Aviation History 2013-11

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Solar Impulse soars above San Francisco Bay during its Golden Gate flight in April 2013 (story, P. 14).

Cover: The Battle of Britain

Memorial Flight’s Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IIa banks hard over England. The legendary Spitfire entered squadron service 75 years ago (story, P. 22). Cover: ©Richard Paver Above: Rezo/Solar Impulse/Polaris

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES 22

Mitchell’s Masterpiece

42

By Nicholas O’Dell To the British, Supermarine designer Reginald Mitchell’s Spitfire was much more than a machine; it was an icon.

30

Vanished!

By Barrett Tillman The sustained effort to cut off Hitler’s Balkan oil supply cost hundreds of American and British lives and aircraft.

48

By John J. Geoghegan The Pan American flying boat Hawaii Clipper disappeared without a trace during a transpacific voyage in 1938.

36

The Eagle of Lille

By Don Hollway A feared leader of the “Fokker Scourge,” Max Immelmann “lost his life by a silly chance,” lamented fellow ace Oswald Boelcke.

Ploesti: The Rest of the Story

Blowup at the Covey Bomb Dump

By Thomas R. Yarborough What started out as a routine patrol resulted in a 10-day battle over one of Southeast Asia’s most heavily defended targets.

54

Seven Down in Greenland

By Stephan Wilkinson A forced landing in Greenland snowballed into a costly search-and-rescue effort during World War II.

14

Mailbag Briefing Extremes

16

Restored

18

Aviators

By Jane Eppinga American Ben Leider volunteered to fight fascism in Spain.

21

Letter From Aviation History Reviews Flight Test By Jon Guttman Aero Poster

7 8

61 65 66

By Martin A. Bartels Solar Impulse points the way to the future. By Edward H. Phillips The Kansas Aviation Museum’s Stearman 4D is ready for display.

NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 3

NOVEMBER 2013

ONTHE WEB

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W E IDE R H IS T O R Y G R O U P GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Roger L. Vance

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Where military & aviation history come together. Te Museum of Military History in Jacksonville, Arkansas, covers all wars from the Civil War through today. Discover weapons, artifacts and educational exhibits for people of all ages to enjoy. While we are near the Little Rock Air Force Base, our museum honors each and every branch of the military.

Vol. 24, No. 2 EDITOR

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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS EDITOR EMERITUS

Discussion: The federal budget sequestration has resulted in cutbacks to military training flights and performances by demo teams at airshows (story, P. 21). Should funding for these flights be restored, and if so, where should it come from?

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Crewmen prepare the Martin M-130 China Clipper for another transpacific flight.

China Clipper Across the Pacific The M-130 flying boat China Clipper made history with the first commercial airmail flight across the Pacific to Asia. The 11-Day War Richard Nixon’s “Christmas Bombings” of North Vietnam nearly ended in disaster during 1972. Eyewitness to the Ploesti Raid The B-24D Vagabond King took part in the massive August 1, 1943, raid on the oil refinery complex at Ploesti, Romania.

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MAILBAG Return to Gardenville

Great work with the September issue! I found all the articles well-written and interesting, and I had the issue read the same day I received it and was wishing there was more. I don’t normally find helicopter articles particularly interesting, but “The Gardenville Project” was definitely an exception—full of details and personal interest, with great illustrations. I did find a glitch, though, which I hope you don’t mind my passing along. On P. 38, Bruce Buckfelder mentioned that the “P-39A Airacobra was in production,” which didn’t

sound correct to me. I consulted my 1960 copy of Ray Wagner’s American Combat Planes, followed by the P-39 factsheet from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. They basically agree that the YP-39A was to be a one-off variant used for high-altitude testing, but was completed as a basic YP-39. In the meantime, the XP-39 was morphed following NACA testing into the XP-39B, with the first of the production aircraft being 80 examples of the P-39C. A further 60 from the initial batch of 80 were converted to the more combat-ready P-39D, with self-sealing tanks and armor plate. Therefore, the first production model of the P-39 was the P-39C variant rather than the P-39A. Thank you so much for an outstanding magazine that allows me to escape the usual for a brief few moments to another, more exciting world! Robert Taylor Ventura, Calif.

Overlooked Monster Single

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

I’m writing with reference to “The Gardenville Project,” by Bruce Buckfelder, in the September issue. During World War II, my family and I lived in Lewiston Heights, N.Y., just north of Niagara Falls. There were only a very few young kids living in the area. The only other member of my fourth-grade class was Joan Ross. One day in the summer of 1943, four other boys and I were playing baseball just off a fairway of the Niagara Falls Country Club when we heard a strange noise. From behind some trees came this “thing.” It was flying, but did not have any wings. It was, in fact, a Bell helicopter minus the bubble canopy. It landed behind the Ross’ home, which backed up to the golf course. When the Ross family came out to view the thing, the pilot offered Joan a ride, and also signaled that one of us could come along. I won the race, and off we went on the ride of my life. Our legs hung out into open space. We flew close, but not over, Niagara Falls, then returned to the golf course. Joan’s father, who worked for Bell Aircraft Company, was later transferred to the startup B-29 plant in Georgia. As a result, I was the only person left in my grade—hence the school closed down my grade and I was sent to Deveaux Military Academy in Niagara Falls. Later in life, I flew a few hours in a Bell H-13F and G while serving in the Army. The photos in Buckfelder’s article brought back some great memories. Thanks for a great magazine. Dick Shaeffer Willowick, Ohio

Although they may be interesting historical footnotes, the inclusion of a few experimental and limited-production aircraft might have precluded the inclusion of the Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger within your top 10 list [“Monster Singles,” July ]. An often-overlooked hero of World War II and highly successful in both theaters, the Avenger has a maximum takeoff weight of 18,100 pounds according to the applicable Technical Order 49-45, although stories by veteran pilots suggest much higher flyable weights. Our flying Avenger of the Commemorative Air

Force Rocky Mountain Wing has an empty weight of 10,560 pounds, including the aft gun turret and operable bomb bay, but without the WWII radios. This yields an admirable 41 percent useful load to gross takeoff weight ratio in a tough, battleproven airframe that performed military duties well into the ’60s. Great numbers of Avengers worked well after that in civilian life, continuing to haul heavy loads of fire-fighting slurry and insecticides. Attached is a photo [below left] that attests to the Avenger’s durability. Rob Duncan Grand Junction, Colo.

More on the Liner Rex

Love your magazine, and enjoyed the article by Evan Hadingham detailing the sinking of the Italian liner Rex [“Wave-Top Marauder,” September]. I didn’t know that’s how she met her demise. As many who read military aviation history may know, Rex figured importantly in 1938 when the U.S. Air Corps was struggling to get the B-17 program some desperately needed momentum, as there were only 13 in existence at the time. In May 1938, three B-17s successfully intercepted Rex while she was still more than 750 miles from her home port, New York City. The lead navigator was none other than Curtis LeMay. It was a spectacular demonstration of the potential of the B-17 program, and the Air Corps milked a lot of mileage out of it. There was even a radio broadcaster aboard one of the birds to beam the news live to the East Coast. The Department of the Navy was not exactly impressed; incensed might be more accurate. In fact, for a time it successfully pressured the War Department to limit such flights to no more than 100 miles from land. It looks like Rex’s demise was somewhat foreshadowed by that event. Reed Petrie Anchorage, Alaska

Send letters to Aviation History Editor, Weider History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500, or e-mail to [email protected]. NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 7

BRIEFING

BOB DEMPSTER; INSET: CORBIS

Douglas World Cruiser Redux

Beginning next spring, the World Cruiser replica Seattle II is poised to reprise the 1924 round-the-world flight made by its forebear.

A

ny American who can fog a mirror will know the name of Seattle, crashed in Alaska not long after the start of the epic journey, the airplane and aviator that first flew from New York to and Boston ditched in the North Atlantic four months later. (Both Paris nonstop, but the details of a perhaps more difficult crews were rescued.) New Orleans and Chicago survived the entire accomplishment—first to fly all the way around the circumnavigation, joined by the prototype, christened Boston II. world—are known only to aviation buffs. The six-month voyage of The Dempster Douglas is a triumph as well. Bob started the projtwo Douglas World Cruiser biplanes from Seattle to Seattle west- ect with his and Diane’s own funds 10 years ago and only slowly bound in 1924 was overshadowed by Lindbergh’s epic solo just three acquired helpers and sponsors. The project has at times been homeyears later. Retired Boeing avionics engineer Robert Dempster and less, shifting from hangar to friendly hangar, at one point ending up his wife, Diane, herself a member of Boeing’s 737 team and also a in a Boeing facility. With a 50-foot wingspan and towering to 15 feet pilot, now intend to fill at least some of that void. on floats—even with the airplane on wheels, Dempster can stand Over the last decade, Bob Dempster and a small group of volun- under the nose—his airplane is, for a single-engine biplane, a monteer craftspeople have constructed a remarkably accurate replica of a ster. Gross weight is nearly four tons, making this one of the largest Douglas World Cruiser, and the Dempsters plan to re-create the and heaviest homebuilts ever attempted. original 73-leg round-the-world feat starting early next April. (The Dempster’s only concessions to current technology are modern airplane, Seattle II, made its maiden flight on June 29, at Boeing Field avionics; aluminum Edo floats with water rudders; a tailwheel rather in Seattle.) than a skid for runway landings; and aircraft-grade fasteners, fittings, The original record flight was not only a fuselage tubing and fabric. At one time, technological milestone but also an organiDempster planned to use a modern engine zational and logistical triumph, orchestrated in place of the original World Cruiser’s Libby the U.S. Army Air Service. Some 30 spare erty V-12, but his replica will be outfitted engines, standby floats and wheeled landing with a fully restored, Lincoln-built, 420-hp “I fly close to my man, aim gear—the World Cruisers would use both Liberty Model A for the trip. A gutsy move, well and then of course setups—plus fuel and support personnel since the original World Cruisers underhe falls down.” were stationed all along the route, with U.S. went complete engine changes in Japan and –Oswald Boelcke Navy vessels spaced along the overwater legs. then India. See seattleworldcruiser.org. Stephan Wilkinson Four World Cruisers started the flight. One,

Air Quotes

8 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY NOVEMBER 2013

JIM KOEPNICK; INSET: KEVIN HONG

A Tigercat Roars Again

James SlatteryÕs Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat made its debut at EAA AirVenture this summer.

His WestPac Tigercat is said to be the most unmolested of the dozen or so complete F7Fs that still exist—four on static display, the balance either airworthy or under restoration to flight status. Never flown in civil use, it was acquired in a trade directly from the Marine Corps Museum back when that was still possible. (The Navy has since then claimed ownership of everything it or the Marine Corps ever flew, including yetundiscovered wrecks.) When WestPac started Bu. No. 80375ʼs engines late last April, it was the first time theyʼd been run in 60 years, back in the days when the airplane had been in service with the Marines as a two-seat night fighter with a RIO behind the pilot in a separate sliding-canopy cockpit. Stephan Wilkinson

MYSTERY SHIP

JIM HAWKINS

T

he only reason to restore a Grumman F7F Tigercat is because itʼs so beautiful. The airplane was rejected as a carrier-borne fighter, the role for which it was designed. Too fast and large for anything but the Navyʼs Midway-class fleet carriers, it blew two carrier-qualification tests, one because of a bad tailhook design and dodgy singleengine handing, the next because a wing failed during a hard landing. Its entire combat career was brief and inconsequential; the only opponents that ever fell to a Tigercatʼs four .50s and four 20mm cannons—its nosecone was a broadside in a box—were two ancient Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes during the Korean War. The airplane stayed in service for barely 10 years, and not a single foreign air force ever used it. Even Grumman knew the Tigercat was a mistake, and it quickly engineered the F8F Bearcat to do what the Tigercat couldnʼt. Never mind. Itʼs perhaps the most beautiful twin-pistonengine airplane ever built, every bit the equal of Geoffrey de Havillandʼs Comet, and for those who love the sound of one Pratt & Whitney R-2800, the trumpeting of two is twice as tingly. Which, we have to assume, is why James Slattery has had WestPac Restorations renovate a good-as-new F7F-3N. He also owns a second Tigercat that will be restored by Steve Hintonʼs company, Fighter Rebuilders, and the two doublebreasted felines will join a collection that already includes 44 historic aircraft. Slattery plans to soon open the Greatest Generation Naval Museum, in San Diego, to exhibit them.

Can you identify this high-wing twin? Turn to P. 12 for the answer. NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 9

BRIEFING

Sikorsky Prize Goes to Canadians

The Atlas multicopter hovers in a soccer center near Toronto during the Canadian AeroVelo team’s bid to take the Sikorsky Prize.

A

PHOTOS: AEROVELO

fter 33 years, the Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Heli- that each flight involves a crew of 10 assistants on the ground. copter Challenge has at last been met. The American The successful June 13 flight, which took place inside a Toronto Helicopter Society’s requirements were rigorous: The soccer center, came at the very end of five days of testing. Once both machine had to fly for at least 60 seconds, rise to at least the American Helicopter Society and the FŽdŽration AŽronautique 3 meters and remain within a horizontal area no Internationale certified the results of that effort, larger than 10 meters. On June 13, a team of young AeroVelo received a $250,000 check in July. Canadian engineers known as AeroVelo, founded Spurring on the Canadians’ bid were the efforts by Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson, sucof an American team. The University of Maryceeded on all counts with their Atlas multicopter. land’s Gamera helicopter had already succeeded in Their flight lasted 64 seconds and reached 3.3 meeting Sikorsky’s altitude and duration requiremeters altitude. ments, but struggled to achieve the control needed Reichert and Robertson began the project with a to stay within the specified horizontal area during Kickstarter bid that provided $30,000 toward an flights. As Cameron Robertson said in the radio airframe. Altogether, they worked on the Atlas for interview, late in the competition both teams were 18 months. Though their bicycle-powered helicopavidly following each other’s Twitter feeds to keep ter weighs only 122 pounds, it’s larger than most abreast of the latest results. He noted, “It was commercial aircraft, with four sets of rotors that incredible how neck-and-neck it was at the end.” are each 66 feet in diameter. Reichert supplied For more on AeroVelo’s Atlas and the winning pedal-power for the winning performance in June, Todd Reichert makes history, flight, see aerovelo.com. Nan Siegel though Robertson pointed out in a radio interview pedaling for all he’s worth.

©BRUNO BROKKEN/BREITLING SA; RIGHT: AP

2013 EAA AirVenture Deemed a Success

10 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY NOVEMBER 2013

Highlights of the annual Oshkosh, Wisc., event included “Jet Man” Yves Rossy flying with the B-17G Aluminum Overcast (left) and Terrafugia’s flying car demo (right).

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BRIEFING

O

Germany Retires Its Last Phantom

PHOTOS: A. DIJKSTERHUIS

n June 29 Germany became the latest— but by no means the last—country to retire its McDonnell-Douglas F-4F Phantom II fighter-bombers, after 41 years of service. Of the 263 Phantoms used by the Luftwaffe, two-thirds served in the ground support role and one-third in reconnaissance. The F-4 has been undergoing a phasing-out process in a number of air arms. In 2010 South Korea retired the last of its 222 Phantoms, culminating 15 years of progressive replacement with 40 F-15Ks and 140 F-16s. Nevertheless, some air arms

MYSTERY SHIP ANSWER

Germany’s first F-4F roars over Wittmund Air Base before shutting down its engines for the last time.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER VISITOR COMPLEX

are not yet prepared to give up on the unprepossessing but rugged, reliable welterweight. Iran, which bought 225 F-4s in the 1970s, kept its planes flying throughout its 1982-88 war with Iraq, in spite of international sanctions, by smuggling and home manufacture of lesssophisticated components, and several dozen remain operational today. Roughly 8 percent of the 5,195 F-4s built are still in service, and may well remain so into the Phantom’s 60th year.

The space shuttle Atlantis is the centerpiece of a new $100 million attraction that debuted at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on June 29.

12 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY NOVEMBER 2013

The Helio Twin Courier, commonly called the “Twin Helio,” was known to its builder as the H-500 and to the U.S. Air Force as the U-5A/B. It’s an outgrowth of the single-engine Courier short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft designed by Otto C. Koppen, 500 of which were built by Helio in Pittsburg, Kan., between 1954 and 1974. Powered by two 250-hp Lycoming O-540-A2B piston engines, the six-seat prototype Twin Courier made its first flight in April 1960. It featured all-metal construction except for linencovered ailerons. For short-field STOL performance, it had leading edge slats and spoilers, called “interceptor blades,” protruding through the upper surfaces of the wing and consuming 37 percent of the 41-foot wingspan. Flaps covered 60 percent of the wingspan and had a maximum deflection of 40 degrees. The overhead location of the engines gave the pilot superb visibility and minimized damage from debris during rough-field operations. The practical usefulness of the Twin Helio was spotlighted by Helio’s claim that it could land in 309 feet. The twin had a maximum takeoff weight of 5,850 pounds and top speed of 187 mph at 10,000 feet. Air Force funding covered the full production run of seven aircraft, plus parts. In 1962 two appeared briefly with the Air Commando unit at Hurlburt Field, Fla., with the designation U-5A and military serial numbers.Asource attributes military serials to three others that were dubbed U-5B models, but it appears no Twin Helio was ever painted in military markings. The Air Force apparently considered the Twin Helio for the growing war in Southeast Asia—where, in the end, it was never used—but eventually turned all seven aircraft over to the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1964 CIA contract pilot William Andresevic flew a Twin Helio to Bolivia, reportedly for an evaluation by the U.S. embassy but possibly for CIA efforts in support of the Bolivian junta and against rebels that included Cuba’s Che Guevara. By 1967, all seven CIA Twin Helios were turned over to the Indian government—nominally at least, although possibly continuing to operate with CIA crews—as part of an air wing that clandestinely infiltrated Indian commandos into Tibet. One crashed in Tibet in 1967. The others were eventually scrapped.

Robert F. Dorr

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EXTREMES

By Martin A. Bartels

Solar-Powered Odyssey

ALL PHOTOS: REZO/SOLAR IMPULSE/POLARIS, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

“The more you fly, the more energy you have,” says André Borschberg. “In theory, the plane could fly forever.”

Solar Impulse approaches JFK Airport on its final leg across the United States.

F

or a brief time on July 6, in the nighttime sky just south of New York City, pilot André Borschberg and his partner on the ground, Dr. Bertrand Piccard, were forced to contemplate the unthinkable. Solar Impulse, the technologically extraordinary airplane fueled by about 12,000 solar cells splayed across its 208-foot wingspan, had developed an 8-foot tear in the fluoropolymer fabric under its left wing. There was no immediate danger; the tear made the cumbersome plane just a bit more difficult to pilot, but it was manageable. Still, there were a number of things to consider. For instance, use of the air brakes on landing might stress the wing beyond its tolerances. And air traffic control at JFK would need time to rearrange flight patterns (Borschberg wasn’t scheduled to land for at least three more hours)—no small task at one of the world’s busiest airports. A lot could still go wrong. So…worst case scenario: Ditch the plane 14 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY NOVEMBER 2013

and bail out over the Atlantic Ocean? Hearing the news even as it unfolded, I was reminded of what Piccard had told me just days before, during the team’s stopover at the National Air and Space Museum’s UdvarHazy Center at Dulles International Airport. “What if something goes wrong with the solar power system?” I asked him. “Is there some kind of fuel backup?” Piccard laughed. “Oh no, there is no backup. If something goes wrong, well…” He smiled and shrugged. Solar Impulse, trundling along at about 33 mph, was within hours of completing an epic journey across the United States begun a little over two months earlier in San Francisco. The series of flights, launched in early May, had taken almost 106 hours, with the two pilots alternating on each leg of the trip. Until now it had faced no particular structural or electrical problems; in fact, even weather played a factor only once, when the team was forced to

add a leg from St. Louis to Cincinnati to avoid storm fronts en route to Dulles. The Swiss-based team of Borschberg and Piccard possesses the unbridled enthusiasm and optimism required of visionaries. Borschberg, a former fighter pilot in the Swiss air force, is an MIT grad with expertise in mechanical engineering and thermodynamics. Piccard is a medical doctor and psychiatrist whose passion for aviation led him in 1999 to become the first to circle the world nonstop in a balloon. Given their diverse backgrounds, it comes as little surprise that they take in stride such problems as being confined, alone, to a small, narrow cockpit for 20 hours at a time, along with the immense quiet associated with flying a solar plane. “Staying awake is not so much of a problem,” the indefatigable Piccard said during the Dulles layover. “You have to remember, we are flying this new, amazing technology. It’s very stimulating. The most challenging

AP PHOTO

part of flying the plane is weather. It is such a big plane, flying so slowly. There is so much inertia to control. “While you are in the cockpit it is almost silent,” he added. “There is no airplane in the world like it.” “As a pilot, it’s just a gorgeous plane to fly,” Borschberg agreed. “The more you fly, the more energy you have. While you fly during the day you are building up energy to fly through the night. In theory, the plane could fly forever. “There is just the little problem of having facilities for the pilot,” he quipped. The pilots relied on specialized diets and, Piccard said, meditation techniques to remain alert. They were constantly monitored by physicians via a remote electrocardiogram system, roughly the size of a matchbox. Other technology, developed by Swisscom, sent dozens of data points to the ground, tracking temperature, position and relevant structural and motor information. Ultimately, all the technology—not to mention pilot skill—added up to a successful, if very, very slow landing at JFK at 11:09 p.m. on July 6.“It was the most difficult landing [of the journey],” Borschberg said at a New York press conference, something of an understatement. “We had to think of all possible scenarios, including bailing out over the Atlantic. But it was an invaluable learning experience.” The knowledge gained through the various legs of their trip will be put to good use: The

Batteries, which allow the airplane to fly at night, account for a quarter of its weight.

Solar Impulse team plans to circumnavigate the globe in a modified version of the plane in 2015. Meanwhile, the project is not so much about establishing aviation records (the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale notes they set at least five world records) as it is raising awareness about green technology. That emphasis was particularly evident during the team’s June visit to Dulles, where international dignitaries ranging from Swiss ambassador Manuel Sager to recently appointed U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz were on hand. “This project touches on four areas that are important to the Department of Energy,” Moniz said. “Solar energy, energy storage, energy efficiency and materials. This project is advancing solar technology in so many directions. Just a few years from now, people are going to be surprised at where solar energy is because of the various types of technology being put forward here today.” Against the backdrop of aviation wonders at the Udvar-Hazy Center, ranging from the 1903 Langley Aerodrome A to the space shuttle Discovery, it was impossible to avoid the profound sense of being witness to a nexus point in history. “This airport is symbolically the most important point of the entire trip across the United States,” Piccard said. “Not only for the airplane itself crossing the continent, but for the message we would like to share with you. “This project is not about André and me,” he said. “It took a family of 80 companies, most of which did not come from the aviation field.” Piccard noted that corporations such as Solvay, an international chemical group, developed plastics to make the plane lighter. Omega designed an ultra-light (less than 2 kilogram) landing system using LED lights protected by the same plastic used in Swatch-brand watches. And Bayer MaterialScience (part of the same group known for its aspirin) designed rigid foam insulation to help regulate temperatures in the cockpit. Even Nestlé got into the mix, providing personalized diets for the pilots. “Until now people insisted there was no way to bring together industry with the protection of the planet,” Piccard said. “The two were always at odds. But this is proof that there are clean technologies available that can, at the same time, reduce energy consumption and create jobs.”


A tear under the left wing forced the plane to land three hours earlier than scheduled.

Its solar cells are as thin as a human hair.

A special translucent portable hangar enabled the Solar Impulse to recharge its batteries.

Pilot and project cofounder Bertrand Piccard prepares to make a test flight in California.

André Borschberg (left) and Piccard celebrate after the landing at Dulles Airport in June. NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 15

RESTORED

By Edward H. Phillips

A Stearman Is Reborn

PHOTOS: KANSAS AVIATION MUSEUM

The Kansas Aviation MuseumÕs Stearman Model 4D will serve as a proud sentinel of its new Golden Age display

The Junior Speed Mail underwent more of a remanufacture than a restoration to former glory, since so many of its major components and assemblies had to be fabricated by hand. It will be the centerpiece of the museumÕs Golden Age exhibit when it opens next spring.

I

n 1998 the Kansas Aviation Museum (KAM) in Wichita acquired the weldedsteel fuselage and three boxes of parts from a derelict Stearman Model 4D Junior Speed Mail biplane. Those remnants had been rescued in 1971 from destruction at a salvage yard in Tucson, Arizona, by Bruce Bissonette, an aviation writer and historian living in El Paso, Texas. The airplane was one of 40 Model 4s manufactured by the Stearman Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kan. In 1929 designer Lloyd Stearman and aeronautical engineer Mac Short had combined their talents to create the aircraft that many Stearman enthusiasts believe marked the zenith of Lloyd’s creative ability: 16 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY NOVEMBER 2013

the Model 4 series. In addition to replacing the larger but aging M-2 Speed Mail, the Model 4 was aimed at filling a gap in the company’s product line between the large LT-1 cabin biplane and the smaller Model C3R “Business Speedster.” The first production version, the C4A, spawned a family of biplanes powered by various air-cooled radial engines that were designated as the Junior Speed Mail. These included the 4CM, 4CM-1, 4D, 4E and the one-of-a-kind 4DX. Although the stock market debacle of 1929 had devastated the general aviation industry in America (and Wichita in particular), a few major corporations could still afford to buy new aircraft to upgrade their fleets. The mu-

seum’s Stearman initially began its long and multifaceted career by serving with the Texas Company, recognized as a leading producer of petroleum products, including aviation gasoline. On August 7, 1931, company pilot J.D. “Duke” Jernigan took delivery of the airplane at the Wichita factory. Manufactured as Stearman constructor number 4027 and registered as NC563Y, it proudly displayed “Texaco 11” on the sides of its fuselage, looking resplendent in the oil company’s livery of brilliant red, accented by bright white. Walt House, KAM’s historian, noted, “Of the 40 Model 4 biplanes built, eight have been restored to flying condition and two have been rebuilt for static display in museums,”

including NC563Y. In addition to the one in Kansas, three other Model 4Ds are awaiting restoration in the United States. House acknowledged that restoring an 82-year-old airplane to its former glory has been challenging. Lon Smith, KAM’s director, described the Stearman’s rebirth as a “testament to the devotion and dedication of our hardworking volunteers, their attention to the perfection of the restoration, their love of the institution” and its mission to preserve and promote Wichita’s rich aviation heritage. The turning point in the project came in 2005, when the Women of Wichita donated $20,000 to launch NC563Y’s restoration. The money “allowed the restoration shop to purchase all of the necessary supplies, materials, parts, dope and fabric to complete the project,” House said. That year work began in earnest, and has since moved forward at a steady pace. Both House and Smith credit progress to a team of skilled artisans—ranging in age from 60 to 87—who have volunteered their time and expertise, collaborating with local shops and suppliers. Like so many biplanes built during the late 1920s and early ’30s, NC563Y was eventually relegated to service as an aerial applicator, or crop-duster. Leading up to America’s entry into WWII, the aging but rugged Stearman was flown by a number of operators, and its airframe underwent major modifications. During its rough-and-tumble life as a duster, the Stearman’s fuselage suffered a number of alterations and repairs. For example, during restoration it was determined that the lower longerons were nearly 3 inches out of alignment where the fixed landing gear was attached to the fuselage. An automotive body shop allowed the team to use its specialized equipment to realign the longerons. In addition to that problem, a number of steel tubes were missing and had to be fabricated. Once that was done, the fuselage was sandblasted, primed and painted. Texaco’s Model 4D was a well-proportioned, balanced design with an upper wingspan of 38 feet and a lower span of 28 feet. The biplane’s 9-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior radial engine produced a bellowing 300 hp and was enclosed in a highly efficient pressure cowling. Developed during the late 1920s by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the cowl improved cylinder cooling while also reducing drag and increasing speed.

Used primarily as an executive transport during 1931-32, the airplane accumulated 1,100 hours in the air before it was repainted in 1933 and renamed Texaco 14. The venerable Stearman remained in service with the Texas Company for another four years before being sold to Hangar Six, Inc., a well-known fixed base operator in San Antonio, Texas. After serving numerous crop-dusting outfits in Mississippi, the well-worn biplane was sold yet again, this time to the recently created Tennessee Valley Authority in November 1941. During its TVA service, the Model 4D joined three other Stearmans that were modified to fly mosquito patrols from Muscle Shoals, Ala. These airplanes were used chiefly to spray insecticides. In 1948 NC563Y was sold to another aerial applicator, Carberry Dusters, based in Fresno, Calif., where it served alongside other Model 4 biplanes well into the early 1960s. According to FAA records, it was finally salvaged on May 18, 1965, after accumulating more than 3,000 flying hours since new. House said that by the time KAM accepted the airplane, all four wing panels and the upper wing center section had long since disappeared. The restoration team fabricated those assemblies “from scratch in our shop,” he noted, “along with the right side horizontal stabilizer and elevator.” The same attention to authenticity and detail that the team devoted to the airframe was applied to restoring the open cockpits. The instrument panels, seats, upholstery and ancillary furnishings were replicated in KAM’s shops without access to any factory drawings, which were unavailable. Instead, artisans re-created the drawings based on dimensions of other existing Model 4Ds. Much of that detailed work was accomplished under the able direction of the Stearman’s project leader, Gerry Sibley. Before final assembly began, the airframe was covered in grade A cotton fabric similar to that used by the Stearman factory in 1931. The fabric was then sprayed with four coats of clear butyrate dope, followed by four coats of silver and five coats of red and white, to match the original Texaco scheme as accurately as possible. Finally, decals were applied to complete the Stearman’s transformation. After eight years and more than 9,000 hours of work, the biplane was at last ready for display. According to Smith, the exhibit is slated to open to the public in May 2014.


In 1931, when it sold for $12,500, the 4D could do 145 mph and had a 720-mile range.

The fuselage frame as purchased in 1998.

A hand-painted “crackle-pattern” instrument panel was based on other Stearman cockpits.

The wheel spats reproduce Texaco 11’s livery.

The plane nears completion after eight years. NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 17

AVIATORS

By Jane Eppinga

Soldier of a New Time

American volunteer pilot Ben Leider was a mercenary in name only during the Spanish Civil War

18 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY NOVEMBER 2013

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

A

lthough the U.S. was nominally neutral in the Spanish Civil War—which pitted Spain’s Nationalists, aided by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, against the Republicans, whose principal ally was the Soviet Union—the struggle attracted more than 2,800 American mercenaries eager to fight fascism. The American volunteers, who served in medical, combat and transportation units, came to be known collectively as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The first U.S. pilots to arrive in Spain, on September 24, 1936, included Eugene Finick, Joseph Rosmarin, Ed Lyons, Arthur Shapiro and Ben Leider. All five had been recruited by the Communist Party in New York City. The Spanish Republic required the volunteers to have 2,500 hours of flying experience, preferably in military aircraft. After testing, the five Americans were found unsuitable for combat and were assigned to flying transports. Had they qualified for fighter duty, they would have received $1,500 per month salary plus a $1,000 bounty on every enemy plane downed. Regardless, Leider believed so strongly in the cause that he turned down the offer of wages. Benjamin David Leider was born on October 18, 1901, in Kishinev, Russia, where many of his relatives were killed in a 1903 massacre carried out by the tsarist regime. The Leiders immigrated to America two years later. Ben graduated from Brooklyn Commercial High School, and after two years at City College transferred to the University of Missouri’s journalism school. There he became an admirer of Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs. Leider fell in love with flying, and borrowed money to purchase a Cessna. He earned his pilot’s license and went on to master aerial photography. In 1930 he got a job with the New York News Association. From 1932 to 1933 he worked on a Works Project Administration project. He joined the staff of the New York Evening Post in 1934, becoming a charter member of the New York Newspaper Guild,

Ben Leider celebrates a success in Spain.

and also the first aerial picket in labor history. During the guild’s first strike he painted a “Join the Guild” sign on his airplane and flew over the publisher’s roof. Newly arrived in Spain, Leider—who had been assigned the alias José Lando—transported officers and arms in a Lockheed Vega. He wrote his father,“I have more than enough of everything and I wouldn’t miss the show here for all the weeping of all the mothers in the world.” His pleas for a more active role were rejected until 1937, when his commander finally relented and sent him to combat school. Leider began flying the Breguet 19 light bomber and reconnaissance plane. During his one week of training, however, his landings were often too slow, sometimes resulting in collapsed undercarriages. Leider reported for duty at Alcala de Henares with the 1a Escuadrilla de Chatos, under the command of Captain Andrés Garcia LaCalle. The squadron was equipped with Russian-built Polikarpov I-15 biplanes, nicknamed Chatos, or “snub-nosed ones.” LaCalle objected to Leider’s flying combat, claiming he was overage and incompetent. But fellow pilots admired the American for refusing pay in order to fight the Fascists. In February 1937, after he claimed a Hein-

kel He-51, Leider wrote his father: “Yesterday, the 13th was my lucky day! I had my first combat and downed my first Heinkel!…Now if anything happens to me I haven’t been a liability.” Some claimed the American never actually fired a shot—that the German took evasive action, clipped a tree and crashed. On February 18, LaCalle’s Escadrilla, along with a Soviet I-15 and an I-16 squadron, formed a Lufbery circle above what the Republicans described as 85 He-51s (actually 25 Fiat C.R.32 fighters). When several Fiat pilots tried to lure stragglers away, Leider took the bait. Going after what looked like easy targets, he soon had three enemy fighters on his tail. According to fellow American pilot Frank Tinker, Leider’s Chato shuddered, then dived toward the ground and slammed into a hill. Three rounds had penetrated the cockpit, one passing through Leider’s leg. LaCalle’s version of events was different. He claimed that as Leider dived away from the Lufbery circle, a “Heinkel” locked onto his tail. LaCalle came to Leider’s assistance, blasting his assailant from behind with machinegun fire. He then signaled the American to head for home. But halfway there, LaCalle realized Leider had disappeared. However it happened, Ben Leider was the first American airman killed in the Spanish Civil War. Leider was initially buried in Spain. In July 1938, his family requested that his remains be returned home. On August 18, his casket was paraded through Times Square to a memorial service at Carnegie Hall, with an honor guard of Abraham Lincoln Brigade members. Rabbi Benjamin Plotkin commented that Leider had been “no mere adventurer, no conventional hero, but a soldier of a new time who, loving humanity and sensitive to its sufferings, was glad to sacrifice his life for a noble cause.” A children’s colony in eastern Spain, founded to house orphans from the conflict, was named in the fallen American airman’s honor: La Casa Ben Leider.


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LETTER FROM AVIATION HISTORY

By Carl von Wodtke

Sequestered Skies

U.S. AIR FORCE

That sound you heard overhead this summer probably wasn’t the distant roar of a military jet in full afterburner. More likely it was the din caused by hoards of 17-year cicadas. With the sequestration resulting from our do-nothing Congress’ failure to pass a budget, military aircraft—including the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and Navy Blue Angels—have been conspicuously absent from airshows. At the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisc., July 29-August 4, the usual lineup of military fighters and transports was missing from the main plaza, replaced by warbirds, civil airplanes and experimental aircraft. Thunderbird pilot Major Caroline Jensen, a Wisconsin native who was on hand to talk about the demo team, told ABC affiliate WBAY: “A lot of us are working The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform at Travis AFB in 2011. Due to on our education, professional development, budget cuts, the team has not appeared at an airshow since March. so there’s been good things that came out of it. But I’m hoping next year we get to fly and come back and grace the skies of Wisconsin.” Let’s hope so, but with the current battle in Washington over the budget and deficit, don’t count on it. The EAA fought its own battle prior to AirVenture when the Federal Aviation Administration decided in May to charge the association $447,000 to provide air traffic control staffing at Wittman Field, “the world’s busiest airport” during the event. In the past the FAA had picked up the tab as part of its annual $15 billion budget, but this year changed its tune when faced with the prospect of more than $600 million in sequestration cuts. The FAA’s decision touched off a legal battle, with EAA Chairman Jack Pelton stating that the agency was “holding AirVenture and [general aviation] hostage this year. AirVenture and other GA events are pawns in the larger sequestration political standoff.” The EAA pointed out that AirVenture attendees already pay for FAA services through aviation fuel and airline ticket taxes, and claimed the ATC fee amounted to double dipping. On July 19, following a similar effort by 28 U.S. senators, a bipartisan group of 30 congressmen sent a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in support of the EAA, stating, “This event…is a catalyst for promoting the aviation industry as a whole on a global scale. Its more than 700 exhibitors from 48 states and around the world derive hundreds of millions of dollars in sales of aviation products and services, resulting in tens of millions in federal tax revenues.” In the end the EAA, with no other viable options, was forced to pony up, though Pelton said, “This isn’t over.” More disturbing than the impact of sequestration on events like AirVenture has been its effect on U.S. military aviation readiness. Automatic budget cuts have forced the cancellation of training flights essential to maintaining military pilot proficiency.“Since April we’ve been in a precipitous decline with regard to combat readiness,” noted General Mike Hostage, commander of the Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Although a shift in funding allowed some flight training to be restored in July, Hostage said, “…what we have ahead of us is a measured climb to recovery.” Unless Congress can reach a deficit-reduction agreement before the new fiscal year begins on October 1, the sequester will trigger an additional $52 billion in automatic defense cuts. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) called that an “unthinkable reality.” If you agree, call or write your representatives—today—and urge them to do their job.


NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 21

T

Supermarine Aviation engineer Reginald J. Mitchell battled cancer while working on the Spitfire, and didn’t live to see his iconic fighter design go into production. 22 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY

NOVEMBER 2013

RAF MUSEUM HENDON

entered squadron service 75 years ago, it was exactly the right airplane at the right time for Britain. But if not for the dedication of one man, it might never have been built By Nicholas O’Dell

PHILIP MAKANNA/©GHOSTS

he silver aircraft, displaying the familiar lines of history’s most legendary fighter, banked to land at the British colony of Singapore on New Year’s Day 1951. Switching off its engine, Group Captain Wilfred Duncan Smith may have reflected on the significance of the mission he had just led: The attack on Communist positions in Malaya was the last combat operation of a Royal Air Force Spitfire. Eleven years earlier, in a chapter as glorious as any in its tumultuous history, Britain stood alone against a cruel enemy and handed him his first defeat. To meet that challenge it fielded, just in time, barely enough of Supermarine’s magnificent fighters. To the British, the Spitfire was more than a machine. It was an icon—like the name itself, a symbol of the nation’s defiant stand against the Nazi juggernaut and a boost for the morale and spirit of its people. But the fighter nearly didn’t leave the drawing board, and its designer, a figure of almost Shakespearian triumph and tragedy, never saw it go into production. Twenty-five-year-old engineer Reginald J. Mitchell was appointed chief designer of Supermarine Aviation in 1920, and over the next 16 years would be responsible for 24 different aircraft—fighters, bombers and flying boats. Supermarine was one of the few British airplane manufacturers to make a profit during the Depression. It produced flying boats, elegant airborne examples of the boat-builder’s craft, with fabric-covered wings, taut bracing wires and varnished mahogany hulls. One, the luxury Air Yacht, allowed the wealthy to “cruise” between Mediterranean resorts. The more utilitarian Walrus amphibian would rescue many airmen from the sea in World War II. Mitchell developed Supermarine’s wartime N60 into the Sea Lion, at 150 mph faster than many fighters, to win the 1922 Schneider Trophy flying boat race, which was fortuitous. Italy had won the two previous events, and a country winning three times in succession would possess the trophy in perpetuity, which would have meant the end of the races and likely precluded the Spitfire’s development. America’s 1923 success with Curtiss CR-3 Navy racers convinced Mitchell that future winners would not be flying boats but floatplanes, with stressed-skin monocoque construction instead of fabric-covered tube frames. His S4 monoplane was a quantum advance, with cantilever wings and a 700-hp, 12-cylinder Napier Lion engine. U.S. Army Air Service Lieutenant Jimmy Doolittle, later to lead the famous April 1942 raid on Japan, won in 1925 (the races were now held in odd-numbered years). But Mitchell’s S5 and S6 triumphed in 1927

and 1929. The S6, powered by a Rolls-Royce R engine, began a relationship that would be crucial in future years. Victory in 1931 would gain the trophy forever for Britain, but, due to the Depression, the government withdrew support. Nor could Supermarine afford to fund a new racer—a devastating blow to Mitchell and his team. Lady Lucy Houston saved the day by donating £100,000 to underwrite the effort. RAF Flight Lt. John Boothman flew the S6B, its Rolls-Royce R developing a staggering 2,350 hp, to win at an average 340 mph over the seven-lap course. The second S6B later set a world air speed record of 407 mph, remarkable for

Resurrected from the sands of Calais, where it force-landed in May 1940, Spitfire Mark I P9374 is the oldest of its distinguished line still flying today (see “Restored” in the May 2013 issue).

an aircraft carrying huge floats when the fastest fighters of the day could only reach about 250 mph. In little more than a decade, the stimulus the races gave to aircraft and engine technology had resulted in speeds leaping from not much faster than express trains to well over half the speed of sound. After the exhilarating years of races and records, Supermarine continued building flying boats but encouraged Mitchell’s team, which had designed every British Schneider Trophy winner and had more experience in high-speed flight than anyone else, to compete for the RAF’s new fighter designs. Air Ministry officials still favored open-cockpit biplanes and, since

most RAF airfields were grass, insisted on low landing speeds. Mitchell set out to convince them that multi-gun, high-speed monoplane fighters would be crucial in a future war. Supermarine was now part of Vickers-Armstrongs, a giant engineering and armament company. Chairman Sir Robert McLean gave the go-ahead for a private venture, a plucky decision during the Depression. In late 1934, some enlightened Air Ministry personnel authorized £10,000 to help fund construction of a prototype to meet specification F.37/34’s 275-mph requirement. The resulting Type 300 exceeded it by more than 60 mph. Meanwhile Mitchell was facing a personal crisis. Two years earlier he had had surgery for colon cancer, almost dying on the operating NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 23

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The first Mitchell design to use the Rolls-Royce R engine, the S6 N247 won the Schneider Trophy race at Calshot in September 1929.

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table. The grim prognosis would have induced most men to slow down, or even retire. But while convalescing in Europe, he met some Luftwaffe pilots, witnessed Germany’s rearmament and belligerent leaders, and returned home convinced that war was inevitable. This plus the knowledge that his time was short galvanized him into even greater exertion. Departing from the ministry’s specifications freed Mitchell from design constraints. The narrow-angle V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin (see “The Magnificent Merlin,” September 2009) allowed a slim, monocoque fuselage. Mitchell insisted on the wings being as thin and as strong as possible, with low drag, superior maneuverability, mild stall characteristics and high-speed capability—an apparent engineering

Mitchell (right) admires his S6. Its successor, the S6B, would give Britain permanent possession of the Schneider Trophy in 1931.

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conundrum that even the brilliant Willy Messerschmitt never solved. The resulting double-ellipse shape, largely the work of Beverley Shenstone, with a main spar of hollow sections slotted into each other, was exceptionally strong and had a low loading of 26 pounds per square foot. The Messerschmitt Me-109’s was closer to 40 psf, allowing the Spit to outturn it—a critical factor in a dogfight. Despite their thinness, the wings could house eight .303-inch machine guns (later four 20mm cannons), ammunition belts, undercarriage, coolant and oil radiators, flight controls and other essentials. The design was so advanced it could reach high Mach numbers. In 1943 Squadron Leader J.R. Tobin dived a Spitfire XI to an indicated airspeed of 675 mph (Mach 0.92). Flight Lieutenant “Marty” Martindale landed safely in 1944 after his overspeeding propeller departed the aircraft with a bang at 606 mph. And in 1951 Flight Lt. Ted Powles flew a Griffon-powered PR XIX to 51,550 feet, a world record for piston-engine aircraft. When cockpit pressurization began to fail, Powles had to lose altitude rapidly, reaching 690 mph—Mach 0.94. (The Me-109’s controls tended to freeze in a high-speed dive, as many an unfortunate Luftwaffe pilot discovered just before augering in.) Vickers test pilot Jeffrey Quill wrote: “That any operational aircraft off the production line, cannon sprouting from its wings…could easily be controlled at this speed when the early jet aircraft such as Meteors, Vampires, F-80s etc. could not, was extraordinary,” especially when almost nothing had been known in the 1930s about aircraft behavior at transonic speeds. The Spitfire wasn’t a great deal heavier than the legendary lightweight Japanese Zero, which had no armor, bullet-proof windscreen, selfsealing tanks, starter motor or, usually, radio. In a moderate wind the Spit could be airborne in 50 yards, while the heavy P-47 Thunderbolt needed closer to 500. Spitfire pilots on shared airfields would take off and perform rolls while Thunderbolts labored to get off the ground.

RAF MUSEUM HENDON

Mitchell sits on the running board of his automobile, surrounded by other Supermarine personnel: (from left) Joseph “Mutt” Summers, H.R. “Agony” Payne, S. Scott Hall and Jeffrey Quill.

Marshall Hugh Dowding, later to head Fighter Command, possessed a keen interest in technology and a stubborn nature. In charge of the RAF’s technical development, he believed “the best defense of the country is fear of the fighter,” and urged the development of advanced fighters and another weapon that would prove decisive: radar. Without Dowding the Battle of Britain could have been lost in a matter of days. But the prototype Spit was slower than the Hurricane. Unless its top speed improved, the project was dead on arrival. With a modified propeller design, as test engineer E.H. Mansfield wrote: “Jeffrey [Quill] went off and did a set of level speeds with it. When he came down he handed me the test card with a big grin and said, ‘I think we’ve got something here.’ And we had…348 mph, which we were very pleased with.” Further improvements, and more powerful Merlins, would

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Supermarine’s fighter names had to begin with “S” and signify something small and ferocious. Mitchell’s creation almost became the uninspiring Shrew until chairman McLean suggested shortening his daughter Annie’s nickname, “Little Spitfire.” Mitchell was not impressed: “Just the kind of bloody silly name they would choose.” This superb blend of structural strength, agility and high-speed capability made its maiden flight on March 5, 1936. With an engine of massive torque in a light airplane, test pilot Captain Joseph“Mutt”Summers began the takeoff roll 35 degrees from his intended direction when airborne, a legacy of racing seaplanes, which would swing nearly 90 degrees before they left the water. Summers found it easy to counteract any swing with the rudder. After an uneventful flight he directed, “I don’t want anything touched”—not that the aircraft was perfect, he just wanted the controls left as he had set them, for the next flight. The new fighter was a huge departure from previous designs (the contemporary Hawker Hurricane, for all its admirable qualities, was essentially a monoplane development of the Hart and Fury biplanes). The ministry’s new specification F.16/36 so closely replicated Mitchell’s design that it was more a case of the specification being rewritten to meet it, rather than vice versa. But Mitchell still had to contend with officialdom, tradition and myopic thinking. Right up to the Battle of Britain, a majority in the Air Ministry held that radical new fighters were a waste of resources. It was inconceivable to them that France—with a 550,000-man army, its “impregnable” Maginot Line, modern warplanes being developed, and more and better tanks than the Germans—could fall. There would be no fighters dogfighting over Britain; only bombers could reach it from Germany. High speed was unimportant: A few squadrons of Hurricanes—at least 100 mph faster than contemporary bombers—would suffice. The 1936 budget called for 68 bomber squadrons and only 20 fighter squadrons. Mitchell wrote: “A lot of people felt that the Spitfire, although it had a good performance…was going to be a much more expensive and difficult aeroplane to mass produce and a much more complicated one to service.” Fortunately for the Spitfire and Britain, Air Vice

After his successful flight in the first Spitfire prototype, K5054, in March 1936, Summers declared, “I don’t want anything touched.”

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duction aircraft was awarded. (Edwards-Jones later confessed that he’d almost wrecked the only Spitfire by nearly landing wheels-up, a common error by pilots used to fixed undercarriages. At his suggestion, production planes had warning horns.) The Spitfire and Hurricane made their public debut at the annual RAF Hendon pageant. As the new fighters tore across the sky, the awed crowd heard for the first time the glorious song of the Merlin engine, a sound that would soon become familiar. As it turned out, however, the prototype Spitfire was the only one to fly for two years. The contract awarded was tiny, in view of the more than 22,000 eventually built, but the prospect of converting a hand-built protoSpitfire Mark Is of No. 19 Squadron line up at Duxford in May 1939. Note the original two-blade props. type into a production machine caused consternation at Superraise this to more than 360 mph in time for the Battle of Britain. marine. Its workers were craftsmen, not large-scale manufacturers; Mitchell was not out of the woods yet. Some thought that, due to its their biggest previous order had been for 79 flying boats for delivery at racing origins, the aircraft would be too difficult for average pilots to the rate of 10 per year. They’d never made 310 of anything, let alone handle. In May 1936, the RAF evaluated the prototype. Aircraft and something as difficult to produce as the Spitfire. Those elliptical wings Armament Establishment commander Flight Lt. Humphrey Edwards- had almost no straight lines and, with their multipart main spar, were Jones, who had taken it up to 34,700 feet, was asked whether it could not easily mass-produced. The fuselage and wings required creating be flown by ordinary squadron pilots. “Yes it can,” he declared, “it was special tooling, and the intricacies involved in making even minor a delight to fly.” On this recommendation, a contract for 310 pro- parts, plus Supermarine’s inexperience in subcontracting, resulted in painfully slow production, even as war clouds gathered. At WWII’s outbreak, the RAF had only nine Spitfire squadrons, and when the aerial battles moved to England in 1940, only 11 more. Fortunately, there were many more Hurricanes. Despite knowing that he was living in the shadow of death, Mitchell maintained control of the project and never slackened his pace. He would either be in the design department or at the airfield, taking notes and discussing a flight with the pilot. He even obtained his pilot’s license, saying he could better understand the challenges pilots faced. On some tests he would follow the Spitfire into the air and study it in its natural element. Ground crew refuel and rearm a Spitfire Mark Vb of No. 222 Squadron at North Weald during 1942. In 1937 the cancer returned, 26 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY

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and he met it with characteristic fortitude. He died on June 11, secure in the knowledge that his creation was performing as he had hoped and would soon be in RAF service. He was only 42. Chief Draughtsman Joseph Smith succeeded him and would supervise the development of the fledgling aircraft into the Mark I fighter, and its successors up to the final Mark 24. On August 4, 1938, Quill delivered Spitfire K9789 to No. 19 Squadron, the first operational example of what would become the backbone of the RAF’s fighter force until the jet age. Squadron Leader Henry Cozens, the first RAF pilot to fly it, had started on Sopwith Camels in 1917, and ended flying Gloster Meteor jets. Remarkably,

the Battle of Britain had inevitable consequences. Miroslav Lisutin, a Czech pilot training at Grangemouth, recorded that of the 30 student pilots on the course, six were killed in flying accidents. Bert Hall, who had flown S.E.5a fighters in World War I, related that seven men died in the first week of his course in Scotland. Pilots were going into action with less than 10 hours on Spits. The first encounters between Spitfires and Messerschmitts, during the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation, generally ended in a draw, although in one battle, on May 26, Spit pilots claimed six Ju-87B Stukas and six Me-109Es destroyed for no losses. While Spitfires were outnumbered by Hurricanes two to one in the Battle of Britain, they had a greater

Wingspan: 36 ft. 10 in. ¥ Length: 29 ft. 11 in. ¥ Height: 9 ft. 10 in. Weight: 4,598 lbs. (empty), 5,935 lbs. (fully loaded) Power: 1,030-hp Rolls-Royce Merlin III with de Havilland variable-pitch prop Armament: eight .303-in. Browning MGs

ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN BATCHELOR

Maximum speed: 367 mph Climb rate: 2,175 ft. per min. at 9,700 ft. Service ceiling: 34,400 ft. Range: 395 miles

SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE MARK IA K9789 survived the war, only to be scrapped in 1945. Compared with its main adversaries, the pugnacious Me-109 and Focke-Wulf Fw-190, the Spitfire might have looked too delicate for a combat aircraft, but for all its elegant lines it was a deadly and efficient killing machine. And tough. Spits have hit the ground, bounced off the sea, punched through trees, cut high-tension lines, collided in the air, been shot to pieces, lost rudders, ailerons and parts of wings—and brought their pilots back. One, shot down at low level, somersaulted along the ground shedding wings and tail, but its pilot walked away. Like a powerful sports car, however, it could be unforgiving of careless or inexperienced handling. Drastically shortened training during

psychological effect. “Achtung, Spitfire!” would strike fear into Luftwaffe aircrews. Many German pilots had an unfounded contempt for the Hurricane, and when shot down refused to believe they had been vanquished by the supposedly obsolescent plane: “It must have been a Spitfire!” When asked by a frustrated Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring what he needed to win the air battle over England, an exasperated Major Adolf Galland, whose Me-109s were compelled by Göring to escort the bombers at the ideal altitude for interception by the Spit, famously replied, “An outfit of Spitfires for my squadron.” Luftwaffe records show a loss of 1,636 aircraft—47 percent of the Me-109s, 66 percent of the Me-110s and 45 percent of the bombers

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Officer Bill Dunn. Pilot Officer Rebuilt and back in the air John Lynch, credited with 10 vicwith the Battle of Britain tories outright and seven shared, Memorial Flight, Spitfire topped the list. Sixty-eight more Mark XVI TE311 displays of his fellow countrymen, flying the refinements that kept in regular RAF units or the RAF the fighter in frontline Eagle Squadrons, including such service through World legends as Don Gentile and Don War II and beyond. Blakeslee, would achieve some of their ace totals flying the fighter. When the U.S. entered the war, in a reverse lend-lease, more than 600 Spitfires equipped three USAAF fighter groups and one U.S. Navy unit. RAF Spitfires also escorted U.S. bombers before the P-51 Mustang appeared. After sustaining heavy losses during early daylight bombing missions, the Americans were happy to have Spitfire XIIs of the RAF’s Tangmere Wing with them. In 1943 they escorted B-17, B-24, B-25 and B-26 formations to targets in France, sweeping ahead of the main bomber formations and then providing escort cover. The wing received the following message from Maj. Gen. Frederick Anderson, commanding the U.S. VIII Bomber Command: “American Bomber Crews are enthusiastically grateful for the splendid fighter cover provided today by the Spitfire Pilots of your Command. Following are typical comments of our crews: ‘As we were leaving the Target area a heavy formation of enemy fighters flew in to attack but almost immediately they were chased off by a strong formation of Spitfires. On the way home about mid-Channel one of our ships with half its tail blown off dropped out of formation. A couple of Spits went to the aid of the crippled bomber immediately, circled the ship and brought her home safely.’ Capt. Carrol D. Briscoa: ‘The Spit cover was perfect. I’d like to thank them personally.’ ” The Supermarine Spitfire was the only Allied aircraft to be in frontline service from the first to the last days of the war and, with its Seafire carrier version, continued so for 15 years, the longest of any WWII combat aircraft—a testament to the soundness of the original design and its potential for major modifications. They saw action in 1950 in the Korean War Inchon landings. During its 11-year continuous production run, engine power would more than double and top speed increase by 100 mph.

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that had begun the battle in July. More devastating was the loss of thousands of trained airmen, either killed or taken prisoner. Luftwaffe aces Theo Osterkamp and Günther Rall (history’s third highest scoring fighter pilot) said Germany never recovered from these losses in men and machines, and they were felt most severely during the campaign in Russia. The Spit may not have “won” the Battle of Britain, but without it the RAF would surely have lost. Luftwaffe General Werner Kreipe described the battle as a “turning point in the Second World War….the German Air Force was bled almost to death, and suffered losses that could never be made good throughout the course of the war.” RAF Wing Cmdr. “Johnnie” Johnson, with a record 38 confirmed victories, said: “Men came from every corner of the free world to fly and fight in the Spitfire…and all came to love her for her thoroughbred qualities.” Several dozen, from the British Commonwealth and many other countries, became aces. Seventeen scored more than 20 victories, notably Irishman Brendan “Paddy” Finucane (32), Canadian George “Screwball” Beurling (31), South African Adolph “Sailor” Malan (27), Australian Clive Caldwell (28), American Lance Wade (22) and New Zealanders Colin Gray (27) and William Crawford-Compton (21). Two legless pilots flew Spitfires: Sub-Lt. Colin Hodgkinson and legendary Wing Cmdr. Douglas Bader (20). Pilot Officer “Red” Tobin scored the first confirmed victory by an American in a Spitfire, downing a Dornier Do-17 on September 15, 1940. The first of 13 Americans to achieve ace status in Spits was Pilot

Douglas Bader swings one of his “tin legs” into a Spit’s cockpit.

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The 27-liter Merlin was replaced by the 35-liter Rolls-Royce Griffon from the Mk. XII on. With Luftwaffe bombers carrying more armor plate to protect engines and crew, four of the original eight .303-inch machine guns were replaced by two 20mm cannons. Later marks mounted four cannons, giving the Spitfire greater firepower than the Korean War F-86 Sabre jet. The Spitfire appeared in more versions (24) and roles—interceptor, fighter-bomber, ground-attack, night fighter, floatplane, liaison, folding-wing carrier plane and long-range photoreconnaissance—than any other fighter. It was used by more Allied nations in WWII (nine), including 1,343 by the Soviets, and postwar countries (32). The Spit originated unarmed photorecon in 1939. The later PR X, with extra fuselage and internal wing tanks, had a range of nearly

1,700 miles, more even than the long-legged P-51D Mustang. PR Spits took the first photos of the Ruhr dams after the May 1943 “Dambuster” raid, and of the Peenemünde V1 and V2 secret weapon sites. The last Spitfire, a 454-mph Mk. 24, left the factory on February 24, 1949. On June 9, 1957, a PR19 landed after a meteorological flight— the last operation by an RAF piston-engine fighter—ending an era without equal in aviation.
RAF veteran Nicholas O’Dell last wrote for Aviation History about the Dambuster raid (July 2013). For additional reading, he recommends: The Story of the Spitfire: An Operational and Combat History, by Ken Delve; Spitfire: The Biography, by Jonathan Glancey; Birth of a Legend, by Jeffrey Quill; and The Spitfire Story, by Alfred Price.

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Vanished!

In the 75 years since the Hawaii Clipper disappeared, no one has figured out what happened to the flying boat and its crew By John J. Geoghegan

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few minutes before 6 a.m. on July 29, 1938, Pan American Airways Captain Leonard Terletzky taxied the Hawaii Clipper out of Apra Harbor, Guam. Terletzky was more than halfway through the six-day, 9,000-mile flight from Alameda, California, to Hong Kong. He’d already made stops in Honolulu, Midway, Wake Island and now Guam. Manila, Macao and Hong Kong were still to come. The longest part of the trip (Alameda to Hawaii) was behind him. Half the passengers had disembarked in Honolulu, leaving only six to be ferried by Terletzky’s eight-man crew on the island-hopping voyage across the Pacific. Other than leaving Guam 29 minutes late, everything on Pan Am trip No. 229 was running smoothly. As Terletzky throttled up the big Martin M-130’s engines, the flying boat surged forward and began to skip across the wave tops. Fully loaded, the 52,000-pound aircraft needed 45 seconds to get airborne. Since the M-130 was just shy of 50,000 pounds leaving Guam, it took almost that long for it to clear the waves. The Hawaii Clipper was a thing of beauty. An all-metal, high-wing flying boat with a riveted hull, it was 91 feet long and 25 feet high, with a 130-foot wingspan. One notable feature was its sponsons, or sea wings, near 30 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY

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the waterline. These improved stability on the water, replacing the wing-mounted pontoons found on many other flying boats. In addition to providing aerodynamic lift, they kept ocean spray off the tail surfaces during takeoffs and landings. When Juan Trippe, Pan Am’s CEO, set out to establish the world’s first transoceanic air service, he needed a flying boat with greater range, speed and payload than the Sikorsky S-42 the company was then flying. After a design competition between Sikorsky and Glenn Martin, Trippe settled on ordering three Martin M-130s at a cost of $417,000 apiece. Pan Am’s transpacific service was the first of its kind when it kicked off in November 1935. Though it was initially limited to airmail and freight, passengers followed within a year. The M-130’s four Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines were important to its Captain Leonard Terletzky already had the longest leg of the Pacific flight behind him when he took off from Guam in the Hawaii Clipper on July 29, 1938.

success. Any two of the 950-hp engines could keep the flying boat aloft. And with a 3,200mile range, a cruising speed of 130 mph and a 17,000-foot service ceiling, the M-130 had the chops to cross the Pacific. The Hawaii Clipper had already enjoyed a notable career. Built in Martin’s Baltimore factory, it was the third of Trippe’s M-130s (the first was the China Clipper, the second the Philippine Clipper). Delivered to Pan Am in March 1936, the Hawaii Clipper flew to Honolulu in May, where a 14-year-old girl fittingly christened it with coconut water. In October of that same year, the Hawaii Clipper completed the first scheduled passenger flight across the Pacific. Pan Am’s chief pilot, Captain Edwin C. Musick, was at the controls along with navigator Fred Noonan. That flight put Musick on the cover of Time magazine, helping to establish him as one of the world’s most famous pilots. Noonan gained notoriety the next year, when he served as Amelia Earhart’s navigator. Obviously, it was a mixed blessing. In April 1937, the Hawaii Clipper completed Pan Am’s 100th Pacific crossing without a single passenger fatality, a remarkable accomplishment given the risks inherent in transoceanic flight’s early days. Terletzky’s job in July 1938 was to uphold the airline’s reputation for safety and reliability. The 1,600-mile leg between Guam and ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF LOSTCLIPPER.COM

The third Martin M-130 delivered to Pan American Airways, the Hawaii Clipper flew to Honolulu in May 1936, where 14-year-old Patricia Kennedy formally christened the flying boat with coconut water.

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A cutaway illustration reveals that the M-130 was divided into several well-appointed compartments, with sleeping berths to the rear.

Manila normally took 12½ hours. Since the Hawaii Clipper had enough fuel for nearly 18 hours in the air, there was a comfortable safety margin. Leo Terletzky was flying one of the era’s most advanced airplanes. The M-130 not only had dual flight controls and a double hull, but also a Sperry automatic pilot. The flying boat boasted six watertight compartments (any two of which could keep it afloat) and every conceivable safety device. These included three radios (a primary, auxiliary and emergency set), a saltwater still, hundreds of small balloons that could be released as search markers, inflatable life rafts, signal flares, a shotgun, fishing tackle and enough food to keep 15 people alive for a month. Four “international orange” stripes were painted on the wing tops, to help search and

rescue personnel spot the plane if it was forced down at sea. Once the Hawaii Clipper was airborne, Terletzky settled back into his red leather pilot’s seat. As a senior captain, he had more than 9,000 flying hours, 1,600 of which had been spent over the Pacific in an M-130. He was also Pan Am’s “best sailor,” which meant he knew how to handle a Clipper on the water. One of the first pilots hired by Andre Priester, Pan Am’s famous head of operations, Terletzky had spent almost 10 years flying the company’s South American routes before he was transferred to the Pacific Division in 1936. Pan Am’s pioneering use of multiple flight crews meant there was ample experience in the cockpit on July 29, 1938. First Officer Mark “Tex” Walker had more than 1,900

hours’ flying time, the majority in transpacific operations. Second Officer George M. Davis topped 1,000 hours of transpacific flight logged. Even the cabin steward, 40year-old Ivan Parker Jr., was making his 26th Pacific crossing. Before departing Guam, Terletzky had learned of a slight tropical depression near the Philippines. Scattered thunderstorms were typical summer weather in the Pacific, but he played it safe and plotted a course south of the depression.

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an Am’s Pacific Clippers were paradigms of luxury, with service modeled after that aboard Pullman railroad cars. A round trip to Hong Kong (including meals and overnight hotels) cost a whopping $1,937 (roughly

Beached on its trolley, the Hawaii Clipper displays the hull sponsons that made wingtip pontoons unnecessary and provided extra lift.

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$32,000 today). But for luxury, convenience and speed, the Clippers couldn’t be beat. As noon approached that day, the cabin steward was busy preparing lunch: consommé, creamed tuna on toast and fruit cocktail. The aircraft’s main cabin was divided into several compartments. Sleeping berths were near the plane’s rear, with separate bathrooms for men and women. There was also a comfortable lounge amidships where passengers could stretch their legs, read or write letters. Smoking wasn’t permitted, but there was

vation Squadron, was on his way to monitor the Japanese bombing of Canton. French wasn’t the only passenger with proChina sympathies. Also aboard was 45-yearold Edward E. Wyman, vice president of export sales for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Wyman’s company wanted to sell fighter aircraft to the Kuomintang, something the Japanese would not have been pleased about. Perhaps the most unusual passenger was 38-year-old Wah-Sun Choy. An American of

he sent the following message: “Flying in rough air at 9100 feet. Temperature 13 degrees centigrade. Wind 19 knots per hour.... Position Latitude 12 degree 27’ North, Longitude 130 degree 40’ East dead reckoning… Rain…sky above covered by stratocumulus clouds, base 9200 feet…[flying last half-hour] on instruments.” Eduardo Fernandez, the radio operator on Panay Island, near the Philippine coast, acknowledged receipt of the message. But when he indicated that he wanted to transmit the

Fresh from Martin’s Baltimore factory, the Hawaii Clipper flies over Maryland’s Middle River during its March 1936 shakedown flight.

plenty of opportunity to play cards, backgammon or checkers, and conversation generally flowed freely in the 60 hours of flight time between California and Hong Kong. Given the ticket price, it’s no surprise the Hawaii Clipper’s passengers were a distinguished lot. Dr. Earl B. McKinley, a noted bacteriologist and the dean of George Washington University’s Medical School, was carrying two new serums to test at the Culion Leprosy Colony in the Philippines. Fred C. Meier was the principal plant pathologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He too was on his way to the Philippines, where he planned to study disease transmission in the upper atmosphere. Kenneth A. Kennedy, Pan Am’s Pacific Division traffic manager, was making the flight to check out the company’s overseas operations, which had recently been disrupted by the Japanese invasion of China. Major Howard C. French, commander of the 321st Obser-

Chinese descent who called himself “Watson,” Choy was the wealthy owner of a small New Jersey–based restaurant company. He was so enamored with Pan Am’s flying boats that he’d named two of his cafes after the China Clipper. Choy was on his way to Hong Kong to visit his mother and sister, and also hoped to see his brother Frank, an air force pilot with the Nationalists. He was carrying $3 million in gold certificates (approximately $50 million today), which, as head of the Chinese War Relief Committee, he intended to donate to Chiang Kai-shek.

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erletzky began encountering rough weather shortly before lunch. Soon the Hawaii Clipper was bucking headwinds and plowing through heavy clouds fat with rain. The flight’s 33year-old radio officer, William McCarty, was sending routine position reports every halfhour at that point. At 12:11 p.m. local time,

latest weather report, McCarty responded: “Stand by for one minute before sending as I am having trouble with rain static.” Fernandez did as he was told. But when he tried raising the Hawaii Clipper 60 seconds later, there was no response. It wasn’t unusual for a plane to temporarily lose contact. The Hawaii Clipper wasn’t due in Manila for another three hours, so Fernandez decided to wait before raising any alarm. But as time passed and he still couldn’t contact Terletzky’s plane, he grew worried. Clearly something was wrong. At 12:49 p.m. Fernandez alerted all stations to stand by on emergency frequencies. The Hawaii Clipper was missing. Since McCarty’s last reported position was only 300 miles off the Philippine coast, Pan Am expressed confidence that the Hawaii Clipper had landed safely in the water and would soon be found. When time passed and the flight failed to arrive in Manila, however,

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those hopes dimmed. The day before the crew departed AlaThe U.S. Navy immediately organized one meda, it had even participated in an emerof the largest sea searches in its history. By gency landing test, including an “abandon midnight that same day, at least 14 ships from ship” drill that involved deploying a life raft. Manila’s 16th Naval District, including six Captain Terletzky and his crew had reportsubmarines and three destroyers, left port. edly been in “the best of spirits” during their Additionally, the U.S. Army dispatched six stopover on Wake Island. Nothing seemed long-range Martin B-10 bombers to survey out of the ordinary. the flying boat’s last known position, while eventy-five years later, the quesfour amphibious planes scoured the Philiption still remains: What happine coast. pened? If the flying boat suffered The Army transport Meigs, which had a structural failure, wreckage been only 103 miles away from where the would have been spread across the Pacific, Clipper presumably went down, immediately and searchers should theoretically have spotchanged course. When the vessel arrived at ted it. But the Clipper had simply vanished. the specified location at 10 that evening, it Not a trace was ever found: no debris, no oil was raining and overcast. Still, Meigs’ crew slick, nothing. started to search right away. By the time the Since then, there’s been no shortage of destroyers arrived, the weather had cleared theories about what happened to the Hawaii and the seas were exceptionally calm, with Clipper. Some have speculated Japanese fightwinds only 6 to 8 mph. In other words, con- Chinese air force pilot Frank Choy (left) ers shot it down. Others say it must have been ditions were ideal for finding debris from a with brother Wah-Sun “Watson” Choy. sabotaged. After all, at least three of the six plane crash. The next day Meigs reported finding a S-42B flying boat that exploded in midair, passengers aboard could have been construed large oil slick about 28 miles south-southeast killing everybody onboard, including chief as having anti-Japanese sympathies. Still, of the Clipper’s last known position. Samples pilot Ed Musick—and it seemed like Pan there’s no evidence to support either theory. Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in the were taken and sent for analysis. On August 2, Am’s luck had run out. Though the Samoan Pan Am’s China Clipper retraced the route of Clipper wasn’t carrying passengers at the Pacific the year before only added to the its missing sister ship. Nothing turned up. time, Musick’s death came as a shock. And Clipper mystery. Retired U.S. Air Force pilot Joe Gervais was researching her disappearFinally the U.S. State Department asked the now the Hawaii Clipper had gone missing. Japanese government for help. Tokyo rediMartin’s M-130s had compiled an extraor- ance when, in November 1964, he was shown rected the liner Canberra Maru to Douglas dinary safety record up to July 1938. A total of the wreckage of a flying boat on the Pacific Reef, but its crew found no sign of the miss- 228 flights had preceded the Hawaii Clipper’s atoll of Truk. Believing it might be the Hawaii ing aircraft there. across the Pacific, logging nearly 15 million Clipper, Gervais forwarded photographs to By August 5, when the search was sus- passenger miles without serious incident. The Pan Am for examination. He was especially pended, more than 160,000 square miles had missing aircraft had been thoroughly in- interested in stories that native guides told been covered. The samples from Meigs’ oil spected prior to leaving Alameda and at him about 15 Americans who had been exslick showed it was actually bilge water from a Honolulu, Midway and Wake Island. Ad- ecuted by the Japanese before the war and ship. The Hawaii Clipper had simply vanished. ditionally, a Guam ground crew had hauled buried under a concrete slab on a nearby Pan Am offered a reward for information, the flying boat out of the harbor for a detailed island. But when Pan Am reviewed Gervais’ but none of the resulting leads panned out. inspection, and everything appeared to be in photos, the wreckage proved to be that of a Short Sunderland flying boat. One man claimed to have seen an airplane fine working order. The story didn’t die there, burst into flames and crash however. In his 2000 book into the Samar Sea. Another Fix on the Rising Sun: The man on Lahuy Island reClipper Hi-jacking of 1938, ported seeing a large airplane Charles N. Hill wrote that he flying above the clouds on the believed the Hawaii Clipper afternoon of July 29. An aerial had been commandeered by search of both areas came up two Japanese naval officers empty-handed. who had stowed away in the It had been a rough year baggage compartment while for Pan Am. The Pacific the aircraft was at Guam. Division lost half a million Then, armed with a revolver, dollars in 1937. Add to that they committed the world’s the loss in January 1938 of the first skyjacking. Hill specuSamoan Clipper—a Sikorsky Another view of the new Clipper’s christening ceremony at Pearl Harbor.

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lated that the officers had diverted the flying boat to a Japanese-occupied island and eventually to Truk, where the passengers and crew were executed. Motivation for such a hijacking has varied depending on the source. Some believe the Japanese wanted to copy the M-130’s design for their own flying boat, while others think they actually wanted to get their hands on its engines. Hill’s theory is that the Japanese were determined to prevent Watson Choy from delivering $3 million in gold certificates to Chiang Kai-shek. Guy Noffsinger, a former Navy intelligence officer who now heads up his own video production company in Washington, D.C., has spent the last 12 years trying to solve the Hawaii Clipper mystery. Noffsinger raised nearly $4,000 to fund a February 2012 trip to Micronesia, his second such journey to the region. Using ground-penetrating radar, he searched under several concrete slabs for the bodies of the Hawaii Clipper’s missing passengers and crew. Though he has yet to find evidence of their remains, Noffsinger is still “110 percent convinced” that they must have been murdered by the Japanese and buried near Truk. We do know that Martin had been concerned about the safety of the M-130’s sponson struts, and recommended replacing them. John Leslie, Pan Am’s Pacific Division engineer, had tested the replacement struts two months before the Hawaii Clipper disappeared and concluded neither the old nor the new struts were safe. The negative publicity surrounding that issue was probably responsible for Trippe’s never doing business with Martin again. After World War II there were rumors that American military officers had found the Hawaii Clipper painted in Japanese colors at Yokosuka naval base in Japan. A slightly different version of the story, often repeated by Trippe, was that magnetos bearing the same serial number as those from the Hawaii Clipper had been found on Japanese engines. There is no firm evidence for these claims.

It’s possible Captain Terletzky may have been a factor in the plane’s disappearance. A 1938 company newsletter commemorating Terletzky called him “one of Pan Am’s most distinguished flight commanders,” but his peers considered him an average pilot at best. Some had even refused to fly with him. Horace Brock, who eventually became a Clipper pilot, had flown several times as Terletzky’s first officer. He claimed the Pan Am pilot had “confided his fear of flying” to him. Others maintained that Terletzky performed erratically in the cockpit

yet be discovered and the investigation completed at that time.” Despite the many elaborate theories surrounding the Hawaii Clipper’s disappearance, the most likely explanation is that the flying boat was a victim of mechanical or structural failure, poor weather, pilot error—or some combination of these factors. Though no wreckage was ever found, the Pacific is a big place. It can easily swallow a plane without any trace. Pan Am’s Pacific operations continued to face financial difficulties, something the Clipper’s disappearance did nothing to help. Even though the U.S. government would eventually grant a higher airmail subsidy to offset the company’s losses, there was not enough demand to make the route profitable. Trippe was deposed as CEO in 1939, and Pan Am’s M-130s were soon supplanted by Boeing’s larger B-314 flying boats. But World War II finally put an end to the Clippers’ short, glamorous career. In 1979 Horace Brock noted in his book Flying the Oceans, “There is no question but that [Terletzky ran] into a very bad storm.” Perhaps the turbulent weather caused a catastrophic structural failure related to the sponson struts. It seems unlikely we’ll ever know for sure. But until someone comes up with conclusive The Hawaii Clipper’s mysterious disappearance made headlines around the world in July 1938.

and had infected his flight crews with his own anxiety. Ed Musick reportedly had serious misgivings about Terletzky’s competence, and once even tried to ground him. The Air Safety Board of the Civil Aeronautics Authority convened an investigation into the Hawaii Clipper’s disappearance. The final report concluded: “A number of theories have been advanced as to the reason for the disappearance. The board considered each of them…however, [we]…cannot properly include a discussion of conjectures unsupported by facts. The Board, therefore respectfully submits…that additional evidence may

evidence, it’s easier to assume the Hawaii Clipper succumbed to what Brock calls “a predictable tragedy” than to believe it was hijacked by renegade Japanese officers. Either way, the Hawaii Clipper mystery lives on.
John Geoghegan writes frequently about unusual aviation and science topics. His most recent contribution to Aviation History was “Atomic Airships” (January 2013). He is the author of the 2013 book Operation Storm, about Japan’s I-400 submarines and their Seiran aircraft. For more on the Hawaii Clipper mystery, see lostclipper.com.

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The Eagle of Lille

As a leader of Germany’s deadly “Fokker Scourge,” Max Immelmann almost single-handedly took on Britain’s Royal Flying Corps By Don Hollway

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t didn’t take long for Ensign Max Immelmann of the Imperial German Flying Corps, piloting unarmed twoseater reconnaissance planes over the Western Front, to learn that the enemy was shooting more than photographs. The Farman MF.11 diving at him during a June 1915 mission was already obsolete. Immelmann’s LVG B.I was a generation ahead— sleeker, faster, more powerful, higher flying. But the Farman had one thing the LVG didn’t: a machine gun. “Suddenly I heard the familiar tack tack tack tack…and saw little holes appear in our right wing,” recalled Immelmann, who held course for his observer to finish his photography until the enemy’s bullets began striking metal.“If the brute shoots up my engine, there is nothing more to be done!” Diving away, the German pilot nursed the LVG home to Douai. Squadron mates found one round had gone completely through its engine bed and another had nicked the main fuselage spar; had it broken, the whole plane would have folded up in midair. For saving his aircraft, Immelmann received the Iron Cross 2nd Class. He had also learned an important lesson: “It is a horrible feeling to have to wait until one is perhaps hit, without being able to fire a shot oneself!” Max Immelmann was used to learning the hard way. His father, a Dresden manufacturer, died when he was just 7. His mother 36 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY

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raised him to be a vegetarian, nonsmoking teetotaler. A squadron mate later recalled that “in the field he did eat meat, although his real love was ‘mountains of excellent cake’ which he bit into each afternoon.” Such habits did not necessarily endear Immelmann to fellow fliers. His best friend may have been his gray German mastiff Tyras, who slept in his master’s bed.“Of course the brave doggie must go to war with me, and he’s already delighted with the idea!” he wrote home in the first weeks of the war. “He has got a label on his collar, inscribed: ‘War Dog.’” His letters also show an early affinity for a fellow Saxon in Feldflieger Abteilung (Flying Section) 62. Eight months younger than Immelmann, 24-year-old Lieutenant Oswald Boelcke was by that time a veteran of more than 50 missions who had already received the Iron Cross 2nd Class.“We suit one another very well,” Immelmann wrote.“[Neither] of us smoke, and we practically never touch alcohol....He has been flying since the beginning of the war and spent a long time at the front.” In July 1915, when FFA 62 got its first armed two-seater, an LVG C.I with a Parabellum MG14 for the observer, it was assigned to Boelcke. Immelmann and his backseater mounted a captured French machine gun on their LVG. “Although my ‘auxiliary fighter’ is only a makeshift, at least my observer can rattle away with his gun, and that makes a permanent impression on the

French,” he wrote. “In the machines I flew previously a speedy retreat was the best means of defense against enemy airmen. Things are going to be different now.” On July 4, Boelcke and his observer scored the section’s first kill, a Morane-Saulnier L two-seat Parasol monoplane. Later that month the squadron took delivery of a pair of new Fokker E.I Eindecker single-seat scouts. No mere weapon-hauler, the Fokker had a machine gun fixed to the cowling and synchronized to fire between the prop blades. “These little craft absorb my entire interest,” Immelmann enthused. “They are pretty machines, and they are light, speedy and nimble. The pilot flies alone. The machine is designed solely for fighting enemy airmen, and not reconnaissance work.” He practiced his gunnery using ground targets until August 1, when British B.E.2c bombers hit Douai at dawn. Boelcke was first to take off in pursuit, with Immelmann hot on his tail. “There were at least ten enemy machines in the air,” Immelmann recalled. “Suddenly I saw Boelcke go down in a steep dive. As I learnt later, he had a bad gun stoppage, so that he couldn’t fire a shot.” Boelcke could only return to Douai at that point, where he warned everyone, “They will shoot our Immelmann dead!” Meanwhile Immelmann had caught up with a B.E.2c halfway back to Arras. “I dived on him and fired my machine gun,” he

©GLASS HOUSE IMAGES/ALAMY; OPPOSITE ABOVE: ©EYE-STOCK/ALAMY

recounted. “For a moment I thought I was going to fly right into him.” Canadian pilot Lieutenant William Reid, having used his observer’s seat to store bombs, had only a handgun to defend himself. Immelmann’s machine gun repeatedly jammed, and he had to use both hands to clear it, even as he maneuvered to cut off Reid’s escape and dodge enemy fire. The men at Douai watched the whole thing. Immelmann said they later told him that “my turns and glides and my flying in general looked as if I had been in a Fokker for weeks instead of three days.” After some 10 minutes and 500 rounds, Immelmann’s gun either failed completely or simply ran dry. Reid, wounded, coasted down behind German lines, and Immelmann landed to take him prisoner. Awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class for his victory, he took advantage of his newly won prestige to write Tony Fokker, claiming precedence over Boelcke in receiving the first new E.II Eindecker. The two friends had become rivals. It took Boelcke more than two weeks to get his second kill, but Immelmann needed only a week after that to catch up. While the two were flying an evening patrol over the lines on August 26, “Suddenly I saw an Allied biplane attack Boelcke from behind,” Immelmann wrote. “Boelcke did not seem to have seen him.” Immelmann broke up the enemy’s pass, and Boelcke came around. “First he came into Boelcke’s sights, and then into mine, and finally we both went for him....Boelcke’s gun appeared to have jammed, but I fired 300 rounds.” The enemy pilot threw up both arms and Immelmann saw his helmet come off, just before the plane plummeted 7,200 feet to the ground. Boelcke returned the favor on September 9, shooting a Morane-Saulnier off Immelmann’s tail for his third victory. In those early days of aerial combat, these were likely the first recorded instances of leader/wingman tactics. But who was the leader, and who was the wingman? By the end of October, Immelmann had scored his fifth victory, a Vickers F.B.5 “Gun Bus,” and had been mentioned in military communiqués. “Now I shall no longer object to being written up in the papers, since I have seen how everyone at home follows my successes,” he wrote. His enjoyment of his newfound fame was spoiled only by the fact that Boelcke still ran neck and neck with him.“He

Max Immelmann, Germany’s first recognized fighter ace, sports a chestful of medals in addition to the Orden Pour le Mérite, or “Blue Max” (shown in color, opposite above).

If Immelmann then fancied himself the top German ace, it was only until his return to Douai, where he learned Boelcke had also scored his eighth shootdown at almost the same hour. Nonetheless, he commented, “I was never so pleased at one of Boelcke’s victories as I was that day.” At mess the section commander announced, “His Majesty the Emperor has been graciously pleased to confer the highest war order, the ‘Pour le Mérite,’ on the two victors in aerial warfare.” Immelmann and Boelcke were the first aviators and junior officers so honored, and on the same day. (The story goes that Immelmann was decorated first, which is why the Orden Pour le Mérite isn’t nicknamed the “Blue Oswald.”) To top it off, a few days later Immelmann received a new E.IV Eindecker—bigger and heavier, with a twin-row 160-hp Oberursel radial engine. He was now one of the world’s top-scoring fighter pilots, flying the world’s top combat aircraft.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

claims to have shot down five enemy machines, but one of them landed on its own territory,” groused Immelmann. “If I counted all those, I should have at least seven.” By January 1916, Immelmann had seven victories confirmed. On the morning of the 12th he dived head-on at a Gun Bus about 9,000 feet above Bapaume. The initial pass devolved into a turning fight in which the Eindecker had the upper hand. Immelmann put more than 100 rounds into the Vickers when “All of a sudden a reddish yellow flame shot out from his engine, leaving a long trail of smoke behind him.” Though he was wounded and his observer dead, British pilot 2nd Lt. Herbert Thomas Kemp managed to land his ship and jump clear. Immelmann set down nearby, and the two of them watched the Vickers burn. “You are Immelmann?” Kemp asked him. “You are well known to us. Your victory today is another fine sporting success for you.”

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Immelmann sits in the cockpit of his Fokker Eindecker after a mission in October 1915.

The German and his seventh victim, a Morane-Saulnier LA downed on December 15, 1915.

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Boelcke, whose fame would eventually rest on his Dicta, the rules of air combat and unit tactics that he authored, would subsequently do much of his fighting against the French over Metz and Verdun. The air war against the British, over Lille, fell almost solely to Immelmann and his Eindecker. More of a loner, Immelmann gained notoriety because he was feared, though he seems to have been an indifferent shot and, in a dogfight, not so much skilled as persistent. He once wrote, “I do not employ any tricks when I attack,” and never claimed to have performed the “Immelmann turn,” much less ever took credit for it. A climbing half loop with a roll-out at the top (but in the low-powered planes of the day, probably more of a wingover), the maneuver may have been named after Immelmann by British pilots. He and Boelcke led the “Fokker Scourge,” making “Fokker Fodder” of Allied airmen, but since he scored no confirmed kills from early January through early March 1916, it could be said that Immelmann, the “Eagle of Lille,” owned his piece of the sky thanks largely to reputation. “[Enemy airplanes] never come to Douai now, except sometimes in formations of ten,” he wrote in early February. “It has been said in the House of Commons and in a French meeting that the supremacy of the air is no longer in the hands of the French or English.” “Until the Royal Flying Corps is in possession of a machine as good or better as the Fokker,” proclaimed British headquarters, “it seems a change in the tactics employed becomes necessary.” Meanwhile, however, Immelmann and Boelcke were discovering that the Fokker E.IV was, if more robust, inferior overall to the E.III. Twice the cylinders meant twice the weight, twice the unreliability and twice the torque effect on maneuverability, but not twice the performance. Flying above the lines on March 2, Immelmann had to dive away from an attacking Morane-Saulnier L two-seater, which was escorted by a Morane-Saulnier N monoplane with its own forward-firing gun, flown by Sergeant Toné Bayetto. Unable to overtake them as they flew uncontested right over Douai, the Eagle of Lille “considered whether it would not be better for me to land, for I could simply do nothing with my engine.” He settled on cutting off the enemy’s retreat. As he put it, “Then the fun began.” Bayetto plunged to the attack. Dodging, Immelmann forced the two-seater down, but reported: “I

Immelmann’s sketchbook includes a three-gun Fokker E.IV prototype (above left) and a British biplane exploding in midair (below).

could not make up the lost 500 meters of height with my bad engine and secondly I had a gun jam. So I let the monoplane buzz off in the direction of Lille and went home.” Nevertheless, that March was the Eagle’s best month. He scored five victories, including a Bristol Scout around noon on the 13th and a B.E.2c that evening, his first double. A fellow pilot recalled: “At first, he was not pretentious. Later, after receiving many orders, he became a bit vain....He loved to have himself photographed each time he got a new medal.” Immelmann’s squadron mates began addressing him as “your exalted Majesty.” Still Boelcke kept pace. By month’s end their scores stood even, at 13. Immelmann’s E.IV boasted twin machine guns, which was fortunate for him, as he needed every advantage against new British planes and tactics. Two days after Easter he took on a pair of the new Airco D.H.2 pusher biplanes of No. 24 Squadron, the Royal Flying Corps’ first all-fighter unit. He started out with a height advantage, but quickly found

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himself hard-pressed: “The two worked splendidly together in the course of the fight and put eleven shots into my machine. The petrol tank, the struts on the fuselage, the undercarriage and the propeller were hit. I could only save myself by a nose-dive of 1,000 meters. Then at last the two left me alone. It was not a nice business.” Fellow pilots noted their ace had by this time lost some of the spring in his step, one writing he’d become “a bundle of nerves lately.” Immelmann also fell behind in his letter writing, and only secondhand accounts survive of his final weeks. On the last day of May, leading three Eindeckers against seven Vickers between Bapaume and Cambrai, Immelmann had let off a long burst of fire when his E.IV began vibrating, almost out of control. He cut the fuel and ignition and, as the 14-cylinder rotary spun down, saw that his interrupter gear had malfunctioned. Half a prop blade was gone, sawed off by his own guns, and the lopsided prop had shaken the Oberursel

almost out of its nacelle. He barely managed to crash-land. It was no isolated incident; while testing a three-gun E.IV, Tony Fokker himself almost shot off his own prop. With the Allies deploying dedicated fighter units, Immelmann and Boelcke undertook— against opposition from their superiors—to have Germany follow suit. Immelmann, now a triple ace, was tapped to lead one of the first Jagdstaffeln (fighter squadrons), but it was not to be. Late on the afternoon of Sunday, June 18, Immelmann led four Eindeckers in pursuit of four British F.E.2b two-seat pushers of No. 25 Squadron. With one machine gun firing forward and another mounted high to fire backward over the upper wing and prop, the “Fee” was no easy prey. Immelmann succeeded in forcing one down near Arras, but only after his E.IV took serious hits to its struts and wings. It was still undergoing repairs at dusk when 25 Squadron sent another flight over the lines. In a fateful decision, Immelmann followed his men up in a reserve E.III.

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STAN STOKES

As a Vickers F.B.5 goes down smoking, Immelmann’s Fokker E.III heads into the half loop followed by a roll that came to be named after the German ace.

stream of shots. His 17th victory fell away in a steep dive, to land behind German lines with its pilot mortally wounded. Another Fee came down behind Immelmann. Pilot 2nd Lt. G.R. McCubbin reported: “By this time I was very close to the Fokker and he apparently realized we were on his tail, and he immediately started to do what I expect was the beginning of an ‘Immelmann’ turn. As he started to turn we opened fire.” Observer Corporal J.H. Waller let go a burst

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

A major dogfight had developed high above Loos. Four of Immelmann’s squadron mates were mixing it up with four Fees. To the northeast, two Fokkers were tangling with four British planes, with two more Eindeckers hurrying toward them to even things up. Adding to the confusion, German flak batteries were pumping shells into the melee. Shooting off a white flare to signal the antiaircraft guns to hold their fire, the Eagle of Lille plunged to attack an F.E.2b, rattling off a long

German military police guard the mangled remains of Immelmann’s E.III on June 18, 1916.

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from his forward Lewis gun as Immelmann’s Eindecker crossed their nose. “The Fokker immediately got out of control,” recounted McCubbin, “and went down to earth.” One of Immelmann’s squadron mates testified his leader attempted to climb as if to rejoin the fight, but something clearly wasn’t right. The Fokker pitched up and stalled over its left wing, bucking and flapping. Witnesses saw the E.III’s fuselage break off behind the cockpit, and both wings tore away as it began its death dive. The engine and cockpit fell more than a mile. Immelmann’s remains were recognized only by his monogrammed kerchief and the Blue Max at his throat. He was one of the first great aces to die in combat, and Germany struggled to come to grips with his loss. Experts claimed his Eindecker had been hit by friendly anti-aircraft fire, or that his interrupter gear had malfunctioned again (one of the prop blades appeared to be sawed off), that the less-sturdy E.III had been unable to withstand the resultant shaking—anything but admit their hero had fallen to the enemy. For their part, the British simply credited the kill to McCubbin and Waller. “It is quite on the cards that our bullets not only got him,

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Among Don Hollway’s many previous contributions is a story about French WWI ace Jean Navarre (November 2012). Further reading: Immelmann: The Eagle of Lille, by Frantz Immelmann; and Early German Aces of World War 1, by Greg VanWyngarden. See more photos at donhollway. com/immelmann.

The ace poses with Tyras, his “War Dog.”

Build Immelmann’s Fokker E.II Eindecker

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ll the major model manufacturers have produced replicas of the Fokker Eindecker, but presently only the 1/48th-scale kit of the E.II flown by Lieutenant Max Immelmann, produced by Eduard from the Czech Republic, is readily available. Although this is a very complicated, fragile model with many parts, it builds into an accurate representation of the important World War I fighter. Eduard’s kit (no. 8156) contains the correct cowling and wings unique to the E.II version. Construction starts with the detailed cockpit, which comprises more than 30 plastic and photo-etched parts. Paint the interior fuselage sidewalls sand, FS-33531, using a drop or two of dark tan, FS-30219, to contrast the pilot’s compartment with the exterior’s faded doped linen. Use an untinted bottle of sand or the slightly more yellow radome tan to replicate the color of the sun-bleached fabric on the airplane’s exterior. The cockpit and forward fuselage is surrounded by a cage of steel tubing that should be painted gray, RLM-02. Paint the seat RLM-02, the cushion leather and drape the etched-metal seat belts into place. Then follow the rest of the instructions for the cockpit construction, which call for parts to be painted wood, steel, brass and flat black, FS-37038. Take extra care when assembling the cockpit, since tolerances are close and any mistakes will prevent the fuselage sections from mating properly. Attach the elevators to the fuselage and then stuff some wet tissue into the cockpit area. Select the correct wing panels and paint the fuselage, wings and elevators sand. Mask the forward fuselage and paint it and the engine cowling parts with a base coat of steel. The metal here appears to be covered with swirls, an effect that you can duplicate by overbrushing with Citadel’s “ironbreaker.” Spray the Oberursel rotary engine with steel, then dry-brush it with flat black to bring out cylinder details. Once the engine is dry, attach the photo-etched ignition harness, glue the finished engine to the fuselage and attach the cowling side panels. Set the basic airframe assembly aside

DICK SMITH

but his prop as well,” commented Waller. “Immelmann lost his life by a silly chance,” declared Boelcke, who was transferred to the Eastern Front to spare his country another such loss. Within the year he would raise his score to 40, only to die in a midair collision with one of his own men. Even more than Boelcke, Immelmann has come to be identified with the Fokker Eindecker, in which he rose and fell. Perhaps he had just been lucky to fly it during its brief supremacy, but then so did many men, without achieving as much. “He had it much more difficult than later fighter pilots,” a squadron mate recalled of Max Immelmann after the war,“…because in 1915-16 there was much less aerial activity. His number of victories was not as large…but they were harder earned.”


and construct the landing gear struts, which should be painted RLM-02. Paint the wheel hubs the same shade as the fuselage and the tires flat gull gray, FS-36440 (since German rubber wasn’t colored with lampblack in WWI, it looks light gray). The underside of the fuselage’s top forward portion holds the rudimentary instrument panel. Attach the single Spandau machine gun, which fired through the propeller arc, to the fuselage. Note that an etched-metal cooling jacket is provided for the gun, along with an ammunition belt and spent shell collector chute. Select the correct prop for the model, paint it wood and then brush it with clear orange to give it a varnished, high-gloss appearance. A profile of the markings for the Eindecker Immelmann shared with Lieutenant Oswald Boelcke in 1915 can be found on P. 39 of Early German Aces of World War 1, by Greg VanWyngarden. The kit contains the wing Maltese crosses with white backgrounds and a second set without the white bands. I used only the national insignia crosses and painted my wing upper and lower backgrounds with insignia white, FS-17975. I also sprayed the rudder white and applied the black insignia. Eindeckers were agile fighters that used wing warping. The aircraft had several sets of control cables to enable it to maneuver, and the back page of the kit’s instruction sheet provides a diagram of the rigging. Note there are several methods of applying the wires, which can be stretched sprue or light duty fishing line. I prefer to use .020 stainless steel wire, measured to the proper length utilizing a pair of drafting dividers. Once the rigging is complete, spray on an overall coat of decal sealer and your Eindecker is ready for display. Dick Smith

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B-24H Liberators of the Fifteenth Air Force bomb the oil cracking plant at the Concordia Vega refinery, one of many targets around Ploesti, on May 31, 1944.

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he navigators of the 97th Bomb Group B-17s checked their maps as they approached the Danube River from the north on the morning of June 23, 1944. So far they were on course and on time for their assigned target, the Romanian city of Giurgiu on the border with Bulgaria. The Italy-based Fifteenth Air Force had that day launched hundreds of bombers against targets affiliated with Ploesti and other Axis petroleum production and shipping points. Nearly 70 miles south of Ploesti, the Flying Fortresses pressed through a thick anti-aircraft barrage. During the bombing run on Giurgiu, the B-17F Opissonya was struck by flak and began losing altitude, but pilot Lieutenant Edwin Anderson was determined to put his bombardier over the target. Lieutenant David R. Kingsley crouched over the Norden bombsight in Opissonya’s nose, seeking the aim point. He ignored at42 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY

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B-17 bombardier Lieutenant David R. Kingsley’s sacrifice on June 23, 1944, earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor.

tacking Messerschmitt Me-109s and dropped his bombs through thickening flak. By then the B-17 had taken a beating: Anderson pulled off target with one engine out and serious airframe damage. More 109s pressed in, eager to finish off the straggler. One of them put a 20mm round into the tail gunner’s compartment, wounding Sergeant Michael Sullivan. Unable to call for help on the intercom, Sullivan crawled forward to the waist position. The gunners carried him to the radio compartment and summoned assistance. Now that they had dropped their bombload, Kingsley was the obvious choice to provide first aid. A veteran airman on his 20th mission, Kingsley was not quite 26 years old. Although the lieutenant had washed out of pilot training, he excelled as a dual-rated bombardiernavigator. He was a long way from his home in Portland, Ore. After removing Sullivan’s damaged para-

chute harness and jacket to expose his mangled shoulder, Kingsley managed to slow the bleeding. But the gunner had already lost too much blood; 500 miles from base, Sullivan was going into shock. Then even more 109s arrived. During the course of a prolonged gunfight they shot the Fortress to tatters, forcing Anderson to ring the bailout bell. In the resulting confusion, Sullivan’s chute harness could not be found. Kingsley didn’t hesitate: He removed his own harness and fitted it on the gunner. Sullivan later related: “Lieutenant Kingsley took me in his arms and struggled to the bomb bay, where he told me to keep my hand on the ripcord and said to pull it when I was clear of the ship. Before I jumped, I looked up at him and the look on his face was firm and solemn. He must have known what was coming because there was no fear in his eyes at all.” Dangling in their chutes, the crewmen watched their bomber fall to earth and burn in Bulgaria. The fliers were soon taken prisoner, and their captors later said they had found a dead airman on the crushed flight deck, perhaps having attempted a crash landing. Ten months later the Kingsley family received David’s Medal of Honor. The 97th Group lost three more aircraft that day, while the Fifteenth wrote off five other bombers and four fighters. It was one more tragic entry in the prolonged campaign to turn off the spigot of Adolf Hitler’s Balkan oil. ALL PHOTOS U.S. AIR FORCE, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

POST TIDAL WAVE

In April 1944, the Fifteenth Air Force had begun a four-month campaign to destroy the petroleum refineries around Ploesti. In fact, the Fifteenth was all about oil at that point: Since Romania lay 1,300 miles from the English bases of the Eighth Air Force, Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining’s command had been established on fields surrounding Foggia, on Italy’s east coast—well within reach of the refineries. On August 1, 1943, three months before the Fifteenth was organized, Eighth and Ninth air force B-24Ds had flown a historic low-level mission against Ploesti, suffering spectacular losses. Operation Tidal Wave cost 54 of the 178 Liberators destroyed or interned in Turkey— proof that Ploesti would not be eliminated in a single stroke (see “The Truth About Tidal Wave,” March 2012). Ironically, Ploesti’s first refineries had been built with American backing, but nine decades later Bucharest was allied with Berlin. In addition to the 10 refineries at Ploesti, which produced perhaps onethird of Germany’s oil, there was a wide network of targets like Giurgiu: storage facilities, transportation routes and shipment points. All were interrelated, and all were distant from Italy. From Foggia, Ploesti lay 580 miles to the northeast across the Adriatic. By the spring of 1944, the U.S. Army Air Forces realized that there was no such thing as a knockout blow when it came to these industrial NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 43

sites. A “restrike” policy was clearly needed to keep them operating below peak capacity. General Twining launched his first effort against Ploesti on April 5. Three bomb wings set out to attack the railroad marshaling yards, though only two got through the weather. Marshaling-yard missions reduced Ploesti’s output substantially in April. The Royal Air Force’s No. 205 Group joined the effort, with eight squadrons flying Vickers Wellingtons, Handley-Page Halifaxes and Consolidated Liberators. They contributed about 4 percent of the campaign’s sorties, usually at night, and also mined the Danube, severely limiting oil exports via barge. The first six missions, through May 6, targeted Ploesti’s rail yards as part of the Allies’ overall “transport plan.” But as the Eighth Air Force was learning, railroads were extremely difficult to destroy; they could be repaired in surprisingly short order. The largest Ploesti mission of that first phase involved all five of Twining’s bomb wings, with 485 aircraft dropping some 1,200 tons of ordnance on May 5. It was questionable, however, whether the damage done was worth the 18 bombers and crews lost. Even with upwards of 200 escorting fighters, the Axis defenses took a toll. After 1,320 sorties and nearly 50 airplanes lost, the Fifteenth’s priorities changed. Seven of the 10 refineries circling the city stood within a mile of the rail yards, so it was easy for the Mediterranean air commander, Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, to order a shift of bombing aim points. Nearly two weeks passed before the Fifteenth launched another raid on Ploesti, this time attacking the refineries themselves. The new approach produced results: Persistent restrikes brought production at Ploesti to a near halt just before Bucharest capitulated in late August. The 2nd Bomb Group mission summary for April 24 illustrates the variety of opposition the raiders encountered over Ploesti: “A 40minute fighter attack started at the initial point. Approximately 20 to 30 e/a [enemy aircraft], consisting of Me 109s, FW 190s, and DW 520s

A B-24L breaks up after taking a direct hit over Lugo, Italy. Dozens of bombers shared the same fate during the missions to Ploesti.

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attacked aggressively and caused damage to five B-17s. Flak at the target was both tracking and barrage, which resulted in damage to 28 B-17s [of 36] and injury to one man. Flak was described as intense and accurate.” The Allied gunners were credited with downing two 109s and a Dewoitine D.520. By mid-May, the Fifteenth Air Force had achieved maturity. Twining deployed 21 bomb groups, seven fighter groups and a reconnaissance group. Although his command was half the size of the “Mighty Eighth,” it was still a potent, effective force.

THE DEFENDERS

The two-week respite in Allied bombing also gave the defenders time to adjust. The air defense commander was Luftwaffe Lt. Gen. Alfred Gerstenberg, who had flown in Manfred von Richthofen’s Jasta 11 in 1917. Ploesti already boasted 140 heavy and medium anti-aircraft guns, plus hundreds of smaller-caliber weapons in case of another Tidal Wave. The heavy and medium guns (mainly 88 to 128mm) doubled in number before the campaign ended, and some 40 barrage balloons were added to counter the low-level threat. Heavy flak could be extremely efficient if not always lethal: On one May mission a group reported damage to 33 of its 36 Fortresses, but all returned. Approximately 200 German and Romanian fighters were based around Ploesti, mainly Me-109s and -110s along with locally produced, radial-engine IAR 80s and 81s. The Royal Bulgarian Air Force also contributed 109s and D.520s. Equipped with radar warning and control, the Axis was well prepared to engage approaching Allied bombers. Yet the most effective defensive weapon was the simplest. The Romanians quickly became expert at deploying smoke generators to obscure targets. The Americans rated the smoke screens ineffective on four of the first five missions, but thereafter the smoke proved to be increasingly successful in masking specific areas. Smoke was created

Far left: In the P-38 dive-bombing raid of June 10, 1944, 2nd Lt. Herbert Hatch claimed five “Fw-190s” downed but probably got three Romanian IAR 81Cs. Left: On July 9, Lieutenant Donald D. Pucket stuck with his stricken LiberatorÑ and his wounded crewmenÑto the end, also earning a posthumous Medal of Honor.

by chlorosulfonic acid fed into generators by compressed air. When there were bombers reported inbound, the Romanians cranked up their generators about 40 minutes before the expected strike time. There was ample supply: 1,900 generators, each of which produced smoke for more than three hours, though surface winds could reduce the time during which the screen was effective. Consequently, recon P-38 Lightnings and F-5 “Photo Joes” often preceded the bomber stream, reporting the extent of smoke coverage in a given area. U.S. bombardiers adopted two new methods to cope with the smoke. Blind bombing employed H2X radar in pathfinder aircraft, coordinating the radar image with the bombsight. Offset bombing used an aim point’s known bearing and distance from the target, outside the smoke screen. Both could be effective, but neither was a substitute for direct visual bombing using the Norden. The Fifteenth Air Force concluded that smoke rendered “normal visual bombing virtually impossible.” Among the Royal Romanian Air Force defenders, certainly the outstanding personality was Captain Constantin Cantacuzino, a charismatic nobleman and sportsman. The national aerobatic champion, he easily took to 109s and regarded aerial combat as the ultimate sport. At war’s end he was credited with 47 victories, flying against the Soviets and Americans—and later his erstwhile German allies. Then there was Lieutenant Ion Dobran, who claimed 10 Allied aircraft and was himself shot down three times. Looking back in 2002, he reflected: “We could not wait to meet the Americans [but] the numerical difference was huge. For example, we engaged 15 against 100 and something. The immediate [bomber] protection was secured by the Lightnings, and the Mustangs flew higher, as a strategic reserve, which could intervene where it was necessary. They also strafed roads and railways to attract enemy fighters.” To counter increasing pressure from the growing Eighth Air Force, more Luftwaffe fighters were soon shifted north. By early summer, only two Gruppen of Jagdgeschwader 77 provided the bulk of Luftwaffe fighters in Italy and the Balkans, and attrition took a toll on those as the Fifteenth received P-51s. On April 24, III Gruppe had lost its commander, 70-victory Knight’s Cross recipient Captain Emil Omert, who was shot down by Mustangs.

LIGHTNINGS OVER PLOESTI

Frustrated with the results of conventional bombing, Fifteenth Air Force commanders decided to send P-38s to dive-bomb the Romana

Americana refinery. On June 10, the 1st Fighter Group escorted bomb-armed 82nd Group Lightnings on one of the longest fighter missions yet, a 1,300-mile round trip. The ingress this time would be at low level, in an attempt to surprise the refinery’s defenders before they could crank up their smoke generators. Nothing went according to plan. Amid the 48 escorts that day was Minnesotan 2nd Lt. Herbert Hatch. Distracted by Dornier Do-217s, Hatch’s flight leader had turned toward the “easy meat” when the roof fell in. The Romanian 6th Fighter Group had scrambled 23 IAR 81Cs, which the Americans mistook for Focke-Wulf Fw-190s. “I looked up to my left and there was a whole flock of Fw-190s headed in from 10 o’clock,” Hatch said. “We all broke hard to our left to meet them head on and, as I turned, a lone 190 came across in front of me. He was so close all I could see in my sight was the belly of his fuselage and the wingroots. He wasn’t more than 75 yards away. I opened fire with my four .50-caliber and the 20mm cannon and damned near blew him in half….Shooting at him pulled me further around to my right and I looked up at 2 o’clock and there were another four 190s.” At that point the fight turned to hash. The Minnesotan and his wingman took the offensive, firing whenever an enemy fighter crossed their noses. Hatch saw three P-38s shot down but, turning and climbing, he gunned down four more enemies. He came so close to one of his victims that he lost 3 inches off his left rudder. “I looked up at 2 o’clock and saw another one coming right at me,” recalled Hatch. “It was too late for me to turn. I just shut my eyes and hunched down in my cockpit. I thought I’d bought the farm, but he missed me without even putting a hole in my ship.” Hatch then dived on another bandit and got off a few rounds before running dry. Of the 16 Lightnings of Hatch’s 71st Fighter Squadron that participated in the mission, only eight returned. In all, out of the two groups’ 96 aircraft, they lost 24 to interceptors and AA guns. The Romanian 6th Fighter Group chalked up 23 Lightnings in the confused dogfight, two of which were credited to its commander, Captain Dan Vizanty, for the loss of four IARs. It would be the last major success for the nimble but aging Romanian fighter. With enough warning, the Romanians produced smoke over two of the 82nd Group’s three targets. Post-strike recon photos showed visible damage to the refinery, though it continued to produce oil.

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NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Railway-mounted 128mm anti-aircraft guns stand ready to defend Ploesti. The number of heavy guns doubled before the campaign’s end.

After nearly being cut in half by flak over Debrecen, Hungary, this B-17 miraculously made it back to base.

Smoke and flames rise after a 451st Bomb Group B-24H hits a Ploesti target.

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Waist gunners on a B-24 fend off attacking fighters.

ANOTHER MEDAL OF HONOR

commander, and I had discussed this issue in many a bar and agreed that, inasmuch as the bombardier had little to do for most of the mission, under these circumstances my job would be to get everyone’s attention, and jump so that there would be no “balking” at his order. I hand-cranked the bomb bay doors open (remember, no hydraulic power left), placed my shoes in my A-2 jacket and zipped it closed to prevent them from being jerked off when the chute opened. I got everyone’s attention and stepped off the bomb-bay catwalk into space.

On July 9, some 220 bombing sorties targeted two refineries, including the Xenia complex assigned to the 98th Bomb Group. Lieutenant Donald D. Pucket’s B-24G was hammered by flak immediately after bombs away, with one crewman killed and six others wounded. Two of the Liberator’s engines were knocked out and the control cables were severed. Pucket ordered the able-bodied crewmen to lighten the ship, tossing any loose items overboard as he descended westward. Petersen dislocated a hip in the jump. After Germans scooped up When Pucket subsequently ordered a bailout, five men prepared to jump and headed for the bomb bay. But three others were unable or the airmen, a Luftwaffe interrogator lent the injured airman his own unwilling to leave the aircraft. Ignoring the urging of the ambulatory cot for the Yank’s first night in captivity. Two days later, the Ploesti campaign came to an end. On August 23, fliers, Pucket calculated he had insufficient time to drag the three othBucharest bowed to the inevitable, ers to the bay and shove them out. As breaking its alliance with Germany and the uninjured five leapt into space, he siding with the Allies. The four-monthreturned to the cockpit, trying to conlong campaign had seen the launch of trol the descending, burning bomber. 5,675 bombing sorties, including the The Liberator smashed into a mounP-38 attack, with nearly 14,000 tons of tainside, exploding on impact. Pucket’s ordnance dropped. The sustained effort widow, who received his Medal of cost 282 U.S. and 38 British aircraft, but Honor nearly a year later, remarked, proved that persistent strikes could ruin “Don’s action in staying with his a major industrial complex. In the end, wounded crewmembers and crippled Ploesti’s burned and battered refineries B-24 was what was traditional and were producing just a dribble: a 90 perexpected of the captain of the ship.” cent reduction in petroleum intended As summer peaked, so did the results Fifteenth Air Force personnel demonstrate how Lt. of the persistent bombing, but the Axis Col. James Gunn escaped from Romania in an Me-109. for the Wehrmacht. Reich armaments head Albert Speer and Luftwaffe Field defenses remained formidable. B-24 Marshal Erhard Milch later told Allied bombardier Quentin Petersen, of the interrogators that the bombing cam454th Bomb Group, remembered that paign would have been more effective if at the August 17 briefing, “The curtain the oil plan had been pursued earlier. was pulled from the map to groans Meanwhile, a final drama played out when it was seen that we were going to in that contested region. In late August Ploesti again! [Lieutenant] Colonel Captain Cantacuzino, the leading Ro[James] Gunn discussed this long mismanian ace, cooperated with the senior sion to attack the Astra oil refinery….” American POW in an effort to prevent Approaching the target that day, PeterAllied airmen from being moved by the sen’s Lib fell victim to AA: “The next Germans or “rescued” by the Soviets. thing I knew we were hit by the first flak Lieutenant Colonel Gunn, who had we saw that day. Two of our engines been shot down during the August 17 were destroyed. Pieces and crew of the Colonel Gunn (left) and Romanian Captain Constantin mission and was being held in Bufive leading planes passed by our craft. Cantacuzino toast the success of their freedom flight. charest, wedged himself into an Me-109 Recognizing that some bombs had been hit, I let ours go in salvo. With our oxygen and hydraulic systems shot and the mismatched twosome flew to Italy. Cantacuzino then offered out, we descended to a breathable altitude, assessed the damage, and to lead rescue aircraft to a field near Bucharest, beginning a POW airstarted for home alone, having fallen far behind and been left by all the lift to Foggia. After an American “borrowed” his 109 and ground looped it, Cantacuzino got a quick checkout in a P-51B, in which he other planes remaining from the original formation.” Unable to make it back to Italy on two engines, Lieutenant John performed an eye-watering aerobatic demonstration. He then guided McAullife turned southwest, hoping to reach friendly partisans in 38 B-17s to the field, enabling 1,161 fliers to be returned to safety—a Yugoslavia. The doomed Liberator got as far as Greece, where the crew fitting end to the drawn-out saga that was Ploesti.
abandoned ship. Petersen recalled: Arizona-based aviation writer Barrett Tillman is the author of more Combat crews were not given parachute training. None of us had ever than 45 books and 500 magazine articles. His latest book, due in May jumped! Everyone had heard stories of crews that had been ordered to bail 2014, is tentatively titled The Forgotten Fifteenth: The Daring Airmen out but, because of a “frozen” crewmember, no one jumped and all stayed Who Crippled Hitler’s Oil Supply. For further reading, he recommends in the aircraft and were killed when it crashed. John McAullife, aircraft Fortress Ploesti: The Campaign to Destroy Hitler’s Oil, by Jay Stout.

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BLOWUP

COVEY

BOMB

DUMP

The fireworks didn’t let up for 10 days during the Vietnam War’s most successful aerial interdiction effort against the Ho Chi Minh Trail

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By Thomas R. Yarborough

n the pitch-black early morning hours of December 19, 1970, a U.S. Air Force forward air controller—call-sign “Covey”— directed an attack against North Vietnamese trucks moving south on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. At the controls of his Cessna O-2A, Lieutenant John Browning, Covey 281, had lifted off from Da Nang at approximately 2215 hours, headed for the fabled trail. He began a slow climb to the west and leveled off at 8,500 feet. At the Laotian border he gave the traditional across-the-fence radio call, “Panama,” to the tactical radar control center, switched off all outside navigation lights, unsynced his props, then checked in with “Moonbeam,” the airborne battlefield command-and-control center inside an orbiting Lockheed EC-130. Arriving over the trail, Browning took up a heading for Delta 43, a prominent interdiction point at the 90degree bend in the Xe Kong River near the deserted Laotian village of

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Ban Bak. From sensor readings the intel types swore there had to be an enemy truck park in the area, and Covey 281 was determined to find it. In the O-2’s right seat, forward air navigator Captain Norm Monnig broke out his starlight scope and poked it out the open right window to search for any movement on the dark trail 4,000 feet below. He didn’t have long to wait; shortly after midnight Monnig detected “movers.” While Covey 281 radioed Moonbeam with a request for a tactical airstrike, Monnig used the light amplification from his starlight scope to pick out a convoy of 12 trucks running south without lights along a relatively clear stretch of the trail, designated Route 92. A convoy of that size definitely presented a juicy target, so it was a bitter disappointment when the trucks suddenly veered off the main road and disappeared beneath the jungle canopy. The two Coveys knew the convoy had to be somewhere down there in the darkness, so rather than go home empty-handed, they decided to probe around the area with ordnance from a set of fighters approaching Delta 43. PHOTOS: U.S. AIR FORCE

After briefing Iceman Flight, Covey 281 dropped a marker that ignited on the ground in the general target area, crossed his fingers and cleared the fighters in hot. Using the burning log as an aim point, the two McDonnell F-4 Phantoms dumped their heavy loads of MK-82 bombs right on the money. The exploding 500-pounders were always an impressive sight, especially at night, but this time the dark jungle erupted in an old-fashioned fireworks display. In a matter of minutes the thick foliage had been ripped and splintered away by 28 secondary explosions. Circling overhead, the Covey FACs also counted seven big fires, including two fiercely burning trucks. Browning notified Moonbeam, saying, “You’re not gonna believe what’s going on down here.” Moonbeam replied: “Oh, we believe you. We’re orbiting right over your position and can see the show.” As the O-2 crew watched the jungle burn, neither the Coveys nor anyone else suspected that the fires and explosions at Ban Bak would continue without letup for another 10 days.

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FAC ASSOCIATION

he Air Force’s all-out effort to disrupt the flow of weapons, supplies and troops streaming south from North Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh Trail produced some strange but very effective hybrids. One of the war’s many innovations was the introduction of the forward air controller into the sensitive command-and-control system in Laos’ top-secret war. Air Force commanders inaugurated a program in which FACs flew daily missions over designated sectors of the trail. The FAC became the on-

scene strike controller and referee. With firsthand insight into the situation, the FAC could work out the political kinks of the airstrike through direct radio contact with Laotian officials, with the orbiting command-and-control center or with the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane. The program worked so well that beginning in late 1968 Seventh Air Force planners implemented Operation Commando Hunt to place a constant air umbrella over the roughly 2,000-square-mile sector of the trail contiguous to South Vietnam. That section of roads running down the southern Laotian panhandle was code-named “Steel Tiger.” The Coveys at Da Nang were one of the FAC units assigned to work Steel Tiger around the clock, with North American OV-10 Broncos handling day duty and the O-2s fighting at night. In the lethal airspace above the trail, the low-flying, slow-moving FACs flew against the same big guns that defended Hanoi: murderously accurate 23mm, 37mm and 57mm anti-aircraft artillery—AAA, or “triple-A.” It was a secret war over one of the most remote areas of the world, and it was brimming with weapons. With the 1968 termination of America’s sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam, called Operation Rolling Thunder, there were virtually no U.S. airstrikes north of the DMZ. Safe from that threat, Hanoi upped the ante by increasing its anti-aircraft inventory along the trail by 600 percent, moving 2,000 of its triple-A weapons from the North to locations in Laos, making the Ho Chi Minh Trail one of the most dangerous and heavily defended stretches of road in the world. A single round from any one of those guns could blow an aircraft to bits—and

A Cessna O-2A takes part in a training mission. Flying a similar O-2, a forward air controller (FAC) set the stage for a prolonged battle in Laos late in 1970. Opposite: Bomb blasts along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in February 1971 (left) and a FAC’s-eye view of a jungle target. NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 49

from what the Coveys observed each day and night, the gunners on the trail had plenty of ammunition on hand. NVA strength along the trail eventually rose to more than 10,000 anti-aircraft gunners, 60,000 support troops and 40,000 security troops. Clearly the major network for infiltration, the trail could transport 20,000 NVA soldiers a month from the North into South Vietnam. In response, the U.S. escalated its efforts. By the end of the war, combined American air components had dropped more than 3 million tons of bombs on Laos—2 million on the trail—three times the tonnage dropped on North Vietnam.

tions opened fire against the Americans. By midmorning the sector FAC was reporting, “The stuff’s so thick you can get out and walk on it.” As an added safety measure, the squadron at Da Nang launched a second FAC to fly high cover. His job would be to call out the gunfire, letting the primary FAC concentrate on directing airstrikes. Flying the second OV-10 mission of the day, Captain Larry Thomas ran through the target briefing with Gunfighter 66 Flight. As he was about to mark the target for the orbiting F-4s, Thomas detected a truck sneaking away from the area through a streambed. Using a quick, practiced movement, he selected the left outboard rocket pod on his he story of the aerial interdiction Covey 281 pilot John Browning (left) and armament panel, flipped on the master arm slugfest at Ban Bak first surfaced a Norm Monnig inspect a starlight scope. switch and turned on the gunsight. Then he few years ago with the 2001 declasreefed the OV-10 into a near vertical dive sification of a document titled “20th TASS After Action Re- toward the smoke-filled jungle below. With the fleeing truck lined up port, Ban Bak: Storage Area Strike Summary, 19-28 De- perfectly in his sights, Thomas fired two white phosphorus marking cember 1970.” The report graphically depicts the ferocity of the com- rockets and then yanked the stick back into an eye-watering 5G climbbat, from beginning to end. ing right turn. He glanced back over his right shoulder just in time to At dawn on December 19, OV-10 Broncos picked up where Lieu- see the white smoke of the first rocket hit short and the second one tenant Browning and the rest of the Covey night shift had left off. Not score a direct hit through the windshield. Jubilant, Thomas yelled into only was the burning jungle now bathed in daylight, the battle’s com- the mike: “Hot damn! Scratch one truck and driver!” plexion had also changed. A new infusion of enemy gunners near Ban Gunfighter Lead began cackling about a lucky shot, but Thomas was Bak reacted fiercely, hosing FACs and fighters with an unusually heavy too busy to trade quips. A trio of 23mm and 37mm guns opened up barrage of 23mm and 37mm triple-A. Most Coveys were conditioned simultaneously, pumping more than 600 rounds at the slow-moving by regular hampering fire from guns along the trail, but nobody had OV-10. No matter how he maneuvered, the guns kept tracking, firing ever seen the likes of the flak at Ban Bak. An estimated 30 gun posi- and following him with deadly white and gray airbursts. At one point

PHOTOS: FAC ASSOCIATION

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Captains Don Brown (left) and Pat Sweeney pose with the O-2 Kudy Jay, which participated in the Covey Bomb Dump operation.

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U.S. AIR FORCE

A FAC-flown OV-10 Bronco fires white phosphorus marking rockets at an enemy position in South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta in 1969.

become second nature to him. As he talked, a navigation needle on Black Lion Lead’s instrument panel homed on Haynes’ voice, pointing directly at the low-flying Bronco. Lead banked his flight 10 degrees to the left and continued homing as the FAC spoke: “Do I have a good deal for you––trucks and supplies right out in the open! Target elevation is 2750. High terrain is 15 miles east, going up to 4550. Wind is out of the northeast at less than 10 knots. There are at least 20 23mm and 37mm guns in the area, all active. If you get in trouble, your best emergency bailout is the high stuff to the east. If you end up on the ground, stay cool, work with me, and I’ll save your butt for mama. One last thing: These gunners are really good and they’re mad, so whatever you do, keep it moving and don’t be predictable.” As with all of Covey 262’s airstrikes, the attack proceeded like a wellchoreographed ballet. Black Lion’s bombs touched off 30 secondary explosions. While navigating through the smoke and clouds, trying to determine the nature of those detonations, Haynes ran into an intense

FAC ASSOCIATION

the high-cover FAC saw that Thomas’ aircraft was totally bracketed and obscured from view by exploding flak. Miraculously, the Covey dished out of the bottom of the ugly cloud without a scratch. After spending three hair-raising hours over Ban Bak, Thomas turned control over to Captain Eldon R. “Sonny” Haynes. Before he had a chance to work a single set of fighters, Haynes watched through his binoculars as fires on the ground from Thomas’ airstrike touched off several more large secondary explosions. It was becoming clear that the Coveys had found something a lot bigger than just a 12-truck convoy. The target area was by now an approximately one-squarekilometer inferno, with many fires and detonations visible in all quadrants. As Haynes studied the destruction, his UHF radio receiver announced the arrival of another set of fighters: “Covey 262, Black Lion Flight at base plus 11. We’ve each got eight MK-82s, 10 minutes of playtime. Gimme a hold down, over.” In his easygoing Texas drawl, Covey 262 began the briefing that had

An aerial view of Delta 43, near the 90-degree bend in the Xe Kong River where the Covey Bomb Dump interdiction effort unfolded.

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U.S. AIR FORCE

An OV-10 from the 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron—the Coveys’ outfit—starts its marking run on a target in the Mekong Delta.

O

n the 23rd weather socked in the trail, shutting down virtually all bombing missions against Ban Bak. But the sector FACs reported seeing the eerie glow of fires and secondaries reflecting through the clouds shrouding the bomb dump. Anyone rash enough to venture under the low ceilings found that NVA gun crews still seemed well supplied.

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COURTESY OF THOMAS R. YARBOROUGH

barrage of fire from four 23mm weapons that poured out more than 300 rounds in his direction. Several of the airbursts were so close that the concussion jolted his OV-10. When Haynes returned to Da Nang, the ground crew and several other pilots noted that his face was totally covered with black cordite from exploding flak. The day- and night-shift Coveys directed 35 flights of fighters against Ban Bak on the 19th, touching off thousands of explosions and drawing hundreds of rounds of anti-aircraft fire. Typical of the bomb dump missions was one flown by Lieutenant Arch Battista and his navigator on the 20th. While expending ordnance from Pepper and Gunfighter 10 flights, Battista dodged almost 200 rounds of triple-A. Yet in spite of the deadly groundfire, the two strikes set off 12 large secondary explosions, 15 medium and 65 small secondary explosions. A few hours later Lieutenant Browning returned for his second mission against Ban Bak. With Major William Scannell in the right seat, he directed the strike of a single Martin B-57B, call-sign “Spare.” The results included in excess of 500 medium secondary explosions, 30 large secondaries and so many small secondary explosions that they lost count. And the blasts kept coming. On December 21, the sector FAC observed fuel barrels exploding every few seconds over 2½ hours. During the next three days the Coveys continued to pound Ban Bak. The airborne command-and-control center cooperated by diverting all available strike aircraft to the area, advising the fighters to “Rendezvous with your FAC over the Covey Bomb Dump.” During the night of December 22, Covey 276, Lieutenant Gary Beard, and his navigator, Major Hall Elliott, watched in disbelief as the bombs from Wolfpack 72 Flight ignited a spectacular fireball that reached a height of 2,000 feet. Detonating tracers from the blast shot up to 9,000 feet.

Larry Thomas, Tom Yarborough and Sonny Haynes relax with Muff the dog in the “Muff Divers’ Lounge” at the Covey barracks.

FAC ASSOCIATION

Back at the informal party room in the Covey barracks known as ary explosions. And every time the young Covey rolled in to mark a the “Muff Divers’ Lounge,” excitement kept building. The restless pilots specific target, the enemy gunners responded with a vengeance. stood around talking with their hands and comparing strike results, in Ottom sincerely believed the missions had become a deadly game, a the best traditions of one-upmanship: “I’ll see your two trucks and test of wits and nerve rather than skill. As he pulled off one rocket raise you three more,” or “I’ll see your five large secondaries and raise pass, a pair of 23mm guns opened up with 70 rounds in a classic tail you 500 small ones.” There was even a lively debate surrounding shoot. But this time the play backfired: Tide 71 Flight, holding over the reports that NVA gunners were firing red and green tracers in honor target, spotted the guns and, after receiving clearance from Ottom, of Christmas. blew the positions away with well-placed canisters of CBU-24. In In keeping with the spirit of the season, a Covey had managed to addition to taking out the guns, the exploding bomblets set off hunscrounge one of the tree-shaped acoustic sensors normally dropped dreds of small secondary explosions and seven sustained fires. along the trail to monitor trucks. Several Air Force nurses showed up The destruction at the bomb dump continued through the night of with an assortment of ChristDecember 26, but the mornmas decorations and went to ing of the 27th saw a percepwork, planting the “tree” in a tible decrease in secondaries. trash can filled with dirt. During the remainder of the Decorated with tinsel, orday, the Coveys used 13 sets naments and a star, the of fighters to destroy seven pathetic-looking holiday distrucks and 75 stacks of camplay resembled a surrealistic ouflaged supplies. Christmas tree worthy of The Covey Bomb Dump Salvador Dali. It was the perdrama finally played out on fect addition to the lounge, December 28. During 10 which was then doing landincredible days, Coveys had office business generated logged more than 300 hours partly by holiday thoughts of over one of the most heavily family and friends back in defended targets in Southeast “the World” and partly by the Asia. Flying low and slow, the tension surrounding the lifeO-2s and OV-10s had jinked and-death struggle at the and maneuvered through Covey Bomb Dump. thousands of rounds of antiBy late afternoon on Deaircraft fire without a single cember 26, the weather over loss. By contrast, the enemy the trail broke, and pilots on the ground suffered horribegan radioing back incredibly. More than 340 FACble descriptions. The area directed fighters destroyed 46 around Ban Bak resembled a trucks, 10,000 rounds of vast landscape on the surface ammunition, countless drums of the moon. The jungle was of fuel and well over 1,000 gone, bomb craters pitted the tons of supplies. During the black, scorched ground in all bombardment, the aircrews directions and smoldering counted more than 6,500 secvehicles lay scattered about in ondary explosions and 225 twisted, contorted heaps. sustained fires. By any stanThrough breaks in the clouds dard, the Covey Bomb Dump the fliers could see the billow- A post-strike photo reveals the “moonscape” at the Covey Bomb Dump. operation earned its place as ing smoke and fires from 25 the largest and most successmiles away. And then there was the stench. The smell of burning rub- ful single interdiction effort waged against the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
ber, fuel and cordite permeated everything––cockpit, flight suit, helmet, eyes, nose and mouth. It was actually possible to taste the smell. Colonel Tom Yarborough served in the U.S. Air Force for 28 years, logging Some of the odors were strange and nauseating. The pilots tried not to more than 1,500 combat hours. During his two tours in Vietnam as a FAC, he earned the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple think about those smells. For Lieutenant Rick Ottom, the euphoria of three earlier missions Heart. He is the author of Da Nang Diary: A Forward Air Controller’s against the bomb dump gave way to the grim reality of routine. Tall, Gunsight View of Combat in Vietnam, recommended for further readslender, introspective and good at his job, even Ottom began to feel ing. Also see his companion piece to this article, “Truck Hunting on the Ho the grind associated with missions over Ban Bak. No matter where he Chi Minh Trail,” in the October 2013 issue of our sister magazine Vietnam, directed strike aircraft, their bombs always ignited spectacular second- available on newsstands through October 7 or at historynetshop.com.

NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 53

A forced landing on Greenland’s ice cap set in motion one of the most extensive—and costly—search-and-rescue operations ever mounted By Stephan Wilkinson

I

t was called the Snowball Route—officially the North Atlantic Ferry Route— from Goose Bay, Labrador, to the oneway runway at Bluie West One on Greenland; then across to Keflavik, Iceland, to refuel again; on to Prestwick, Scotland; and finally to England: the UK’s World War II aerial lifeline, flown by freighters as well as ETO-bound bombers and fighters. Route briefings sometimes consisted of showing 200-hour pilots photos of the Greenland coast and fjords. There weren’t many Arctic experts available, other than those aboard the U.S. Coast Guard’s Greenland Patrol cutters and some under the command of Colonel Bernt Balchen, the famous polar explorer stationed on Greenland to establish air bases and oversee search-and-rescue and weather station resupply missions. On November 5, 1942, a Douglas C-53, a paratroop-outfitted version of the C-47, was Snowballing westbound, empty except for its crew of two plus three military passengers returning to the U.S. from Scotland. The Skytrooper never made it, the crew radioing that they’d made a forced landing on the Greenland ice cap and giving an approximate position. The airplane was intact, and apparently there were no injuries.

ONEAIRPLANE DOWN. The next two nights, flares fired by the C-53 crew were seen at a weather station on the Greenland coast, and rescuers set out toward them on motorized sleds. They’d be 54 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY

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back in three or four days if the weather held, the rescuers guessed. But their sleds broke down, and they never found the C-53. The flares were the last that would ever be seen or heard of that airplane and its crew. Meanwhile, a variety of eastbound B-17s, B-25s and C-47s that were either already over Greenland or gassing up at Narsarsuaq—the famous Bluie West One base—were detoured for search duty. One of them was a B-17F originally bound for England. On November 9 it took off from BW-1, assigned to search the area where the C-53’s flares had last been seen. Aboard the Flying Fortress were its original six-man ferrying crew, an Army enlisted man they’d picked up at Goose Bay and two volunteer observers who had jumped aboard at BW-1. They would live to regret their Samaritan offer. The B-17 reached its search area and ran into a bank of low clouds. The pilot, Lieutenant Armand Monteverde, did a 180 around the weather and headed back into the search grid, only to fly into a sudden whiteout. Sky, cloud and ice were the shadowless same. There was no horizon. Monteverde did the only thing he could and banked away to fly back to clearer air. But the B-17’s left wingtip caught the ground, and the airplane skidded onto the ice cap. It was a hard crash, with the bomber traveling only about 200 yards before splitting apart just aft of the wings. The Fortress had come down atop an active glacier, spiderwebbed with crevasses, like landing in the middle of a minefield. The en-

tire broken-off tail section hung over a large open chasm, with another maw yawning just in front of the bomber. One crewman suffered a broken arm, and others had bad cuts and bruises. Just four were unhurt.

NOWTHEREWERETWOAIRPLANES ONTHE ICE. Meanwhile, an RAF Douglas Havoc out of Gander, being ferried through a snowstorm by a Canadian crew, flew past its refueling stop at Narsarsuaq and put down on the ice before it tanks ran totally dry.

THREEAIRPLANES. The Canadians set out on foot for the coast. On November 18, a search plane out of BW-1 spotted the Havoc, but its crew was gone. Five days later, a Grumman J2F-4 Duck from the Coast Guard cutter Northland, hove to in a bay on the southeast coast of Greenland, found the crew’s trail, trod by snowshoes they’d fabricated from pieces stripped from the Havoc. That night, Northland fired off flares, and the Havoc crew spotted them. One of the pilots responded by setting fire to his coat, which in Greenland in late November is a good approximation of burning your bridges. Fortunately, the blazing parka was spotted by crewman aboard Northland, which put a rescue party ashore and found the Havoc crew. The downed B-17’s radioman, Corporal Loren Howarth, had gotten the airplane’s radios working and was in touch with a nearby weather-rescue station. Sixteen airplanes

John Pritchard Jr. and Benjamin Bottoms set out on a rescue mission in a Grumman J2F-4 Duck from the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Northland on November 28, 1942.

ALL PHOTOS: NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Between missions, the floatplane was hoisted aboard Northland and stowed at the ready on the cutter’s stern.

From left, B-17 crewmen Don Tetley and Harry Spencer and pilot Armand Monteverde were among those eventually rescued after their lengthy ordeal on the Greenland ice cap.

were sent out to search for it—15 military ships from Bluie West One and a TWA Douglas DC-4 from Bluie West Eight at Sondre Strom Fjord. BW-8 was Bernt Balchen’s base. Just north of the Arctic Circle, it was already pretty much wintered in, and the civilian Doug was the only airplane on the ramp. After five days of unflyable weather, Balchen himself finally discovered the B-17 while flying the TWA airliner. The same motorsled rescuers who had broken down while trying to find the original rescue target, the C-53, now headed for the B-17, accompanied by an experienced Norwegian dogsledder and his team. Balchen ordered the cutter Northland’s J2F-4 into the hunt as well. On the morning of November 28, the Duck was hoisted over the side, and Coast Guard pilot Lieutenant John Pritchard Jr. and his radioman, Petty Officer 1st Class Benjamin Bottoms, took off for the B-17 crash site. Pritchard overflew the B-17 and radioed its crew for landing advice.“Don’t try it,” Corporal Howarth replied, “crevasses everywhere.” Colonel Balchen, coincidentally, was overhead at that moment in the DC-4, making a supply drop. Pritchard found a smooth, sloped, apparently crevasse-free area a mile north of the B-17 and carefully touched down with his landing gear extended. He landed uphill, and the Duck quickly came to a stop—the very Bernt Balchen (second from left), a famed polar explorer, oversaw rescue operations.

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first successful landing of an airplane on the surface of Greenland’s ice cap. (A PBY copiloted by Balchen had landed on a temporary ice cap lake on an earlier occasion, so the distinction is a fine one.) Pritchard and Bottoms hiked to the B-17, whose commander assigned two walking wounded to return to the Duck and fly out. Pritchard decided to make the takeoff gearup, using the central pontoon as a big ski. That required shoveling the snow from under the main-gear tires until the Duck was resting on its keel, to release the weight on the downlocks so the gear could be cranked up manually. The takeoff was made downhill, and the Duck headed back to Northland. It was nearly dark when the amphibian arrived, so it was hoisted back aboard. By this time the motorsled rescuers were also approaching the B-17. (The Norwegian dogsled team had been forced to quit the search.) The sledders camped for the night

outside the area of crevasses, and it looked like a plan was coming together, with Pritchard due back the next morning. Balchen returned to BW-8 confident that the rescue of the seven remaining B-17 crewmen was imminent. On the morning of November 29, Pritchard lightened the Duck as much as he could, tossing off all extraneous gear. He and Bottoms planned to make two trips that day, snatching to safety more B-17 crewmen. Soon after they took off, however, the weather rapidly worsened. The cutter radioed to its Duck, ordering it back to the ship. Pritchard and Bottoms never heard the recall—or perhaps ignored it. This time Pritchard landed on the ice cap intentionally gear up, sliding to a stop on the airplane’s pontoon. As he was touching down, the Army sledders were approaching the B-17. Only one made it. The other plunged into a crevasse, its driver never to be seen again. To make matters worse, fog was rolling in. Lieutenant Monteverde sent radioman Howarth to the Duck’s landing site to tell Pritchard to get the hell out while he had a chance. Howarth joined the Duck’s crew for the trip back to Northland. Howarth’s decision proved fatal. The Grumman crashed in a snowstorm en route back to the cutter, killing all three aboard.

FOURAIRPLANES DOWN. The B-17 crew had been on the ice for 20 days by that time. The men were sheltering in the broken-off tail section, occasionally resupplied by air when weather permitted, but they were cold, hungry and increasingly frostbitten. Now the tail was in danger of sliding into the chasm over which it was perched, so they cut it loose and moved to a snow shelter they’d built under the right wing. Little

Paws over props: Balchen delivered this dogsled team via a PBY-5A to a camp near the B-17 crash site to retrieve the last three crewmen.

did they know that their discomfort would continue for another five months, though they were just 29 miles from a U.S. Army Air Forces weather-rescue facility called Beach Head Station. An attempt was made to carry the most seriously frostbitten crewman to the station on the surviving motorsled. A mile from the B-17, an ice bridge collapsed and one of the four sledders disappeared into the void. The three survivors continued on another six miles before the sled engine died and they were forced to make camp. Those men would be rescued, but not until two months later, despite the fact that numerous motor- and dogsled expeditions tried to reach them. In mid-December, the Army Air Forces hired an unusual Canada-based ski-plane, a Barkley-Grow T8P-1, for another attempt to reach the B-17. Built by a short-lived Detroit company that eventually became part of Vultee, the T8P-1 looked like a large fixed-gear Twin Beech. The down-and-welded wheels made transitions to either floats or skis simple. Eastbound from BW-1 to the Bluie East Two base three days before Christmas, the Barkley’s Canadian bush pilot encountered a stiff headwind and ran out of gas. He put the twin down on the ice of a fjord in whiteout conditions, landing heavily and wrecking the airplane. He and his navigator, both old Arctic hands, hiked out and found their way to an Inuit hunter village.

FIVE DOWN. Balchen decided he needed PBYs, the go-to bird when everything else has failed. He figured he’d belly-land a Cat near the B-17, just as Pritchard had with the Duck. But there

were only four PBYs on Greenland, and they were desperately needed for convoy patrol duty, since German U-boats were then sinking Britain-bound freighters and troop transports pretty much at will. On January 4, 1943, the Navy finally agreed to provide two Catalinas as long as Balchen “directly supervised the landings.” One day later, an AAF C-45 Twin Beech on skis that had been assigned to the rescue mission disappeared somewhere between BW-1 and BE-2.

cessful PBY belly landing on the ice near the camp where survivors of the ice-bridge collapse had holed up. Balchen rescued the three men, but it wasn’t easy. One of them had already lost his feet to frostbite. Some reports say they had fallen off, others that they were later amputated. The Cat’s hull had frozen to the ice while the survivors were being loaded, and the crew had to rock the airplane by its wingtip floats until, engines wailing, it broke free. Then, as the PBY taxied in circles to keep

SIX. A second C-45 arrived at BE-2 on January 20 and was fitted with skis. It made one test flight and chopped off its ski tips with its props but managed to land safely. Weather and other delays kept Balchen’s two PBYs grounded, though on January 27 a Coast Guard PBY not being “supervised” by Balchen cruised straight onto the ice cap in a whiteout about 50 miles from BW-1. The damage was slight, but the Cat had plugged itself into an area of ice ridges and hillocks where takeoff was impossible.

SEVENAIRPLANES DOWN. On February 5, Balchen and his pilot made a suc-

Pilot John Pritchard (left) prepares to take off from Northland.

NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 57

Huskies Pat and Mopey enjoy an afternoon siesta near a sled team’s tent during the rescue efforts. The snow wall behind the dogs sheltered the tent in 125-mph gale winds.

from getting stuck again, one after another the crewmen jumped in through a waist blister. Just three men remained in the B-17 wreck, barely sustained by airdrops. Balchen again landed in a PBY at the motorsled camp and dropped off a three-man rescue party with a dogsled and nine huskies. The sledders retrieved those last three survivors from the Fortress, though it took them three days to make the 12-mile round trip. Balchen returned on April 5, but the load was too much for his Catalina, which blew an engine while trying to get airborne. Temporary repairs were made, and the next day the PBY took off with only its crew aboard. Even Balchen remained behind, for he would lead the dogsled party off the ice cap to safety. They arrived at Beach Head Station on April 16. The ordeal was finally over for the last members of the B-17 crew. Some of them had spent almost 5½ frigid months awaiting rescue, frequently battered by storms and screaming winter winds. The entire epic cost five rescue planes plus the C-53 and B-17 that were the original objects of the mission. Five men had died—three aboard the Coast Guard Duck and two in glacial crevasses. The Army Air Forces, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Transport Command, Royal Canadian Air The Duck returns from its first sortie with two B-17 crewmen. The floatplane crashed during its second flight, killing Pritchard, Bottoms and B-17 radioman Loren Howarth.

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Force and Norwegian Sledge Patrol had at one time or another been involved in the operation, and dozens of land rescue attempts were also made, most of them unsuccessful. It was one of the most extensive search-and-rescue operations ever attempted. Was it worth it? We’d have to ask the B-17

crew, but we know what their answer would have been.
For further reading, Stephan Wilkinson suggests Frozen in Time, by Mitchell Zuckoff. Also see the article by Captain Donald M. Taub at uscg.mil/history (search for “Greenland rescue”).

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REVIEWS BOOKS SECRETS OF THE SPITFIRE: The Story of Beverley Shenstone, the Man Who Perfected the Elliptical Wing by Lance Cole, Pen and Sword Aviation, South Yorkshire, UK, 2012, $39.95. Reginald J. Mitchell will always be remembered as the mastermind behind the Supermarine Spitfire. But in Secrets of the Spitfire, Lance Cole focuses on the iconic fighter’s most distinctive feature and the man who developed it. Canadian Beverley Strahan Shenstone (1906-1979) was the genius in aerodynamic engineering who gave the Spitfire its elliptical wing. The Greek Apollonius is said to have first coined the term elleipsis for a curved form that was something less than a perfect circle. Since then, many mathematicians and engineers have studied the properties of the curve, including its aerodynamic possibilities. In early 1894, Frederick Lancaster built a series of large flying models with thin elliptical planforms, and in 1906 Danish designer Jacob Ellehammer developed a successful airplane with an elliptical wing. Shenstone, however, was influenced by the studies of Nikolai Zhukovsky, while he was working on the research team of Alexander Lippisch, father of the delta wing, from 1930 to 1931. During the 1930s Shenstone and Lippisch continued to communicate about the flying problems they faced. In retrospect it seems curious that the Germans already knew of Shenstone’s application of mathematical principles toward developing an elliptical wing, while Shenstone already knew about Lippisch’s work on delta wings. In 1937 Shenstone designed the first deltawing bomber, the Supermarine B.12/36. For the Spitfire fighter, he succeeded in designing a double elliptical wing, having resolved the wing’s spanwise airflow circulation control largely based on what he had observed in the development of the Lippisch sweptwing (later used on the Messerschmitt Me-163 rocket plane) and delta-wing shapes. Through his delta-wing work and

his study of German glider designs, Shenstone knew that the behavior of the airflow over the wing, as well as the wing loading itself, were the two key factors in creating an advanced wing. Applied to the Spitfire, it gave Britain a match for the Messerschmitt Me-109E when it most urgently needed such a plane. Anyone interested in seeing how talented engineers seek and find solutions toward improving flight characteristics, and how mathematical theory makes its way from the drawing board to soaring reality, should find Secrets of the Spitfire a satisfying read. Thomas Zacharis FLOAT PLANES AND FLYING BOATS: The Coast Guard and Early Naval Aviation by Captain Robert B. Workman Jr., USCG (ret.), Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md., 2012, $41.95. The U.S. Coast Guard gets short shrift in most military histories, but in Float Planes and Flying Boats, Coast Guard aviation finally receives its due. Written by a former USCG aviator, it tells the story of the Coast Guard’s contribution to the development of naval aviation from its earliest days, before World War I, up to the beginning of World War II. Robert Workman’s narrative focuses on the career of one Coast Guard aviator in particular, Commander Elmer F. “Archie” Stone. Early in 1916, Lieutenant Stone requested permission to undergo flight training at the Navy flight school at Pensacola, Fla. On April 10, 1917, he qualified as Naval Aviator No. 38 and Coast Guard Aviator No. 1. During World War I, when the USCG came under operational control of the Navy, Stone helped develop and test new naval aircraft and aviation equipment, and became a prominent test pilot. In 1919 he was selected to pilot the Navy’s Curtiss NC-4 flying boat on the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The successful completion of that flight brought the Navy great prestige; not surprisingly, the fact that the plane’s pilot had actually been a member of the Coast Guard was played down. Stone was at the forefront of naval aviation developments such as airplane cata-

pults for use on surface warships, as well some of the equipment used on the flight decks of early aircraft carriers. In addition to his work for the Navy, he pioneered the use of aircraft in Coast Guard operations, personally flight-testing many prospective airplane types. By the time of 49-year-old Commander Stone’s untimely death from a heart attack in 1936, the use of aircraft in the Coast Guard—landplanes, floatplanes and flying boats as well as amphibians—was firmly established. Workman has done a superb job of researching obscure material to chronicle a hitherto unexplored aspect of aviation history, including nearly 300 rare photographs of early aviators and aircraft, as well as reproductions of original documents. Float Planes and Flying Boats is sure to be as well received by anyone interested in early aviation in general as it is by students of Coast Guard history. Robert Guttman SPANISH REPUBLICAN ACES by Rafael A. Permuy López, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2012, $22.95. Despite the Cold War, McCarthyism and the general disrepute into which communism has fallen in America, there remains a lingering fascination and sympathy with the Republican cause in Spain. That sympathy is undoubtedly reinforced by the fact that Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany aided the Nationalist effort that established the despised regime of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Rafael A. Permuy López opens his book with an admission that Spanish records related to the war are incomplete, a preface to an in-depth discussion of the nature and organization of the Republican air force, with its initial fleet of obsolete French fighters. These were soon supplemented by Polikarpov I-15s and I-16s furnished by the Soviet Union. The Soviet aircraft and the personnel who accompanied them are described in detail, but the emphasis is on the Spanish aces. López provides a capsule biography for each one, usually with a description of his most famous aerial combat. The Loyalist air force was at a disadvanNOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 61

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tage at the start, for many of its officers had defected to the Nationalist cause. Over time, however, it reestablished itself and became temporarily dominant at various points on the front. Spanish Republican Aces is well illustrated, with more group photos than most books in this series, and ground crewmen are often included in the pictures. The Spanish fliers come across like young fighter pilots everywhere, smiling, eager for combat and loyal to each other. As with all the books in this Osprey series, this one is filled with date and type details of individual victories and squadron war diaries. It complements the publisher’s earlier books on the subject, and includes a variety of interesting and often overlooked nightfighter operations. Walter J. Boyne F3D SKYKNIGHT IN ACTION by Alan C. Carey, Squadron/Signal, Carrollton, Texas, 2012, $18.95 softcover, $28.95 hardcover. Designed by a team led by Edward Heinemann at Douglas Aircraft, the F3D Skyknight was meant to be the U.S. Navy’s first carrier-based night fighter. It needed to be big, robust and a little ugly to accommodate the clunky air-to-air radars of its era. Mercifully spared the worst of the engine problems that plagued most Navy jets designed in the 1940s, the Skyknight never operated in squadron strength from aircraft carriers, although small detachments made 10 cruises. As a land-based warplane, the Skyknight shot down MiGs at night over Korea in the hands of Navy and Marine pilots and radar operators. Redesignated as the EF-10B, the Skyknight flew electronic warfare missions in Vietnam. The bulky, twin-engine, straight-wing Skyknight— don’t ask why Marines called it the “Drut”— was important in early efforts to counter North Vietnamese SA-2 surface-to-air missile batteries. Alan C. Carey, a yeoman historian of Navy and Marine Corps aviation, follows the rigid and workmanlike format established for this series decades ago by Squadron/Signal’s Jerry Campbell. It’s hard to believe the first book in the series appeared in 1971. These

volumes—most, like this one, with eyecatching cover art by Don Greer—serve as essential reference sources for historians, enthusiasts and modelers who want a quick glimpse at variants and oddball modifications. The books, available in both hard- and softcover, are still priced reasonably, which makes them accessible to young enthusiasts. It seems that Squadron/Signal has dispensed with its past practice of including color profiles by Greer, but increases in the number of color photographs and in the page count are ample compensation. Robert F. Dorr

CLASSICS

NORTH TO THE ORIENT by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

In July 1931, Charles and Anne Lindbergh set off on the adventure of a lifetime, an unofficial survey flight on the great-circle route from New York to points in the Far East. Unlike explorers of an earlier era who had pioneered trade routes to the Orient by sail, the famous couple did it by airplane. Four years after that remarkable journey, Anne published her description of their two-month “air voyage.” North to the Orient is a lyrical and timeless travelogue. In eloquent prose Anne focuses on the flying, the people and the places. The 23 chapters serve as grand logbook entries, covering each of the aerial expedition’s extraordinary episodes. A Lockheed Sirius, notable for its sleek monoplane configuration and 600-hp Wright Cyclone engine, was outfitted with a sliding glass canopy and a pair of plump pontoons expressly for the Lindberghs’ journey. Even laden with fuel and supplies, the aircraft’s range was an impressive 2,000 miles. Charles flew the plane from the front cockpit while Anne worked the radio in the aft cockpit. Decked out in an eye-catching black-andorange paint scheme, the Sirius sparked the imagination of many observers, especially those who had never before seen an airplane. Indeed, when the Lindberghs made a later flight of the North Atlantic, an Eskimo

boy in the remote stretches of Greenland named it Tingmissartoq: “one who flies like a big bird.” The book transports readers to exotic locales in a time that the author herself recognized was “perhaps unrepeatable.” Anne captured the scene during each landing on a river, lake or open sea in an urbane vignette full of grace and charm. She proved to be not only an invaluable crewmate but also an astute and sensitive observer of the distant outposts they visited and the people who inhabited them. In Nome, an old mining town dating back to Gold Rush days, the aerial explorers were treated to a rousing performance of an Eskimo wolf dance. Arriving in Soviet waters at Kamchatka, Anne feared the reception she might receive in what was rumored to be a fiercely regimented society, but she came to realize that the locals shared a common humanity when they chuckled along with her at the sight of a family photo. When weather forced the plane down near Kunashiri Island, an old fisherman demonstrated the ultimate in friendship and hospitality by offering the fliers his pipe. Magnificent vistas punctuated the journey, as when the “most beautiful pagoda in China” rose from the lush landscape, prompting the Lindberghs to circle the site three times. Later, the whole enterprise nearly came to grief along the Siberian coast when fog and storms enveloped the Sirius. Charles slid open the canopy, signaling his defiance and at the same time his intent to be one with the sky. He wrestled the plane against the elements until he spotted an opening and set down. But the drama didn’t end there, as the roiling sea was threatening to push the helpless travelers into nearby shoals. Then, as if by miracle, a launch from a Japanese naval vessel came into view, manned by a crew of singing sailors who towed the Sirius out of harm’s way. In the course of their journey, Anne Morrow Lindbergh developed a new appreciation for the perspective from the cockpit. She believed that when peering below it is possible to see everything at peace, which inspired her to write that “if flying…can give you that vision…it will always remain magic.” This beloved book offers unforgettable insight into the exhilarating vision savored by all those who fly. Philip Handleman NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 63

AIRWARE

By Bernard Dy

Flight Sims for Your Phone

Take to the skies anywhere, anytime, with mobile apps in hand

T

he rise of smart phones gives gamers yet another way to soar virtually via flight simulations. This month we take look at three Android flight sims from the Google Play store (iPhone versions are also available), a sampling of the new mobile apps now on the market. Although today’s phones are powerful, developers must make compromises for their small screen size and limited memory. Most of the apps are less costly than desktop applications, however, and some are free. All the simulations reviewed here take advantage of motion-sensing technology: Users control the aircraft by holding the phone in landscape orientation, rotating it left or right to bank and tilting the top edge of the phone forward or back to change the pitch. X-Plane 9 (x-plane.com/mobile/introduc tion) is a free mobile version of the venerable desktop flight sim. It benefits from the

X-Plane 9

extensive experience of its developers and yields a solid physics model. X-Plane 9 provides the most content of the free apps, with 10 aircraft and six locales to enjoy. It’s also distinguished by an immense selection of purchasable add-on craft (the only one to include planes with combat features and also some helicopters), equipment failure options and some robust weather options. Mayday! (reludo.com) focuses on landing a passenger jet under a mechanical failure or inclement weather. Each scenario starts with 

Officially Licensed

   Range: 209 Yards

Realistic Blowback Action

)LUHV &DO $PPR

the aircraft in approach. Players don’t have control over the types of failures or the aircraft. Simplified play makes this feel more like an arcade game than a sim, but I found it easily accessible and challenging. Newest of this bunch is Infinite Flight, a full-featured sim similar to X-Plane 9 (flying devstudio.blogspot.com/p/games.html). It’s a fine effort that looks and plays well and has what I found to be the best overall interface. The flight model is more forgiving than X-Plane 9’s, and there are some handy pilot aids, like a navigation overlay and an autopilot. This app also has the most modern feel, plus there’s a good selection of 16 aircraft and five regions with the base game. Note that with all three sims additional airports, aircraft and challenges can be purchased for a few dollars each. I’m impressed with these apps, which offer a diversion to PC pilots away from their desktop.


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64 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY

NOVEMBER 2013

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FLIGHT TEST

By Jon Guttman

Long Rangers

A.

Without a Trace

B.

1. Where was Matias Perez last seen before he and his hot air balloon vanished on December 28, 1856? A. West of Lisbon, Portugal B. Over the Balearic Islands C. North of Havana, Cuba D. West of the Canary Islands

Match the silhouette with the record-making distance flier. 1. Fiat AS.1, circumnavigated Africa, 1931 2. Fokker T-2, nonstop across United States, 1923

C.

5. Gossamer Condor, first man-powered Channel flight, 1979

E.

6. Rutan Voyager, first round-the-world flight without refueling, 1986 7. Solar Challenger, first solar-powered flight across Channel, 1981 8. Fokker F.VIIb Southern Cross, first across Australia, 1928 9. Lockheed Vega, first transpolar flight, 1928 10. B-50A, first nonstop round-the-world flight (in-air refueling), 1949

Spitfire Legends

F. G.

H.

I.

J.

Match the pilot to his place in the history of the Supermarine Spitfire. A. George F. Beurling

1. First to fly the Spitfire prototype

B. James E. Johnson

2. Requested a squadron of Spitfires—from Hermann Göring

C. Claude Weaver

3. Highest-scoring Spitfire ace over Malta

D. Brendan Finucane

4. Leading Spitfire ace of the Battle of Britain

E. Joseph Summers

5. Out of 28 victories, seven were in Spitfires over Japanese planes

F. Josef Priller

6. Irish ace of aces, credited with 32 victories, all in Spitfires

G. Richard H. Reynolds

7. Highest-scoring Spitfire ace

H. Clive R. Caldwell

8. Credited with shooting down the most Spitfires

I. Adolf Galland

9. Highest-scoring American ace in Spitfires

J. Eric Lock ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARK DREFS

10. With two lone and three shared victories, the only Seafire ace

3. Which World War I ace vanished, along with his navigator, Ike Eichwalt, during a transpacific flight on August 19, 1927? A. Charles Nungesser B. William Erwin C. Edward Rickenbacker D. François Coli 4. On September 14, 1932, the Bellanca Skyrocket American Nurse disappeared while trying to fly from New York to Rome. What ocean had it crossed nonstop under another name in October 1931? A. Pacific B. Indian C. Arctic D. Antarctic 5. What did U.S. Navy dirigible L-8 return to San Francisco without on August 16, 1942? A. Its charts and flight log B. Its bombs C. Its navigation equipment D. Its crew

Answers: Long Rangers 1.B, 2.F, 3.J, 4.H, 5.E 6.C, 7.I, 8.D, 9.G, 10.A

D.

Spitfire Legends A.3, B.7, C.9, D.6, E.1, F.8, G.10, H.5, I.2, J.4

4. Morane-Saulnier H, first across Mediterranean, 1913

2. On June 5, 1911, Edouard Bague and his Blériot disappeared during an attempt to fly over the Mediterranean Sea. Who finally succeeded in 1913? A. Roland Garros B. Hubert Latham C. Adolphe Pégoud D. Eugène Gilbert

Without a Trace 1.C, 2.A, 3.B, 4.A, 5.D

3. Wright Model EX Vin Fiz, first flight across United States, 1911

NOVEMBER 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 65

AERO POSTER

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

An Eindecker pilot sights his next victim, in a stylized advertisement that appeared in the March-April 1917 issue of Motor magazine. The message is clear: During World War I, German airmen depended on Fokker engineering for victory, as evidenced by the Orden Pour le Mérite, or “Blue Max,” depicted at upper left (see story, P. 36).

66 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY NOVEMBER 2013

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