Aviation History 2005-05

Editorial SpaceShipOne introduces space tourism and a new era for aviation.

OnlineCxtras May 2005

LAST OCTOBER TWO civilian test pilots—Mike Melviii and Brian Binnie— added their names to the chronicle of aviation hislory. They piloted the privately designed and funded space plane called SpaceShipOne to win the unprecedented $ 10 million Ansari X Prize, inaugurating a new era of space tourism. SpaceShipOne is made of graphite and powered by a rocket motor fueled with laughing gas and ruhber. It is launched from White Knight, a twin turbojet research aircraft, at 48.000 feet. The SpaceShipOne pilot turns on the rocket engine and blasts into space to a peak altitude of about 367,000 feet. Once the rocket motor shuts down, with the vehicle continuing its upward climb, its wings and tail structure are rotated, and the plane then drops belly-first back toward earth. When it is again steerable, the pilot glides in for a landing. These voyages to the edge of space are reminiscent of Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight in Spirit of St. Louis in 1927. He was encouraged to make his trip by the $25,000 prize offered by liayniond Orteig to the first aviator crossing the Atlantic nonstop either way between New York and Paris. SpaceShipOne and White KnightwGTc engineered by designer Burt Rutan ofthe Mojave, Calif.-based Scaled Composites Company and built by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, owned by software billionaire Paul Alien. The prize was awarded by the St. Louis-based X Prize FVnindation "to promote the development and flight of spaceships able to provide the low-cost commercial transport of humans into space." Shortly after SpaceShipOne'f> successful flights, British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson announced that he had licensed SpaceShipOne technology to produce five Virgin Cialactic spaceliners, to begin commercial spacellights in 2007. Passengers will pay about $190,000. More than 7,000 wannabe passengers reportedly have already put down deposits, including actor William Shatner of ,Stor Trek fame. Branson explained his decision. "It was in the mid-1990s," he said, "that the new technologies in software, computers and, mosi importantly, in materials began to U AVIATION HISTORY MAY 2005

seriously open up the possibility of commercially viable space travel. In particular, these included new plastic, carbon fiber and ultra heat-resistant materials. As a result. Virgin registered its trademark in commercial space flights and beg£ui to look at private space projects aroutid the world. "As [ saw on visit after visit around the world, most ofthe ideas were hopelessly impractical. However, when Paul Allen decided to fund Burt Rutan to build SpaceShipOne to win the X Prize, all of our faces at Virgin lit up! If Burt says he can build an affordable, reusable spaceship using composite technology...then you can almost bet your bottom dollar that he will do it. And do it successfully." To supplement Branson's plans. Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev. will btiild inflatable space habitat structures that can be placed in Earth orbit, so that spacecraft can dock with them upon arrival. Bigelow will award $50 million to the builder of a spacecraft capable of taking at least five people to aii altitude of 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) and completing two consecutive low Earth orbit flights at that altitude within 60 days. The deadline for that competition is January 10,2010. When commercial spaceflights begin, tbe Federal Aviation Administration believes that it should regulate them. Administrator Marion Blakey said her main concern is that space tourism must not barm people on the ground and operators must give passengers sufficient information about the risks, the space vehicle and the human medical factors involved. Ten decades ago, Wilbur and Orville Wright built their Flyer with their own resources and no government oversight. One hundred years later, Burt Rutan has built a craft capable of space flight—also without government subsidy or regulation. He has proved that it doesn't take trillions of government dollars to provide a seat on a spacecraft. Perhaps SpaceShipOne will someday join Spirit of St. Louis and the Flyer at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. CV.Glines C V. Glines is a founding member of Aviation History's Editorial Advisory Board.

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ivww.TlieHistoryNet.com Discussiotu Do you think American air power would have suffered if General Curtis E. LeMay had not insisted on the development ofthe Boeing B-52 at a time when a fleet of B-47s was already being built?

Goto www. TheHistoryNetcotnJahi for these great exclusives: Legendary Canadian Ace Billy Bishop— An aggressive pilot and a crack marksman, the young Canadian became a legend and inspired a new generation of aces. Operation Nuigara~The thing ihai broke the back of the NVA at Khe Sanh, said General William Westmoreland, was "basically the fire of the B-52S." Victor Tatelman: B-25 Pilot in tlie Poc/^—Although Lieutenant Victor Tateiman and his fellow airmen started out flying "biscuit-bombing" supply missions, they soon found themselves piloting specially modified Nortli American B-25 Mitchells on low-level bombing and strafing sorties against lapanese forces in New Guinea. USAAF's Eighth Air Force Bombers: Death on the High Road—\n August 1943. Eighth Air Force bombers (lew through hell to homb Schweinfurt, Germany. For them, Schweitifurt meant only one thing: a killer town that was one of the most savagely defended targets along the aerial high road above Hitler's Third Reich.

VETERAN NOSE ARTIST Lisa Mann's fine article ahout nose art {"Art of Flight" in the lantiary 2005 issue) remitided me of my friend Amos "Nick" Nicholson, who served in the 343rd Squadron, 98th Bomb Group, Fifteentli Air Force, in World War II. He was first stationed in Lihya. where he painted Prince Charming and the Seven Dwarifs on the noses of Consolidated B-24s, He was inspired by one Liberator that had SnowWliite on its nose—one of the first B-24DS to he ferried from Florida to North Africa. "I wasn't an artist, hut they told me to paint. so 1 painted," Nick recalled. "I jttst knocked the hig chunks of dirt off the fuselage and painted. I figured tny at t wouldn't iast long, anyway." The 343rd thus hecame "The Snow White Squadron," and, as Nick had expected, many of the planes were shot down. So he painted the figures on other planes. The Disney figures were always painted on the left side of the planes, uith other pictures—often sexy ladies—on the right side. At the time, Nick's thoughts on the future were confined to getting back to his wife Rita rather than getting credit for his work, so he did not sign his name to his paintings. As a result, although his dwarfs are now being reproduced hy a model airplane manufacturer, Nick leceives no royalties or recognition. The snapshot of iiim, above right, was taken in his garage while he was re-creating his painting of Dopey, in honor of the first "Pink Elephant" B-24s that were sent to the Libyan desert painted to match the sand. Nick had served as crew chief on such an aircraft flying out of Lecce, Italy, in 1944. Despite his protests that he was no real artist, today, at age 87, Nick is a creative interior designer and a first-class sketch artist. Whenever I get a letter that has an airpkme sketched on the envelope, I know it is from him. Gail S. Ravins Rockford. III.

Your article on the Convair B-58 Hustler evoked tnore memories, including afternootis spent sitting at a picnic table in the park near Carswell Air Force Base with my dad, watching the incredible Hustlers take off and kind. The noise was truly impressive. We knew the Russians had better not misbehave. Thanks for another great issue, and keep 'em flying! WardW.Duffiekl Pine Plains. N.Y.

HUSTLER ROCKET ENGINE E.R. Johnsoti's March 2005 article, "Convair's Supersonic Sensation." is something I have heen waiting many years to see. Back in the 1950s, I was at Wright Field when the B-58 was developed. A superh nonaircraft development catne out of the B-58 proDOUGLAS, NOT FAIRCHILD! gram, the Hustler rocket engine, fn the spring of 1954,1 was inA number ofalert readers eonlacted its to point out that the C-124. volved with the startup of the Air Force's first satellite program. mentioned in the "letters" page of the March issue, was referenced The Atlas missile was designated to be the first stage booster, and as having been built hy Fairchild rather than its actual manufac- a second stage booster for the satellite had to he developed. Since turer, the Douglas Aircraft Company. That was a mistaice intro- tlie satellite payload was loosely defined. I needed to find a rocket duced during the editing process—our error, rather than that of engine for the second stage that had enougli thrust to propel whatthe letter writer. Mr. Jack lloyt. Thanks to all of you who wrote to ever payload we came up with into orhit. Therefore, I visited the straighten ILS out. As we frequently remind ourselves, our readers Power Plant laboratory and talked to its director, Lt. Col. F.d I iall. keep us honest—and factual. I had worked with Ed before and had a great respect for his power plant recommendations. He said he had just the engijie for my apMEMORIES, MEMORIES plication, the rocket engine designed for the B-58's pod, Thtis the 1 have jtist finished reading the March issue: Immensely inter- Hustler rocket engine entered the Air Force's space program. To esting, as always! The "Hnduring Heritage" piece on the new Fron- date, this engine has propelled more than 200 satellites into orhit, tiers of Flight Museum brought my thoughts hack to the early fames S. Coolhaugh 1960s, when I was just an air-minded kid living in Fort Worth. I Detand. Fla. never dreamed that I would go on to a career as an aircraft inspector. My frietids and 1 spent all ottr nickels and much of our time Send letters to Aviation History Editor, Primedia History Group, building and fiying model airplanes and visiting the local airfields. 74} Miller Drive, Suite D-2. leesburg, VA 20175. or e-mail to We haunted Meacham Field, which had several real warbirds still [email protected]. Please include your name, fiying, most tiotably some very active North American T-6 Texans. address and daytime telephone number. Inters may be edited. f{ AVIATION HISTORY MAY 2005

Oddities Semyon Lavochkin's design for a modern Soviet jet fighter lost out to the MiG-15. BY VICTOR KULIKOV DURING WORLD WAR II, the LaGG-3, La-5 and La-7 fighters designed by Semyon A. Lavochkin hecame mainstays ofthe Soviet army air force, or Voyenno-Vozdiisliny Sily (V-VS), and brought recognition to their designer. In contrast to bis wartime successes, however, Lavochkin's postwar attempts to enter the jet age fell sadly short. The closest that Lavochkin's experimental design bureau (Opytnoye Konstruktorskoye Byuro, or 0KB) came to a production jet fighter, the La-15, is now best remembered as an ill-fated also-ran beside its rival, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. Tbe Lavochkin 0KB began research into the use of liquid-propellant rocket engines, ramjet engines and pulsejet engines to boost the performance of pistonengine aircraft, usually by mounting such engines under the wings, between October 1944 and lanuary 1948. Although tbey increased speed, each booster bad its problems and ail produced drag that affected the airplane's flight. Also in 1944, Arkhip M. Lyulka developed a new turbojet engine with 1,250 kilograms of thrust, the S-18. On May 22,1944, the Soviet State Committee of Defense granted Lavochkin's 0KB tbe exclusive right to design a fighter for Lyulka's turbojet. By the end of 1944, tbe bureau had introduced the La-VRD, a twin-boom, twin-finned, higbwing experimental jet fighter, based on a pusher propeller design, with lateral intakes and tbree-wbeel undercarriage. Built under the direction of S.A. Alekseyev, the La-VRD was not completed, because the S-18 engine never passed its bench-testing trials. With the German surrender on May 8,1945, the Soviet Union. like the Western Allies, wasted little time in adapting captured German jet engines to its industrial capa-

bilities. Viktor Y. Klimov, for example, developed the BMW 003 into the RD-10 engine, while the junkers lumo 004 became the RD-20. As early as February 1945—three months before the war ended—the design bureaus of Aleksandr S. Yakovlev, Artyom I. Mikoyan and Semyon Lavochkin had begun designing new jet planes for the German engines. In April 1945, Lavochkin prepared two projects around the jumo 004. One, the twin-engine La-160 heavy fighter, was judged too similar to the German Messerschmitt Me-262 and got no further than the drawing board. The La-150. a high-wing single-engine plane with a high horizontal tail plane, was more original, but its small, seminacelle-type fuselage presented many problems as to how to arrange the engine, fuel tanks and weaponry. Five prototypes were to be built in aircraft factory No. 381, which had manufactured wooden La-7 fighters during the war and was unprepared to build all-metal aircraft. Meanwhile, V-VS interest in jet engineering increased after the Scientific Test Institute of Military Air Forces tested an Me-262 from August to November 1945. Pavel 0. Sukhoi's Su-9 was directly based on the impressive German fighter, but Yakovlev managed to convince Josef Stalin to encourage the pursuit of more original and advanced designs. At Lavochkin's factory, the La-150 was revealing shortcomings with its one-piece wing, excessively small cockpit, poor engine access and weak armament. Lavochkin tlierefore decided to create a new midwing monoplane using tbe RD-10 engine, designated the La452, as wel\ as the La-154 with a Lyulka-designed TR-1 engine and the La-156 with a higher-compression version ofthe RD-10. Production delays and the destruction ofthe first prototype during static tests held up the La-150"s first flight test until September 11. 1946. while its competitors—the MiG-9 designed by Artyom Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich and Yakovlev's Yak-15—were unveiled in August. Both the MiG-9 and Yak-15 were transitional designs whose inferiority to Western jet fighters greatly irritated Stalin. People's Commissar of Aircraft Industry A.I. Shak-

Testing with a prototype model ofthe Lavochkin La-15 resulted in important data on sweptwing controllability and stability. AVIATION HISTORY MAY 2005

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liurin, Marshal A.A. Novikov, commander in chief of the V-VS, V-VS chief engineer A.K. Repin and others were dismissed and arrested. Their successors were told to have formations of improved Yak-15s, MiG-9s and the new La-150 ready for the next air display above Red Square on November 7, 1946. Working around the clock, the factories rushed out 19 Yak- 15s, 10 MiG-9s and eight La-150s—which in spite of their hasty completion passed their military' flight tests. After all that, however, the November 7 air display was canceled due lo had weather. That reprieve allowed Lavochkin to continue remedying the La-150's flaws with a series of experimental jel fighters between 1946 and 1948, such as the La- I50M ("Modified"), La-150F (with a boosted engine), La152, La-154, La-156, La-174TK {Tonkoye Krylo. featuring an unswept thin wing) and U-160 Strelka (with a hoosted HD-IOF engine and a 35-degree leading-edge wingsweep). During flight testing, carried out from iune to September 1947, the La-160 reached Mach .92 at 5,700 meters (18,700 feet), an unprecedented speed in the Soviet Union. It also yielded reliable data on improving stability and controllability witb the sweptwing, including the need to install wing fences on the upper wing surfaces. In June 1946, the Soviet trade representative in Britain was given tbe opportunity to purcbaseiOeachofthe powerful Rolls-Royce Derwent and Nene turbojets, which after February 1947 were put into unlicensed Soviet production as the RD-500 and RD-45 engines, respectively. Among the Soviet aircraft bureaus that designed aircraft around those engines was Lavochkin's OKB-301, adapting the La-174TK to the Derwent V, and the La-168 for the Nene I. Due to delays in deliveries of the Nene, Lavochkin began designing aircraft No. 174 around the Derwent V in )une 1947. using as many components from the La-168 as possible. Aircraft 174 bad a wing sweepback of 37 degrees 20 seconds, and both it and tbe U-168 had sweptback tail units. Both aircraft were high-wing monoplanes with landing gear that retracted into the fuselage and air brakes in the tail. Aircraft 174 was armed with tbree 23mm Nudelman cannons, witb 100 shells per cannon. A novel addition to the plane was an ASP-1N automatic gunsigbt, a direct copy ofthe British Mk. IID that provided a sighting range of up to 800 meters (2,625 feet)—double that of standard Soviet sigbts. Completed in December 1947, Lavochkin's aircraft 174 and Mikoyan's 1-310 arrived almost simultaneously at the Flight Research Institute. The i-310's first test flight occurred on December 30, while the 174's began on January 8,1948. Wbile testing tbe 174, Lavochkin OKB's Colonel Ivan Federov reported serious jolting in a longitudinal axis in some modes of flight. Several montbs

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IH AVIATION HISTORY MAV 200.5

were required to discover and eliminate the cause of that defect, resulting in a second prototype, the 174D [Duble, or double), incorporating all necessary design changes. Although the original U-174 failed to complete its first tests, on the evening of May 11 Fedorov completed the third and final flight of the program. During acceleration to a speed of 690 kilometers per hour (428.7 mph) at 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) altitude, Federov experienced buffeting that threw the plane so out of control tliat he had to bail out. On June 10, aircraft 174Dwas ready for flight testing. Fedorov first flew it on June 12 and at once noted that the buffeting had ceased and that hydraulic amplifiers considerably facilitated control. On June 22, 174D was approved for official testing. While Lavochkin's program was being delayed, however, two Mikoyan-Gurevich l-310s were finishing their official tests and were accepted for production as the MiG-15. The official tests of 174D—now known as the La-174D—continued from August 1 to September 25, 1948. The rival fighters had equivalent maximum speeds—1,042 kilometers per hour (647 mph) at 2,620 meters (9,843 feet) altitude for the MiG-15 and 1,040 kilometers per hour (646 mph) at 3,000 meters (8,596 feet) for the La-174. But the MiG-15's climb rate of 5,000 meters (16,404 feet) in 2.3 minutes surpassed the La-174's by three minutes. The La-174D had better maneuverability, acceleration and braking. Diving to a speed of Mach .93 from 8,200 meters (26,903 feet) altitude, the La-I74D, thanks to its modified aerodynamics, displayed good longitudinal stability and controllabilit>', whereas the MiG-15's ailerons became less effective at Mach .86, requiring greater pilot effort on the controls. On August 23,1948, after official tests of the MiG-15 were finished, hut long before they were completed for the La- 174D, die Soviet government decided to put both planes into production. With further modifications, the La-174D would be turned out at two factories. No. 21 in Gorky and No. 292 in Saratov. The control tests of the modified La-174, begun on December 8,1948, showed overall improvement, though the maximum speed decreased a little—to 1,026 kilometers per hour (638 mph) at 3,000 meters (8,596 feet). The first serial La-174 was built at the end of December 1948, followed by two more in January 1949. Production did not go smoothly—the next 85 to be built in the first quarter of 1949 underwent 3,000 construction alterations. Production time eventually settled at 1,200 hours per plane, and after heing accepted in March 1949, the first La174s were assigned to the 196th Fighter Aviation Regiment (LAP) at Kubinka, outside Moscow. On February 19,1949, static testing of the La-168 with the hopped-up Nene engine was completed, yielding data superior to both the

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MiG-15 and La-174, except for range. By that time, however, factories were committed to producing the La-174 and MiG-15. In September 1948, the La-176, a modified La-168 with 45-degree wing sweepback, was presented for testing, during which test pilot O.V Sokolovsky exceeded the speed of sotmd in level flight for the first time in Russian history. That feat would not be duplicated by Soviet aircraft until Februaty 1950, when the MiG-17 and Yak-50 did so. Meanwhile, the La-176 was equipped with the Klimov VK-1, an improved Nene engine that raised the plane's speed to Mach 1.03. On Februar\' 3, 1949, however, Sokolovsky failed to lock the folding flap of the cockpit canopy, which opened on takeoff. As he tried to close it in flight, the plane stalled, turned over on its back, fell 50-70 meters to the ground and catight fire, killing Sokolovsky. IN APRIL 1949, the La-174 was officially redesignated the La-15. Meanwhile the Soviet government decided, in light of the availability of the newer, more powerful VK-1 engine, to reorganize and simplify jet plane production. The MiG-15 would remain in production as the V-VS' principal frontline fighter, and the Ilyushin 11-28 would be the main tactical bomber. In consequence. Factory No. 21 was ordered to cease La-15 production in favor of the VK-1-powered MiG-15. In May 1949, the 196th lAP, whose pilots had had previous experience on Yak-15s, began testing its 20 La- 15s and soon reported a number of defects and deficiencies. At altitudes of 8,000 to 9,000 feet, the RD-500 (DerwentV) engines surged or overheated, compressor blades cracked and the hydraulic control system was unreliable, resulting in undercarriage failures. The general quality of production aircraft was markedly inferior to that of the experimental prototypes. During preparations for Moscow's 1949 May Day parade, an La-15 fell out of control and Major A. Zotov became the first Soviet pilot to make a safe escape using an ejection seat, for which he was subsequendy awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Another pilot, however, was killed in an La-15 crash on May 28, During aerobatic fiying on July 21, the La-15 fiown by the 196th L\P's commander. Colonel A.P Shishkin, went into a spin from which he was unable to recover, and he was killed. A Soviet hero, Shishkin had heen a close friend of Guards Lt. Gen. Vasily Stalin, the V-VS commander of the Moscow military district—and losef Stalin's son. Consequently, General Stalin immediately ordered the V-VS to cease further test flights and hand all extant La- I5s over to interceptor units, Although La-15s later participated in the traditional air display at Tushino, the planes' fate was sealed. In August 1949, the decision was made to cease production at Factory No. 292. The remainder of the 225 La-15s built continued

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to serve in home defense units until 1954. The La-15 received the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) code nameof Fantail, but few if any NATO members sver saw one. The only other second-generation jet project pursued by the Lavochkin 0KB, No. 180, was a two-seat trainer based on the La-15. Only two were built and delivered to La-15equipped units. Semyon Lavochkin's efforts lo build an effective jet airplane were by nci means over In 1949 he began work on the La-190, a supersonic interceptor with bic>'i ie-type landing gear with underwing skids, a 55-degree wingsweep. nose radar and two 37mm cannons. Completed in February 1951. the La-190 showed good controllability and stability but only made eight test flights because of its poorly engineered ALS engine. In September 1949, Lavochkj n 0KB turned out the La-200 two-seat all-wea ther interceptor. Powered by two VK-1 engines, staggered within the fuselage one behind another, the La-200 employed Toryi-A centimetric allweather radar designed by A.V. Slepushkin. Factory test flying began on September 9, 1949, and official tests concluded on May 3, 1950. While the plane on the whole was satisfactory, the radar fell short of expectations. Moreover, by that time Stalin favored antiaircraft missiles over interceptors. In spite of ihat. the Uvochkin 0KB reequipped the La-200 with new Korshun radiir equipment, and after 243 test flights under all weather conditions, day and night, in April 1951 the interceptor was approved for production as the La-17. In August, however, Aleksandr Yakovlev convinced Stalin thai he could produce a better twin-engine imerceptor, and the initial order for 50 La- 17s was canceled. Althou^ Lavochkin 0KB w as working on its V-300 and G-300 guided missiles by that time, some employees in the design bureau convinced Lavochkin to continue modernizing the 1^-200, with a new wing to increase range and new Sokol radar. F ight testing of the improved La-200B began on luly 3,1952, but it proved to be overloaded and ended up only serving to test the Sokol radar for Yakovlev'sYak-25M. In luly 1956, Lavochkin btiilt his last jet filter, tlie La-250. It was a sir gle-seat, twinengine, supersonic missile carrier with a delta wing and horizontal stabilizer. Three La-250s were constructed, and after an engine failure during the first test flight on luly 16, the planes booster control system was checked on a computer simulation stand for the first time in Soviet history. Continuing problems vwith the AL-7F engines, as well as the death of Semyon lavocbkin on June 9, 1960. doomed the La-250 project— and Uvochkins prospects for carrying his aviation achievements into ihe jet age—to oblivion. The third La-250 prototype survives at the Central Museum of the Air Forces in Monino, near Moscow, "t"

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People & Planes In a nighttime mission over the Burma Road, a B-25 crewman faced a moment of truth. BY STUART BURDICK In 1944 Stuart Burdick (far right) posed with other members of his North American B-25J crew in Burma (from left): Chuck McClure, Jim McDermott, Ken McJury, Bob Melberg and George Chapman,

IT WAS A TROOP CONVOY of some 50-odd trucks, and it had come a long way over an arduous route in late 1944. The vehicles had to travel by night, since the Allies held air superiorit}' in the region the Japanese were approaching. Driving that route by day could plainly be suicidaleven to the general whose plan they were carrying out. They had come hy way of Kunming and were driving the Burma Road, which terminated in Lashio. While Lashio itself had been severely battered by Allied aircraft—mostly North American B-25 Mitchell bombers and P-51 Mustang fighters—its sector was considered defensible. This convoy was largely made up of newly trained recruits. Although taking that route required exceptional driving skill, on this particular night the lapanese were favored by light from a full moon. In fact, so hrigbt was the moonlight that headlights were not needed, though they had to he used according to military regulations. Their lamps emitted mere slits of light. As the Japanese neared the end of their journey, their final ordeal would be the descent down the zigzag route into the Shweli River valley toward Nambkam, the first town in Burma. The descent into Burma from Yunnan, China, took a winding path of hairpin turns. That famous road hecame a symbol of the war in Burma. Now it had fallen to the Japanese army in its last-gasp effort to win the war on Asian soil. By taking all of Burma, the reasoning went, the Japanese might hold a bargaining chip to counter their losses in the Pacific. Moreover, it would represent a viell> AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

tory on land to offset the Japanese navy's defeats at sea, By November 1944, despite scathing punishment from Allied forces, prospects for a stalemate, if not victory, looked favorable to the Japanese high command. At the time, I was serving as a navigator-bombardier in what hecame known as the "Burma Bridge Busters," the 490tb Bomb Squadron of the 341 st Bomb Croup, Tenth Air Force, China-Burma India Theater. A group usually comprised four squadrons of B-25s, pltis a headquarters unit and its auxiliary services. At that point, however, tbe 490tb had been designated a detached squadron, to remain in India while the otber three squadrons were needed in China. The 490tli was to become an augmented squadron for the defense of northern Burma. Wlien the occasion caJled for a squadron to operate independently, it had to he provided with personnel normally belonging to a group, sucb as a weather officer, ordnance officer, flight surgeon and so on, including a chaplain. Flexibility' became the byword, encouraged by our commanding officer. Major Bob Erdin, I have since attributed my survival to that flexibility. Before joining the U.S. Army Air Forces I had served in a field artillery hattery of the National Guard. So when we were attacking certain well-defended targets such as airfields, 1 was all tbe more aware of Japanese defensive artillery. Unfortunately, this was not always stifficiently appreciated by our briefing officers, who seemed enamored of a single-file approach to sucb targets. On those occasions the first tbree or four of our planes might make their passes unscathed, but for those that came after, it was often unpleasant. Some of our losses, both lives and aircraft, were due to such naive tactics. Despite the usual insistence of senior officers on unquestioning obedience, tbere still exists the rarely mentioned rule of tactical prerogative. Simply stated, it means that tbe experts, when ail is said and done, are those at the scene of the action. If events are not as foreseen hy the planners—as is often tbe case in wartime—it's up to the combatants to adapt to conditions as they find them and alter their strategy accordingly. The catcb is thai the combatants had better be right! At times, when we found ourselves heading into Japanese gun barrels, so to speak, I Continued on page 70

Now in its 53rd year, Boeing's B-52 is not only not obsolete, it's a more potent weapon than ever before. BY WALTER J.BOYNE

Sunrise silhouettes a Boeing B-52D Stratofortress awaiting its next bombing mission to South Vietnam at an air base at U-Tapao, Thailand, in October 1967 (National Archives). • AVIATION HISTORY MAY 2005

MAY 200r. AVIATION HISTORV 23

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uring the Vietnam War there were two ways to look at the Boeing B-52. One was from within a formation of aircraft launched from Andersen Air Base on Guam. A long flight over the ocean, a course laid on to a point over Ihe green jungies of South Vietnam, and then a signal to release the hombs. Turn the airplane around and head hack to Guam. Utter monotony. The second view wasfromthe ground. You were marching along

life of a minimum of 35 years. In fact, it is conceivable that the B-52, perhaps equipped with new engines, might well be serving until near the end of tbe 21st century. Just as they had done witli tbe B-47, Boeing engineers worked on the concept of what became the B-52 for many years, but there were remarkable differences in the two development programs. The B-47 was intendedfromthe start to be a jet aircrafr, and while the designs wingsweep and engine placement changed over time, it was always a jet. in contrast, the B-52 started out as the Model 462, which looked remarkably like a scaled-up B-29 equipped with six Wright T35 turboprop engines. Wright promised to upgrade the horsepower of the T;i5s, and the next Model 464-17 had only four engines. But range remained a problem, since even with turboprops the best Boeing engineers could promise was a radius of 3,260 miles. There followed a succession of turboprop designs that featured a slightly swept wing, resulting in a configuration not unlike the later Tupolev Tu-95 Bear (itself the descendant of tbe Tu-4, Tupolev's copy of the B-29). As these developments were taking place, Boeing engineers learned from tbe B-47 experience and applied tbat knowledge to the new big-bomber program. Tbey found tbat the B-47 drag estimates had been far too high with your Viet Cong comrades, on the way to assemble for an attack and that they had placed far too much emphasis on designing the on a South Vietnamese outpost. The jungle was green around you, B-47's wing to be thin. Experience and additional wind tunnel testand up above there was nothing but the bright blue .sky. Then, with ing showed that a thicker wing mated to the fuselage with less drag no warning except for ominous whistling noises at the last second, would also be lighter and provide room for fuel storage, a mile-long string of B-52 hombs hit the ground all around you, The one constant in the equation was tbe difficulty of obtaining blowing you and all your comrades into tioisy oblivion. Utter terror. a suitable turboprop engine. By mid-1948, a successful turboprop The second view made the B-52 the weapon most feared by the for the new bomber was estimated to be at least four years from deNorth Vietnamese and Viet Cong, it was tlie same kind of terror that Iraqi troops experienced decades later, in 1991, Commonly called the BUFF (for "big ugly fat feller"), Boeing's Stratofortress is just one reason why the United States should be ver\' grateful to General Curtis E, LeMay. Not only was LeMay a great combat leader in Europe and against Japan, but" he also created the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in his own image, changing itfroma Although! am not a high-time Stratofortress pilot, 1 was checked out comfortable, well-paidflyingclub into the most destructive force in the B-52 as an aircraft commander witb the 4925th Test Group the world had ever seen. In the process of molding SAC, LeMay (Nuclear) at Kirtland Air Force Base. The 4925th was manned for tinmade another important decision: to insist on a big new bomber most part by an elite band of veteran instructor pilotsfromthe B-47 at a time when the U.S. Air Force was building an enormous fleet training program at McConnell Air Force Base, all of whom had since of Boeing B-47 Stratojets. His demand provoked a storm of controaccumulated several thousand hours in the B-52.1 don't think any versy, for there was at that juncture an equally great need for an air of them would take offense if I noted that they were also a somewhat defense interceptor force, vast radar warning lines and, most of all, wild and crazy bunch. for the newest weapon—the intercontinental ballistic missile. In 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union were close to sign LeMay refused to compromise. He insisted that he wanted a ing an accord that would ban nuclear testing in tbe atmosphere. Both bomber big enough to do all the tasks that might be required of it nations launched quick programs to do some final airdrops to lest later. He got what he wanted in the superb B-52, an eight-engine fusing and firing of existing weapons and to experiment with new giant that first flew on April 15,1952, with the legendary A,M. "Tex" systems for future weapons. Thus it was that the 4925tb was suddeiiK Johnson and Lt, Col. GuyTownsend at the controls. called upon to deploy to the Pacific to engage in Operation Dominic, No one would have predicted in 1952 that the B-52 would remain a highly complex program for live testing of nuclear weapons deliv a formidablefirst-lineweapon through 2005, with a forecast future ered by both ballistic missiles and by airdrops.

A Nuclear Mission

2i AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

Opposite: A rare photograph of a prototype XB-52 (foreground) andYB-52 flying together. Above: The B-52A replaced the prototypes' tandem seating with a side-by-side cockpit arrangement. Right: The B-52C, which first flew on March 9,1956, introduced antinuclear-blast white paint and 3,000gallon auxiliary fuel tanks under tfie wingtjps.

livery. In those long-ago days, program officers had far more clout than they have today and there was far less congressional supervision of development programs. Colonel Pete Warden, somewhat outside the hounds of his authority, had been urging Pratt & Whitney to proceed with what would become its 157 engine. Feeling that he had gained the was music to their ears, for they had no way of controlling a fruscompany's attention, he met widi Boeing personnel on October 21. trating engine development process. 1948. This was Boeing's "A" team, consisting of Edward C. Wells, George Schairer, H. W. Withington, Vaughn Blumenthal, Art Carlsen hus in one weekend the original design for the B-52 was creand Maynard Pennell—ail veterans and respected in their fields of ated in the Van Cleve Hotel in Da>ion. Ohio. I he group at expertise. When Warden advised them to scrap the turboprop Dayton was familiar with all the lessons learned from the design and instead proceed with a sweptwing pure-jet aircraft, it B-47, and they were also aware of Boeing's research into in-fliglit re-

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Although 1 was too junior to be a regular crew member, I acted as assistant operations officer and got to fly one mission in which we dropped a 4.5-megaton weapon, an experience no one could ever forget. We took off from Barber's Point, Hawaii, heading southeast to an area off Christmas Island, where a host of ground stations, surface vessels and orbiting aircraft awaited us. rhe aircraft were like gears in a clock, all moving around, all intended to be at a precise spot at the moment the huge weapon we carried detonated. The procedure was fairly straightfonvard. The night was absolutely pitch-dark from horizon to horizon as we entered the test range and were cleared for the drop. Our radar navigator was World War II veteran Major Blake White, as profane and rambunctious a man as you could ever meet. He was also, however, a master ofthe radar set, and a brilliant bombardier. The drop technique was simple—no breakaway maneuver was necessary because the bomb was parachute retarded. We did not even use the antiglare shades that were provided or put on sunglasses. Blake called "Bombs away," then said. "I'm coming up to watch." He put his set on standby and came up [he short ladder from his station to stand behind the pilot.

Forty-five seconds after "Bombs away," the Mach meter gave a little shudder as the shock wave hit the aircraft when the bomh weni off. Suddenly the entiR' black world outside turned into brilliant daylight. It was incredible. Wliat had been pitch-hlack night was now intensely bright day. from horizon to horizon, And it was not a flash—the light persisted for what seemed like minutes. It was an almost bewildering experience. Then Major White came up with a remark thai I'll never forget. He said quietly, "Hvery head of state should be forced ID see this." And he was so correct. Heads of state and generals and admirals and congressmen and everyone in a position of power needed to see exactly what a nuclear explosion was like, fn t9fi2 probahly no head of state had ever witnessed a nuclear explosion on anything larger than a 17-inch television sel. There was no way to convey the awful power of an atomic weapon without seeing it. To this day, 1 remain convinced that it would be worth whalovor harm it might do to the atmosphere to bring all the major leaders of the world lo a place where they could witness a live nuclear explosion, anil make them realize bolh the power and ihe danger nf miclt'ai weapons. W.J.B. MAY 200r> AVIATION H I 5 T O R V 23

Left: In a departure from its nuclear deterrent role, a B-52D rains conventional bombs on Viet Cong during an "Arc Light" mission over South Vietnam. Right: A camouflaged B-52D awaits rearming on the tarmac at U-Tapao. In 1972 Stratofortresses struck at North Vietnam.

fueling systems. In addition, they had telephone contact with specialist teams in Seattle thai had worked on all the series of projects leading to the B-47 and the projected turboprop bomher. By Monday morning, the team had completed three-view drawings and a 3;i-page proposal, which later became famous as Document No. 10,000, for the Boeing Model 464-49-0. In addition, they presented Warden with a silver balsa-wood model of the new bomber, created by two engineering giants, Ed Wells and George Schairer. (The model is still a part of Boeing archives.) The new design was an extraordinar)' step forward, far more revolutionary than it initially appeared. What became the B-52 had a huge 4,000-square-foot wing that was still flexible enough to deflect through a 32-foot arc. The 185-foot wingspan dictated a top-secret main landing gear that allowed landing in winds up to a direct crosswind of 43 knots. Perhaps the most radical system change was the adoption of a pneumatic system as the primary power source for the operations of all auxiliary functions. Warden liked the new design and promised to get Pentagon approval almost Immediately. In the desire to keep drag at a minimum, the proposed aircraft retained the tandem cockpit seating of the B-47. This part of the design immediately ran into trouble with General LeMay, however. who wisely demanded that production versions have conventional side-by-side seating. Two prototypes were constructed, the XB-52 and the YB-52. The two planes were identical, but the slight change in designation permitted the expenditure of $10 million production dollars on the prototypes. Production approval preceded the first flight, however, and an iniiial 13 B-52As were ordered on February 14, 1951. These differed from the prototypes in a number of ways, the most obvious being the change from a tandem B-47-style cockpit arrangement to side-by-side seating. Only three B-52A models were built; the remaining 10 of the order were completed as RB-52Bs. (The RB-52 was a dual role aircraft, designed to have a reconnaissance capability gained from a two-man pressurized capsule installed in the bomb bay.) The third of the A models, 52-003, would go on to a distinguished career as a mother ship, launching the North American X-15 and many other test vehicles. Designated NB-52A, it served until 1969 and is now at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz. New models followed in quick succession, with procurement of a AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

total of 50 B-52BS, 35 B-52Cs, 170 B-52Ds, 100 B-52ES, 89 B-52Fs, 193 B-52Gs and 102 B-52HS. The last B-52H (61-040) was delivered on October 26, 1962. While improvements were continually introduced, the greatest changes occurred with the G and i^ models. 1 he G's gross weight was increased to 488,000 pounds, up from the 450,000-pound weight of all other models from the B forward. The later models came about after Boeing offered, in March 1956, a 30 percent increase in range, a decrease in maintenance manhours of 25 percent, a decrease in empty weight of 15,000 pounds and an improvement in electronic warfare capability of 70 percent. This was heady stuff, particularly the decrease in maintenance requirements, since as the B-52s aged they naturally required more maintenance per flying hour. No one knew that the proposal carried vvith it the seeds of a later hazard, for the new materials would he far more susceptible to metal fatigue than those used in the past. The huge vertical fin was reduced from 48 feet to 40 feet—the most immediately identifying physical change for the G model— and the tail gunner was removed from the traditional "stinger" position to the front compartment, from which he operated the guns remotely The G was also fitted with the supersonic GAM-77 Hound Dog missile, a powerful weapon that presaged later, more sophisticated cruise missiles. But just as the water-injected 157 engine had cleared the way for the B-52, Pratt & Whitney's brilliant TF33-P-3 turbofan engine cleared the way for the greatest advance in BUFF performance, the B-52H. Flat-rated at 17,000 pounds of thrust, the TF33 gave the B52H 30 percent more power than the B-52G. More important, it vastly reduced fuel consumption.

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dvances in Soviet missile systems necessitated that B-52s utUize low-level tactics, and the B-52H was die first to be fitted with terrain-avoidance radar. The crews needed bodi skill and courage to fly the huge 488,000-pound aircraft at 300 knots

Adventure in a Storm People often ask me to compare flying the Boeing B-47 to tbe B-52. I think a fair comparison (for a bomber or transport pilot, certainly not for a fighter pilot) would be to say that if the B-47 is a sports car, the B-52 is an SUV. As big as the B-52 is, however, it is still a pawn to thunderstorms. When 1 was beginning to check out in the aircraft in 1961, we went on a special high altitude mission that required us to wear pressure suits, which as anyone who has worn them knows are damned uncomfortable. I was flying as pilot for an aircraft commander wbom I won't name, out of respect, for he was truly one of the best pilots I \r ever known. Let's call him "Buster." Buster was envied by all (including me) because he was that real

By 1957 the rapidly growing threat of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles, which could strike U.S. targets within ;U) minutes of being fired, forced operational changes on SA(!. In the past, aircrews generally had to be prepared to go to war with 24 hours' notice. On October I, 1957, a new and far more rigorous alert cuncept was introduced, and B-52S were required to get airborne for a retaliatory attack within 15 tnlnutesof the order to take off. Tliis imposed a great strain on crews and families, particularly in the early days when there were no adequate alert facilities available. Crew members had to stay together close to their aircraft, which wea* cocked," i.e., ready for engine start. When an alarm went off, SAC crews had their engines running within two minutes and were taxiing within five. only 300 feet ahove mountainous terrain at night and under inThis introduced an entirely new factor into U.S. warfare. For tlie strument conditions. first time in history, U.S. bomber crews were taking off lo strike the The secret to the B-52's longevity was the continuous mainte- enetny tully aware that an iticoniing ICBM attack could destroy their nance provided by the Air Force. All B-52s through the C model had base—and their families—after they departed. Chances were good been built in Seattle, but production was shared with Boeing's Wi- that the B-52s would survive their mission, but a Soviet ICBM attack chita. Kan., facility through the Ds, Es and Fs, with the Gs and Hs would put their families into the front line of danger As a result, tenbuilt only in Kansas. Specified "Lead the Fleet" aircraft were desig- sion levels remained high among aircrews all through the Cold War. nated to accumulate more flying time than average, in an effort to There were many training alens called—but the crews never knew highliglit problems resulting from systems fatigue. As the fleet aged, which one might be the real thing. wholesale renovations such as the "Pacer Plank" project involved Yet the system worked, and never more so than during tlie Cuban major modifications of stnicture, including the replacement of huge Missile Crisis of October 1962, when all the armed forces were ready areas of the aluminum skin covering tlie wings and fuselage. to go to war. The bombers' itnportance was emphasized by Soviet SA(; leaders knew that it was pointless to have devastating retal- Premier Nikita Khrushchev in his memoirs, where he noted that he iatory power unless an enemy knew and took heed of it. The first was always very aware of the presence of nuclear-armed B-iJ2s on major projection of B-52 capability came in January 1957, when orbit outside the borders of the Soviet Union, The B-52s first made three 93rd Bomb Wing B-52s commanded by Maj. Gen. Archie Olds him think—and then made him blink. flew around the world—24,235 miles—nonstop. SAC continues to do so today, as witnessed by the March 30, 2004, return to Anderhere is both irony and validation in the fact that the B-52 sen Air Base of six B-52s from Minot Air Force Base, N.D. The B-52s did not go to war until more than 10 years after it entered made a 24-hour flight to project power once again from the former service—and when it did so, ii was dispatched not as the heart of the bombing effort during the Vietnam War. nuclear sword of SAC but as the flying artillery of the ground forces

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rarity, a natural pilot. But he did tend to be a little irascible and shorttempered, and this quaiity had been exacerbated by our relatively short four-hour fliglit in pressure suits. We were returning to Kirtland on a summer day, with thunderstorms skirting through the area. Buster told me to call for a straight-in approach, which was reasonable, as we were short on fuel (you couldn't get to pressure suit altitudes in our B-52C if you had any sort of a fuel load). As we continued our approach, a thunderstorm was moving from north to south, across the west end of the field, about a half-mile out from tlie runway. We got the usual warnings from ground control and, closer in, from the tower, but I didn't worry about it. I figured it would either clear out of the way by the time we got there or we would break off and make another approach. To my horror, the aircraft commander kept boring in. We'd completed tiie checklist, and there was no one ahead of us on the runway,

but the thunderstorm had stopped right off the end. Tliere is no doubt in my mind today that I should not have waited for Buster to do something, but instead should have grabbed the control column and made a 90-degree tuni. Instead, I stupidly watched us plunge riglit into the thunderstorm. We didn't go far. Thai storm spat us out in a vertical bank to the left, roaring over the hangar where base operations aircraft were kept. Buster didn't say a word, just tnanhandled the airplane back lo straight and level, made another 9fl-degree turn and re-entereil the pattern. By this time the thunderstorm had moved off, and he made his usual smooth touchdown. Not a word was exchanged as we left the cockpit, and no one on the ground, knowitig Buster's temper, mentioned it, either. But no one on the aircraft ever forgot it. There's something about looking out tbe side window straight up in a B-52 that is pretty memorable. WJ.B. MAY 200r> AVIATION H I S T O R V

Above: A B-52G takes off on a "shock and awe" mission during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Inset: The Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-3B engine gave the B-52H more power while reducing fuel consumption. Left: Reprising another longtime role, a B-52H releases the X-43A scramjet for a test flight on March 27,2004.

in Ihe Vietnam War. The B-52 commenced its Vietnamese saga from Andersen Air Base on June 18,1965, when 30 B-52Fs ofthe 7th and 320th Bomb wings were ordered to attack Viet Cong forces about 40 miles north of Saigon in the very first "Arc Light" operation. (Arc light missions were carpet bombings of enemy base concentrations and supply lines.) B-52s would execute 126,615 such sorties hefore operations ceased in August 1973. Those missions reached a peak of 3,150 monthly hy 1972. The strategic nuclear homber had been turned into an on-call tactical bomb delivery system. TWo notable battles would have justified the B-52's existence, had it done nothing else in its career. The first was at Khe Sanh, where B-52s devastated the besieging North Vietnamese forces hy dropping 59,542 tons of bomhs—an act that General William C.Westmoreland said "broke the hack" ofthe enemy resistance. Even more important was the December 18-29, 1972, Operation Linebacker I!, which clearly proved that air power, properly applied, could have won the Vietnam War. When the North Vietnamese sought a military, not a negotiated, victory over South Vietnam and pulled out of the Paris peace talks, President Ricbard Nixon responded by ordering an ail-out air offensive. In 12 days, 729 B-52 sorties destroyed the defenses of Hanoi and Haiphong. The BUFFs dropped 150,000 tons of 500- and 750-pound bombs, destroying or damaging 10 airfields, 500 rail targets, 1,600 stmctures and 80 percent of North Vietnam's capacity to generate electrical power. But success came with a stiff price. Surface-to-air missiles shot down 19 American aircraft, including 15 B-52s. Defenseless and iti AVIATION HISTORY MAY 2005

aware that the B-52s could sustain those levels of punishment, the North Vietnamese hurriedly returned to the negotiating tables in Paris, where tbe U.S. promptly sold out its South Vietnamese allies to appease the vociferous antiwar groups in tbe United States. The B 52s, along with hundreds of otber Air Force, Navy and Marine aircraft, bad brought North Vietnam to its knees in Linebacker U when, for the first time in tbe war, air power was used as it is supposed to be used. It is sad to reflect tliat a similar attack was not made in 1965, when the North Vietnamese had virtually no defenses. There would have been no long Vietnam War, no prisoners in the Hanoi Hilton, and no sellout of South Vietnam. Air Force officers, including General LeMay, had tried to avoid the war in Vietnam entirely, but once the United States was committed by President John F. Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, military officials offered a solution to winning the war: an all-out air offensive. "Wiser" heads prevailed, however, and Secretary McNamara plunged the United States into tbe worst of all worlds, a land campaign in Asia. His "all-knowing" management style was a principal reason that tbe all-out bombing effort that could have led to victory was delayed for seven years.

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fter Vietnam, the B-52 was modified to handle new weapon systems, including far more sophisticated air-launched cruise missiles and precision-guided munitions, while retaining its ability to crush ground forces vilth tons of World War Il-era homhs. The B-52's defensive capability bas continued to receive comparable upgrades so that even in an age of stealth it continues to play a commanding combat role. In 1990 s Operation Desert Shield, about 80 B-52Gs operated from the United States and four overseas locations: Diego Garcia, an atoll hase in tbe Indian Ocean; Moron, Spain: leddah, Saudi Arabia; and, briefiy, Royal Air Force Base Fairford in the United Kingdom. During Operation Desert Storm, seven B-52Gsfi-omtbe 2nd Bomh Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, U., made history on January 17,1991, by completing what was then the longest aircraft combat mission in history—35 hours—attacking Iraqi targets. (The qualifier "aircraft" is used because of tbe spectacular 95-hour fiigbt ofthe German Zeppelin L-59 in 1917, from lamboli. Bulgaria, to East Africa and back.) Tbe BUFFs used 35 AGM-86B conventional air-launched cruise missiles (CALCMs), of which 33 hit their targets. Continued on page 71

B U I L D

Y O U R O W N

Model of the The "H" model was the last of the Boeing Company's total production ot" 744 B-52 Stratoforiresses. The Hs looked much like the earlier Gs bul could he distinguished hy their eight larger Pratt & Whitney TF33 turbofan engines. B-52 kits have heen produced in various sizes, from the very tiny 1 /350th scale to the giant 1 /72nd scale "D" version, with a wingspan of almost 36 inches. 1 used the more manageable 1 / 144th scale kit from Academy Minicraft for this issue's featured model. (This kit is in the same scale as last month's B-58 model. Placed side by side, these two models present an interesting comparison.) Construction begins with the painting of the cockpit and an interior base for the landing gear. Spray these "interior green," FS-34151. Don't spend too much time on these parts, for they will be hidden when the fiiselage pieces are glued together. The wings and the elevators should be assembleti and then cemented to the fuselage. The fit is good, but take time to make sure these surfaces are "square" to the fuselage. Next glue the four engine struts to tihe cutouts in the wings. Skip over the next step, calling for the placement of the wing flaps. They are quite fragile and are best attached after painting. Assemble the four TF33 engine pods and the outboard drop tanks but do not attach them to the wings. These parts should also he glued in place after painting. With the basic aircraft assembled, prime the model with light gray or white to highlight any areas that need sanding and filling. Priming the dark green plastic with a light color will provide a base coat for the camouflage colors. This kit is a version of an early B-52H that did not have the electrooptical nose pods common on later models. One of the henefits of writing this column is that often I am privileged to meet a person who actually flew an aircraft like the one I am modeling. In this case, the owner of the shop where I purchased the model, Don Phillips,

had served as a co-pilot on a B-52H assigned to the 524th Bomb Squadron. 379th Bomh Wing, at Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Mich., in 1972. He recalled that tlie undersides of all the aircraft in his squadron were painted in "antiflash" white, FS-17875, as were the radomes on the nose and tail. (Thtwhite was to reflect the flash and licat from a nuclear blast directed toward

B-52H the corresponding jmnion of the wing surface. With the painting I'ornplete, spray the landinggear legs with "aluminum" and the tires ver\' dark gray, and then attach the completed assembly to the fuselage. Nexl glue in place thu engine pods and drop t;uiks. He stiir the tiigimpods are perjiendiciilar lo the ground. Early versions of the B-52H were ca-

the bombers.) The rest of the aircraft pable of carrying cruise missiles and was painted in the standard Strategic various other "standojl bomhs." The Air Command three-tone camouflage, kit includes two GAM-77 Hound Hog with a "hard" demarcation line sepa- missiles thai can he painted in the rating the underside color from those same camouflage scheme as ihe B-52 on the top side. carritT, Note that a photo of a camouTo duplicate the camouflage, refer flaged Hound Dog ap|)L'ars on I! lOfi in to the kit instructions sheet or to the Volume 9 of Inlernntionnl Air Power painting on the hack cover of Squad- Review. ron/Signal Publication No. 130, B-52 Spray a coat of lohnson's Future Stratofortress in Action. A photo of one acrylic floor polish or Testors "Glossof the Wurtsmith aircraft appears on coat" over the entire model to provide P. 35 of the Detail and Scale publica- a smooth surface for the dccals. The kit tion B-52 Stratofortress. by Alwyn T. decals are quite thick and need a long Uoyd. soaking in water to get them to release Tlie camouflage scheme is an irreg- from their backing. You'll also need a ular pattern of "SAC Bomber Green," decal setting solution to get them to FS-34159. "SAC BomberTaji," FS-342n!, conform to panel lines on the aircraft. and dark green, FS-34079. These colors lo finish your modL'i, spray a coat of are besl applied with an airbrush to dulling spray over it to seal the decals. achieve a "soft edge" pattern. With ihc Once you attach llif ctjckpii windwings painted, match up the camou- screen with while glue, your model of flage color to the engine pods and aB-.52H is complete. drop tanks that are located just below Dick Smith

SHAW'S

FOUR WARS

M) AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

The remarkable story of Raymond CoUishaw, one of Canada's greatest fighter aces. in California and on returning n a day late in April 1917, BY CHARLES REID home joined theC^anadian FishRaymond ColUshaw, the eries Protection Service, workCanadian-born flight ing as a cabin boy on HMCS commander of B Flight, Akedo. By the time war broke Number 10 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service, stormed into his squadron com- out in 1914, he had been promoted to first olUcer on mander's office ready to do battle. Ten minutes later he HMCS H.f/7fl.When he read in 1915 that the Royal Naval Air Service was recruiting pilots, the young Canadian left with a huge smile on his face. "Naval 10" had been suffering from the same problem immediately knew that this was the ultimate adventure that all of Britain's newly formed squadrons faced. Other he was looking for. Several months later, CoUishaw was sent to Ottawa, squadron commanders, when asked to transfer pilots to a new unit, used it as an excuse to get rid of their mav- where his final interview was conducted by Admiral ericks. During the few weeks he had been in command Charles Kingsmill, head ofthe Canadian Naval Service, of B Flight, CoUishaw had suffered the consequences who told him that he had been accepted for pilot trainof that policy: Time and again half of the independent- ing but added that he would have tofinda private (lying minded members of his flight conveniently got lost in school and pay for his own tuition. As there was only one realfiyingschool in Canada at this time, the Curtiss the clouds when the enemy appeared. But during that stormy confrontation, CoUishaw Aviation School in Toronto, that was wiiere CoUishaw learned that his Australian squadron leader, Bertram headed. The training fee was steep at $400, but paying for Charles Bell, was weil aware ofthe problem and had found a way tofixit. He had succeeded in getting a number of lessons turned out to be the easy part. The hard part, as CoUishaw's old Canadian buddiesfromNo. 3 Squadron, CoUishaw found out all too soon, was actually logging RNAS, which was being disbanded, transferred to Naval anyfiyingtime. Although the instructors, mostly Ameri10. Among these were Flight Sub-Lieutenants William can, were very good, there simply weren't enough planes Melville "Alex" Alexander from Toronto, John Edward to satisfy the demand, and as the studL-nts had to |)ay Sharman from Manitoba and EllisVair Reid of Bellville, for their own board and keep, mosi of them starlod to Ontario. These three, CoUishaw discovered to his de- run out of money before they were even halfway light, were all to become part of B Flight. The fourth new through the course. The problem was resolved when the member was to be Flight Sub-Lieutenant Cerald Ewart Admiralty agreed to take some ofthe candidates to England and train them there. Nash, a farmer's son from Stoney Creek, Ontario. Within a few months ColUshaw was posted to Redcar CoUishaw—already convinced that in the new Sopwith Triplane his unit had the machine to take on the in Yorkshire for hisfiighttraining. I Us first operational German Albatros D.IIIs that had been taking a heavy toU posting was to Number 3 Naval Wing at Manston airof British aircraft in the past month—now felt sure he field near Dover, famous today for its signilicant role in had the men who could prove it. Over the next three the Battle of Britain. It was August 1916, and 3 Wing was months, these four young Canadians and their new the first ofthe Allies' strategic bombing squadrons, flight leader proved it in the most stunning way: They having been set up in 1915. The squadron was equipped were credited with the destruction of an incredible 87 with Short and Sopwith 1^: Strutter bombers, with V/i enemy aircraft. Although he had already been an ace Strutter two-seaterfightersfiyingescort. It was to the when he took command of B Flight, those three months latter that the newly qualified ColUshaw was posted. On September 21, after a brief speU of training in established CoUishaw as one ofthe great fighter pilots bomber escort duties, CoUishaw's wing was transferred of World War I. Born in Nanaimo, a small coal-mining town on Van- to Luxeuil, France. The newly arrived unit shared the couver Island, on November 22, 1893, Raymond CoUi- airfield with Captain Felix Happe's French Groupe de shaw soon got a taste for adventure—thanks in part to BombardmentA, and among thefightersquadrons prohis father, who apparently suffered from gold fever. viding escort for Happe's bombers was the already famous Escadrille Americaine, Young Raymond spent almost N.124. On October 12, CoUishaw as much time in the goldfietds of participated in the massive but Australia, California and the Raymond "Collie" CoUishaw ended his less than successful bombing of Klondike during his early years diverse 27-year career in military aviation the Mauser factory at Obernas he did in his hometovm. as an air vice-marshal (Courtesy of the dorf, surviving a sprawling air He graduated from high school NanaJmo Military Museum).

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MAY 2005 AVIATION HISTORV M

Don Connolly's painting Naval Ten includes Sopwith Triplanes of Collishaw's "Black Flight" at lower left.

battle whose participants included such ftiture aces as France's lean de ia Valdene, American citizen Raoul Lufbery of N. 124, and Germans Kurt Haher, Ludwig Hanstein, Otto Klssenberth and Ernst Udet. After one other raid and a brief skirmish, Coliishaw scored his first victories when Happe decided to move the group to Ochey, a more forward base. Detailed to ferry one of the fighters to the new base on October 25, 1916, CoUishaw was attacked by six German fighters and suffered severe damage, not the least of which was a stream of bullets that smashed his goggles. Although barely able to see, Coliishaw did get several bursts at one German fighter, which headed quickly for the deck. The pilot who had first hit him was so intent on finishing off the Canadian that he forgot to keep an eye on his own altitude and smashed into a tree. The Germans then broke off the en:12 AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

Students and instructors pose with a Curttss flying boat at Toronto's Curtiss Aviation School, where Coliishaw began his flight training.

Austratian squadron commander Bertram Charles Bell, shown here at right posing with two other fliers, transferred some of Collishaw's veteran buddies to the newly formed No. 10 Squadron in 1917.

Much has been written about B Flight and how it became gagement. Totally lost and off course, Gollishaw saw an aerodrome that he assumed was known as "Black Flight." Many of these stories have become French and headed down. But he suddenly exaggerated over the years. Here is how Raymond Coilishaw became aware that the planes on thefieldall himself described its inception in an excerpt from his autobibore Iron Cross markings, lolted back to alert- ography Air Command: ness, Coliishaw managed to open the throttle The fuselage and upper surfaces of the wings of the Trijust in time to get back off the ground before planes were doped a sort of darkened khaki and the under crashing into a group of trees at the end of the surfaces of the wings were a light blue. On Naval Ten, the airairfield. craft of each flight also bore additional distinctive color In lanuary 1917, 3 Wing was transferred to markings. Those ofA' Flight had the metal cowling enclosVert Galland, re-equipped with single-seat ing the rotary Clerget engine and the metal panels which enSopwith Pup scouts and redesignated as No. 3 closed the top and sides of the fuselage behind it painted Squadron, RNAS. Naval 3 turned out to be an almost totally Canadian unit, even to its commanding officer, Redford Mullock, known to all as "Red." Although its flying characteristics were FLYING ALMOST CONTINUOUS PATROLS NAVAL 3 SOON as delightfiil as its appearance, the Pup, FOUNO OUT HOW DIFFERENT THIS TYPE OF COMBAT WAS AND with its single Vickers machine gun, was slower and less well armed than the , HOW LIHLE THEY REALLY KNEW. twin-gunned Albatros D.Ill. Even so, Coilishaw managed to drive a German Halberstadt D.ll down out of control on February 15, and repeated that feat vinth red, as were the canvass \sic] discs covering the outside of another Halberstadt on March 4. the spoked undercarriage wheels. Those of'B' Flight were Nowfiyingalmost continuous patrols. Naval painted black while those of C Flight bore blue markings. 3's pilots soon found out how different this type These colors served as a means of identification in the air as of combat was and how little they really knew well as on the ground. While taxying the triplane was quite \\ hen they were confi-onted with the more exunstable in any sort of breeze and after a pilot landed it was perienced Germans, among whom was a man the practice of the mechanics to run out and grab the destined to hecome a legend—Manfred Vreiwingtips and help bring the machines in. The colorings enherrvon Richthofen, then commanding the alabled the mechanics to recognize immediately which maready notorious red-nosed Alhatros D.IIIs of chines belonging to their flight. jagdstaffel (or Jasta) 11. To make life even more We decided to give our machines names and because we difficult, they had to cope with the infuriating were 'B' Flight and our coloring was black, the idea of folhabit the Vickers machine gun had of jamming lowing a black motif came more or less naturally. I selected at the worst possible time, mainly due to the the name "Black Maria" and Ellis Reid's was "Black Roger." gun's tendency to fi-eeze at high altitudes. John Sharman's was dubbed "Black Death," Gerry Nash's During a patrol on March 24, Coilishaw suffered severe became "Black Sheep" and Alex Alexander's bore the name frostbite after he lost his face mask. After undergoing treat"Black Prince." We had stencils cut and these were used to ment in England, he learned he had been posted to the newly paint the names in white which were on both sides of the formed No. 10 Squadron, RNAS. He arrived on April 26 and fuselage in letters about three inches high. was immediately put in command of B Flight. MAY 2005 AVIATION HISTORV

Major Collishaw (left) chats with fellow Canadian Captain Arthur Wheaiy (27 victories) in the cockpit of a Sopwith Camel of No. 203 Squadron, RAF, in July 1918.

The only other reference Collishaw makes regarding Black Flight comes several pages later in the book: A good deal has been written over the years aboul the "Black Flight" that I was privileged to lead and certain misunderstandings have arisen. It has been assumed by many who have written about "Black Flight" that whenever one of Naval Ten's patrols went up on patrol they did so in full strength with five Triplanes. Tbis was not the case. The majority of our patrols were flown by flights of two or three and it was not uncommon for a single machine to be sent up. There was also a good deal of interchange among the pilots ofthe three flights so a three man patrol might well consist of a couple from "B" Flight and one from another flight. I dislike to destroy what has, in a modest manner, become perhaps something of a legend among enthusiasts of air fighting from those days but only on a relatively small number of occasions did "Black Flight" take off on patrols of full strength with its five original members. Whatever success Naval Ten achieved during this period, should, in all fairness be attributed to the squadron as a whole and not to any particular flight....

loss ratio from the squadron's original 15 fliers. Collishaw and Alexander were given leave in August and returned to Canada. During that leave Collishaw met Neita Trapp, sister of one of his Naval 10 squadron mates, George Leonard Trapp. Sadly, George was killed in France while Clollishaw was visiting the Trapp home. During that same period Raymond and Neita became engaged, but it would be six long years before they would have the opportunit>' to tnarr>'. Returning from leave, Collishaw was back at Dunkirk by the end of November, expecting to return to Naval 10. Surprisingly he was posted to what had been the Seaplane Defense squadron at St. Pol, Although it had originally been equipped with seaplanes, when Collishaw arrived the squadron was flying the Clerget-engine Sopwith Camel and was designated Naval 13. This modest statement is all Collishaw says about Black Collishaw was given command of A Flight and had two vicFlight in the whole book. The misconceptions about the unit's tories under his belt {an Albatros two-seater on Decetnher 10 reputation, however, should not obscure the fact that the men and an Albatros D.V on the 19th) when, on December 29, Ronald of B Flight did, in the three-month period from May to July Graham, Naval 13's squadron commander, was killed and Collishaw got his first taste of commanding a squadron. Just as he was getting used to that difficult job and his pilots, Collishaw was reassigned yet again, this time back to his old Naval 3, except now as its new squadron comCOLLfSHAW'S OFRCIAL TOTAL OF ENEMY AIRCRAET mander. On April 1,1918, the Royal Flying Corps and the DESTROYED HAD REACHED 47 BY JULY 1918, AND HE WAS AWARDED RNAS were amalgamated into a single independent air arm, the Royal Air Force, All naval squadrons were reTHE DFC TD GD WITH HIS OTHER DECORATIONS, designated with "200" before their original numbers. Naval 3 thus becoming No. 203 Squadron, RAF Collishaw kept downing German planes, his total reaching 47 by July 1918, when he was awarded the Dis1917, claim 87 etieniy aircraft between them, 37 of which were tinguished Flying Cross to go with his other decorations. His credited to their flight commander. This earned Coliishaw the score reached 51 at the end of that same month, and on Distinguished Service Cross and Distinguished Service Order August 1 a bar was added to his DSO. By the time the conflict to go with the French Croix de Guerre he already had. ended on November 11, the young man who had started his The price of success was high, however, both for B Flight career as a cabin boy was established as one of World War I's and Naval 10. In the space of six days in July. John Sharman leading aces, with an official total of 60 enemy aircraft. and Kllis Reid were killed. Gerry Nash was already a prisoner In October 1918, Collishaw was ordered to report to the Air of war, having been shot down lune 25 by Lieutenant Carl All- Ministry in London and turned over command of No. 203 menroder of Richthofen's/fl^m 11, for his 29th victory. This left Squadron to Major Tom Falcon Hazel!. The squadron's record Collishaw and Bill Alexander as the only survivors ofthe origi- during Collishaw's time as commander was 125 enemy airnal flight. In Naval 10 as a whole, six pilots died in this period, craft destroyed or driven down out of control with a loss of 30 two were wounded and two became prisoners, a 75 percent pilots. There seems little doubt that 203 was left in good hands.

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11 AVIATION HISTOFIV MAY 2005

that a Russian countess who had trained as a nurse took him to the tiny cottage where she then lived and slowly nursed him back to health. The Canadian pilot was eventually sent to a military hospital, where he made a full recovery During his convalescence, he received the news that he had been awarded the Order of the British Empire. On Collishaw's retum to duty in November, it soon became apparent that, although all the RAF squadrons were still enjoyitig considerable success, the Bolshevik armies were slowly but surely gaining the upper hand. General Denikin's advance toward Moscow quickly crumbled under the pressure, and he was forced to retreat. Tlie Wliite Russians were never to recover from this setback. December 18 found No. 47 Squadron on board a train retreating nipidly lo Rostov, where it was to cross tlie Don River and reach the safety of the Kuban. But even this plan was doomed, as Red cavalry cut the railway lines— and the train the British were on had to head for the Crimea, hotly ptirsued hy a Red Army armored train. They did eventttally make it to tbe Crimea on lanuary 20, 1920, where they contitiued tbe fight until March 28, At that point it became obvious tbe Wliite Russian armies were doomed. On March 30, on orders from London, the British handed over their planes and equipment to the Russians and embarked from the port of Theodosia for Constantinople and England. Many British fliers were decorated for gallanuy during this abortive campaign, Coliishaw receiving three Russian decorations to go with his OBH. A long and well-deserved leave followed Collishaw's return to England, but he was soon posted to Mesopotamia (now Iraq) to command No. 30 Squadron. Coliishaw would spend three years there, fighting yet again the Bolshevik forces that he thought he had seen the last of when he scrambled out of Russia. There was little glamour in fighting in this part of the world. In addition to dealing with sub-zero winters and 130-degree summers, the squadron had to live with incessant dust, the ever-present threat of dysentery and, if one were shot down, tbe prospect that he might be turned over to the women of some hostile tribe and hacked to death. In 1923 Raymond Coilishaw returned once again to England on leave and at last married his longtime sweetheart Neita Trapp. Perhaps it was his marriage, although more likely just pure coincidence, hut for the first time in his career Coilishaw managed to enjoy a period of peace. He remained in England until 1929, when—then a wing commander—he was posted to the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous a?, senior RAP officer. There he remained until 1932, when he was seni to command RAF Bircham Newton, where (in his own words) he spent the dullest period of bis career, only tetTipered by the fact that he was able to have his wife and two daughters living with him on a more or less permanent basis. in 1935 Collisbaw, by then a group captain, found his peacetime hiatus suddenly shattered when he was sent to the Sudan to counter the threat of a war with Italy, which had invaded Abyssinia, When the threat receded for a wbile iti 1936, he was put in command of the RAH station at Heliopolis, near Cairo,

Left: "Collie" with wife, Neita {Courtesy of the Nanaimo Military Museum). Below: A 1940 photo shows Air Commodore Gollishaw, air officer commanding Number 201 Group, RAF, in Egypt in 1940.

Tom Hazell, an Irishman from County Galway, was an ace in his own right, with 43 victories, and had served as a flight commander with Nos. 1 and 24 squadrons of the RFC and RAF. On arrival in London, Coilishaw was told he was to be posted back to Canada to serve as senior staff officer to Brig. Gen. C.G. Hoare, who was to take charge of a new training scheme for pilots. Before he could leave, however, the Armistice was signed. Coilishaw remained in England until early 1919, when he was offered a permanent commission in the RAF, which he accepted with great delight. Although he did not realize it at the time, it was an assignment that would send him very quickly back to war. For the moment, however, all he was thinking about was realizing his dream of a career in flying, going home for an extended leave and spending some time with his fiancee, who be had not seen for a year and a half. When be returned to England, he was assigned as commander of No, 47 Squadron, which was to be shipped to south Russia to fight with the White Russian armies, under tbe cotnmand of General Anton Denikin. This tumed out to be a frustrating campaign, with the squadron's orders often changed hy political divisions in Britain over the wisdom of supporting the White Russians. That campaign brought Coliishaw his last aerial victory, a Bolshevik Nieuport he shot down on October 9,20 miles north of Tsaritsyn. After being bogged down for some time in Novorossiisk supervising the unloading of aircraft, Collisbaw bad finally made it to the front and some action when he was suddenly laid low by typhus late in October, He was put on a train for Yekaterinodar, the main medical center, but when his fever worsened he was taken off the train at a small village. It was his good tuck

MAY 2005 AVIATION HISTOHV :ir>

Collishaw talks with Queen Mary and King George VI, Air Chief Marshal Harry Brooke Popham and Air Vice-Marshal Nicol during a base tour.

Egypt. Collishaw enjoyed his time there, especially as he was able to bring his family out from England. In preparation for what was clearly heconiing inevitable, in 1939 a new operational unit was formed known as the Egypt Group (later redesignated 201 Group), and Collishaw, then an air commodore, was put in charge. Then, on June 10. 1940, the war with Italy became a reality. Totally outnumhered by the Italian Regia Aeronaudca and with little or no chance of replacements, Collishaw was faced with the fact that if he took the Italians on head to head, sooner or later he would be overwhelmed. So he decided to adopt the strategy of Confederate U. Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson and embarked on a campaign to "mystify, delude and deceive" the enemy This he did by maJcing surprise attacks at constantly changing targets and shunting his lone modern fighter {a Hawker Hurricane Mark 1}fromairfield to airfield. That his strategy worked was shown by the fact that the Italians went into defensive mode. An interesting insight into Collishaw the man and commander comes from this period of his career, through two stories related by his batman of the time, who was known as Johns. At the peak ofthe desert campaign with Jtaly, Collishaw worked an average 17-hour day Toward the end of one such spell, he was at his desk, plowing through the interminable

just a ploy Collishaw made no attempt to reprimand the men but simply approved their transfer to a ground job at one of the many mobile listening posts scattered around the desert. What he did not tell them was that this particniar post was forwardmost to the enemy lines. After three days of random air attacks and mortar shelling that made even a visit to the toilet an adventure, the men were back in Collishaw's office, begging to be returned to flying duties and assuring their somewhat amused commanding officer that the rest had cured them completely. Although the success General Sir Archibald Wavel! achieved in virtually destroying the Italian forces in the desert was to be reversed by the intervention of the German Afrika Korps under Maj. Gen. Erwin Rommel the part Collishaw's air gronp played in the victory earned him an award that, even today, is reserved for only a special few. He was made a Companion of the Order ofthe Bath. C O L L I S H A W A D O P T E D T H E STRATEGY OF CONFEDERATE The desert campaign was to he Collishaw's last taste GENERAL 'STONEWALL' JACKSON AND EMBARKED DN A CAMPAIGN TO of war. In 1942 he returned to Britain. Although he took command of No. 14 Fighter Group, based at Inverness 'MYSTIFY. DELUDE AND DECEIVE'THE ENEMY, in Scotland, the group's area of operation, which included the fleet at Scapa Flow, remained relatively quiet, and his unit saw little ofthe Luftwaffe. In 1943, by then an air vice-marshal, Raymond Collipaperwork that never disappears, even in war, when one of shaw retired after 27 years, ending a career that was one of the his officers appeared with a copy of an old Daily Mirror in his most remarkable and diverse anyone could imagine. He died hand. Pointing to the tearful young woman on the front page in Vancouver in 1976 at age 83 and was fittingly buried with standing by a bombed house and clutching a baby, the officer full military honors, "t" said, "That's the wife of one of our aircrewfitters."Collishaw read the story, then he looked at the officer and said simply Charles Reid grew up in London during World War II, joining "Get the man on a plane to Cairo and see that he has a seat on the Home Guard at 16 and the Royal Naiy at 17. A lifelong stuthe next flight to England with a three-week leave." With that, dent of military history, he has puhlislied many articles and tim Collishaw picked up his pen and resumed writing. books, Hurricanes Over London and Chasing the Arrow. For The second story concerned two pilots who appeared in his additional reading, try: Above the Trenches, by Christopher office one morning begging to be excused from combat flying Shaw, Norman Franks and Russell Guest: High Flight, by because their nerves were gone and they felt they represented Jonathan Vance; or Air Command, by Air Vice-Marshal Raya danger to their comrades. Although he was aware this was mond Collis^iaiv and R.V Dodds. AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

BIRD

T

he United States was engaged in a number of secret aviation projects during World War II. Two of them, not revealed to the public for many years, involved American fliers that were being trained to attack enemy forces and die in the process, kamikaze style. However, these fliers were not humans but common bats and pigeons, drafted to make surprise bombing raids on enemy forces. A dental surgeon from Irwin, Pa., is credited with the idea of using bats as bombers. And a behavioral psychologist, also a Pennsylvanian, showed how pigeons could guide bombs directly to surface targets. The two projects were not related, and the two men never met. Dr. Lyde S. Adams was vacationing in the Southwest on December 7,1941, when he heard the shocking news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Adams immediately headed home. He had just visited Carlsbad Caverns, N.M.—believed to house the world's largest bat colony—where he had been fascinated by the bats that emerged nightly to feed on insects. Thinking about that

AH AVIATION H I S T O R V MAY 2005

impressive colony, the dentist asked himself: "Couldn't those millions of bats be fitted with incendiary bombs and dropped from planes? What could be more devastating than such a firebomb attack?" he recalled in a 1948 interview. He stopped by Carisbad on his way home and captured some Mexican free-tail bats, the most common species in North America. The free-tails, also known as guano bats, are small brown mammals capable of catching more than 1.000 mosquitoes or gnats in a night. Weighing about 9 grams, the free-tails can carry an external load more than tvnce their own weight. Back home, Adams looked up everything he could find about the tiny mammals and discovered that although bats are frequently vilified by the public, they are not usually dangerous to humans. They aren't blind, don't get tangled up in one's hair and don't attack people. Although generally considered evil in Europe, they symbolize prosperity' and happiness in China. The Navajo Indians believe them to be intermediaries between men

bers AT THE OUTSET of World War II, innovative plans were laid to send some talented fliers to the front lines.

BYCV.GUNES

and the gods. They range in size from the bumblebee bat ot Thailand, which weighs less than a penny, to the mastiff bat, North America's largestflyingmammal with a 22-inch wingspread, and the giant flying fox bat with a 6-foot wingspan, found primarily in Indonesia. Adams became convinced that bats could be used as bombers. On lanuary 12, 1942, he sent a letter to the White House proposing that the government investigate this possibility; His suggestion was considered, along with hundreds of others from well-meaning citizens with war-winning ideas, but his was one ofthe few that reached the desk of the commander in chief. President Franklin D. Roosevelt forwarded a memo to Colonel William I. Donovan, then coordinator of information, with a cr^TJtic notation: "This man is not a nut. it sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into." In fact, Adams had already made a name for himself as an inventor. In the 1920s and '30s he launched a 15-year campaign to perfect an airmail pickup system (see "People and Planes" in the March 2005 issue).

Donovan sent the proposal to the National Defense Research Committee (NDHC) of the National Inventors Council. After reviewing Adams' idea, a memorandum titled "Use of Bats as Vectors of Incendiary Bombs" was sent to the committee on April 16, 1942, by Donald R. Griffin, a special-research assistant. He described the proposal as using "ver>' large numbers of bats, each carrying a small incendiary- time bomb. The bats would be released at night from airplanes, preferably at high altitudes and the incendiaries would be timed to ignite after the bats had descended to low altitudes and taken shelter for the day. Since bats often roost in buildings, they could be released over settled areas with a good expectation that a large percentage would be roosting in buildings or other inflammable installations.. .when the incendiary material was ignited.'" Griffin summarized bis memo by saving that, although "this proposal seems bizarre and nsionar^- at first glance...extensive experience with experimental biology convinces the writer that if executed competently

Top-secret projects aimed at turning bats and pigeons into kamikaze-style bombers remained classified years after World Warn ended (photos © SSPl/The Image Works).

MAY 200r) AVIATION HISTORV

it would have every chance of success." He recom- authority for the project to proceed by a memo—Submended an investigation "with all possible speed, ac- ject: "Test of Method to Scatter Incendiaries." Purpose: curacy and efficiency" by the U.S. Army Air Forces. "Determine the feasibility of using bats to carry small Bomb development was passed on to the Army Chemi- incendiary bombs into enemy targets." cal Warfare Service. Project members studied the habits ofthe bats intently. Adams and a team of naturalists were immediately Louis F Fieser, assigned as chief chemist for the Adams authorized to find bats for experimentation. The team project, began to design bombs light enough to be carvisited a number of likely sites in Texas and New Mexico ried by thefree-tails.His research showed that the British where the bats could be found in large quantities—mostly had designed miniature bombs during World War I called in caves, but also under bridges, in bams and in large piles "baby incendiaries" made of thermite that weighed 6.4 of rubbish. "We visited a thousand caves and three thou- ounces. Fieser made two sizes of incendiaries that were sand mines," Adams said. "Speed was so imperative that oblong celluloid casesfilledwith thickened kerosene. A we generally drove all day and night, when we weren't small time-delay igniter fuse was attached along one side. exploring caves. We slept in the cars, taking turns at dri- One size weiglied 17 grams and would btim for four minving. One car in our search team covered 350,000 miles." utes with a 10-inch flame. The other weighed 22 grams The team first investigated the mastiff bat, which they and would burn for six minutes with a 12-inch flame. determined could carry a 1-pound stick of dynamite. The time-delay igniter consisted of afiringpin held But there was not a sufficient number of that variety in tension against a spring by a thin steel wire. When tlie available. The more common bat was the mule-eared or bombs were prepared for use, a copper chloride solupallid species, which could carry 3 ounces. However, the tion was injected into the cavity through which the steel naturalists concluded that the species was not suffi- wire passed. The copper chloride would corrode the ciently hardy for the work that needed to be done. wire in time; when it was completely corroded through, Theyfinallysettled on the Mexicanfree-tailbat for the thefiringpin snapped forward, striking the igniter head project. Although it weighed only one-third ofan ounce, and lighting the kerosene. experiments showed that it could fly fairly well with a To attach the bomb to a bat, technicians clipped the payioad of 15 to 18 grams. The Army's Edgewood Arsenal case to the loose skin on the bat's chest with a stirgical in Maryland, near Washington, D.C, was to design an clip and a piece of string. The bats were dropped from incendiary bomb weighing no more than 18 grams. a plane in a cardboard container that would open in The largest colony of free-tails found during the midair at about 1,000 feet. According to one CWS report, search was an estimated 20 to 30 million that lived in the bats were then expected "to fly into hiding in the limestone Ney and Bracken caves near Bandera, in dwellings or other structures, gnaw through the string, southwest Texas. At Ney Cave, U.S. Army Captain Wiley and leave the bombs behind." W. Carr reported that "five hours' time is required for In early May 1943, about 3,500 bats were collected at these animals to leave the cave while flying out in a Carlsbad Caverns and flown in a North American B-25 dense stream fifteen feet in diameter and so closely that had been assigned to the project to Muroc Dry packed they can barely fly." Lake, Calif., for tests. The bats were placed in refrigeraCapturing the bats was not difficult. Team members tors and forced to hibernate. On May 21,1943,fiveboxes passed nets on long poles back and forth over the cave of bats were dropped from 5,000 feet, but the test was entrance as the bats emerged from their lairs. As many unsuccessful because the bats, not fully recovered from as 100 were captured in two or three passes, after which hibernation, could not fly. they were placed in a refrigerated truck. Adams took The project was transferred to an auxiliary field under some to the Chemical Warfare Service headquarters at construction at Oirlsbad, and secret tests continued. This Aberdeen, Md., and released them to show Army offi- time bats were placed in ice cube trays and cooled off to cials how they could each carry a dummy bomb. place them in hibernation. They were then positioned There was much opposition to the project from CWS in cardboard cartons for the drop tests. Captain Carr officials, but in March 1943 the Army Air Forces issued explained tlie procedure: "Bats were taken from the reRight: Louis F. Fleser designed bombs light enough to be carried by Mexican free-tail bats. Far right: Renowned behavioral psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner was convinced pigeons could be trained to guide missiles.

10 AVIATION H I S T O n y MAY 2005

frigeration truck in a hibemated state order to plan a timely operation." FIRES SET BY bat in lots of approximatelyfifty.They Adams was very disappointed. He were taken individually by a biolobombers could have maintained that flres set by bat gist, and about a one-half inch of bombers could have been more deloose chest skin was pinched away structive to lapanese cities than the been more from the flesh. While this operation two atomic bombs. He noted that was being done, another group was destructive to hats had scattered up to 20 miles preparing the incendiaries. One opduring the tests, adding. "Think of Japanese cities than erator injected the solution in the thousands of fires breaking out sidelay Imechanism], another sealed multaneously over a circle of forty the two atomic the hole with wax, and another miles in diameter for every bomb placed the surgical clip that was fasdropped. lapan could bave been bombs. tened to the incendiary by a short devastated, yet with small loss of life." string....The incendiar\' was then Meanwhile, tests had been ongohanded to a trained helper who fasing for some time to train birds as tened it to the chest ofthe bat." kamikaze pilots. Burrhus I-rederic Drops ofthe bats were made with dummy bombs Skinner, a behavioral psychologist at the University of from a B-25 and a Piper L-4 Cub. but troubles once again Minnesota who believed that pigeons could be trained developed. Many ofthe bats didn't awaken from hiber- to guide missiles, originated the idea of using birds as nation in time to be able tofly.the cardboard cartons bombers. A scientist noted for his view that learning ocdidn't always open properly, and the surgical clips curred as a result of an organism responding to, or opproved difficult to attach to the chests ofthe bats. Team erating on, its environment, he did extensive research members worked to resolve these problems, and more uith animals, notably rats and pigeons, and concluded bats were secured. This time, however, they woke up too that a rat or pigeon could learn to press a lever in order to obtain food. Skinner wondered, after the Germans quickly when they were released, then escaped. Captain Carr stated in an interim report: "The bats homhed Warsaw in 1939, whether a shell or tnissile used at Carlsbad weighed an average of nine grams. could be designed that could be guided to a ground They could carry eleven grams without any trouble and target from an aircraft. He was riding on a train at the eighteen grams satisfactorily, but twenty-two grams ap- time and saw a flock of birds lifting and wheeling in forpeared to he excessive. These didn't fly very far, and mation as they flew alongside the train. "Suddenly 1 saw three returned in a few minutes to the building where we were working. Oneflewunderneath, one landed on Left: Although the free-tail bat weighs only the roof, and one attached itself to the wall. The ones 9 grams, experiments showed it could fly with eleven-gram dummies flew out of sight. The next with an 18-gram payload. Below: Dr. Lytle day an examination of the grounds around a ranch S. Adams, flanked by Robert Herold and house about two miles away from the point of release Ray Williams, loads bats into an "eggdisclosed two dummies inside the porch, one beside the crate" bomb tray before a test. house, and one inside the barn." Tests continued, and more than 6,000 bats were used in the experiments. In a report dated June 8,1943, Carr stated that if further tests were to be carried out. a better time-delay parachute-type container, new clips and a simplified time-delay igniter should be designed. He added that "testing was concluded...when a fire destroyed a large portion ofthe test material." What he didn't point out was that a barracks, a control tower and other buildings at the Carlsbad auxiliaryfieldhad been set afire by the bats on the no t-yet-occupied base. The Army had had enough of the experiment by August 1943, and the project was passed to the Navy and assigned to the Marine Corps as Project X-Ray. Marines were assigned to guard four bat caves in Texas, and their first tests began on December 13.1943. Experiments were carried out with improved "egg crate" trays and bomb shells. In the course of those tests, 30fireswere started— 22 of which went out on their ovm. New and more powerful incendiaries were ordered, andfrill-scaletests were planned for August 1944. However, when the Navy ieamed that it would take until mid-1945 to complete the tests, the 27-month, $2 million project was canceled— "not based on any shortcomings of the incendiar)' and time units developed.'" according to the notice, "hut rather upon the shortcomings ofthe fundamental idea and the opportunity of getting sufficient reliable data in 200r> AVIATION HISTORV

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Right and below right: Scientists tried specialized bombshells in addition to eggcrate trays in ttieir efforts to launch incendiary-equipped bats, with unpredictable resuits. Far right: In the course of one test, a brand-new barracks, a control tower and other buildings at Carlsbad Auxiliary Army Air Field were accidentally burned down.

them as 'devices' with excellent vision and extraordinary maneuverability," he recalled. "Could they not guide a missile? Was the answer to the problem waiting for me in my own hack yard?" Skinner, who already had much experience with birds, chose to work with them in many experiments because they have better vision than humans, are faster in their movements, can distinguish colors, don't get airsick and are more easily handled than many other animals. He decided to focus on pigeons because he discovered that they are more predictable than other hirds. Skinner hought some pigeons at a poultry store and started teaching the birds to earn kernels of grain by pecking at a specific target image. During this training the hirds were held in position in front of a screen by means of a special harness. "Feet and wings would be hard to harness," he reasoned, "hut the head and neck might be used. The pigeon's eyes could pick out a target, movement of its neck could produce signals to steer the missile, and its head and neck together could pick up grain as a reinforcer. "I found that 1 could conveniently package a pigeon in a mans sock with its head and neck protruding through a hole in the toe and its wings and legs drawn together at the hack and lightly tied with a shoestring. The jacketed bird could be strapped to a block of wood and put into an apparatus." Skinner huilt a system in which the pigeon steered by moving pairs of lightweight rods around its neck. By lift11' AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

ing or lowering its head, the bird closed electrical contacts operating a hoist. By moving its head from side to side, it drove a hoist hack and forth on an overhead track. A bull's-eye was placed on a far wall of the room, a tew grains of food were placed in a small cup in the center, and the apparatus was pushed toward it. By moving up or down and from side to side, the pigeon could reach the wall in position to take the grain. "My pigeons became quite adept at this." Skinner recalled in his autobiography. "I pushed them faster and faster across the room until they were operating the moving hoist as fast as the motors permitted." He next worked out a system whereby the pigeon pecks were picked up as an electronic signal and transferred to a control system. As the image moved off center, tlie pigeon would peck frantically to hring the device hack on track; the resulting signals would operate the simulated missile control system to center the device on the target. With practice, his birds hit the target with near perfect accuracy and could easily distinguish one target from another. Skinner, convinced that his idea had merit, contacted members of the National Inventors Council, who were startled hy the proposal and rejected the idea with the comment that it was unrelated to national defense. Undeterred. Skinner made his proposal to the NDRC on lune 9, 1941. but again he received a polite "No." News of the Pearl Harbor attack sparked Skinner to resume his work. Hefilmedhis pigeons in action and

again contacted the NDRC, and this time government scientists showed mild interest but felt it was a long shot. When A.D. Hyde, then head ofthe mechanical division of General Mills Inc., heard about the revolutionary^ idea, he was atfirstskeptical that pigeons could be trained as flying suicide bombs. However, he thought Skinner's reasoning was sound and persuaded the company's top management to back the project with technical help until it could be turned over to a government agenq*. With this support. Skinners system was refined. The previous harness was discarded in favor of a more practical lens and screen grid with a special servo-control mechanism. The force of the pigeons pecking motion was increased by running a bomb's gyro and controls in a vacuum and by placing valves behind the top, bottom and sides of the flodble screen. Wlien the pigeon tapped one of these valves, it opened, permitting air pressure to build up in the system and operate the fins on the bomb. When the target image was at dead center and the pigeon pecked at dead center, all the valves opened an equal amount and the setting was unchanged. At this stage, the project showed enough promise that the newly formed Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) awarded Skinner a contract in lune 1943 under the name of Project Pigeon for "a homing device." ITie inventor "recruited" a squadron of 64 pigeons {40 homers and 24 ordinary pigeons) from local sources and began their training. The birds were left without food for 36 hours, then placed in a cage with some grain about 30 minutes a day. The target for the actual bombing experiments, to be located in Florida, was a white pyramid on a green field.

so Skinner used a screen of white triangles cut into green paper. Once a bird learned that pecking the white pyramids would produce a few kernels of grain, it was conditioned to expect to be fed when he saw them. As soon as the bird had learned to break through light paper, heaWer sheets were substituted. Kventually the pigeon was pecking with the force of a miniature air hammer. Once a bird had completed this "primary'" training, it was graduated to an advanced trainer. This was a lightproof box mounted over a projection screen. A moving picture of a ground target appeared on tbis screen, and whenever the pigeon pecked it on the screen it caused an electrical contact to close and a small drawer to pop out containing kernels of grain. This training worked well for a time, but the pigeons quickly learned they could got Ihe grain no matter where they pecked the screen and began to disregard the target itself. Skinner outsmarted them by crossing two beams of light at right angles in front of the image. From then on, a pigeon had to peck the target image at dead center in order to break both beams of light and actuate a photoelectric relay to release the food. Skinner then added a new tactic, f le found he could feed the birds at regular time inter\'als or after a certain number of pecks. After a while, the pigeons leamed to rap out as many as four pecks a second for more than two minutes without a break, and would work feverishly to prevent the target image from moving off dead center. in one final test. Skinner put each bird into a handoperated trainer. A person sat behind each pigeon and moved a color photo projected on the screen, at the same time operating the food magazine. The pigeon had Skinner's training regimen involved "jacketing" a pigeon in a sock and positioning it in front of a screen in a harness. His birds learned to operate a moving hoist— used to simulate a missile control system.

MAY 200'> AVIATION HISTORV KI

to peck correctly or he got no food at all. According to plication." Skinner, like Adams, was disappointed after the report on these experiments: "There wasn't a single so much effort had gone into his project. He comwashout in the entire class of 64. Every bird earned his mented in one of his books that if they meant other wings with aii A grade." guided missile projects had more potential, "the United Other experiments followed to test the hirds' psycho- States had not only no way of guiding a missile but no logical fitness for hattle. Target pistols were fired only a missile worth guiding. The Germans were far ahead. In few inches from a bird's head. The pigeons didn't miss September 1943, long before our final meeting in Washa peck, didn't even look up. Other extremely loud noises ington, they had used missiles controlled by radio from were introduced. Again, the pigeons stayed at their task. mother planes to wreak havoc on the American fleet Skinner also put the pigeons in a pressure chamber, set- landing soldiers at Salerno." ting the altitude at 10,000 feet. They were also whirled Skinner kept his pigeons at home and used the box around in a centrifuge, put on pure oxygen and exposed he had taken to Washington to see if they would retain to bright flashes, simulating shell bursts. High vibrations what they had learned. He tested them at six months, a were also introduced, and the birds year, two, four and six years later. All were subjected to massive G forces of them accurately struck the target, without harmful effects. which enabled him to conclude his Following the success of those exwork had been worthwhile. While his 'THERE WASN'T a periments, pigeons were placed in pigeons were never tested in comthree, five and seven tandem posibat, he was confident they could single washout in tions in a missile to see whether, if have carried out their missions. one or more birds became obstinate In the years following World War II, the entire class of or lazy, the majority could override the U.S. Navy became more interany incorrect signals and keep the ested in missiles and their use against 64. Every hird missile on course. The final test was surface ships. The reports on Project to see whether a male pigeon placed Pigeon remained classified, but they earned his wings alongside a female would abandon were unearthed from tlie Navy files in his task or vice versa. Once more, the 1948 and given new life under tlie deswith an A grade/ birds' dedication to the mission was ignation Project Orcon (for organic paramount. They pecked away at the control). The Naval Research Labotarget; hunger overcame any other ratory a (J— (J-_, l a m i j( was vvaa tasked iaar.cu with wiiji "conducting l.UllUULlllll'd desires. Skinner also learned that pigeons were seem- program of research to determine the feasibility of using ingly fearless when feeding on hemp seed. They worked pigeons as the sensing element for controlling missiles." faster when it was used in place of the standard grain. Tests were conducted over the next five years, using When sufticient data had been collected on the pi- a sophisticated trainer that simulated a missile. The geons, it was sent to Washington for evaluation. Time pigeon suspended inside faced a screen on which color passed, and Skinner was invited to OSRD to plead his photos of actual ships were projected. A metal contact case before a group of scientists. He brought a jacketed was attached to its beak, and a flexible wire from it pigeon with him in a box, facing a translucent screen on linked the bird to the missile. which a target could be projected from across the room. A gridless screen made of electrically conducting glass He described what happened: tracked where the pigeon had pecked it. The servomotors then steered the missile to a target ship, and the The pigeon had been in its jacket for 36 hours, and we bird was rewarded with the usual kernels of corn. Rehad checked the box into and out of the baggage peated performances showed that the pigeons could window at Chicago and had carried it with us on two guide missiles—well enough under ideal conditions to long train rides. If the image on the screen was to be score hits, although clouds, waves and shadows could clear, the box would have to be closed, and I had inthrow them off course. stalled a (ube through which the pigeon could be Project Orcon was canceled in 1953, when electronic watched without admitting too much light, but it vrould guidance systems for missiles were deemed reliable. The take too long to look down a tube, one person at a time, Orcon test results, however, were kept under wraps for and I was asked to open the box. That meant that the six more years before they were declassified. Meanwhile, pigeon saw a very faint image. Nevertheless, it perthere was an important spinoff from the research. The formed beautifully, pecking steadily as we moved the electrical conducting glass developed for the pigeon target about. Someone put his hand in the beam from training became a key feature in the combat control centhe projector and the pigeon stopped quickly It started ters of U.S. warships. It was employed by plotters using again just as quickly when the hand was withdrawn. magnetic probes to trace the course of attacking aircraft. Although bats and pigeons were never used to bomb There could scarcely have been a better demonstration enemy targets, the test results show that they could ofthe extraordinary predictability of behavior, the keen- have, it is interesting to speculate what the results might ness of a pigeon's vision, the accuracy of its responses, have been if they had actually gone to war. "1" and its freedom from distraction. However, on October 8,1944, Skinner and his associ- C V Glines is an award-winning aviation author and a ates were told that "further prosecution of this project member ofA\'\ation Hisiovy's editorial advisory board. For would seriously delay others which in the minds of the additional reading, try: Bat Bomb, by jack Coujfer. orThe Division have more immediate promise of combat ap- Shaping of a Behaviorist, by B,F Skinner. ! 1 AVIATION HISTORY MAY 2005

A standout even amid a fighter group full of individualists, Ralph Hofer became a high-ranking ace in the 'Debden Eagies' of the Eighth Air Force. BY JON GUTTMAN

A

mong the most colorful fighter outfits in the U.S. Eighth Air Force during World War II was the 4th Fighter Group, much of whose founding cadre was drawn directly from Nos. 71, 121 and 133 squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF)—units composed of American volunteers prior to the United States' entry into the war, collectively known as the Eagle Squadrons. Although the 4th Group's commander, Colonel Donald l.M. Blakeslee, was renowned for exerting tight control over his formations, he knew enougli to allow his highly individualistic pilots a certain amount of leeway. The payoff came in the fomi of aggressive aces such as Don S. Gentile, James A. Goodson, Pierce W. McKennon. DuaneW. Beeson. WilJard W. Millikan, Nicholas •'Cowboy" Megura and Howard "Deacon" Hively. Even by the 4th Group's standards, however, few pilots could boast a combination of aerial victories, hairsbreadth escapes and shaggy dog stories to match the exploits of Ralph "Kid" Hofer. The fiiture ace was horn Ralph Holbrook in Salem, Mo., on June 22, 1921, but his father died while he was still a child, and he acquired a new last name when his mother remarried. His family moved to Chicago, III., where he played semiprofessional football in the Chicago League. He was also an avid boxer, winning a trophy in the iighi-heav>'weight division of the Golden Gloves Tournament in 1940. He also fought a few rounds with 1939-41 world light-heavyweight champion Billy Conn in Chicago's Trafton Gymnasium. In March 1941, while waiting to compete in an American Legion-sponsored bout in Detroit, Mich., Hofer decided to drive into Canada and see Windsor, Ontario. He was stopped at the border

by an immigration officer who said, "Gome over to join the RCAF-1 suppose?" The official had seen so many Americans leave their stillneutral country to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force, to participate in the war against Germany, that he just assumed Hofer was another volunteer. Hofer was not, hut before he could deny it, the man said, 'That building right over there is where you go." Hofer had not had the slightest interest in aviation, but his curiosity was sufficiently piqued for him to go inside. The enthusiasm of the young men he met there convinced him to sign an application. The next thing he knew, he was training as an RCAF cadet. In between flight training sessions, Hofer was driving down Lake Street in Chicago with a young lady when another car cut him ofF. The other driver told him, "IVe heen looking for you!" To Hofer's pu77Jed query of "Who, me?" the man asked if he was wearing an authentic RAF uniform and if he was a cadet. "The answer is yes," Hofer replied. "Well, that's great," said the stranger. "I'm an advertising man. Got a studio over on Michigan Boulevard, and Coca-Cola is my client. I want you to pose in that uniform with an American cadet and a Coke hottle. I'll want about five shots, and I'll give you 10 bucks for each." After Hofer agreed to the photo shoot, in which he would pose as a British airman in a "Welcome, Friend" advertisement alongside a U.S. Army Air Corps officer, the ad man told him, "In about two years you'll see it on our billboards and everyplace." Sadly, altliough the advertisement did appear, by the time it did Hofer was not around to see it. In October 1942, Hofer shipped out to England. After some time in an operational training unit, he flew in No. 286 Squadron, an army cooperation unit. As elements of the U.S. Army Air Forces arrived in Britain, Hofer transferred to his own country's air arm on lune II, 1943, and began retraining in American fighters. At that time, he still had a noncommissioned officer's rank, for which the U.S. Army Air Forces had created the title of flight officer. In that capacity, on September 27 Hofer was assigned to the 334th Squadron of the 4th Fighter Croup, Eighth Air Force, based at Debden. Hofer found himself in good company among the high-spirited "Debden Eagles." Tall and powerfully built, but with a guileless

Left: Flight Officer Ralph K. Hofer beams from the cockpit of Susan III, his Republic P-47C Thunderbolt of the 334th Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, in the fall of 1943. Right: Second Lieutenant Hofer and fellow North American P-51 B Mustang pilots dive to the rescue of Eighth Air Force Boeing B-17s that have come under German attack, in Escort to Berlin, by Keith Ferris. 4i; AVIATION HISTORY MAY 2005

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Left: Ground crewman Don Allen parnts the nose art on Hofer's second P-47C, 41 -6484, coded QP-L and christened Missouri Kid—Sho Me, tn January 1944. Right "Kid" Hofer, sporting his signature football jersey with number 78 and nonregulation haircut describes his latest combat to the 4th Group's intelligence officer, Lieutenant Ben Ezzel (at the door in a leather jacket), and squadron mates

manner and an infectious smile, Hofer let his chestnut hair grow long and wore a snake ring and a football jersey bearing the number 78. His first assigned fighter was a Republic P-47C Thunderbolt with the code letters QP-K and the nickname Susan UL Hofer's first combat sortie was a "ramrod," or bomber escort mission, to Bremen, led by the 4th Group's commander, Colonel Blakeslee, on October 8,1943. The Americans were intercepted over the Netherlands by Messerschmitt Me-109Gs. which shot down Flight Officer Clyde D. Smith ofthe 334th Squadron and 1st Lt. Robert G. Patterson ofthe 335th. both of whom became POWs. 7Wo Germans were claimed in return by 1st Lt. Beeson and one by Captain lames A. Clark. A fourth was credited to Hofer, who was fiying over Amsterdam when he attacked an Me-109 that was shooting up a P-47, and reported seeing both fighters fall into the Zuider Zee. The German, Staff Sgt. Franz Effenberger oijagdgeschwacier (fighter wing) 3, or JG.3, had just downed a Thunderbolt from the 56th Fighter Group when Hofer killed him. Kid Hofer had made his mark with the Debden Eagles, but his next exploit, on December 15, involved getting in trouble with the military police in London for failing to have an identification card or wear his rank on his trench coat. Five days later he had to abort during another ramrod mission to Bremen due to engine trouble. While on his way back, three Me- 109s chased him halfway across the Channel before he lost them in the haze. In lanuary 1944, Hofer acquired a new P-47C, 41-6484, code letters QP-L. which he christened Missouri Kid—Sho Me. In spite of his promising start, he did not score his next victory until February 6, 1944. during a raid on Romilly. Captain Robert D. Hobert and 1st Lt. Vermont Garrison each shot down a Focke Wulf Fw- 190A in the melee, while Hofer sent an Me-109 down west of Paris.

B

y the end of February, Blakeslee had managed to obtain North American P-51B Mustangs for his group. The Mustangs were especially welcome among the old Eagle Squadron pilots, who had flown Supermarine Spitfires and had never liked the powerftil but big and heavy P-47 "jug." Hofer was assigned P-51B-15NA 42-106924. QP-L, which he marked with a pugnacious mule wearing boxing

4R AVIATION HISTORY MAV 2005

gloves and boxer shorts, and dubbed Salem Representative. During an escort mission to Munich on March 16. the 4th Group claimed 13 German fighters, including a low-flying Messerschmitt Me-1 lOG that Clark and Hofer sent crashing ttom an altitude of only 300 feet. 7wo days later, during a mission in which the 4th Group claimed another dozen Germans. Hofer was credited with two Me-109s southeast of Mannheim—one that went down smoking and one whose pilot bailed out. The group claimed another 11 enemy fighters destroyed and two damaged on the 23rd, with Hofer's contribution an Fw-l90 shot down and another one damaged east of Hamm-Munster. He was now an ace, and on March 25, he was awarded the Distinguished Elying Cross. Hofer dovmed an Me-109 northwest of Lake Constance on April 1, another over Celle on April 8 and another two miles southeast of Stettin on the 11 th. He marked May Day by disposing ofan Me-109. whose pilot bailed out near Cologne. An oak leaf was added to his DFC on May 6, and two days later he learned that he had been commissioned a second lieutenant, effective April 22. Hofer and 2nd Lt. Leonard R. Pierce teamed up to shoot down an Me-109 on May 12. and on the 21st he and 2nd Lt. Aubrey E. Hewatt shared in driving down a Bucker Bu-131 trainer over Buch airfield. During a confused melee the next day, Hofer downed an Me-109 near Hamburg and his group accounted for two others. In the same action, however, as Captain Megura and a Lockheed P-38 Lightning were pursuing three Me-109s, Megura's Mustang was accidentally hit by the P-38's gunfire, and the 13l^-victor>- ace was compelled to land in Sweden, where he was interned. The 4th Group scored 10 victories on May 24. the same day that 2nd Lt. Harry E. Jennings was killed in action. Hofer shot down an Fw-190ofIG.irsiGn/p/;e, or l/IG.U. that was attacking a B-17 and saw the pilot bail out, then spotted 2nd Lt. Thomas Fraser chasing the German's two wingmen. "One of them made a split'S' with Lt. Fraser follovdng," Hofer reported. "I then broke into the leader, preventing him from firing at Lt. Fraser." After chasing the Fw-190 down from 14,000 to 10,000 feet, Hofer saw his bullets strike home, after which the German climbed into a cloud, jettisoning his canopy to bail out before he vanished. Shortly afterward. Hofer saw the Focke

Wulf crash and burn in a field, and he took a photograph of the wreck. During a mission over Magdeburg on May 28, Hofer sent an Me- 109G-6 down streaming glycol until it crashed into the ground. His victim was Staff Sgt. Heinz Kunz of the 6th Stajfel (squadron) of Jagdgeschwader 11, or 6/IG. 11. The 4th Group claimed seven otber Me-109s but lost 2nd Lts. Hewatt and Richard L. Bopp, the latter having only been with tbe group 10 days. Both men became POWs. Kid Hofer's brash antics on the ground were matched by recklessness in the air. Spirited though he liked bis men to be, Blakeslee believed in teamwork and expected his pilots to operate accordingly. Hofer, bowever, preferred to fight solo at every opportunity. His fearlessness extended to the daunting task of ground strafing, during wbich be added 10 Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed on tbeir airfields to the 16!^ he shot out of tbe sky. On one escort mission, be had to leave bis formation because one of his wing tanks was not feeding. His mechanic corrected the problem, and without checking in, Hofer promptly took off again and went hunting over Belgium and tbe Netherlands. When no enemy planes turned up, he contented himself with shooting up German antiaircraft posts along the Zuider Zee. When be got back, be saw Lt. Col. James Clark coming toward his plane and remarked to bis crew cblef, "I'm in for it now." " Wbere the hell have you been, Hofer?" Clark demanded angrily. "Sir, I had to turn back," Hofer replied. "But tbese guns have been fired," Clark said. "Explain that." "Oh, that sir," Hofer stuttered. "I—well, I did that before I aborted." t 11 p.m. on June 5, all pilots were ordered into the briefing room, where Colonel Blakeslee opened bis detailed outline of the day's missions with the words, "This is it, boys." Everyone knew what he meant—the Allied landings in France were about to begin. Blakeslee led the 334th and 335th Fighter squadrons on tbe morning sweep on D-Day, but they encountered no German aircraft—in fact, only two Fw-19OAs, flown by Lt. Col. Josef Priller and Staff Sgt. Heinz Wodarczyk of JG.26, showed up on the morning of June 6 to strafe the British at Sword Beach. At 7:05, however, Hofer hlurted out on tbe radio, "Whoo, a train!" He tben strafed two locomotives, returning witb a flak hit in bis wing tank. Tbree other 4tb Group pilots were less fortunate; two were brought down and taken prisoner, but tbe third managed to evade capture and reach Allied forces. As word of the Normandy landings reached Luftwaffe units that had been poised to deal with the invasion—which the Germans had expected at Calais—some German fighters began to turn up and take their toll on the Allied air cover. That evening. Major Michael G.H. McPharlin, a member of the 339th Fighter Group flying with the 334tb figbter squadron on D-Day, radioed MajorWinsIowM. Sohanski tbat bis magneto had failed, his motor was running rough and he would have to turn hack. McPharlin never made it; he was killed

A

Above: Hofer makes an unauthorized landing at a newly secured Ninth Air Force airfield on June 11, 1944, thus becoming the first 4th Fighter Group pilot to land on continental Europe. Lett Lieutenant Frank E. Speer said of Hofer, "1 would not prefer him to be my wingman; t would rather be his."

southeast of Caen by 1st Lt. Franz Kunz, commander of 2/JG.26. At 6:25 p.m., Hofer was leading three Mustangs from the 335th Fighter Squadron on another patrol in the Dreux area when bis section and a second one from tbe same squadron spotted 20 trucks northwest of Evreux. Tbe Americans had begun strafing tbe convoy when tbey reported coming under attack by 15 Me-109sand Fw-190s. Hofer had to take violent evasive action to shake off bis assailants, and he returned to Debden alone. Tbe rest of his section, 2nd Lt. Harold L Ross, Flight Officer Walter Smitb and Captain Bernard J. McGrattan—who bad just completed bis tour but insisted on flying one more mission on D-Day—were killed. The Germans who had turned the tables on the Debden Eagles were Fw-190A-8s from tbe III Gn/ppe of JG.2 "Richtbofen," led by Captain Herbert Huppertz, who bad already shot down three Hawker Typhoons tbat afternoon. One of tbe Germans, 2nd Lt. Wolfgang Fischer, recalled that tbe patrol was beading for Caen, where British airborne troops bad reportedly landed, when they sighted a dozen P-51s circling and strafing one of the German road convoys. "All thoughts of tbe Caen mission were abandoned," Fiscber recalled. "We bad to belp our troops on the ground below. The Mustangs were so engrossed in tbeir work that they failed to notice us. Jettisoning our long-range tanks, we eight Fw- 190s climhed to 1,200 meters (3,900 feet) to reach the ideal heiglit and position from which to launch our attack. "Before diving on them from behind, each of us had ample opportunity to select, quite literally, 'his' Mustang. 'Mine' bad just completed a pass on some vehicles crossing a bridge, and was on tbe point of pulling up, wben I got on his tail—still undetected—and MAY 2005 AVIATION HISTORV

Left: Hofer and his dog Duke pose with his last assigned P-51B, 42-106924. Right: Hofer (foreground) and Major Howanj "Deacon" Hively take off on the morning of June 6, 1944, in Salem Representative, by Howard Gerrard.

Group to land on the Continent. Aside from the evening ambush of June 6, tbe Normandy landings bad presented the 4tb Group's pilots witb too few German aircraft to engage and too many days of doing tlie Nintb Air Force's sort of work—ground attacks. Tbat was about to change, however, since Colonel Blakesiee informed them in the middle of the month tbat tbey were about to embark on an unprecedented but still-secret mission. To qualify for it, they needed to be inoculated for caught him fair and square. Tbe Mustang slid into a gentle dive and typhus and other diseases. smashed into the riverhank at the foot of a large tree, wbich immediHofer, wbo could take on enemy fighters, armed conately burst into flames from ground to tip like a huge candle." voys, trains and flak towers with equal aplomb, admitIn all, ni/JG.2 claimed eight Mustangs, two of which were cred- ted to a phobia ahout needles and refused to take his ited to Huppertz. Tbe Germans' victims probably included Major shots. Blakeslee harred him from the mission—and for Sobanski, who was leading a strafing attack on a German train at added punishment made him fly formations in tbe No. 8:35 p.m. when his wingman, 2nd Lt. Edward J. Steppe, was heard 4 position, where he would be least likely to score to say over the radio, "Watch tbose behind you, Wliite Leader." Both against enemy aircraft. He also prohibited Hofer from pilots were killed in action. Hofer, too, may well bave been added to entering the squadron bar for two weeks. a JG.2 pilot's score, since the American was perceived as being in Hofer tried to live witb the humiliation, but on June trouble when be narrowly evaded bis German pursuer. 20, reporter Virginia Irwin of tbe 5^. Louis Post-Dispatch arrived to interview bim for a feature story on "tbe last -- he Luftwajfe's successes on D-Day were sbort-lived. Two of tbe screwball pilots." She also wanted to visit the III/JG.2 pilots fell victim to anti-aircraft fire on June 7, includ- Dehden bar, at which point Hofer had to confess that it ing Fischer, who while attacking an LST (landing sbip, tank) was was off-limits to him and told her wretchedly,"[ guess you'd better wounded by its gunners and had to bail out of bis crippled figbter. go in with tbe otber boys." Tbe reporter assured him, "ril be back in Carried hy tbe wind to the beach, be came down in a minefield, a couple of pints." wbere Britisb troops rescued bim and took him prisoner. On June That did it. Hofer sought out Hively and promised to take the 8, ni/JG.2 lost three more Fw-I90s to P-47s of the Ninth Air F o r c e - shots if tbe group would allow bim hack in the bar and on the misail tbree probably credited to Major Rockford V. Gray of the 371st sion. Deacon relented, Hofer stood up to the needle, and on June Figbter Group near Gaubourg, west of Sword Beacb. One of tbe vic- 21 he Joined 48 otber pilots of tbe 4di and 16 from the 352nd Figbter tims was Huppertz, wbo bad just scored his 70tb victor>' and would Group as tbey flew escort for 104 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force's 3rd postlmmousiy bave oak leaves added to bis Knight's Cross on June 24. Bomb Division on a mission to Germany—during wbich they woidd Hofer added another oak leaf to his DFC on June 9, hut two days all continue east to the Soviet Union. Flofer's Salem Representative later be was again on tbe receiving end. As Colonel Clark led a strike bad heen lost while another pCot was at the controls, so he flew tbe on a 70-tnjck convoy nearVireon the 11th, a German rifle bullet punc- Russian shuttle in P-51B-7 43-6746, code letters QP-X. tured Hofer's oil line. When Hofer turned back, his squadron comTo divert German attention from tbe participants in that 1,600mander. Deacon Hively, beard him say on the radio, "I'm going down." mile flight, 1,001 other Eighth Air Force bombers struck at Berlin. Hively asked, "Which side of the lines are you on?" "Our side," On the first leg of the shuttle, German fighters shot dovm a B-17, Hofer replied coolly. and a P-51 pilot of the 4th Group, 2nd Lt. Frank T. Sibbett, was killed 'Okay, fella, see you tomorrow," said tbe Deacon. "And get me a hy flak. Over Siedlice, Poland, 25 German figbters came at tbe helmet, too." bombers, and the Mustangs—which until tben had to avoid combat At that time, there was only one airfield available to the Allies in in order to conserve fuel—dropped their wing tanks and engaged Normandy, but Hofer found it, landed and was received by the Nintb them. The 4tb Group's pilots were credited with two Germans shot Air Force commander, Mai. tien. Ralph Royce. Given a tour of tbe front, dovm and tbree probables, one of the latter damaged by Hofer. he was ahle to pick up a German helmet for Hiveiy, along with a canFinally, after ahout seven hours and 20 minutes in the air—during teen and an overdue library copy of Adolf Hitler s autobiography Mein which many of the fighter pilots bad suffered more distress from Kampf After repairs, Hofer flew hack to Debden the next day. Tbere, tbeir bladders than from fuel worries—tbe 4th Group reached its be met Robert A. Lovett, assistant secretary of war for air, who sheldestination, Piryatin. As Soviet flares shot up to identify the camtered him from questions hy his superiors as to whether a damaged ouflaged airfield, a relieved and jubQant Blakeslee tbrew his 16 maps oil line had actually made him the first member of the 4th Fighter into the air and declared it was "Tbe end of a perfect show."

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AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

Following refueling, Hofer got directions from the British, but after departing Malta on Jtme 30, he flew to Catania first, to visit Callaban. Since Callaban bad no airplane, Hofer ftew on to Lucera solo. While enjoying the opportunity to swim in tbe warm Adriatic .Sea and fraternize with their Fifteenth Air Force colleagues, the swasbbuckling 4tb Group pilots inevitably mentioned how privileged the Fifteenth was to be associating with the hottest figbter outfit in tbe USAAF The Fifteenth pilots, who already felt neglected in comparison to the highly publicized Eighth, took understandable umbrage at tbat and said, "If you're so keen, why don't you show us?" "Cheers, friends," the Debden Eagles replied, "that's wbat we've n June 26, most of tbe 4th Group escorted tbe bombers on a strike on the oil refinery at Drobobycz, Poland, then fiew been waiting for you to say" Arrangements were duly made for the south to Uicera, near Foggia, Italy to join the Fifteenth Air Force. 4tb and 352nd Figbter groups to accompany the Fifieentb Air Force's Hofer and three other pilots had to stay behind due to trouble with next mission—a strike on Budapest, Hungary, on luly 2. Hofer's failtheir aircraft. On lune 27, Hofer got yet another oak leaf cluster for ure to stay in formation had kept him barred from flying with the his DFC. Two days later, he and his tliree partners took off for Foggia, 334th Squadron, but one ofthe 335th's flight leaders. Captain Cleorge but two pilots—1st Lt. James F Callaban and Hofer—went off course 1. Stanford Jr., consented to let him tag along as his wingman. The Eightli Air Force boys soon began to realize tbat F^istern Kuroover the Mediterranean Sea. Callahan reached Sicily before he ran out of fuel and crash-landed on tbe beach at Samieri. Hofer was pean targets sucb as Budapest, Munich, Vienna and Ploesti did not considering hailing out when he encountered some RAF Spitfires necessarily constitute tbe "Little Leagues" in comparison with Bremen or Berlin. Converging on tbe oncoming Fifteenth Air I-orce that guided him to Malta. One of Hofer's squadron mates, Frank E. Speer, recalled: "He bad formations from their bases in Austria were Me- 109G-6s from JG.27 been warned by 'G.I.' (Lieutenant Willard G.| Gillene, who landed and JG.302, Fw-190A-8s of 1V/1G.3, Me-110G-2s of Zenlorerin Italy as intended, that bis course was incorrect. But as usual, Hofer geschwader 1 and Me-410s of ZG.76. Although the Americans didn't did bis own thing, this time with almost disastrous results. I am a know it, manyof the Me-109s awaiting them over Budapest were Hofer fan, but! have to admit 1 did not find him to be a team player. fiown by Hungarians ofthe 101st Figbter Group, many of wbnm I would not prefer him to be my wingman; I would rather be bis." were Russian Front veterans, determined to defend their capital.

[t was not quite perfect. Aside from Sibbett, one other Mustang pilot was unaccounted for—Hofer. Later, however, the 4th Group received a teletype from Debden. The base had been contacted by the Soviets, asking to confirm the markings of a P-51 that had made an unauthorized landing in Kiev. The pilot claimed to have gone off on his own, gotten lost and run low on fuel, but as far as tbe Soviets were concerned, be might have been a German spy Nobody in the 4th was too astonished when the matter was cleared up and Hofer took off to rejoin the group at Piryatin.

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MAY 2005 AVIATION HISTOHV 51

When Hofer's own squadron grounded him. Captain George I. Stanford Jr. of the 335th Fighter Squadron (left) made him his wingman for the fateful Juty 2,1944, Budapest raid.

victories. Captain Joseph Higgins and 1st Lt. Donald R, Emerson also teamed up to send an Me-ia9 crashing to earth. The 4tb Slaffel of jG.302 attributed the deaths of Staff Sgts. Otto Wiedemann and Kurt Ramlow and Corporals Kurt Kittler and Max Pick to Mustangs. Staff Sergeant Gerhard Walter of 2/JG.302 was also wounded and bailed out after a P-51 disabled his Me- 109G-6 southwest of Budapest. Soon after saving Hively, Siems was bit in the shoulder, neck and chin. He barely made it to an airfield near Foggia, too weak from loss of blood to open bis canopy. Only by firing his guns was he able to get the ground crew's attention. They thought he was dead and put him in the morgue. Witb the last of his strength, Siems moved one finger at the right moment to catch the eye of an astonished orderly, who rushed him to an operating room for a blood transfusion. When Siems came to, he found a beautiful blonde woman holding his hand and learned tbat she was actress Madeline Carroll. Shortly after passing over Budapest, Captain Stanford spotted about 50 Me-109s, but as he turned to engage them, he discovered tbat his wing tanks would not drop. "Stupidly, I kept on instead of aborting," he said later. "I bad to draw too much power to keep up with Biakeslee, and all of a sudden, I threw a rod. 1 lost all power, and my wind-screen was covered with oil." After ordering Captain Jones to take over the squadron, Stanford spun down, hoping tbat no Me-109s would follow bim. When be pulled out, however, he found that his plane was on fire and crashlanded in a wheat field, where he was taken prisoner. He was probably credited to Hungary's second-ranked ace, 2nd Lt. Gybrgy Debrodyoftbe 101/3 Fighter Squadron, The raid itself produced mixed results, with misdirected homhs As he removed his boots and parachute, Stanford looked up and striking residential districts. A strike on Feriheg>'Airport destroyed or saw Hofer's Mustang overhead—he bad apparently followed Standamaged scores of aircraft on the ground, but the bombs meant for ford down in an attempt to protect him, and then to see that he the oil refineries at Almasfiizitd fell on two nearby villages instead. Six force-landed safely "There, right on his tail was a Me-109," Stanford B-17s ofthe 301st Bomb Group turned east to bit Szolnok, while said, "pouring lead into the Kid. The Kid was obviously too busy those of tbe 2nd Bomb Group headed northwest to attack Gyor. looking for me to realize what was happening, for he took no evaAs witli many engagements over Western Europe, the air battles over sive action and was probably hit soon thereafter." Hungary produced inflated claims on botb sides. Jagdgeschwader Stanford's recollection notwithstanding, it is unclear whether 3O2's pilots were credited with 19 Gonsolidated B-24 Liberators and Hofer was actually bit. His body was subsequently found in tbe retwo Mustangs, for the loss of nine pilots killed, two wounded and one mains of P-5 IB 43-6746 in Mostar, Yugoslavia, some 500 kOometers who crasb-landed unhurt. The Hungarian Pumas added five B-24s, away. In the postwar years, stories circulated that he bad been sbot a B-17. two P-51 s and a P-38 to the day's tally, while reporting one Ger- down by Erich Hartmann—with 352 victories, Germany's and the man and one Hungarian pilot bailing out of their stricken Me- 109s, world's leading ace. In fact, the last time Hartmann had downed any three members ofthe 101st Group killed and another wounded. P-51S was on June 24, over Romania, After the war, the Hungarians Actual American losses totaled 11 B-24s, four B-17s and nine P-51s. traced the Mustang wreck to a claim made by Ensign Leo Krizsevszky Four of the Mustangs came from the 4th Fighter Group. of tbe 101/2 Squadron—whicb tbey had recorded at the time as If the pilots ofthe 4th had been spoiling for a real fight since D-Day, merely a "probable." By then, Krizsevszky was no longer available they got one on July 2—a vicious, no-holds-barred melee that raged for comment, having been killed by a B-24 gunner on July 26,1944. from Budapest to Lake Balaton, apparently involving at various The fact that Mostar was not in a direct route between Budapest junctures Me-109s of IG.3a2 and tbe 2nd and 3rd squadrons of tbe and Foggia suggests tbat Krizsevszky s attack failed to do more tban Hungarian lOist Group. When last seen near Budapest, Lieutenant hasten Hofer on his way—after which, as he had done so often in Thomas S. Sharp was having difficulty releasing bis wing tanks. He Erance, he went looking for something on which to use up bis rewas later reported killed in action, probably by Sgt. 1 st Class Rudolf maining ammunition. That target was tbe German air base at Dreesmann of 4/JG.302. Soon afterward, 1st Lt. Ferdinand Kray of Mostar, which be attacked, only to be fatally struck by a burst from 4/JG.302 claimed a Mustang soutbwest of Budapest, wbich prob- a quadruple 20mm anti-aircraft gun. According to German records, ably resulted in 2nd Lt. J.C. Norris becoming a POW. Hofer's Mustang crashed into the gun position. Perhaps that was Deacon Hively downed an Me-109. Then his canopy was hit by a the Kid's way of having the last laugh, -t20mm shell, inflicting facial injuries near bis right eye. In spite of his impaired vision, he fought on and claimed two more Me-109s. Forfurther reading. Aviation History senior editor jon Guttnmn recomAnother Messerscbmitt got on his tail, but 1st Lt. Grover C. Siems mends: The Debden Warbirds: The 4th Fighter Group in World War II, jr. shot it down. Captains William Hedrick and Frank C. ]ones eacb by Frank E. Speer; and Troy Wliite's new book. Kid Hofer—1 he Last of downed an Me-109, as did Colonel Blakeslee for the last of bis 14^ the Screwball Aces. AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

Reviev\/s Valkyrie chronicles the development of North American's exotic heavy bomber. BY WALTER J. BOYNE A NEW BOOK BY Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony R. Undis, Valkytie: North Americans Mach 3 Superbomber (Specialty

the XB-70 to Mach 3— making it the largest and Press, North Branch, Minn., 2004), ciearly matches its riomn AMf RICAM') MACM 3 tUrtHKMiSB€K heaviest air-breathing subject matter in its elegance, its "performance" and its vebicle to fly so fast. appearance, but unlike the fantastically advanced XB-70 After sufficient proving Valkyrie, it is bargain-priced at $39.95. Its co-autbors are flights, it would do so veterans ofthe air and space engineering community as routinely. well as distinguished viTiters and pbotographers. Jenkins' On June 8, 1966, the Space Shuttle: The History ofthe National Space Transsecond XB-70 was inportation System: The First 100 Missions is a classic worthy volved in a midair colliof a Pulitzer Prize. \ I sion with a Lockheed If Pulitzers were awarded for aviation hooks, Valkyrie F-104 flown by Joe would surely he a contender, for it illuminates both the Walker. Tbe planes were taking part in a pboto shoot highhuman and the technological side ofthe most amhitious lighting aircraft (XB-70, McDonnell F-4 and Northrop American bomber of the 20th centur>'. The authors were F-5A) using General Electric engines. The authors furnish intimately familiar v^ith the program, and were thus able a complete account of that tragic accident. to access the principal players, including test pilots Alvin Sadly for homber history, tbe XB-70 was overtaken by S. White and Fitzhugh L "Fitz" Fulton Jr., who have each technological events (the development of surface-to-air written a foreword. missiles) and budgetary considerations. On January 31, They hegin with a digression, but an important one, 1967, a decision was made to transfer tbe entire $1.5 hilcovering the little known antecedent ofthe XB-70 pro- lion XB-70 program to the National Aeronautics and gram—the search for an atomic-powered aircraft. Undis' Space Administration for research purposes. excellent line drawings are used throughout the hook but The final chapter consists ofan analysis ofthe military are especially helpful in this cbapter, vrith all tbe bizarre systems planned for use in the B-70 hut never installed. airframes and engines tbere are to describe. These were fully as advanced as the airframe and engines, The next chapter describes tbe incredible series of and many could conceivably have had applications in design proposals that ultimately led to the selection of a suhsequent combat aircraft. The book concludes with North American proposal. Boeing had for years had an seven extremely detailed appendices, including a superh almost proprietary hold on the American heavy bomber, index. Appendix C, "A Pilot's Perspective." by Al White, and and offered a series of amazingly varied designs, some of Appendix D, "Lessons for a Supersonic Transport," hy Fitz which seemingly originated not in Seattle but in Holly- Fulton, are especially valuable reading. wood. But the second North American design was seThe authors set themselves a monumental task in this lected by the U.S, Air Force on December 23,1957. book, and succeeded fully in bringing it off. Other authors The North American entry was truly exotic, with large could well use Valkyrie: North American's Mach 3 Superdelta-shaped canard surfaces, as well as folding wingtips bomber as a benchmark for their ovm efforts. for directional stahilit\' at higb speeds. It also utilized a new concept, compression lift. It is to Jenkins and Landis' Polar Extremes: The World of Lincoln Ellsworth, credit that they can detail the complexities ofthe design by Beekman H. Pool, University of Alaska Press, in such readable prose, supplemented with superb draw- Fairbanks, $45. ings and photos. Altbougb few aviation buffs know his name today, LinMost readers will find the chapter covering the flight coln Ellsworth was a wealthy American with a passion for program (subtitled"HalfaMillionPoundsatMach3") the adventure who dared to challenge the polar regions and most ahsorbing. Tbere was an enormous series of chal- took part in some pioneering aerial feats. In 1925 he lenges to be overcome before the trouhle-filled first flight shared an unsuccessful flight in an open cockpit seaplane of September 21, 1964. The authors then follow up with with Roald Amundsen, a renowned Norwegian explorer, detailed accounts of successive flights, as the crew of test in an attempt to reach the North Pole. The next year he pilots edged their way to Mach 3. Each flight was filled flew to the Pole in a dirigible with Amundsen and Umwith drama and danger, and each one expanded the test berto Nohile, who are now given credit for heing first to envelope. On October 14,1965, White and Joe Cotton took Contimied on page 61 i4 AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

VALKYRIE

Enduring Heritage The Combat Air Museum's newly restored Panther now holds a place of honor. BY DICK SMITH The Combat Air Museum's refurbished Grumman F9F-5 Panther is one of two found partially buried in a Minnesota trench silo in 1983.

A U.S. NAVY KOREAN WAR combat veteran—once battered, buried on a Minnesota farm and almost forgotten—is again on duty, proudly standing watch hundreds of miles from any ocean or carrier deck. The veteran warrior is a Grumman F9F-5 Panther that has just been put on display at the Combat Air Museum (CAM) at Forbes Field in Topeka, Kansas. How a vintage carrier jet ended up in an aircraft museum on the plains of eastern Kansas is a story of luck, commitment and hard work on the part of many dedicated people. In 1983 while traveling near Elkton, Minn., one of CAM'S founding members, Ralph Knehans, heard stories about a Navy jet partially buried in a trench silo on a nearby farm (uench silos are ditches dug into the earth, often with concrete or masonry sides, used in the Midwest for outdoor storage of hay and other types of animal feed). Investigating those reports, Knehans found two Grumman F9F-5 Panthers in various states of disassembly, One of the airframes was almost complete and was later restored by a private collector. The other Panther, which would become CAM's, was in worse condition and missing many parts, including the horizontal stabilizer. Tbe story of F9F-5 Bureau No. 126226 begins at the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporations Bethpage, !".f> AVIATION HISTORV M.W 2005

Long Island, N.Y, plant, on October 14, 1952, when it rolled off the production line. Eight days later, according to Navy documents. No. 126226 was flown to southern California and assigned to Fleet Aircraft Services Squadron IFASRON) 7 at San Diego. After a stop at FASRON 11 at Atsugi, lapan, the aircraft landed on the flight deck of tbe aircraft carrier Valley Forge, steaming off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula in the Sea of Japan. Assigned to Carrier Group 5, Squadron I VF-51,the"ScreamingEagles,"No. 126226 I was tasked with flying combat missions I over North Fiirea in support of United NaI tions ground troops, shooting up ComI munist supply convoys and rail operaS tions. Tbe aircraft was flown on missions against the Communists from January 2, 1953, until it was damaged in a "barrier engagement" landing accident on March 5,1953. The plane was then placed in storage aboard the carrier and scavenged for parts. After the Korean War ended, it appears the Panther was shipped to tbe Overhaul and Repair Bureau of Aeronautics Maintenance at Alanieda Naval Air Station, Calif. Ejcact dates of service are unavailable, but some records show that after the aircraft was repaired and made airworthy it was assigned to FASRON 10 at Moffett Field, Calif. Subsequent assignments included VF-93 at Alameda, a trip back to Moffett Field and VF-154, and then to sea duty aboard USS Yorktoum. After an undetermined period aboard the carrier, the aircraft shows up on the records of FASRON 117 at Barbers Point. Hawaii. From Hawaii, tbe Panther changed uniforms and joined the U.S. Marine Corps, Attack Squadron VMA-323, at El Toro, Calif. Tbe fighter's last assignment was in Naval Air Reserve Training at tbe Naval Air Station in Minneapolis, Minn., wbere it served until it was struck from U.S. Navy records on July 27, 1959. According to Dick Trupp, CAM's wing commander, the next few years of the aircraft's history are hazy, but it seems likely tbe F9F-5 became a display piece in a park or scouting camp at Marsballtown, Iowa. After years of weather and vandalism had taken their toll on tlie

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proud warrior, the aircraft was sold for scrap. How it ended up in the trench silo on a farm near Elkton. Minn., is still a mystery. The F9F Panther series was the Navy's first successful carrier jet. Armed with four 20mm cannons in the nose, Panthers were considered fighters andflewalongside the U.S. Air Force's North American F-86s that patrolled North Korean skies. The aircraft's real potential was in the tactical support role, given it.s ability to carr\' an array of 250-, 500- or l.OOO-poimd general purpose bombs along with six 5-inch air-to-ground rockets under its 38-foot wingspan, Navy Panthers in the ground attack role were shown to good advantage in the 1954 motion picture The Bridges at Toko-Ri,

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models built hy Grumman. The company manufactured a total of 1,385 Panthers in several versions. It is estimated that only 10 remain in existence today When the Panther was found in 1983, museum officials determined that about 95 percent ofthe original airframe was retrievable and available for restoration. Several large pieces of aircraft, along with a Pratt & Whitney J48 engine, were dug out ofthe silo and trucked to Topeka. Due tofiscalproblems and other obstacles, however, the Panther's restoration had to be put on hold for nearly two decades. IN AUGUST 2001, Robert Schneider of RRS Aviation, another founding member of the museum, took charge of the Panther restoration project. All the airframe parts were loaded on trucksfromWorldwide Aircraft Recover)' of Bellevaie. Neh., and taken to Schneider's facility at Hawkins, Texas. "The first thing we had to do was clean everything up and restore the structural integrity' back to the airframe," Schneider said. A small amotint of restoration work had been done at the museum hy a volunteer group of retired TWA mechanics. Their work was pristine, but limited byfinancesand parts not being available. The initial cleanup revealed significant corrosion to the airframe. The years at sea. when the frame was exposed to salt water, as well as the time in the ground in the trench silo had taken their toll on the Panther's aluminum skin. An overall inspection also revealed that souvenir hunters and vandals had cannibalized the aircraft. Many pieces were missing, some having been removed in a manner that left damage. When the aircraft was recovered in Minnesota, the cockpit was empty and described by workers as "just a shell." The windscreen and canopy were both missing, as was most everything else in the cockpit. A new windscreen was fabricated from scratch, using broken parts from another aircraft as patterns. "We were lucky to find the bulletproof glass and the inner framing

for it," Schneider said. He traded a spare Panther flap to a fellow restorer in California for a replacement canopy. The only items found in the cockpit were the right rudder pedal and part ofthe control stick. The original stick had no grip. A new one was found in RRS's stock of parts. "1 was able to get an ejection seatfroma private collector by delivering a set of B-29 wheels to him in Maryland," Schneider said. A template for the instrument panel was made using photos found in Corwin "Corky" Meyer's hook Grumman F9F Panther, Part One: Development, Testing, Structures. The new panel was fabricated, and instruments were secured from various sources and RRS's stocks. "Everything in the cockpit isn't perfect yet," reported Schneider. "We're still looking for a left rudder pedal." Schneider and one of his employees, Edwin "Freck" Haire. spent more than a month banging out dents in tbe wings and the fuel tanks that are attached to the wingtips. All the hydraulic lines and parts for the wing fold mechanisms had to be cleaned, replaced or rebuilt and then reinstalled. In Maryland Schneider found replacements for the horizontal stabilizer, the upper rudder, ammunition cans and some parts for the four 20mm nose cannons. Returning home by way ofWasliington, he was stopped by a police patrol car on the Beltway 'All that stuff was tied down on my truck, with flags and everything, when we were stopped," he said. "That incident took place shortly after the September II, 2001, terrorist attacks." Apparently, the wind had torn off some ofthe warning flags on the load, and this had attracted the officer's attention. "Then he saw all the ammo cans and the cannon parts, and that really attracted bis attention!" Schneider recalled. After some explaining and several phone calls, the police learned that the parts were destined for an aircraft restoration, and Schneider was sent on his way. Witb only tlie right elevator salvaged from the original airframe, a new left one had to be fabricated using the opposite part as a template. The landing gear was in fairly good condition, with only refurhishing and painting needed to make it ready for installation. New brake lines, brakes and tires completed the undercarriage work. After all the damaged metal had been replaced and polished with ScotchBrite pads. the airframe was sprayed inside and out with a metal-etching primer and a special sealer to prevent any further deterioration of the aluminum. The Panther was sprayed with a glossy Navy dark-sea blue. Thefinishedpaint job took nearly two weeks to complete. Museum researchers, working from official U.S. Navy photos and theVF-51 Associations' records, provided RRS Aviation with all the information needed to reproduce the fighter's original markings. Utilizing this re-

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search, laser-cut stencils were made to reproduce the lettering, numbering and Stars atui Bars that appeared on the aircraft during its wartime service aboard Valley forge in 1953. After the crew attached tbe stencils, tbe rest ofthe aircraft was covered with paper and plaslic to seal out any possible overspray wbile painting the white markings. "We had a tight squeeze to get some of the lettering to fit," said Schneider. Some former Navy crew chiefs told him that sotne of the letters and numbers had to be adjusted to fit on the aircraft. Schneider and his crew worked eight hours a day. five days a week, for more than a year and a half to make the Panther ready for tbe trip back to Kansas. It is estimated that the restoration took about :i50fl hours to complete, at a cost of nearly $100,000. (RRS Aviation reportedly donated more tban balf of that atnount in labor, supplies and parts.) In August 2002, the newly restored F9F-5 was ready to return lo Forbes Field. Tbe wings, horizontal stabilizers, tip tanks and rudder assemblies bad to be removed for tbe aircraft to comply witb bigbway travel restrictions. Back in Topeka, Scbneider and his crew reassembled tbe aircraft at its new home. After more than half a century, No. 126226 was ready to he put on display. On hand at the formal dedication on September 13,2003, were tbe four U.S. Navy officers wbo bad flown No. 126226 in combat in Korea. Tbey were: Adtniral (tben lieutenant) Tbomas Hayward, chief of naval operations from 1978 to 1982, of Seattle, Wash.; Lee Boles of Eugene, Ore.; Herschell Gott of Los Gatos, Calif.; and Robert Kaps of Wellsville, Kan. At the ceremonies, Kaps told the Navy Times tbat he flew 103 missions in Panthers and recalled, "I catne back with a lot of bullet holes in tbat airplane," Scbneider confirmed Kaps' recollections, saying, "We found at least two bullet bole patcbes and one shrapnel repair in one wing." Another officer to tly CAM's Panther was then-22-year-old Navy Ensign Lee Boles. "I was thrilled to see it restored," he said. "It has been a long time," Recalling his days flying tbe F9F-5, Boles said tbe Panther was a very responsive aircraft and "just seemed to fit the pilot." Now a retired commander. Boles flew between 40 and 50 combat missions in F9F-5S from Valley Forge. "We were always looking for trucks or trains in tbe Nortb," he recalled. He was awarded four Air Medals for service during tbe Korean War. Tbe Combat Air Museum's restored Gnimman F9F-5 Panther now bolds a place of bonor next to one of its fortner adversaries, a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, in tbe main hangar. Tbe museum's wing commander, UickTrupp, said at tbe dedication, "We consider tbis an excellent restoration and an outstanding addition to our collection." "t

Reviews Continuedfrompage 54 do so—despite Richard E. Byrd's claim to have beenfirst.Byrd's claim was inefutably rebuked by Floyd Bennett, Bernt Balchen and weather experts who have proved that he did not do so. Ellsworth was passionate about polar exploration. Although Byrd, with Balchen as pilot, wasfirstto reach the South Pole by air, Ellsworth had no interest in repeating their feat. Instead, he wanted to explore the 5 million square miles of Antarctica that had not yet heen seen by humans. He had Jack Northrop design a special plane and asked Balchen to be his pilot. The first attempt in January 1934 was thwarted when the plane, duhhed Polar Star, was wrecked after being unloaded. Once the plane was repaired, a second attempt was made late that year from the other side of Antarctica. After a series of frustrating delays, Ellsworth finally asked Balchen to make a 2,000-mile nonstop flight across the continent to the exploration base "Little America" in questionable weather. Balchen refused and quit the expedition. Ellsworth tried again in 1935 with Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, a Canadian pilot. They almost made it in November but had to land four times to figure out where they were. Theyfinallycrash-landedwhen they ran out of fiiel short of their goal and had to sledge theirway through many days of "blind wanderings" tofindthe snowed-over buildings at Little America. However, their transantarctic flight had penetrated farther into the interior than any other expedition before them. The description of their ordeal as they waited for rescue illustrates the disparate backgrounds of these two men and helps the reader to understand what kind of man Ellsworth really was. He didn't give up on trying to see more of Antarctica, setting off on another expedition in 1938-39 to claim a 430.000-square-mile wedge of land for the United States. The area has since been disputed, and after several changes of designation, his original claim for James W. Ellsworth Land (named after his father) has been significantly reduced. Maps of Antarctica now show the Ellsworth Mountains, which cover an area of 240 by 480 nautical miles, as the only lasting tribute to his efforts. Lincoln Ellsworth, who lived a full and adventurous life, died in May 1951. This excellent biography summarizes in thoroughgoing fashion his significant contributions to the history of polar exploration. C.V. Glines ,. For additional reviews, go to www. historybookworld.com.

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Art of Flight Carl Launchbury's painting captures a tense moment as Avro Vulcan crewmen head for Brazil. BY CHARLES G. JARRELLS British squadron leader Neil McDougall and the crew of "Black Buck 6" were forced to land at Rio de Janeiro's commercial airport after a refueling accident during the Falklands War.

ON APRIL 2, 1982, Argentina invaded the FalUand Islands. Possession ofthe islands had long been in dispute, and it was soon apparent that diplomacy was not going to resolve the matter. As the world watched. Britain began marshaling its military forces to reclaim die Falklands. One ofthe most ambitious plans the British devised was an attack on the airfield at Stanley, the islands' capital, with long-range Avro Vulcan heavy bombers. Taking out the airfield would not only deny its use to the Argentines but would also deliver the message to Argentina's ruling junta that Britain could strike the Argentine mainland at will. British aviation artist Carl Launchbur>' cotnmemorated the flight of one of theVulcans involved in the Falklands mission in his painting Bern Vindos Ao Sol Do firflxiY—Portugese for "Welcome to Sunny Brazil." The Vulcan, which had first entered RAF service in the late 1950s, was being phased out of service in 1982. Originally the backbone of Britain's nuclear deterrent, the big delta-wing bomber had been superseded in that role by the Royal Nav^^'s submarine-launched Polaris missiles. Thus, as the Vulcan neared the end of its career, its primary role was that of a conventionally armed strike aircraft capable of carrying up to 21 1,000-pound bombs. White the Vulcan's effective combat load wasn't an issue, getting the bombs to their target was. The Falkiands t;2 AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

were some 8,000 miles from the United Kingdom, and 3.900 miles from Ascension, a small volcanic island that was to serve as Britain's forward staging location. Operating out of Ascension still meant flying the longest bombing missions in the history of aerial warfare up to that point, a nearly 8,000-mile round trip. The first order of business for the RAF was to restore the Vulcan's long disused aerial refueling capability Not only did this mean refurbishing the Vulcan's internal fuel systems but also tracking down discarded aerial refueling probes. Aircrews also had to be trained in aerial refueling, completing an intensive two week course in just four days. Due primarily to logistical considerations, the RAF decided to send a single Vulcan on each mission, in the course of an operation code-named "Black Buck." The target for the initial attacks was to be the runway at Stanley Airport, with the goal of damaging it sufficiently to preclude its use by Argentine jets. Later missions would employ the AGM-45A Shrike antiradiation missile in an effort to destroy the fire-control radars of Argentine antiaircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles. The first Black Buck mission was flown on April 30May 1, 1982. The primary attack aircraft, XM598, was forced to abort due to a pressurization problem, and the airborne backup. XM607, took its place. Supported by Avro Victor tanker aircraft, XM607 refueled in flight several times before attacking Stanley Airport. While the Vulcan was detected by the Argentines during its mission, its crew jammed the enemy radar, so the aircraft was not fired upon, then dropped die entire bombload diagonally across the airfield to increase the probability of cutting the runway. XM607 returned safely to Ascension Island after nearly 16 hours in the air. Poststrike photographs showed that the runway had been cratered at its midpoint, with damage aiso done to airport facilities. The second mission was flown on the night of May 3-4, again using XM607. The goal of Black Buck 2 was essen-

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tiaily the same as the previous mission. Again the Vulcan made its attack virtually unchallenged. The west end of the runway and the surrounding airfield were extensively cratered, making it hard for the Argentines to operate out of that airport. The next two missions, scheduled for May 13 and May 28, had to be aborted due to adverse weather conditions and mechanical problems, On May 30-31, the crew of Black Buck 5, flown in XM597. undertook the first anti-air-defense mission ofthe conflict. The crew tried to lure the Argentines to switch on the fire control radars for their anti-aircraft weapons so that the Shrikes could lock on, The Argentines obliged, and the Vulcan crew launched two antiradiation missiles. Little or no damage resulted, however. Black Buck 6, flown in XM597 on June 2-3, was the most dramatic Vulcan mission of the war. After successfully engaging a fire control radar, squadron leader Neil MeDougall and his crew headed for their rendezvous with a Victor tanker. While hooking up with the Victors refueling drogue, however, the tip of their nose-mounted refueling probe broke, and refueling abruhtly ceased. The crew of XM597 had to either find someplace to land in South America or ditch in the open sea. Tbeir calculations showed that Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, had the only airlield that might be within reach. McDougall headed toward the coast of South America, climbing to the Vulcans most economical cruise altitude of 40,000-plus feet. En route the crew collected all the classified material on board, placed it in a weighted bag and dropped it into the sea. McDougall also tried lo jettison the aircraft's two remaining pylon-mounted Shrikes into the ocean as well, but one ofthe missiles got hung up, With fuel rapidly running out, McDougall initiated a downward spiral before making a straight-in approach to land at Rio's major commercial airport. Carl Launchbury's painting shows XM597 at a tense moment for its crewmen, when they began their descent toward Rio—well aware that authorities were apt to give them a cool reception. Brazilian officials immediately impounded XM597, also detaining McDougall and his crew. The repaired aircraft and crew were finally released, minus the Shrike missile, on June 13. As part of negotiations to gain their release, the British had to agree that the aircraft would not fly any further combat missions against the Argentines. On June 14, the Argentine forces on the Falkland Islands surrendered. On that same day, the Vulcans remaining on Ascension Island returned to Britain. Today XM597 is on display at Scotland's Museum of Flight. If you look closely at the nose of the aircraft, you can see mission marks, indicating the launch of two Shrike missiles, and a small Brazilian flag, "t-

Airware Two innovative simulations let players experience flight in wilderness settings. BY BERNARD DY

Left: A Boeing-Vertol CH-47 Chinook does its part to extinguish a forest fire in Wildlire. Right: The Canadian Found Bush Hawk XP, one of five rugged aircraft available to Bush Pilot users, heads for a landing.

ON AUGUST 4,1999, afirein the Black Bear Swamp of Pennsylvania proved lo be different from most forest fires. Concerns about unexploded ordnance left from the area's previous use as an artiller\' training ground prevented ground crews from working the blaze. During the next several days, helicopters from the Pennsylvania Air National Guard dropped massive amounts of water into the zone and fought the conflagration from the air. 'I'his is a good introduction to our first title this month, which primarily honorsfirefightersbut also illustrates an important role of aviation. Wildfire

Wildfire ($30, requires Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/ XP 800 Mhz processor, 128 MB RAM. 3D video card with 32 MB HAM, www.catdaddygames.com) starts us off with something quite unusual. It is a real-time strategy game where players manage resources to fight forestfires.The title earned an official Smokey Bear license for its educational value in fire prevention. The game spans several missions tliat call upon players to respond to alerts about fires and address them efficiently. If any fire successfully btirns too much acreage, the mission will be lost. The scenarios steadily increase in difficulty, from one featuring a simplefireeasily contained to ones in which multiple blazes strain the limits of many crews and vehicles. As with land battles of any type, the boots on the Ht, AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2

ground ultimately win the engagements. Air assets, however, can be a major factor in defeating an opponent, and Wildfire highlights this point. Ground crews can dig ditches to curb the spread of fires, but smoke jumpers are the firefighter's version of airborne troops. The smoke jumper's ability to parachute into danger zones makes him an excellent high-mobility firefighter for quick response to hard-to-reach areas. Aircraft can also transport ground resources over large distances quickly. In addition, helicopters andfixed-wingaircraft equipped with wateror chemical-carrying gear are effective firefighters in themselves. Wildfire refers to most of its aircraft in generic terms, but the one exception is the Boeing-Vertol CH-47 Ghinook, which can both transport ground troops and drop water. It doesn't take long for Wildfire players to realize that the Chinook and other aircraft are extremely valuable tools. As in most real-time strategy (RTS) games, the player usually starts each mission vdth a limited amotmt of funding or resources. He has to choose which types of units to spend the money on, and then must command the units that are taking on the work. Wildfire is a competent RTS product in this regard, but perhaps still a bit rough around tlie edges when it comes to the interface and the artificial intelligence. Wtien troops finish a task, for example, they stand around rather than beginning

other obvious chores. The graphics are solid and do a competent job of illustrating the action, different types of fires and the three-dimensional terrain. The terrain plays an important role in firefighting, as fires tend to burn faster uphill. The game also features changing weather and wind conditions that can dramatically increase or decrease the difficulty for real-iife firefighters as well as gamers. A nice extra is the mini-encyclopedia on Smokey Bear and forest firefighting in the United States. Although this title technically does not address aviation history, there's clearly an overlap. Wildfire honors hardworking firefighters on the ground and in the air. Bush Pilot Sharing Wildfire's wilderness theme. Bush Pilot ($30, requires Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XR 450 Mhz processor, 128 MB RAM, video card with 8MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, an installed copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 or 2004, www.abacuspub. com) is a more leisurely visit to the peaks and valleys of the world. The publisher. Abacus, is a well-known name in the Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons industry. Bush Pilot adds new aircraft and terrain to the core product and is compatible for use with flight Simulator 2002 and Flight Simulator 2004. Bush Pilot features five aircraft known for ruggedness. The hound Bush Hawk XR Piper Super Cub, Zenith CH801 and the Aviat Husky are the single-engine aircraft, and the de Havilland DHC-6rwin Otter is the multiengine representative. The pack also can be used witb the existing Flight Simulator2002 or 2004 aircraft, and some of the wilderness locales are great stages for Flight Sinudator 2004's Cessna Caravan C208 Amphibian. Players looking for a challenge can try to scale heights with the agile but slow singleengine aircraft, or attempt to land in terrain that is rugged and lacking large airfields. Others can enjoy the sights in places like Guatemala, Australia or Africa. The adventure manual for Bush Pilot details the various ftight paths and gives background on the scenarios to help players imagine they're on an aviation adventure, delivering people or supplies to inhospitable lands. Ihe aircraft manual presents some statistics and brief information on the planes and their histories. Bush Pilot is made by dedicated Flight S/mw/fl^or enthusiasts. A few spelling errors and areas where the planes lack the polish seen in tlie core Flight Simulator aircraft can sometimes reveal BiLsh Pilofs amateur disposition. Sfill, you'll spend more time trying to create on your own the aircraft and terrain Bush Pilot provides, and the enthusiasrn that comes through in the adventure notes is infectious. If you Ve always found the exploits of pilots like Richard Byrd inspiring. Bush Pilot is well worth a look, "t"

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might give the pilot a new heading to achieve surprise from another direction. At one point, when I had yet to acquire that attitude, we made a low-level pass at an airfield and took a hit in our left engine, which kept going but produced littie power. We had to land at an emergency field for repairs, causing me to miss the flight I had scheduled for the next day—which saved my life, but most regrettahly at another man's expense. That man died along with the rest of the crew when the aircraft blew up over the target. It was a sohering experience for me, the first of many to come.

OWING TO THE changeahle w e a t h e r especially during the monsoon—the rugged terrain and deadly accurate groundfire, there For information to place an ad, please call: was no such thing as a routine mission. Most Lauren Barniak were flown at minimum altitude, treetop Ph: 215-968-5020. cxt. 132 level, particularly when attacking one or anotlier of the many hridges in northern Burma. ^ ^ Fax:215-579-8041 #** Despite our diligent attention to enemy email: [email protected] operations, it hecame clear that they were Mail ad copy and payment to: prodigious fixer-uppers during the night— Aviation History ClassifiL'd.s especially of bridges we had knocked down 6405 Flank Dr., Harrisburg, PA 17112 during the day. So the bright idea was hatched that we should harass them at night, at least during periods of bright moonlight. My name was drawn for one of the two crews chosen. We would be hased at the newly restored airfield at Myitkyina, the Kachin capital of northern Burma. At Myitkyina we were also protected from Magazine presents marauding Mitsuhishi Ki.21 "Sally" and G4M "Betty" bomhers by the newly arrived Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighters, which could hunt and kill by radar. Three of them had been assigned to Myitkyina for that purpose, since enemy aircraft were inclined to raid at night or in the wee hours. The Widows soon put an end to their mischief. In fact, one bandit was shot down behind us as we were on final approach just before dawn, witnessed by our astonished tail gunner. THE CENTURY OF WARFARE At first, moonlight sorties seemed a hit DVD SET daunting, but we soon found them much to This monumental series explores the pivotal our liking. Reassured by the bright autumn battles, profiles the commanders and moon, we could be invisible—and feel inchronicles how war has shaped the modvincible—while all Burma lay below us in full ern world. Comprised of an encyclopedic view. I have often felt since then that never collection of archival film dating back t o was moonlight so bright as over Burma, and l896.This landmark series is available in its never was there clearer air. One B-25 would entirety for the first time as a complete take the area west of the lrrawaddy, to moniset on DVD. Total viewing time 22 hours. tor the road and railway leading down to Mandalay. The other would remain on the TO ORDER east side, watching for activity on the Burma Road and for signs of repairs going on elseV v where. Since our moonlight sorties were unwwwTheH i story NetShop.com expected early on, we took them by surprise. Tel 1-800-358-6327 Aviation History Products One problem, however, was the matter of RO. Box 60 • Dept AV505A • Kingstree, SC 29556 dropping our bombs. Targets of opportunity

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that could be spotted by moonlight were not always appropriate for bombs. Strafmg proved more effective in most cases. That was particularly true of trains on the Mandalay rail line. Their cargoes of fuel and explosives were easily ignited hy gunfire. On one such occasion, as we left the area our tail gunner reported 11 explosions on one train. Equally rewarding was the welcome fact that we had not been hit, though we saw coundess gun flashes below. Since we took turns, the following night was ours for the Burma Road. We found little activity worthy of our bombs, so we occupied ourselves with some rather unrewarding gunnery practice. Although we hoped to disrupt some repair work, all we probably did was entertain them by a display of tracer bullets. Then we spotted the faint serpentine array of lights that marked a convoy. The pilots were all for attacking the convoy at once, since the night had been so uneventful thus far. But looking at my map, I saw tliat they were headed for a straiglit stretch of road that had the river on one side and dense jungle on the other, which they would reach in less than an hour. So 1 advised tlie other pilots to fly around well out of earshot until the convoy reached the target area, and that's what we did. If they for some reason switched off their lights, wed have no choice but to bomb hlindly by dead reckoning. But to our satisfaction, they kept their headlights on until they entered the fatal zone. Then, coming from behind, we descended to the optimal altitude. All that remained was to set the intervalonieter to convoy spacing and open the bomb bay doors. Finally aware of our approach, the tail-end driver turned off all lights—hut it was too late. As it happened, we were carrying a double bombload. Each of our 100-pound general purpose (high explosive) bombs had strapped to it a 100-pound white phosphorus antipersonnel bomb. The result was a horrific sequence of blazing explosions that caused our aircraft to buck as if in a storm. Subsequent reconnaissance revealed a terrible toil of lives and ordnance—for which we were awarded a commendation citation. For me, however, it resulted in what 1 would call an elevation of consciousness. Until that moment we had been bomhing things: hridges, trains, river traffic, supply dumps, airfields, This was killing people, many of them—and I have had ambivalent feelings about it since then. It was, of course, urgently necessary. All those people were on their way to kill our people. The event represented a moment of truth, to borrow a bullfighting expression. Hither way, someone had to die. and I was destined to be a party to it, 1 have heard some say that they would never kill, no matter what. But they don't realize what it means, a moment of truth. Luckily, few will ever have to face it. "t"

Continued from page 28 B-52s continually battered Iraq's elite Republican Guard, and the around-the-clock hammerings became a powerful psychological weapon. Iraqi ground forces gradually wore down and surrendered in droves. All told, B-52S flew 1,624 Desert Storm missions, delivered 72,000 weapons weighing 2,5,700 tons, and accounted for 29 percent of all U.S, bombs dropped and 38 percent of all Air Force bombs. It is a tribute to the enlisted force that despite being more than 30 years old, B-52s had a mission-capable rate of 81 percent—2 percent higher than their peacetime rate. No B-52s were lost to enemy action in Desert Storm, but one crashed in the Indian Ocean on its way back to Diego Garcia, with three crew members lost. The tremendous post-Gulf War drawdown of the U.S, armed forces saw older models of the B-52 retired for economic reasons, leaving only the B-52H in active service. It has been continually upgraded since then and retains both a nuclear and a nonnuclear capability. It was not until September 3, 1996, that the B-52H made its combat debut, during Operation Southern Watch. Two 2nd Bomb Wing B-52HS, operating from Andersen Air Base, launched 13 CALCMs against targets in southern Iraq. The mission required the aircraft to refuel in flight four times. Operation Noble Anvil, the U.S. portion of Operation Allied Force, saw B-52s from Barksdale and Minot Air Force bases commence combat operations in late March 1999 against Yugoslav army units in Kosovo. The BUFF began a new era on October 7, 2001, duringOperation Enduring Freedom. B-52H bombers flying from Diego Garcia carried out daily and nightly missions against al Qaeda and Taliban targets throughout Afghanistan, For the first time, the B-52 provided pinpoint close air support at the request of friendly forces, using joint direct attack munitions. In March 2003, the warborse returned to battle in Operation Iraqi Freedom—not as a carpet-bombing menace this time, but as a method of delivering munitions and air-launched cruise missiles with surgical precision. There will be more wars to fight in the future, and the B-52 will be there to fight them, maintaining its reputation as the greatest bargain in military history. ~t

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MAY '05

MAY 2005 AVIATION HISTORV 71

Pilots test their skill in annual proficiency race in California. THE 41 ST ANNUAL HAYWARD PROFICIENCY AIR RACE will ht' lu'ld May 19-21. The event tests aviators' navigation, (lightplanning and piloting skills. The racecourse consists of two legs of ahiHit 250 nautical miles each: one from Hayward to Bakersfield, Calif., and another from Bakersfield to Bullhead City, Ariz. Each pilot chooses the exact course to he flown but must identify checkpoints—which change every year and are announced during briefings the day before the race—along the way. Before leaving Hayward, racers estimate their times and fuel use for each leg. They are scored on identifying checkpoints, matching predicted time (to the second} and matching predicted fuel used (to the tenth of a percent), tilectronic navigation equipment may not he used; however, a separate category, referred to as the Glass Class, is planned for 2005 where such tools are allowed. See the race Web site for requirements, descriptive information about die race, .scoring details, courses and results from previous years, and further contact information: www.hwdairrace.org. Coming to an airshow near you: U.S. and Canadian military jet demonstration teams launcli tbeir long performance seasons eacb spring, the U.S. teams in Marcb and Canadians in May. Visit uww.airshows.org and click on "events" to see the 2005 schedules tor the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, tbe U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and tbe Canadian Forces Snovi'hirds. April 16-17: Coastal Carolina Airshow, Wilmington, N.C., International Airport, features the U.S. Navy Blue Angels as well as a two-day car sbow. Visit www.coastalcarolinaairsbow.com or call 910-772-7983 for information. April 29-May 1:11 tli annual Wings Over Gillespie Airshow, "The Aircraft of Midway," El Cajon. Calif. Go to www.wingsovergillespie.org. April 30-May 1: May Hy Airshow, Florence, S.C. Go to www.mayfly airsbow.com or contact the Cireater Florence Chamber of Commerce, 610 W. Palmetto St.. Florence, St; 29501. April 30-May 1:11 th Air and Sea Show, Fort Uuderdale. Fla., sponsored by McDonald's, includes tbe U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. (Along tbe four miles of Fort Lauderdale beach, best viewing is from Oakland Park Blvd. to Las Olas Blvd.) See www.nationaisalute.com, www.airseashow.com, or call 954-527-5600, ext. 4, for more. May 7-8: "Wheels and Wings," Millville. N.|., air and ear show, witb nigbttime airshow on May 6. See www.p47millville.org or www.scbultzairsbows.com for information. May 12-15: Mid-Adantic Fly-In and Sport Aviation Convention, I,umberton,N.C. See www.ceiebrationofflightnc.comorwww.mid atlaiiticflyin.com. May 13-15: IiAA Soutbwest Regional "The Texas Fly-in," Hondo, Texas (just west of San Antonio), with tbe airsbow Saturday and Sunday (14th and 15th). Visit www.swiH.org for details. May 14: "Warbirds in Action" 2005 airsbow. Minter Field Air Museum, Shafter, Calif., airport. Go to viww.minterfieldair museutn.com or call 661-393-0291 for information. May 14-15: "Defenders of Liberty," 70th anntial Barksdale Airshow, Barksdale Air Force Base, Shreveport-Bossier City, U . Performers include tbe Aerosbel! aerobatic team and tbe Blue Angels. A children's area called "Adventures in Aviation" is new tbis year. See www.barksdaleairsbow.org. AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

The Blue Angels perfortn their "fan" maneuver during a detnonstration, with only 12-18 inches separating the aircraft (U.S. Air Force).

May 21-22: Planes of Fame Airshow. Chino, Calif., airport. See www.planesoffame.org or call 909-597-3722. May 21 -22: Natchez Air Fair, Natchez-Adams Count}' (Miss.) Airport. Visit www.natebezairfair.eom or call Wayne Simmons, 904620-9771, for event information. May 21-22: Fly2Fun, Linn County Fair and Expo, Albany, Ore., (adjacent to Albany airport}, presented hy Northwest Aviation Association. Featured speakers: Rod Machado, author, pilot and flight instructor; and Bill Lisbman, ultralight pilot on wbom the movie Fly Away Homeis based and founder of Operation Migration. Visit www.oregonairfair.org, or call 503-381-0997. May 27-29: Watsonville Fly-In and Airsbow, Watsonville (Calif.) Mtinicipal Aiqjort. See www.watsonv1iienyin.org or call 831-7B3-5600. lune 3-5: tlolden West EAA Regional Fly-in, Marysville, Calif., Yuba County Airport. Go to vmw.goldenwestflyin.org or call 530852-0321 for information. lune 3-5: Mid Atlantic Air Museum's World War 11 Weekend, Reading, Pa. See www.maam.org or call 610-372-7333 for details. June 11-12: Airsbow, Smyrna, Tenn., airport, features the Thunderbirds. Go to www.smyrnaairport.com or call 615-459-2651. June 17-19: Aerospace America, Will Rogers World Airport, Oklaboma Cit>', Okla. See www,aerospaceokc.com for details. June 18: Vertical Cballenge Airsbow, 6th annual helicopter show, Hiller Aviation Museum, San Carlos Airport, Calif. See www.biller.org or call 650-654-0200. June 18-19: Aero Expo 2005: "Defenders of Freedom" airshow, Akron Fulton Internationa! Airport. Akron, Ohio. Go to www.mapsairmuseum.org or call tbe Maps Air Museum at 330896-6332 for more. June 18-19: DekeSlaytonAirfest, La Crosse{Wis.) Municipal Airport, features tbe Tbunderbirds. See www.airfest.com for information. June 24-26: London International Airfest. London (Ontario. Canada) International Airport, features the Snowbirds. Go to www.londonairsbow.com for details. June 25-26: Quad City Airshow, Davenport, Iowa, Airport. Performers include the Thunderhirds. Visit www.quadcityairshow.com or call 563-285-7469. Mary Beck Desmond Aviation History welcomes submissions. Please send to: Events Editor, Aviation History Magazine, 741 Miller Drive. Suite D-2, Leesburg, VA 20175 or via e-mail to AviationHistory@thehistory net.com.

Legacy of Flight BY NAN SIEGEL

6 3 Years Ago This iVIonth

JUNE 1942, INGLEWOOD, CALIF.-By the time Alfred T, Paimer took this color photograph of an unidentified woman worker preparing a radial engine for installation at a North American Aviation Inc. factory. U.S. aeronautics manufacturers were operating 24 hours a day and six to seven days each week to supply aircraft for the Allied war effort. Finding workers to fill johs in those factories proved inc reasingly difficult. As a result, industry leaders decided to employ women for the first time. To do so, they had to overcome resistance from managers, male workers and many of the women themselves. "Rosie the Riveter," who made her appearance on magazine covers and posters during that era, helped to popularize the idea. hidustry also got some recruitment help from the government in the form of the Magazine War Guide, produced hy the U.S. Office of War Information, which advocated the slogan "The More Women at Work the Sooner We Win.'"

74 AVIATION HISTORV MAY 2005

Of course, not all the women who took jobs previously assigned only to men had never heen employed outside their homes. Many were able to move up from service-oriented businesses such as laundries to higher-paying defense jobs, which were also seen as more patriotic. Those who got the most press, however, were first-time workers— about 6 million of whom entered the work force during World War II. In the aeronautics industry alone, women workers helped to swell the labor force to 2.1 million workers by die end of 1943. Many of those laborers resumed their domestic lives as soon as World War II ended and their surviving sons and husbands returned home. But not ail of them. As Sybil Levids, who worked as a riveter at Lockheed during the war years, recalled: "You came out to California, put on your pants, and took your lunch pail to a man's job. This was the beginning of women's feeling that they could do something more." ~t