History Friday

[polcat]

Well doneViper Demo Team and a great tribute to the F-16!

https://www.twz.com/air/viper-demo-team-secretly-painted-jet-in-yf-16-scheme-to-celebrate-types-50th-anniversary

Edited May 15 by polcat

[Biff_T]

https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=1761&MemID=2313

https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/WILLIAM_R._WATKINS,_III,_LTCOL,_USAF

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31165198/eric-bruce-das

Gone but not forgotten!

 

[O Face]

Amen Brother Biff. Also, a quick search didn’t come up with any results, but if it’s already been posted I apologize, but the great Bud Anderson flew west a few days ago at the age of 102. A toast to the Old Crow and the last of the Triple Aces…

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/18/us/bud-anderson-dead.html?smid=url-share

[Biff_T]

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/usaaf-p-38-pilot-recalls-colliding-with-a-luftwaffe-me-109-to-avoid-his-buddys-damaged-lightning-being-shot-down-by-the-german-fighter/

 

[Biff_T]

https://www.flyingmag.com/news/u-s-wwii-ace-richard-bongs-p-38-believed-found/

 

 

[Biff_T]

[M2]

Sixty years ago yesterday (17 June 1964), the squat, stubby Chance-Vought/LTV XC-142A vertical and short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) aircraft (pictured) had its rollout ceremony at the Ling-Temco-Vought plant in Dallas, Texas. Lauded for its ability to lift off and land like a helicopter before transforming into an airplane that could—as papers at the time described it—“fly at speeds faster than World War II fighters” (maximum speed was 400 mph, and cruising speed was about 235 mph), the experimental aircraft was heavily tested by the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and NASA, but never entered into production. The only surviving XC-142A—a forerunner of the V-22 Osprey—can today be seen at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo: NMUSAF)

[M2]

A hundred years ago today, at 8:30pm on 18 June 1924, McCook Field chief test pilot John Macready departed Dayton, heading for Columbus, in a 2-seat biplane to test out nighttime navigation beacons. On the return around 10:15pm, his engine died as he was nearing Dayton. Luckily for him, he had turned down his wife’s request to join him on the flight, a privilege pilots were only recently afforded. The darkness prevented him from finding a safe emergency landing spot, leaving little choice but to “hit the silk.” Fortunately, the engineers at McCook had developed the Air Service’s first standardized parachutes and its commander mandated that every pilot wear one. His colleague Harold Harris had become the first “save” of those the previous fall. Macready bailed out, landed in some trees, and became the latest member of the “Caterpillar Club.” He lived to continue his distinguished career, which had already included being the first to fly cross-country non-stop in 1923 (Macready shown here before that flight), taking 26 hours.

[herkbier]

There’s a fantastic book titled “Into the Silk” about the Caterpillar Club’s beginnings through the beginning of the jet age. 

[Biff_T]

 

 

[Danger41]

 

@Biff_T Thought you may like this. Visiting my parents and found these from my dad’s Vietnam days.

[Biff_T]

23 hours ago, Danger41 said:

 

@Biff_T Thought you may like this. Visiting my parents and found these from my dad’s Vietnam days.

Hell yeah!!!!

[M2]

Fifty years ago today, 29 Jul 1974, Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger (pictured) issued a program decision memorandum directing the Air Force to consolidate all military airlift forces under a single manager by the end of fiscal year 1977. The Air Force answered the charge by announcing, one month later, that the Military Airlift Command (MAC) would be providing airlift services to all branches. This was partly made possible by folding all of Tactical Airlift Command’s tactical airlift assets (comprised mainly of C-130s) into MAC, which prior to this date had only managed the Air Force’s strategic airlift assets. The goal, as Air Force Chief of Staff Gen David C. Jones described it, was to “achieve better integration of overall airlift” by consolidating “strategic and tactical airlift assets” into one command; in the process, it made MAC the world’s largest single airlift organization. (Image: Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library)
 

[M2]

Seventy years ago today, the B-52A—the first production model of the B-52—flew its first flight (pictured) from Boeing’s Seattle plant. A.M. “Tex” Johnston, Boeing’s Chief of flight test, and Donald Knutson, co-pilot, flew the aircraft, taking off at 3:42 p.m. local time, and landing at 5:00 p.m. The production model of the B-52 differed from the two test models that came before it by having the pilot and the co-pilot sitting side-by-side instead of tandem. Since the mid-1950s on through to the present day, the B-52 fleet has been the backbone of the USAF’s strategic bomber capability.

[M2]

On 20 Aug 1910, the first shot to be fired from an airplane occurred when Lt Jacob Earl Fickel of the 29th Infantry—an expert rifleman—fired upon a target about 100 feet below from the backseat of a Curtiss biplane. Lieutenant Fickel missed the shot by about six feet; but the pilot, Mr. Glenn Curtiss himself, took the blame for that, stating that he had to tilt the machine just as the shot was fired. For the firearms demonstration, which took place at Sheepshead Bay Track near New York, Lt Fickel used an Army Springfield .30 caliber rifle. In the photo here, Lt Fickel demonstrates how he took his shot, with Curtiss pilot Charles F. Willard at the controls. Although this first attempt at firing from a plane was a miss, the idea of weaponizing the airplane was not—and in just a few short years airplanes would be dogfighting with each other over the skies of Europe in the midst of Word War I. (Photo: NMUSAF)

[M2]

70 Years Ago This Week: 23 Aug 1954 -- First Flight of the YC-130

In 1954, President Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower sat in the Oval Office; the US Air Force Academy was founded; and the first of over 2,500 Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft took to the skies.

By that time, the Cold War was in full swing. The newly independent USAF had begun to recapitalize its fleet around the atomic bomb and the jet engine, with its tactical and mobility fleets making due with the World War II leftovers. Though those aircraft were less than a decade old, the intervening advent of the turbojet engine had ushered in a new era for aviation that made the classic piston-and-propeller propulsion combination nearly obsolete.

The Korean War made clear the deficiencies of those legacy transports; what was needed was a medium-sized tactical airlifter for delivering heavier equipment or paratroops quickly and over long distances to combat areas, yet capable of operating from short, rough airfields. The key enabling technology was the turboprop engine. Standard turbojet engines that relied on expelling hot gas for thrust were terribly inefficient at low speeds, making them impractical for transports. The new concept of a turboprop engine instead harnessed the jet engine’s energy to drive a propeller, combing the compact power of the jet with subsonic efficiency of a propeller. Because the Air Force had ceded turboprop development to the Navy, while they focused on turbojets, they had to derive the intended engine from its sister service’s programs.

In June 1950, the Air Force released the first General Operational Requirements Document for a new medium turboprop transport, with requests for proposals coming the following January. Of the five contractor submission, Lockheed was announced as the winner on 2 July 1951, receiving a contract to build two YC-130s on 11 July, powered by Allison T56 turboprops. The prototypes were designed and built at Lockheed’s California facilities—it was just then re-activating the former Marietta, Georgia, B-29 plant for future C-130 production. As legend has it, the Hercules’ mockup debut resulted in stunned silence...and not the good kind, because it bucked the sleek-and-streamlined trend of the early Jet Age. Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson reportedly dismissed it entirely.

On 23 August 1954, just about a year behind schedule (due to both engine & airplane delays), Lockheed test pilots Stan Beltz and Roy Wimmer, and two flight engineers, ran up the engines on the second YC-130, tail number 53-3397, in Burbank, California. Just 10 seconds and 855 feet later, their plane leapt into the air for the first flight of the C-130. An hour later, they landed at Edwards AFB where it would undergo the rest of its flight test program.

[Biff_T]

Is mach 6 fast?   I'm asking for a friend.  

 

 

[M2]

Twenty-five years ago today, on 3 Sep 1999 Capt Julie Hudson of the Maryland Air National Guard completed her final mission check ride to qualify as the Air National Guard’s first fully combat ready female A-10 pilot. She’s pictured here standing in front of an A-10 Thunderbolt II in the Maryland National Guard’s 1999 Annual Report. Prior to her training in the A-10, Capt Hudson flew the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, and in her civilian life, she was a commercial pilot for Northwest Airlines. The A-10 itself is a close air support attack plane, nicknamed the “Warthog,” that make an iconic “BRRRT” sound when firing its 30mm GAU-8/A cannon (seen sticking out of the front of the A-10 behind Capt Hudson), which can fire 3,900 water-bottle-sized rounds per minute. (Photo: Maryland National Guard)

[M2]

40 years ago today, 4 Sep 1984, Rockwell International revealed the first production B-1B Lancer (tail number 82-0001) to the public. About 1,500 people attended the rollout (pictured here), where they heard a message from President Reagan, and then listened to a speech from Rockwell Chairman Robert Anderson. The celebratory occasion was somewhat darkened by the crash of one of the B-1’s prototypes a little over a week before, on 29 Aug 1984, which killed Rockwell test pilot T.D. (Doug) Benefield and prompted the Air Force to ground the last flying B-1 prototype. This first production aircraft (82-0001) would eventually get scrapped in the mid-1990s at Ellsworth AFB in compliance with the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). B-1Bs still fly today as long-range, multi-mission bombers for the U.S. Air Force. (Photo: USAF)

[M2]

80 years ago today, on 5 Sep 1944, Lt William H. Allen became an “ace” in one day when he shot down five enemy aircraft in just a handful of minutes. Flying a P-51 Mustang (like the one pictured here) named “Pretty Patty II,” Lt Allen and his flight of P-51s (all from the Eighth Air Force’s 55th Fighter Group, whose emblem is also pictured here) attacked a Nazi airfield north of Göppingen, Germany. As the German airplanes took off one after the other, trying to get airborne, he shot down his five targets. Together with the other members of his flight, they took out 16 enemy aircraft in total. Between 3 and 11 September 1944, the 55th Fighter Group took down a total of 106 enemy aircraft, which earned them a Distinguished Unit Citation. The 55th’s heritage was inherited by the 55th Operations Group, today at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. (Photos: USAF; NMUSAF)

[Biff_T]

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-a-10-pilot-retire/

 

Brrrrrt....7,500 hours in a hog . JFC  Get this dude a beer. 

Edited September 6 by Biff_T

[M2]

In 1954, the Air Force purchased the first 29 of its future 700+/- strong KC-135 Stratotanker fleet; and on 9 Sep in 1954, Tinker AFB sent its representatives to an Air Materiel Command phasing group meeting to discuss the anticipated delivery of its initial KC-135As, which would begin arriving in August 1956. These earliest Stratotankers were sometimes called “steam jets” or “water wagons” on account of their heavy takeoff procedures: injecting demineralized water into their engines’ air inlet and diffuser sections. This technique added about 2,000 pounds of takeoff thrust for each engine by increasing air density, but it was incredibly noisy and produced a signature dark “storm cloud” behind the aircraft, as pictured here in this 92nd Bombardment Wing photo of a KC-135A’s “wet takeoff.” (Photo: USAF)

[Biff_T]

46 minutes ago, M2 said:

I

What a beautiful photo. 

[bfargin]

During Desert Shield, the lead up to the "Storm", my whole squadron (380th AREFS) was based out of Riyadh with the 1703rd ARW (deployed). I was just finishing upgrade so was still in the 'Burgh (got there right as the war kicked off). But, my former crew was there and told me about an early launch in the deployment where the local tower controller was seeing his first wet thrust takeoff (black smoke everywhere) and warned the crew that there was smoke and they were on fire. It was always "fun" to be # 6 or later in a full MITO launch gaggle.

I was able to do 2 of these mass MITO launches as a Co- and then one final one as an AC after returning from Desert Storm, before SAC died.

[SurelySerious]

before SAC died.

Don’t mourn, surely you’ve been proselytized regarding the resurrection?