'The Wright brothers succee|cled in giving man his wings"

MICHAEL J H TAYLOR GREATMOMENTS KAKIIZAS AVIATION

Aviation has probably been responsible for the greatest change to peoples' lives this century. Aircraft for the first time took battle fronts to heavily populated inland cities that were many miles from where armies fought and even gave the first means by which mankind could destroy itself using atomic weapons. Conversely, modern airliners have broughtforeign countries and even distant continents to within a few hours' reach of ordinary folk. Whether it was for one of these reasons, or food eaten that might have been sprayed by an agricultural aircraft, an air-sea rescue, the taxes paid that were used in parttofund extraordinary national aerospace programs, or one of a myriad of other possibilities, aviation has touched us all.

But flying is not new. Man first ascended in artificial flight on 15 October 1783. And even powered airplane flying did not begin with the

Wright brothers in 1 903 as is so often supposed, butthe Wrights were responsible for developing and demonstrating the first airplane capable of being controlled and one that could remain airborne for a reasonable length of time. To such innovators went international fame and places in the history books. But once flying was well established, it was those men and woman that accomplished remarkable feats in aircraft who stole the headlines.

This book tells some of those incredible stories, the heroism and the danger. It encompasses a period of nearly 200 years, from an attempt to fly the Irish Sea by balloon in 1 785 to the first rescue in space. Between are hazardous flights across inhospitable oceans and over the frozen wastes of the Poles, courageous deeds in battle, the roar of air racing and the courage that first took a man through the sound barrier, plus other historic events that changed our world.

GREATMOMENTS IN AVIATION This book was devised and produced by Multimedia Books Ltd

Editor: Linda Osband Design: Richard Can: Strange Design Associates Production: Zivia Desai Copyright © Multimedia Books Ltd/Michael Taylor

First published in the United States of America in 1989 by Mallard Press

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All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher and the copynght holders,

ISBN 0-792-45039-6

Typeset by O'Reilly Clark, London Ongmation by Imago Publishing Limited Printed in Italy by Imago Publishmg Limited

I GREATMOMENTS AVIATION

MICHAEL J H TAYLOR

MALLARD PRESS >^^i^ CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 7

1 FIRST KNIGHT OF THE AIR 8

2 THE FLYER FLIES 12

3 A MOST IMPORTANT LANDING 18 4 WARNEFORD VC 26

5 RACING THE WAVES 30 6 TO THE FROZEN ENDS OF THE EARTH 38

7 LINDBERGH AND THE ATLANTIC CHALLENGE 42

MIDWAY 50 9 DESPERATE MEASURES 58 10 GLAMOROUS GLENNIS AND THE X PLANES 64

11 RESCUE IN SPACE 70 INDEX 78 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 80 Tt Moments in Avialic 1

FIRST KNIGHT OF THE AIR

History is full of stories of raw courage and daring. Little progress in flying could have been made without that special breed of men and women willing to risk their fortunes, reputations or lives in the pursuance of the science. Names such as Orville and Wilbur Wright, Louis Bleriot, Charles Lindbergh and Neil Armstrong are emblazoned, yet these are few among the countless heroes and heroines of the air whose adventures have largely been forgotten to popular legend. FirslKnighloflheAii

Left Model representation of the man ever to tly in a tethered Montgolfier hot-air balloon which, balloon, on 15 October 1783. on 21 November 1783. carried (United States Air Force Museunn. Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Ohio). Marquis d'Arlandes on the very Below first aerial journey. This epic Richard Crosbie ascending from ascent took place just 37 days Ranelagh Gardens on 1 9 January after de Rozier became the first 1785

At the very dawn of tlying, indeed only a mere 19 months after Frangois Pilatre de Rozier had become the very first man to fly in a tethered Montgolfier hot-air balloon, one such hero appeared. Then, having had his day, he quietlyslipped away from memory. He was Richard McGwire, the first Knight of the air. The setting was Ireland. The year 1784. The story began with Richard Crosbie, without whom McGwire would have remained pedestrian. Crosbie was a larger than life figure, well over 6 foot tall, overweight and good-hearted. From an aristocratic family, he had served with the Army but resigned his commission probably as the result of an inadequate independent income. Now he had new ambitions, not only to fly but to make money from it. What had inspired this highly unusual and dangerous venture is not certain, although on 15 April that year Mr Rosseau and a boy had flown from Dublin to Ratoath in an amazingly successful one-and-a-half hour balloon journey, an event Crosbie must have been at least aware of. Not a man to waste time, he set about trying to solve what was, in fact, an unsoluble problem, namely how to steer a balloon in flight and navigate it in a direction other than that dictated by the wind. In a series of experiments he tested the effects of various surfaces in flowing water, successfully concluding that any control of a balloon would be at best marginal. As the gas balloon was a known entity, he concentrated his main efforts on the gondola. Light weight.was essential, and the 'hull' of the boat- like gondola was constructed of linen or silk over a wooden frame. For power and control three systems were built into the design, comprising a large aft rudder, sails on two separate masts to which was also attached the cloth retaining the gas envelope, and two four-sail windmills that could be rotated by hand for manual propulsion. Named Aerunautic Chariot, it was exhibited at Ranelagh Gardens, Dublin, in August 1784, The Aeroiuiulic

Chariot probably never flew, but it is recorded that the hydrogen gas balloon from it was inflated and flew tethered on several occasions before finally being released carrying an animal passenger, Montgolfier fashion. It came down near the coast ol the Isle of Man. What was to follow these successes needed tobc spectacular. It was! The final weeks of 1784 were spent on a new and larger balloon, which was completed in early January of the following year. With a conventional basket connected by ropes to the gav envelope, it made no pretence of artificial control. Crosbie put il on public exhibition at Ranelagh Gardens — the starting-point for his planned and perilous crossing of the Irish Sea that was to be attempted on the lOth — charging a shilling admission fee. As an early aviation entrepreneur, this gave him both publicity and cash. But bad weather forced postponement until the 19th. Great Moments in Avj

On 19 January 178.5 a crowd of .^.>-4(l.()l)0 attended the lift-off. would be dark for the perilous sea crossing, he opened the gas The advance publicity had done well and much money had valve and executed a controlled descent to alight at Clontarf. To changed hands. The assembled masses on the lawn of the stately see the rare sight of a man flyingat all had thrilled the crowd, and home gave the event the atmosphere of a vast garden parly, with Crosbie was carried as a hero to the residence of Lord the highly decorated balloon held between two high tethering Charlemont. one of the appointed organizers of the event. poles forming the centerpiece. The Army attended to ensure By 12 May Crosbie had readied a second attempt, using the control. A showman at heart, and like a prophet of the future. Palatine Square of the Dublin barracks as the starling-point. He the smiling Crosbie boarded the balloon in the early afternoon. was clearly confident of success, perhaps several limes as sure, as He had dressed for the occasion. Over a wrinkled waistcoat that each spectator had to part with five shillings to watch. At his ebbed and flowed around his large stomach and satin breeches signal the restraining ropes were released. To his horror the

stretched tight to his thighs, was carried a long oiled silk coat, balloon refused to lift. Ballast and scientific apparatus were Right lined and edged in fur. Fancy red boots came up to his calves, and removed to lighten the load. Somewhat reluctantly the balloon Fearless volunteer balloonist on his wig sat an ornate leopard fur hat. He was. indeed, an ascended a little and began drifting towards houses, skimming Richard McGwire is dragged from aeronaut, for nobody else dressed like this! their chimneys before thumping to the ground. The crowd the sea after his balloon crashed, But there was a serious side to Crosbie. and in the gondola became alarmed, but Crosbie was unhurt. 12 1785. Fortunately. Lord May were various apparatus for scientific use. To tumultuous Not wanting to cancel the money-making event, perhaps even Henry Fitzgerald lin boat to right). cheering, the balloon was released and ascended skyward to the dreading the likely consequences. Crosbie (the entrepreneur) Mr Oliver and Mr Thornton had clouds. Within minutes it had passed from view. The wind took asked if there was a volunteer among the crowd of lighter weight dispatched rescue craft. The him in a northerly direction and through the gradually dimming than himself who would be willing to fly! Remarkably, there was. balloon is seen floating in the background. (William Ward after daylight he could make out the coast approaching. Whether it Out of the masses stepped Richard McGwire, a 21-year-old John James Barralet/National had always been an intentioned possibility, or because of the Trinity College undergraduate and army officer. Pushing his Gallery of Ireland) wind direction, or even as it became clear that if he continued it tricornc hat hard on to his head, he enthusiaslicallv threw out Firsl Knight of Ihe Ail

hallast and held tightly as the balloon ascended more easily and runaway balloon and save its crew. In desperation Crosbie used drifted north-easterly before turning with a westerly air stream. a rope to extend the distance between the basket and the Eventually it crossed the coast and McGwire attempted to envelope, taking some of the wind out of the "sail'. operate the gas release valve in order to descend. Nothing On board ship. Crosbie began to recover. His cross-sea days happened. Me tried again. Nothing. Slowly the balloon drifted were over, though he would fly once more, in 1786. While the out to sea. In panic, he took the flag from the basket and tied a ship's crew were dragging the balloon on deck high winds again knife to the end of the pole. With bated breath he plunged it into caught the envelope, shooting it skyward like a vast kite on the the envelope. Gas escaped rapidly and the balloon lost height at end of a long rope and almost carrying a sailor with it! Plans to an alarming but survivable rate. He came down into the sea some bring it on board were abandoned and the barge t()wed it along. 9-10 miles out from Howth, but was thrown from the basket and Crosbie set foot on land at about 10.00 pm. A full 12 hours had into the chilling water. Fortunately. Lord Henry Fitzgerald had passed since that unwanted cannon blast had set the flight in dispatched rescue sailing boats the moment he saw the balloon m motion. trouble. Forty minutes later the exhausted McGwire was hauled Crosbie received a hero's welcome on his return to Dublin from the water on the end of a gaff, his balloon still partially But for the storm he would almost certainly have managed the mllated and floating in the distance. A hero's reception awaited crossing, which would have been a fitting end to a journey he him in Dublin the next day. and he was received at the home of might, in truth, have believed beyond his capability earlier that the Duke and Duchess of Rutland. To great popular approval the year. So was he merely an entrepreneur, a gentle giant seeking Lord Lieutenent bestowed a knighthood. Richard McGwire, the fame and greater fortune, or a true pioneer in the accepted spirit co-opted aeronaut and unsuspecting hero, had become the first of aviation? Probably both, and a man of great foresight and Knight of the air. Hut where was Crosbie'.' courage too. The same ambitions drove the Wright brothers Above McGwire's epic, though short, flight had taken a good deal of more than a century later. But Crosbie's life was not to be long, Richard Crosbie's Aeronautic the limelight from Crosbie. who now also had achallenger for the anil he died in ISlHhii ihe ai;e of 45, Chariot, put on exhibition in 1 784. first Irish Sea flight in the form of a Frenchman. Potain. In the event, the pretender to the accolade also failed that June. But as Left if to add to Crosbie's problems, Dublin's Lord Mayor banned all Richard Crosbie. Ireland's most further flights for reasons of public danger and absenteeism. Not celebrated early aeronaut to be beaten. Crosbie continued his preparations for 19 July, (National Library of Ireland/Aer using the home of the Duke of Leinster as the rallying-point. The Lingus) popular story says that Crosbie devised a ruse by which, if the flight was to go ahead, cannon would be fired two hours before take-off to allow spectators time to assemble on Leinster Lawn. This may indeed be so, but when the much depleted crowd did form after they heard cannon it included soldiers and a small military band! In fact, the morning weather was far from ideal for ballooning and the cannon call had been the work of an unknown hand or even an accident. But to cancel or fail yet again could well be the making of a riot. Inflating the balloon and preparing for the flight took several hours. Being summer, this time the light would hold good for the crossing. Yet. would there be a crossing? Still overweight, the balloon when released drifted and scraped the garden wall, descending and then flying up once more after 56 lb of ballast had been dropped. Once clear of obstacles, Crosbie waved a flag to the cheering people below. The balloon ascended steadily, reaching such a high altitude that his barometer became redundant and his writing ink froze He continued to drift out to sea above the worst weather Presently, though, the high altitude cold began to tell on him. He also suffered sickness and an ear complaint. What is more, the balloon began moving off its easterly course. The gas valve was pulled to reduce height and hopefully pick up a more direct air current to the Welsh coast. "This was a tragic mistake. The balloon descended into a violent storm. Nothing Crosbie did could prevent the inevitable, and bit by bit he lost height until at last the balloon struck the inhospitable water below. Bladders fitted to the basket kept it afloat, but the envelope became a great spinnaker, taking Crosbie further out to sea and away from the barge. Captain Walmiit. which was trying its best to catch the

11 C;real MoniKnts in Avialii

THE FLYER FLIES

i see that Langley has had his fling and failed. It seems to be our turn to throw

now, and I wonder what our luck will be'. '

Below Langley's full-sized Aerodrome just before launching from its houseboat on the Potomac river

in 1903. Twice it caught the Left launcher on take-off and felt into

Wright Flyer of 1 7 December the nver. It was the first airplane Bottom 1903. at the National Air and capable of sustained flight. (US Wright No. 1 glider of 1900. flown Space Museum. Washington. Department of the Navy) asakite. (Smithsonian Institution)

So wrote Wilbur Wright. American Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley had been experimenting with flight for longer than the Wright brothers. He had launched large powered models that had effortlessly flown over distances of up to 4.200 feet and yet still failed in his attempt to launch a full-size piloted airplane on 7 October 1903, even with a 550,000 US government state subsidy behind him. What chance of flight then had the self- supporting bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, sons of a bishop of the United Brethren in Christ church? The extract from a letter gives a good insight to the Wright brothers, for Langley had been their greatest rival to the honor of achieving the world's first recognized manned and powered airplane flight. Yet the words from Wilbur indicate no panic, even though if Langley had succeeded the years of methodical work by the brothers would have been tainted at the eleventh hour. And they must have known Langley would try again, and soon. But they too were nearly readv. Langley did make a second launching attempt, on 8 December 1903, which also failed. Or\ille had only learned of this as h^ returned by train to Kitty Hawk in North Carolina carrying ne^v propeller shafts for the Wright airplane, the \'ery time when h^ and his brother were preparing to make their bid for the skies Tlie newspaper carrying the story of Langleys failure wa^ scathing, suggesting that he should have taken off bottom up', si that it would have gone up into the air and not down into the water. Were the Wrights any more sure of success? In truth, yev

Their careful experimentation had left little to chance, and if the immediate tests failed then they would learn from the mistake^ and try again, just as they had in the past. It was only a matter ot time before they would fly. and they knew it. On the bitterly cold w inter mornmg of 17 December 1903. the Wright brothers' newly built Flyer was taken from its shed and mounted on the launch trolley. Members from the Kill Devil Life Saving Station were to bear witness to the event. At 10.35 am Or\'ille. lying on the bottom wing of the vibrant Flyer, gave the signal for release. The restraining wire was pulled and the airplane moved forward against a 27 mph headwind Wilbur ran alongside the starboard wing, helping to steady the machine as it moved down the wooden rail. TTien. suddenly, it rose and slowl\ headed away. For 12 glorious but breathtaking seconds Orville fought with the over-sensitive elevator, the undulating flight ending after just 120 feet when over-control caused the machine to dive to the ground. Just 1 2 seconds in the airl Far less time than they had managed in their gliders, yet it was the dawn of a new age. As for the demoralized Langley. the US governmeni withdrew its support and he abandoned his flying experiments. Such was the price of success and failure.

13 Creal Momenls in Aviatii

For the Wrights this was just the beginning. That same day, omitted then someone else could claim to have flown first. And after repairs to the Flyer, the brothers took turns to crew on three there were plenty of contenders. The steam-powered aircraft of more occasions, their greater understanding of control allowing Frenchman Felix du Temple 'hopped' into the air in lcS74 after each to be of longer duration until the final flight covered 852 feet gathering speed down a ramp. Another steam aircraft was the and lasted a magnificent 59 seconds. It was also the last flight of work of Russian Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaiski in 1884. and the Fiver, not only of the day but for good, as on landing the Frenchman Clement Ader 'hopped" from level ground on 9 elevator was damaged. After being taken back to camp the Flyer October 1890 in a steam-powered airplane of bat-like design.

was caught by strong winds, overturned and written off. It had Even a 'hop' from water had been achieved by 1901 . the Austrian served its purpose and had set speed, duration, altitude and Wilhelm Kress remembered also for adopting a petrol engine for distance records on its final flight that no other pioneering his airplane. And there were others too. including the airplane rould even approach for three long and unchallenged controversial Bavarian Gustav Whitehead, whose aviation years. achievements in America have never been officially recognized Orville claimed for the Flyer three major achievements, and have proven impossible for historians to substantiate. namely having raised itself by its own power into the air, flown The historic flights of 17 December were the culmination of

forward without reduction of speed . and landed safely at a point four years of remarkable experimentation, development and as high as that from which it had begun. At the time it was a good trials. Four days later (the 21st), the industrialist Godfrey Cabot definition of the 'first flight", but as the work of earlier wrote to the Wrights enquiring if their machine could be used to experimenting pioneers in America and Europe became better transport tons of freight over a 16-mile route in West Virginia.

known and were recorded by historians, more adjectives were The answer, of course, was no, and it was not until 7 November Above needed if the Wrights" event was not to be predated by the flights 1911) that a Wright biplane carried freight (the very first by air, Wright bicycle test cig used to of others. The words "sustained", 'controlled", 'powered' and comprising 542 yards of silk, at a cost of $5,000 to the compare the drag of a flat plate with that of aerofoil sections. 'heavier-than-air' machine had to be added, for if any was Morehouse-Martens Company of Columbus). (Smithsonian Institution) Orville and Wilbur Wrights" active interest in flying stemmed

from the work of the German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal , who had been killed while flying in 1896. Wilbur had been captivated

by reports of LilienthaKs experiments and wondered if he could carry on his work, leading to a powered flying machine, just as Lilienthal himself had intended. More dynamic than his younger brother Orville. he quickly managed to share his enthusiasm, and the bicycle makers of Dayton. Ohio, began their historic course. Four major hurdles confronted the brothers. The first was to gain practical experience of using gliders safely, so they 'could live long enough to learn to fly a powered machine". The second problem was the necessity to devise a method of controlling their aircraft. The third hurdle was unexpected. From the wealth of

Far Left Wright No 3 glider with its original twin fixed fins, being flown as a kite, (Smithsonian Institution)

Left Wright No 2 glider on the ground

dt Kill Devit Hills, with Wilbur showing the prone pilot's position (Smithsonian Institution)

Right Wilbur Wright at the controls of No 3 glider The twin fins had been replaced by a single rudder In this configuration hundreds of controlled glides were made (Smithsonian Institution)

14 published and available material, they thought the design ol which. In turn, tightened other wires to twist (or warp) the ends wings and aerofoil sections had been solved. It had not. The final of the wings. The aerodynamic effect was similar to that of major problem was one of power, the very "brick wall' that had present day ailerons. The elevator was located in front of the prevented the machines of early pioneers from flying well. They wings, as this was considered safer than behind in the event of a needed good output from a lightweight engine, which discounted sudden nose-down attitude. steam. Typical of the Wrights' considered and logical approach to Many earlier pilots had ignored the problem of control, and of their experiments were their letters sent to elderly American those that did experiment, such as Lilienthal, a simple solution glider designer Octave Chanute. asking for advice on suitable had been shifting the weight of their bodies to "tilt' the aircraft in sites for flight testing, and to the Weather Bureau requesting the direction required. This was practical for the gliders then wind information. It was on the advice of the Weather Bureau being tested and a method still used today for hang-gliders, but ot that the brothers chose Kitty Hawk. Not only were the winds no value for large powered aircraft. In those early days weight strong and constant there, but the soft sand, they surmised, shift" control required continual effort to achie\e stead\ Right, a w iiuld lessen the impact of a crash! Of course, the Wrights owed skill not attained by many pioneers. much more to the generosity of Chanute. who gladly parted with An answer came after Wilbur Wright had spent some time technical information, including that on Pratt-trussed biplane watching birds. He recorded: "My observations of the flight of structures. buzzards leads me to believe that they regain their lateral balance Owing to its small size, the glider was flown mainly as an when partly overturned by a gust of wind, by a torsion of the tips unmanned kite. For several tests the wings were rigged with of the wings.' Later, this method became known as wing- some dihedral to provide automatic stability. In this form the warping. glider flew badly in gusty conditions and the dihedral was After this important observation the brothers decided to build abandoned. A few pilot-controlled kite flights were made as well a model glider to test the practicality of wing-warping for lateral as piloted free glides. The brothers were pleased with its control. This was a biplane, with a wing span of just 5 feet. For performance and returned home to design Glider No. 2. test purposes the stagger of the wings could be varied and the No. 2 had a bigger wing span of 22 feet and an area of 29(1 horizontal stabilizer could be mounted in front or behind the square feel. The wings had camber and an anhedral droop of 4

wings. After flying the model as a kite, the Wrights considered inches, and were warped by a foot-operated T-bar. It was taken that their idea for obtaining lateral and longitudinal control was to Kill Devil Hills, just south of Kitty Hawk, and tested in the

along the right lines. Stage two was to set about designing a full- summer of 1901. It did not fly well! To reduce the movement of sized glider, this time one capable of carrying a man. the center ol pressure the wing camber was reduced. In this form Completed in 1900. the biplane glider had a span of 17 feet and glides of up to .^89 feet were made. More importantly, control

a wing and elevator area of 16.^ square feet. For such an was maintained in winds approaching .^0 mph. But the lift

Important aircraft in the development of manned flight, it is developed was much less than it should have been according to

remarkable that the glider cost just a few dollars to build. It tables published by Lilienthal. Most worrying of all was the weighed 52 lb. The pilot lay prone on the bottom wing in order to tendency for the glider to nose up sharply and stall. But. on the reduce drag, and the wings were warped by tightening a key wire plus side, the glider had proved immensely strong, having

survived more than 40 landings. It was two despondent brothers who returned to Dayton, realizing that much of the published data they had accepted as fact was seriously in error. To obtain the information sorely needed the brothers organized an amazing lO-month program of intensive research.

It was this that gave them such a lead over all other pi(meers and kept them years ahead. For this research they first used a simple

bicycle rig. which allowed the lift' of different model wings to be measured as the bicycle was pedaled along. Although simple to fabricate, this rig was not a success. Instead they built a crude w ind tunnel from a discarded starch box. with a fan providing the

air now . It was a huge success. Very quickly they discovered that the value taken by Lilienthal for the force on a flat plate perpendicular to the wmd wasonK about Wiper cent of the actual value. In a period of just two months the brothers tested more than 200 wing sections. The)'' included monoplane, biplane and tnplane arrangements. All the information obtamed on air pressures, the aerodynamic properties of the aerofoils and the control surfaces was carefully recorded. The extent and accuracy of the experiments far exceeded that of any previous pioneers. The applied result of all this information was Glider No. 3.

15 (Ireal Moments in Aviati)

built during August and September iy02. This had a span of 32 from the engine by bicycle chains. feet and a wing area of 305 square feet, with a slender varying A new flying machine was designed to complement the engine. camber. The wing-warping system was similar to that of the 1901 Known as the Flyer, it was again a biplane, with a 40 foot span glider, but was operated by the pilot's hips sliding sideways on a and 5 10 square foot area. It weighed 605 lb w ithout the pilot. The wings, a engine was mounted off-center on the lower wing, and to wooden cradle . The elevator was still in front of the but major change was the addition of two fixed vertical fins. compensate for its weight the starboard side of the wing was built The new glider was tested at Kill Devil Hills during September 4 inches longer than the port to provide additional lift. and October. It flew well in some glides, but when the w ings were The Fiver was taken to the now familiar Kill Devil Hills in warped to regain level flight the aircraft began to spin. The September 1903. where the Wrights had left Glider No. 3. They brothers realized that the problem lay in what is known today as were dismayed at finding the camp in disarray and the glider aileron drag. The tw in rudders also caused problems. In side slips damaged. Lesser men might have rushed headlong into an early the fins tended to rotate the wings about their vertical axis. This attempt at pow ered flight, but the Wrights always put safety first. problem was overcome by replacing the two fixed fins with a The glider w as repaired so that they could reacquaint themselves single steerable rudder with, importantly, the control cables with the air before attempting a powered flight. During October attached to the wing-warping cradle. This vital step enabled the thev made only gliding flights, including one of 43 seconds on the rudder to more than compensate for the warp-drag and resulted 4th. But now the time had come. How frustrating it must have in an aircraft able to make smooth, banked turns. been when, on the first occasion of starting up the f/yer's engine, With the glider in this configuration, the brothers made it backfired and bent a propeller shaft. New shafts arrived at hundreds of controlled glides, achieving a maximum distance of Kitty Hawk on 20 November, hut these also were too weak. As Orville 622 feet and a duration of 26 seconds. Now it was two satisfied before, the job needed the Wrights' own touch and brothers that returned home that winter. returned to Dayton to make them himself. The aircraft was again With this experience behind them the brothers knew they ready for flight on 14 December, six days after Professor Langley needed only one more ingredient to make a powered airplane: a had made his second and last attempt to launch his own petrol engine! No suitable power plant was available, so the Aerodrome. Right problem was overcome by designing and building their own in It was the flick of a coin that was to decide which of the Wright The historic first flight of a also brothers was to make the world's first aiiTslane flight. Wilbur manned, powered and controlled just six weeks. It produced 12 hp for a weight of 170 lb. They engine running smoothly, the Flyer took off from airplane, with Orville as pilot. designed and constructed two very efficient propellers, driven won. With the

16 Its bicycle hub trolley after a downhill run of about 40 feet along the launching rail. Wilbur attempted to gain height too rapidlv and stalled, causing the aircraft to plough back on the sand after just three-and-a-half seconds. It was a 'hop', not a flight. It was. therefore. Orvillc that took the controls for the next attempt, which had to he the following Thursday (17th) to gain the right weather conditions. The wind was strong enough for the take-off to be attempted from level ground. The rest is history. To the Flyer can be accorded yet one more 'first'. On its historic flights it carried the first fligh' data recorders, in the form of a counter for engine revolutions, an air gauge to measure the distance flown, and a watch to determine flight duration. The story of the first recognized flight of a manned and pow ered airplane ended there . The Wrights went back to Dayton and designed improved aircraft based on the same general layout. The new Fher II covered a remarkable two-and-three- quarter miles on 9 November 1904, and on 5 October 1905 Wilbur piloted the Flyer III on an historic 24-mile journey. introducing into the world an invention which would make Above Elsewhere in America and Europe another year was to pass further wars practically impossible. What a dream it was; what a Only Orville survived the crash of before anyone else could claim "sustained' flight at all. then only nightmare it has become.' Orville was alone to see the the Wright military airplane, 17 lasting seconds! destructive use of the airplane, for his elder brother, Wilbur, had September 1 908. (US Air Forcel Having proven their overwhelming superiority, remarkablv died on 30 May 1912 from typhoid fever. Among the very last the Wrights gave up flying completely in order to promote their Wright airplanes proper was the Model K seaplane, going to the airplane internationally. Wilbur had written to his father in US Navy in 1914. It still used chain drive and wing-warping! In Below '. September 1903, . . I think there is slight possibility a of 1915 Orville sold his rights in the Wright Aeronautical Company. Wright military airplane during achieving fame and fortune from it.' With the same coolness that It was the end of the line. Orville lived on until 1948. into the jet trials at Fort Myer. Virginia, had greeted Langley's contention to be the first to fly, so they set age. September 1 908 (US Air Force) about the business of making money and defending their patents. The latter eventually led to an ironic twist of history. By way of fighting an injunction the Wright brothers had filed against them, the Curtiss company attempted to challenge the Wrights' first' claims. A bizarre attempt (of several) was the restoration of

Langley's Aerodrome. Given new pontoons by Curtiss, it was flown at Hammondsport on 28 May 1914. The Aerodrome had indeed proven to be the 'first man-carrying machine capable of night", as claimed b\ the Smithsonian Institution. Meanwhile, the Wright brothers had not begun flying again until 6 May 1908. a three-year period during which they had lost most of their technical lead, allowing others to catch up and then overtake them. But the effect was not immediate, and on 2 .•Xugust 1909 the Wrights sold the very first military airplane to the US Army. This aircraft, named Miss Columbia, cost the Army a cool 530.000. a price that included a bonus for exceeding the speed specifications. It was while Orville had been demonstrating a Wright biplane to the Army at Fort Myer in September of the previous year that he had crashed to the ground from a height of about 7.^ feet, an accident that killed his passenger Lieutenant Thomas Etholen Sclfridge of the Signal Corps. Selfridge was the very first airplane fatality. Orville had miraculously escaped serious injury, but it was an accident he never really got over.

History also records that it was from Wright biplanes of later type that the first explosive bombs were dropped (7 January 1911) and the first machine-gun fired (2 June 1912). Yet the Wrights had been saddened to see the airplane as a machine of war. Orville said in 1917. "When my brother and I built and Hew the first man-carrying flying machine, we thought that we were A MOST IMPORTANT LANDING

14 November 1910. The day had been heavy with rain. Near the top of a sloping 83 foot long and 24 foot wide wooden platform constructed hastily only the day before over the bow of the US Navy's new light cruiser, USS Birmingham, stood the Curtiss Hudson Flier biplane. Already a famous aircraft, having picked up in

May the New York World newspaper prize of S 1 0,000 for a flight between Albany

and New York, on it now hung the pride of the US Navy.

%<•»

V ^fl. 4.^ A Mdsl Importiint Lnndins

Left Ely's biplane after landing on USS Below Pennsylvania. Note the dragged Eugene Ely at the controls of the sandbags used to arrest the Hudson Flier, with Glenn Curtiss aircraft after touchdown. (US looking on. (US Department of the Department of the Navy) Navy)

Hoisted on board the cruiser by crane that morning, the Hudson Flier was intended to make history, to be the first airplane to fly off a ship. It was not owned by the Navy, nor did the Navy have any other airplanes. At its controls was Eugene Ely. a co-opted civilian pilot working for the newly established Curtiss E.xhibition Company. Official L'S Navy interest in boat-launched airplanes had originated in 1X98. On 25 March that year Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, suggested that naval officers should be part of a board established to assess the military potential of model (and later full-size) airplanes being launched experimentally from a houseboat on the Potomac river by elderly mathematician and physicist Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley. Since 1896 Langley had flown his steam- powered model Aerodromes over long distances, but the culminating full-sized airplane of 1903 fouled its houseboat launcher on take-off in October and again in December, falling into the river and thereby allowing the Wright brothers to take the 'first flight' honors. The Wrights themselves went on to build the first military airplane for the US Army; two Navy observers had been present at Fort Myer in September 1908 during military demonstrations of the Wright biplane. This, however, did nothing to encourage the Secretary of the Navy to purchase a similar airplane at the time.

Incredibly, it w as the innovation of a newspaper that heralded the great about-turn that eventually brought the Navv into aviation. On 19 January 1910 Lieutenant Paul Beck had dropped sandbags over Los Angeles from an airplane piloted by Louis Paulhan. Clearly, ships too would be as vulnerable to air attack The World newspaper was convinced airpower held the key to future battles, and to press the point it sponsored an effective demonstration that June. Flagged buoys in the shape of a battleship vscre set out on Lake Keuka. On the .'^Oth Glenn Curtiss. anxious for any opportunity to promote his airplanes and tledgllng company, flew a mock attack at a height of 5(1 feet with pieces of lead pipe falling as dummy bombs. The point of the exercise had been well made. On 2fi September 1910 Captain Washington Irving Chambers was appointed officer in charge of assessing progress in aviation from a naval viewpoint. At last matters were moving in the right direction, albeit cautiously. That October Chambers was assigned two assistants, one of whom was Naval Constructor William McEntee who had been at the Fort Myer demonstrations of 1908. An immediate job for the small team was to investigate the difficulties associated with providing room for airplanes or airships on board future scouting ships, as recommended to the Secretarv of the Navv bv the General Board

19 Groat Moments in Aviatit

on 1 October. Yet. despite promising moves, the Secretary took airplanes. Flying the Curtiss No. 4. McCurdy had made the first no firm steps to actually purchase an airplane, although two such airplane flight in Canada on 23 February 1909, and on 27 August requests were made that month by the Bureau of Construction 1910 he had sent and received the first radio messages between and Repair. Indeed, so anxious was the Bureau to obtain an an airplane and the ground while flying a Curtiss over

airplane for the Navy, it went as far as to suggest that the builders Sheepshead Bay. New York State. of the forthcoming battleship, USS Texas, should be instructed Chambers and his team had also been considering a similar to include one or more as part of the modified design experiment, and news of the competition stirred hurried efforts specifications. to be first. But the Steamship Line was far advanced. The 5th of

As luck would have it, the final push into aviation came from November 1910 was scheduled to be the date for the civil fly-off. an entirely unexpected quarter, again the World newspaper Fortunately for the Navy, at the last moment the attempt had to inadvertently forcing the pace. In concert with the Hamburg- be put back. The race was on again. But Chambers needed a American Steamship Line, the aviation-minded newspaper ship, fast! On the 9th the Navy assigned USS Birmingham to the announced plans to fly an airplane from an ocean liner to speed experiment. Chambers now had a ship, but no airplane. No Below mail in an experimental and pioneering service. A fascinating doubt at McEntee's recommendation, he raced to where Wilbur Ely makes the historic first take- and progressive concept, years before its time, it could also have Wright was taking part in an aviation event, but was too late to off from a ship. 14 November unknowingly benefited the Imperial German Navy. Pilot for the meet him face to face. A quick telephone conversation dashed 1910 Behind USS Birmingham is was to Canadian James A. D. who any hope of cooperation. Then, quite by chance. Chambers met USS Roe. used for plane guard, experiment be the McCurdy. with (US Department of the Navy) had himself been closelv associated with Glenn Curtiss's earliest up Ely. who immediately volunteered his services. It was the

JkiL-

20 1

A Most Imporlant UiniliiiK

kind of enterprise he specialized in, although entirely different from anything he had attempted so far in his year and a half as a pilot. The 19th of November was to be the big day. But competition worked both ways, and not to be out-done the Hamburg-American Steamship Line's Pennsylvania was substituted for the planned Amerika liner to bring forward its fly- off. All was made ready for the 12th. for the World newspaper knew there was little news value in being second. The Navy was to he beaten after all. In a final and fateful flight check prior to weighing anchor, the engine of McCurdy's airplane was started on board ship. Bv chance a can had been left too close and the spun propeller struck it. The damage was serious. The take-off would have to be postponed again until a replacement propeller was secured. This was a stroke of fortune Chambers could not miss. USS Birmingham was readied the ne.xt day by feverish work. On the 14th, poor weather conditions twice delayed USS Birmingham sailing from Hampton Roads, Virginia. By earlv afternoon the skies began to clear and it prepared to sail. The plan was for Ely to take advantage of headwinds as the ship Left steamed at 2(1 knots. But with so much delay Ely became Having eaten. Ely took off again impatient. engine of The his airplane was started before the ship from the cleared deck of USS moved. It nearly cost him the flight! Pennsylvanta or\ 18Januaryl91 With the ship still at rest, Ely gave the signal for release and at (US Department of the Navy) 3.16 pm the 'stick and string" biplane began to gather speed down Below Left the platform. Without sufficient headwind or forward speed to Ely approaches USS Pennsylvania gain enough lift, the biplane left the end of the platform and on 18 January 191 1. sailors taking made a frightening but steady descent to the water. The crew on every vantage-point to witness board the ship lost sight of it. Ely struggled with the stick, but the the event (US Department of the airplane glanced the water. Moments later it reappeared, slowlv Navy)

^*

21 Right Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson, the first US Navy aviator (US Department of the Navy)

Below Right CurtissA-1 Tfiadhydtoaeroplane. the US Navy's first airplane (US National Archives)

-,aami.ieiuia7ifSS3 climbing and heading out to joyous applause. OriginalK intending to fly to the Norfolk Navy Yard, Ely instead headed Im the nearest land and came down on Willoughby Spit, a little ovei two miles distant. After landing he appreciated quite how luck\ he had been. His brush with the water had damaged both blades of the propeller! Chambers and Ely had won for the Navy more than merely a place in history. They had demonstrated a means by which scouting ships could extend their 'eyes' over the horizon. But

now it was the turn of Chambers to show caution. Amid a flurry of suggestions on how the Navy could quickly adapt its ships to carry airplanes, he decided that a further 'landing on' experimeni was needed to assess the airplane's full potential. Although Ely was to perform the landing', on 29 November Cilenn Curtiss offered to train a Navy officer to fly free of charge. This was accepted, and on 23 December Lieutenant Theodore

22 A Most Important Landing

G. Ellyson was sent to the Glenn Curtiss Aviation Camp at North spaced rails ran the length .•: ilu pl.ulorm. across which were Above Island. San Diego. Here, in addition to flight training, he helped stretched 22 ropes, each about 3 feet apart. At the ends of each Glenn Curtiss and his hydro- Curtiss make preparations for what were to be the ver\- first rope were lied 50 lb sandbags, lying on the platform but free to aeroplane being hoisted on board USS Pennsylvania on 1 7 February premeditated landing, taxi and take-offs in a hydroaeroplane be dragged along. To the new Curtiss Model D-I\' biplane (in 1911. (US Department of the (seaplane), when on 26 January 1911 Curtiss took off from the fact, a similar machine in most respects to the Hudson Flierbul Navy) harbor, alighted, taxied around, took off again, flew about a mile most noticeably having extra wing panels between the outer and alighted once more. Another milestone for future naval sections of the wings) were attached six hooks, intended to operations had been reached. The importance of this early trial snatch the ropes and slow the airplanes forward speed. As final became apparent on 17 February, when Curtiss taxied to the safety measures, a canvas screen was erected to protect the ship's anchored Pennsylvania, was lifted on board by crane, and was superstructure against collision, and Ely donned the usual light subsequently lowered back to the water, where he took off. sporting leather helmet, goggles and a partially inflated inner

Meanwhile, little time had been wasted in preparing for the tube for buoyancy if he ditched; similar equipment was to be landing experiment, and a 1 19 foot 4 inch long and 31 foot 6 inch requested by Ellyson in September 1911. as the first official Navy wide sloping wooden platform was constructed over the stem of request for flight clothing. the cruiser L'SS Pennsylvania At Ellysons suggestion, an Flying from Selfridge Field. San Francisco, on the morning of aircraft arresting system was devised. Two 12 inch high and well- 18 Januarv 1911. Elv circled the cruiser and then made his

23 Great Moments in Aviatit

approach to the anchored ship in San Francisco Bay. He had to

allow for a difficult tailwind. At a fraction past 1 1.00 am he flew over the stern and switched off engine power. The airplane came down and caught the 12th and subsequent ropes, pulling the sandbags inwards and stopping in only 30 feet. It was a complete triumph. The ship's captain, C. F. Pond, reputedly remarked,

'This is the most important landing of a bird since the dove flew back to the Ark.' But the day was not over. After an early and quick lunch (while the crew cleared the platform of the ropes and sandbags), at 11.58 Ely took off from the Pennsylvania and flew back to Selfridge Field. The aircraft carrier had arrived! But perhaps fate demanded a price to be exacted. On 14 October / ^^ r 1911 Ely was killed in an unrelated flying accident. For all his momentous achievements on behalf of the Navy he had been given only a single small cash award, by the US Aeronautical Reserve. A quarter of a century was to pass before Ely was to receive (posthumously) just and meaningful reward, the Distinguished Flying Cross for outstanding contributions to marine aviation. On 4 March 1911 the US Congress provided the Bureau of Navigation with the sum of $25,000 for experimental aviation work. This was used in part to fund two Curtiss and a Wright

aircraft. The first of these, a Curtiss A- 1 Triad, made its first four

flights in the early evening of 1 July 191 1, twice with Ellyson at the controls. On the 3rd, again flying from Lake Keuka, Ellyson became the first naval pilot to undertake a night flight. The A-1 was also Ellyson's mount on 31 July 1912, when the first attempt was made to catapult the airplane using compressed air. Although the experiment ended with the A-1 and its pilot dumped in the water, Ellyson was successfully catapult-launched

in the Curtiss A-3 (another of the Navy Type 1 series aircraft that began with A-1) at Washington Navy Yard on 12 November that same vear. Another progressive step had been achieved. In another much later experiment, following the catapult- launch of Curtiss flying-boat AB-2from an anchored barge on 16 April 1915, AB-2 became the first airplane to be catapulted from a warship, on 5 November, launched from the stern of USS North Carolina. Interestingly, as C-2 (AB-2's designation prior to the

Above Left Right Commander Charles Rumney Squadron Commander Dunning Samson, Royal Navy, flew the successfully lands his Sopwith first airplane off a moving ship, on Pup on HMS Furious, deck crew 9 May 1912 Here his Short S 38 rushing forward to stop the rises from HMS Hibernia. (Shorts) lighter by grabbing hanging straps. The next attempt cost him

his life. Left The C-2 flying-boat catapult launched from USS North Carolina. (US Department of the Navy)

24 A Mcisl Important Landing

•aaagk^ ^

Type Cs becoming ABs in March 1914) it had earlier given Britain the earlier resolve to put the world's first aircraft demonstrated the use of a Sperry gyroscopic automatic pilot, on carriers proper into operational service, beginning with HMS 3(1 August 1913. Trial flights with AB flying-boats from North Furious. This had its price, and Britain too had suffered the Carolina continued until 12 July 1916, when AB-3 was launched consequences of innovation. While as early as 9 May 1912 while the ship was steaming. This battleship gained the honor of Commander Charles Rumney Samson had flown from the becoming the first vessel in the US Navy designated to carry and battleship HMS Hibcrnialo record the world'sfirst take-off from launch aircraft. a moving ship, it was not until 2 August 1917 that Britain's By then, however, more than two years had passed since US Squadron Commander E. H. Dunning made the very first flight Navy pilots had gone to war. On 20-21 April 1914, five AH on to a moving ship, side-slipping his Sopwith Pup fighter on to hydroaeroplanes and AB flying-boats had sailed from Pensacola the forecastle deck of Furious. During a second attempt on the for Vera Cruz on board USS Birmingham and Mississippi during 7th, Dunning was carried over the bow and killed. The aircraft the Mexican crisis. Lieutenant P. N. L. Bellinger is recorded as carrier as we know it todav was. indeed, hard won! having flown the first mission in AB-3 on the 25th, and while flying AH-3 on 6 May he sustained the first war damage to a Navy aircraft (rifle fire). With the commissioning of USS Langley on 20 March 1922. the Chambers/Ely dream of the American aircraft carrier proper came to fulfilment. But, meanwhile, war against German\ had

25 Credl MnmKnls iii Aiialion

WARNEFORD VC

'Zeppelin, help us in war. England will be burned out!" The chant rang through the German people. The Zeppelin airships had the power.

26 2

Warneford VC

Below Ttiis rare pliotograph is the only withL9andL10(LZ363ndLZ40) one known to show Zeppelins in on a five-ship raid against Left formation dunng an operational England. 9-10 August 1915 LI Lieutenant Warneford's Great mission. Here Naval Airship was hit by gunfire over England

Exploit by Gordon Crosby. Division L 1 3 nearest, LI 1 and LI 2 and went down (Impenal War (Imperial War Museum) torear(LZ45, LZ41 and LZ 43) fly Museum)

To the consternation of Germany. Britain had not remained for long on the side-lines watching the most powerful and best- equipped army in the world march to subjugate Russia and France, taking little Luxembourg and Belgium in its path. Germany's Schlieffen Plan for the conquest of its enemies dated

from 1905. and it had cloaked its 1914 mobilization by claiming to be taking merely a precautionary response to Russia's own mobilization after Austria-Hungary threatened Serbia.

Germany might have believed it was fulfilling its destiny in Europe, but on 4 .August 1914 the British Empire stood by passively no longer. War was declared! The German people were stunned and angered. But how to strike at England? The Royal Navy ruled the seas. "Zeppelins fly to England, you dark and silent raiders."

The Great War. the first of the World Wars as it turned out. the War to End Wars if one was an optimist in 1914-18. started much as those of earlier times. Great land armies attacked in lines and waves, advanced further, then retreated to count the dead, only now on a bigger stage and in greater numbers. Cavalry still sped with swords glinting and guns blazing, and the countryside turned from autumn to winter without the seasons changing, the leafless trees like islands in swamps of mud.

Only, was it the same? Soon the cavalry had gone, some of its number later mounting airplanes not horses. Rittmeister (Cavalry Captain) Manfred von Richthofen had been one. transferred from the Eastern Front to the German Air Service in May 1915. and earning the name Red Baron' for shooting down 80 Allied aircraft before he too died in the cockpit. The airplane and airship had changed warfare, and quickly their ability to reconnoitre from the air made them indispensable to those on the ground. But aircraft were not just airborne "eyes'. They could be offensive weapons too. From the outbreak of hostilities the British War Office believed Germany would use its airships to bomb Britain. At this early stage in aerial warfare airships alone were capable of making flights of long duration while carrying a useful bombload. For the first time the mighty Royal Navy, the world's greatest sea power, appeared incapable of defending Britain's shores and its subjects from attack by enemies across the seas.

Not so. was the cry I The British War Office was overstretched in its capacity to supervise war efforts both at home and abroad, but the Admiralty was not. On 1 July 1914 the Royal Naval Air Service had come into being, formed out of the Naval Wing of the

Royal Flying Corps. By August 1914 it had 71 airplanes. 7 airships and a personnel of over 800. The Admiralty was ideally suited to take over the task of home defense, and this it did on .^

27 Great Moments

September 1914. One of the pilots attacking LZ 39 had been Flight Sub- Right at the start the Admiralty had two cards up its sleeve. Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford. He was a pilot with No. 1 The first was that its pre-war bombing experiments had enabled Squadron, RNAS, a unit that had been ordered overseas in it to stockpile a useful supply of bombs, including the 20 lb Hales February 1915 to relieve Wing Commander Charles Samson's type that detonated on impact; the second that its Eastchurch Eastchurch Squadron. On this occasion the airship had climbed

Squadron had been stationed at Dunkirk in France since 1 away from him. Significant during the 17-18 May interceptions September. Here, then, was an opportunity not only to defend had been the British use of new incendiary bullets, designed not against the air menace but to destroy it on the ground. only to pierce the many bags in an airship's envelope but to ignite Arming aircraft had not been taken too seriously pre-war. and the hydrogen gas itself. Clearly the bullets had not worked the Squadron's only permanently armed aircraft at the time was properly. New types of explosive ammunition were invented. the Astra-Torres airship No. 3. which had just been returned to On the night of 6-7 June 1915 the same three Army Zeppelins England. On the 22nd. flying from Antwerp, four RNAS were sent out to raid London. Hauptmann Erich Linnarz airplanes set out to attempt the first air raid on Germany, armed commanding LZ 38 very quickly had to give up the mission as his Flight Sub-Lieutenant R, A J with Hales bombs. Airship sheds at Cologne and Diisseldorf airship developed engine problems. Mist or fog covered the sea, Warneford VC. (Imperial War Museum) were the targets, two airplanes intending to attack each. In the making the raid on England difficult, and so it was decided that event only Flight Lieutenant Collet in his Avro 504 found his target, and none of the three bombs dropped e.xploded. All airplanes and crews returned safely. On 8 October two of Eastchurch Squadron's Sopwith Tabloids set out to raid the same sheds. Mist prevented Squadron Commander Spenser-Grey locating the Cologne sheds so he dropped his bombs on the railway station instead. But Flight Lieutenant Marix bombed a Diisseldorf shed from an altitude of about 600 feet and destroyed Zeppelin LZ 25 (Z.IX) that was housed inside. The resulting flames shot hundreds of feet into the air. But flying so low had its dangers, and Marix's aircraft was hit by gunfire. He eventually returned to base on a borrowed bicycle. This was the first successful air attack on Germany.

So the raids went on. But it was not to be one-sided. On I'l January 1915 the German Navy opened its account against Britain by sending out three Zeppelins (L3. L4. and L6) from Fuhlsbiittel and Nordholz. L6 returned early with engine problems, but the other two struck at Great Yarmouth. Sheringham. Thornham, Brancaster. Hunstanton, Heacham. Snettisham and King's Lynn, the high-explosive and incendiar\ bombs leaving 4 dead and 15 injured. Zeppelin raids againsi London began on the night of 31 May-1 June 1915, when LZ 3s dropped 3.000 lb of bombs. Seven Britons were killed and 14 injured. So the cat and mouse went on. German Zeppelin and Schijtte- Lanz rigid airships were used by both the Navy and Army, although the Naval Airship Division operated the largest number (69 by the war's end). History records that the Division lost a massive 40 percent of its total personnel, greater than any other branch of the German fighting services, but back in early 1915 it seemed almost charmed. Bristling with machine-guns, extremely high flying and almost silent, little could touch its airships, and what damage they took during operations could mostly be absorbed. Anti-aircraft batteries aided by searchlights (when there were some) had marginal success, but Allied airplanes had difficulty flying high enough to intercept and. anyway, were insufficiently armed. Notable exceptions, though, had been on the night of 17-18 May, when LZ 38 had been intercepted at a low 2,000 feet by Flight Sub-Lieutenant Mulock flying an Avro 504, but his gun had jammed, while sister Army airship LZ 39 had taken damage from RNAS airplanes while at about 10,000 feet over Belgium.

28 the two remaining airships would divert for their secondary been the first airship destroyed by an air attack. The following target, the railway complex at Calais. evening Warneford was told he had been awarded the Victoria Meanwhile, in the very early hours of the 7th. Warneford had Cross. Britain's highest military honor. He also received the set out to bomb the Zeppelin sheds at Berchem St Agathe. Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. However, at Ostend he saw an airship. It was the Zeppelin LZ 37 It was the beginning of the end for the German airship commanded by Oberleutnant van der Haegen. Warneford bombers, and seemed to demoralize the Army and Naval Airship trailed it to Ghent, kept at a distance by fierce machine-gun fire Division crews. The crews, already strained on the long missions from the airship's gunners. But he was not going to lose another to Britain, soon faced more confident anti-aircraft guns and Zeppelin. The airship climbed. Warneford did his best to follow, better armed airplanes, their presence illuminated by the tiny SO hp Le Rhone engine of his French Morane-Saulnier searchlights and phosphor shells. Type L 3253 straining. His airplane could climb at only some 340 Meanwhile. LZ 39 commanded by Hauptmann Masius had feet per minute at best. None the less, he reached a magnificent again evaded destruction, taking cover in cloud while under

1 1 .000 feet, at w hich he was some 150 feet above the airship. The airplane attack. LZ 38 was less lucky. Flying Henry Farman fury of the machine-gunners made only a single pass possible. He biplanes from Dunkirk in the darkness of the same morning (the dived for the target, dropping out six Hales bombs as he passed 7th). RNAS pilots Flight Lieutenant Wilson and Flight over. The last exploded, sending LZ 37 crashing down in flames. Lieutenant Mills found the airship in its shed at Evere. While fell a convent in the suburbs of Ghent, killing two preparing to attack they were illuminated by searchlights. By The wreck on Morane-SaulnierType L parasol the anti-aircraft and released 15 nuns. Only one member of LZ 37's crew survived. deception they escaped guns monoplane 3253. one of 25 used Warneford had been caught by the blast from the exploding bombs on target, causing a massive fire and total destruction. by the RNAS and Flight Sub- Zeppelin, sending his airplane into a spin. He gained control and Warneford. though, had little time to enjoy the fame he had Lieutenant Warneford's mount made a forced landing behind enemy lines to mend a broken fuel earned. While flying a similar Henry Farman biplane near Paris for the famous attack on Zeppelin line. 35 minutes later setting off triumphantly to base. LZ37had 10 days later, the tail collapsed in mid-air and he was killed. LZ37, (imperial War Museum)

29 Great Moments in Aviation

RACING THE WAVES

Just six years after the Wright brothers had first coaxed their Flyer into the air. Reims in France hosted the world's first international aviation competition meeting (August 1909). But, while conventional airplanes were then still few, water-borne seaplanes were very rare indeed. Left Britain's Sopwith Schneider winning the 1914 trophy event, Below as depicted m this painting by La Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Mr Kenneth McDonough (Royal Jacques Schneider — the Air Force Museum. HendonI Schneider Trophy.

To help remedy this, in late 1912 a French aviation and motoring enthusiast by the name of Jacques Schneider, son of a wealthy armaments manufacturer, offered La Coupe d'Aviation Mariiime Jacques Schneider (better known merely as the Schneider Trophy) and a cash prize of £1.00(1 (for each of three consecutive years) to the winner of a hydroaeroplane contest. In the knowledge that some 70 percent of the Earths surface is covered by water. Schneider was not alone in believing that the development of reliable seaplanes able to operate to and from water would speed international communications. Therefore, the rules for the contest included seaworthiness tests for the competing aircraft and a race of at least 150 nautical miles. Speed was regarded as paramount, for Schneider knew that in the world of motor sport the quest for speed had developed both endurance and reliability. But as the following paragraphs will relate, the Schneider Trophy contest did not so much help speed international communications as achieve that other goal, to stimulate airframe and engine development. Indeed, it is not overstating the point to say that from Reginald J. Mitchell's involvement with the Supermarine entries in the Schneider Trophy was born much of the know-how that allowed him to progress on to the famous Spitfire fighter that helped the Royal Air Force in perilous times. The first contest, a little-noted item in the Monaco Hydro- Aeroplane Meeting of April 1913. gained only minor attention. Maurice Prevous of France was the winner, despite the performance of his Deperdussin monoplane being penalized by a "birdcage' of bracing wires. However, there was general agreement that this small and almost overlooked event had been the most successful, causing a great deal of excitement.

Designers and manufacturers began to look ahead to 1914. and it was soon seen that Schneider's contest had created huge international interest, with entries from the USA. Britain. France. Germany and Switzerland. As in the previous year, the 1914 meeting was at Monaco. From the outset there was a hubbub of anticipation about this second Schneider contest, with a total of 12 entries from the five nations. Britain's Tommy Sopwith. who in 1913 had established the Sopwith Aviation Company at Kingston-upon-Thames. Surrey, decided that if he could carry off the Schneider Cup in 1914 it would gain valuable publicity for his new venture. The company's Tabloid biplane was chosen for development as the Sopwith Schneider, requiring a more powerful engine and water- borne capability. The latter was provided by one ungainly wide- span float w hich almost caused disaster, cartw heeling the aircraft into the Thames when tested just 16 days before the contest. Near panic ensued to salvage and prepare the Schneider within al Moments in Aviation

the two weeks remaining, and resulted in the single float being void. But as a gesture of goodwill, Italy was invited to host the sliced in half to make two floats. After a second Thames test next contest. showed that stability had been gained, the aircraft was shipped to The first two of the next three events, staged at Venice, Monaco. There bad weather at first delayed essential flight resulted in no international competition, with four Italian testing. But this delay also helped Sopwith by giving time for aircraft contending against each other but significantly raising

improvements. the race speed to 107.22 mph in 1920 and 1 17.90 mph in 1921. But The 1914 event began as a 'piece of cake' for the Sopwith sudden realization that, in accordance with Jacques Schneider's Schneider and its pilot Howard Pixton, lapping at a speed of rules, Italy now needed only one more win to capture the trophy almost 90 mph to destroy most of the opposition. Then, on the permanently, a flurry of international activity to contend the

15th lap. it turned into a cliff-hanger. The Schneider's engine event at Naples was stirred. The contest was now one of national began to misfire. After a few more laps, each of which seemed prestige. Britain, France and Italy fielded aircraft, the British

capable of taking years off Piston's life expectation, he realized Supermarine Sea Lion II biplane flying-boat being specially that (though rough and lacking in power) the engine was going to prepared by the company's young designer, Reginald J. keep turning. He began to concentrate on the most meticulous Mitchell, from the earlier Sea King Mk II. flying to save every possible second of time. The tactics were Chosen to fly the Sea Lion II was Supermarine's chief test good, and he won the contest at an average speed of 86. 78 mph. pilot, Henri Biard, who had recorded a very impressive speed of

World War I prevented Britain staging the next contest until 150 mph in the aircraft before it was dismantled for transit to

1919, one expected to demonstrate that wartime development of Naples. By then it was known that the French had withdrawn. aircraft and airframes had given an immense performance leap. Astutely, Biard did not demonstrate the Sea Lion's full potential Scheduled to take place off Bournemouth on 10 September 1919, during the pre-contest flight testing. When the race began, late in Right frustrating fog made the event a washout. The Italian Sergeant the afternoon of 12 August 1922. Biard alone stood between the for the trophy in Supermanne Sea Lion II flown by Guido Janello in a Savoia S.13 completed the most laps, but his three Italian contenders and a permanent home

Henri Biard for the 1 922 contest eleven were later ruled as invalid and the event was declared Italy. By luck Biard wcm the draw for starting position, and he

:-^ »:\«.'*^^'

32 Racing the Waves

lilted cIcaiiK oft the w atcr to record a first lap speed of more than 150 mph. This brought consternation to the Italians, who realized their Macchi M.7andM.17 had httle chance of winning. Their hopes, therefore, depended on the beautifully streamHned SIAI Savoia S.51, which, sadly, had suffered a ducking in the pre-race tests. What they had not appreciated was that the S. Si's propeller had suffered from its immersion, the glue holding the wood laminations being softened and allowing some separation that was to cause vibration. Spectators on the ground knew nothing of this, realizing onlv that the S.51, piloted by Alessandro Passaleva, was close behind the Sea Lion. Desperately Passaleva tried to use maximum engine power, edging ever closer to Biard but only being forced to pull back on the throttle to prevent what might be disastrous vibration. Biard won the event narrowly at an average speed of 145.7 mph. Britain had loosened Italy's hold on the trophy and would be responsible for hosting the next event. How lucky the Sea Lion II had been was demonstrated just over four months later, when Savoia's S.5I established a new world speed record Left for seaplanes at 174.08 mph. taly's Macchi M.17 stood little The course for the 1923 contest was from Cowes, Isle of Wight, I'" e in the 1922 contest to a turning-point at Selsey Bill. Sussex, with Britain, France. t the S.51 and Sea Lion II.

Italy and the USA all hoping to field contenders. Italy was to "'...icchi)

Left Jimmy Doolittle standing on the float of the Curtiss R3C-2. 26

October 1 925 (US Air Force)

33 Right Italy's Macchi M.33 took third place in the 1925 event. (Aermacchi)

Below Mario Castoldi's M 39 racer for 1926, taking the Schneider Trophy to Mussolini's Italy (Aermacchi)

withdraw, unable to develop in time an improved version of the S.51. Two of the three French entries also fell by the wayside and the third, the CAMS 38, retired during the second lap due to engine failure. But the French were not alone in having problems. Two of Britain's three contenders crashed before the day of the contest, leaving only Biard and the Sea Lion III (the

Sea Lion II with a more powerful engine and minor improvements) to face the American challenge. By race day, 28 September, the US challenge had narrowed to two out of four aircraft, as the very promising Wright NW-2 had crashed during night testing and the Naval Aircraft Factory TR-3A (used as a training hack) was withdrawn. In glorious weather, thousands of spectators saw the US Navy's two CR-3s (known originally as Curtiss Navy Racers and each powered by a superb Curtiss D-12 engine with a Curtiss- Reed propeller) scream around the course to outclass Biard completely, taking first and second places. Lieutenant David Rittenhouse won at 177.38 mph. with Lieutenant Rutledge Irvine in second place by achieving 173.46 mph. Schneider's Trophy was on its way to the USA. America's first Schneider contest, planned to take place at Baltimore. Maryland, on 24-25 October 1924, proved to be a non-starter. Britain had wrecked its only aircraft, the Gloster II. and neither France nor Italy had been able to prepare new aircraft in time. Very sportingly. the USA's National Aeronautic

Association declared the contest void for 1924, when it could so easily have over-flown the course to record the country's second win. So, the USA was also the host for 1925. again at Baltimore.

34 Britain, where Italv and the L'SA were in contention. British US Army's legendary J. H, CJimmy') Doolittle. recorded an with hopes rested two hew Gloster III biplanes developed from astonishing 232.57 mph. The Gloster III took second place and the Gloster II, and Mitchell's revolutionary Supermarine S.4. the Macchi M.33 third. The USA was now in the strong position The S.4 was a beautifully clean cantilever-wing monoplane of of two wins and with the next contest (in 1926) on home ground, wooden construction, devoid of drag-inducing bracing. duly announced as Hampton Roads. Virginia. Streamline struts married the airframe to the two large single- Hampton Roads prov ed to be a two-nation battle, for Britain step floats. On 13 September, before shipment to the USA, the had decided there was insufficient time to design and build a new S.4 was flown by Biard to set a world speed record for seaplanes contender, leaving just Italy and America to fight it out. America of 226.752 mph. Britain's hopes ran high! had made it clear there would be no postponement of the contest Italy's challenge centered on two small Macchi M.33 flying- for 1926; if no contenders appeared, an American aircraft would boats which had remarkably clean lines; in the absence of merely over-fly the course to carry off the trophv for all time suitable high-powered engines of indigenous design, they relied Italy's // Duce. Benito Mussolini, was determined this would not on Curtiss D-12s obtained from America, their power output happen and commanded his aircraft industry to win at any cost. reduced by extensive testing. The host nation was not worried bv Accordingly. Macchi's Mario Castoldi designed the superb M.39 the M.33s. but feared that its new Curtiss R3C-2s, well- monoplane and Fiat its AS. 2 inline engine, but this was achieved streamlined biplanes powered by Curtiss V. 1400 engines, would only after an Italian appeal to the Americans allowed an extra not prove fast enough to beat the S.4. Little did thev know then three weeks for completion of testing. When the race eventually that the Anglo-American showdown was not to happen! In flight started, on 13 November, a crowd of some 30.000 spectators testing the re-erected S.4. Biard slammed into the ocean. enjoyed a beautiful sunny day and the excitement of three Mitchell's creation shattered to pieces on contact and Biard, American Curtiss racers trying desperately to ward off the carried well below the water's surface, was lucky to tjreak free challenge of three Macchi M.39s with more powerful engines. It Left and survive. proved to be an Italian victory. Major Mario de Bernardi Short-Bnstow 'Curious Ada' With the S.4 out. once again the contest could have proved completing a thrilling race at an average speed of 246.50 mph. Crusader, which crashed on something of an anticlimax. But, ironically, the spectators' Mussolini was delighted. 1 1 September. |ust before the excitement was heightened by retirement of two of the R3C-2s. However, the elation of 1926 expired a year later at Venice 1927 contest. It was powered by which left one British, Italian one and one American aircraft when another two-nation contest, this time between Britain and a 960 hp Bristol Mercury radial roaring over Chesapeake Bay to fight it out. Would the Italy, saw the trophy carried away by a team of Royal Air Force engine, with helmeted engine remaining R3C-2 complete the course'? It did and. piloted bv the pilots. With only a year for preparation, the Italians had decided cylinders.

35 Great Moments in Avialic

to try and improve the 1V1.39. resulting in the new designation Macchi M.52. while Fiat spent the year conjuring additional output from the AS. 2 to produce the 1,000 hp AS. 3. By not competing in the USA during 1926. Britain had enjoyed two years for preparation; the RAF had founded a High Speed Flight to train specialized pilots and the Air Ministry contracted new aircraft. These were the Gloster IV biplane. Short-Bristow Crusader ('Curious Ada' to the RAF) and Mitchell's superb Supermarine S.5. The S.5 benefited from Mitchells experience with the S.4. It was a wonderfully sleek seaplane which, like the Macchi M.39/M.52. had the monoplane wings braced by streamline wires. It retained the same engine type as its Schneider Trophy predecessors, in this case a Napier Lion VII. The race itself proved to be a resounding British victory, even though 'Curious Ada' had crashed during a flight test because the aileron controls had been crossed over during re-erection. Two of the Macchi M.52s retired with engine failure in the first and second laps, the third M.52 with a fractured fuel line in the sixth lap, as did the Gloster IVB suffering from severe vibration. Only the two S.5s continued with their triumphant roar to the finishing line, with Flight Lieutenant S. N. Webster in first place at an average speed of 281.66 mph and Flight Lieutenant O. E. Above Below Worsley in second at 273.01 mph. The beautifully streamline Macchi Italian Macchi-Castoldi MC 72 There had already been general realization that biennial M 52 seaplane, which failed to and Macchi M.39 racers, the competition would be necessary to allow adequate time for former which had not been ready finish the 1927 contest design and development. In consequence, the next (1929) (Aermacchi) in time to compete in the final contest was hosted by Britain with the starting- and finishing- Schneider Trophy event of 1 931 point off Ryde Pier, Isle of Wight. Many contenders had been but on 1 Apnl 1 934 established a but in the final analysis it was Britain versus Italy, the new world speed record of expected latter fielding two Macchi M.67s with 1,400 hp engines plus the 423.76 mph, which it bettered on 23 October lAermacchi) Macchi M.52R with a 1,000 hp AS. 3. Supermarine provided Britain's hopes for success, an S.5 with a Napier Lion VIIB engine and two new and improved S.6 airframes, enlarged and

strengthened to accept the new 1 ,900 hp Rolls-Royce 'R' engine. All six aircraft came to the start in near perfect conditions on 7 September, but the M.67s were both to retire in the second lap from problems caused by their Isotta-Fraschini engines. This left only the M.52R to face the challenge of the Supermarines. British success came as all three completed the course, although Flight Officer R. L. R. Atcherley piloting one of the S.6s was disqualified for cutting a pylon. It was Flight Officer H. R. Waghorn in the other S.6 who won, at an average speed of 328.63 mph. Italy's Warrant Officer T. Dal Molin in the M.52R was the second at 284. 20 mph and Flight" Officer D. D'Arcy Greig in S.5 was third at 282. 11 mph. Britain now needed only to win in 1931 to secure the trophy, but a parsimonious government announced that it would not allocate the funds needed for participation. Despite pressure from many sources the government was adamant. But for the generous-hearted action of the patriotic and wealthy Lady Houston, who gave the Royal Aero Club a cheque for £100,000,

It seems likely that British hopes of securing that third win would ha\ e been dashed for ever. Both France and Italy intended to take part in the 1931 contest, again to be flown over the Solent, off the Isle of Wight. However, both were faced with serious problems in the development of their contending aircraft (including the loss of

36 Left One ot the two Supermanne S.6Bs S 7596 built to win the trophy outnght for Britain

skilled pilots in high-spcuJ ci.isIics).ukI were un.ilile totieki tliL-ir was approaching at m\ iiiiles a minute. aircraft when the Royal Aero Club refused to postpone the Leading a faint smoke-trail he came. Half-a-mile away he contest date. The Club further underlined the refusal by stating began to turn, reached its peak in an ear-splitting vertical virage that in the absence of competition a British aircraft would over- about 200 yards outside the pylon, andstraightenedevenly out to fly the course to take the trophy. moan away down the coast .... Thereby, on 13 September 1931. with only one of three And so the show passed, and repassed, and was past. Seven members of the RAFs High Speed Flight needing to complete times, almost as regularly as a planet in reverse, the whining the course, the event was regarded as something of an speck came, howled about us and went .... anticlimax. Perhaps a few words from the pen of an eye-witness. Finally, relayed over the microphone on Ryde Pier, came the F. D. Bradbrooke, writing in The Aeroplane of 16 September triumphant clamour of 2.400 hp finishing the last Schneider 1931. will add a little excitement and color to mere historic Trophy Contest."* achievement: The Supcrmarine S.6B. flown by Flight Lieutenant J. N. "For three minutes from that moment [the start] there was real Boothinan at an average speed of 340.08 mph. had given Britain and patent excitement on Wittering Beach. A tlea-like speck permanent possession of Jacques Schneider's trophy. could be seen hopping from crest to crest on the Isle of Wight

skyline. It decelerated and decreased to bare visibility, and the 'Special thanks are given for permission to quote from The crowd buzzed to itself that Boothman had rounded the pylon and AeropUme.

37 Great Moments

TO THE FROZEN ENDS OF THE EARTH

The first recorded attempt to reach the North Pole by air was made by three Swedish engineers, who hfted off from Spitzbergen on 11 July 1897 in the hydrogen balloon Omen (Eagle). Three days later, perhaps

predictably, it ended in disaster, and a further 33 years were to elapse before their bodies were discovered. By then, however, man had reached the Pole by air.

38 Ti)thMKrc)zi;Tii;n(lsiillhi:l:,irlh

Fokker F Vll-3m Josephine Ford Below flown over the North Pole. Amundsen's semi-ngid N 1 (US Department of the Navy) Norge airship.

But tor ;i cruel stroke ot luck, the honor of heing first would surel) h;i\c gone to the hriiliiuit Norwegian explorer RoakI Amundsen, who had already reached the South Pole on loot in

!') 1 1 . Alter unsuccesslul earlier attempts to llv lo the North Pole. Amundsen and his American Iriend Lincoln Lllsworlh. with two Norwegian pilots and two mechanics, took off from Kings Bay. Spitzbergen. in the late afternoon of 21 May \n5 in two twin- engined, open-cockpit Dornier Wal flying-boats numbered N.24 and N.25. All went well for seven hours, until one of N.2,'>'s engines failed. This aircraft made a safe landing, but N. 24 was holed by ice while making its own landing three miles away. On checking their positions, the two explorers discovered that they had come tantalizingly close to the required latitude — S7^' 44' N — but that drift, which they were not equipped to measure accurately, had carried them 1(1° 20' W of their goal, leasing them still 136 miles from the Pole. They survived an incredible 16 days of hardship on the ice before, with its faulty engine repaired and all six men crowded on board, N.23 was able to lumber off the ice and fly them back to Spitzbergen. Almost immediately, Amundsen and Ellsworth began to plan another attempt, this time by airship, and approached the Italian government to request use of the 670.980 cubic foot semi-rigid N.l built by Colonel Umberto Nobile. This arrangement was approved by Mussolini on two conditions: that Nobile was appointed as airship commander, w ith five other Italians forming

part of the crew, and that Italy would repurchase the N.l if it survived the expedition in good condition. After being stripped,

re-equipped and renamed Norge. the N. I arrived in Spitzbergen on 7 May 1926. having had a four-week. 5.1)00-mile roundabout trip. By that lime, however, there was a serious rival already on the scene in the form of Lieutenant Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd of the US Navy, who was ready with his own attempt to reach the North Pole by airplane. Byrd was an experienced navigator and explorer. He had commanded one of the first US naval air stations (Halifax) in the Canadian Arctic in 1918. designed the navigation equipment for the USN's Curtiss NC transatlantic tlying-boats of 1919. and taken part in the summer of I92.> in a .'lO.OOO square mile aerial survey of northern Greenland. He had long had the ambition to reach the North Pole by air. and on 9 May 1926. only two days after the Marge's arrival at Kings Bay. he (as navigator) and his pilot Floyd Bennett, another early US naval aviator, flew to the Pole, circled

it and returned, in a 1.60()-mile round trip of about 15V4 hours. For such a flight, of course, a magnetic compass was useless, and navigating a trip of this length by sun compass, across hostile terrain in weather conditions in which the sun was rarelv visible.

39 was a remarkable tribute to Byrd's ability. In the circumstances, rather more eventful flight) for nearly three and a halt days its to it may seem trite to describe the flight as uneventful, but the only during which it passed over the Pole, continuing journey scare was a slight oil leak in one engine. land at Teller, Alaska, on 14 May. Amundsen thereby achieved The aircraft in which Byrd and Bennett flew was one with an the first flight to traverse the Arctic completely. He and his unusual history. In the previous year Edsel Ford, of the helmsman, Oskar Wisting, also gained the well-deserved celebrated motorcar company, had launched the Ford Reliability distinction of becoming the first men in history to visit both ice Tour, a 1 .900-mile circuit of major US cities, to demonstrate the Poles. Despite some envelope damage, caused by lumps of reliability of aircraft as a regular means of public transport. flying off the propellers, the airship was largely unscathed, Dutchman Antony Fokker. whose American factory was enabling Amundsen to claim the $46,000 'repurchase' price for producing a transport known as the F.VII, decided to enter this returning it safely to Italian ownership. aircraft, but with its less than reliable single engine replaced by Like Byrd's flight, that of the Norge was a remarkable feat of three more dependable, though lower-powered, units. Thus was navigation and airmanship, but its achievement was sadly marred born the F.VII-3m: the later-famous Fokker Tri-motor. The by some over-publicized personal differences between prototype dominated the Ford Tour, and after a brief period on Amundsen and Nobile after the event. These were never settled loan to the US Army Air Service was purchased by Edsel Ford, directlv. But when Nobile in his new airship Itaha crashed in the named Josephine Ford after his daughter, designated BA-1 Arctic two years later, Amundsen and his Norwegian pilot of (Byrd Arctic No. 1), painted dark blue and donated to Byrd for 1925, Lief Dietrichson, volunteered to join the seven-nation his historic Polar flight. In recognition of their achievement both aerial search for them. Tragically, although Nobile and seven of Byrd and Bennett were awarded the Congressional Medal of the Ilalia's 15-man crew were rescued, the only casualties among Honor; Byrd was also awarded the US Navy's Distinguished the would-be rescuers were Amundsen, Dietrichson and their four-man crew, whose aircraft crashed en route to Spitzbergen Below Service Medal. efforts, although he was denied his cherished without even reaching the search area. Mobile's airship Italia before the Amundsen's Norge took followed his North Polar flight by Arctic attempt, 1928 (Italian Air 'first' for a second time, did not go unrewarded. The Meanwhile, Byrd, who had Force) off two days after Josephine Ford, remaining airborne (in a taking part in a transatlantic race the following year, had experienced no trouble in obtaining backers — including the US Navy — for his next Polar venture: a flight to the South Pole. Sadly, Bennett was to die from pneumonia before it could get underway, but not before he had made a major contribution to the plans for its execution. Compared with the North Polar attempt, the Byrd Antarctic Expedition was a much larger, more difficult and more expensive operation. LInlike the Arctic, the Antarctic possessed no habitation within at least 1,000 miles of the South Pole, which meant that an entire operating base had to be established from scratch. A site was chosen in the Bay of Whales, on the edge of the Ross Sea about 800 miles from the Pole. It took 4 ships to ferry the equipment, more than 60 men and 4 aircraft from the USA to the new base, which was given the name Little America. In addition, since none of the aircraft was able to carry enough fuel for the round trip from Little America to the Pole and back, an auxiliary refuelling base was laid down near the foot of Mount Nansen, some 440 miles to the south of Little America. aircraft, this For the flight attempt , Byrd chose a new tri-motor

time a Ford 4-AT, naming it Floyd Bennett after his Arctic companion. He chose for his pilot Lieutenant Bernt Balchen of the Norwegian Army Air Service, a former member of Amundsen's Arctic expedition and the man who had designed and built new skis for the Josephine Ford after her original pair had been wrecked in early take-off attempts. Byrd was, again, in charge of both the flight and the navigation. Completing the Flovd Bennett's crew were Harold I. June as radio operator, refueller and reserve pilot, and Captain Ashley C. McKinley of the US Navy as official aerial surveyor and photographer. McKinley's job, using a 100 lb Fairchild camera, was to map the flight path corridor between Little America and the Pole for the benefit of future expeditions. .lust before 4.00 pm (local time) on 28 November 1929, the

40 To Ihe Frozen Ends of the Earth

Ford tri-motor and its crew took off from McMurdo Sound in Liv. alongside the Heiberg. which seemed to offer a slighly lower Little America. Included in the aircraft's 15.000 lb gross weight passage over the mountains, and the now-lightened Ford just were two radio receivers and a transmitter, by means of which managed to climb over the hump with a few hundred feet to Harold June maintained hourly contact with their base. At the spare. same time, progress of the flight was relayed from Little America Apart from a minor 'hiccup' in the starboard engine, caused by to the \'ew York Times radio station, enabling audiences in the an over-lean fuel mixture that was soon corrected, no further United States to keep abreast of the event. problems were encountered. They overflew the Pole at about The first half of the outward leg passed without mishap, but 1.15 on the morning of 29 November, dropping the flags of the then came a setback that could have cost all four men their lives. United States (weighted by a stone from Flosd Bennett's grave). The night path to the Pole involved climbing to cross the 10,000 Great Britain. Norway and France. On the return flight, with foot Queen Maud rangeof mountains, by way of a 'valley' among their headwinds now transformed into tailwinds. they were able Below Left the peaks created by the Axel Heiberg glacier. As they neared to outrun a snowstorm and touch down at the auxiliary depot to Byrd testing a liferaft alongside the mountains a fuel check revealed that the aircraft was too refuel. Within an hour they had taken off again, and arrived back the Lewis-Vought seaplane above the Heiberg — strong headwinds had heavy to climb in Little America less than 19 hours after they had left. before the April 1 925 McMillan caused fuel consumption to be much higher than they had Byrd. who thus became the first man to fly over both Poles, polarexpedition.dJSDepartnnent calculated and so Balchcn had kept the Floyd Bennett down to its was promoted from Commander to Rear Admiral a few weeks of the Navy) most economical cruising speed and altitude. Weight had to be later, and was awarded the Navy Cross in recognition of his Below reduced, and quickly. Byrd knew that his decision could be. quite South Polar flight. In the Antarctic, which became his first love, Lieutenant Commander Richard literally, one of life or death. If they jettisoned fuel, there would he did much further flying and other exploration in the early part Evelyn Byrd taking observations be too little left to complete the round trip back to Little of the 1930s. His last visit was as adviser to 'Operation Deep with the sextant used on the America. If food was sacrificed, their chances of survival if Freeze I', the American contribution to the International Arctic expedition. In the rear perhaps fatally, compromised. forced to land would be seriously, Geophysical Year of 1957-S. Byrd's two historic Polar aircraft, cockpit taking notes is Boatswain Nevertheless. Byrd decided to throw out two 125 lb bags of food the Josephine Ford and Floyd Bennett, are preserved to this day E E Rober. supplies. Balchen. meanwhile, had spotted a second glacier, the in the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn, Michigan. (US Department of the Navyl

41 7

LINDBERGH AND THE ATLANTIC CHALLENGE

There is little doubt that, at least in the English-speaking world, Charles

Augustus Lindbergh is the most famous name in the entire field of aviation after the Wright brothers. He gained his fame by a single flight across the Atlantic, yet he was not the first person to fly across that ocean but the 92nd.

Where his flight differed from its predecessors was that it was a direct flight

between two great cities, and it was made solo!

42 Bottom Crew of the NC-4: from left. Talbot, Ensign Rodd. Lieutenant Below Hinton and Lieutenant Left Curtiss Model H America flying- Commander Read, plus Secretary Replica Spirit of St Louis. boat, which was intended to of the Navy Daniels and two other (Teledyne Ryan) make an Atlantic attempt in 1914. Navy officers. (US Air Force)

The Atlantic Ocean was then seen as more than a vast stretch

of water. It separated America from Europe, a commercial ;i^ well as sentimental consideration. Spanned only bv slow-moviP:; ships, the invention of the airplane promised to change that eventually. By October 1913 the world absolute distance recorJ flown by an airplane stood at only 634'/: miles, yet in that year the British newspaper, the Daily Mail, offered a flO.fXX) prize for the first direct crossing of the Atlantic. The American Rodman Wanamaker. a wealthy businessman, ordered from Curtiss two flying-boats, of which America was to make the attempt on 5 August 1914 with the Royal Navy's

Lieutenant John Porte as pilot. The outbreak of World War 1 ended hopes as preparations were coming to a close, and the flying-boats instead became prototypes for similar aircraft used with great success as anti-submarine and maritime patrol bombers.

Post-war. there was a scramble to win what was still a ver\ substantial prize. The 191-1-18 conflict had pushed ahead the development of long-range warplanes. some capable of such a hazardous over-water undertaking. Not in contention for the prize, though, was the British R-34 rigid airship, which crossed westward over the Atlantic from East Fortune (Scotland) to New York during 2-6 July and eastward between New York and Pulham (England) during 9-13 July 1919. a total flying time ot 183 hours and 8 minutes. Commanded by Squadron Leader G.

H. Scott and with a crew of 30. it thereby recorded not only the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic by air but the first two-way crossing. Also out of the running for the Daily Mail prize was the American Navy/Curtiss NC-4 flying-boat, which between 8-31 May 1919 completed the very first Atlantic crossing by airplane

Commanded by Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read, it had been one of three NC flying-boats that set out from Rockaway. New York, flown by US Navy crews. NC-1 and NC-3 were forced lo alight and give up off the Azores, the former sinking but its crew

saved. The NC had been designed for wartime use. intended t be capable of self-delivery from America to Europe to avou; destruction on board transport ships at the hands of German submarines. But NC-4's great achievement was made in stages leaving the non-stop title still unclaimed. Nobody had to wait long. During 14-15 June 1919 Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown crewed a Vickers Vimy bomber from St

John's. Newfoundland. toClifden. County Galway. Ireland, in .i flying time of 16 hours 27 minutes. The Atlantic had. at last, been crossed by an airplane without stopping. On landing the Vinn nosed over (in a peat bog), but having flown through thick cloud.

43 Great Momnnts in Aviatic

Right Navy/Curtiss NC-4 on display in Washington DC

Below Navy/Curtiss NC-4 at Tagus river, Lisbon, Portugal, on 29 May 1919, (US Department of the Navy)

stalled and spun, nearly crashed into the hostile waves below, and Brown having to periodically clinibout of the cockpit to clear ice from the fuel gauge, any landing was a good one. The £10.000 was theirs, plus knighthoods in recognition of their historic achievement. But this same year, 1919. also began a new Atlantic challenge. The wealthy New York hotelier. Raymond Orteig. offered a prize of $25,000 to any aviator who could fly non-stop in either direction between New York and Paris. This was a major challenge, and there were at first no takers. In 1926. however.

I )itcig repeated his offer. Pilots began thinking such a flight

possible, the War I fighter .f:m would be among them French World ,Kcs Rene Fonck and Charles Nungesser. Fonck and his three

I lew Hying a three-engined Sikorsky made their attempt on 20 September 1926. Burdened by extra fuel, the airplane began its

I "iig take-off run. Suddenly the auxiliary undercarriage .'llapsed and broke up, but the plane pushed on. Fonck Lsperately tried to encourage the Sikorsky to fly. but to no avail.

\i the end of the field it fell down a dip and burst into flames. killing two of the crew. Fonck survived. Nungesser in his two- man, single-englned Levasseur PL-8 took off on S May 1927 and was never seen again! Between the two flights annlher crew had been killed making the attempt in a Keystone Pathfinder. But there was yet another challenger willing to risk his life. His name «,is Lindbergh and he intended to make the flight in the most hazardous way. in a single-engined airplane, and alone! Lindbergh had a 0.22 rifle at the age of 6. and at 11 could drive his father's Model T car. At 16 he was running his father's farm.

44 Lindbergh and the Atlantic Challenge

At 18. already over 6 feet tall, he studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin, and at 22 he was a barnstorming aviator. In March 1925 he qualified as a pilot in the Army Air Service Reserve, and by 1926 he had made numerous parachute jumps of which three were 'for real", on two occasions being

narrowly missed by his crashing aircraft. On l.^i April 1926 he opened the CAM-2 air-mail route between St Louis and Chicago as Chief Pilot for Robertson Aircraft Corporation. There were few tougher schools than flying the DH-4 mailplanes. day or night, in any weather and without even a

radio. Soon Lindbergh had logged 2.000 flying hours, and it was then that he thought of the Orteig prize. He was aware of the impact such a flight would have on the whole population. B\ demonstrating that even a small plane could reliably n\ betw cen cities thousands of miles apart, it would focus attention on aviation as a serious means of transport. It would also accelerate the growth in air travel and. not least, it would lead to a willingness for investors to put their money into aviation, scarcitx of which investment was seriously retarding the US aircraft industry. He judged he had all he needed in the matter of piloting skill, basic airmanship, navigation and sheer hard experience. What he did not have was a suitable airplane, and he soon concluded one would have to be specially built. He decided that the best buy would be a Bellanca. but such a machine was beyond his reach Left Eventually he made an agreement with T. Claude Ryan, whose Captain John Alcock and Ryan Airlines Inc. at distant San Diego was producing an Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown efficient, single-engine, high-wing monoplane called the M-1. n civvies. This seemed a good basis, but instead of carrying two passengers or 400 lb of mail the NYP (New York to Paris) would have to biggest available airfields. As the design progressed, however, have enough fuel to fly about 4.500 miles, allowing a safety the weight grew. The wings had to be extended to handle it, and margin over the actual great circle distance of 3.610 miles. At the design weights were 2.150 lb empty and 5,130 lb loaded. The about 10 miles per gallon this meant 449 US gallons of fuel, which crucial take-off began to look the most problematical part of the would weigh over 2.700 Ibl flight. But at least there was no trouble paying for the NYP: a nine-cylinder Ryan picked the Wright J-5C Whirlwind group of St Louis businessmen put up $15,000. which included a Far Left aircooled radial as the most reliable engine, its 237 horsepower little over S6.000 to pay Ryan. Under designer Donald Hall, the Alcock and Brown's Vickers Vimy being just about enough to get the heavily laden aircraft into the NYP was completed in 60 days. It was really a flying fuel tank. taking off on its Atlantic attempt air after a run down the 2.000 to 2,500 feet of hard grass at the From the engine firewall back to the rear wing struts the entire from Newfoundland.

Left Cockpit of the transatlantic Vimy (John Taylor)

45 .

Circil McJim-nls in A\ iali(

Alcock and Brown's Vimy after landing in Clifden. Ireland.

Below Alcock and Brown's Vimy on display with some of the fuselage covenng removed, showing the extra fuel tanks which provided an additional 349 Imp gallons of

fuselage was one giant tank. Further metal tanks occupied the inboard part of each wing. Together they housed the required 449 gallons, giving a design still-air range of 4.6?0 miles, greater than any airplane had ever had previously. When completed the gross weight was found to be 5.250 lb. which was certainly an awesome figure. Not least of the problems was that the cockpit aft of the huge fuselage tank, had side windows but no forward view at all. The two-blade metal propeller had a huge spinner This, and the entire metal skin of the forward fuselage, were buffed in a pattern that soon was to be famous all over the world.

The rest of the aircraft was fabric covered, sprayed silver. It received experimental registration N-X-211, and on the nose was painted Spirit of Si Louis. Lindbergh made the first test flight on 28 April 1927. By thi^ time there were plenty of others eager to win the Orteig prize Commander Byrd, Clarence D. Chamberlin and several more. Coast to coast the newspapers drummed up a rather tawdry publicity, tending to focus on the tall loner from the Midwest Soon the handsome yet poor young man was setting records, flying from the Ryan field across the great mountains to St Louis, despite severe icing, and then going on to Curtiss Field. New

York. Here he had a carburetor heater fitted, but he still had nn radio. In the cockpit were a turn/slip indicator, magnetic and Earth-inductor compasses and a drift sight. He planned meticulously, and relied totally on dead reckoning and on guessing the wind from the appearance of the sea.

Weather on 19 May was poor but it was expected to improve, so he decided to takeoff at dawn on the 20th. Unable to sleep, he was at the field at 2.15 am. relieved to find no sign of any rivals. In drizzling rain the NYP was then towed across to the new 5. (Kill foot strip at Roosevelt Field prepared by rival Byrd. who had

46 iiJliersh ami tlm MIdiilii. c:lidllen>;t

given •Lindy" — as the papers called him — permission to use it. Somehow not 449 but 451 gallons were laboriously poured in. Then, the thin tires almost sinking into the soggy grass, the throttle was opened fully for take-off. The NYP hardly moved, until everyone who was nearby began pushing on the wing struts. For 1(10 vards they pushed; even then the NYP was nowhere near getting the tail up and the rubber-sprung legs were bottoming on their stops with every bump. Ever so gradually the speed built Left Spirit of St Lows at Camp Kearny up. until with each bump the silver airplane came nearer to parade ground after fuel-loading flying. At the last moment Lindbergh was able to lift over some test flights. Aviation fuel was telegraph wires. One of the worst parts was over. added to the aircraft in 50-US Soon the rain cleared, but over Nova Scotia the overloaded gallon increments. Charles NYP bucked a violent storm for an hour. Almost 12 hours out he Lindbergh is on the center bottom dived low over St John's. Newfoundland, crossing the field drum. (Ryan) where Alcock and Brown had taken off eight years previously. Then he headed out over the wide Atlantic and into a moonless Below Left Charles Augustus Lindbergh, night . I ncreasingly his problem was a desperate need for sleep; or rather to stay awake. He had already had no sleep for 36 hours Below and still had almost another 24 hours to go. He wrote, "The worst The 46-foot span wing for the part about fighting sleep is that, the harder you fight, the more Spirit was built on the second to him.' you strengthen your enemy and weaken your resistance floor of the Ryan Airlines factory fell off Manv times he awoke at the last moment as the aircraft on at San Diego It then had to be one wing, and twice he found he was in a spiral dive. About 14 moved to the Ryan flying field at hours out he was so worried by icing that he even thought of Dutch Flats, where the aircraft turning back. Towering clouds all seemed to merge together in was assembled (Ryan)

47 Greal Momenls in A

Above Fuel tank arrangement in the Below Left Spirit- A periscope provided Buffed pattern of the Spirit's forward view over the fuselage metal skins (Ryan) tanks (Ryan)

mist, hut miraculously the ice eventually began to diminish. Repeatedly he had to force his eyelids open with his fingers. Suddenly he saw the lights of a ship; then realized they were stars and that the NYP was almost on its side. He sometimes found himself 10° off course, and on the third morning since he had slept he kept reciting, 'There's no alternative but death and failure.' Over 21 hours into the flight, in daylight, he saw a mighty funnel in the clouds with the ocean visible far below. Throttling right back he managed to spiral tightly down the narrow chasm until at low level he could see white spume blown from huge waves. He reckoned there was a 60 mph wind and checked the

direction , but what had the wind been over the previous 7 hours'.' At times he realized he had been asleep with eyes open, and there were many terribly dangerous periods. Once, when he was fully awake, he nearly brushed the waves trying to get under fog. .After 2S hours he unbelievingly saw land, and 20 minutes later he was living over Valentia Island on the Irish west coast, a mere

three miles off track! From then it was easier to keep awake for the final six hours. Night fell again, but he found Paris and the dark area that was Le Bourget airport, where he was soon surrounded by tens of thousands of cheering Parisians. His feel never touched the ground as he was carried off shoulder high. He had flown an ideal great circle distance of 3, 614 miles in 33 hours, 30 minutes and 29.8 seconds, an average of 107.9 mph. Among other things he had broken the world distance record, set just hours earlier by two RAF officers in a Hawker Horsley. Lindbergh's feet never touched the ground in more ways than one: in that moment he was catapulted into one of the greatest megastars of all time. This epic flight did not do very much for Ryan, which remained a small business, nor even for Wright despite the fact that their PR team of Bruno and Blythe were the 1 .1 ndlxTgh and the Atlantic Challenge

^•'fr^^

Left only ones actualK proniouiig Lindbergh. But it did more than was no mishap ot an> kind. Above T Claude Ryan, founder of Ryan words can convey both for Lindbergh himself and for world The tragic kidnap and murder of their son, and their longing to Airlines Inc. (Ryan) aviation. From then on, Lindbergh was almost universally escape from the press, led to the Lindberghs" settling in England regarded as a supernatural being. All doors were open to him. in 1935, where they had a special aircraft, the Mohawk, designed yet he avoided becoming a mere circus act. Instead, he devoted by Miles. Lindbergh flew it to inspect the site of Shannon Above bit of early advertising. (Ryan) himself singlemindedly to furthering aviation in every way. Airport, Ireland, in 1936, and the following year he and his wife A

Never again could he be ordinary. From Paris he flew Spirii to (who was expecting their third son) flew it to India. He also Britain, escorted to Croydon by a fleet of aircraft including devoted himself to research into artificial hearts (or at least airliners of Imperial Airways. Throughout his stay he was workable blood pumps), but a discordant note was struck by his mobbed by cheering crowds. To return to Le Bourget the RAF political naivety, which caused him to be entranced by Nazi lent him a Woodcock II fighter of 17 Squadron, with a wingman Germany. He could hardly refuse Goering's sudden presentation from that squadron on cither side. To return to New York of the Cross of the Order of the German Eagle with Star, and he President Coolidge sent him the cruiser Memphis, and — after was only expressing a fair opinion when he said the the most stupendous ticker-tape parade ever seen — made him a Messerschmitt Bf 109 was by far the greatest fighter in the world, colonel with the DFC. Following a 75-city tour of the US he flew but difficulties arose from his entirely reasonable belief that Spirii non-stop from Washington to Mexico City in 27 hours and Germany could easily conquer all Europe. 10 minutes (while there he met his future wife. Ann Morrow, This belief caused him to try and keep his own country out of daughter of the US Ambassador to Mexico), and then toured any kind of involvement in World War II. and he campaigned Latin America. against President Roosevelt's wish to help the Allies by such Next he chaired the technical committee of the giant airline means as the Lend-Lease Act. Even after Pearl Harbor he TAT and its successor TWA, which became famed as The publicly sided with the isolationist 'America First' group, whose Lindbergh Line. He also became technical adviser to PanAm. influence he multiplied many times because of his towering and with his wife carried out numerous great survey flights for reputation. Accordingly, the Army Air Corps turned him down PanAm (which provided a welcome break from the ceaseless flat, but he did valuable work helping Henry Ford get the pestering of armies of pressmen who otherwise pursued the complex B-24 Liberator into production at Willow Run. Then he couple day and night). Using a Lockheed Sirius seaplane they worked for Chance Vought and flew .SO missions in the Pacific made a North Pacific survey in 1931 which crossed Canada. with F4U Corsairs, showing that it was possible to drop a 4.000 lb .Alaska, the Soviet far east. Japan and China. In 1933 they carried bombload. He also greatly extended the combat radius of the out a North Atlantic/Arctic survey over Greenland, Iceland, Lockheed P-38 Lightning. After the war he returned to PanAm. Britain. Scandinavia and the Soviet Union, returning via the worked (as a Brigadier-General) on L'SAF ballistic missiles and South Atlantic and Caribbean, over 30,000 miles in all. Ann kept busy right up to his death from leukaemia in 1974. .Morrow Lindbergh shared the flying and navigation, and there

49 -real Moments in Avidlii

MIDWAY

The Battle of Midway changed the whole direction of the Pacific war, and in doing this blew apart the myth of Japanese invulnerability. America had by stealth, courage and more than a little luck defeated the greatest combined fleet in the Pacific, denying Japan the occupation of the key island of Midway.

50 Below Left USS West Virginia and USS Bottom The standard American carrier Tennessee in flames after the Aichi D3A Va/swere the standard appearance of many Japanese fighter during the Battles of the surprise Japanese attacks on Japanese carrier-borne dive- attack aircraft had lulled pre-war Coral Sea and Midway was the Pearl Harbor on 7 December bombers during the Pearl Harbor, Western analysts into a false Grunnman F4F Wildcat. 1941 Coral Sea and Midway actions. sense of security. (Grumman Corporation) (US Department of the Navy) The somewhat outdated (US National Archives)

But there is also a popular misconception that the battle left the Japanese without substantial aircraft carrier forces, so often arc only the four carriers lost to Japan mentioned. Yet four other .lapanese carriers survived the Midway and related Aleutian Islands actions. Furthermore, the large carrier Shokaku that had been damaged during the earlier Battle of the Coral Sea and Zidkukii went back into operational use. and the new Hiyo was commissioned. American war games since 1928 had frequently demonstrated the vulnerability of shore defenses to surprise aircraft carrier attack, and in that very year aircraft from USS Lungley mock raided the American Navy base at Pearl Harbor. Oahu (Hawaiian Islands). The defenders had been caught unaware, but had nothing more lethal than flour showered on them. Later exercises against Pearl Harbor before World War II met with comparable success. The second generation US aircraft carriers were very much improved and faster and, in a highly significant speed trial by USS Lexington in June 1928. this carrier demonstrated an abilit\ to sail from San Pedro to Honolulu in under 7.'? hours. But even this achievement was overshadowed in 1929. In a militar\ exercise lasting 2.^-27 January. Lexington formed part of a fleet tasked with defending the Panama Canal against an "attacking force that included its sister ship Saratoga and a seaplane tender representing the unavailable first-generation Langley. In the early morning of the 26th, under the cover of darkness and in poor weather conditions. 70 fighters, bombers, scouts and a communications aircraft flew from Saratoga, together with a seaplane from the tender that singularly represented Langley's aircraft. Undetected, they pressed home their 'attack". A second and smaller strike from Saratoga followed. The result was the theoretical annihilation of the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks and nearby airfields. From the point of view of the exercise, the Canal had been well and truly put out of action. But the surprises had not ended. Ironically, even before Saratoga had launched its second attack, it had been theoretically sunk several tiines over by "enemy" battleships, aircraft and a submarine. A final twist came on the 27th. when naval land-based Martin bombers defending the Canal had seen their own carrier Lexington and. mistaking it ioT Saratoga, had "sunk' this too. But out of the chaos came a sure and strong belief in the future of the aircraft carrier as an offensive naval vessel, with other warships contributing to (Vv protection and not exclusively the other way around. In February 1941 the US Navy established separate Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, although the likelihood of an attack on

American assets in the Pacific were deemed insignificant. As if to reinforce this attitude. Alaskan Defense Command of the then

51 Great Momnnts in Aviati(

US Army Air Corps (tasked in part with defending certain Pacific naval bases in the north) seemed doomed to be the last to receive modern replacement aircraft. That was a mistake! On 7 December 1941 America's fighting neutrality was shattered. While radios played music around the island at Pearl Harbor on this quiet Sunday morning, like a beacon in the Pacific Ocean. Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero-Sen fighters. Aichi D3A1 dive-bombers and Nakajima B5N2 bombers and torpedo-bombers had been mustering in the skies. At 7.55 am they made their opening surprise strike against the resting American ships, airfields and other targets. The attacking aircraft, and the second wave, came from six Japanese aircraft carriers belonging to a fleet that had approached unheeded. The total offensive force was some 350 aircraft. A small but significant strength of fighters had also been kept back for defense, and floatplanes flew from cruisers and battleships. The destruction to American battleships and land-based aircraft was immense. But the US carriers of the Pacific Fleet had by chance escaped the onslaught, with Enterprise then returning from Wake Island, Lexington sailing to Midway, and Saratoga still in San Diego following maintenance. In essence the Pearl Harbor raid had been a huge success for Japan, judged by the destruction of US assets. The warplanes led by Commander Mitso Fuchida had incredibly surprised the Americans fully, and he had sent this news back to Admiral

Nagumo by the now famous phrase Tora. Tora, Tora' . But the absence of the American aircraft carriers, and so their continued survival for future battles, had been a bad blow for the attackers. This was compounded by their failure to destroy five submarines and their base, the fuel and oil complex, the harbor's power system and the naval repair facilities. The next day the USA declared war on Japan. Japanese military victories quickly mounted, against which the Allies achieved only spasmodic results. Enterprise and Yorktown opened the American carrier offensive by striking at Japanese installations in Kwajalein, Jaluit. Makin. Mili. Wake and Wotje islands in February 1942. but for the loss of Langley (then no longer classed as an operational aircraft carrier) on the 27th while ferrying fighters to Java. On 18 April a daring propaganda raid on Tokyo and other Japanese targets was successfully achieved by American Mitchell bombers flying a one-way mission off the carrier USS Hornet, most landing in friendly China. The actual

damage caused was small, but it made Japan tearful of further raids. Then came the first real test. Japan had intended to land forces

Above Left Left The Mitsubishi A6M Zero-Sen Intended for ship use. the was without question the finest Grumman Avenger made its fighter of the early Pacific war operational debut from land years. during the Battle of Midway. A bomber and torpedo plane, it also earned machine-guns fordefense in a power-operated dorsal turret, rearward facing ventral position and forward finng. (Grumman Corporation) 6

at Port Moresby (New Guinea), using aircraft carriers (under command of Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inouye) to provide air cover and air attack forces. Working on good intelligence and Left thereby assuming the threat, between 4 and 8 May Yorktonn and Admiral Chester Nimitz on Island, the occasion Lexington in company with other ships engaged the Japanese in Midway on of presenting awards to Navy and what became known as the Battle of the Coral Sea. Initial targets Marine Corps personnel who had lor the Douglas Dauntless and Devastator bombers/torpedo helped repel Japanese flying- bombers and Grumman Wildcat fighters from Yorklown were boats on the night of 1 March ships engaged in landings at Tulagi Harbor, including transports, 1942 minesweepers and a destroyer. On the 5th the two US carrier lUS Department of the Navy) forces joined up south of the Louisiade Archipelago in the Coral Sea. That same night the Japanese carriers Shokaku and Below Left Zuikakii of the strike force approached and then headed for the L.eutenant Colonel James

Doolittle led 1 Japanese invasion transport fleet. As soon as it was realized quite Jimmy' a daring aircraft raid on Tokyo. Nagoya. how close the US carriers were, the invasion fleet was turned Yokohama. Yokosuka and Kobe away and Port Moresby reprieved. But this was just the on 18 April 1942. the North beginning. American B-25 Mitchells flying Onthe7th,US aircraft found and sank the carrier Shoho of the from USS Hornet. (US Air Force) invasion force. The following day a battle royal took place. Near simultaneous air attacks on opposing US and Japanese carriers left the Lexington so badly damaged and on fire that it had to be Below abandoned and was finally deliberately sunk by torpedoes from Damage on Sand Island. Midway, a friendly destroyer. Yorklown too had been hit by a bomb, but after the Japanese air attacks of survived. Meanwhile US aircraft had struck at the carrier 4 June, (US Department of the Shokaku. leaving it damaged and requiring weeks to repair. Navy)

53 Above So ended the first ever naval battle involving tlccts not in direct sweeping arc. Dutch Harbor on the island of Unalaska held an Curtiss P-40 Warhawks from contact, and the first to be decided by air power alone. The important US Navy base. The defeat of this base and the Umnak took their toll of Japanese outcome was indecisive. Both Japan and the USA had lost a occupation of Adak, Attuand Kiska islands in the western sector aircraft during the Aleutian carrier and both had another badly damaged. Other vessels of of the chain would not only give Japan a foothold close to the campaign each side had fallen victim too, including destroyers. In total the American continent but would also make more difficult any US lost 69 carrier aircraft that day, more than half going down on American plans to muster a force to attack Japan in the near Above Right the Lexington. The Imperial Japanese Navy lost 43 aircraft future (Japan was then still smarting from Doolittle's carrier raid The only Grumman TBF Avenger during the battle operations plus others thrown over the side of on Tokyo in April). Furthermore, the occupation was intended to sun/ive the attack on the Zuikaku to make space for aircraft unable to land back on to form the northern link in a defensive string of islands to protect Japanese aircraft carriers on 4 Shokaku. For the engagement as a whole a number of other US Japan that could stretch all the way down to the Coral Sea off the June was Burt Earnest's, and aircraft had been lost, but these were fewer than Shoho's losses. Australian coast. Finally, but importantly, it was hoped that the even in this a gunner was killed With the threatened invasion of Port Moresby defeated and Americans on Midway and Pearl Harbor would be diverted by and two of the other three crew Coral the slightly earlier pre-emptive Aleutian attack. wounded. (Grumman many experienced Japanese airmen lost, the Battle of the the Aleutian operation a Japanese fleet under Vice Corporation) Sea has to be seen as an Allied victory, not least as this had For resulted in the first major setback for the Japanese invasion Admiral Hosogaya included the carriers Junyo and Ryujo. 13 forces in the war. But the Japanese still had nine important destroyers, 7 cruisers, 6 submarines, a minelayer, 5 transports aircraft carriers in the Pacific plus escort carriers. Another and 5 au.xiliary vessels. For the actual Midway operation, the confrontation with US carrier forces was inevitable. Japanese assembled three naval elements under the overall Japanese eyes turned to the islands of Midway and the far off command of Admiral Yamamoto. One element comprised the Aleutians to the north, where branches of all three American principal carriers Akagi, Hiryii. Kaga and Soryu. plus 17 other services were stationed. Midway was the greater prize. Midway warships, intended chiefly to knock out the American defenses also held the key to the eventual capture of Pearl Harbor, on Midway and offer cover against US attacks. The second was offering the prospect of both an early-warning base on US the invasion force, with 16 transports and other auxiliary ships movements and a springboard for an offensive. But the plan was supported by the light carrier Ziiiho and 41 warships. Finally more than merely the capture of the island. By drawing the came Yamamoto's own group, with the carrier Hosho. 34 battle-mauled US Pacific Fleet into conflict against a vastly larger warships plus auxiliary vessels. The seaplane carriers sailing with

Japanese force, it was intended to deal a crushing blow that the elements were integral to the operation. would effectively end US power in the region and make capture To oppose a Midway attack, the US had its shore-based of Oahu inevitable. And with the British tied up in their own USA AF and Marine Corps/Navy aircraft and a naval force which actions, there was no prospect of assistance in time. American included the carriers Enterprise and Hornet of Task Force 16, Atlantic Fleet carriers were also beyond call. To guarantee supported by 17 cruisers and destroyers, and the carrier further the defeat of the US Pacific Fleet, submarines were to be Yorktown of Task Force 17, supported by 8 cruisers and provided to block routes to Midway and the north. However, in destroyers. The fact that Yorktonn was a\ ailable for battle at all the event the US ships were not troubled by these submarines. reflected Japan's mistake at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack The plan was multifold. Some 1,500 miles to the north of in not destroying the repair facilities on that island. It would cost Midway lay the Aleutian Islands, stringing out from Alaska in a Japan dearly. Rear Admiral F. J. Fletcher had overall charge of

54 the carrier groups, with Rear Admiral R. A. Spruance Above Left subordinately commanding TF 16. In overall US command of Douglas TBD-1 Devastator operations was Admiral Chester Nimitz on Pearl Harbor. torpedo-bombers of VT-6 on board Enterprise Fortunately. America had good intelligence gathering, and USS Note the torpedo under each fuselage Led reports left Nimitz in no doubt that Midway was the main by Lieutenant Commander Japanese goal. Eugene Lindsey. only four To the north, the defense of and around the Aleutians returned from their attack on Kaga centered warships on inadequate US Navy and old submarines. dunng the Battle of Midway (US Army units, plus USAAF bombers and fighters based at airfields Department of the Navy) from Nome on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska to the islands of Kodiak and Umnak under Alaskan Defense Command. By the Above time of the Dutch Harbor attack the US Navy had some 2."^ USS Enterprise and an escorting surface warships and submarines in the immediate area, with the cruiser dunng the Battle of Midway. (US Department of the USAAF tasked to protect the naval bases at Dutch Harbor. Navy) Kodiak and elsewhere. The Umnak base was the furthest out. 65 miles from Dutch Harbor, thereby suiting both outer point defense and offensive operations. The air strength of some 140 Left aircraft immediately available from bases in the Aleutians and Lieutenant Commander John southern Alaska at the time of the Dutch Harbor attack Waldron. who led VT-8's Devastators m the heroic attack represented a rapid last-minute expansion and modernization on Kaga. All 1 5 of the squadron's This strength came under the auspices of the Eleventh Air Force. aircraft were shot down by Zero- Fighters included Lockheed P-38 Lightnings. Bell P-39 Sen fighters and anti-aircraft fire. Airacobras Curtiss P-4n Warhawks. the bulk and forming of the (US Department of the Navy) total force, while bombs and torpedoes could be dropped from the cruisers Muyu unti Itikiiii to make a reconnaissance, one was

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Martin B-26 Marauders shot down by a P-40 of the 1 Ith Fighter Squadron from the still among other less important types that included a Liberator. The secret Umnak airfield So far the Japanese had lost four aircraft, Navy also had 23 Catalina armed patrol flying-boats, which and the Americans two Catalina flying-boats. proved essential in spotting Japanese ships. On the 4th heavier Japanese attacks on Dutch Harbor caused Japanese operations against Dutch Harbor began on 3 June, substantial damage. In return, after a Catalina of Patrol Wing 4 but the poor weather conditions that had helped them close in had spotted and reported Japanese ships, including at least one undetected also initially hampered their operations. Some carrier. USAAF B-17 and B-26 bombers attacked the Japanese carrier aircraft launched for the initial strike on the 3rd returned vessels, but without success. However. Curtiss P-4() fighters without action, although six fighters pressed home a strafing flying from Umnak had ckfimed another four Japanese aircraft as attack, followed within minutes by small waves of bombers. A they had rendezvoused unknowingly over the I'S fighter base second strike launched to hit US warships turned back because of So. the day ended with five Japanese air losses, while thi the weather conditions. Of four Aichi EI3AI seaplanes flown off USAAF hail lost two P-4II fighters, a B-17. two B-26s and on<

55 .

;reat Moments in Avialii

Consolidated LB-3() Liberator II (that had originally been destined, with others, for the RAF but had been repossessed and was attached to 36 Squadron flying mostly B-I7s). The US Nav\ Catalinas had suffered a worse fate in the air and while stationary, and only 14 remained airworthy. On the 7th a Japanese force occupied the undefended islands of Attu and Kiska. which they held for about a year. Meanwhile, US long-range aircraft had been patrolling from Midway in an attempt to detect the expected Japanese. On the morning of the 3rd a Catalina spotted ships. That afternoon

USAAF B- 1 7s bombed Japanese transport ships from high level but without success. Soon after 1.00 am on the 4th a Catalina struck a Japanese auxiliary with a torpedo. Only hours later the main Japanese attacks on Midway began. Flying from the four main carriers that were still well over 200 miles from Midway, incoming Japanese aircraft were detected by Midway's radar, while the same Japanese carriers had also been seen by patrolling Catalinas. Defending US Midway-based Buffalo and Wildcat fighters were outgunned and outmatched, and for a devastating 30 minutes from 6.30 am Japanese warplanes carried out heavy raids on military installations. As the Japanese aircraft were beginning their return flight from the attack, six American Grumman Avengers and four B- 26 Marauders from Midway began retaliation against the ships The Avengers of VT-8 (Torpedo Squadron 8) had only arrived on Midway on 1 June, having flown originally from Norfolk Naval Air Station to Pearl Harbor with the intention of joining the rest of VT-8 flying Devastators on board Hornel. But, while the Avenger later achieved outstanding success as a carrier bomber, this early morning debut ended tragically, and only one limped back to Midway together with just two of the twin- engmed Marauders. Now came a fateful decision. Vice Admiral Nagumo, commanding the carrier divisions as he had for Pearl Harbor, ordered the attack aircraft on Akagi and Kaga to have their anti-ship torpedoes replaced by bombs, allowing for a second massive strike on Midway. While this was being organized word came of approaching US warships. The order to rearm was arrested, the aircraft once again needed for ship attack. Further unsuccessful attacks by American Midway-based B-17s, Dauntless and Vindicator dive-bombers also followed. However, Japanese warplanes now closing in on their home carriers after the first Midway strike needed to be recovered.

Room had to be made on deck, although rearming was still in progress. Vital time had been lost. Presently, work once again got underway to arm and fuel the Japanese attack aircraft force. But now incoming American carrier aircraft were located. Zero fighters were dispatched to intercept but still the decks were

Right On 6 June American carrier aircraft attacked the Japanese cruisers Mikuma (as seen here, which sank) and Mogam/ (which, despite appauling damage, was saved and repaired). (US Department of the Navy)

56 Left Right A remarkable photograph USS Vor/ctovvn burning after showing Hiryu maneuvering hard attack from H/ryu's Alchi D3As on to avoid bombs (the burst 4 June. Only six aircraft had patterns seen here) dropped by managed to press home the Midway-based B-17 Flying attack, two bombs hitting the Fortresses from an altitude of deck and another striking the 20.000 feet, on 4 June. (US funnel to explode inside. (US Department of the Navy) Department of the Navy)

Below Right Yorktown listing and abandoned on the 4th. expected to sink. Salvage operations began the

next day. but on 6 June it was struck again by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. (US Department of the Navy)

covered with other unready warplanes. The incoming American attack force, however, comprised only 15 outdated Douglas Devastators of VT-8 from the Hornet. A very much larger attack force had been dispatched from the US carriers but had been unable to find the relocated Japanese vessels, and some had even run out of fuel and ditched in the sea. Valiantly the Devastators went in unescorted. They were cut to ribbons. Not a single aircraft survived, and only one crewman. Some help might have been expected from a number of Wildcats flying high above, but these had not been signalled. Almost immediately after, however. VT-6 from Enterprise attempted the same attack, followed by V'T-3 from Yorktown. Only four from VT-6 survived. The American carriers had lost their force of Devastators. Moreover. VT-8 had not only been lost from the carrier force, hut its intended Avenger replacements had been destroyed also in that earlier attack from land. torpedoes from a Japanese submarine and sank on the 7th. A Japanese counter-strike was ordered. Meanwhile, the other Another of the submarine's torpedoes fired at the same time hit remaining airborne American aircraft had been searching for the destroyer USS Hammann. which sank immediately. By the their targets. Having been launched some time after 7. (XI am, the afternoon of the 4th Hiryu too had been successfully hit and sunk Dauntless bombers from Enterprise were running dangerously by US carrier planes from Enterprise, although B-17s from low on fuel. But presently they sighted three Japanese carriers. Midway had joined in. Without control of the air, the Japanese As so little lime had elapsed since the Devastator raids, Japanese had no choice but to withdraw. US attacks from Midway on the defenses and fighters were looking generally low for torpedo 5th and from US carriers on the 6th brought a further loss to the aircraft, allowing the high diving Dauntless bombers to close Japanese, when the cruiser Mikuma was sunk by carrier aircraft. virtually unhindered. Akagi and Kaga were singled out. their The war had turned irretrievably against the Japanese, which decks covered with aircraft, bombs and fuel. Both ships were left relied on command of the seas. Japan's intention had been to win burning and destroyed. Almost immediately Dauntless bombers early battles by surprise and overwhelming strength, giving its from Yorktown flew in. attacking and destroying 5on'i(. By 10.30 enemies little time to reinforce or manufacture new equipment am three of the four main Japanese carriers had been lost, and in because, as a nation. Japan itself had not the manufacturing the space of about five minutes! Kagaand Soryu sank in the early output to sustain heavy equipment losses. But, as yet, it was not evening of that day. The other crippled carrier was torpedoed by defeated, and to the surviving carriers could be added Shokaku its own ships on the morning of the 5th. and Zuikakii which had been put out of the Midway force by their Just 10 minutes after the American raids. Hiryu launched a experiences during the Battle of the Coral Sea. The invaders had counter-attack against the alerted Yorktown. Although the lost 4 carriers. 25.S aircraft and a cruiser. By contrast, the vastly Japanese aircraft were badly shot up, some Aiehi D3A dive- outnumbered US fleet had lost only Yorktown and a destroyer, bombers found their target. A second strike in the afternoon plus a little over 100 carrier aircraft. A further 40 shore-based US caused more damage. This time the unlucky carrier was nearing warplanes had been destroyed. its end. Then still salvageable, it was finally struck by two Final Allied victory in the Pacific would still take three vears.

57 9

DESPERATE MEASURES

As any dictionary tells, the word 'great" has many meanings. For most of the

stories told in Great Moments in Aviation it conveys 'exceptional achievement'.

For this story, however, it means something entirely different, perhaps best

defined as 'significant importance". For this is a story of tragedy, of war at

its most horrific, yet as significant in the annals of aviation history as any of the others told here.

58 1

r)i-s|)erdlpMi'.isuri!s

Below USAAF Mitchell bomber of the 38th Bomber Group. 5th Air Bottom Force, making an attack on an The closing seconds of a Left enemy transport ship carrying Japanese Kamikaze attack on Kamikaze by Dwight Shepler. cargo to the Japanese at Ormoc, USS Louisville. (US Department (US Department of the Navy) Leyte. of the Navy)

By mitl-1944 the Japanese forces on the ground, at sea and in the air were buckling under the growing weight and success of the Allies fighting the Pacific campaign. The sea provided Japan's main lifeline between home and the conquered territories spread over vast distances. But since the US Navy had gained the initiative in the period following the great Battle of Midway, the situation for Japan had grown increasingly more desperate. To compound this. Japan had not only lost Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet) on IN April 1943 in a mid-air ambush by USAAF P-38G Lightning fighters of 339 Squadron, but also his successor. Admiral Koga. in a flying-boat accident on 31 March 1944. In late 1943 fighter pilots of the Imperial Japanese Navy had suggested the idea of making suicide attacks in their aircraft on Allied ships, guaranteeing greater 'hit" accuracy than mereh dropping bombs or torpedoes. At the time the situation had not demanded such sacrifice and the plan was declined, but in 1944 it was again raised as a possible solution to Allied naval strength On 10 October 1944 the US campaign opened for the occupation of Leyte, starting with massive air attacks on Japanese airfields on Okinawa and the Ryukyus. then Luzon. Formosa and around Manila. No fewer than 17 American aircraft carriers plus supporting vessels were employed, witnessing the destruction of more than 800 Japanese aircraft. 438 in the air. The actual occupation of Leyte began on 20 October, supported by further massive carrier forces. A huge Japanese fleet attempted to hamper the landings but was opposed by elements of the US Third and Seventh Fleets, and the Battle for Leyte Gulf erupted between 23-26th while other related actions raged. It was during the Battle for Leyte Gulf that the Japanese finally introduced suicide attacks, best remembered as Kamikaze, sinking the US Navy escort carrier 5/ Lo and damaging si.\ others. But these battles also saw the destruction of the Japanese fleet as an effective fighting force, and it limped away short of 26 light aircraft carriers, battleships, destroyers and cruisers. The Japanese had also lost a vast number of aircraft. In the fighting that followed more losses were inflicted on Japan, but in return between 29 October and 25 November seven US carriers were hit by Kamikaze planes. As the war situation became even worse for the Japanese forces, so greater numbers of suicide attacks were staged, with conventional warplanes being joined later by rocket-powered and air-launched Yokosuka MXY7 Ohkas (Cherry Blossom) The Ohka"s opening attack had, however, been a disaster. On 2 March 1945 Ohkas of the 721sl Kokutai had headed into battle under their Ui launching Mitsubishi G4M2e bomber motherplanes'. but were intercepted and released by desperate aircrews too far away from their targets. But success was just

around the corner. This came on 1 April, when the battleship USS Wesi Virginia was one of four ships struck and damaged. The first Allied loss to an Ohka happened 1 1 days later, when the destroyer USS Maiinen L. Abele was sunk off Okinawa. It is thought that by the time the last Kamikaze sortie took place on 15 August 1945. by seven aircraft of the Oita Detachment, 701st Air Group led by Admiral Matome Ugaki. some 2.257 Kamikaze y to base sorties had been flown . of which 936 aircraft had returned without finding targets (something no Ohka pilot could do once released). Of .322 US Navy ships alone hit by Kamikaze planes, however, only 34 were sunk. In contrast to Japan, the Allies had little need for desperate measures in the later war years. But five years after the war had begun a decision taken by the recently installed President of the Top Left United States. Harry S. Truman, and his advisers had an element Comrades cheer a bomb-laden of desperation about it. The decision was to drop atomic bombs Zero-Sen fighter about to take off on Japan. from a Philippine airfield on a the justifications for Historians and others have long debated Kamikaze mission. October- something not even this, if indeed there were any. and this is November 1944 (US Department hindsight can solve. Perhaps 225.000 Japanese were killed or of the Navyl injured in the two attacks, with other deaths later, a terrible result of world war. But. many argue that without the two bombs Above the fighting would have continued into 1946. leading to a full- A Japanese Yokosuka D4Y Suisei scale Invasion of Japan and causing the universally accepted hit by anti-aircraft fire from USS estimates of one million Allied casualties and four million Wasp off the Ryukyus nuclear weapons have horrified Japanese. The effects of the two (US Department of the Navy) evervone for the past 43 years, but without them it is also universally believed that either the Berlin Crisis of 1948. the Korean War of the early 1950s or the Vietnam War might have Left Damaged aircraft on USS seen the use of such awesome weapons. The most important Randolph after a Kamikaze attack legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been that no nation has near the Caroline Islands such a weapon and the world knows none must. since used (US Department of the Navyl The development of what at the time was called the 'atom bomb', and which today we would describe as the first nuclear

60 Desperate Mi!

weapons, stemmed from a letter written by the great physicist Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt in 1939. Einstein warned thiit Nazi Germany's research into nuclear physics could result in the development of a bomb thousands of times more powerful than anything previously possible. The President eventually agreed to an investigation of the possibility of developing such a weapon. In Britain work had already begun, and British physicists made a big contribution to what was called The Manhattan Project. At first work centered on the fissionable (splittable) property

of atoms of the rare isotope of uranium U-235. but later it was found Plutonium Pu-239 could also be used. Pu-239 never existed in nature, and to separate out U-235 required colossal plants costing hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as astronomic amounts of electric power. By summer 1944 there was little Above doubt bombs of both types could be constructed. The overall USS Saratoga a\ter sustaining a director. Brigadier-General Leslie R. Groves, thereupon Kamikaze attack on 21 February ordered the establishment of a special unit to deliver the bombs. 1945 (US Department of the There was never any question that the unit would be part of the Navy) US Army Air Forces, that the aircraft would be the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, and that the target would be Japan. Top Right General Henry H. Arnold. Chief of Staff, put the wheels in Japanese Zero-Sen maneuvers to motion and picked a B-17 veteran. Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr. make a Kamikaze attack on USS as commander of the special force. In September 1944 the choice M/ssour/. 28 April 1945, It missed. fell on a new B-29 unit which was training at Fairmont Field.

I US Department of the Navy) Nebraska: the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 504th Bomb Group.

It was detached from the 504th. flown to a remote base at Right Wendover, Utah, and engaged in an unprecedented program of Personal notes being written training. Everyone knew it was special, and it clearly involved a on 2,000 lb bombs about to be special kind of bomb. By the time the 393rd had formed the core loaded on a Boeing B-29 of the 509th Composite Group on 17 December 1944 everyone Superfortress targeted for Japd knew they would carry a single bomb of large size and weighing

(US Air Force) about 10,000 lb, would drop it from 30,000 feet and then get 'as far from the target as possible as fast as possible'. Outside the 509th not a whisper leaked out.

61 CrMl MimuMils in Aviullun

Tihbets alimc know what their missions would be. He quickly formed his own crew from men who had impressed him during his service, including Major Tom Ferebee. bombardier, and Captain Theo van Kirk, navigator. In May 1945 the ."iogth. from the start an isolated and totally self-sufficient unit, re-equipped with B-29s newly delivered from Martin's Omaha plant. They had no guns except in the tail, various items of special equipment and reversing propellers. By early June the elite crews were gathering at North Field. Tinian, in the liberated Marshall Islands, which was already home to the 21st Bomber Command led bv General Curtis LeMay. Here the 509th aircraft aroused much speculation. They were all painted in spurious markings of other groups, notably the circled R of the 6th. and they occupied a special remote compound. Constantly under guard, they were used for training day and night. The norm was for trainee B-29 crews to make 20 practise bomb runs (if they were lucky). The 509th's normal was 1,000. Throughout, not one B-29 nor one crew member was lost, despite countless missions with live conventional high-explosive bombs against the small Japanese- held island of Rota. Back in Washington there was some shuffling of the special

target list, but at the top came the city of Hiroshima, easily identifiable and with no Allied prisoner-of-war camp nearby. The scientists at Los Alamos were confident that the U-235 bombs would work, but had slight doubts about the Pu-239 Above system with its complex fusing and implosion devices. All but two B-29S used only Accordingly, a plutonium bomb was detonated on top of a tall conventional bombs against steel mast in the remote desert at Alamogordo, on 16 July 1945. Japan during Pacific operations The explosion 'yield' was the expected 20 kilotons (ie, similar to Here Dina Might awaits its next 2(1.00(1 tons of TNT). From that day the world had a terrifying mission (Boeing) new weapon.

On 1 August the first uranium bomb, called Little Boy. was Right assembled at Tinian. It was closely followed by the first its girth was Bockscar. the B-29 that struck plutonium bomb. Fat Man. so called because Nagasaki. (US Air Force) tailored exactly to fit the B-29's cavernous bomb bay. Following Japanese rejection of Allied surrender pleas, the US President

Far Right Fa! Man. the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki (Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory)

62 )

authorized the first mission. By this time the Japanese were used to high-altitude day attacks by small groups of 509th aircraft, so the mission of Monday. 6 August 1945. excited little interest. First off. at midnight, was a weather reconnaissance B-29. Then came a standby aircraft which went ahead to wait at Iwo Jima, Following on were two B-29s heading via Hiroshima for other targets. Kokuraand Nagasaki. At 2.4.'>amTibbetstookoff in his own aircraft. -/4-S6292. named after his mother Enola Guy. At beyond maximum weight, he had full fuel and Lillte Boy on board. Minutes later North Field reverberated to the sound ot ,\ecessary Evil (Major George Marquardt) to take photos and The Great Artiste (Major Charles W. Sweeney. CO of the .^93rd packed with scientific instruments, some of which were dropped near the target. En route to Hiroshima the bomb was armed by Captain William Parsons USN and Lieutenant Morris Jcppson. who had passed a special training course at Los Alamos. Ferebee began his bomb run 2S milesout and at 8. 15 am local time Little Boy was

."^28 .! r eleascd at mph and 1 .6(10 feet . Immediately Tibbets put the B-29 into a maximum-rate diving turn through 150° and at full throttle raced away. Tibbets alone of the crew forgot to put on special protective spectacles. Less than a minute later the bomb exploded, about five miles away on the map and six miles below . 1.90(1 feet above the citv. "Brighter than a thousand Suns', the bomb almost immediateiy killed SO.OOO and badly injured 5(1.(100 more. Over 60.000 buildings were destroyed, the devastation over fi\e square miles being total. The interior of Enolii Guy was illuminated unnaturally by the brilliant fireball of S.OOO feet .leross. The mushroom cloud rose to over 50.000 feet and the aircraft was hit by two powerful shock waves. The tailgunner could still see the cloud 36.3 miles away. The realization that a city had been destroyed by a single bomb struck a new fear into the Japanese leaders, but no message ol surrender was sent by them. Accordingly, a mission was mounted against the second city on the list. Kokura. Tibbets picked Major Sweeney for this mission, and at 2. .30 am on 9

August he and his handpicked crew took oil Ironi North Field in Above B-29 i44-27297) Bocksciir On board was the enormous What remained of Hifoshima after plutonium bomb Fat Man. There was dense cloud over Kokura. the atomic raid. (Imperial War Museum) With conventional bombs a run could have been made on radar, but on these special missions visual sighting was mandatory. Sweeney therefore headed for the secondary target. Nagasaki Left Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr (center) (which had replaced the original choice. Yokohama). Here again and crew of B-29 Enola Gay (US there was cloud cover, but just as an abort was being discussed a Air Force) small clear patch appeared and grew. An accurate run was made and Fat Man was released at 10.50 local time from 2S.900 feet. This time the steep undulations of the cit\ shielded large areas,

casualties amounting li) 95.000 of which 35.000 were deaths. On the next da\ the So\ivM L'nion declared war on Japan, and surrender negotiations began almost immediately. On 2 September, surrounded b\ ships of the t'S Third Fleet. Japanese surrender documents were signed on board the battleship USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. Hven then US aircraft carriers were on guard just in case the surrender was part

of a cunning Japanese ambush. It wasn't. World war was o\er

63 Great Moments in Axiation 10

GLAMOROUS GLENNIS AND THE X PLANES

The advent of thick-winged fighters capable of speeds around or in excess of 400 mph in level flight and much higher in dives brought to the focus of aerodynamicists, engineers and pilots a deadly force that could literally tear the aircraft apart. This destructive 'enemy' was the air!

64 Glamorous Gle

Left Captain Charles 'Chuck' Yeager Below n the cockpit of the first X-1 Bell X-1 A under the raised B-29 Bottom Glamorous GlenniS- (Bell launch aircraft. (Bell Aerospace The first X-1 in powered flight. Aerospace Textron) Textron) (Bell Aerospace Textron)

A known phenomenon, the air flow around such powerful aircraft during fast dives became transonic over the thick wings, forming compressibility shock waves that buffeted the aircraft and could batter the airframe until it broke. Britain first became aware of compressibility problems with the Hawker Tornado prototype of 1939 and then the operational Typhoon, of which many early aircraft were lost with their pilots when the tail assemblies broke off. The thick Clark Y section wing had a lot to do with it, and out of the Typhoon came the Tempest with its thin laminar flow wings. But Britain was not alone, and Lockheed and Republic in America were suffering their own problems with the high-speed P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt fighters. Methods of postponing the effect included using thinner and swept wings, as adopted by Messerschmitt during the war years for its Me 262 jet fighter. But, as turbojets made likely the promise of much higher speeds for future Allied aircraft, it became urgent that proper research was started. However, some people believed aircraft would never fly above 650 mph. A catch- phrase caught on, 'the sound barrier', representing 761.20 mph at sea level and slowly reducing as the altitude increased. Under official specification E. 24/43, m 1943 design work started in Britain on a supersonic research aircraft. The Miles M-

52 was important not only for its research purpose but because it was to achieve supersonic flight using an afterburning turbojet engine. It was estimated that 1,000 mph might be reached at 36,000 feet (660.32 mph representing the speed of sound at that altitude), after a dive from 50.000 feet. However, in 1946 the project was cancelled for two reasons, one economic and the other the mistaken belief that a supersonic aircraft needed swept wings. And the M-52 had straight. Instead, rocket-powered models produced by Vickers were used for research by the Royal Aircraft Establishment, released in mid-air from a Mosquito B. Mk XVI flying off the Scilly Isles. In America, meanwhile, the engineer Ezra Kotcher had finally achieved a long ambition, to get a manufacturing company to build an aircraft capable of transonic/supersonic research. This appeared in 1945 as the Bell X-1. by then an official secret project. The first of three X-ls began a series of gliding flights in January 1946, later being taken to the remote Air Force research base at Muroc in the Californian desert. The X-1 encompassed the known and useful features required to undertake supersonic flight, except for having tapering straight wings and not swept. This feature, later, showed the M- 52's straight wings would not have been prejudicial to supersonic night. The X-Ts fuselage was bullet shaped, leaving the pilot restricted visibility through the flush glazing. The tiny wings were a mere 3'; inches thick but immenselv strona. Indeed, the X-1

65 had been stressed to +l~ 18g. Because power eame from a four- barrel Reaction Motors rocket motor, which burned the aircraft's fuel at such a rate that under five minutes flight could be Top Right managed at full throttle, mid-air launching from beneath a B-2y Bell X-1 A. the first of tfie second- generation X-ls to explore Macfi bomber became essential. One tank each held the liquid oxygen 2and high-altitudefligfit (Bell and diluted ethyl alcohol fuel. The last essential for supersonic Aerospace Textron) flight was a pilot with a great deal of nerve! The 9th day of December 1946 marked the first powered flight

Bottom Right of an X- 1 . After May the program was taken over by NACA and The swept-wing Bell X-2 was the Air Force, resulting from 6 June 1947in anewpilot takingthe another X-plane for transonic/ controls from Bell's own test pilot, Chalmers Goodwin, He was supersonic research. Two were Captain Charles 'Chuck' Yeager, the first of the military pilots. built, the second making the first Flight by flight Yeager built upon his previous best speed, until powered flight on 1 8 November by 10 October 1947 he had managed 99,7 percent of the speed of 1955 A speed of Mach 32 was at altitude 41,000 feet, known as 0,997. reached, and an altitude of nearly sound an of Mach No living so close to breaking the sound barrier. The 1 26,000 feet, (Bell Aerospace man had been Textron) time had come to edge over into the unknown. At 1(1,00 am on the 14th the B-29 lifted off with Yeager in the Below cabin and the X-1. named Glamorous G/«vi;i(s after his wife, half- The complex Douglas X-3 Stilleto submerged in the cutaway bomb-bay. For 20 minutes the bomber was built to research sustained made its way to 20,000 feet. Yeager, secretly nursing two broken speeds of up to Mach 3 In ribs, walked to a ladder that hung out of the bay and climbed consequence it used two down, then stepped through the X-I's side door and into the Westinghouse turbojet engines cramped but familiar cockpit. It was cold, and the inside of the married to an extremely slim bay cast a shadow over the X-l's cockpit. He was alone to face fuselage and tiny double-wedge whatever dangers lay ahead, a parachute his only means of wings Extensive use of titanium escape in an emergency once the X-1 was released. He began his was made in Its airframe First flight checks again when the five minutes warning came over flown on 20 October 1952, it only and managed transonic speed in level the radio. The cockpit was pressurized and oxygen switched on. flight (tVlcDonnell Douglas) Three minutes to release and 'chase' fighters flew into position.

66 sGlennisandlhctXPIa

ready to escort Yeager and make visual checks for as long as the\ could keep up. His heart beat to the reducing seconds. Then, away! Silently he dropped from the bomber in a high-speed glide, gently pulling hack the column to feel control. The aircraft responded. All the time height was being lost and Yeager fired each rocket barrel in turn; the motor had no throttle control as such, the pilot selecting the required power by firing' one. two. three or four barrels, each offering 1. 500 lb of thrust. He checked the controls. All was well and ready for the real job ahead. Yeager asked the rocket motor for more power and he recoiled as tremendous acceleration sent the X-l into climb. At 35.000 feet he reduced power and slowly brought the nose down to level off at 40.000 feet, maintaining a level Mach 0.y+ but now experiencing compressibility buffeting. But for Yeager there was no retreat at this stage. Again power was built up and he pulled back the column, initiating a gentle accelerating climb. Approaching 42.000 feet the Machmeter needle began to shudder with the airframe. Then, suddenlv. the buffelina

Below/ The X-6 was to be a version of the Right B-36 bomber with a P-1 nuclear Based on the captured German power plant. This photograph MesserschmittP.1101. the Bell shows the Convair NB-36H, a X-5 investigated the aerodynamic modified B-36 carn/mg (not effects of swing-wings. It was powered by) a nuclear reactor m first flown on 20 June 1951 This the aft bomb bay to test shielding. IS the second X-5 (Bell Aerospace No X-6s were built. Textron)

67 ;

Above stopped and the needle dipped off the dial figures and back again

• North American X-1 5, the fasten to stop at Mach 1.06 (700 mph). The X-1 flew in the smooth airplane ever flown. The secon: airflow of sonic flight. The sound barrier had been broken for the

' first X-15made the poweredf y first time! There was no solid wall of air at Mach 1. only smooth on 17 September 1959.TheX-r flight beyond. Rocket power was shut down. The X-1 still could fly so high, its pilot gamed continued to climb, reaching 45.000 feet before being gently astronaut wings. nosed over to begin its 10 minute return to ground. The epic test of man and machine remained secret until late December. Right The three Experimental Is. the X-ls. were only the first of a The Ryan X-1 3 Vertijet was bu" long line of subsequent X planes built for official research to examine the concept of a programs. They were immediately followed by derivative vertical take-off and landing |ei aircraft (X-1 A, B, etc.) for trials at over twice the speed of sound It first flew on 10 aircraft. (Mach 2) and at altitudes of more than 90,000 feet. On 12 December 1 955 and made its first December 1953 the X-1 A flew at Mach 2.435. It was a larger and full transitions from vertical to improved aircraft but still retained straight wings. horizontal flight and back again on In the late 1980s the X series is still very much alive, with 1 1 April 1957 (Teledyne Ryan) current programs covering the X-31A enhanced fighter maneuverability research aircraft, the X-30 National Aero- space Plane intended to fly in space at speeds of up to Mach 25 and in the upper atmosphere at Mach 5-15, and the Grumman X- 29A forward swept wing technology demonstrator. Between these and the X-ls were piloted and unmanned aircraft for aerodynamic, speed and altitude, swing-wing, airborne nuclear Far Right power plant, vertical take-off and space research. A fitting end is Another vertical/short take-off to record the Mach 6.72 achieved by the North American X-15 and landing concept was the on 3 October 1967, having previously attained 354,200 feet tilting duct, researched from 1 / altitude (on 22 August 1963), allowing its pilot to gain astronaut March 1 966 by the Bell X-22A (Bell Aerospace Textron) status! Glamorous Gle

Below Gaming knowledge used later m the Space Shuttle Orbiter Right program, the Martin Marietta X- One of the current X-plane 24A was one of several lifting- programs covers the X-29A FSW body research aircraft intended to intended to explore the benefits fly under rocket power and then of forward swept wings, glide to earth, (Martin Marietta) (Grumman Corporation)

69 11

RESCUE IN SPACE

On 25 May 1961, when no American astronaut had yet orbited the Earth and the total American flight time in manned suborbital space exploration was 15 minutes and 22 seconds. President John F. Kennedy said in a State of the Union

address: 'I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this

decade is out. of landing a man on the Moon and returning him to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more exciting, or more impressive, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.'

""•. .•»••. if. < <^-{5»^'' A*'\jr> »';. > •

70 Rpsrue in Space

Below

For Ihe first time m the history of ApoHo 1 1 nses dear of the launch the world, man sets foot on tower at Complex 39A of another planet. (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (NASA)

After an expenditure of S24 billion, at 02.56 hours 20 seconds GMT on Monday. 21 July 1969, Neil A. Armstrong stepped from the lunar module Eagle and put his foot on the Moons surface saying. That's one small step for a man. one giant leap for mankind.' An estimated 530 million Earth-bound viewers watched the historic event on television. Edwin E. A. Aldrin followed 18 minutes later, while Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia. The astronauts tried out the one-sixth gravity in playful manner and then, more seriously, erected the American flag. With no wind to blow it open, a wire frame extended its stars and stripes. The mission had begun on 16 July and ended with the customary splash-down' at 16.49 GMT on the 24th. The total mission time had been 8 days. 3 hours. 18 minutes and 35 seconds, remarkably little more than half an hour longer than had been planned before lift-off. This mission by Apollo U was the culmination of the single- manned Mercury, two-manned Gemini and three-manned Apollo programs. The next Moon landing that year, by .Apollo 12. was a mission lasting from 14-24 November, crcwed by

Charles Conrad. Richard F. Gordon and .Alan L Bean I i\e further Moon landings took place, the fourth actual landing b\

Apollo 15 (a mission of 26 July to 7 August 1971 ) highlighted In the first use of the lunar roving vehicle, while the Apollo l~ mission of 7-19 December 1972 represented the very last luiie man set foot on another planet. But in between Apollo 12 and 14 had come high drama. And yet out of disaster came also triumph and. in true storybook fashion, a rescue in space. By the time Apollo 13 was launched from Complex 39A at the

Kennedy Space Center on 1 1 April 1970. public interest in Moon landings was already beginning to wane. Both earlier Moon missions had gone well and this was likely to be a repeat

performance. It was. however, a heavier spacecraft than those

before it. weighing 110.210 lb. the command module Odyssey making up just over 12.570 lb of this and the lunar module Aquarius about 33.480 lb. To lift such a weight a 6,395,650 lb Saturn V three-stage booster vehicle was adopted, its five first- stage F-1 rocket engines able to produce an initial thrust of over

7' : million pounds, rising to nearly 9 million before cut-off. when stage two would take over. Apollo 13 had many objectives concerned with geological research of the Moon's surface, among them the deployment of an Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (containing many experiments that included those for measuring the density

of neutral particles, lunar heat flow . seismic activity and so on), selenography (mapping and sampling the Moon's surface) in the

71 Great Moments in A\iati(

Top Left Emblem of Apollo 8 During 21-27 December 1968 Frank Borman. James Lovell and William Anders became the first men to fly around the Moon. (NASA)

Top Right Emblem of Apollo 9. During this mission of 3-13 March 1969, the unar module was carried into space for the first time on a

manned mission. It was used to

simulate a Moon landing and lift- off. (NASA)

Bottom Left

Apollo 1 was a rehearsal mission for the Moon landing, flown between 18-26 May 1969. Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan made two descents to within nine miles of the Moon's surface. (NASA)

Bottom Right Emblem of the Apollo 12 mission, the second Moon landing. (NASA)

72 1

Fra Mauro region, photography of the surface and future areas for exploration and of the Earth, solar wind experiments, communications and television work, and much else beside Even the spent Saturn V third-stage was to do its bit. intended to impact on the Moon's surface before Apollo 13 landed, the seismographic results measured by an instrument left behind h\ the crew of Apollo 12 (this was done successfully). On board the spacecraft were also television cameras, allowing many telecasts during the actual flight. In command of Apollo 13 was James A. Lovell. USNavy. at4r the oldest of the crew. Two civilians joined him. Fred W. Haise piloting Aquarius and John L. Swigert piloting Odyssey. Swigerl was a last-minute replacement for Thomas Mattingly. who had been in contact with German measles. Right from the start things went wrong. While the second stage of the Saturn V boosted Left them onwards, one of the five J-2 rocket motors cut out a full 2 Emblem of Apollo 1 . the first minutes 12 seconds early. The four left continued burning' for Moon landing mission. (NASA) about an extra half-minute beyond the originally scheduled time,

but still leaving the spacecraft marginally below expected speed. Below Once in Earth orbit the S-IVB third stage was again fired, Apollo 1 1 astronauts: left, Neil A. sending the spacecraft into trans-lunar insertion. All was now Armstrong, Michael Collins and noing well. rdwinE.AIdnnJr. (NASA)

73 Great Moments

Then It liappcncd. JiisI alter ;i tele\ision transmission, at about 55 hours 54 minutes into the flight, the crew heard a loud 'bang'. Swigcrt reported to Mission Control at Houston at about 21.(10 hours local time, 'Hey, we've got a problem here.' An alarm in the connected command/service module indicated a drop in electrical power. A short circuit had ignited wiring insulation in the service module's number 2 oxygen tank, causing it to overheat, explode and rip out the side of the module. Soon after oxygen pressure suddenly went, and the crew saw 'gas' escaping cells which into space . This, in turn, affected two of the three fuel required supplies of oxygen. Now 205.000 miles from Earth and heading unstoppably towards the Moon, the mission was aborted. The over-burdened remaining fuel cell and now- faltering (because of the explosion) other oxygen tank left no choice but to use the lunar module's systems as a 'life raft" in space, and the systems on the command/service module were accordinglv run down. Anyway, the command module had only some 15 minutes of power now available! But it appeared to Mission Control that even using the lunar module the crew still had only about 38 hours of oxygen, power and water, and twice that was needed if they were to survive! And the spacecraft had to fly on towards and then around the Moon before it could begin

its return flight.

Left The Eagle has landed ' Edwin Aldnn chmbs down the lunar module Eagle to |Oin Neil Below Armstrong on the Moon's Aldnn takes a lunar soil sample. surface (NASA! (NASA)

74 75 (ireal Moments in Aviation

Above One hour 35 minutes later the lunar module's Descent The exhausted Apollo 13 Propulsion System was fired to alter the flight path and maneuver astronauts safe and sound- the spacecraft into a trajectory that would 'swing' it around the (NASA) Moon and back towards Earth. As Apollo 13 passed behind the Moon and out of touch with Mission Control everyone waited Right anxiously for news. All this time thousands of men and women at Apollo 13 recovery on board USS Mission Control and of the spacecraft's contractors on Earth

1 2 : 07 .44 pm Iwo J/ma after the worked furiously to extend the 'life' of the on-board systems. splashdown. (NASA) Techniques for 'powering down' were devised to eke out the life- support systems and bring the crippled "ship" back to Earth, leaving the crew in discomfort and cold but alive. New- maneuvers were calculated, and ground simulators helped develop the necessary procedures to take the spacecraft (in its unexpected shape) safely to re-entry.

It was touch and go. A second Descent Propulsion System burn' of 4 minutes 23.4 seconds was performed to reduce the mission time and take the likely landing area from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean. Throughout, the biggest worry was the endurance of the support systems. Even in the lunar module only the Environmental Control System that provided the astronauts with a life-sustaining atmosphere and telemetry radio systems

76 5

linking the spacecraft with Mission Control were kefU .ii lugli Above Irwin saluting power. Further flight maneuvers were made, but the conditions Astronaut James the flag during the Apollo 1 and the tense situation had their toll and twice the crew made mission. The lunar roving vehicle mistakes. stands by lunar module Falcon. The re-entry called for jettisoning of the service module and, 3 The Apennine Mountains near .^11 minutes later, the lunar module, allowing the hours and Hadley Delta are seen, by St command module to continue its flight into Earth's atmosphere George's crater, (NASA) But had the heat shield been damaged? If it had the spacecraft would burn-up on re-entry. Once the service module was released the crew could, at last, see the damage. A large panel Left had gone and some of the systems were hanging loose. Just prior I ntenor view of Apollo 1 3 lunar module showing the 'mail box', a to releasing the lunar module, the command module was hastily contrived arrangement 'powered up' to provide life support. which the astronauts built to use On 17 April Apollo 13 alighted in the Pacific, only about five the command module's Lithium recovery vessel, the amphibious assault ship miles from the main canisters to purge carbon dioxide I'SS hvo Jiina. The heat shield had been okay! The Accideni f'om the lunar module. This Review Board found that the number 2 oxygen tank had blown "angement had first been up as a result of its heater switches being welded closed from ted on Earth at the Manned

excessive electrical current and the ensuing eight hours of ; .Hcecraft Center (NASA) overheating during ground maintenance. Such a small slip had nearly cost three astronauts their lives.

77 1 . 1 INDEX

Ader, Clement, 14 CAMS 38. 34 Douglas TBD Devastator. 53. 55, 56. Htvo.5\ Macchi M. 52. 36 Aerodrome. Langley, 13, 16, 17, 19 Captain Walmilt. 11 57 HMS Furious. 24. 25 Macchi M.52R. 36 Hibernia. 24. 25 Macchi M.67. 36 Aeronautic Chariot. 9. 1 Castoldi. Mario.34,35 Douglas X-3 Stilleto. 66 HMS Aeroplane. The. 37 Catalina, Consolidated PBY, 55, 56 Dunning. Sqn Cdr E. H.. 24. 25 Horsley. Hawker. 48 Macchi-Castoldi MC.72. 36 61 AichiD3A Va/. 51.52,57 Cernan, Eugene, 72 Dutch Flats. 47 Hosho. 54 Manhattan Project. AichiE13Al,55 Chamberlin, Clarence D.. 46 du Temple. Felix. 14 Hosogaya. Vice Admiral, 54 Marauder. Martin B-26. 55. 56 Airacobra, Bell P-39, 55 Chambers, Capt. Washington Irving. Houston, Lady, 36, 37 Manx. Fit Lt. 28 Akllgi.5^.if^.5^ 19, 20, 22, 25 Eagle spacecraft. 71. 74 Hudson Flter. Curtiss, 18, 19, 23 Marquardt. Maj. George. 63 Alaskan Defense Command, 51, 55 Chance Vought, F4U Corsair. 49 Earnest. Burt. 54 Imperial Airways. 49 Martin bombers. 51. Alcock. Capt John, 43, 44, 45. 46, 47 Chanute, Octave, 15 Eastchurch Squadron. 28 Imperial German Navy. 20 Martin B-26 Marauder. 55. 56 Aldrin, Edwin E. A.. 71. 73. 74. 75 Charlemonl, Lord, 10 Einstein, Albert, 61 Irish Sea. 9 Martin Marietta X-24A, 69 Marius. Hauptmann. 29 America. Curtiss Model H., 43 Collet, Fit Lt, 28 Eleventh Air Force, 55 . Lt Rutledge.34 73 Amerika liner. 21 Collins, Michael, 73 Ellsworth. Lincoln. 39 Ir .77 Mattingly. Thomas. Amundsen. Roald. 39. 40 Columbia spacecraft, 71 Ellvson. Lt Theodore G-. 22. 23. 24 Italia. 40 Mava. 55 Anders. William. 72 Congressional Medal of Honor, 40 Ely. Eugene. 18. 19.20.21.22.23. McCurdy. James A. D.. 20. 21 Naval Constructor William. Apollo 8. 72 Conrad, Charles. 71 24.25 Janello. Sergeant Guido. 32 McEntee. Apollo 9. 72 Consolidated B-24 Liberator. 49. 55. Enola Gay. 63 Jeppson. Lt Morris. 63 19.20 Richard. 9, 10. Apollo 10, 72 56 John V. King of Portugal. 7 McGwire. U Apolloll.70, 71.73. 74. 75 Consolidated PBY Catalina. 55. 56 Falcon spacecraft. 77 yaTcp/ime ford. Fokker F.VII-3m,,38, McKinley. Capt. Ashley C. . 40 expedition. 41 Apollo 12. 71. 72. 73 ConvairNB-.36H.67 Fal Man. 62. 63 39. 40. 41 McMillan polar Apollo 13. 71. 73. 74, 75, 76, 77 Convair X-6. 67 Ferebee. Maj. Tom. 62 June. Harold L. 40. 41 Mercury spacecraft. 71 49 Apollo 14, 71 Coolidge. President. 49 Fitzgerald. Lord Henry. 10. 11 Jimyo. 54 Messerschmitt Bf 109. Messerschmitt Me 262. 65 Apollo 15. 71 Corsair. Chance Vought F4U, 49 Fletcher. Rear Admiral F. J . 54 67 Apollo 17, 71 Crosbie. Richard. 9. 10. 11 Flovd Bennett. Ford 4-AT. 40. 41 Kaga. 54.55.56.57 Messerschmitt P. 1101. 50-57 Aquarius spacecraft. 71. 73 Cross of the Order of the German FU^r. Wright. 1. 12. 13. 14. 16. 17.30 Kamikaze. 58. .59.60 Midway. Battle of, Island of, 50-57 Armstrong. Neil. 8. 71,73.74 Eagle with Star. 49 Flying Fortress. Boeing B-17. 55. 56. Kennedy President John F. . 70 Midway, Arnold. General Henry H.. 61 Crusader. Short-Bristow, 35. 36 57.61 Kennedy Space Center. 71 Mikuma. 56. 57 Aslra-Torres airship No. 3. 28 Curious Ada*. 35, 36 Fokker. Antony. 40 Keystone Pathfinder. 44 Miles M-52. 65 Atcherley.FltOf. R. L. R..36 Curtiss A-1 Triad. 22.24 Fokker. F.V1I.40 Kill Devil Hills. 14.16 Miles Mohawk. 49 Allanlic Flyer. Virgin. 7 Curtiss A-3. 24 Fokker. F,VII-3m Tn-motor. 38. 39. Kill Devil Life Saving Station. 13 Mills. Fit Lt. 29 Avenger. Grumman TBF. 52. 54, 56 Curtiss AB-2/ABs. 24. 25 40. 41 Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, 13, 15. Miss Columbia. 17 Avro 504, 28 Curtiss AH. 25 Fonck. Rene Paul. 44 16 Mitchell. North American B-25. 52. Curtiss C-2. 24 Ford 4-AT Floyd Bennett. 40. 41 Koga. Admiral. 59 53.59 Balchen, Lt Bernt. 40, 41 Curtiss Company. 17. 24 Ford. Edsel.46 Korean War. 60 Mitchell. Reginald J. 31. 32. 35. 36 Kotcher. Ezra. 65 Mitsubishi A6M Zero-Sen. 52. 55. 56. Battle of the Coral Sea, 5 1 , 53, 54, 57 Curtiss CR-3. 34 Ford.Henrv.49 Battle for Levte Gulf, 59 Curtiss D-12 engine. 34. 35 Ford Reliability Tour. 40 Kress. Wilhelm. 14 58. 60, 61 59 Battle of Mid'wav. 50-57. 59 Curtiss Exhibition Company. 19 Fort Myet. 17. 19 Mitsubishi G4M. Bean, Alan L, 71 Curtiss Field. 46 Fuchida. Cdr Mitso. 52 La Coupe de' Aviation Maritime Mogami. 56 49 Beck. U Paul, 19 Curtiss Glenn. 19. 20. 23 Jacques Schneider. 31 Mohawk. Miles. 01, T. Dal. 36 Bell P-39 Airacobra. 55 Curtiss Hudson Flier. 18. 19. 23 Gemini spacecraft. 71 Lake Keuka. 19. 24 Molin. Warrant 19 Hydro-Aeroplane Meeting, Bell X-1. 2. 64. 65. 66, 67. 68 Curtiss Model D-IV. 23 German Navy. 20 Langley Aerodrome. 13. 16. 17. Monaco Bell X-2. 66 Curtiss Model H .4»ii-ma. 43 Glanmrons Glennis, 64. 65. 66 Langley. Professor Samuel Pierpont. 31 13. 9 BellX-5.67 Curtiss Navv Racer, 34 Glenn Curtiss Aviation Camp. 23 12. '16. 17. 19 Montgolfier brothers. 7. 8. L. 28. 29 BelIX-22A,68 Curtiss NC.'39. 43. 44 GlosterII.34.35 Legion of Honour. 29 Morane-Saulnier Type Morehouse-Mariens Company. 14 Bellanca,45 Curtiss No. 4. 20 Glosterlll.35 Leinster. Duke of. 11 Morrow. Ann. 49 Bellinger. Lt P N L,.25 Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. 54. 55 Gloster IV. 36 Leinster Lawn. 1 Bennett. Floyd. 39. 40, 41 Curtiss R3C-2, 33,35 GlosterIVB.36 LeMay. General Curtis. 62 Mosquito, de Havilland. 65 Fedorovich. 14 Berlin Cnsis, 60 Curtiss-Reed propeller, 34 Goenng. Hermann. 49 Lend-lease. 49 Mozhaiski. Alexander Biard. Henri, 32, 33. 34, 35 Goodwin. Chalmers. 66 LevasseurPL-8.44 Mulock.FltSub-Lt.28 .36. 39 Bleriot, Louis. X Dailv Mail. 43 Gordon. Richard F..71 Lewis-Vought seaplane. 41 Mussolini, Benito, 34, 35, Blythe.48 Dal Molin, Warrant Of. T-, .36 Groves. Brig-Gen, Leslie R. 61 Liberator. Consolidated B-24. 49. 55. N.lNorge.39.40 of the Navy. 43 Grumman F4F Wildcat. 50. 51. 53. 56 56 Nagasaki. 60. 62. 63 Bockscar.62.63 Daniels. Secretary ' .52. 54. 56. Lightning. Lockheed P-3S. 49. 55. 59, Nagumo. Admiral. 52. 56 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 55, 56. D'Arcy Greig. Fit Of. D. . 36 Grumman TBF Avenger. 57.61 d'Arlandes. Marquis. 8 57 65 NakajimaB5N2.52 Otto. 14. 15 National Aeronautic Association, 34 Boeing B-29 Superfortress. 61 . 62, 63, Dauntless. Douglas SBD. 53. 56. 57 X-29A.6S.69 Lilienthal. (NASP). 65,66 de Barnardi. Major Mario. 35 Lindbergh. Charles Augustus. 8. 42. National Aero-Space Plane Boothman,FltLtLN.,37 de Gusmao. Father Bartolomeu. 6. 7 Haise.Fred W..73.76 44.45,46,47,48,49 68 TR-3A. 34 Borman, Frank, 72 de Havilland Mosquito. 65 Hamburg-American Steamship Lir Lindsev, Lt Cdr Eugene, 55 N.ival Aircraft Factor\ N,n.il Airship Dmsion, 28. 29 Bradbrooke, F. D..37 Deperdussin. 31 20.21 Linnarz. Hauptmann Erich. 28 N.iw Curtiss NC-4. 43,44 Brewster, Buffalo, 56 de Rozier. Francois Pilatre. 8. 9 Hawker Horsley. 48 Little Bov. 62. 63 Curtiss. 43. 44 Bristol Mercury engine, 35 Devastator. DouelasTBD. 53. 55. 56. Hawker Tornado. 65 Lockheed P-.3S Lightning. 49. 55. 59. NC-'4 Navy Necessary Evil. 63 Brown , Lt Arthur Whitten , 43 . 44. 45 57 H.iwkcrT\phoon,65 65 41 46.47 Dietrichson. Lief. 40 Hawker Woodcock 11,49 Lockheed Sirius. 49 New York Times. 21 Bruno. 48 Distinguished Flying Cross. 24 llcnrvFarman.29 Los Alamos. 62. 63 New York World. 18. 19. 20. Chester. .53. .55 Bvrd. Lt Cdr Richard Evelyn. 39. 40. Distinguished Service Medal. 40 Henry Ford Museum. 41 Lovall. James. 72.73.76 Nimitz. Admiral Col. Umberto. ,39. 40 41.46 Doolittle. James 'Jimmv* H.. 33. 35. High Speed Flight. RAF. .36. .37 Nobile. 53, 54 Hinton.Lt.43 MacchiM.17. 33 Norge. N.1..39.40 Mitchell. 52. 53. Caboi, Godfrt 14 DornierWal.39 Hiroshima, 60. 63 Macchi M.33. .34. 35 North American B-25 59 Camp Kearny. 47 Douglas SBD Dauntless. 53. .56. .57 Hiryu. 54. 56. 57 MacchiM,39. 34. .35..36

78 ,

North American X-15. 68 SIAISavoiaS.51,33. 34 USS Yorktown. 52. 53. 54. 57 Zeppelin, 26. 27. 28. 29 North Pole. 38, 39, 40 Sirius. Lockheed. 49 Zero-Sen. Mitsubishi A6M. 52, 55, 56. Nungesser. Charles. 44 Smithsonian Institution. 17 Val.AichiD3A,51,52 58.60.61 NYP, Ryan, see Ryan Sopwith Aviation Company. 31. 32 van der Haegen, 29 Zuiho, 54 Sopwith Pup. 24. 25 van Kirk. Capt. Theo. 62 Zuikaku. 51,53,54,57 Ot/vj5fv spacecraft. 71, 73 Sopwith Schneider. 30. 31. 32 Vera Crtiz. 25 Ohka. Yokosuka MXY7. 59 Sopwith Tabloid. 28. 31 Vickers Vimv. 43. 44. 46 Oliver. 10 Sopwith. Tommy, 31 Victoria Cross, 26, 29 •Operation Deep Freeze !', 41 Sonu. 54. 57 Vietnam War, 60 Omen. 38 South Pole. 39. 40. 41 Vimy, Vickers, 43.44, 46 Oneig. Raymond. 44. 45. 46 Space Shuttle Orbiter. 69 Vindicator, Vought-Sikorskv SB2U. Spenser-Grey. Sqn Cdr. 28 56 Palatine Square. Dublin. 10 Sperry gyroscopic automatic pilot. 25 Virgin Atlantic Flyer. 1 Pan.Am. 49 Spirit of Si Louis. Ryan, contents von Richthofen, Rittmeister Manfred, Parsons. Capt. William. 63 page, 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49 27 Paisaleva. .AJessandro. 33 Spitfire. Supennarine. 31 Vought-Sikorskv SB2U Vindicator. 56 Pathfinder. Keystone. 44 Spruance. Rear Admiral R. A.. 55 VT-3, 57 Paulhan. Louis. 19 Stafford. Thomas. 72 VT-6, 55. 57 Pearl Harbor. 49. 51. 52. 54. 55. 56 Suisei. Yokosuka D4Y. 60 VT-8. 55. 56. 57

Pensacola. 25 Superfortress. Boeing B-29. 61 . 62. 63. Pixton. Howard. 32 65.66 Waghoni.ntOf. H. R..36 Pond. Capt. CF. 24 Supermarine company. 31. 36. 37 Wal.Domier. 39 Porte. Ll John. 43 Supermarine S.4. 35. 36 Waldron.LtCdrJohn. 55 Poiain. II Supermarine S.5. 36 Wanamaker. Rodman, 43 Pratt truss. 15 Supermarine S.6. 36 Warhawk. Cuniss P-40. 54. 55 Prevous. Maurice. 31 Supermarine S.6B. 37 Wanieford. Fit Sub-Lt R. A. J. 26. Pup. Sopwith. 24. 25 Supermarine Sea King Mk II. 32 28.29 Supennarine Sea Lion II/III. 32. 33. 34 Webster. ntLtS.N. 36 R-34 airship. 43 Supennarine Spitfire, 31 VSTiitehead. Gustav. 14

Ranelagh Gardens. 9 Sweenev, Maj. Charles W., 63 Wildcat. Grumman F4F. 50. 51 . 53. Read. LtCdr.A C..43 Swigert;johnL..73.74. 76 56. 57 Reims. France. 30 Willouahbv Spit. 22 Republic P-17 Thunderbolt. 65 Tabloid. Sopwith. 28. 31 Wilson" Fit Lt. 29 Ritterhouse. Lt David. 34 Takao. 55 Wisting. Oskar. 40 Rober. Boatsviain E. E. 41 Talbot. 43 Woodcock II. Hawker. 49 Robertson Aircraft Corporation. 45 Task Force 16. 54, 55 World, New York. 18. 19. 20. 21 Rodd. Ensign. 43 TAT, 49 Worsley.FltLtO. E..36 Roosevelt. Theodore. 19. 49. 61 The Great Artiste, 63 Wright Aeronautical Company. 17 Rosseau. 9 Thornton. 10 Wright bicycle test rig. 14 Royal Aero Oub. 37 Thunderbolt. Republic P-47. 65 Wright brothers. Orville and Wilbur. Royal .Aircraft Establishment. 65 Tibbets.ColPaulW.,61.63 1.11.12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 19.20. Royal Flying Corps. 27 Tornado, Hawker. 65 30.42 Royal NavaF Air Service. 27. 28. 29 Truman. President Harry S.. 60 V-'nghl FherFher II Fher III. 1. 12. Rutland. Duke and Duchess. II TWA. 49 13. 14. 16. 17.30 Ryan Airiines Inc.. 45. 47 Typhoon, Hawker, 65 Wright Glider No. 1, 13 Ryan M- 1. 45 WrightGliderNo. 2. 14, 15 Rvan NYP Spirit of Si Louis, contents Ugaki, Admiral Matome, 60 Wright Glider No. 3. 14, 15, 16 page. 42. 43. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49 USS Birmingham. 18. 20. 21. 25 Wright military' airplane, 17, 24 Ryan, T. Qaude. 45. 49 USS Enterprise, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57 Wright Model 'K, 17 Ryan. X-13 Vertijet. 68 USS Hammann, 51 Wright NW-2, 34 Ryiijo. 54 USS HoiTiet. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56, 57 X-I, Bell, 2, 64,65, 67, 68 USS /Ko7i/na. 76,77 X-2, Bell,66 Samson. Cdr Charles Rumnev. 24. 28 USS Lang/ey, 25.51,52 X-3 Stilleto. Doualas. 66 SavoiaS.13.32 USS Lexington, 51, 52, 53. 54 X-5,Bell,67 SavoiaS51.33. 34 USS Louisville. 59 X-6, Convair, 67 SchlieffenPlan.27 USS Mannen L. Abele. 60 X-13, Vertijet, Ryan, 68 Schneider. Jacques, 31, 37 USS Memphis. 49 X-15, North American, 68

Schneider. Sopwith. 30. 31 , .32 USS Mississippi. 25 X-22A, Bell.6S Schneider. Trophy. 31-7 USS V/ts50u/i. 61.63 X-24A, Martin Marietta, 69 Scott.SqnLdrG H .43 USS \'orth Carolina,!*. 25 X-29A, Grumman, 68, 69 Sea King Mk II. 32 USS Pennsylvania. 19. 21. 23. 24 X-30NASP,NASA,68 Sea Lion Il/III. Supennarine. 32. 33. USS Randolph. 60 X-31A,68 USS Roe. 20 SeIfridgeField.23,24 USSSararoga. 51.52.61 Yamamoto, Admiral Isoroku, 54, 59

Selfridge, Lt Thomas Etholen, 17 USS SrLo. 59 Yeager , Capt . Charles "Chuck", 64 . 65 Shoho. 53. 54 USS Tennessee. 51 66, 67, 68 S/ioiaiu, 51,53.54.57 USS Texas. 20 Yokosuka D4Y Suisei, 60 Short S. 38. 24 USS Wasp, 60 Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka, 59 Short-Bristow Crusader. 35. 36 USS H'eirVirgima. 51.60 Y'oung, 72

79 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are many individuals, organizations and companies that have contributed to the research, preparation and illustration of this book. Foremost are my colleagues and good friends whose specialist knowledge has added so much to these pages: Maurice Allward, expert on the Wright brothers, David Mondey on the Schneider Trophy races, Kenneth Munson on Lieutenant Commander Richard Byrd, Bill Gunston on Charles Lindbergh and the Hiroshima/Nagasaki attacks, Susan Young and John W. R. Taylor.

Also due for special thanks are Aer Lingus, Aeronautica Macchi ( Aermacchi), The Aeroplane, US Department of the Air Force. US Department of the Navy, Dornier GmbH, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Grumman Corporation, Henry Ford Museum, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, NASA, US National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Institution), National Gallery of Ireland, National Library of Ireland, the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendonand Teledyne Ryan.

GREATMOMENTS AVIATION

Michael Taylor has been writing aviation books for the post 20 years, his 96 published titles ranging from children's spotter handbooks to o 560,000-word five-volume encyclopedia. He specializes in illustrated histories and illustrated books on all aspects of modern aviation, including commercial and military aircraft, helicopters, spaceflight and systems, and has worked on a highly successful aviation part-work magazine. He was appointed Assistant Editor on the renowned Jane's All the

World's Aircraft in 1 988, having been the compiler of the sporting aircraft section since

1969 (a section he still prepares), and he continues to produce o prestigious output of other aviation titles.

MALLARD PRESS