.S. Air Force (www.af.mil) U.S. Army (vwvw.army.mil) U.S. Navy (vvww.navy.mil) U.S. Navy: Naval Historical Center (www.history. navy.mil) U.S. Coast Guard (www.uscg.mil) Blue Angels Na\7 Demonstration Team (www.blue angels.com) Thunderbirds Air Force Demonstration Team (www. airforee.eom/thunderbirds) The Skyhawk Association (wv\'w. skyhawk.org) Northrop Grumman (vvww.grumman.com) Rick Versteeg's Republic F'-105 Thunderchief site (vvww.geocities.com/pentagon/7002) Mustangs Mustangs" P-51 site (vvww.p51.mustangs mustangs.com/p5Lshtml) Aviation Writing Start with a great statesman of aviation writing, Walter Boyiie, and continue your adventures with the famed Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Boyne's site has a good links page to even more a\-iation resources. The Saint-Exupery site is in French, but you can view parts of it in English by searching for it on Google and using the "translate page" link. Naval aviation history buffs should drop by Barrett Tillman's site, and Flying Tigers fans can get a load of information ?Li Aviation H/sfori'contributor Daniel Ford's Warbirds Forum. There's also Aviation History's home on Continued on page 72

Reviews "Mariin 's Milieu "

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Continuedfrompage 58 Fellows has been published, I have them all—all, that is, up to the time of printing of this hefty coffee-table book that provides not only a graphic portrayal ofWorld War II in the Pacific but also the textual background to the paintings and the general war itself. It Is not just a pretty picmre book, it is a history book that has great illustrations. Aldiough his excellent credentials include serving as a former president and an Artist Fellow member of the American Society of AviationArtists, Fellows'paintings speak for themselves. I personally like realistic portrayals of aviation action, and Fellows always comes through in spades. His action is exciting, and his research is detailed. His style—sometimes photographic, sometimes bold with visible brush strokes—dazzles you at every page of this book. There are not only paintings here but also lots of wartime photographs and plenty of entertaining and informative text. War in the Skies is more than just a page-through oob and aah publication, After the first admiring round, it can provide several more hours of absorbing reading. War in Pacific Skies begins not witb a military action scene but a seemingly straightforward painting of a Lockheed Flectra flying alone—and ahout to run out of fuel— over tbe Pacific Ocean, carrying Amelia Farhart and navigator Fred Noonan. Fellows titled his painting Lost! Although Earbart and Noonan were attempting to achieve the first around-the-world flight at the equator, some have contended that they were also engaged in a mission of espionage against tbe lapanese, who were tben setting the stage for the Pacific campaign that would eventually pull the United States into a war. Beginning witb tbat single poignant image. Fellows' volume is history and graphic excitement at its best. In the book's foreword. Waiter J. Boyne— retired U.S. Air Force colonel, former director of the National Air and Space Museum and founding member of Aviation History's editorial advisory board—states, "just as a good book lets you read through it easily but lures you back to study and savor the more meaningful passages, so does Jack Fellows' art compel you to study the paintings, to get all of the meaning implicit in the markings, in the methods of attack, in the angle of the sun and the cbop of tbe water. This is a wonderful book, one that inspires and educates and makes you wish for more." How could I top tbat? Arthur H. Sanfelid For additional reviews, go to www. historyhookworld.com.

Art of Flight Continued from page 62

Sun 'n Fun in Lakeland, Fla., provides year-round activity for flight buffs. "HIGH FLYING HOLIDAYS" will take place December 9-12,2004, at Sun 'n Fun, at the Florida Air Museum, LakelandLinder Regional Airport. The multipleevening event includes a Festival of Lights throughout the Sun 'n Fun campus, Festival of Trees at Florida Air Museum, horse and bugg>' rides, tram rides, hay rides and nightly entertainment. What's more, Santa and Mrs. Claus will be flying in from the North Pole each evening. In addition. Sun 'n Fun hosts a vintage aircraft fly-in December 4; the Radio-controlled Aircraft Program for youth continues on Saturdays—December 4, January 8, and February 12; tbe Florida Aviation Hall of Fame annual ceremony takes place on December 17; and the Aviation Expressions lecture series includes topics on flying military aircraft. Call 863-644-2431 or visit n-n-fun.org for furtber details. Dec. 3-5:6th Holiday Balloon Pest. Battle Creek, Micb. In its first year. 1998, tbe festival attracted 13 bot-air balloonists and 5,000 spectators. Tbis year more than 65 balloons are expected and 25,000 visitors. Call 269-962-4076 or go to www.holiday balloonfest.com for details. Dec. 3-5: Red Rock Balloon Rally, Callup, N.M., at Red Rock State Park. For tbis 24tb annual event, 200 bot-air balloons are expected. Call 505-863-0262 or visit www.redrockballoonrally.com or www. gallupnm.org (tbe Web site for tbe Gallup Convention andVisitors Bureau). Dec. 4: "Remembering Pearl Harbor," Chino, Calif., Airport at Planes of Fame Museum. For information call 909-5973722 or go to www.planesoffame.org. Dec. 6-9: International Council of Air Sbows Convention, Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nev Go to www.airshows.org for details. Dec. 11: Holiday parade witb Western Museum of Flight aircraft at Hawtborne, Calif., Municipal Airport, Jack Nortbrop Field. Call 310-332-6228 or go to www. wmof.com for information. Dec. II: "Wrigbt Spirit Holiday Celebration," Seattle, Wash., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Museum of Flight. Santa and Mrs. Claus will arrive by helicopter to greet cbildren, and the museum will be collecting Toys for Tots. The museum also bas a British Air70 AVIATION HISTORY JANUARY 2005

ways Concorde on display, which can be toured 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. daily. For information, call 206-764-5700 or visit www. museumoffligbt.org. Dec. 11: Santa Welcome and Helicopter Sbow, Olympic Flight Museum, Olyinpia, Wash., Regional Airport. For details contact the museum at 360-705-3925 or visit www.olympicfligbtmuseum.com. Dec. 18: Santa Fly-in, Western Museum of Flight, Jack Nortbrop Field, Hawtborne, Calif., Municipal Airport. Call 310-3326228 or visit vtfww.wmof.com for more. Jan. 10-13: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Meeting and Exbibit, Reno Hilton, Reno, Nev. For information, call 703-264-7500 or 800-639-2422 or visit www.aiaa.org. Feb. 6-8: Helicopter Association International Heli-Expo 2005, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, Calif. For information, call 703-683-4646 or visit www.heliexpo.com. Feb. 7-12: Second World Cup in Canopy Piloting, Lake Wales, Fla. Hosted by the Florida Skydiving Center and organized by tbe U.S. Parachuting Association, tbis event was to have occurred Oct. 30-Nov. 3, but was postponed due to recovery from Hurricane Charley. Visit www.floridaskydiving.com for more information. Every 1st Saturday: Frazier Lake Airpark, HoUister, Calif., antique aircraft display. Call 408-779-2356 or visit www.frazierlake. com. Feb. 24-25: National Warbirds Operators Conference, Seattle, Wash. Call 480-9511667; e-mail [email protected]; or visit www. warbirdconference.com for information. Every 3rd Saturday: Houston, 1940 Air Terminal Museum at William P. Hobby Airport, "Wings and Wbeels" features vintage aircraft and cars. Ticket price ($10 adults, $5 children 12 and under) includes lunch, static aircraft tours, special programs in Starliner Theater, museum tours and admission to the museum. Call 713-454-1940 or visit www. 1940airtenninal.org for more. Mary Beck Desmond

recent mission, and it stuck." Most nose art depicts young women, but some planes sported otber images. Rum and Coke, in the Save the Girls exhibit, was painted on a Boeing B-17G. Cartoon characters like Popeye or Lil Abner's Moonbeam McSwine adorned some fuselages. It was rumored that Japanese pilots thought shark's teetb were unlucky and would avoid engaging witb planes painted with that image. As a result, sbark's teeth became a common motif. "It was a democratic process," recalled Olsen. "The crew decided what they wanted, Pinup calendars were prett\' popular back then, and every man bad one, so tbey'd pull tbem out and compare, and vote on wbo tbey wanted me to paint. Ob, sometime it'd be a cartoon character, or a pboto of a girl back bome, maybe something else, but usually it was tbe girls." Sack Time, on display in the AAHM exbibit, is just one example of tbe influence of airbrush artist Alberto Vargas, whose pinups for Esquire magazine bad acbieved great popularity sbortly before tbe war. Sack Time was inspired by Vargas' Patriotic Gal, wbich the artist created after tbe U.S. Post Office attempted to censor him. Vargas chose to depict Patriotic Gal more decently clad, wearing a nightshirt. Phil Stack wrote the following verse to accompany her, implying that tbe short nigbty was an act of patriotism—sbe'd torn off the bem to make bandages for tbe war effort: She always responds Wben she's asked to buy bondsNo critic can label her flighty. And because it's in style To conserve with a smile she's conserving by day and by nighty!

Never ofticiaDy sanctioned by the military, nose art was nevertbeless considered a morale booster for lonely flyboys, and tbe brass seldom objected. "It helped give the crews a sense of belonging, of being part of a team," said Olsen." Maybe it was also a reminder of tbe people back bome we were fighting for." Often tbe mascots became saucier and the nose an naughtier the fartber tbe flight crew was from bome. But after WWII, before tbe Navy bombers that Olsen bad decorated could fly back to the States, some of the girls had to dress a little warmer. "Tbe orders came Aviation History welcomes submissions. from higher up: We had to cover up the girls," Please send to: Events Editor. Aviation His- recalled Oisen. Originally topless girls sported tory Mflgozi/ie. 741 Miller Drive. Suite D-2, new swimsitits or negligees for tbe trip bome. Leesburg. VA 20175 or via e-mail to "I didn't charge anything for painting a negligee," said Olsen. "We were goingbome." "^ [email protected].

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BOOKS/BOCUMENTS '->CC Aircrajl Museums, BOOK: GiiiiLUSA/Canada 22nd Ed. Charge or CK/MO UO postpiiid (oversells extra) to: Michael Blaugher, 124 E. Foster Parkway, Ft. Wayne. IN 468061730. 260-744-1020. Emuil: airmuseums® ao1.com web: www.aircraftmuseums.com

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PHOTOGRAPHS JESSE DAVIDSON AVIATION ARCHIVES. Hi^to^ic aviation photographs, books, autographs, documents. Visit our website at: www.aviationhistoryphotos.com or contact: 516-829-8946. \if\M Statts ? m \ Service STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, w l CIRCUUtnON Required tq 39 use 3685 1. PuDUcanwiTrtle A W M HISTORY 2. U l K A i n taDcr lD?6-fla58 3,FiliiigDate K f f l l W (.IssueofFrEqimy BhMoifflilf. 5.NuriBiei o( issuffi ftjCtehed Annually 6 6. Annual SuDscnphcm Price 2395 7. Complete Mailing Address ol Known O t e of Pudliaton (Not PnirtEfl: Pniredia CMMG-/JJ Miller Dr, S.E., SuHe D2, Leesbog. VA 20176 B. Complete Uailirtg WdFESs of HeadquartEts or Gererai Biisir»ess Office ol PitMisTei |Not Prniter) RnmediaCMMG, 260 UaQison Avenue, ta Vort. fJV 10016. 9, Full Names aixl Compleis Mjling Mdiesses d Poblisto, tditoi. aiwl Managing Edilor PuWisHer Joseph Psil. 741 Miller Dr. S E - S i * 02. LeestmrgJA 20176 Editor AflTurH. SanfelKi. TJI Miller Dr., S L, Suite D2, Leesburg. VA 201 ?5 Managing Editor Cad Von Wodtke. 741MillerDr.S,E.SiiteD2.LeestiLrg.VA2(]i75 Id, Owner - Full name PRIMEDIAInc, 745 Fill Auenue. New York. NY 10151 USA. 11. Krown Bondholders. Mortgagees, and CHi« Secunfy HoWers Owning or Hotting 1 Perrent or Mora ol ToEl Amoiint of Bonds, Mortgages or OftierSecunHes None 13.Piilihc3t»nrit!e AVIATION HISTORY 14,lssue Date for Circulation Data MM Sept. 2004 15. Extent and Malure ol Craation a. Total Noffbef of Copies iNei press luni Tfie average numDer copies eacfi issue tlurlng preceding 12 monBisras fl7,S9 Tfenumtsr copies single ISSUE publisfiEd nearest to i n g daleivas7a.f14. b.Paida[Ki¥ReqijeEtedCircijlation. (1)PaidfleqijestedOutsidtCounty Mail SySscnptiorBSiEfed on Form 3541 (fncliideattarfisersproofandexcfiangBCoqies) The awage number copes each ssue during piosdmg 12 months M S 42.277. The number cupes smgle issue publrshea nearssf to fiSng dateTOSW S S . (!) Paid In-O0(in!v Sutiscnptions Stated on Form 3541 (Includes Jdvertiser's prool and exchange copies) Tfie average number copies eacSi issue dunng preceding 12 montfis wasO. The number copies single tssue pubfisfied nearest fo filing dateras0. (3) Sales Ttirougn Dealeis and Carriers, Street Vendors. Couriter ^les. and Ottier Non-USPS Paid DiSnbutKin. The aveiage number copies each issue during preceding 12 monltis«11.880, T^e number copies single issue published neatest fo liling dale was 11.650. (4)fflTerBasses Mailed T?iroogfi f^e USPS H\e awrage number copes eacti issue riunng preceding 12 monBis was 0 Tlie number copies single issue published nearest to filing date was 0. t. Total Paid and/or Requested CiiCulaSon [Sum of 15b 1.2,3 S 4| Tlie average number copies eacfi issue dunng preceding 12 monftis *as 54.156 The number copes single issue published nearest 1o filing date mas 51 .OT d. Fre« Oismbuticn by Mail (Samples. Comglimentarv and otiier free) (1) Outside County as Stated on Form K 4 1 TlK MrafB number cop«s eacfi issue dunng preceding 12 nwntts was 29. Tfie number copies single issue published nearesf lo filing date M S 44 (!) in-County as Slated on Form 3M1 The average number copies each issue dunng preceding 12 montlis HBS 0, The number copies single issue published nearestfo liling date tv3s 0 {3| Other Classes Mailed Thraugli the tISPS The average number copies each issue during preceding 12 montfs was 0 Ttie number capies Single Esue puUsded nearest to filing date was 0 e. Free Oistnbution Outside the Mail (Camers of oBier means). TTie average numbei copies eac^ ssue during preceding 12 months was Tt7 The number copies single issue publisfied nearest lo filing dale was 70C I. TotaJ Free Oistnbution (Sum of 15d and 1 fie) Tlie average number copies each issue dunng preceding 12 months was 745. The number copies single Gsue pubished r«ares1 to liling date was 744 5, Total Dismbunon (Sum of 15C and 15I| The awage mnte copies each issue dunng preceding 12 montns was 54.902 The number copies single issue publisfetf nearest to filing dafe was 52,652. h. Cofiies nof Oisfribufed The a v e r ^ number copies eacfi issue dunng preceding 12 months was 33.058. Tfie number copies single issue published nearesf to filng date was 25,462. I. Total (Sum of I5g and t5h) The average number cwies eacfi issue flunrg precaling 12 monSis was 87.959 The noinber copies single issue published nearest to fiing itteras78.114. j , teni Paid and/or Requeued Cuculation The a^rage number copies each issue dunng pieceding 1 ! months was i W i . The numbef copes single issue published nearest lo Wing dale was 98.Pfp. IS. Publoticn ol Slaiement of Qnnership • Wilf be prnted in the Jan. 2006 issue of fhis puNic^on 17,1 certify tiat ail mformatai furnished on this (orm s true and complete Signalure and title ol Edilor. Publisher. Business Manager, or {>*iie(- Kevin fJearv. Senior Vice Presidenl,(M.1ll1]l'O4

AVIATION HISTORV JANUARY 2005

Enduring Heritage Alrware Continued from page 64

Continued from page 66

aboard Sable on January 16,1944, when he went over the side. Pulled out of the water unhurt, Little later qualified and went on to serve for more than 21 years in the Navy, retiring as a commander with nearly 4,000 hours offlyingtime and 320 carrier landings. During the restoration of No. 12297, the 77year-old Little visited GruniTnan to see his lost Wildcat. That F4F is now on display in the Cradle of Aviation Museum. The salvage of both Wildcats was financed by the Friends of Long Island's Heritage. In addition to tlie many aircraft it restored, the team also worked on two Grummanhuilt lunar excursion modules (LEMs) for display, including one in the Cradle of Aviation Museum. That LEM, the last one huilt, is 22 feet 9 inches high and was scheduled to fly into space but never did. The last project that I worked on, which was underway for more than four years, was an F8F-1B Bearcat, Bureau No. 122120, which was restored to flying condition for Thailand. One of the I29F8F-1 andF8F-lB Bearcats that Thailand received in early 1950, the aircraft served as a gate guard at a Thai air base for many years. Its restoration was sponsored by the Thai Foundation for the Preservation of Thai Aircraft, When Bearcat No. 122120 arrived in many large crates after a long sea voyage, it was clear to the team members that the weather and a lack of maintenance had taken a heavy toll on the aircraft. Many new parts, hardware and details in various assemblies had to be found or made for the plane. The electrical wiring and hydraulic system, for example, needed to he replaced. Since the plane was intended to be flown once it was completed, modern instrumentation was required, along with a new cockpit canopy and windscreen. The engine required a major overhaul, and parts were often hard to find. While the Bearcat was being reassembled, the future pilot of the aircraft—Group Captain Veerayuth "Tang" Didyasarin of the Royal Thai Air Force—visited the team many times to see how the work was going. The restored aircraft was returned to Thailand in May 2003. In March 2003 the Grumman Restoration Team was informed that it would be losing its work space in the Betlipage hangar. Since then, a smaller group of volunteers has continued their work in alternate locations. Looking back on my involvement with the team, it gives me great satisfaction to know that I made a contribution to preserving aviation history. Thanks to knowledgeable volunteers, a handful of Grumman's historic aircraft have been put back together—one piece at a time, "t-

theWeb,TheHistoryNet. Walter Boyne (www.air-boyne.com) Antoine de Saint-Exupery (wviw.saintexupery.org) Stephen Coonts (www.coonts.com) Barrett Tillman (www.btillman.com) Daniel Ford (www.warbirdforum.com) TheHistoryNet (wuw.thehistorynet.com) Special Interests These sites are interesting views of special parts of aviation with a particular niche focus or human interest. The Federation of American Scientists has several aviation topics in its Strategic Security section. The Ninety-Nines celebrate the role of women in aviation. Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org) The Ninety-Nines (www.ninety-nines.org) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (www.nasa.gov) Museums These sites can help you pick worthy destinations for your next vacation. If you can't get there, you can still get a taste by visiting a museum's site. Check Flight-History for a large catalog of air museums. Canada Aviation Museum (http://www. aviation.technomuses.ca) Flight-History (www.flight-history.com) Planes of Fame (www.planesoffame.org) Seattle Museum of Flight (www.museum offlight.org) Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum (www.nasm.si.edu) U.S. Air Force Museum (www.wpafb. af.mil/museum) Flight Simulations Real-world airplane research is fine at the sites above, but simulation lets us experiment, and tbat's where these sites come in. For news about new simulations or addons, these are the places to go. You'll also find training resources and online communities here with knowledgeahle gamers to answer questions you might have about tweaking your simulations and computers. Some of these are the official product pages for popular simulations like Microsofr Flight Simulator. One interesting site is The Strategy Page, where historian and wargame expert James Dunnigan is a principal. SimHQ (www.simhq.com) The Strategy Page (www.strategypage.com) Microsofr Flight Simulator (wuw.microsoft.com/games/pc/flightsimulator.aspx) Aces High (www.hitechcreations.com) X-P/ane/Laminar Research (www.x-plane. com), "t"

Legacy of Flight BY NAN SIEGEL Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio (left) joins pilot Natale Palli in ttie cockpit of a modified SVA-5 on August 9,1918.

JANUARY 16,1916, NEAR GRADO, ITALY-During an emergency water landing in a Macchi L! flying boat, Italian poet and political agitator Gabriele D'Annunzio struck his forehead on a forward-firing machine gun. That injury would cause the undersized and frail-looking author to permanently lose the sight in one eye—and would also lead to one of his most evocative works, Nottumo (Nocturne), written during the six long months he spent in a darkened room while recovering from the accident.

The son of a wealthy landowner, D'Annunzio first took to the air in 1909, when he convinced Louis Bleriot to give him a hrief ride during an international air meet at Brescia, Italy. While D'Annunzio himself never learned to fly, he frequently climhed into the cockpits of aircraft during World War I to lead sorties over Austrian cities and across the Adriatic Sea. A fervent Fascist and unrelenting patriot, he returned to flying in September 1916 with a Silver Medal and wearing a black eye patch. In the summer of 1917, he staged a series of successful nighttime incursions by Caproni bombers over the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy's shipyards and submarine pens on the Adriatic coast. His best known raid, however, came on August 9, 1918, when he led a handful of aircraft to the Hapsburg capital of Vienna—dropping not bombs but leaflets penned by D'Annunzio himself (see story in the November 1994 Aviation History). They read, in part: "We do not make war on children, old people or on women, We fight against your rulers, the enemies of freedom...." In the years leading up to World War II, Benito Mussolini was apparently influenced by D'Annunzio's Fascist views, but the poet never attained a significant position in his government. He was created prince of Monte Nevoso in 1924 and appointed the president of the Italian Royal Academy in 1937. When D'Annunzio died on March 1,1938, he was given a state funeral. +

2 9 Years Ago This Month FEBRUARY 18,1976, EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CAUF.The first of five "captive-in active" flights of the space shuttle prototype Enterprise piggybacked atop a specially modified Boeing 747 began when the shuttle/aircraft combo took off fi-om NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at 8:30 a.m. The revamped 747, designated as shuttle carrier aircraft (SCA) NASA 905, had been obtained from American Airlines in 1974. Modifications included struts mounted on the plane's skin frames, which had been beefed up to support the weight of the mounted shuttle, Extra partial-bulkhead supports were added as well. A further adaptation that was implemented to keep the SCA's center of gravity forward while the heavy shuttle was attached was placing 3k tons of pea gravel in the cargo hold and 2 tons of pig iron in the front portion of the former airliner's first class section. The SCA was piloted on that initial flight by a crew that included Fitzhugh L, Fulton Jr,,Thomas C. McMurtry,VictorW. Horton and Louis E. Cuidry. Since the shuttle was not released from the mother ship during that initial two hour and 15 minute flight, during which the two aircraft reached 16,000 feet and 287 mph, no crew was aboard Enterprise. The captive-inactive flights were designed to test the aerodynamics and handling characteristics of the ungainly looking combo. They also helped engineers and crew members prepare for subsequent free flights by the protot^'pe, during which the shuttle was released at altitude and glided back to earth on its own. 74 AVIATION HISTORY lANUARY 2005

Restoration of Enterprise, in the Udvar-Hazy Center's Space Hangar, was due tor completion in iate 2004.

Built by Rockwell International's Space Transportation Division, Enterprise—which was used exclusively for testing and never went into space in the course of its career—is now one of the feature attractions at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport, Roughly the size of a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 airliner, it has a wingspan of 78 feet and is 57 feet high.