Third Quarter (Jul - Sep) 2008

Volume 21, Number 3

The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum Editorial here are several different ways that fans of warbirds, historic T aircraft and big, round, noisy en- gines can satisfy their interest. One way, of course, is to visit War Eagles Air Mu- seum or some of the many other fine avi- ation museums in the country, where you can see these impressive machines “up close and personal.” Another way is to watch contemporaneous movies that fea- ture lots of flying action. Some examples are the classic films Command Decision, released in 1948, and Twelve O’Clock High, released the following year, which both portray the experiences of American airmen in England and their daring day- light bombing missions over occupied Europe. When these films were made just after World War II ended, plenty of sur- plus Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and other wartime aircraft were readily avail- S Project ZELMAL, one of aviation’s more unusual projects, involved rocket-launching able for the filmmakers to use, so the fly- Featured Aircraft Republic F-84G Thunderjets from a mobile ing scenes are “the real thing.” But what trailer and landing them wheels-up on an in- about the small screen? Are any old tele- he Republic Aviation Corpora- flated rubber mat. This attempt to improve vision shows available for those interest- tion, of Farmingdale, Long Is- the survivability of NATO aircraft under So- ed in real historic aircraft action? Yes— T land, New York, was known for viet attack was not conspicuously successful. there’s great news for aviation enthusi- building strong aircraft. Its World War II asts of all ages with the release on DVD P-47 Thunderbolt could absorb incredible this summer of the outstanding 1958-59 battle damage and still get home. In Viet television show Steve Canyon. Nam, its F-105 Thunderchief could carry Contents Steve Canyon was a character creat- such a huge under-wing bomb load that it ed by (1907-1988), widely seemed unable to fly. In between was the Editorial...... 1 regarded as America’s finest cartoonist, rugged F-84 Thunderjet, an airplane with Featured Aircraft...... 1 whose dramatic artistic style and unparal- enough structural strength to survive the From the Director...... 2 leled storytelling brilliance influenced punishment of a desperate, bizarre, Cold virtually every cartoonist who followed War test program called ZELMAL. Historical Perspectives ...... 6 Membership Application ...... 7 Steve Canyon (Continued on Page 5) Featured Aircraft (Continued on Page 2)

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Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 1) SOLVING THE PROBLEM From the Director BACKGROUND Air Force planners didn’t have to here’s much more to War Eagles look far for a possible solution. Under a Air Museum than just airplanes. It was early 1953. Europe was divid- March 1946 contract, the Glenn L. Mar- T Our collection of more than 30 ed by what Britain’s Prime Minister Win- tin Company, of Baltimore, Maryland, historic World War II and ston Churchill famously called the “Iron was building a cruise missile called Mat- military and civilian aircraft is, of course, Curtain.” The was in full ador. Resembling a conventional aircraft, the biggest draw for visitors. But many swing, and the real shooting war in Korea Matador was fired from a towed trailer people are surprised to learn that we also was in its third year. While armistice called a “zero-length” launcher. The term display a large collection of classic auto- talks ground on at a glacial pace, United “zero-length” meant that all of the mis- mobiles. We have more of them, in fact, Nations and Chinese-backed North Kore- sile’s mounting supports released at the than aircraft. You could spend hours in an troops battled in the mud. In the frigid same time when it was fired. The initial the Museum looking at these major exhi- sky high over the Yalu River, American Matador A version entered Air Force ser- bits. But there’s more to see. If you have and communist jet pilots sparred. vice in late 1952. the time, be sure to check out all the arti- The Communist Party of the Soviet facts, posters, newspaper clippings, docu- Union seemed set on its putative goal of ments, aircraft engines, uniforms, scale world domination. The memory of Soviet models, paintings and other memorabilia. intransigence during the Berlin Blockade Also, as the home of the El Paso Avia- was still fresh. East and West each dis- tion Hall of Fame, we display more than trusted the other, and the odds of a mili- 50 plaques commemorating distinguished tary confrontation between the world’s inductees. I’m sure you’ll be fascinated only two superpowers seemed very high. to read the citations describing the contri- The U.S. Air Force maintained a butions of these aviation pioneers. precarious presence in western Europe. Let’s not forget our Gift Shop, which Airfields dotted the Federal Republic of carries a good selection of books, videos, Germany (West Germany). U.S. and NA- S The Glenn L. Martin Company’s TM-61 DVDs, music CDs, toys and models. You TO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Matador cruise missile was essentially an are sure to find a good souvenir of your aircraft patrolled the skies, or waited on unmanned, remote controlled aircraft. visit there, and you can also peruse the the ground—fueled, fully armed and on many laminated newspaper articles about hair-trigger alert. Powerful radars cease- Why not, the Air Force thought, use past Museum events and activities. The lessly scanned eastwards for the first tell- Matador-type launchers to get its aircraft knowledgeable Gift Shop staff will glad- tale electronic “blips” of a massive aerial into the air after an attack? Getting them ly answer questions, or they’ll put you in attack. At jet aircraft speeds, NATO’s back on the ground afterwards, of course, touch with someone who can help you. airfields were just minutes away from was another matter. One concept to do so Be sure to mention if you would like to Warsaw Pact bases in Czechoslovakia, had been around since the mid-1940s, become a Museum member, or if you are the German Democratic Republic (East when the British Royal Aircraft Estab- interested in volunteering, or if you have Germany) and Poland. lishment (RAE) had looked at eliminat- a donation to offer. Thanks a lot, and I Air Force leaders feared that a sur- ing the landing gear from jets to increase hope you enjoy your visit. prise Soviet attack would catch their air- their fuel capacity. After considering sev- craft on the ground and destroy them be- eral ideas, RAE engineers settled on the Skip Trammell fore they could take off. Even if some re- idea of landing wheel-less aircraft on a vetted or camouflaged aircraft survived, giant, inflated rubber mat. When its ar- their airfields probably would not. One resting hook snagged a cable, the plane Plane Talk thing they could do was disperse the air- would be snatched out of the sky and Published quarterly by: craft off of their permanent bases. In that slammed down onto the mat, hopefully bygone era before spy satellites and pre- with no ill effects other than maybe some War Eagles Air Museum cision-guided weapons, the thick forests scraped paint. 8012 Airport Road just outside the fences of many airfields The RAE modified two DeHavilland Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008 could conceal and protect entire squad- (575) 589-2000 Vampires to prove the concept. It was a rons of aircraft. But the problem of how good thing they modified two, because Author/Editor: Terry Sunday to get them airborne remained. NATO’s one was totally destroyed in the first test Chief Nitpicker: Frank Harrison defensive aircraft needed long runways (fortunately without injury to the pilot). Final Proofreader: Kathy Sunday to take off and land. What if the runways [email protected] were destroyed? Featured Aircraft (Continued on page 3)

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Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 2) full fuel, the Thunder- jet would not overload The next try, on December 29, 1947, was either the launcher or successful, and within the next ten years the landing mat. nine pilots made over 200 gear-up mat As defined in Au- landings. Many of the tests took place at gust 1953, ZELMAL sea on a 142-foot-long, 27-inch-high mat had three phases, all to on the flight deck of the Royal Navy car- be accomplished at Ed- rier HMS Warrior. An American Navy wards Air Force Base, pilot participated in the sea trials, gaining . Phase I was some firsthand experience in the pioneer- one unpiloted launch of ing British concept that was useful when a stripped F-84G from the Air Force adopted the idea. a slightly modified Ma- tador trailer, with no PROJECT ZELMAL recovery. Phase II in- volved 10 launches of With its Matador experience, Martin piloted “lightweight” was the logical contractor to tackle the Thunderjets, each with Air Force program called ZELMAL. The a conventional landing. acronym stood for “Zero-length Launch Phase III involved 30 and Mat Landing.” The purpose of the piloted launches, at in- program, according to Air Research and creasing gross weights, Development Command (ARDC) Test with, ideally, also 30 Directive 5292-F1, dated September 14, mat landings. 1953, was “…to determine the feasibility ZELMAL got un- of zero length launching and landing mat derway with the arrival recovery techniques and permit exploita- of two Thunderjets and tion…[of] such techniques to…aircraft a Matador launcher at weapons designs and tactical operations.” Edwards. The EF-84G A study of aircraft candidates for the to be used for Phase I program chose Republic’s “plank-wing” was stripped of extra F-84G Thunderjet, which had been in weight and a 57,000- production since 1951 and was deployed pound-thrust T-50 JA- in Asia and Europe as America’s front- TO (Jet-Assisted Take- line tactical fighter-bomber (and the first off) rocket motor was U.S. fighter designed to carry nuclear bolted under its rear fuselage. The worn- dor launcher and strapped into the ejec- weapons). Weighing 18,000 pounds with out Thunderjet was called the “Junker.” tion seat of the F-84G. The launcher ele- On December 15, 1953, Martin’s test vated to 17 degrees as Turner ran through Republic F-84G Thunderjet conductor intoned the final seconds of a his checklist. He set the elevator trim to General Characteristics brief countdown. At “zero,” he flipped a five degrees nose up, aileron trim to zero switch to ignite the T-50 motor. A bril- and flaps to ten degrees. He started the One (1) 5,560-pound- liant flame erupted from the nozzle, kick- Thunderjet’s 5,600-pound-thrust Allison Powerplant thrust Allison J35-A-29 ing sand and stones in all directions like a turbojet J35-A-29 turbojet and stabilized it at idle fusillade of small-arms fire. In a roiling power. When all was ready, he ran the Cruise Speed 475 miles per hour cloud of dense smoke, the Junker roared howling engine up to 100 per cent rpm. Maximum Speed 622 miles per hour off the launcher and arced through the The Thunderjet trembled like an eager desert sky. The rocket motor burned out race horse at the starting gate. Finally, Service Ceiling 40,500 feet and the unpowered, unguided “throwa- the T-50 motor ignited. ZELMAL Phase Length 38 feet 1 inch way” Thunderjet plunged to earth a short II was underway. distance downrange. The Junker launch, Turner felt an acceleration of about Wingspan 36 feet 5 inches and with it Phase I of ZELMAL, was his- four “Gs” (four times the force of gravi- Range 1,000 miles tory. The stage was set for Phase II—the ty) at launch, which had an unexpected first piloted launch. side effect. His left hand, which grasped Weight (empty) 11,470 pounds On January 5, 1954, Martin test pilot Weight (maximum) 23,340 pounds Robert Turner climbed up onto the Mata- Featured Aircraft (Continued on page 4)

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Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 3) of the concept. But the mat landing tech- eral months, and the aircraft, in the words nique could not yet be proven. Goodyear of an Air Force report, was “wrecked be- the throttle, was forced backwards, and Tire and Rubber Company was building yond economical repair.” Martin and Air he inadvertently retarded it to 93 per cent the 80-by-400-foot, 30-inch-thick mat, Force engineers pieced together what had RPM. Quickly advancing the RPM back but it was behind schedule and would not happened. The culprit was a microswitch to 100 per cent, he evaluated the “feel” of be ready until April or May. in the F-84G’s tailhook/flap interconnect the aircraft during the rocket burn. He In the meantime, the launches con- system. The system was supposed to re- felt no major trim changes when the mo- tinued. The Air Force worried that, in tract the flaps when the tailhook went to tor burned out and dropped off, at which combat, ground crews would not be able the “up” position as it snagged the arrest- point the Thunderjet was 90 feet over the to mount the rocket motors to the aircraft ing cable to prevent the flaps from goug- desert and at 175 miles per hour. Accel- precisely enough to assure that the thrust ing into the mat. On Turner’s landing, the erating under jet power, Turner retracted went through the center of gravity. Offset tailhook first hit the mat just short of the the flaps at 190 miles per hour and 2,700 motors could cause pilots to have control arresting cable. It bounced over the cable, feet, about a minute and a half after difficulties. To check “real-world” condi- then hit the mat and bounced twice more. launch. The aircraft flew normally, ap- tions, technicians mounted the motors to On its last bounce, the tailhook struck a parently none the worse for wear after its the test F-84G with deliberate misalign- shallow water-filled depression in the violent departure from the ground. After ments for the rest of Phase II. By the end mat, raising a cloud of spray. The water some test maneuvers, Turner landed on of February, Turner had flown eight could have shorted the microswitch, or one of Edwards’ long paved runways, more times, with misaligned motors, and the tailhook could simply have bounced successfully completing history’s first ze- had no controllability problems. into the “up” position. In any event, the ro-length launch piloted flight test. In May 1954, Goodyear finished the interconnect system thought the tailhook The second piloted launch, on Janu- landing mat and installed modified Navy had snagged the cable, so it retracted the ary 28, was also successful. Turner flew Mark V arresting gear at the test site. All flaps. Turner jammed in full throttle to go a different F-84G that had a locking bar seemed ready for the first mat landing. around, but the jet engine couldn’t spool to prevent inadvertent throttle reduction. up fast enough. The Thunderjet struck The two launches proved the feasibility THE LANDING TESTS the mat very nose-high, straining to fly, but its airspeed was too low. On June 2, 1954, Turner took off in Martin and Republic fixed the prob- an F-84G to attempt the first mat landing lem on the remaining F-84Gs, and Phase What’s In A Name? of the ZELMAL program. As he neared III resumed. The second mat landing was the landing area, he saw the black-and- on December 8, 1954. Flown by Martin lthough they share the same silver inflated mat ahead on the desert in test pilot George Rodney, the F-84G’s model number, the Republic a thicket of cameras and phototheodo- tailhook snagged the arresting cable at an A straight-wing F-84G Thun- lites. He approached straight and level, airspeed of 161 miles per hour, and the derjet, as used in Project ZELMAL, just as he had practiced, and lined up on cable yanked the Thunderjet out of the and the swept-wing F-84F Thunder- the tiny landing zone. Everything seemed sky. The deceleration forces were a high streak displayed at War Eagles Air fine as he soared over the end of the mat Museum, are totally different aircraft. a few feet above the ground at 150 miles Featured Aircraft (Continued on page 5) Their fuselages seem the same at first per hour, engine at idle, glance, but they have very few com- landing gear up, flaps mon parts. In 1949, Republic grafted down and tailhook ex- a swept wing and tail onto an existing tended. The next in- F-84E fuselage to create a “proof-of- stant, in less time than concept” prototype for a new aircraft it takes to tell, the air- that the Air Force called the YF-96A. craft struck the mat, Later, with a new engine and fuselage bounced, slid, careened and many other changes, this aircraft off the far end of the diverged greatly from its straight- mat, hit the desert and wing progenitor. In August 1950, the came to a grinding stop Air Force, in a stroke of bureaucratic in a billowing cloud of genius, renamed it the YF-84F, thus dust 300 feet away. implying that it was a version of the Turner and the air- S The Project ZELMAL mat landings were not nearly as success- well-known F-84 so that it could take craft both suffered bro- ful as the rocket-powered launches. This F-84G is obviously bounc- advantage of Congressional funding ken backs. His injuries ing around a lot on the inflated mat as the arresting cable brings it priorities for the Korean War. grounded him for sev- to an abrupt stop. Of the three landings attempted, only one was successful. The others destroyed an aircraft and injured two pilots.

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vable airborne defense Steve Canyon (Continued from page 1) force in place in Eur- ope in the Cold War. him. Caniff’s best-known work is Terry Operational ZELMAL and the Pirates, a set in the units could have given Orient that featured two-fisted adventurer NATO fighters mobili- Pat Ryan, his plucky young sidekick Ter- ty and eliminated their ry Lee, a bevy of exotic damsels and le- dependence on vulner- gions of nasty villains. The strip ran from able airfields, thus add- 1934 until 1946, when Caniff quit be- ing some security to cause of a contract dispute with his pub- the Western side of the lishing syndicate (another artist contin- standoff. The technical ued to draw Terry until 1973). Steve Can- problems with the con- yon, Caniff’s new strip, debuted in 125 cept, however, doomed newspapers on January 7, 1946. The ad- S This photograph, possibly taken at Glenn L. Martin Company’s it to being just a foot- ventures of the globe-trotting, high-flying Middle River factory near Baltimore (note the bridge in the back- note in the history of pilot ran until just after Caniff’s death, ground) shows one of the ZELMAL F-84Gs and the modified Mat- unusual aircraft. While the last strip appearing on June 4, 1988. ador missile mobile launch trailer. The “hoop” on the nose is prob- the Air Force still had a In August 1957, Caniff and the NBC ably to prevent the inlet lip from digging into the landing mat. need for survivable air- television network agreed to bring Steve borne defense forces, Canyon to television as an adult-oriented, Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 4) ZELMAL was not the answer. The real live-action show with obscure actor Dean answer came years later, when advances Fredericks (Caniff’s personal choice) as but bearable 5.4 “Gs.” The mat landing in engine, materials and flight control the title character. Fredericks was a portion of ZELMAL was now proven. system technologies led to the develop- World War II combat veteran who had The Air Force tried to repeat its suc- ment of true Vertical Takeoff and Land- been wounded in the invasion of Leyte in cess three days later, with Rodney again ing (VTOL) aircraft, such as the highly the Philippines in 1944. In an unprece- at the controls. This time, when the tail- capable vectored-thrust Hawker Harrier. dented show of cooperation, considering hook snagged the cable, things got bad in The concept of zero-length launch- that it was not a feature-length movie, the a hurry. Instead of a powerful but smooth ings of manned aircraft resurfaced briefly U.S. Air Force signed on to fully support deceleration, the F-84G bounced vicious- in 1958, when North American Aviation production of the series. Air Force pilots ly three or four times before finally com- conducted the ZEL program (standing even flew dedicated missions solely for ing to rest on the mat. The violent land- for, of course, Zero Launch) at Edwards the show’s cameras—no stock footage ing forced Rodney’s head forward, even Air Force Base and Holloman AFB, near here! There are rumors that soon-to-be though he was securely strapped in, and Alamogordo, New Mexico. In a series of Mercury astronaut the late Leroy Gordon he struck the control stick a sharp blow relatively successful tests that involved “Gordo” Cooper flew the camera plane with his teeth, actually leaving their im- only launches, without the mat landings, for many of the episodes. While the stor- pression on the top of the plastic grip. He F-100D Super Sabres were blasted into ies and acting are up to the standards of suffered a severely strained neck in addi- the air from mobile trailers by 130,000- the day, the real stars of Steve Canyon tion to other cuts and bruises. pound-thrust XM-34 rocket motors. You are the classic Cold-War aircraft show- This was a bad sign for ZELMAL. can watch actual film footage of these cased in spectacular aerial photography. The tally for the three landings was one tests in the “Operation Zero Launch” epi- Each episode featured now-classic jets aircraft destroyed and two pilots injured. sode on the Steve Canyon preview DVD such as the North American F-100 Super The Air Force prudently put further land- (see the Editorial in this issue). The influ- Sabre, Boeing B-47 Stratojet, Lockheed ing tests on hold while deciding what to ential 1958 Fighter Weapons Newsletter F-104 Starfighter and Convair F-102 do. But there was really no question. The summed up the ZEL program’s goal: mat landing technique was clearly unsuit- “[z]ero launch means that tactical fight- Steve Canyon (Continued on page 8) able for operational use. The Air Force ers can be hidden underground, in the terminated the ZELMAL program on De- woods or moved from place to place, cember 16, 1954. then launched on combat missions after runways have been destroyed by an at- Plane Talk on the Web tacking enemy.” The goal of ZEL was POSTSCRIPT rchives of Plane Talk from the same one that had proven so elusive the current issue back to the for ZELMAL five years earlier. The re- The ZELMAL program was one ap- first quarter of 2003 are now proach to solving NATO’s problem of sults were also the same. Like ZELMAL, A available in full color on our website. keeping an effective, credible and survi- ZEL never became operational.

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in some areas, even Lyndon B. Johnson famously boasted better than) the U.S. that he could control combat operations Historical North American F-86 in Viet Nam all the way down to specify- Sabres that it dueled ing which buildings to bomb. in combat. But the Another factor that hampered U.S. Perspectives Communist MiG pi- military efforts in Viet Nam was the birth lots were not as well of the “computer age.” The 1960s saw trained as U.S. air- the development and the start of wide- by Robert Haynes men, so the exchange spread proliferation of electronic comput- ratio of “kills” favored ers—surely one of the most “double- U.S. forces by as edged-sword” accomplishments in hu- he War Eagles Air Museum col- much as 10 to 1. The MiG-21 that U.S. man history. This new technology of- lection includes a high-perform- pilots met over Viet Nam was something fered the Government a previously un- T ance single-engine jet fighter that completely new. An unusual design— dreamed-of ability to mindlessly process, looks more like a rocket than an airplane. most aircraft with delta wings do not or “crunch,” enormous amounts of data. Its looks are not deceiving. This Soviet- have a separate horizontal stabilizer—the The war became more a matter of num- built Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-21PFM is latest product of the MiG design bureau bers and statistics than of strategy, tactics the fastest aircraft in the Museum. It is could fly faster than Mach 2 and higher and leadership. Computers took in raw the second-most-produced aircraft ever, than 60,000 feet. The diminutive inter- data from the field and churned out ream after the Lockheed C-130 Hercules trans- ceptor was armed with guns, cannons and after ream of reports, charts and vu-graph port. We acquired it in 1995. It had been Atoll heat-seeking air-to-air missiles. presentations, but there was little critical, in the East German Air Force. MiG-21s The Soviet Union delivered the first reasoned and competent human analysis served in 47 nations, including the Dem- MiG-21 to the Viet Nam Peoples Air of the information. The over-reliance on ocratic Republic of Viet Nam (North Viet Force (VPAF) in April 1966. The first technology meant that virtually no one Nam). “official” MiG-21 kill of the Viet Nam looked at the constantly accumulating The use of MiG-21s in Viet Nam of- War took place on July 7, 1966, when material from a strategic point of view to fered the U.S. a technological and opera- MiG pilot Tan Ngoc Xiu of the 921st Air figure out what the numbers really tional wake-up call. The Viet Nam War Regiment downed a Republic F-105D meant, as opposed to how impressive itself offered other lessons that, unfortu- Thunderchief. Both sides later made ma- they looked on a spreadsheet. This statis- nately, we do not seem to have learned, jor operational changes to reduce their tical obsession led to the creation of delu- and thus today we are trapped in another losses. The VPAF resorted to hit-and-run sional yardsticks of progress such as divisive, costly and frustrating war. tactics. The U.S. Air Force armed its jets “body count,” “sorties flown,” “ordnance Spanish philosopher George Santa- with guns, because their missiles alone yana (1863−1952) coined the old adage were not doing the job. The U.S. Navy Historical Perspectives “Those who do not remember the past created the TOP GUN air-to-air combat (Continued on page 7) are condemned to repeat it.” It was never school to train its pilots truer than it is today. Consider the distur- on tactics to use against bing similarities between the fabricated the agile MiG-21s. Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964, which Both sides also escalated U.S. involvement in Viet Nam, committed breathtaking and the equally fictitious reports of Iraqi bureaucratic blunders. “weapons of mass destruction” and It is ironic, for exam- “links to al-Qaida” that “justified” our in- ple, that the U.S. gov- vasion of a sovereign nation 40 years la- ernment, which wanted ter. The current war has striking similari- to stop the spread of ties to Viet Nam, but also some key dif- Communism, ran the ferences. For example, the U.S. and the Viet Nam War with a UN had Saddam Hussein well checkmat- stifling, demoralizing, ed through sanctions, no-fly zones and top-down, micro-man- large military forces stationed nearby in agement style more like Saudi Arabia and Turkey. No invasion that of Soviet-inspired should have been necessary. North Viet Nam, rather S This Internet-sourced photo shows MiG-21PF number 4324 at than rely on good old- the Viet Nam Military History Museum in Hanoi. It wears 14 faded The MiG-15, a MiG-21 progenitor, victory stars on the nose representing U.S. aircraft shot down. Since first appeared in North Korea in the early fashioned “American several pilots shared each Viet Nam Peoples Air Force (VPAF) air- 1950s. Technically, it was as good as (or, know-how.” President craft, it is likely that no single pilot achieved all 14 kills.

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Membership Application War Eagles Air Museum

War Eagles Air Museum memberships are available in six categories. All memberships include the following privileges:

Free admission to the Museum and all exhibits. Free admission to all special events. 10% general admission discounts for all guests of a current Member. 10% discount on all Member purchases in the Gift Shop.

To become a Member of the War Eagles Air Museum, please fill in the information requested below and note the category of mem- bership you desire. Mail this form, along with a check payable to “War Eagles Air Museum” for the annual fee shown, to:

War Eagles Air Museum 8012 Airport Road Membership Categories Santa Teresa, NM 88008 Individual $15 NAME (Please print)______Family $25 STREET ______ Participating $50

CITY ______STATE _____ ZIP ______—______ Supporting $100

TELEPHONE (Optional) _____—_____—______ Benefactor $1,000

E-MAIL ADDRESS (Optional) ______ Life $5,000 Will be kept private and used only for War Eagles Air Museum mailings.

Historical Perspectives scenarios. Instead, the USAF sent their cessfully defy the distant, out-of-touch (Continued from page 6) top-of-the-line fighters, such as the Mc- Washington bureaucrats and force im- Donnell F-4 II, into air combat portant changes in training and tactics delivered” and “villages pacified.” Only armed only with missile systems—they that soon proved to be highly effective the most detailed examination of the raw had no guns or cannons. The sophisticat- against the VPAF. One of those men was data, which few military or civilian offi- ed missiles were prone to malfunctions in Colonel Robin Olds. You’ll find his story cials were able or inclined to do, would the hot, humid climate of Southeast Asia, in the next issue of Plane Talk. reveal that many sorties simply dropped which saddled Ameri- more bombs on already obliterated villa- can pilots with a dis- ges and added to the body count only tinct disadvantage people who were already dead. when they faced the This robotic mindset and lack of crit- newest, most advanced ical thinking not only resulted in wasted Soviet-built fighters, action, but allowed for some startling such as the MiG-21, omissions and lack of action as well. For that had capabilities example, the U.S. Air Force’s air combat and characteristics to- training program at the time consisted of tally different from tightly scripted exercises with friendly anything they had pre- forces and aggressors using the same viously encountered. types of aircraft and repeatedly flying the Fortunately for the same scenarios. A better approach—and U.S. Air Force, there one adopted only after it was too late to were still a few maver- be effective for Viet Nam—would have ick ace pilots on the S The diminutive size of the MiG-21 is apparent in this scale draw- been for the aggressors to use different scene with the knowl- ing that shows it in comparison with two major U.S. aircraft of the aircraft with different capabilities in non- edge, experience, cour- Viet Nam War, the McDonnell RF-4C Phantom II and the Repub- repetitive, realistic, fast-paced combat age and ability to suc- lic F-105D Thunderchief.

7 www.war-eagles-air-museum.com War Eagles Air Museum Doña Ana County Airport at Santa Teresa (KDNA) 8012 Airport Road Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008 (575) 589-2000

Steve Canyon (Continued from page 5) In 2005, California-based film pro- ducer/director John Ellis watched an old Delta Dagger. There were prop planes as VHS tape recording of the Steve Canyon well, such as the Boeing KB-50 Strato- pilot episode. He was so blown away by tanker and Douglas C-47 Gooney Bird. the show’s quality and timelessness that Steve Canyon premiered on Saturday he immediately came up with the idea of evening, September 13, 1958, in glorious recovering the long-lost series and releas- black-and-white, with an episode entitled ing it on DVD. He soon teamed up with “Operation Towline,” based on an origin- Harry Guyton, Executor of the Milton al Caniff plot. It told the story of a ficti- Caniff Estate (and one of Caniff’s neph- tious test involving three F-102 intercept- ews). They searched all over the country ors towed behind a KB-50 to increase for original 35mm broadcast master reels their range and endurance. The second S Steve Canyon (Dean Fredericks) watches of the show. By early 2008, they had lo- episode, “Operation Zero Launch,” de- a North American F-100 Super Sabre blast cated masters for all 34 episodes. A DVD picted actual tests of an F-100 launched off from a mobile trailer in the “Operation set of the entire series, restored to pristine from a mobile trailer in exactly the same Zero Launch” episode of the classic televi- condition, with special features on the way as the ZELMAL F-84G described in sion series. The test is for real; it’s not a fake restoration process and interviews with this issue’s “Featured Aircraft” article. “special effect.” Photo used with permission the late Dean Fredericks’ family, will be of the Milton Caniff Estate. Unfortunately, despite its interesting released in the summer of 2008. You can stories, top-quality production values and help fund the restoration and production appreciative audience, Steve Canyon last- show did not always depict as flawless, effort by buying the preview DVD, with ed for only 34 episodes before it was un- had doomed it to an early death. ABC four selected, crystal-clear episodes, in ceremoniously canceled. By the end of and the Armed Forces Network showed the Museum gift shop. For more informa- the year, schedule changes, rising pro- reruns for several years afterwards, but tion, check out: duction costs and vocal complaints by the by the mid-1960s Steve Canyon had van- aircraft companies, whose products the ished into oblivion—until now. http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com/

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