Aviation History 2011-07

MAILBAG Fastest MiGs Stephan Wilkinson's article in the May issue's "Briefing," announcing the flights of the first two civilian MiG-29s and stating that they arc "the world's fastest private

planes," wa.s not wholly accurate. Warbirds of Delaware has been flying the world's fastest private planes for several years. While older and certainly not as capable, the Warbirds of Delaware MiG-23s [see photo, above] are faster than the MiG-29s. We also operate the world's fastest planes in terms of racing. Curt Brown, a former space shuttle commander, holds the Reno Air Races absolute record of 543 mph in the world's fastest Aero L-29, our Rolls-Roycepowered Viper. Right behind him we have Pipiqueak, the world's fastest L-39, with a best time of 525 mph. If anyone really feels the need for speed, Warbirds of Delaware is the place to visit. Joe Gano President, Warbirds of Delaware

More on the 'Screech In the March issue I noted the letter fiom l.R. Moran about the Bakersfield Thunderscreech gate guard. I flew into Bakersfield as a United 727 pilot in the '70s, and always wondered about the turboprop F-84. At the time, I was flying F-84Fs as a pilot in the Ohio Air National Guard. In the late '90s, after 1 retired from the ANG, the U.S. Air Force Museum contacted our retiree group, seeking volunteers to restore FS-059 for display in the Experimental Hangar at Wright Field. A group of highly qualified maintenance specialists volunteered, as did several retired fighter pilots who had flown F-84Fs for many years. The XF-84H was in sad shape after sitting outside for 40-plus years. Fortunately, we had access to several Fs and RFs for parts. We got the aircraft back on its landing gear and

restored the interior, which had been gutted. The museum's restoration shop made an allnew Plexiglass canopy and side panels. After nearly 4,000 hours of labor, the aircraft was ready for display. In attendance at the rollout ceremony was Hank Baird, who flew the XF-84H on all 12 of its flights. He told me that he had experienced at least one emergency on every flight! Also on hand was Ed von Wolffersdorf, Hank's crew chief and head mechanic. They both worked for Republic Aviation, and Hank later was lead test pilot for the F-105 program. Sadly, Hank and Ed have since both passed away.

a n o t h t i I'uuK i i i i i i i i o n e d , t h e W e s t l a n d Ly-

sander P. 12. My 10-C2 has a wingspan of 8 feet 8 inches, is 7 feet long and weighs 30 pounds. It took 14 months to complete. Fdward B. Hess Molalla, Ore.

Lt. Col. Robert E. Schneider U.S. Air Force Reserve (ret. )Grand Canyon Crash Loveland, Ohio I found Tim Queeney's article "Midair Over the Grand Canyon" (March) very compelling. My late father, Alfred Noble Klaas, was Beauty's in the Eye... supposed to have been aboard United's The instant I saw " 13 Ugliest Airplanes" on Flight 718, en route to Chicago, where his your May cover, I thought of the Airtruk. firm, Klaäs Brothers Painting Contractors, You forgot to mention that it's a movie star. had a big job underway. The day before his My introduction to the Airtruk was Mad scheduled departure from LAX, his business Max Beyond Thunderdome. If ever a plane partner brother asked him to stay in L.A. to looked like it had been patched together sign a contract. So my dad asked his secrefrom a dozen wrecks found at a post-apocatary to book him on another United flight lyptic airfield, that was the Airtruk. I for the following week. For days after the thought at the time that it was a Flight of the disaster my dad was very shaken. Phoenix build for the movie. I see the poor little XF-85 Goblin gets one M.D. Klaäs more bad rap. The Goblin failed because the Sedona, Ariz. original "trapeze" was too weak, test pilots were not trained in Air Force formation fly- I found an error in the chart on P. 42, listing ing and in-flight refueling was developed the 25 deadliest U.S. airline crashes. Rebefore these problems could be properly ad- garding the accident in the Chilkoot Moundressed. As a close-order escort the F-85 tains, Alaska, on September 4, 1971, your would have proven a match for the La-15 chart states an Alaska Airlines Boeing 727 and an unpleasant annoyance for MiG-15s departing Juneau crashed, killing all 111 passengers and crew. The 727 was actually slowing down to take aim at the bombers. Finally, 1 think the Curtiss-Goupil Duck is on a long final approach to Juneau from Anchorage when it crashed. Due to errokind of cute. CliffRunkle neous signals from the Sisters VOR, the airCarson City, Nev. craft descended too early and flew into the mountains. As a pilot for Alaska Airlines, I Look for an article by Stephan Wilkinson on knew the entire crew on that plane. The crew airplanes in the movies in an upcoming issue. was absolved of blame. -Ed. My son sent me your issue with the article about ugly airplanes, including the Delanne 10-C2 Duo-Mono. I built a 1/4-scale RC model of that airplane [see photo, above right], along with a 1/4-scalc RC model of

Captain Jim Polley Tieton, Wash. Send letters to Aviation History Editor, Weider History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500, or e-mail to aviationhistorydPweiderhistorygroup.com.

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BRIEFING

The Shack Is Back

be four-engine Avro Shacklcton long-range maritime patrol bomber, long known as "the Shack," was the ultimate version of tbe World War II Avro Lancaster bomber, wbicb itself looked a bit like a winged cbickcn coop. Tbe Lancaster morpbcd into tbe Avro Lincoln, and the Lincoln lent its wings, landing gear and taildragger stance to the Sbacklcton, which had a new fuselage and four Rolls-Royce Griffon engines, eacb driving a pair of contrarotating propellers. (The conflated airflow over and between tbe opposing propellers gave tbe Shack another nickname: Growler.)

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Tbe Griffons were a little more powerful than the classic Merlins tbat had powered the Lincoln, but they and their pinwbccling props were much more efficient. At tbe 1960 Farnborough airshow, RAF Coastal Gommand used its slots in theflyingdisplays for a standard, unmodified Shack to take off on a routine mission every afternoon. Tbe next morning, some 22 hours later, tbe same Sback landed back at Farnborough, a convincing endurance demonstration. Tbere are grounded Sbackletons parked in museums berc and there, and there's one impeccable, still-flyable Shack at tbe South African Air Force Museum but no current crew to operate it. The SAAF has also ordered its museum to stop flying the aircraft due to its uniqueness and value. In Britain, the all-voluntccr Shacklcton Preservation Trust (shackleton963.co.uk) has spent 13 years renovating a 1954AEW2 that had served a remarkable 37 years and logged over 15,000 flying hours witb tbe RAF. It was put out to pasture in 1991—witb aeronautical charts and several of its crew's logbooks still scattered about the cabin. Led most recently by ex-Sbackleton crewman John Gubberly, who spent more than 400 hours aboard WR963, the very "There's no such thing as a Shackleton that bis group of volunteers natural-born pilot." has brought back to -Chuck Yeager life, tbe Trust team

Air Quotes

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includes cx-RAF engineers and crew members. The hope is that 963 will soon be fully taxiable, tbough almost certainly never againflyablc.At one point during its tenure witb tbe Trust, the Shack had four runnabic engines, but problems with camshaft wear on the rare Griffons have reduced tbat number to one, tbougb the group has several spares. "The intention is tbat WR963 will be returned to taxiable status within the next 12 months," Rich Woods of the Trust said in mid-January. "The work on the engines is nearly at an end." Stephan Wilkinson

Navy Aircraft Get Retro Look

s part of the U.S. Navy's celebration of the centennial of naval aviation in 2011, more than two-dozen active aircraft have received or are receiving a variety of classic paint schemes. These include T-45A Goshawks decked out in bright 1930s-era colors, TH-57 Sea Rangers with the 1916-18 blue anchor emblem and F/A-18 Hornets (like the one seen here) in the late-World War II glossy sea blue of the Pacific Fleet's carrier-based fighters.

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Going Up? n March 5, cluster balloonist Jonathan Trappe and his copilot, Troy Bradley, turned fantasy into reality by re-creating the floating house from the Disney/Pixar animated film Up. Launching from the Mojave Desert east of L.A., their two-story modified house, which weighed 4,400 pounds, rode its helium balloons to an altitude of 10,500 feet before landing some 10 miles from its start point. The flight marked a world record for the largest cluster balloon flight (the system was 10 stories high) and the most balloons used in such a craft (283). It was a unique experience for Trappe, who is no stranger to cluster ballooning (he holds cluster balloon records for longest flight—13 hours, 36 minutes—and first flight across the English Channel). "I'm standing up on the roof, and the house is flying at 10,000 feet," he said. "It is bad to

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Jonathan Trappe surveys the scenery from his rooftop perch.

roof at 10,000 feet!" For more on Trappe's adventures, visit clusterballoon.com. Stephen Mauro

Fokker Revival

The house ascended to an altitude of 10,500 feet.

rolled out its latest creation, a Fokker D.VIII replica. Its high quality is evident in its attractively handcrafted fuel tank, cockpit controls and seat, and five-color preprinted fabric, specially woven from a sample of original material. A recent influx of orders reflects the rising demand from New Zealand's ever-expanding World War I historical organizations. Engels has numerous aircraft in production, including a Fokker Dr.l, Pfalz D.lll, Fokker D.VII, Fokker E.lll and Rumpler CIV. More at collectors-edition.de/f-t-sJiteLenglish.htm. Rolf Stibbe

This Engels E6, Fokker Team Schorndorf s latest creation, is a faithful replica ofthe Fokker D.VIII.

ucked away in the relative obscurity of Württemberg province in Germany, Engels Aeroplanbau, also known as Fokker Team Schorndorf, has undertaken one of the most ambitious aviation projects in recent history. Under the leadership of owner Achim Engels, the company is operating a small factory production line, producing full-scale airworthy replicas of German World War I aircraft. Engels has gone to great lengths to use original Fokker production drawings, airworthiness testing specifications and period manufacturing techniques. The team recently

MYSTERY SHIP

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ABOVE ACHIM ENGELS

What fame does this U.S. Marine hand-me-down claim? Turn to P. 12 for the answer.

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BHIEHNG

Last Flight of Empress of Suva erhaps celebrated more for its last flight than for its first, the ex-Ganadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DG-6B Empress of Suva completed one of its most challenging landings on December 4, 2010, to alight for the last time at a modest dirt airstrip cut across two small agricultural holdings north of Pretoria, South Africa. Acquired in an effort to turn GPA from a bush operator into an ocean-crossing airline, the DG-6, delivered in 1957, served its purpose for a modest four years before the jet age arrived. In 1961 the still almost new airliner was sold to Sweden's Transair, and for many years lost the aristocratic Empress name applied to all Canadian Pacific's aircraft.

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The DC-6B makes its final approach, above, before setting down on a crude ianding strip north of Pretoria, below ieft. Plans for bringing Empress of Suva to its final home had to be postponed untii iocais took down fences, so the strip could be lengthened.

Jet World Masters he 1 lth annual Jet World Masters competition—in which scale-model jets as large as one-third size compete in both static and flying displays—wül be held July 24-August 6 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. RG puots ftom 18 countries are registered to compete, with jets reaching speeds up to 200 mph thanks to miniature axial-

T The airplane passed through a number of owners, including a Norwegian airline, Braathens, and then Greenland Air, with which it served remote Gold War radar installations within the Arctic Circle. Following a route taken by many weary old airliners, the DG-6 eventually wound up in Africa flying UN relief missions in Mozambique. Its last commercial operator retired Empress ftom the Democratic Republic of Gongo to South Africa, and then generously donated it to the South African Museum Society. Unloved, it fell to dereliction at its temporary home at Swartkop air force base. Seemingly a target for the scrapman, the DG-6 was spotted by vintage muitary vehicle collectors and business partners Witold Walus and Willie Muntingh. Walus, Muntingh and hired engineer Mike Mayers brought the DG-6 back to life over a two-year period, and in December 2010 obtained a ferry permit to make one last flight to their business premises, where Empress of Suva is now safely parked, proudly serving as a gate guardian. John Miller 10 AVIATION HISTORY

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U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds piiots pose with a one-fifth-scaie F-16 RC modei that wiii be competing at Jet World Masters.

flow turbine engines. According to Dewey Davenport, organizer of this year's event, top-notch RG jet models take more than 2,000 hours to build and cost from $9,000 to $50,000.

BRIEFING By the Numbers: Space Shuttle Discovery ollowing its last landing on March 9 after a 1 3 day mission to the International Space Station, Discovery led the way to retirement for the space shuttles after 2 7 years of service. First launched in 1 9 8 4 , Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and flew the first rendezvous by a shuttle with the Russian Mir space station. In all. Discoveryflew3 9 missions (the most flown by any shuttle), traveling a total of 1 4 8 million miles, and making 5 , 8 3 0 orbits ofthe earth. It made 1 3 trips to the International Space Station, more than any other shuttle. Discovery spent a total of 3 6 5 days in space and carried 2 4 6 crew members during the course of its career. In retirement, it's reportedly headed for the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

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Web Pick: nmusafvirtualtour.com

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he National Museum ofthe U.S. Air Force at WrightPatterson Air Force Base in Ohio is a must-see for aviation buffs the world over, but for those who can't make it to Dayton, the new virtual tour on the museum's website is the next best thing. The completely 3-D, panoramic format, with an

MYSTERY SHIP ANSWER It looks quaint even for the 1920s, but this Vought VE-7SF has a historic pedigree. Originally conceived during World War I as a two-seat trainer. Chance Vought's VE-7, with its clean lines and 180-hp Wright-Hispano E-3 engine, could do 106 mph—comparable to a fighter of the time. Called the Bluebird due to its overall finish, the VE-7 won the U.S. Army competition for an advanced trainer, but the end of war led to the production order being canceled. The Navy was equally impressed, however, and ordered a single-seat version with the front cockpit faired over and a synchronized .30-caliber machine gun installed.

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interface much like Google Map's street view, offers access to all seven hangars and the outdoor Air Park, enabling up-close inspection of more than 360 aircraft and missiles. Icons along the way offer additional information such as video, audio and links to online resources. It's well worth the virtual visit.

Since Vought lacked the necessary manufacturing facilities at the time, the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia built most of the 128 VE-7s to be completed. The VE-7S entered service in May 1920 as the Navy's first indigenously designed land-based fighter, and was assigned to squadrons VF-1 and VF-2. On October 17, 1922, Lieutenant Virgil C. Griffin made the first takeoff from the Navy's first aircraft carrier, USS Langiey. The VE-7SF shown was a variant with flotation bags added to keep it afloat for recovery in the event of a forced landing at sea. Three VE-7s were still serving aboard Langley in ^ 927, but the last of the Bluebirds was retired from first-line Navy service the following year.

AVIATDRS

By Gary Rashba

'I Don't Fear' Israeli ace of aces Giora Epstein shares the secrets of his combat success

uts of steel"^—that's what Israel's leading ace. Colonel Giora Even Epstein, says it takes to be a dogñghting pro. Other necessary ingredients: the opportunity to come into contact with many enemy aircraft; staying in the fight as long as fuel and ammunition remain, rather than calling it quits after one kill; and being both a good puot and proficient at air combat. Epstein's record of 17 confirmed victories between June 1967 and October 1973 proves he knows what he's talking about. He sums it up simply as "a skill I have."

cause I was a young pilot on only my second intercept, I asked permission to fire," he explained. "There was no need to ask permission." Being vectored for the intercept meant he had tacit approval. He was denied permission because a controller confused Epstein's flight with another operating in a different area. His next opportunity came just a few weeks later, with the outbreak of the June 1967 Six-Day War—but this time he wouldn't hesitate.

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Born and raised on a kibbutz in the south of Israel, Epstein grew up fascinated with flight. Ironically, the Israel Air Force denied his repeated requests for pilot training due to "sportsman's heart," a benign condition that causes anomalies in cardiogram results. What proved most frustrating to the wouldbe flier was that the reason was not revealed to him at the time. He reluctantly joined the paratroops, becoming a national parachuting champion. Epstein repeatedly appealed the rulings that kept him out of pilot training and pulled every string he could think of to get accepted. His efforts finally paid oft, and he entered the IAF pilot training course in 1963—seven years after his induction into the Israel Defense Forces. Flying came naturally to Epstein, who excelled in classroom studies and flight training, graduating at the top of his class. But after coming so far, he faced yet another hurdle: a restriction in his medical file limiting him to flying only helicopters. Even after an expert medical opinion from the U.S. Air Force—which he had been told would determine what he would fly—found him fit to pilot jets, the helicopter squadron would not release him. Epstein continued battling to get the restriction lifted, finally confronting IAF chief Ezer Wcizman and telling

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Epstein boards a Dassault Mirage iiiCJ, called Shahak by the israeiis, in 1967.

him: "I'm not leaving your office. I'm staying put right here until you give me a positive answer." He got it. Years later, Epstein vividly remembers the detaus of all 17 of his kills. He maintained a log detailing each victory, recording the aircraft that he flew, the other pilots in his formation, the mission and a description of the encounter. In all, he shot down four Sukhoi Su-7s, two Su-20s, one Mil Mi-8 helicopter, one Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 and nineMiG-21s. Epstein believes he actually downed 20 aircraft. In addition to his 17 confirmed kills, two Su-7s ran into the ground trying to evade him, and he damaged a MiG with a missile but then lost track of it when he broke off to pursue another target. While IAF rules allow credit for kills caused by a pilot, Epstein said, "I have a principle that I wouldn't take credit for aircraft I did not physically destroy." Early in his combat career, sent to intercept an Egyptian MiG-21 on a high-altitude reconnaissance mission deep in Israeli airspace, Epstein made a rookie mistake. "Be-

One of a dozen IAF pilots defending Israel's airspace, Epstein did not take part in the massive preemptive airstrike that crippled the Arab air forces at the start of the war. On his fourth combat mission during the conflict, his formation of Dassault Mirage IIICJs encountered Egyptian Su-7 fighter-bombers engaged with IAF fighters. When one of the IAF pilots broke off his pursuit, Epstein recalled, "1 jettisoned my drop tanks and dove down," beginning a long, low-level chase across the Sinai Peninsula's northern coast. The Sukhoi was fast, but so was the Mirage. Finally maneuvering into firing position slightly below the sweptwing Egyptian jet, Epstein triggered his guns—and nothing happened. Out of habit from training missions, he had not armed his cannons. Epstein remained focused on his opponent. "1 put my hand on the control panel and hit all the switches," he said. "I didn't even look. I was so low that if I looked 1 would have crashed into the ground." He fired a short burst from his 30mm DEFA cannon, and the "Sukhoi's tail section exploded while its wings and front section remained suspended for a moment." Epstein managed to avoid the disintegrating airplane, which flipped over and fell to the ground, exploding in a large fireball. The Israeli pilot recalled that he felt nothing at that moment—no excitement, no exhilara-

tion, "as if it were a training exercise." His next successes came during the War of Attrition, the undeclared border conflict that lasted from 1967 to 1970. Following the Six-Day War, tensions remained high along tbe new common border in the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured from Egypt. There were frequent artillery exchanges, commando raids and dogfights that helped Epstein bone his combat skills. In three separate missions in the Mirage, he shot down a MiG-17, an Su-7 and a pair of MÍG-21S, bringing bis tally up to an acemakingflvekills. Epstein nearly missed out on tbe October 1973 Yom Kippur War due to a headquarters assignment, but be insisted—even threatening to go AWOL—on returning to his squadron to fly operationally. By tbe time he was back in the air, Israel had recovered from simultaneous Egyptian and Syrian attacks and gone on tbe counteroftensive. Epstein's first kill of the war was an Egyptian Mi-8 belicopter tbat bad been dropping napalm on Israeli ground forces. He felt a sense of relief tbat "At least I bad one kill, for I badn't done anything in this war until this time." In the next six days he went on to shoot down a total of 11 fixedwing aircraft, all while flying the Israel Aircraft Industries Nesber, an improved copy of tbe Dassault Mirage V. Garrying more fuel than the Mirage, the Nesber allowed greater loiter time, wbicb Epstein u.sed to full advantage. Arguably bis most intense encounter took place on tbe afternoon of October 20, 1973, when air controllers directed his four-ship formation toward a pair of MiG-21s. Epstein, wbose keen eyesigbt had earned him the nickname "Hawkeye," quickly spotted them. He shot one down with a missile, then turned his attention to the second MiG—only to discover tbe sky below was now swarming with some 20 more MiGs. Glearly it was an ambush, with the first two planes as bait. Epstein stayed with the second MiG, which eluded him for about four minutes before be finally brought it down witb cannon fire. Tbe tbree otber aircraft in Epstein's formation also went after targets. Each Israeli downed a MiG, but a compressor stall on one aircraft and low fuel on another forced two of tbe Neshers back to base while the third was still pursuing a fleeing enemy.

Epstein scored eight of 12 victories shown on Israel Aircraft industries Nesher no. 561.

Now Epstein was alone, and vastly outnumbered. "I went on the defensive, always prepared, yet taking chances," he said. Despite the odds against him, he had no inclination—nor desire—to escape. "I don't fear," Epstein explained. "Besides, there were more targets to pursue." The MiGs came after him one pair at a time while he flew wide turns to gain speed. Since he knew the range of the Soviet AA-2 Atoll missile, as tbe enemy jets closed to missile range, Epstein would tigbten bis turns. If they let up he reverted to wider turns to build up speed. If tbey tried closing to cannon range, be performed a barrel roll, known as a "let them pass" maneuver, which put his pursuers in fTont of him. If a second pair of MiGs was not yet on his tail, he'd go for a kill. In this way he downed one MiG with cannon fire and lined up another in mi.ssile range. But this time when he launched, the missile malfunctioned, merely dropping from his aircraft "like a detachable fuel tank." At one point, after dodging MiGs on bis tail, Epstein was jolted by the sight of a pair of MiGs flying straight at him, launching missiles. Instinctively ducking, he saw the missUes streak past his cockpit. Meanwhile most of the enemy planes had either been shot down or had bugged out. Wben a final pair of MiGs came after Epstein, he quickly went back on the offensive. Maneuvering to within gun range, he raked one MiG with cannon fire that appar-

ently killed tbe pilot—since tbe seemingly undamaged aircraft tben crashed—while his wingman fled. Alone but witb some fuel and ammunition left, Epstein bad tbe audacity to radio bis controller and ask if there were any more targets in the area. Having downed four MiG-21s in a single mission, he finally headed back to base. Once be landed, tbe combination of extreme G forces and excitement caught up with him. "I couldn't get out of my seat," Epstein recalled. "My legs were shaking." He had to be belpcd out of the cockpit by exuberant comrades. His aircraft's G-indicator showed that he had surpassed 10 positive Gs and 5 negative Gs in tbe lengthy air battle. Just four days later he would have another banner day wben be shot down three more MiG-2Is during an epic air battle. After the war Epstein was awarded tbe Medal of Distinguished Service citation. He also earned honors as Israel's ace of aces and as the top supersonic jet ace of all time. Epstein later transitioned to IAI Kfirs and General Dynamics (later Lockheed Martin) F-16s. In civilian life, be flew for El Al Israel Airlines. After retiring from the air force in 1997, he made a ceremonial final fligbt a year later on his 60tb birtbday. As a tribute, 17 Egyptian air force roundel insignia.s— representing Epstein's victories—were stenciled onto the F-16 that he flew. That same year Epstein was inducted into the Gathering of Eagles Foundation, in recognition of his contribution to aviation bistory. "t"

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RESTDRED

By Steve Lundin

Lightning's Long Takeoff Roll At 13 years and counting, the restoration of an English Electric Mach 2 fighter has been anything but lightning-quick he fastest thing to come out of Great Britain next to Dr. Who's Tardis time machine was the English Electric Lightning, a supersonic Cold War fighter that tore through the air at Mach 2 for nearly three decades. Of the 337 Lightnings built, 118 airplanes, or parts thereof, remain today, and somewhere between three and six are in airworthy condition. Since 1998 the Anglo American Lightning Organization, a team of 30 volunteers scattered across Britain and the United States, has been working to add one more to that fleet.

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The Lightning was, in true British spirit, a complex and elaborately engineered aircraft. Introduced by English Electric Aviation Limited in 1954, the prototype was the first air breather to sustain supersonic flight without afterburners. It was also the last airplane to be designed by a British aviation firm without outside assistance. The Lightning is to the British what the North American F-86 Sabre is for the U.S.: an early jet with a classic design that inspired kids to dream of becoming fighter pilots. With its 60-degree wing sweep and twin engines, the Lightning owes much to the turbojet and wind tunnel work done by the Germans at the end of World War IL You might say there's a bit of Messerschmitt Me-262 DNA in every Lightning. English Electric's chief designer, W.E.W. "Teddy" Petter, began work on a sweptwing interceptor in 1946, leading to the award of a study contract in 1947. By 1954 a prototype was being tested, the P.IA, and by 1958 a second prototype, the P.IB, attained Mach 2, raising the speed bar for Britain. That led to an order of 50 planes by the Ministry of Defence. The production aircraft, designated Lightning F.Mk. Is, were delivered to No. 74 Squadron, RAF, based at Coltishall. The Lightning's twin stacked Rolls-Royce Avon 30 lR afterburning turbojet engines developed 12,530 foot pounds of thrust each, enabling it to

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This English Electric Lightning T.5, no. XS422, is currently being restored in Mississippi.

climb at 20,000 feet per minute to a reported service ceiling of 54,000 feet. A total of 11 production models were developed between 1959 and 1966. In addition to the RAF, the Lightning saw service in Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian air forces before it was retired in 1988. The RAF replaced the Lightning with the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and the SEPECAT Jaguar. According to Thunder and Lightnings, a UK registry documenting every model currently known to exist (see thunder-andlightnings.co.uk), the Lightning currently being restored—aircraft no. XS422—is one of eight documented T.5 trainers, notable for their dual seats and controls. It flew in March 1965 at Coltishall and later at the Empire Test Pilots School at Boscombe Down. The first T.5 made its maiden flight in 1962, and a total of 52 were manufactured. After XS422 was retired in 1987, collector Wensley Haydon-Baillie purchased it and placed it in storage. In mid-1997 he sold it to Marine Salvage at Portsmouth, in Hampshire.

Later that year, Andrew Brodie, a wellknown automobile restorer, formed a team— soon to become the Anglo American Lightning Organization—to help him acquire a Lightning and manage its restoration. The group included Phil Wallis and Max Waldron, former RAF engineers with Lightning experience, and Jon Roth, who would become a critical partner in the operations. An FAAcertified airframe and power plant inspector. Roth owns the award-winning Vintage Aircraft Restoration Company, based at Stennis International Airport in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Stennis' 8,497-foot runway is large enough to handle a Boeing 747, and with luck, it will someday be used by a Lightning. The team looked over 17 airframes at Marine Salvage and selected two: XS422 would become the primary airframe, and ex-Royal Saudi Air Force TSS'il was designated as a parts plane and second airframe. The Lightnings were shipped to Stennis, and the group developed a plan to manage the spares in the UK and the assembly in the U.S.

Brodie and his team soon realized that, as with any restoration, the devil is in the parts. With the help of Keith Smith of Marine Salvage, the Lightning Organization acquired the RAF's war reserve of 20,000 Lightning parts, including several Rolls-Royce Avon M)2R turbojets with close to zero hours of running time, as well as two sets of wings. Ihe sum of these parts formed an entire airplane—a restorer's dream come true. Roth, who headed the U.S. team, brought his chief engineer, Mike Shallbetter, along for tlie ride. Wallis instituted the RAF paperwork .system, which was meticulous and time consuming, but would account for every nut and washer in the plane. There was much shuttling back and forth as XS422's new lease on life was mapped out. Due to numerous issues involved with CAA certification of the Lightning in the UK, XS422 would fly in the U.S. as an experimental aircraft, allowing it to be shown at airshows and flown over unpopulated areas. The team spent 2000 .shipping, cleaning and sorting parts, as well as setting up flowcharts for the project, whose massive scale was increasingly apparent. The Lightning Organization was expanding, too. After British videographer Nie Holman stumbled upon a BBG interview with project technician Wallis, Holman traveled to the U.S. to produce his own documentary on the project. He's now the president of the organization, which has grown substantially. The Lightning itself had been broken down into its component parts, making it easier to pick and choose the best pieces from the Saudi plane, ZF597, or the spares. For example, the environmental systems came from ZF597, while the cockpit was from XS422. The airframe for XS422, which had been coated in waxoil, proved to be in excellent condition. On September 16,2001, it was rolled out for a public appearance. Then the real work began. Between 2001 and 2010, all the major systems have been replaced or refurbished—from stripping the hull down to its original aluminum skin and replacing the hydraulics and electronics, to .sorting the intricate weave of cables running throughout the big jet. Since it's expensive to send teams and containers of parts back and forth between the U.S. and UK, the Lightning Organization instituted an aggressive fundraising campaign. In 2005 a system was inaugurated to sell memberships in the organiza-

tion, bringing in many smaller donations. That effort was later expanded to direct solicitation for donations in the form of goods and services, as well as partnerships that grant part ownership. Despite thousands of hours of donated labor, a robust parts supply and meticulous project management, money has remained the restoration's most troublesome aspect. With enough of it the team could have built an additional aircraft. In 2007 Nie Holman placed an ad in Trade-A-Plane that served as a warning that the Lightning might indeed remain grounded: "BAG/EE LIGHTNING T5 Mach 2 British Cold War Interceptor. Desirable twin seat trainer variant. Located and undergoing restoration in the USA. Close to flight. Valuable reserve of spare.s including 4 engines. For sale or part ownership. Serious offers considered." Responding to the gallows squawk the ad sent through the aviation community. Lightning Organization representatives said, "The trade advert is simply for a large .share or stake in the project to drum up extra funding and interest, and address possible sponsorship deals ahead offlight."In 2009 more bad news surfaced when adventure flight provider Thunder City's T.5 (RAF no. XS451) crashed in South Africa, after which that group's remaining three Lightnings were grounded. The Lightning Organization team soldiered on with its restoration, and showed off its 80-percent complete project during the 2010 EAA AirVenture. Holman recently said that, as of the first quarter of 2011, the or ganization still needs $600,000 to get the plane aloft. The actual market value of .i Lightning is difficult to determine, although Thunder City has stated it would sell a twoseater with parts for $1.5 million and a single-seater for $1.1 million. Thirteen years into the restoration—with tens of thousands of man-hours already invested—the value of XS422 can no longer be measured in dollars, considering the pleasure it's brought to all those who've been involveil thus far. Holman and his team may yet set .i new record for the Lightning: the longest "Saturday afternoon" restoration ever attempted on a British jet. But as the proverb has it, good things come to those who wait. It will indeed be a thrill if someday soon we get to see .i "new" Lightning take to the skies once more. For more on the project, see lightning 422supporters.co.uk. "t"

Dave Yates of the Anglo American Lightning Organization works on the wing fuel system. The two-seat Lightning's unusuai vertically stacked engine configuration is highlighted in this nighttime view of the ongoing work at Mississippi's Stennis International Airport.

XS422 undergoes restoration while a second Lightning, used as a parts piane, sits nearby.

Yates works his way toward the rear of the Lightning's complex fuselage interior.

JULY 2011

AVIATION HISTORY 17

EXTREMES

By Jon Guttman

Euler Quadruplane Are three wings better than two...with an added deck of ailerons?

hen the Sopwith Triplane entered combat early in 1917, it dazzled German opponents with its spectacular performance. To counter the British triplane, the Inspektion der Fliegertruppen, or Idflieg, ordered German aircraft manufacturers to produce their own "Dreidecker!' Almost all of them tried, but only two German triplanes reached production: the Pfalz The Euler's fourth wing wasn't exactly a wing. Dr.I, of which only 10 were built, and the Fokker Dr.I, which featured an innovative wing. It was too clumsy to gain acceptance. wooden cantilever box structure and was In 1916 Idflieg, impressed by the Nieuport regarded as Germany's best fighter for the 11 Bébé sesquiplane fighter, ordered German first four months of 1918. companies to copy its design. Euler did so in

W

Aside from those famous exceptions, the "triplane craze" left behind a trail littered with rejected oddities. Among them was a handful of fighters that tried to do the formula one better with a fourth wing, such as Britain's Wight Ouadruplane, the two-seat Armstrong-Whitworth F.K.IO, and the twinengine Supermarine P.B.29 and P.B.31 Nighthawk anti-Zeppelin interceptors. And then there was the Euler Vierdecker, which was not quite a quadruplane or a triplane, but something curiously in between. August Eulcr had founded Germany's first airplane manufacturing firm, the Euler-Flugmaschinenen Werke, in 1908 in Darmstadt, building Voisins under license. He established the country's first airfield at nearby Griesheim. In 1910 he qualified for Germany's first pilot's license, inaugurated its first airmail service and patented a gun installation for an "Airship Destroyer" featuring a "blowback shock absorber" and a gunsight. Given such auspicious beginnings, it is puzzling how little innovative flair Euler exhibited during World War I, mostly producing copies of LVG two-seaters. In 1915 he came up with the C.I, a large pusher with a forwardfiring machine gun for the pilot and the observer firing backward, over the propeller, from a position elevated above the upper

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October 1916, completing the D.I, powered by an 80-hp Oberursel U.O rotary engine and mounting one synchronized 7.92mm LMG 08/15 machine gun. Fifty were ordered but only 30 built, along with 20 D.IIs, which used a 100-hp Oberursel U.I engine. Both served primarily as fighter trainers. In December 1916, Euler experimented with a D.I derivative using two single-spar wings, a structural formula doomed to failure. With the Nieuport precedent established, Euler was certainly game to try again when the call came for a Sopwith Triplane copy; in fact, he had already built his first experimental triplane late in 1916, featuring a twin-spar upper wing, two single-spar lower wings and a 160-hp Oberursel U.III rotary. That year he also produced a big side-by-side two-seat triplane powered by a 220-hp Mercedes D.IV inline engine, but it was too ungainly to succeed even in its intended training role. Euler's Vierdecker, or quadruplane, was arguably his most unusual fighter. Few details arc known about it except that it was powered by the U.I, its combined wing area was just under 500 square feet, its empty weight was 1,950 pounds and it weighed 3,055 pounds fully loaded. Its fuselage was similar—and its horizontal stabilizer and elevator were nearly identical to—the D.I's.

Although the Vierdecker's wings roughly resembled those of the Sopwith Triplane, there were important differences. The first three tiers of wings were wire braced similar to the Sopwith's, but while the Triplane featured ailerons on all its wings, the Euler's had none. The upper wing panels were attached to a single steel rod atop the triangular cabane struts, with the only visible cables alongside the interplane struts—not to brace them, but running through the third set of wings to the control column in the cockpit. In essence, the entire fourth wing was a set of ailerons. How well this articulated wing would have withstood combat turns is open to speculation, but ultimately it became a moot point. Although no statistics are available, the two Vierdeckers built for evaluation performed poorly, and Idflieg added them to the growing list of Euler rejects. Euler rebuilt the Vierdecker as a triplane with conventional ailerons and a revised rudder with a small stabilizer. Another, sleeker attempt was powered by a 160-hp Mercedes D.III engine. Both prototypes were rejected. Euler's fifth and last Dreidecker appeared in 1918, powered by a 180-hp Goebel 111 rotary. But by that time the Fokker D.VIl, with its drag-reducing cantilever biplane wing construction and outstanding performance, had captured the enthusiasm of ¡dflieg and every pilot who flew it. No triplane design, let alone Euler's, had a chance. Euler got through WWl primarily as a license-manufacturer of LVGs—and by winning a patent infringement suit against Anthony Fokker, which required him to pay Eulcr a fee for every synchronized machine gun he used or sold to other airplane firms. August Euler survived both world wars, dying in Feldberg on July 1,1957. He was a pioneer of early German aviation, but if his name is remembered at all in regard to WWI, it's as a maker of aerial oddities and ncver-rans. "t"

LETTER FRDM AVIÄTIDN HISTDRY Fly Navy Naval aviation certainly has come a long way in the 100 years since the U.S. Navy committed to purchasing itsfirstaircraft, a Curtiss A-1 Triad (so named because it could operate on land, water and in the air), on May 8, 1911. That first Navy amphibian sported a 75-hp V-8 engine capable of pushing it to a maximum speed of 60 mph. Today Navy F/A-18s boasting twin turbofans max out at nearly 1,200 mph. On November 14, 1910, Eugene Ely Gienn Curtiss taxis his A-1 Triad floatplane, the first aircraft purchased by demonstrated that an airplane could be the U.S. Navy, 100 years ago. Beiow, an F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the launched from a ship when he flew a "Goiden Dragons" of VFA-192 takes off from USS Kitty Hawk In 2005. Curtiss Model D pusher off a platform built onto the cruiser Birmingham as it lay at anchor in Hampton Roads, Va. The demonstration nearly ended in dis aster when Ely plunged to within feet oí the water after clearing the deck, damag ing his propeller but remaining aloft. (Ely, who couldn't swim, wore inflated bicycle inner tubes, just in case.) Two months later, on January 18, 1911, he landed the Curtiss biplane on a deck erected on the cruiser Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay. His landing was aided by a taiJhook—the first ever—and arrestor cables attached to sandbags. Despite Ely's successful demonstrations, the Navy remained unconvinced of the airplane's utility until Glenn Curtiss himself demonstrated his "hydroaeroplane" on February 17, 1911, in San Diego Harbor. Curtiss flew the floatplane out to Pennsylvania, and was lifted aboard with a crane. Following lunch with the ship's officers, the aviator and his hydroaeroplane were hoisted back into the water, and he returned to North Island. As an article on the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum website observes, "These three significant demonstrations involving the U.S. naval warships pointed the way to future progress in seaplane aviation, anticipating battleships carrying seaplane 'spotter' aircraft and, ultimately, carrier-based air operations." Ironically for Curtiss, whom the museum considers "the father of naval aviation," the aircraft with which he became most identified—the floatplane and the flying boat—would eventually outlive their usefulness, phased out by the Navy in 1967 in favor of helicopters and specialpurpose airplanes. In this issue we tip our caps to America's naval aviators and support personnel, and note the incredible progress that has been made in the relatively short span of a century, with a photo portfolio showcasing the stunning work of Erik Hildebrandt (story, P. 30). We also pay homage to perhaps the finest flying boat ever produced, Consolidated's PBY Catalina, with a story about its use not by the Navy, but by the Australian airline Qantas on the longest-duration nonstop passenger flights ever made (P. 50). And as v^rith any significant anniversary commemoration, a flood of books has attended the naval aviation centennial; see "Reviews" (P. 60) for two that are well worth seeking out. For more on the centennial celebration, see the official Navy site at www.public.navy.mil/airfor/centennial or the 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation Foundation site at navalaviationlOO.org. "t"

JULY 2011 AVIATION HIITORY

21

EAGLE OF THE EASTERN FRONT

Junkers Ju-87D Stuka dive bombers prepare to peel off from their formation and attack a target on the Russian Front during the winter of 1943.

Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Germany's most highly decorated combat pilot, only shot down nine enemy aircraft, but he destroyed the equivalent of more than three Soviet tank corps By Don Hollway

U

ntil very recently tbe remote forward airstrip bad been deep inside Soviet Russia, but now it was Nazi territory. Lieutenant Hans-Ulricb Rudel and tbe rest of bis dive bomber wing had gathered in mid-September 1941 to strike anotber blow in Operation Barbarossa, Germany's campaign to conquer tbe USSR. Out in tbe Gulf of Finland, tbe Soviet Baltic Fleet's 23,000-ton dreadnought Marat was hurling 12-inch, 1,000-pound shells 18 miles onto German forces encircling Leningrad. The men of Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 (StG.2), flying Junkers Ju-87B Stukas, had been tasked with sinking the troublesome ship. It would be nothing like raining bombs and fear overfleeingenemy infantry and civilians, as Stukas had across Spain, Poland, Belgium g and France. And Rudel had flown his first combat mission just tbree montbs earlier. His first "flight," at age 8, had been a jump off a roof with an umbrella—in 1924 it was not yet a dicbé—tbat earned him a broken leg. Young Rudel, an avid skier and athlete, came of age in early 1930s Germany at the same time as Nazism and the dive bomber. Plummeting from on high with sirens wailing and bombs whistling, Stukas struck terror long before they struck targets. Yet withstanding rapid changes in air pressure as he plunged thousands of feet, not to mention near-blackout on pull-up, proved difficult for Rudel. And as the son of a Lutheran minister, he didn't exactly fit into the Stuka frater•¡ nity. "He doesn't smoke, drinks only milk, has no stories to tell about Î women and spends all his free time playing sports," wrote one of his I instructors. "Senior Officer Gadet Rudel is a strange bird!" Hans-Ulrich Rudel (left) with radioman/gunner Erwin Hentschel.

22

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He spent the Polish invasion as a backseat observer in reconnaissance planes, and sat out the Battle of Britain and the Balkan and Gre-

r'"

Kl"

tan campaigns. Not until the invasion of Russia was he at last given a combat seat. With near-complete air superiority on its side, the Stuka was back in its element—relentless blitzkrieg. In his first day of battle, Rudel flew four missions. In a little over a month he flew 100, receiving the Iron Cross First Class and new respect from his flying mates. "He is the best man in my squadron!" claimed Captain Emst-Siegfi"ied Steen. "But this crazy fellow will have a short life...." Rudel later wrote in his memoirs, "He knows that I generally dive too low a level, in order to make sure of hitting the target and not waste ammunition." The Stukas had caught Marat out in the Gulf of Finland. Steen's bomb missed, but Rudel's 1,000-pounder burst on its aft deck. On the morning of September 23, 1941, a reconnaissance plane spotted the dreadnought undergoing repairs in Kronstadt Harbor, the largest naval base in the Soviet Union, with more than 1,000 shipboard and land-based guns. But StG.2 had just taken delivery of new 2,000-

pound armor-piercing bombs, and Rudel said: "I am longing to be off. If I reach the target, I am determined to hit it." His backseat gunner. Sergeant Alfred Scharnowski, was with him all the way. The young East Prussian, the 13th child in his family, was accustomed to having the odds against him. "He seldom speaks," commented Rudel, "... nothing ruffles him." On target approach the flak was so intense that the Stukas, bobbing, weaving and dodging, broke formation. Rudel held station on Steen's wing, and together they bored in. From miles away they could see Marat tied up with the heavy cruiser Kirov at its stern. Wingmounted dive brakes extended for greater stability and accurac7, Steen pitched over into the attack, with Rudel right behind him. The airspeed indicator wound up as the altimeter wound down. "I have already picked up Marat in my sights," Rudel recounted. "We race down towards her; slowly she grows to a gigantic size. Now all their A.A. guns are directed at us."

JULY 2011

AVIATION HISTORV

23

Steen closed his brakes, trying to get dovra through the flak before it blew him out of the sky. Rudel cut his brakes as well, "going all out. I am right on his tail, traveling much too fast and unable to check my speed." He passed so close to the lead plane that he could see Steen's rear gunner. Sergeant Helmut Lehmann, looking terrifled that Rudel would ram them. Marat loomed up below, "large as life in ftont of me. Sailors are running across the deck....Now I press the bomb release switch on my stick and pull with all my strength." Already too low to use the Stuka's automatic dive-recovery system, Rudel was also well below his bomb's 3,000-foot safe release height. "My acceleration is too great," he wrote. "My sight is blurred in momentary blackout.. .when I hear Scharnowski's voice: 'She is blowing up, sir!'" They had pulled out a dozen feet or so above the water. Behind them Rudel saw a 1,200-foot pillar of smoke and fire billowing ÍTom the battleship. His bomb had exploded in an ammunition magazine. Marat's bow had blown off. The Stukas regrouped at their field for a go at the cruiser Kirov. Taxiing for takeoft, Steen's plane mired in soft ground, so he switched to Rudel's Stuka. Rudel had to watch as the CO took off, with Scharnowski still in back. In the midst of their attack dive, they took a hit in the tail. Unable to puU out, Steen aimed the Stuka at Kirov, but hit the sea alongside. Even Rudel's ardent Nazism seemed shaken by the incident. "They are lucky to have died," he later wrote, "at a time when they could still hold the conviction that the end of all this misery would bring freedom to Germany and to Europe." Sunk in shallow water, Marat was refloated in a few months and

used as a stationary gun battery. After 16 months the encirclement of Leningrad was broken. By that time Adolf Hitler had other goals: Ukrainian wheat. Gaspian oil. Stalingrad. Meanwhile Rudel—now a 500-mission veteran—survived his first Russian winter and a summer commanding a Stuka training unit. He also married his fiancée, Ursula. By the time he rejoined StG.2, flying the new Ju-87D over Stalingrad, the German Sixth Army had already cornered the Russians in 1,000 yards of the Volga River's west bank. Stuka bombing precision was essential in this situation. "We have to drop our bombs with painstaking accuracy," explained Rudel, "because our own soldiers are only a few yards away in another cellar behind debris of another wall." On the morning of November 19,1942, answering a massive Soviet barrage north of the city, Rudel and his pilots overflew their Romanian allies fleeing a wave of Russian infantry. "Relentlessly I drop my bombs on the enemy and spray bursts of M.G. [machine gun| fire [but] with these hordes our attacks are merely a drop in the bucket," he despaired. And as for the Romanians (who would switch sides in August 1944), "It is a good thing for them I have run out of ammunition to stop this cowardly rout." Within days the Sixth Army was encircled. The Stukasflew10,15 sorties a day, dawn to dusk around Stalingrad's shrinking Kessel (cauldron), where Soviets and Nazis fought to the death over wreckage, rubble and their dictators' prestige. "Because of the uninterrupted sorties and the stifffighting,"Rudel said, "... the whole squadron has at the moment scarcely more than enough aircraft to form one strong flight." StG.2 pulled out to a base 100 miles west of the city, only to find Soviet armor bearing down on the airfield. Rudel flew 17 sorties, stop-

The Soviet battleship Marat, whose bow was blown off during Rudei's attack on September 23,1941, undergoes repairs in Kronstadt Harbor. Although Marat would contribute to the defense of Leningrad as a floating battery, it never steamed out of Kronstadt again.

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ping the last tank himself just a few yards short of his own runway. "We know the strength of the opposition," he wrote. "It is too late to Irce the Sixth Army." In February 1943, Rudel flew his 1,000th mission, for which the wing gave him a chimney sweep and a pig (both lucky) and an honor

goblet (fiill of mük). He was then invited to Rechlin, Germany, to help test a new concept in anti-tank warfare. It had occurred to the German high command that the most efficient way to kill a tank wasn't by trying to hit it on the roof with a bomb. Armed with two 600-pound cannon pods, the Stuka became slow and unwieldy, unable to dive or carry bombs, but its 6-foot gun barrels could put 37mm tungsten-core shells through square-foot targets from the air at more than 150 yards. This Ju-87G—the Kanonenvogel (Cannonbird) or Panzerknacker (Tankcracker)—would become one of the war's supreme tank busters, largely in Rudel's hands. Rudel got off to a bad start, shot down by flak on his first combat test, but he made short work of Russian landing craft on the Kuban front. Promoted to captain and awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross by Hitler him.self, he agreed to take a Panzerknacker back to the front. \

Captain Rudel, commander of Sturzkampfgeschwader (dive bomber wing) 2 "immeimann," goes over a map with an NCO.

A stricken Soviet T-34/76 burns, a fate shared by 519 enemy tanks targeted by Rudei.

Ground crewmen wind the starter on Rudei's Ju-87G-2 of the redesignated Schlachtgeschwader (battie wing) 2. The G-modei Stuka carried two 37mm anti-tank gun pods underneath its wings.

just in time for the epic July 1943 Battle of Kursk. As thousands of German and Russian tanks wheeled and fired at point-blank range below him, Rudel circled behind the enemy armor formations to attack from the rear. In his first attack he disabled four tanks, and by the end of the first day he had bagged 12—the equivalent of a Soviet

JULY 2011 AVIATION HISTORY

25

armor company. He came in so low he risked being caught in the target's explosion. "This happens to me twice in the first few days when I suddenlyflythrough a curtain of fire," he reported. "I come out, however, safe and sound on the other side, even though...my aircraft is scorched and splinters from the exploding tank have riddled it with holes." The Luftwaffe already intended the faster Focke-Wulf Fw-190F to replace the Ju-87G in the ground attack role (and Rudel would sometimes fly it), but his name would always be linked to the Stuka. "The evü spell is broken," he raved about the Panzerknacker. "In this aircraft we possess a weapon which can speedily be employed everywhere and is capable of dealing successfully with the formidable numbers of Soviet tanks."

cover. "When I have got to within three hundred feet of [the Shturmoviks] I...loose off a round of anti-tank ammunition from each of my slow-firing cannons." The infamous 11-2 was no better armored than a T-34 against cannon fire from above. Rudel's target exploded; he escaped. In late March 1944, StG.2 (which had been redesignated SG—Schlachtgeschwader, or battle vràig—a Luftwafte admission that the Stuka's glory days as a dive bomber were over) joined the effort to cut the Soviet bridgeheads over the Dniester River near Nikolayev, Ukraine. On his eighth sortie that day, now-Major Rudel saw one of his crews forced down on the wrong side of the river and landed to pick them up. (He had performed such rescues a half-dozen times before, and had been so

Soon appointed wing commander, Rudel formed an elite tank-hunter squadron, a Stuka "fire brigade" tossed into the line wherever the latest Russian breakthrough threatened. His mission tally and score rose dramatically; by November he had racked up 1,500 mis- Rudei in the cockpit of his Ju-87G in August 1943. sions and more than 100 tank kills. His backseater. Sergeant Erwin Hentschel, became the most successful gunner rescued himself) But with two extra passengers, his Stuka bogged in the Luftwaffe, with more than 1,200 missions and several enemy down in the mud. aircraft to his credit. Rudel recommended him for the Knight's Gross, With Soviet troops closing in, Rudel, Hentschel and the rest ran sevbut the paperwork had not gone through when he was called to eral miles in frill gear. Doffing flight suits and boots, they slid down Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters to receive the Swords to his own riverbank clifts into the water. The 600-yard-wide Dniester was in full Knight's Gross. Rudel took Hentschel along with him, and by sheer flood, a few degrees above freezing and full of ice. "Gradually one force of personality arranged for the gunner to receive his medal di- becomes dead to all sensation save the instinct of self preservation," rectly from the Führer. Rudel recalled. His athletic training saved him: Last into the water, Yet the Stukas were unable to halt the relentless Soviet offensives he was second to reach the far bank. Eighty yards short, gunner leading into the winter of 1943. Terrible Hentschel threw up his arms and weather shielded the enemy from aerial went under. Rudel dived back in, attack. On one reconnaissance mission, lost but couldn't find his flying mate. in thick fog and running low on fuel, Rudel The others were soon captured. felt his way down to a forced landing. Rudel had been shot in the Hentschel scouted a nearby road jammed shoulder, and was wet, barefoot with German truck traffic. "We taxi along the and freezing. Although deep in very broad highway as if we were driving a enemy territory, he reftised to be car," Rudel recounted, "obeying the usual taken prisoner. Soviet dictator traffic regulations and allowing heavy lorries Josef Stalin had announced a to pass Many of them think they are see100,000-ruble reward for the ing a ghost plane." Nearly 25 miles along, capture of the "Eagle of the surely some sort of taxi record, an overpass Eastern Front," dead or alive. blocked the way. Leaving Hentschel to guard Rudel sheltered among refugees the plane, Rudel caught a ride to base and and locals who had no love for returned to take off when the weather lifted. Stalinist Russians, and barely survived his trek across some 30 He also proved the Panzerknacker was efmiles of enemy territory to reach fective against Soviet "flying tanks." Gatching German lines. a flight of Soviet fighters and Lend-Lease Bell P-39 Airacobras escorting heavily armored His feet were so badly injured Ilyushin 11-2 Shturmoviks to battle, he Rudei accepts the Diamonds to his Knight's Cross from that when he next flew he had to dropped down alone through the fighter the Fährer—oniy on the condition that he couid stili fly. be helped into his plane. Yet 26

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The 1st Staffel of StG.2 flies a dive-bombing sortie in February 1943. The JU-87D-3 at upper right is believed to be the Stuka In which Rudel flew his 1,000th mission, on February 10.

JULY 2011 AVIATION HISTORY

27

UNRIPENTANT EAGLE

"Wi

e have never fought for a political party, but only for Germany," said Hans-Ulrich Rudel, who was both a tool and a product of Nazi propaganda. To him nationalism and National Socialism were one and the same. Prior to Operation Barbarossa, he believed the Soviet Union would simply allow its Nazi allies free access to its oil and raw materials; a few days afterward, he was just as willing to believe the Soviets had been ready to invade Germany and were beaten to the punch. By war's end he was convinced the Allies had betrayed not only Germany but themselves: "They will one day be sorry that in destroying us they have demolished the bastion against Bolshevism."

Rudel addresses the nationalist German Reich Party in 1953.

Rudel was not without sympathizers, even among former enemies. Staunchly conservative RAF group captain Sir Douglas Bader, a fellow ace, ex-POW and (double) amputee, sought a prosthetic leg for him and wrote the foreword for his memoirs. Trotzdem (Nevertheless). In Germany it caused an uproar, but edited and rereleased in English as Stuka Pilot, it found readers in Cold War America. Blaming Germany's defeat on traitors in the high command and advocating renewed war with Russia, Rudel took refuge in fascist Juan and

Eva Perón's Argentina. As consultant to Argentina's aircraft industry and air force, he influenced future Brig. Gen. Basilio Lami Dozo, who as part of the ruling junta launched the 1982 Falklands War against Britain. Rudel was also an associate of notorious ex-SS commando Lt. Col. Otto Skorzeny, whose network facilitated the escape of hunted Nazis to South America. Rudel's detractors, as numerous as his supporters, dismissed his astronomical victory tally as fictitious, but politics couldn't completely detract from his postwar feats. Even one-legged, he never gave up tennis, swimming and skiing. Only bad weather halted his ascent, just 500 feet short of the summit, of 22,841foot Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas. He scaled the world'sfifth-highestvolcano, 22,110-foot UuUaillaco, three times. An idol of the resurging Nazi movement, Rudel returned to Germany in 1953 to join the nationalist German Reich Party, perhaps jockeying to become to postwar Germans what World War I ace and Imperial Marshal Hermann Goring had been to their prewar parents. He became so controversial that more than 20 years later two Luftwafte generals were forcibly retired for publicly supporting him. At Rudel's funeral in 1982, while two Luftwaffe F-4 Phantom Us performed aflyover,former comrades raised a Nazi salute. D.H.

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AVIATION HISTORY

within the week Rudel chalked up his 1,800th mission, destroyed 17 enemy tanks in one day and went to Hitler's Berghof retreat to receive the Diamonds to his Knight's Cross, Germany's highest decoration at the time. (The Führer permitted him to wear padded flight boots for the ceremony.) Reluctant to risk his hero again. Hitler grounded him, but relented when Rudel said he would refuse the medal if forbidden to fly. Germany needed heroes that summer of 1944, and Rudel did not disappoint. His count rose: 2,000 missions flown, 300 enemy tanks destroyed. Shot down over Latvia, he crash-landed with his gunner, Ernst Gadermann. Both men were wounded, and both were immediately back in the air. Rudel's tally now stood at 320 tanks destroyed. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed commanding officer of SG.2. Shot down again and wounded in the upper right leg, he "escaped" fi^om the hospital tofly,with the leg in a cast. By now he had flown 2,400 missions and notched 460 tank kills, approximately equal to three Soviet tank corps. Colonel General Ferdinand Schörner claimed, "Rudel alone is worth an entire division!"

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Marking his 1,300th mission, Rudel—who was a teetotaler—wouid have ieft the champagne to Hentschei, then celebrating his 1,000th.

On January 1,1945, at the Eagle's Nest, the Nazi western headquarters, in the presence of Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, Grand Adm. Karl Dönitz, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and Imperial Marshal Hermann Goring, Rudel was promoted to colonel and received from Hitler the specially created Golden Oak Leaves with Swords and Diamonds to the Knight's Cross. No other German soldier has ever received it. Again Hitler ordered him grounded; again Rudel refused. The Führer smiled and said: "Very well then,fly.But be careftil, the German people need you." By then the Soviets' new T-34/85 medium and JS (Josef Stalin) heavy tanks were banging on Nazi Germany's gate, or grave. On February 8, with his leg stul in a cast, Rudel shot up a dozen tanks that had breached

the Oder River. He used his last cannon round to score an unlucky 13th, a Stalin, but his Stuka was hit by Soviet 40mm anti-aircraft fire. On the verge of passing out, he called back to Gadermann, "Ernst, my right leg is gone." Gadermann (who would survive the war with 850 missions and earn his own Knight's Gross) talked his halfconscious pilot down to a crash landing, pulled him ftom the wreckage and stopped the bleeding. Rudel woke up in a hospital with his leg amputated below the knee.

BUILDING RUDEL'S TANK-BUSTER

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cademy's l/72nd-scale kit (no. 1641) of the Junkers JU-87G-1 Stuka is the early longwinged version of the dive bomber. It comes with two underwing 37mm "tank-busting" cannons. Recovering in a Berlin bunker, Rudel was back in a Stuka by Easter, flying one-legged against Start by painting the cockpit Hitler's orders. (His subsequent tank kills were and gunner/radio operator's posiattributed to the squadron anonymously.) The tion with RLM-66, black gray. í Führer wanted him to take over a jet unit, but While the color won't be abso- t now even Rudel saw the cause was hopeless. By lutely correct, painting the radio April 26, it was barely possible to fly into the set, gunner's seat, pilot's seat and .stick FS-37031, aircraft interior black, will enhance the embattled capital. Rudel phoned Hitler's adjudetails. Lightly dry-brush the cockpit sidewalls with RLM-02, light gray, to open up what tant, Golonel Nicolaus von Below, offering to might otherwise be a "black hole." Use paper strips stained with coffee as seat belts. land a Stuka on a Berlin road the following morThe kit öfters a decal for the instrument panel. Note, however, that the faces of the ning, and implying he could evacuate the Führer. instruments are raised; some careful painting and a lew touches with a "cold gray' Hitler refused, and within the week was dead. Prismacolor artist's pencil vnll make the knobs and switches stand out. Gement the completed cockpit into one side of the fuselage, ensuring the cockpit floor is perpendicular to Still fighting for Schörner's Army Group Genthe side. Move on to the horizontal stabilizers and attach the tips. Then slip the comter in Austria, on its surrender SG.2 was ordered pleted stabilizers into their corresponding fuselage slots and apply cement ftom the to hand over all equipment to the Soviets. inside. Be sure the stabilizers are positioned at a 90-degree angle before cementing the Though Rudel would have preferred to lead his fuselage sides together. From the underside of the fuselage, cement the top sections of the wing on a glorious suicide mission against a wings into place—this assures a seamless fit and will eliminate sanding and filling later. Soviet headquarters, instead he sent his men to flee overland, west toward the American lines, on Paint the main landing gear wheels "tire black" and the hubs RLM-65, hdlbUui (light May 8. He and a half-dozen other pilots deliberblue). Trap, but do not glue, the tires into the main gear "pants." Make sure the wheels ately crash-landed their planes on an Americanturnfteely,then cement the pants together. Before gluing the bottom portion of the wing held airfield and surrendered. into position, drill out the fittings for the 37mm cannon mounts and the underwing radiators. Gement the gun mounts and the radiators from the inside, and then glue the In all, Hans-Ulrich Rudel was credited with wings together. While the main parts of the model are setting up, assemble the four parts 2,530 mi.ssions, one battleship, one cruiser, a deof the long-barrel cannons. stroyer, 70 landing craft, some 800 vehicles, 150 gun positions, numerous armored trains and This model is engineered very well, so if you were careful with assembly and gluing, bridges, 519 tanks and nine aircraft. He had been only a few areas should need filling and sanding. The underside of Hans-Ulrich Rudel's shot down more than 30 times (never by an enJu-87 was painted in the standard hellblau. The topsides of Russian Front Stukas wore a emy pilot) and wounded five times. "splinter pattern" of RLM-71, dunkelgrün, and RLM-70, schwarzgriin. To duplicate this sharp-edged camouflage scheme, first paint the entire top side RLM-71. When it's dry, Yet Rudel's fighting philosophy—his life phiuse a soft lead pencil and lightly sketch out and mask the pattern to be filled in by the losophy—came to him not in the air but when darker shade. The color guide in the kit has a four-sided profile to help with this job. he was on foot, on a Ukrainian hillside the same Greating and masking the pattern is tedious, but the results are striking. Rudel's G-1 afternoon he swam the half-frozen Dniester sported a yellow fuselage band near the tail, denoting Russian Front service. The band is River. With a bullet through his shoulder, his included on the kit's decal .sheet, but I painted mine using RLM-23,^t7/j. comrades gone and enemy troops closing in fast, he remained defiant: "Only he is lost who gives Finishing touches include masking the tires and painting the pants dark green and the himself up for lost." "t" cannon pods light blue, with "gunmetal" barrels. Painting the greenhouse canopy, which is a mass of tiny clear panels, is more manageable if you first mask all the vertical panels and then spray the frames. When that's dry, mask and then paint the horizontal frames. former contributor Don Hollway returns to the pages of Aviation History after 14 years off to Spray your model with a clear gloss coat to provide a smooth surface for the decals. launch a successful advertising agency. For further The kit markings, for an early version of Rudel's Stuka, lie down well with the exception reading, he recommends: Stuka Pilot, by Hansof the "B" that fits on the ftont of the main gear pants. That decal will likely need several Ulrich Rudel; Stuka Pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel, by applications of Solvaset, a strong decal setting solution. Also note that the decal sheet Günther Just; Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, by Manfred omits the swastika tail marking, which I took ftom Aero Master sheet 72-545. Griehl; and Ju 87 Stuka in Action, by Brian Filley. Dick Smith

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In celebration of the naval aviation centennial, climb inti the cockpit for an exclusive up-close look at U.S. Navy and Marine air pov^/er Photographs by Erik Hildebrandt

An F/A-18 fighter-bomber of carrier air group CAG-11 prepares to take off from USS Nimitz during operations in the Gulf of Oman in 2009. 30

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est known for4|ie stunning airshow photography shovycased in his series of Front HOW CertiSt" books, Erik I Hildebrandt has made a career out of capturing in-your-face images of ary and aerobatic aircraft. For the past two , jars, given unprecedented access to the full range of Navy and Marine aircraft, he has traveledthe globe documenting the multifaceted world of modern naval aviation. Now the best photographs from his travels have been col-

n

l«^ed in a new book. Fly Navy: Celebrating the Fir^ Century of Naval Aviation. "I strive to capture the art of machines in their environment and the passion of the aircrew and their maintainers," says Hildebrandt. As a pilot himself, he can communicate effectively with aircrews in developing unusual and innovative photo shoot^ Whether he's on the deck of an aircraft carrier jn the Persian Gulf or in the back seat of a Blue Migels F/A-18, the results speak for themselves.

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MH-60S Knighthawks of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 22—tasked with force protection, search and rescue, logistics, resupply and disaster response— exemplify the versatility of today's Navy choppers.

F/A-18ES from attack squadrons VFA-41 (top) and VFA-14 (middle) join an F/A-18C from VFA-97 over California.

E-2D Hawkeyes constitute the eyes and ears of the fleet, incorporating stateof-the-art electronics.

This Boeing E-6B, attached to strategic communications wing SCW-1, serves as an airborne command post and communications relay for America's nuclear strike forces.

A back-seater's view as the pilot of a T-45 Goshawk advanced trainer heads for another "trap."

iviarine MV-22 Ospreys spool up in Afghanistan. The green arcs are formed by tip lights, which help crews visualize the massive rotors' position in the dark.

Student pilots are put through their paces in a T-34C Mentor (foreground) and a T-6B Texan II, the trainer on tap to replace it.

An F/A-18A is decked out in digital camouflage—based on the uniforms of the support personnel who keep the Navy flying—to mark the centennial.

The Blue Angels show off their low-speed handling expertise on the downward side of a "dirty loop," with landing gear and flaps out.

American engineers had to solve a number of potentially dangerous problems before the U.S. military could exploit supersonic flight

By Richard P. Hallion

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n the morning of October 14, 1947, the abrupt doublecrack of a sonic boom pierced the tranquility of the Mojave Desert. Piloting the Bell XS-1 rocket-powered research airplane, U.S. Air Force test pilot Gaptain Gharles E. "Ghuck" Yeager had just become the first man to exceed the speed of sound, u.shering in the era of supersonic flight.

Yeager's accomplishment earned him a share of the Gollier Trophy, aviation's most prestigious award, together with industrialist Larry Bell (whose firm had designed the little safifton-colored speedster) and aerodynamicist John Stack of the National Advisory Gommittee for Aeronautics (NAGA), the United States' most prominent advocate for supersonic flight testing and flight research. Beyond that, it launched the country down a path that within a decade would see it fielding operational supersonic jet fighters and interceptors, with supersonic jet bombers in flight test or under development, and bold plans in the offing for commercial supersonic transports and even faster military aircraft and research vehicles. The path to supersonic flight involved an international effort, with significant contributions by a number of European and American engineers and designers. Under different circumstances, it might have been Britain, Germany or even the Soviet Union that became the first to break the sound barrier, not the United States. That America succeeded first reflected the tremendous energy and power of its aeronautical establishment, which during World War II produced nearly 300,000 airplanes for the U.S. and its allies. It was also a reflection of the comparative strength of America's lobust postwar economy, which made possible vast investment in supersonic research facilities ([particularly wind tunnels) and aircraft and missile design programs, something other nations could not readily afford. The roots of supersonic flight lay in the aerodynamics of the propeller. A propeller is really a rotating wing, generating a horizontal lift-vector, and its tip speeds approach the speed of sound. Just after World War 1, engineers at the Army Air Service

NACA engineer John Stack holds a model of the D-558-2, with a D-558-1 behind him.

Engineering Division at McGook Field, Ohio, constructed a small wind tunnel for testing propeller airfoils. Researchers Elisha Fales and Frank Galdwell subsequently found that when the airflow around the airfoils reached 450 mph, the airfoil's lift abruptly dropped and its drag rose sharply. They had stumbled upon the phenomenon of aerodynamic "compressibility," the first inkling of the problems high-speed aircraft would encounter in the late 1930s. Other researchers at the Bureau of Standards built upon this earlier Army work. Hugh Dryden and Lyman Briggs undertook pressure distribution studies of airfoils at the speed of sound, taking the first photographs of Shockwave formation on an airfoil as the flow over it exceeded Mach 1. By the early 1930s, George Lewis, director of aeronautical research for NAGA (the predecessor of today's NASA), worried that planes might never operationally exceed 500 mph. One who thought otherwise was John Stack, a brilliant young engineer at NAGA's

Langley laboratory who was already envisioning what a "conipre.ssibility re.search airplane" should look like. In January 1934, he published a technical paper envisioning a prop-driven airplane powered by a 2,300-hp Rolls-Royce R engine, with highly streamlined circular cross-section fuselage and a wing with a thickne.ss-chord ratio (the ratio of the thickness of the wing compared to the distance ftom leading to the trailing edge) of 18 at the root, decreasing to 9 at the tip. It marked the first conceptual design effort to examine the requirements for a research plane to probe the sonic ftontier. Stack's design reflected a serious challenge in aeronautics at the time: Wind tunnels could not furnish accurate aerodynamic data at velocities around the speed of sound, where airflow compressed and "bunched up" around a test model. As tunnel speeds increased, .Shockwaves formed on models and their supports, reflecting back and forth across the test section and generating inaccurate readings. Since the speed of sound is approximately 760 mph at sea level (dropping to about 660 mph at higher altitudes), and since the world airspeed record was then only 440 mph, this might have seemed a distant problem. But in fact it was not. A propeller blade or airplane wing passing through the air at roughly three quarters the speed of sound has accelerated flow pa.ssing over it at the speed of sound or even faster. Propellers lose their efficiency, and wings experience an abrupt decrease in lift and increa.se in drag. Turbulence streaming behind them buftets tail surfaces, sometimes causing catastrophic structural failure or reducing control effectiveness so that an airplane dives uncontrollably to earth. From the mid-1930s into the post-WWII era, a number of aircraft, typically new fighters, broke up as pilots overstressed them while attempting to recover from high-speed dives at nearsonic velocities. These included the Messerschmitt Me-109, Hawker Typhoon and Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Both propdriven and newer jet aircraft were equally susceptible.

A researcher positions a model of the XS-1 inside the 16-foot high-speed wind tunnel at Langiey Research Center in Virginia.

After WWII, NAGA aerodynamici.sts (under Stack's leadership) eventually developed a "slotted throat" wind tunnel that

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permitted shock waves to exit the tunnel. That change and the development of the "sting mount" for wind tunnel models would dramatically increase the fidelity and reliability of wind tunnel data. But untu that happened, researchers had little option other than flight-testing models and full-size aircraft if they wanted reliable airflow data. By the mid-1940s, American researchers had developed a number of alternative test methods that, if not perfect, at least furnished some reliable information. These included dropping instrumented test shapes from high altitude,firinginstrumented rocket-propelled models and placing small models on the wings of North American P-51 s, with test instrumentation in the gun bay, so that the models would be exposed to the accelerated transonic flow over the wing as the Mustang dived earthward at Mach 0.75. That method, conceived by NACA engineer Robert Gilruth, proved surprisingly useful, though it involved some risk to the pilot as he dived at high speed deep into the dense lower atmosphere. Given the short test times, scaling errors and pilot risk involved in these methods, however, researchers increasingly considered developing piloted jet or rocket-propelled research planes

"Mach 0.999" design study (a tongue-in-cheek reference to the "impenetrable sonic barrier"), in conjunction with Sergeant Alex Tremulis, the automotive stylist who would go on to create the legendary postwar Tucker. In late November 1944, Kotcher used Tremulis' seductive drawing to persuade Bell chief engineer Robert Woods to accept the challenge of building the world's first supersonic airplane, launching Bell and the Army Air Forces on the path to the XS-1. In contrast, the D-558 represented a more operationally focused configuration, reflecting the design approach of NACA and the Navy. In late 1944,1st Lt. Abraham Hyatt, a Marine Corps aeronautical engineer assigned to the Bureau of Aeronautics, prepared a memo advo eating a jet-propelled test airplane capable of "super speed," stipulating a "minimum high speed of 650 miles per hour at sea level, and at least a lOG load limit" (the rival XS-1 had an 18G load limit). In late 1944, bureau officials showed Hyatt's memo to Douglas engineer L. Eugene Root, asking if the company would be interested in such a project. "I said 'You bet,' grabbed it, and ran with it," Root later recalled. Subsequently designed by the legendary Ed Heinemann, the

Dougias' D-558-2 was iaunched from the bomb bay of a Boeing P2B-1S (Navy B-29) during test fiights that wouid exceed Mach 2.

that, carrying extensive instrumentation, could cruise in level flight at high speeds and altitudes, effectively using the sky as a laboratory. The federal government's growing interest in developing specialized sonic research airplanes coalesced after an Army Air Forces/ Navy/NACA meeting on March 16,1944, at Langiey resulted in a variety of service-supported design studies. Two very different research planes emerged: the Bell XS-1, sponsored by the Army's Air Technical Services Command, and the Douglas D-558, funded by the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics. Ofthe two, the D-558 was the more conservative, with a thicker wing section (10 percent versus 8 percent on the XS-1), turbojet propulsion (instead of the XS-l's more risky and higher-performance rocket engine) and a retractable landing gear (rather than relying only on air-launching, as with the XS-1 ). That the XS-1 was more radical reflected a largely unsung Army Air Forces engineer. Major Ezra Kotcher, who realized that seeking higher performance required rocket, not jet, propulsion. In mid-1944 he undertook a

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resulting jet-powered D-558 was so slender it earned the nickname "the flying test tube." In October 1935, at the Volta Congress on high speeds in aviation held in Rome, German scientist Adolf Busemann had proposed sweeping a wing back to alleviate the drag rise associated with highspeed flight. Surprisingly, though his audience was filled with leading researchers from around the world, the significance of his simple concept went largely unnoticed. But in Germany, where Busemann had great influence, sweptwing designs were the common currency of aircraft and missile development in the 1940s. By war's end, the German Research Institute for Soaring Flight was developing the DFS-346, an experimental rocket-propelled supersonic research airplane, and had already launched a winged derivative of the A-4 ballistic missile, the A-4b. During its climb out of the atmosphere, the A-4b became the first winged missile to exceed the speed of sound, though it broke up during reentry.

In the fall of 1944, Robert T. Iones, a gifted aerodynamicist at the Langley laboratory, had independently postulated the concept of the sharply angled delta and swept wing as a means of delaying and minimizing transonic and supersonic drag, basing his work on earlier aircraft and missile design concepts by Michael Gluhareff and Roger Griswold, and the theories of émigré NAGA aerodynamicist Max Munk. Like Munk's ideas, Jones' work stirred great controversy until, in the late spring of 1945, American researchers sifting through the rubble of the Third Reich's aeronautical laboratories discovered the tremendous investment German engineers had made in sweptwing and delta aircraft and missiles. The swept wing immediately went to the top of design priorities for high-speed flight. In the U.S., North American redesigned the XP-86 as a sweptwing airplane; Boeing did the same with a new design that emerged as the XB-47; and Douglas, at Navy request, split the D-558 program into two phases: the straight-wing turbojet-powered D-558-1 Skystreak and the sweptwing jet-and-rocket-powered D-558-2 Skyrocket. ( In November 1953, NAGA research pilot Scott Grossfield would

had its origins in Nazi research. In 1945 Bell's Robert Woods led a technical intelligence team to Oberammergau, site of Mes.serschmitt's advanced projects oftlce, where he discovered the prototype P-1101, a canceled Luftwaffe fighter that designer Woldemar Voigt had hoped to use for sweptwing research by installing wings of varying sweepback. Together Voigt and Woods conceived of something very different: installing a pivot on a movable track inside the ftjselage so that wing sweep could be varied in flight. This resulted in the Bell X-5, the world'sfirstvariable-sweep aircraft, which closely resembled the P-1101. Bell built two X-5s, testing the variable-sweep principle up to Mach 1.05, though one was lost due to its vicious spinning characteristics, kiUing test pilot Major Ray Popson. The Air Force briefly considered exporting an armed version of the X-5 as a NATOfighter,but did not. Meanwhile, the Navy evaluated a Grumman design, the XFlOF-1 Jaguar, which featured a generally similar wing planform, though the Jaguar's performance was so mediocre—even dangerous—that it did not warrant introduction to the fleet. The variable-.sweep concept would remain just an attractive idea until the advent of the outboard

The Bell X-5 tested its variable-sweep wings up to Mach 1.05.

Convair's own research went into the XF-92A's delta-wing design.

lly a D-558-2 beyond Mach 2, the first piloted double-Mach flight in aviation history). Abroad, Soviet technical intelligence personnel transported the DFS-346 design team and their families, together with all available technical data, to Russia in late 1946, completing the design and subsequently te.st-flying it, though with indifferent results. Britain began an ambitious program to exploit German aerodynamic and rocket technology, complementing the design of the Miles M.52, a futuristic and highly refined supersonic configuration begun in 1943. In the summer of 1946, Sir Ben Lockspeiser, then director-general of .scientific air research at the Ministry of Supply, canceled that remarkable aircraft, an action that Sir Roy Fedden, one of Britain's greatest engineers, damned a decade later as having cost Britain "at least ten years in aeronautical progress."

pivot concept, which made it far more practicable, enabling development of the 1960s-era F-ll 1 and MiG-23. Not all the German-rooted ideas worked out. Designers in Britain and America swiftly emulated Alexander Lippisch's tailless rocketpowered Me-163 Komet, building similar (though jet-powered) designs, the de Havilland D.H. 108 Swallow and Northrop X-4 Bantam. In service, though, the Me-163 had proved dangerously unstable, as fluctuations in the wing's center of pressure triggered poorly damped longitudinal pitching, imposing high structural loads. (Pilots compared it to riding over a washboard road.) The Swallow killed experienced test pilot Geofifrey de Havilland (son of the firm's founder) on September 27, 1946. Flying low over the Thames estuary at Mach 0.875, the aircraft abruptly pitched out of control and broke up. Learning from that tragedy, Northrop's X-4 te.st teamflewat higher altitudes, where the penalty for such a divergent pitch was less threatening. Likewise, postwar tests of Lippisch's proposed DM-1 delta glider

Though more often associated with second-generation supersonic aircraft such as the General Dynamics F-Ul, Grumman F-14, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 and Boeing B-1, the variable-sweep wing

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proved its wing and tau sections were too thick, creating high drag and unacceptable stability and control problems. Instead, when Gonvair designers embarked on their own delta designs, they started with a sharply sweptback thin wing, then gradually filled in its trailing edge until they arrived at a classic 60-degree delta planform. Thus, contrary to popular belief, Lippisch's wartime delta research had no impact on the XF-92A, the F-102 or any otber of tbe later Gonvair designs. The advent of the swept and delta wing, and recognition that efficient supersonic flight demanded wings with much bigber fineness ratio and much lower aspect ratio, led to a reshaping of aircraft design. Ghanging wing design—combining very thin airfoil sections with low-aspect-ratio planforms (such as the short-span straight wings of the Douglas X-3 and Lockheed F-104), swept wings (e.g.. North American F-lOO and Vought F8U), dehas (Gonvair's F-102, F-106 and B-58) or variable-sweep wings (X-5)—was crucial to acbieving practical supersonic fligbt. Witb sucb cbanges came increased requirements for stifftiess and rigidity, to prevent flexing and potential structural breakup of the wing. Tbe ratio of fuselage length to wingspan also changed dramatically. The shift in ratio had occurred progresThe Convair F-106 incorporated area ruiing.

sively as aircraft flight speeds increased. From the time of tbe Wrigbts through the interwar era, wingspan had generally exceeded fuselage length; at WWII's end, witb the first jets, fuselage length and wingspan had been approximately equal. But in tbe supersonic era fuselage length increasingly exceeded wingspan. Tbis resulted in spectacularly streamlined sbapes that, prior to the era of stability augmentation and electronic fligbt control, were plagued by dangerous instabilities. One problem was pitcb-up: As a sweptwing airplane approacbed a stall, tbe onset of stall would begin at the tips (reducing roll control effectiveness) and progress inward, with the aircraft's center of pressure moving forward. This could lead the plane to abruptly pitch upward, possibly stalling completely—a potential killer at low altitude. Pitch-up limited the combat performance of both the Nortb American F-86 Sabre (America's first sweptwing jet figbter) and the MiG-15, its chief opponent (many of which pitched up during turning combat, entering unrecoverable spins). Tau placement was crucially important, witb aircraft such as the T-taü McDonnell F-101 and the F-104 particularly susceptible to mission-limiting pitcb-up. As a result, the T tail, though fashionable early in the supersonic era, quickly gave way to the low tail, as exemplified by tbe F-lOO, F8U-1, Republic F-105, Grumman FllF-1 and Northrop T-38/F-5—all with their horizontal stabilizers placed at the bottom of tbe fuselage. Aircraft tbat could not take advantage of sucb placement, sucb as tbe McDonnell F-4H-1 Phantom 11, employed pronounced anhedral (negative dihedral) as a solution. Equally important was the "all-moving" tail, which increased the effective elevator area and deflection by pivoting the entire horizontal 42

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tail surface as a single unit. Demonstrated witb the XS-1 (which lacked a true aU-moving tail but bad a movable horizontal stabilizer as well as a conventional elevator), the concept was employed on the F-100 and subsequent supersonic Air Force and Navy-Marine aircraft. Inertial coupling, also called roll coupling, was another potentially dangerous problem. Tbis pbenomenon, induced by rapidly rolling an aircraft that had most of its mass distributed along the length of the fuselage rather than along the span of its wing, plagued a number of new designs, including the D-558-2, the long-fuselage advanced Bell X-1 family, the Bell X-2, the X-3 (tellingly nicknamed the "Stiletto"), the X-5 and virtually all the early supersonic jet fighters. All of them, if rapidly rolled at transonic and supersonic speeds, would tend to "couple" into combined rolling, pitcbing and yawing motions, witb the airplane tumbling out of control. At bigb speeds and "bigh q" (bigb dynamic pressure), results could be catastrophic. In December 1953, inertial coupling sent tbe Bell X-IA out of control at Mach 2.44, resulting in a tumbling, spinning descent. It required every bit of Ghuck Yeager's legendary piloting skill to recover the airplane and then glide back to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base. In 1954 North American test pilot George Welch was less fortunate; inertial coupling during a supersonic rolling dive pullout in an experimental F-IOOA Super Sabre led to its fatal breakup. Two years later inertial coupling contributed to the death of Air Force Gaptain Milburn "Mel" Apt after he turned back to Edwards in X-2 No. 1 after reaching Mach 3.2. Apt, who was experienced in inertial-coupling research, may have been misled by lagging instrumentation readings into 1 inking the X-2 was flying slower than it actually was. The solution to inertial coupling was increasing the size of vertical surfaces and adding stability augmentation to flight control systems. Production F-lOOs had larger vertical tails and slightly larger wings, changes also seen on aircraft such as the F-105, F8U-1 (which featured ventral strakes as well) and North American A3 J-1 Vigilante. Single tails gave way in the 1960s and 1970s to twin tails, beginning with the MiG-25 Foxbat and F-14A Tomcat. (North American's first concept for the A3J-1 envisioned twin fins, which would have anticipated the Foxbat's configuration by a decade). One more significant design change remained before the United States could exploit routine supersonic flight—and like low-aspectratio wings, increased fuselage length, larger vertical fins and lowplaced horizontal stabilizers, it was readily visible to tbe casual eye. Tbis was area ruling, as manifested in tbe classic "Goke bottle" fuselage sbape. As Grumman's F9F-9 Tiger and Gonvair's F-102 interceptor moved toward fligbt testing, researcbers noted that their anticipated drag based on wind tunnel tests was higher than it should be. It took a young NAGA fluid dynamicist, Richard T. Whitcomb, to puzzle out the answer. An airplane, he reasoned, could be envisioned as a smootbly expanding and contracting symmetrical body of revolution, elongated as mucb as practically possible to reduce abrupt drag-

The Douglas X-3 Stiletto is flanked by (ciockwise, from left) the Beli X-1A, D-558-1, XF-92, X-5, D-558-2 and Northrop X-4 Bantam.

inducing discontinuities. Where protrusions had to be made—for example, the wings—the fuselage could be effectively pinched to "fool" the air into thinking the body was more streamlined than it actually was. Whitcomb's notion saved the Grumman and Convair designs, each of which, in their initial flight test configuration, had proved woefully deficient. Both companies lengthened their respective airplanes and applied area rule to their design. The Grumman design became the F11F-1, best known as the famed Blue Angels' demonstration aircraft, and the F-102 went on to become a mainstay of USAF Air Defense Command through the middle years ofthe Cold War. By the time Sputnik's beeping shocked Americans out of their complacency, the transformation of Uncle Sam's aeronautics from subsonic to supersonic was essentially complete. Hand in hand with progress in design theory had come critical advances in air-breathing flight propulsion, without which supersonic flight would have remained an elusive dream, reached only by experimental rocket planes. The large-diameter centrifugal-flow turbojet that predominated in the early subsonic jet era gave way to axial-flow, variablecompressor, multiple-spool jet engines offering increased performance. Due to their smaller diameter and higher thrust-to-weight ratios, these were more suitable for the supersonic aircraft of the 1950s. The afterburning Curtiss-Wright J65, the General Electric 179 and J85, and the Pratt & Whitney J57, J58 and 175 made possible aircraft such as the "Century Series" fighters and other Cold War stal-

warts. What's more, those aircraft enjoyed the emerging benefits of the rapidly unfolding avionics revolution, with force-multiplying technologies such as advanced electronic fire control and air-to-air missiles. If much of this seems rudimentary by present-day standards, it was still impressive by the standards of the late 1950s. As 1958 dawned, American aerospace was firmly fixed within the supersonic era. Both promise and disappointment lurked in the future: the promise of greater flight efficiencies and capabilities made possible by the advent of very high thrust-to-weight afterburning turbofans and electronic flight control (typified by the F-15 and F-16), and the disappointment of overexpectations evident in the drive to build a commercial American supersonic transport. Altogether it had been a spectacular ride, however, eftectively doubling flight speed every 10 years from 1938 to 1958, from Mach 0.5 to Mach 2. Achieving practical supersonic flight had taken insight, dedication, commitment, expertise and plenty of courage. Fortunately, those were all qualities America's supersonic pioneers possessed in abundance. "Í" Former U.S. Air Force historian Richard P. Hallion is the author of numerous aviation articles and books, including Supersonic Flight: Breaking the Sound Barrier and Beyond, which is suggested for further reading. Hallion also recommends: Faster, Further, Higher: LeadingEdge Aviation Technology Since 1945, by Philip Jarrett; and The XPlanes: X-1 to X-45, by Jay Miller.

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PISTON POWER PINNACLE Despite its ungainly appearance and unflattering nickname, Dornier's Do-335 "Anteater" might have been the fastest production piston-engine fighter of World War II—had it ever seen combat By Walter J. Boyne

L

ate in World War II, on patrol near Elbe, Germany, RAF French ace Pierre Glostermann encountered a "strange aircraft" that quickly broke away from his flight of Hawker Tempests. As Glostermann recounted in his classic memoir. The Big Show, "He was obviously a Jerry—he had black crosses on the vrâigs—but what an odd sort of bird!

"Throttle full open, I tried to cut inside his turn," he continued, "but he was moving astonishingly fast....He really was an extraordinary looking customer. His tau plane was cruciform, and it looked as if he had not only a normal propeller in ftont but on top of that a pusher propeller right in the tail, behind the rudder I toyed with the idea of bringing my overboost into action, but even with 3,040 hp we wouldn't be able to get him. We were doing nearly 500 mph, and he was easily gaining on us." Glostermann and his flight mates had just had the first Allied run-in with an advanced new German tandem twin-engine fighter: the fabled Dornier Do-335 Pfeil (Arrow). The Do-335 is perhaps the most obvious example of piston-engine aircraft pushing design to the extreme limits. Unfortunately for Nazi Germany, it is also an obvious exam-

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ple of the deadly effect of bureaucratic government interference on warplane development. The big Do-335 might have made its combat debut as early as the summer of 1944 as the world's fastest piston-engine fighter if Dornier had been focused on that task. Instead, dithering by the State Ministry of Aviadon (Reichsluftfahrtministerium, or RLM) resulted in the dilution of engineering resources, pursuing almost 20 variants. As a result, time simply ran out for the Pfeil, which was also plagued by a common problem in the German aviation industry: the shortage cessful aircraft using a drive-shaft installation. of reliable high-powered engines. Nor was the push-pull concept new, havThe Do-335 boasted a radical centerline ing been seen previously in World War I in thrust arrangement that reduced ftontal area the Fokker M.9 and the Siemens-Schuckert and allowed for a very clean wing. The puot DDr-1. In the interwar years it appeared agai n (and in later aircraft, the crew) was located in the sleek Savoia-Marchetti S.65 Schneider between the two engines, with an extended Trophy wannabe racer of 1929. Fokker fielded drive shaft to power the rear propeller. The an example in its handsome 1939 D.XXJll. extended drive shaft was not new, having Ultimately the American Gessna Model 336 been seen first on the (never flown) Paulhan- Skymaster was the most successful type to use Tatin Aero Torpille of 1911, and subsequently the push-pull arrangement. used in Dornier designs such as the very sleek In addition to reduced drag, the centerline Do-26flyingboat. Other aircraft also incorpo- configuration provided single-engine marated the concept, including the storied neuverability in a twin-engine airplane, and Dutch De Scheide S.21, the only prototype of also eliminated asymmetric thrust problems which was captured by the Germans in May when an engine was lost. But this type of dar1940 before it couldfly.America's Bell P-39 and ing layout required complex engineering feaP-63 would eventually become the most suc- tures such as an ejection seat and "blow-off"

A Dornier Do-335A Pfell ambushes a North American P-51D Mustang, in an imaginary encounter envisioned by artist Daniei Uhr.

control surfaces, which were difficult to design, engineer, manufacture and maintain. Nonetheless, the Do-335 might yet have become a formidable opponent if World War 11 had lasted another year—and if the Dornier plants had not been bombed to oblivion by then. Aircraft designers always enjoy stamping their signature on their designs. The Wrights were the first, clinging stubbornly and illadvisedly to their pusher-propeller, wingwarping design long after it was obviously obsolete. Other prominent designers who styled their aircraft to make them easily identifiable included Louis Béchereau (SPAD), Louis Breguet, Sidney Camni (Hawker) and Lockheed's team of Hall Hibbard and Kelly lohnson. These and many other famous

engineers put their imprint on various design series that spanned a decade or more. But no company has maintained a signature note as long and as successfully as Dornier, one of the world's oldest aviation firms. Through the decades it has kept its trademark push-pull engine configuration fi-esh, despite changes in regimes, corporate status and management style. The saga began when 30-year-old Claude Dornier went to work for Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1914. After founding his own company in 1916, Dornier produced small numbers of hugeflyingboats for the ZeppelinLindau firm. His 1917 Rs.III monoplane had a 121-foot wingspan and was powered by four Maybach engines in tandem. Like all the other German manufacturers.

Dornier was stifled by the Versailles Treaty strictures on the aircraft industry He moved his firm to Lindau, on the Swiss section of Lake Constance, where he continued producing all-metal flying boats, many of which, including the famous Wai and Do-X, embraced the push-pull engine arrangement. In its long and varied history, the DornierWerke GmbH has produced more than 10,000 aircraft in 100 different civil and military designs. Not all were of the push-pull configuration, but many were. The tradition continues today with the impressive Dornier CD-2 Seastar. Claude Dornier was a daring, farsighted engineer who, like Hugo lunkers, pioneered all-metal airplanes. Nor was he averse to extreme designs, as the huge 12-engine Do-X

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Dornier DO-335A-0 46

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Length: 45 ft. 5/4 in. Wingspan: 43 ft. 3 in. Height: 16 ft. 5 in. Weight (empty): 14,396 lbs. Weight (loaded): 20,966 lbs. Maximum speed: 474 mph Cruising speed: 286 mph Service ceiling: 35,105 ft. Range: 764 miles

proved. However, none of the firm's designs were as advanced, novel or promising as the Do-335, regarded by many as potentially the fastest piston-engine fighter of WWII. Dornier got into the figbter business late, and almost indirectly. After be establisbed an international reputation for bis flying boats, bis firm was selected to build tbe new Luftwaffe's first bomber, tbe ungainly and crash-prone Do-11. In 1933 Dornier designed a twin-engine transport to meet Lufthansa's demands for a high-speed mail and passenger plane. It was rejected because Lufthansa believed tbat passengers would bave trouble entering and leaving tbe slim twin-engine craft. But as fate would have it, others saw the Do-17 as a promising bomber. By 1937, production examples were being used by the Gondor Legion in the Spanish

Engine: 2 Daimler-Benz DB 603A-2 12-cyllnder inverted Vs (1,750 hp each)

The cockpit of the Do-335A featured a yoke control column and a Revi gunsight at upper right, behind the windscreen.

Armament: 1 Rheinmetall Borsig MK 103 30mm cannon with 70 rounds 2 Mauser MG 151/15 15mm cannons with 200 rounds each 1 1,102-lb. SC bomb in fuselage weapons bay

ILLUSTRATIONS BY STEVE KARP

Givil War—a windfall for the Dornier firm, allowing it to expand its facilities and develop new and better bombers. However, tbe bombers' success had an adverse effect on the development of wbat must bave been closest to Dornier's beart—the centerline thrust twin-engine fighter. Dornier applied for a patent in 1937 for just such an aircraft, and true to his careful personal style, he not only began development work on Project P.59 (a bigh-speed bomber design tbat possessed all tbe basic features of tbe Do-335), he also authorized the construction of a test-bed to validate the

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feasibility of a pusher propeller driven by an extended drive shaft. That plane, the Goppingen Gö-9, was designed by Ulrich Hüter at the Schempp-Hirth factory in Wüsterburg. (Hüter, who also designed some of the Third Reich's futuristic "desperation" aircraft, would probably prefer to be remembered as the scientist who laid the theoretical framework for the modern wind turbine. His original design bears an uncanny resemblance to the wind turbines seen everywhere today.) The Gö-9 looked like a miniature singleengine Do-17 except for the unusual features being tested. The little 24-foot-wingspan aircraft was powered by an 80-hp engine turning the pusher propeller via a drive shaft. The prop's position dictated a tricycle landing gear and cruciform tail, which would be seen later on the Do-335. The lower vertical sur-

The vagaries of the RLM began almost immediately, with the unarmed intruder requirement being replaced by demand for a far more ambitious multipurpose aircraft. It was to perform as a single-seat fighterbomber; a two-seat night and all-weather interceptor; a heavy, general-purpose Zerstörer (destroyer); and a high-speed reconnaissance plane. Dornier knew that the inherent performance potential of the Do-335 would be adequate for these and other roles, and the firm was not unhappy about undertaking a redesign. Work progressed rapidly, and the very first prototype, the Do-335 VI, made its maiden flight on October 26, 1943, with Flugkapitän Hans Dieterle at the controls. Some four years earlier, on March 30, 1939, Dieterle had set the world's absolute speed

though due to its long nose they nicknamed it the Ameisenbär (anteater). Single-engine performance proved to be outstanding. A single-engine takeoff was made, and a speed of 348 mph achieved with one engine shut down. The aircraft could fly equally well on either the forward or the aft engine. At the Dornier factory constant shortages of engines, propellers, radio equipment and other components hindered production. In addition, the RLM called for more and more variants of the aircraft, which resulted in the testing being watered down and production decisions delayed. In September 1944, however, a sufficient number of the preproduction aircraft, Do-335A-0 fighter-bombers, were available to create Erprobungskommando 335, to carry out further tests and develop operational tactics.

The fifth preproduction Do-335A-0, showing shrapnel damage, sits on the fieid at a German air base that was overrun by Allied forces.

face had a small wheel installed, intended to protect the prop on takeoffs and landing. The Gö-9 flew well enough to prove the layout. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and WWII broke out, Dornier received more orders for its series of bombers, and was also tasked with manufacturing Junkers Ju-88s and Focke-Wulf Fw-190s to meet urgent Luftwaffe needs. In 1942, however, the RLM's Technical Office established a requirement for a single-seat intruder aircraft capable of carrying a 500kilogram bombload at a speed of almost 500 mph. Dornier submitted his Project P.231 design, which became the Do-335. It won out over entries from Arado and Junkers.

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record,flyingthe Heinkel He-100 V8 at 463.9 mph. Initial contracts were placed for 14 experimental aircraft, 10 preproduction and 11 production single-seat fighter-bombers, plus three trainer versions with tandem seats and dual controls. (Aviation buffs have been so interested in the Do-335 that the careers and ultimate fate of all 37 of the completed aircraft and even many of the 70-plus unfinished examples is documented.) Once testing of the Do-335 VI concluded at the Dornier plant at Oberpfaffenhofen, it was transferred to the official Luftwaffe testing site at Rechlin, northeast of Berlin. The Luftwaffe test pilots were very pleased with its speed, maneuverability and acceleration.

By the winter of 1944, the war situation had deteriorated further, and a Titonic-deck-chair decision was made to drop the fighter-bomber program and begin building the Do-335B Zerstörer. This was to have heavier armament and a fuel tank installed in the bomb bay. Only two ofthe B models were completed. Whue the Do-335 program experienced the normal events in the development life of an airplane, including changes in equipment and armament, Dornier's production potential was sorely tried by the variety of test aircraft it was required to conjure up in the last frantic months of the war. These included assigning the Do-335 V4 test aircraft to be the prototype for the Do-435 night fighter and

all-weather interceptor program. In a similar way, the Do-335A-4 was designated as a longrange reconnaissance version. The Do-335 VIO was changed to become a night fighter. The VI1 and VI2 were two-seat, dual-control trainers. An advanced model, the Do-535, featured a tractor piston engine and a jet engine in the rear fuselage just like the Ryan FR-1 Fireball. Despite Germany's grim situation at the time, more drawing-board aircraft were authorized, including the Dornier version of the North American F-82 Twin Mustang, the Do-635—basically two Do-335s joined by a wing center section. Much of the development work on the projected latemodel Do-335s was to be done by Heinkel. Only the Do-335's promise of outstanding performance sustained interest in its production .so very late in the war. Building a heavy.

opponent. Although there were sightings of the Do-335, including Pierre Glostermann's encounter, none were engaged in combat. Escaping ftom a damaged Pfeil would have been difflcult. Dornier had arranged for the three-bladed rear propeller and dorsal fin to be jettisoned by means of explosive bolts when the ejection seat was activated. The ventral fin was also designed to be jettisoned in case of a forced landing. Given wartime conditions in Germany—foreign laborers, equipment shortages and a general decline in the quality and availability of all materiel— the prospect of everything working well in an emergency was speculative, to say the least. The Allies were naturally interested in testing the Do-335 after the war, and two were brought to the United States. One was sent to Freeman Field in Indiana, but its subsequent

being donated to the Smithsonian's National Air Museum in 1961. At that time, the museum was very short on funds, and the Do-335, along with many other aircraft, was subject to severe deterioration ftom the elements. Thirteen years later it was returned to Germany for restoration by Dornier, whose employees tackled the project as a labor of love. As might be expected, the restoration was impeccable. It was subsequently demonstrated at an airshow, complete in every detail except for the swastika insignia, which is verboten in Germany. It then went on display at the fine Deutsches Museum in Munich until 1986, when it was shipped back to the United States. It's now on exhibit at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Genter at Dulles airport, with the swastikas back in place. In many wavs, the r)o-335 and its variants

Restored by Dornier empioyees, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Do-335A-O is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

complex fighter required many man-hours. This ran contrary to the prevailing desperation theme of simple, light fighters such as the Heinkel He-162 and the even more radical Bachem Ba-349 Natter, which were built ftom noncritical materials and required only a handful of man-hours. The production Do-335A was a big aircraft, with a 43-foot-3-inch span and a maximum takeoft weight of 21,100 pounds. (For comparison, the He-162 had a 23-foot span and a takeoff weight of 5,900 pounds.) Two Daimler Benz DB 603A engines of 1,750 hp each enabled it to reach a top speed of 474 mph. Armed with one 30mm and two 15mm cannons, the Pfeil would have been a formidable

fate is unknown. (All the records relating to testing captured equipment at Freeman Field have been lost, either dumped, stolen or simply misfiled.) The second preproduction Do-335A-0 was captured by the Allies on April 16, 1945, less than a month before the war ended. Along with many other advanced German aircraft it was carefully prepared for flight and then flown to Gherbourg, France. During the ferry flight it reportedly outstripped two escorting P-51 Mustangs, beating them to Gherbourg by 45 minutes. Shipped to the U.S. on the British escort carrier HMS Reaper, it then went to Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland for testing. It was subsequently stored outside before

represented the pinnacle of piston-engine fighter development. However, as with the development of other stellar late-model piston aircraft such as the Martin Baker M.B.5, de Havilland Hornet, Gommonwealth Aircraft Gorporation Ga-15 and Arsenal VB 10, the jet engine's advent signaled a new era. No matter how advanced a piston-engine fighter might be, it was now hopelessly obsolete, "t" Contributing editor Walter J. Boyne is the author of more than 50 books on aviation history. Further reading; Dornier Do 335: An Illustrated History, by Karl-Heinz Régnât; and Dornier Do 335, by J. Richard Smith and Eddie J. Creek with Gerhard Roletschck.

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sk well-informed airline enthusiasts to identify the i longest-duration nonstop pasW ^ senger flight ever flown, and •liey'll confidently name Singapore Airlines' current nearly 19-hour JFKto-Singapore route. Wrong. Put the same question to smart aviation history buffs, and they'll say it's the 23 hours and 19 minutes between London and San Francisco flown west-

bound in October 1957 by a TWA Lockheed 1649A Constellation, a claim frequently repeated on the Internet. Wrong again. The most uncomfortably endless, are-we-there-yet airline flights ever made—and there were 271 of them— were the long slogs between Perth, Australia, and Ceylon (today Sri Lanka) flown by the Australian airline Qantas during World War II. The quickest, if that word can be used, took more than

24 hours, and the longest flight lasted almost 32 hours. j | Nonstop. Unrefiieled. ^ They were flown not by airliners b j by Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina ^ ^ boats that droned along at 113 down in the bumps at 2,000 feet. No in-flight movies, no reading lighl no pillows and no peanuts. But passengers did get to see the scome up twice, which was why it M called the Double-Sunrise Route.

.-i

A Canadian Vickers Canso, a iicense-buiit version of the Consoiidated PBY-5A Catalina, takes off from Lake Wanaka, in New Zealand.

Qantas Airways' Cataiina No. 2, Altair Star, fiies along the coast of Australia, at the start of its 4,000-miie marathon trip to Ceylon.

Australia needed to keep a link to London open during the war, for diplomatic pouches filled with fighting plans and for the people who carried them out. This meant they had to skirt all the lapanese-controlled islands and landmasses to the north of Oz. Geylon, just off the southern tip of India, was the destination, 4,000 miles to the northwest, but tbere were no possible refueling stops along tbe way. (Tbe tiny Gocos Islands lie just east of the route between Perth and Geylon, but they were in a war zone, off-limits to Qantas.) The storky, dorky PBYs, lent to Qantas by the Royal Australian Air Force, weren't Australia's first choice as long-range patrol boats, but tbey proved to be perfect for the job. The RAAF bad initially bought Short Sunderlands, but when the war began in 1939, the Brits requisitioned them and left the Aussies in the lurch. Fortunately, the RAAF found as the Sunderland's replace-

ment the finest, best-designed, most utilitarian ampbibian ever manufactured—the Gonsolidated Gatalina. Because the DG-3 was classically beautiful and the PBY classically ugly, few remember wbat a superbly engineered, supremely useful and remarkable airplane the Gatalina was. Yes, it was slow, but that was in fact an advantage for a patrol bomber that had to be a marathoner, not a sprinter. With a wing that could lift an apartment block and fuel tankage throughout it, powered by the most reliable radial engines ever built—Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasps—and laced with quiet innovations such as wingtip floats that retracted cleanly into the tips, there's a reason that some 21 PBYs still operate to this day, 75 years after theyfirstflew. Nor were the PBY flights between Geylon and Pertb epic or experimental in nature. They were relatively routine, no more adven-

turous than some long-duration PBY patrols during the war or survey flights after it. A famous Australian civil PBY, Frigate Bird ¡I, in 1950 opened the final link in round-theworld air commerce, the 8,450 miles between Australia and South America. And Australia's first 19 Gatalinas were flown from San Diego to Sydney (by Qantas crews, since the U.S. was still neutral and couldn't deal with foreign air forces), with the leg from refueling at Ganton Island to Australia lasting 26 hours. Equipped with stock 1,460-gallon tanks, the first Gat to make that trip landed at Sydney with 84 gallons remaining—.still two hours' flying time to fumes. The Double-Sunrise Route PBYs had an additional 528 gallons of gas in fuselage tanks, so fuel was never a concern. The technique tbat Qantas developed for the trip was to fly at 50 percent power at 2,100 rpm at the outset, leaning aggressively and burning 75

With another epic journey behind it, Altair Star rests at its mooring in a lagoon off Kogalla, Ceylon, at sunset on March 23,1945.

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gallons an hour total, and then to progressively reduce power every hour or two until at the end of the trip the engines would be doing about 40 percent power, still making 115 mph true airspeed, at 1,800 or even 1,700 rpm, for a both-engines fuel burn of 52 gallons per hour. The PBYs were hugely over gross at takeoff, with almost 35,000 pounds to lift off the water. In fact they were the first airplanes to ever lift their own weight in ftiel and payload. Protected water was a necessity—the Perth takeoff was from a river, and in Ceylon Qantas used a large lake—but this required the use of a fast launch to lead every takeoff, to stir up enough wake and waves for the big boats to unstick from the water. Qantas pilots also found they could get off the water quicker by boiling along at full throttle without bothering to "get on the step," and then simply brute-force rotating off like a landplane when they reached takeoff speed. The wingtip floats were retracted during the takeoff run rather than after initial climb, which was particularly important during Perth takeoffs, since the PBYs had to slalom through several river bends while they were still on the water. During the first eight hours ofthe flight, an engine failure would have meant a ditching, since the overloaded Cats wouldn't fly on one engine. That wasn't much of a concern, however, since the line recorded only six engine shutdowns in flight during the 15 months the route was operated by PBYs. What with the weight of mail and priority freight and a payload limit of 1,000 pounds, only three passengers could be carried. Each got a reclining seat and was issued a flight suit, lamb's wool-lined boots, gloves and a blanket. There was a hotplate on which passengers could heat soup, tea or coffee—no flight attendant aboard—and cold cuts, salad .ind cheese rounded out the menu. Toilet accommodations were basically just a fancy bucket, which is why few women flew the route. Most of the passengers were government officials or senior military officers. It was a more casual era. On one flight, a I'BY eventually had to turn back to Ceylon when the navigator finally noticed he'd forgotten his sextants. On another, the crew got so increasingly off course that they returned to Perth to have the PBY's compass reswung. The pilot was an RAF squadron commander named Thunder, and he indeed thundered at

this presumed oversight—^but a quick check of the navigator's log made it plain he'd forgotten to add in the necessary four degrees of magnetic-compass variation. There was no relief crew, of course. Sure enough, on another trip, the first and second officers, navigator and radio operator all collapsed with food poisoning, leaving the captain and one other crewman to handle the entire flight for another 20-odd hours. One Oantas radio officer recalled sinking into a hotel bed after a difficult trip and sleeping for 29 hours straight. Only once did a Qantas Cat encounter the Japanese. On one trip the crew needed to stop at Cocos to pick up a naval officer. They spent the night swinging from a buoy in the lagoon, and the next morning a Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty" twin-engine bomber suddenly appeared, low and hidden by the treeline until the last minute. The Japanese pilot seemed as surprised to see the PBY as the Australians were to see him, for hefirewalledthe throttles and scutUed away in great haste, only to come back moments later to drop two small, ineffectual bombs. In November 1944, Qantas' PBYs were replaced by yet another Consolidated product, C-87 transport versions of the B-24 Liberator. The route became routine, since the big bombers cut 10 hours off the flight time and carried 4Vi times the Cats' payload. "t" For further reading, frequent contributor Stephan Wilkinson suggests Silent Victory: Breaking the Japanese Air-Blockade Between Australia and Europe, by Arthur Leebold. In his July 2009 Aviation History article on the Lockheed Constellation, Wilkinson wrote that the famous 1957 London-to-San Francisco Connie nonstop flight held the all-time airline duration record. Australian reader Alan Cairncross, a retired Qantas maintenance engineer, e-mailed us to set the record straight: "Qantas Frnpire Airways, as it was then named, operated Cats [between Perth and Ceylon] from May 1943 to Qctober 1944 to keep the air route open between the UK and Australia. BQAC operated the service west of Ceylon via Africa and Gibraltar. This was a regular airline service carrying mainly mail, but priority passengers were carried as well. The schedule was for 28 hours plus or minus four. The record for the longestflightwas established on August 30, 1943, from Ceylon to Perth in 31 hours 51 minutes buoy to buoy."

Last of the Double-Sunrise Pilots

Ivan Peirce with a PBY in 2009.

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n late December 2010, news came from Australia that Ivan Peirce, the last surviving Double-Sunrise pilot, had died at the age of 92. When he was 26, Peirce, a Royal Australian Air Force navigator, was sent to Perth to navigate aboard the PBYs that would be flying the Double-Sunrise Route, and he served as a crewman on the very first mission to Ceylon and back. Navigation was rudimentary, of course, with no radio aids; it was a matter of taking sun and star sights and calculating drift from the sea's surface. Peirce worked his way up to a pilot's position, and flew 44 missions as a copilot and then captain. In the mid- and late 1990s, as president of the Catalina Club of Western Australia, Peirce was active in attempts to locate and ultimately salvage one of the Double-Sunrise PBYs, all five of which had been scuttled in 1946 as a U.S. proviso of their Lend-Lease status. Unfortunately, none were ever found, even though the general area of their sinking—near the aptly named Rottenest Island—was widely known. In late 2009 the Qantas Foundation Memorial Ltd. announced that it had acquired a Spain-based Catalina and intended to restore it in DoubleSunrise livery for di.splay at the Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach, Queensland. At press time it was in transit in Thailand, awaiting an engine change. More info at qfm.org.au. S.W. JULY 2011 AVIATION HISTORV

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THEYALSO SERVED

Helen Richards and a handful of other Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron pilots blazed a trail for all female military aviators who followed By Sarah Byrn Rickman

T

he ear-splitting roar of a lowflying prop plane shattered the Sunday morning quiet of San Marino, Galifornia, waking 24year-old Don Prosser. Blasted out of his dreams, Prosser ran outside and looked up to see a blue-and-yellow aircraft make a sweeping turn and head straight back toward him,flyingjust above the treetops. Its pilot waggled the wings, then sped away while Don saluted.

tor," which, Prosser recalled many years later, "had a two-speed prop and in the low-pitch position made an unholy racket." In the summer of 1942, U.S. Army Air Forces Golonel Wuliam H. Tunner of the Air Transport Gommand's Ferrying Division was desperate for pilots. He hired Nancy Love to find experienced women pilots to move liaison planes and primary trainers ftom the factories where they were buut to training bases in the South. Love, an accomplished flier, found 83 women she thought could meet the Ferrying Division's exacting standards. Tele-

grams went out: Interested candidates should report to New Gastle Army Air Base in Wilmington, Del.—traveling at their own expense. New Gastle, located near the factories that buut many of the planes they would ferry, housed the 2nd Ferrying Group, of which the women's squadron would be a part. Not militarized, they would be employed under Givil Service. Helen Richards was the 10th woman to join. In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt had called for the introduction of a subsidized Givilian Pilot Training (GPT) program on college campuses. One woman could enroll for every 10 men. "Helen and 1 met in the first GPT class at Pasadena Junior Gollege in the fall of 1939," Don Prosser recalled. "Helen was one of six girls. We took our flight instruction at Alhambra airport, she with Evelyn Hudson in a J-3 Gub and I with Hank Goffin in a Fleet biplane. "

Home on a weekend pass ftom his job instructing RAF flight cadets at Arizona's Falcon Field, Don ducked back inside before any rudely awakened neighbor could spot him in his shorts, gawking after the winged offender. He didn't want to explain. Yes, that was his girlftiend at the controls, and she had just given him one royal buzz job. The pilot was 21-yearold Helen Richards, a member of an elite group of civilian women fliers attached to the U.S. Army and known as the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). She was flying a BT-13 basic trainer, nick- (From left) WAFS Heien Richards, Dorothy Scott and Fiorene Miiier pose with named the "Vultee Vibra- their fiight gear and a Vuitee BT-13 basic trainer at Love Field in Oaiias, Texas.

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Richards and Prosser were a matched pair ftom the beginning. At 5-feet-lO and 6-feet-5 respectively, they towered over the competition—^both literally and in ability. The top two

JULY 2011 AVIATION HISTORY

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A fiedgiing pilot of the Women's Fiying Training Detachment soios in a Fairchiid PT-19A primary trainer above Avenger Fieid, in Texas.

graduates, they earned their private pilot certificates in the spring of 1940. Unlike the shorter girls, long-legged Helen had no trouble reaching the rudders, and her sure hands andflawlesssense of timing made her a natural when it came to handling the stick. That summer she and Prosser were the only two students from their class accepted into GPT Advanced Pilot Training in Van Nuys. "Helen's instructor was Sammy Mason, mine was Tex Rankin, both well known pilots," Prosser said. "She flew a Ryan SGM with a Menasco engine and the 'little' Travelair, the Gurtiss-Wright. I flew a Travelair D-4000 Speedwing." When Richards finished her two-year college course, she took oft" for Floating Feather airport near Boise, Idaho, where she earned her commercial and instructor's licenses in 1941 and began teaching. "She also did a stint as a bush pilot, flying a Gurtiss Robin with a Ghallenger engine, a great load hauler," Prosser recalled. "Helen flew mountain charters and took hunters out in the wilds—several

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trips more than a hundred miles—then she flew supplies in to them. She landed on many a Forest Service strip in the backcountry. In the winter sheflewplanes equipped with skis." When Nancy Love's telegram reached her, Richards was running the flight school at Floating Feather. By the time she reported to Wilmington late in September 1942, she had just turned 21 and already had 964 flight hours to her credit. The requirements for WAFS were stringent—more stringent than for male ferry pilots. The women needed 500 hours, a commercial license, a 200-hp rating, recent crosscountry experience, a high school diploma and three letters of reference. They had to be between age 21 and 35, and were required to pass a flight check and the rigorous USAAF flight physical. Richards entered the 30-day indoctrinationtraining program at New Gastle, designed to familiarize the WAFS with military procedures. She checked out in the Fairchild PT-19A on September 29, the Taylorcraft L-2B liaison

plane on October 1 and the Piper L-4B Gub on October 28. From November 4 to 8, she spent time in a Link Trainer flight simulator. During her first ferrying trip, November 11-14, Richards piloted a Gub from the Piper plant in Lock Haven, Pa., to Selma, Ala. Early on, trips were made in the company of other WAFS, with one designated as flight leader. They picked up the airplanes as a group, flew partway together, then scattered to deliver them to individual destinations. The weather caused problems on November 11. The field at Gharlottesville, Va., which had been underwater for three weeks, was a sea of mud. When seven of the WAFS landed there, two airplanes nosed over, damaging their props. Richards managed to land safely, after which she taxied to the parking area, cut the sv«tch, cleaned up the aircraft and climbed out—only to sink up to her knees in mud. On November 22, Richards and others were dispatched on their first PT-19 delivery. En route by train to the Fairchild factory in

Hagerstown, Md., they missed a bus in Baltimore by two minutes and, since there wasn't another until 7 the next morning, slept on benches in tbe station, propped against iheir parachutes and B-4 bags. Their tardy arrival in Hagerstown brought the wrath of the Army down on them. "Where the hell have you been?" demanded the captain in charge. "Everyone in the Army has been looking for you." Tben the weather closed in and they couldn't leave anyway, so they spent that night and the next in a 1 (agerstown hotel. Although the PT-19 boasted greater fuel capacity and range than the Gub, it bad an open cockpit. By late November, tbat made for frigid flying, even witb winter fligbt gear. The WAFS took oft^on November 25, tbe day hefore Tbanksgiving, in soupy weather. Richards and four others got as far as Lynchburg, Va., tbat night. They made Spartanburg, S.G., on Thanksgiving,finallydelivering the planes to Union Gity, Tenn., on the 27th. By Novem-

ber 28 they were back in Wilmington. Tbe nomadic life of a ferry pilot bad only just begun. The same crew was scheduled to leave for Lock Haven on the 29th, to pick up more Gubs. Golonel Robert Baker, taking pity on tbem after the Hagerstown fiasco, flew them to the Piper plant in the base's twin-engine Lockheed G-60 so they wouldn't have to get up at 5 a.m. after spending four hours in a Pullman car. The weather closed in during that flight, and Baker had to fly most of the trip on instruments. Richards' destination was Ft. Smith, Ark., a trip that would take 13 days. Bad weather grounded her at several stops. The longest leg sbe was able to fly in tbe little Gub, witb its inkwell-size gas tank, was one bour and 45 minutes from Middletown to Quantico, Va. Tbe Gub had a ftjel capacity of 12 gallons, a 65-hp engine and averaged only 75 mph. The women joked that when they were flying west into the wind, cars going 60 mph on U.S. Highway 40 below passed tbeir airplanes.

They carried no radios and had only rudimentary instrumentation. Marginal weather could indefinitely ground a plane and pilot. But unlike the PTs, at least tbe Gubs bad enclosed cockpits. That November famed aviatrbc Jacqueline Gochran, with AAF commanding general Henry H. "Hap" Arnold's backing, had established the Women's Flying Training Detachment school in Houston,Texas (it would later move to Sweetwater). Its immediate goal was to train more women ferry pilots. Ultimately Arnold decided tbat the Ferrying Division would employ only women who had graduated from the school. No new WAFS, no matter how well qualified, could be hired unless they were graduates. In December Golonel Tunner sent Love out to determine which of the ferrying bases would accept WAFS and provide facilities for tbem. Love divided ber 28 women pilots among four groups. On January 1, 1943, she sent five each to the 6th Ferrying Group in

(From left) Betsy Ferguson, Florene Miller and Richards walk past a Beech UC-78 "Bamboo Bomber" at Love Field on January 12,1943.

JULY 2011 AVIATION HISTORY

57

Long Beach, Calif., and the 5th Ferrying Group in Dallas, Texas. The 3rd Ferrying Group in Romulus, Mich., received six, while the rest remained in Wilmington to ferry PTs. Love assigned herself to Dallas, where Richards was headed as well. Flight training in the Army Air Forces began with the three-step transition from primary trainer to basic trainer to advanced trainer (AT). The WAFS were initially hired to fly only PTs and liaison airplanes. But as Cochran's women began transitioning similar to the male cadets. Love sought access to higher-performance planes for her WAFS. She checked out in the 450-hp BT-13 in December and the 650-hp North American AT-6 in January, paving the way for her WAFS toflythose planes. Richards and the others dispatched to Dallas immediately began transitioning into basic trainers, while the women stationed in Long Beach did the same. By March 1943, nine WAFS—including Richards—were routinely ferrying BT-13s and BT-15s across the South. Continuing on up the transition ladder, Richards flew her first AT-6 Texan on February 15.

(From left) Betty Giilies, Eveiyn Sharp, B.J. Erickson and Richards on December 2,1942.

December 1, and Richards and her closest friend, Dorothy Scott, were assigned to the first class. Together they were going to learn to fly the Army's hottest, most temperamental airplanes—the single-engine, singleseat fighters. Scott wrote a letter home describing her impressions of pursuit school after the first Richards' piloting skills also earned her an day: "Helen and I are roommates, and there appearance in a BT-13 in a movie about the are eight of us girls with thirty-five felWAFS, Ladies Courageous. Loretta Young por- lows. .. .Tomorrow we start flying. It will be trayed Love in that film. dual in BC-ls (AT-6 type). Then in order, the On June 28, 1943, the Office of Special P-47, 39, 40 and 51. We fly half day, school Assistant for Women Pilots was established, half day. I'm in A flight and must be on the with Cochran named director of women line at 7:15 each a.m. We have to wear skirts at pilots. Colonel Tunner countered with an evening mess—dern it." appointment of his own, designed to keep his On December 3, Richards and Scott command functioning smoothly. On July 5, planned to go horseback riding together after the War Department announced the ap- the day's flying was over. But while Scott was pointment of Nancy Love to the position of landing her BC-1 trainer, she was overtaken executive for the women ferry pilotsflyingfor by a P-39 that was descending fast. Because he Tunner. The following month, on August 5, was above her, the other pilot couldn't see her. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) be- The tower's warning came too late: The two came the official name for all women flying planes collided 200 feet above the ground. fortheAAF. Scott and her instructor died in the crash, On September 20, Richards was one of 12 as did the P-39 pilot. An investigation showed women transferred to the 21st Ferrying that there had been no pilot error on Scott's Group at Palm Springs, Calif., where she part. The tower was assigned the blame. logged 35 hours flying the twin-engine C-47 Devastated, Richards threw herself into Skytrain. In November all 12 were transferred learning toflypursuits. On December 24, she to Long Beach. checked out in the hottest of them all, the By that time delivery of pursuit aircraft P-51 Mustang, earning the coveted "3P" clasfrom the factory for shipment abroad—pri- sification. She was a pursuit pilot now. The marily the P-39, P-47 and P-51—had become sleek, swift Mustang and the tall, lean woman the Ferrying Division's primary mission. A pilot seemed made for each other. In 1944 pursuit training facility for male and female Richards would log 110 hours and 35 minferry pilots opened in Palm Springs on utes ferrying P-51s cross-country, the most

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hours sheflewin any one airplane during the war years. Richards took a month's leave in February. "She was torn up by Dorothy's death and trying to rid herself of her grief," Prosser recalled. "But Helen could be tough as nails when she had to be. She showed little out ward emotion. She bore it all inside where none of us could see it." Helen's solution: Immerse herself in ferrying airplanes. She flew 70 hours in the course of one month, earning an ATC commendation. Although Richards never lacked for dates, Prosser did not back down in his personal pursuit of his favorite pursuit pilot. "When her ferrying brought her through Phoenix, we got together for dinner," Prosser recalled. "She'd ask what I was flying, and I'd brag about the AT-6A and C models we used for advanced flight training. I'd pry out of her that, on that trip, she was in an AT-6D—a new model I had never seen. So typical! Later, it was pursuits. I never, remotely, began to match her equipment list. AT-6 was tops for me, but she went on to all the pursuits include ing the P-38, plus A-20s, B-25s, the Dauntless and many more. "The night I proposed marriage, in the fall of 1944, she flew a P-38 in and wanted td remain overnight so that we could have din ner," Prosser continued. "She told the mechanic that it had an oil leak. He told her he couldn't find it. She fixed him with those blue eyes of hers and said: 'Keep looking. It's there, you'll find it.' "After I proposed, she didn't answer me immediately. But I must have rattled her

composure, because when she took off the next morning, she forgot to take the cover off the pitot tube. She flew the first leg out over the desert without knowing her airspeed." On a typical ferrying trip in 1944, Richards might take a P-51 east to the docks at Newark and pick up a P-47 on Long Island bound for Long Beach or a P-39 or the newer P-63 ftom Buftalo bound for Great Falls, Mont. The latter were Lend-Lease planes destined for the Russians, via Alaska. Ferrying a pursuit plane alone ftom coast to coast was a far cry from Richards' early trips in Gubs and open-cockpit PTs. Now that same trip could be made in hours, usually over two days, rather than taking several days of ftustrating short hops, ftequently delayed by weather. In all, 134 women qualified to ferry pursuit aircraft for the Army during World War II— 16 of the original WAFS and 118 graduates of the flight training .school in Texas. Only 25 WASPs—10 of them original WAFS—ferried the capricious twin-engine P-38 Lightning. On September 19, 1944, Richards became one of them, earning a 4P rating (twinengine pursuit qualified). She eventually logged 26 hours ferrying P-38s. Army combat veterans were returning from overseas in 1944, available to serve Stateside in less hazardous jobs, such as ferrying. That June Gongress denied the WASPs military status. While they had been vitally needed in 1942 and 1943, when male pilots were in short supply, the women were now seen as expendable.

lost his medical due to heart trouble, he still taught ground school, but the flight instruction fell to Helen and a former student. Prosser recalled: "In the spring of 1976, Helen told me, 'I don't want toflythe aviation program anymore.' The fun was gone. Flying had become a chore for her. Then that October, a pilot we knew needed his biannual flight review. Since I was grounded, Helen scheduled the check." The man flew a Beechcraft Bonanza without dual controls, and Helen opted to check him out in his plane, which meant she had no controls in the copilot's seat. "She must have had a premonition," Prosser said. "As she went out the door, she threw up her hands, palms out and said, 'I don't like this flight.' That was the last thing she said to me, and it will haunt me to my death." The Bonanza crashed short of the runway. A routine radio call—"Simulated forced landing"—preceded the crash. Witnesses said that as the plane approached, there was no sound. Suddenly the engine came alive with a burst of power. The pilot pulled up, trying to get over .some power lines. He stalled, rolled and went into the power lines inverted. Helen Richards Prosser, the youngest of Nancy Love's WAFS, was dead at 55. Helen didn't know it, but Nancy herself had died the previous day, October 22,1976, of cancer. Helen's death rocked the community of Lower Lake, Galif. Her memorial service was held in the church parking lot to accommo-

date their family, her many ftiends and her students. In lieu of flowers, Don asked for donations to the newly established Helen Prosser Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund continues to award an annual scholarship to this day. The Prossers' two sons grew up thinking that everybody's mom had flown fighters in the war. "She once won a bet from a fellow pilot who told her he could take her P-47," recalled elder son Gary. "They went up to 25,000 feet, she let him get on her tail, outmaneuvered him and came up behind him for the kill. She knew the strengths of the aircraft sheflew.I think she would have been a dandy combat pilot." Helen and Don taught both their boys to fly. Gary, who flew in Vietnam, is a captain with United Airlines. Dean has all his ratings, including glider instructor. "My parents' love of airplanes was contagious," said Dean. "It's in our genes." "t" Sarah fíyrn Rickman, who serves as editor of the official WASP newsletter, is the author of four books on the WASPs; a WAFS history. The Originals; two biographies, Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots and Nancy Batson Grews; and an award-winning novel. Flight From Fear. She interviewed Don Prosser on March 17, 2004. The taped interview and copies of Helen's wartime records are housed in the oßicial WASP Archives, the Woman's Collection, Texas Woman's University, Dentón. Don Prosser died on October 26, 2009.

The WASPs were deactivated on December 20,1944, a black day for all of them. Richards took the di.sappointment better than most. Pro.sser remembered: "Early in December 1944, she called me. She said, 'Yes.' " They were married on Ghristmas Day at her sister's home in the San Fernando Valley. After the war, the Prossers wanted to open a small airport but lacked the necessary funds, so they settled for operating a flight service. Both taught flying and also returned to college, becoming public school teachers. In 1968 Don got a chance to teach aviation in an innovative high school program in northern Galifornia, with ground school in the morning and flight instruction in the afternoon. Helen taught English and PE at the junior high, and helped with ground school and flight instructing. She also ran Proud Cessna owners Helen and Don Prosser pose with their new 150 in 1968. In addition their small flying business. In 1974, after Don to teaching pubiic schooi, the Prossers established their own flying school in Caiifornia.

JULY 2011 AVIATION HISTORY

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REVIEWS BOOKS FLY NAVY: Discovering the Extraordinary People and Enduring Spirit of Naval Aviation

by Alvin Townley, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2011, $25.99.

welcomed. In this era when frontline warriors are often taken for granted, it is important to be reminded of the dedicated professionals in uniform who love their work, trust each other, relish the adventure and believe in the cause. Anyone who reads this superbly crafted and glowing tribute may well decide to enlist. Philip Handleman

material based on excellent sources. This is a fairly expensive book, but no serious student of naval aviation can afford to be without it. The Naval Institute Press did its job well. Walter I. Boyne POLIKARPOV 1-15, 1-16 AND 1-153 ACES

ONE HUNDRED

by Mikhail Maslov

YEARS OF U.S.

Alvin Townley admits to being a starry-eyed novice when it comes to naval aviation, but he covers the subject like a consummate professional who never loses his sense of fascination with the topic. In Fly Navy he offers stories of personal courage and inspiration drawn from both the historical record and from interviews he conducted during a global quest to discover the ethos that guides the people who fly and maintain the U.S. Navy's aircraft. According to Townley, today's naval aviators and sailors in supportive roles are like those of prior generations in their underlying expertise and commitment to getting the job done. They have been inculcated with the timeless values and skills necessary to make complex carrier flight operations succeed. The glue that holds the disparate parts together is the "high trust" that infuses the cockpit and runs deep into the recesses of the ship. Beautifully written portraits of familiar heroes such as the men of Torpedo Squadron Eight, top-scoring Navy ace "Dashing Dave" McCampbell and Apollo commander Jim Lovell are interspersed with equally penetrating profiles of lesser-known compatriots. A chief petty officer aboard a modern nuclear-powered carrier, whose name is emblazoned on the fighter aircraft she maintains, talks about her discovery of hope and purpose on the flight deck. In singing the praises of the remarkable men and women who have forged the first 100 years of naval aviation, the picture sometimes lapses into utopianism, as if all hands embody the perfection projected by Navy recruiting posters. Inconvenient truths that might otherwise blemish the narrative are simply left out. Such an idealized rendering is stul to be

60

AVIATION HISTORY

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NAVY AIR POWER

FIAT CR.32 ACES

edited by Douglas V. Smith, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md., 2010, $44.95.

OF THE SPANISH

Far too many books celebrating centennials turn out to be merely well-illustrated puff pieces. Not this extraordinary work, which takes you from the earliest days of U.S. naval aviation up to the present. Editor Douglas V. Smith chose wisely when he was selecting contributors: Each is an expert in his field who delivers the goods in a scholarly but readable fashion. One appealing element of the book is the manner in which it layers its chronology with important developments. As an example, the years between 1918 and 1941 are covered in chapters that deal with how the flying boat transformed War Plan Orange (our strategy for a war with Japan); the saga of the Navy dirigibles; the rise of naval aviation in a time of big-gun admirals; a biographical chapter on the father of carrier aviation. Admiral Joseph Mason "Bull" Reeves; and aviation in the interwar fleet maneuvers. Each chapter is packed with remarkable and seldom-seen material, along with arresting commentary on the leading officers ofthe day. Personally, I found the discussion of the use of aircraft in the interwar fleet maneuvers the most interesting, perhaps because it is seldom covered. The technical aspects of the years leading up to World War II are described in two chapters detailing the evolution of U.S. aircraft carriers and development of naval warplanes. And the concise but comprehensive coverage of the modern era, like the rest of the book, provides plenty of footnoted

CIVIL WAR

by Alfredo Logoluso, both from Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2010, $22.95. The 94th and 95th entries in Osprey's "Aircraft of the Aces" series deal primarily with the years between the wars, when monoplanes were still regarded as new and their dominance over biplanes was still in dispute. Both books are the products of aeronautical engineers with an interest in history and what, for their respective countries, were briefly cutting-edge designs. Since one is Russian and the other Italian, the results of their research provide fresh material for the average English-speaking aviation buff. Mikhail Maslov's Polikarpov 1-15, 1-16 and 1-153 Aces covers a range of fighter types as well as conflicts. Nikolai Polikarpov's 1-15 biplane restored the Soviet fighter to Western standards and provided the Spanish republic with a competitive fighter during the Spanish Civil War. The 1-16 was the first monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear and an enclosed canopy when it appeared in 1934. It became the Republican mainstay in Spain, and also saw distinguished use by Chinese and Soviet pilots over China and Nomonhan. It often scored against the Luftwaffe during the early years of World War II in spite of its obsolescence. The I-153, a biplane with retractable landing gear, entered production after the 1-16—a case ofthe Soviets hedging their bets—but it

REVIEWS too had its moments during the Nomonhan "incident" and Operation Barbarossa. Maslov's text is full of distinguished characters who often give firsthand accounts of what it was like to fly these pioneer fighters. There is the usual wealth of color profiles as well, but it is a little disappointing to see so many aircraft whose pilots are not identified. There are Soviet aces aplenty, to be sure, but information does exist on other Polikarpov aces, such as American Spanish Givil War volunteers Frank Tinker, Albert Baumler and Harold Dahl, or Ghinese ace of aces Liu Ghi-sheng (all of whom are at least mentioned in passing in the text). Gomplementing Maslov's book is Italian author Alfredo Logoluso's Fiat CR.32Aces of the Spanish Civil War, which pits Italy's classic biplane fighter of the 1930s against the Polikarpovs, as flown by Spanish Nationalists (including the war's leading ace, loaquin Garcia Morato Gastaño, with 40 victories), Italy's Aviazione Legionaria and a Belgian volunteer, Rodolphe de Hemricourt. de Grunne, who would later die fighting the Germans with the Royal Air Force. Focusing on a single type whose ruggedne.ss, maneuverability and twin 12.7mm machine guns enabled it to hold its own even against the 1-16, Fiat CR.32 Aces is a character-driven chronicle, offering a wealth of information on the Nationalist/Fascist side of numerous air actions. Both books have their merits, which are actually enhanced when their contents are considered in combination. Ion Guttman

natural pilot. Some training sessions and a bit of chicanery culminated in her becoming the youngest licensed pilot in the U.S.—at age 12 (the application, made by her dad, stated she was 16). At 14 she was shuttling businessmen across Oklahoma and stunting at local airshows. One of those little independent films that don't make it into the multiplex theaters. Pearl is a production of the Ghickasaw Nation, created to dramatize the life of one of its own—and Oklahoma's—heroines. It is essentially a family fable, lent drama by the aviation career that Pearl ultimately gave up to shoulder the responsibilities of a wife and mother during the Great Depres.sion. Aviation enthusiasts will revel in scenes involving real Travel Airs, Wacos and Pearl's own Gurtiss Robin, as well as a computergenerated Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae, which she became the only pilot Post trusted enough to fly besides himself. The film stays reasonably authentic, and the accompanying documentary fleshes out the facts in convincing fashion. It includes archival footage of Pearl piloting her Robin, which was brand new when she learned to fly it in 1928. Besides helping to verify what's in the dramatization, as well as showing off the real aircraft of the era, the documentary covers Pearl Garter Scott's activities as a prominent lifelong spokesperson for the Ghickasaw Nation. Jon Guttman

CLASSICS FIRST LIGHT

by Geoffrey Wellum

DVDs PEARL

directed by King Hollis, Ghickasaw Nation and Media 13,2009, $15. Pearl Garter, a partGhoctaw, part Ghickasaw girl who grew up in 1920s Oklahoma, was reared by her blind father, a successful businessman, to see possibilities where others might see problems. She learned to drive a car at 11, and the next year a chance meeting with Wiley Post led to a plane ride that convinced him she was a

V

When Geoff Wellum joined the RAF, he IRS 1 was so young that I I r, 111 he quickly got the handle "Boy." In 1939 17-year-old Boy Wellum learned to fly in de Havilland Tiger Moths. He moved on to the beast called Harvard in England and AT-6 Texan in the U.S., surviving its unforgiving ways even after watching one of his best fi-iends auger in during a horizonless night takeofi after the poor man forgot to uncage his attitude gyro. Spitfires came next. Since there were no two-seat Spits, checkout was a matter of "Off

you go, then." By the time Wellum had roughly the same navigation, instrumentflying and nighttime experience level I'd attained 40 years ago as a 100-hour Gcssiia and Piper pilot, he was sent into the height of the Battle of Britain and left to fend for himself. Wellum is not only a gentleman but a gentle man; what makes his book special is that there's no posturing, no fighter pilot arrogance, none of the false assurance that he was a natural-born killer. Thoughtful pilots will particularly appreciate his fears; his joy at flying an airplane as rewarding, apparently, as his Spitfires; and his constant awareness of the dark side of challenging the air. Sent off on a pointless two-ship mission in pouring rain with a 300-foot ceiling that often dropped to 100, Wellum lost sight ol his wingman while chasing a Heinkel he had somehow sensed amid the gloom. He deadreckoned back to base as evening fell, in instrument weather that would have challenged an airline captain. He wrote: Getting very dull and the exhaust tlanies .stand out clear and bright....We creep over the land toward.s base....It must be somewhere hereabouts....Sitting on the edge of that field is a Spitfire....It's the airfield and Im bang over the top of it... .Turn port quickly, watch your speed, there's the hedge and the old disused hut, get your flaps down, you clot, there we are, trim her out.... Round we come, there goes the hedge beneath the wings, start to take off the bank, throttle back, right otf. 1 give it a strong tug to make quite certain, there's a parked Spitfire, straighten out, hold her olí, bang into wind, thank (iod, but still too fast by far, swish tail. Slowly it seems the speed drops away, hold her off, stick back, she starts to sink and we touch. It's over, the engine idles in front of me and 1 just sit there. I loosen my oxygen mask and feel the rain, lovely cool rain on my face and 1 lean out of the cockpit in order to feel it more....rm trembling and almost tearful.

Few have written of tnilitary flying with the insight and honesty that Wellum displays. First published in 2002, his book deservedly remains in print. Stephan Wilkinson

JULY 2011 AVIATION HISTORY

61

By Bernard Dy

AIRWARE DCS: A-10 Warthog The homely but deadly "Hog" has never looked this good CS: A-10 Warthog, a stunning recreation of the Faircbild Republic/ Boeing A-10 Thunderbolt II, is tbe latest entry in tbe Digital Gombat Simulator series ($60, requires Microsoft 64bit Windows XPA^ista/7, Gore 2 Duo E6600 processor or comparable, 4 GB RAM, 7 GB hard drive space, 512 MB 3-D video card. Eagle Dynamics, digitalcombatsimulator. com). It's currently only available via direct download from Eagle Dynamics or services like Direct2Drive.com.

D

The A-10 has been simulated before, but DCS: A-JO is tbe best version yet. Eagle Dynamics' product is testament to its experience and competence witb software design and sim refinement. Tbe level of detail in tbis sim is nearly obsessive. Tbe digital documentation bas more than 900 pages of instruction on the A-10, including a brief history of its origin and operational record.

The A-lOG's cockpit systems reveal how different and advanced the Thunderbolt II's latest incarnation is compared to the A model. The pilot workload in earlier A-10 sims was lighter, and clearly a broader capability means a busier pilot. Every device in tbe cockpit is ftinctional and interactive, including tbe arming .switch for the ejection seat The meat of this sim is everything that and all the buttons on the sides of the multicould be expected from the house that pro- function displays. Fortunately, the "active duced DCS: Black Shark, an excellent Kamov pause" feature allows pilots to stop the acKa-50 simulator. At its most demanding tion wbue leaving the cockpit operational, level, players must go through substantial so novices can take their time while learning. checklists to spool up systems and run preThere's not much done wrong here, flight checks before even taking off. In flight, although for an aircraft as focused in its role the physics model seems sound. The A-10 is as this, there's not much mission variety. definitely comfortable at low altitude and The three campaigns are accompanied by a subsonic speeds, but stall warnings still set of single missions and training session.s, sound if the craft is taxed. The sim also a mission builder and multiplayer support. models the barrel rise experienced wben fir- Even tbougb tbere's an arcade mode, tbis ing the GAU-88 cannon. really is a sim for serious virtual pilots. "Í"

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AVIATION HISTORY

JULY 2011

www.HistQryPreservatiDn.cani

By Jon Guttman

FLIGHT TEST Push-me, Pull-me How many of these attempts at Dornier Do-335-like tandem-engine aircraft can you identify? l.GhetvérikovARK-3 A. 2. Gessnà 337

Naval Aviation Centennial Trivia 1. Which plane was flown by U.S. Navy personnel during World War I? A. Gaproni Ga-5 B. Gurtiss H-16 G. Hanriot HD-2 D. All of the above

B.

3. Short ¡Singapore

2. Which of these Navy fíghters never operated from a ship? A. Boeing F4B-4 B. Gurtiss F9G-2 G. Grumman F3F-2 D. VoughtVE-7

4.TupolevANT-16 5. Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.III 6. Rutari Defiant

3. In which battle did the aircraft carrier Enterprise not participate? A. Goral Sea B. Midway G. Eastern Solomons D. Santa Gruz

7. Zeppélin-Staaken R.VI 8. Fokker D.XXIII 9. Dornier Do-26 H. 10. Savoia-Marchetti S.55

German Experten Besides: Hans-Ulrich Rudel's amazing mission tally, German military pilots have racked up a number of records. Gan you match the man to the achievement? A. Emii "Bully" Lang

1. World's ace of aces (352 victories)

B. Heiriz-Wolfgang Schnaufer

2. Most armored aircraft brought down (94)

C. Geoi-g-Peter Eder

3. Most aerial victories in one day (18)

D. Oswald Boelcke

4. Most balloons destroyed in a single mission (5)

E. Manfred von Richthofen

5. Most Supermarine Spitfires shot down (68)

F. Erich Hartmann I

6. Leading night fighter ace (121 victories)

G. Otto "Bruno" Kittel H. Josef "Pips" Priller I. Kurtj Welter j

4. What was the first Allied plane to land in Tokyo Bay after Japan's surrender in 1945? A. Gonsolidated PB2Y-5/R Goronado B. Gonsolidated PBY-5A Gatalina G. Vought OS2U-3 Kingfisher D. Gurtiss SOG-3 Seamew

5. Which was the first U.S. Navy plane to use a jet engine? A. McDonnell FH-1 Phantom B. Grumman F9F-2 Panther G. Vought F6U-1 Pirate D. RyanFR-1 Firebafl

Vl'on

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7. World War I ace of aces (80 victories) 8. Most four-engine bombers shot down (38)

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9. Wrote first universal fighter doctrine 10. Most victories in a jet during WWII (25 plus)

J. Fritz|Röth ILLUSTRATIONS BY KEVIN JOHNSON

JULY 2011

AVIATION HISTORY

65