August 2020 AIRPLANES THAT WERE KEY to the ALLIES’ SUCCESS in WORLD WAR II
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64 August 2020 AIRPLANES THAT WERE KEY TO THE ALLIES’ SUCCESS IN WORLD WAR II BY HAL BRYAN ONE OF THE CENTRAL THEMES OF EAA AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH was slated to be a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. AirVenture may have been canceled this year in light of unprecedented world events, but that doesn’t mean we won’t pause and reflect on the valor and the sacrifice of those veterans who saved the free world three-quarters of a century ago. To that end, here, in order of the year of their introduction, are 20 aircraft that played vital roles in that conflict. These are types that you might have seen at Oshkosh this year had things gone as we’d originally planned. DH.82 TIGER MOTH CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO ABOUT MANUFACTURER: de HAVILLAND AIRCRAFT CO. WARBIRDS THAT WON WWII CATEGORY: TRAINER YEAR INTRODUCED: Designer Geoffrey de Havilland built his first airplane in 1909 and started his professional aviation career the following year. A decade later, he founded his own company that produced a series of successful designs. The DH.82 Tiger Moth was developed from the popular DH.60 series and first flew in October 1931. The DH.82 was built in huge numbers from 1931 to 1944 and served as the primary trainer for the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force. The type was built under license by multiple manufacturers. The Canadian variant, distinguished by its enclosed canopy, was the backbone of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, an extraordinary effort that produced more than 130,000 trained Allied air crew in Canada alone. MODEL 75/PT-13/PT-17/ N2S STEARMAN MANUFACTURER: STEARMAN AIRCRAFT/BOEING CATEGORY: TRAINER YEAR INTRODUCED: The Stearman Aircraft Corp. was founded in 1927 by designer Lloyd Stearman after he left Travel Air, his partnership with fellow household aviation names Walter Beech and Clyde Cessna. The Model 75 Kaydet was used as a primary trainer for all branches of the U.S. armed forces before and during WWII. More than 10,000 of the sturdy radial-engine biplanes were built, largely by Boeing after the company acquired Stearman in 1934. The airplane was known by many names but, to many people, it will always simply be a Stearman. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN BRUEGGEN www.eaa.org 65 WINNING HURRICANE MANUFACTURER: HAWKER AIRCRAFT LTD. CATEGORY: FIGHTER YEAR INTRODUCED: Often overshadowed by its younger brother, the Supermarine Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane was a British fighter that first flew in 1935. Hawker had built a series of successful biplane fighters in the interwar period, but the Hurricane was the company’s — and the RAF’s — first modern monoplane fighter (after the Bristol M.1 used in World War I). During the storied and pivotal Battle of Britain, the Hurricane made up the bulk of the RAF Fighter Command and accounted for a majority of the enemy aircraft shot down. There were nearly 15,000 Hurricanes built from 1937 to 1944. Only a handful remain in flying condition. T-6 TEXAN/SNJ/HARVARD MANUFACTURER: NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION CATEGORY: TRAINER YEAR INTRODUCED: If you were an Allied pilot during WWII, whether you started in a Tiger Moth or a Stearman or another primary trainer, the odds were that you did your advanced training in the T-6. Known to the U.S. Navy as the SNJ, and in Great Britain, Canada, and other Commonwealth countries as the Harvard, the prototype first flew in April 1935. Powered by a 650-hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial, the T-6 served to introduce pilots to increased speeds, improved maneuverability, and more complex aircraft systems like retractable landing gear. More than 15,000 were built. The type remains extremely popular with warbird enthusiasts and air show performers to this day. B-17 FLYING FORTRESS MANUFACTURER: BOEING CATEGORY: BOMBER YEAR INTRODUCED: The prototype for what would become the B-17, Boeing’s Model 299, first flew in July 1935. A reporter from the Seattle Times dubbed the bomber, which was massive for its time, a “Flying Fortress.” Boeing trademarked the name immediately. The 299 crashed and was destroyed on its second test flight, rendering the design ineligible for the Army Air Corps proposal it was competing for. Despite this setback, the Air Corps ordered 13 prototypes for testing, and it was impressed. Ultimately, more than 12,000 B-17s were produced and the type served with great distinction as a strategic bomber, particularly in the European theater. 66 August 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN DIBBS, CONNOR MADISON, SCOTT SLOCUM WARBIRDS SPITFIRE MANUFACTURER: SUPERMARINE AVIATION WORKS CATEGORY: FIGHTER YEAR INTRODUCED: Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful airplanes ever built, the Supermarine Spitfire is a British icon. Supermarine Aviation Works was a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrongs when R.J. Mitchell began designing the Type 300, the airplane that would become the Spitfire. Before that, the company, as is evident from the name, was best known for flying boats and race-winning seaplanes. The Spitfire was flown by the air forces of Great Britain, Canada, and the United States, among dozens of other friendly nations. It spawned multiple marks and variants, including the carrier-based Seafire. More than 20,000 of the sleek and capable fighters were built, and the design has come to symbolize the RAF. P-40 WARHAWK MANUFACTURER: CURTISSWRIGHT CATEGORY: FIGHTER YEAR INTRODUCED: Perhaps best known as the iconic shark-mouthed mount of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers, the Curtiss P-40 first flew in 1938. Early variants of the fighter used by Soviet and British Commonwealth forces were known as the Tomahawk. Later versions were dubbed Kittyhawk. P-40s were produced from 1939 to 1944 and used by Allied air forces in multiple theaters of the war. Even the Japanese army reportedly used as many as 10 captured Warhawks operationally in Burma. More than 13,000 were built, making the P-40 the third-most produced U.S. fighter after the P-51 and P-47. SBD DAUNTLESS MANUFACTURER: DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT CATEGORY: BOMBER YEAR INTRODUCED: The Dauntless naval dive bomber traces its roots to the Northrop BT-1, a project started in 1935 by an early incarnation of the Northrop Corp., which was dissolved and absorbed into Douglas Aircraft in 1937. While a version of the Dauntless, the A-24 Banshee, was built and used by the U.S. Army Air Forces, the type is best known for its service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Dauntlesses served with distinction in the Battle of Midway, sinking or disabling all four aircraft carriers that the Japanese had brought to the fight. Of the nearly 6,000 Dauntlesses built, only about six are still flying. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM KOEPNICK, CONNOR MADISON, SCOTT SLOCUM www.eaa.org 67 WINNING F4F WILDCAT MANUFACTURER: GRUMMAN CATEGORY: FIGHTER YEAR INTRODUCED: Somewhat like the British Hawker Hurricane, Grumman’s F4F Wildcat was developed from a successful series of biplane fighters. The Grumman FF, which was followed by the F2F and F3F, was the first U.S. naval fighter with retractable landing gear, a distinctive hand-cranked mechanism whose design carried forward to the F4F. In addition to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, Wildcats also served with the navies of Great Britain and Canada. While inferior to the Japanese Zero on paper, Wildcats were tough, and pilots quickly developed tactics that led to a solid combat record throughout the war. More than 7,800 were built, and more than a dozen remain airworthy. P-38 LIGHTNING MANUFACTURER: LOCKHEED CATEGORY: FIGHTER YEAR INTRODUCED: Before his groundbreaking work on the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird, legendary Lockheed designer Kelly Johnson led the team that designed the P-38 Lightning. Powered by a pair of counter-rotating Allison V-12 engines, the Lightning was fast, as its name implied. P-38s served in multiple theaters of the war, but they are best known for their efforts in the Pacific. America’s highest-scoring ace of the war, Richard Bong, scored his 40 victories flying a P-38. More than 10,000 Lightnings were built, and it’s the only American fighter that was in full production from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day. Several airworthy examples remain today, including the beloved Glacier Girl. B-25 MITCHELL MANUFACTURER: NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION CATEGORY: BOMBER YEAR INTRODUCED: Named for the late Gen. Billy Mitchell, the man generally seen as the father of the U.S. Air Force, the North American B-25 medium bomber first flew in 1940. It was used in every theater of the war by the U.S. Army Air Forces and Marine Corps and multiple Allied air forces as well. EAA’s example, Berlin Express, had a starring role in the 1970 film Catch-22, but the type is best remembered for the historic Doolittle Raid, in which 16 B-25s were flown off the deck of the USS Hornet and bombed Japan for the first time in April 1942. Nearly 10,000 B-25s were built. More than 40 are believed to be flyable today. 68 August 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM KOEPNICK, CONNOR MADISON WARBIRDS B-24 LIBERATOR MANUFACTURER: CONSOLIDATED AIRCRAFT CATEGORY: BOMBER YEAR INTRODUCED: The sturdy B-24 Liberator served alongside the B-17 as the backbone of America’s strategic bombing campaigns in the European theater of the war. B-24s served in every major theater of the war and spawned variants like the C-87 Liberator Express transport and PB4Y-2 Privateer naval patrol bomber. The B-24 was known as a heavy lifter and could carry as much as 8,000 pounds of bombs on short-range missions.