Against the Windis About Flight Testing in the Miami Valley

in the MiamiValley History Offke Aeronautical Systems Center Air Force Materiel Command ii FOREWORD Less than one hundred years ago, Lord Kelvin, the most prominent scientist of his generation, remarked that he had not “the smallest molecule of faith’ in any form of flight other than ballooning. Within a decade of his damningly pessimistic statement, the Wright brothers were routinely puttering through the skies above Huffman Prairie, pirouetting about in their frail pusher biplanes. They were there because, unlike Kelvin, they saw opportunity, not difficulty, challenge, not impossibility. And they had met that challenge, seized that opportunity, by taking the work of their minds, transforming it by their hands, making a series of gliders and, then, finally, an actual airplane that they flew. Flight testing was the key to their success. The history of flight testing encompassesthe essential history of aviation itself. For as long as humanity has aspired to fly, men and women of courage have moved resolutely from intriguing concept to practical reality by testing the result of their work in actual flight. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, notable pioneers such asthe French Montgolfier brothers, the German Otto Lilienthal, and the American Octave Chanute blended careful study and theoretical speculation with the actual design, construction, and testing of flying vehicles. Flight testing reallycame ofage with the Wright bro!hers whocarefullycombined a thorough understanding of the problem and potentiality of flight with-for their time-sophisticated ground and flight-test methodolo- gies and equipment. After their success above the dunes at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17,1903, the brothers determined to refine their work and generate practical aircraft capable of routine operation. Out of their work and its subsequent inspiration can be traced the history of all subsequent powered winged vehicles, just as the lineage of all sophisticated rockets and missiles can he traced back to the work of Robert Goddard in the 1920’s. The Miami Valley has always occupied a special place in the hearts of aviation enthusiasts, for it was here that the great revolution in powered flight that transformed the world was first conceptualized and successfully pursued. Today, the scientists and engineers working amid the sophisticated laboratories at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base toil under skies that witnessed the passage of a host of aeronautical pioneers: the Wrights themselves, “Shorty” Schroeder, Thurman Bane, Jimmy Doolittle, Lee Tower, Al Boyd, Chuck Yeager, Jesse Jacobs, Bob Ettinger, Pete Knight, “Peet” Odgers, to list just a few. The history they and many others made has taken aviation from the wood and fabric biplane droning along at forty miles per hourto blended-body hypersonic conceptualizations of transatmospheric aerospace planes of the present day. Today, few would openly speak of limits to the future of flight, for those who have-as with Kelvin-have been proven equally naive. Likewise, those who have often confidently predicted some great advance have found-to their pleasure-that the reality of aviation progress has most often outstripped their most optimistic predictions. Between this Scylla of pessimism and Charybdis of optimism, however, lies one eternal truth: whatever progress is made (and whatever limits are challenged and overcome) will be done so by the courage of the flight testers and flight researchers who follow in the wake of all those who have gone before. Dr. Richard P. Hallion Air Force Historian PREFACE Against the Windis about flight testing in the Miami Valley. It is a story that begins with the Wright brothers on Huffman Prairie and concludes with the transfer of the 4950th Test Wing from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California. This book recounts one ofthe most interesting and important episodesin the history ofAmerican airpower, one in which Dayton and the Miami Valley have played a significant and proud role. Test flying began inDayton, Ohio, in 1904, ayear after the Wright brothers’ first flight, when they moved their flying experiments from the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk to the grassy hummocks of Huffman Prairie, now part of Wright-Patterson AirForceBase. The Wrightssold the Armyitsfirst aircraft in 1909 andintheyears before World War I trained many a titure Army aviator in their flying school on HuffianPrairie. The war cemented Dayton’s relation with military aviation when McCook Field was established just north of downtown on the banks of the Great Miami River. Chapter 1 begins with McCook Field and the “golden age” offlight testing. It proceeds to sketch the history of flight testing at Wright Field during the 1930s through World War II. Beginning with the war, much aircraft prototype testing was transferred to Muroc Field-later Edwards MB-California. Meanwhile, the Wright Field--from 1948 the Wright-Patterson AFB-flight test mission was enlarged with the addition of all-weather testing. Chapter 2 discussesthe all-weather test mission aswell as assorted other projects undertaken by the Flight Test Division in the 1950sand 1960s. In 1970the flight test mission became a wingactivitywith the establishment of the 4950th Test Wing at Wright-Patterson. Chapter 3 discusses the far-ranging activities of the 4950th from the early 1970s through the early 1990s. Chapter 4 looks behind the flight test mission proper to the contribution of the aircraft modification community to flight testing, from McCook Field to the present. Finally, Chapter 5 presentsa pictorial overviewofpersonnel engagedin“fimctional support” activities ofthe present-day Test Wing. This book originated over a year ago in a suggestion by Col. John K. Morris, the commander of the 4950th Test Wing, for a short history summarizing the accomplishments ofthe modern Test Wing asit prepared to transfer its flying mission to Edwards AFB. Little by little the project grew and the present book took shape. A book of this size could not have been written in so short a time without the combined energies of ASC’s History Office staff. Dr. JamesF. Aldridge wrote much ofchapter 1. Assisting him with specialized topics placed in “boxes” were Dr. Dean C. Kallander, Dr. Paul C. Ferguson, and the undersigned. In addition to their work on Chapter 1, Dr. Kallander wrote Chapter 2; Dr. Aldridge wrote Chapter 4; and Dr. Ferguson wrote Chapter 5, contributeda boxtoChapter4, andcompiledtheindex. Lt. Cal. LauraN. Romesburg, areservist, wrotechapter 3. Dr. Henry M. Narducci wrote Appendix 3 on Test Wing facilities. Ms. Corrine J. Erickson, the History Office’s editorial assistant, helped compile all front and back matter and edited the entire text. The departure of the 4950th Test Wing marks the end of an era for Dayton and the Miami Valley. For over seventyyears the skies above H&&an Prairie have been alive with the buzz of flight test aircraft. All this comes to an end in March 1994. This book hopes to capture some small p.art of that story It will not be the last word. Diana G. Comelisse Chief, ASC History Office February 1994 \ TA6LEOF CONTENT6 Foreword ___.._. ,__.,____..__,,___, .___..__. _,.___. __..__. ..___. .__. _.__. 111 Preface _. _, _. _, _. _. _. _. _. iv i Chronology .__, ___.._. .___..__, __.__. ..___, ___, ___, ___vi Dedication .: 1 Chapter 1: The Cradle of Air Force Flight Testing ..,,.....___.,..,,,__.....,,.._.......__.......... 2 Chapter 2: Test Flying Operations (1950-I 975) __..__. ___._. __.__. __._. __.32 Chapter 3: Test Wing Flying Operations (1975-1993) ,..,,,._..__,,,.....__,,....,._.......__... 64 Chapter 4: Aircraft Modification ..___, .__..__ _,..__, __. __. 126 Chapter 5: 4950th Test Wing Functional Support ,.._,_.__,_...,.___.....,........,........,.... 148 Appendices Commanders of the 4950th Test Wing .,,.,_._..,,,..,.___.....,,.......,,,................. 165 Aircraft Assigned to the Aeronautical Systems Division, 1961-1992 _.._.... 166 Flight Test and 4950th Test Wing Facilities at Wright-Patterson AFB 185 Glossary .__.,,,..,,...,___,...,,,..,,...,...,,..,,,..,.........,..,,,,,,,....,...,,.,......,,...,...,,........,,...., 193 hmxs . .._..._..,...,,...,....,...,,..,,...,....,...,,...,...,,.....,..,,...,.....,,..,,...,,..,,,..,,........,,.. 196 Index .__.,...,,..,,___.....,...,,...,..,.,..,,,..,,..,,,..,....,..,,,,..,,,.......,,,........,,..,....,,.......,,,... 198 CHRONOLOGY 1903 December 17 Orville Wright makes man’s first sustained flight in a powered heavier-than-air craft. 1904.1905 The Wright brothers flight test their A and B model Flyers from Hufiinan Prairie, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. 1910 -1916 TheWrightbrothersconductaflighttrainingschoolnearSimmsStationbyHuffmanPrairie. 1912 Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever. 1917 April 6 The United States enters World War I. 1917 May The Army establishes Wilbur Wright Field, northeast of Dayton, Ohio, for flight training Army aviators. 1917 July The Army decides to build temporary installation north of Dayton, Ohio, to conduct aeronautical research and development. 1917 December McCook Field begins operations. 1918 The Packard-Le Pere LUSAC-11 is built and flight tested at McCook field, 1918 Roland Rohlfs sets an American altitude record of 28,900 feet in Wasp triplane. 1918 August Col. Thurman Bane is assigned to McCook Field to oversee technical liaison activities between the Department of Military Aeronautics’ Technical Section and the Bureau of Aircraft Production. 1918 November 11 Armistice on the Western

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