History Friday

[M2]

50 Years Ago Tomorrow (26 Oct 1974): The Rockwell B-1A Rollout

Since the 1920s, the Air Force has leveraged technology to ensure that the mantra “the bomber will always get through” remained valid. Of course, defenses worked to make any such advantages temporary, resulting in the continuous evolution of offensive platforms for survivability. It was out of one of those inflection points that the B-1 bomber was born. In the 1950s, the Air Force relied on multi-engine jet bombers that could primarily use their speed and altitude to break the kill chain” of the USSR’s air defenses and avoid the fighters sent to intercept them. However, as Soviet ground-controlled interception systems and both air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles improved, the subsonic, high-flying B-47s and B-52s were suddenly vulnerable. The newer B-58 and XB-70, capable of exceeding Mach 2 and 3 (respectively), proved to be short-lived stopgaps when US intelligence concluded that they could also be shot down. Finding a solution was crucial to the survivability of the manned bomber not just as the lynchpin of the Air Force, but also as a relevant concept, especially in light of new Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Starting in 1961, the Air Force began studies to address this dilemma, which coalesced into the Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft (AMSA) program in 1965. AMSA focused on developing a bomber that could cruise at high speeds and altitudes to get to enemy territory, then dive to just above the ground while still flying supersonically to penetrate air defenses and reach its target. This approach exploited ground-based radars’ inability to detect low-flying aircraft due to the curvature of the Earth and interference from terrain.

Likewise, airborne radars were then incapable of tracking terrain-following targets amidst ground clutter. The Air Force’s F-111 fighter-bomber recently demonstrated how a “swing wing” (aka variable-geometry) could provide those capabilities, while systems devised for the XB-70 and the proposed Supersonic Transport (SST) could also be leveraged to hasten the new bomber’s development cycle. North American Rockwell leaned on its experience from those programs to win the B-1 Full Scale Development contract in June 1970. That award included just three airframes for flight testing and was distinct from a production decision. The B-1A made its public debut at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on 26 October 1974 (shown above), followed by its first flight on 23 December. In December 1976, the Ford administration authorized production of the B-1—but less than two months later, new President Jimmy Carter reduced the order, and then cancelled the program entirely on 30 June 1977.  Lingering questions about traditional bomber viability, the introduction of the cruise missile, and the highly secretive demonstrations of stealth technology all played a role in that decision. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan revived the program as the B-1B, in part to serve in the interim before the Advanced Technology Bomber that became the B-2 would be operational. (Photos: AFLCMC/HO)

BONUS: From the AFLCMC archives, below is the memo to the B-1 Program Office directing them to issue a “stop work” order to Rockwell in 1977.

[M2]

On 27 Oct 1954, 70 years ago this Sunday, the U.S. Air Force got its first black general officer when Gen Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., was promoted to Brigadier General (temporary grade). The promotion would be made permanent in 1960, and he would eventually retire from the Air Force as a Lieutenant General. In 1998, President Clinton advanced him to a full (four-star) General. General Davis Jr. broke many barriers and accomplished many “firsts” during his career, such as when he became the first black officer to attend Air War College in 1950 or when he became the first black wing commander of an integrated wing in 1953. He originally earned his pilot’s wings in 1942, and participated in WWII with the Tuskegee Airmen, commanding the 99th Fighter Squadron and later the 332nd Fighter Group as a whole. In the photo below, his father, Gen Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. (who was the first black general officer in the Army and in the Armed Forces as a whole) is pinning a Distinguished Flying Cross to him (when he was then a Colonel) at Ramitelli Airfield in Italy in Sep 1944. He earned the DFC for a Jun 1944 bomber escort mission where he managed to lead his outnumbered fighter escorts in defending an Allied heavy bomber formation against approximately 100 enemy fighters. (Photo: USAF)

[jonlbs]

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/22/1104766/how-mits-rad-lab-rescued-d-day/
 

Cool history on the technology that changed the war. Also outlines how important logistics has always been, and I never realized how devastating the numbers were behind the German U boat attacks on allied ships in the Atlantic.

[M2]

59 years ago tomorrow (7 Jan 1966), the 4200 SRW at Beale AFB received the first operational SR-71...



On 25 January 1966, the 4200 SRW was redesignated the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing

[M2]

OK, it's only Wednesday; but this can't wait...

U.S. pilot who vanished during Vietnam War spy mission accounted for

A United States pilot who disappeared while conducting a spy mission during the Vietnam War has finally been accounted for, military officials said Tuesday.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Donald W. Downing was assigned to the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 12th Tactical Fighter Wing, 7th Air Force in September 1967, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a news release. Downing, 33, was piloting one of two aircraft in a nighttime armed reconnaissance mission over what was then known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on Sept. 5, 1967. 

While the two planes were on a run to the target, the first saw a "large, bright fireball in the air," according to the agency. Downing did not respond to radio calls to his F-4C Phantom II. And though search and rescue efforts started at daylight, electronic and visual searches of the area found nothing.

(Full story at title link)

A nickel in the grass! 🫡🫡

[Biff_T]

https://youtu.be/612UXAn9bYg?si=WCwfdBZzW4Dz2ijX

CIA air to air kill.   

[Biff_T]

 

 

[Biff_T]

 

 

[GKinnear]

It's not Friday...but today is the day for the 80th Anniversary of the greatest picture ever taken...even if it's Marines

 

 

 

[Biff_T]

One for @HuggyU2

[HuggyU2]

Thanks, Biff.  

After seeing your post, I can't recall if I posted this.  Not only fuckin' hilarious, but the guy has his facts pretty tight.  

 

 

[HuggyU2]

On that note, our A-37... the only one flying in North America... will be at the March ARB Airshow on 12-13 April.  Although I'm one of the two pilots, I don't fly it in airshow aerobatics, but the guy that does is absolutely top shelf.  And the jet has the best smoke system of any jet out there.  

It is currently spending the winter in the Warhawk Museum at Nampa, ID.  It has a unique history in that it was captured by the communists, who then flew the jet in combat against the South Vietnamese.  Yes, it flew on both sides.  It's one of 10 A-37's that were bought from the commies by an Aussie, and finally purchased by the current owner who spent 20 years restoring it himself.  He has photos of his jet with both the North and the South, and it looks exactly the way it did in 1972.  

If you make it to the March Airshow, swing by and introduce yourself.  I'll be wearing the bright orange flight suit with the HUGGY name tag.  I look like a traffic cone, only bigger.  Hard to miss. 

And yes, those fuel drop tanks actually work.  The jet is thirsty and you need them to go anywhere.  But that thirst translates to a lot of power.  It puts out in MIL what a T-38A puts out in MAX.  

Edited February 28 by HuggyU2

[HuggyU2]

Also, take note of the A-37 in the video link picture 2 posts above (tail 10779):

They modified their jet with new Martin Baker seats.  That jet is one of 3 in Australia/New Zealand and part of the group of 10 that were recovered from Vietnam.  With ours in the US, that makes four of those 10 now airworthy in private hands with another 1 or 2 that will be flying in the coming months, hopefully.  

Edited Saturday at 08:03 PM by HuggyU2

[Biff_T]

On 2/27/2025 at 11:01 PM, HuggyU2 said:

If you make it to the March Airshow, swing by and introduce yourself.  I'll be wearing the bright orange flight suit with the HUGGY name tag.  I look like a traffic cone, only bigger.  Hard to miss. 

I plan in making that grueling drive to Riverside from Orange County for the airshow.

I'll be the retired helicopter pilot with a gnarly mullet. Biff

[nunya]

On 3/2/2025 at 8:22 AM, Biff_T said:

I'll be the retired helicopter pilot with a gnarly mullet. Biff

To help with VID:

Edited 16 hours ago by nunya

[BashiChuni]

On 2/28/2025 at 1:01 AM, HuggyU2 said:

If you make it to the March Airshow, swing by and introduce yourself.  I'll be wearing the bright orange flight suit with the HUGGY name tag.

 

i've told Huggy this, but when I was in HS back in the early 2000s I went to Oshkosh and met huggy! didn't know it at the time, but fast forward 20 years later and connected the dots when going thru old pictures and saw him standing in front of the t-38. kind of cool and small world type of thing.

[Biff_T]

46 minutes ago, nunya said:

To help with VID:

Pretty close man!  😆 

[M2]

Sunday March 6, 1836

 

At midnight on March 6, 1836, Santa Anna's troops began moving into position for their planned attack of the Alamo compound. For several hours, the soldiers lay on the ground in complete darkness. About 5:30 A.M., they received the order to begin the assault.

 

The massed troops moved quietly, encountering the Texian sentinels first. They killed them as they slept.

 

No longer able to contain the nervous energy gripping them, cries of "Viva la Republica" and "Viva Santa Anna" broke the stillness

 

The Mexican soldiers' shouts spoiled the moment of surprise...

 

 

 

Inside the compound, Adjutant John Baugh had just begun his morning rounds when he heard the cries. He hurriedly ran to the quarters of Colonel William Barret Travis. He awakened him with: "Colonel Travis, the Mexicans are coming!" Travis and his slave Joe quickly scrambled from their cots. The two men grabbed their weapons and headed for the north wall battery. Travis yelled "Come on boys, the Mexicans are on us and we'll give them Hell! "Unable to see the advancing troops for the darkness, the Texian gunners blindly opened fire; they had packed their cannon with jagged pieces of scrap metal, shot, and chain. The muzzle flash briefly illuminated the landscape and it was with horror that the Texians understood their predicament. The enemy had nearly reached the walls of the compound.

 

The Mexican soldiers had immediate and terrible losses. That first cannon blast ripped a huge gap in their column. Colonel José Enrique de la Peña would later write "...a single cannon volley did away with half the company of Chasseurs from Toluca." The screams and moans of the dying and wounded only heightened the fear and chaos of those first few moments of the assault.

 

Travis hastily climbed to the top of the north wall battery and readied himself to fire; discharging both barrels of his shotgun into the massed troops below. As he turned to reload, a single lead ball struck him in the forehead sending him rolling down the ramp where he came to rest in a sitting position. Travis was dead. Joe saw his master go down and so retreated to one of the rooms along the west wall to hide.

 

There was no safe position on the walls of the compound. Each time the Texian riflemen fired at the troops below, they exposed themselves to deadly Mexican fire. On the south end of the compound, Colonel Juan Morales and about 100 riflemen attacked what they perceived was the weak palisade area. They met heavy fire from Crockett's riflemen and a single cannon. Morales's men quickly moved toward the southwest corner and the comparative safety of cover behind an old stone building and the burned ruins of scattered jacales.

 

On the north wall, exploding Texian canister shredded but did not halt the advance of Mexican soldiers. Cos's and Duque's companies, now greatly reduced in number, found themselves at the base of the north wall. Romero's men joined them after his column had wheeled to the right to avoid deadly grapeshot from the guns of the Alamo church.

 

General Castrillón took command from the wounded Colonel Duque and began the difficult task of getting his men over the wall. As the Mexican army reached the walls, their advance halted. Santa Anna saw this lag and so committed his reserve of 400 men to the assault bringing the total force to around 1400 men.

 

Amid the Texian cannon fire tearing through their ranks, General Cos's troops performed a right oblique to begin an assault on the west wall. The Mexicans used axes and crowbars to break through the barricaded windows and openings. They climbed through the gun ports and over the wall to enter the compound.

 

 

General Amador and his men entered the compound by climbing up the rough-faced repairs made on the north wall by the Texians. They successfully breached the wall and in a flood of fury, the Mexican army poured through.

 

The Texians turned their cannon northward to check this new onslaught. With cannon fire shifted, Colonel Morales recognized a momentary advantage. His men stormed the walls and took the southwest corner, the 18-pounder, and the main gate. The Mexican army was now able to enter from almost every direction.

 

In one room near the main gate, the Mexican soldiers found Colonel James Bowie. Bowie was critically ill and confined to bed when the fighting began. The soldiers showed little mercy as they silenced him with their bayonets.

 

The Texians continued to pour gunfire into the advancing Mexican soldiers devastating their ranks. Still they came.

 

When they saw the enemy rush into the compound from all sides, the Texians fell back to their defenses in the Long Barracks. Crockett's men in the palisade area retreated into the church.

 

The rooms of the north barrack and the Long Barracks had been prepared well in advance in the event the Mexicans gained entry. The Texians made the rooms formidable by trenching and barricading them with raw cowhides filled with earth. For a short time, the Texians held their ground.

 

The Mexicans turned the abandoned Texian cannon on the barricaded rooms. With cannon blast followed by a musket volley, the Mexican soldiers stormed the rooms to finish the defenders inside the barrack.

 

Mexican soldiers rushed the darkened rooms. With sword, bayonet, knife, and fist the adversaries clashed. In the darkened rooms of the north barrack, it was hard to tell friend from foe. The Mexicans systematically took room after room; finally, the only resistance came from within the church itself.

 

Once more, the Mexicans employed the Texians' cannon to blast apart the defenses of the entrance. Bonham, Dickinson and Esparza died by their cannon at the rear of the church. An act of war became a slaughter. It was over in minutes.

 

According to one of Santa Anna's officers, the Mexican army overwhelmed and captured a small group of defenders. According to this officer, Crockett was among them. The prisoners were brought before Santa Anna where General Castrillón asked for mercy on their behalf. Santa Anna instead answered with a "gesture of indignation" and ordered their execution. Nearby officers who had not taken part in the assault fell upon the helpless men with their swords. One Mexican officer noted in his journal that: "Though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates died without complaining and without humiliating themselves before their torturers."

 

Santa Anna ordered Alcalde Francisco Ruiz to gather firewood from the surrounding countryside and in alternating layers of wood and bodies the dead were stacked.

 

At 5:00 o'clock in the evening the pyres were lit. In this final act, Santa Anna's "small affair" ended.

 

On the thirteenth day of the siege, Santa Anna’s forces advanced toward the fort before the sun rose. Awakened by the sounds of Mexican soldiers shouting, “Viva Santa Anna,” the Texian defenders quickly returned to their positions on the walls. Travis and his slave Joe made their way to the north wall to coordinate artillery fire on the Mexican troops. On the third assault, those troops began breeching the north wall of the Alamo. Mexican soldiers, who had also captured the south and west walls, followed the retreating defenders into the Long Barrack where a final stand was made. Before the sun came up, the last defender had been killed.