The fir>st 'r>ound the wor>ld, non-stop flight, was truly an epic accomplishment, demonstr>ating the global capabilities of the United States Air> Force. We look back to this recor>d setting event in the following artjcle by Harold Bourgeois of Largo, Florida, who also authored Jet Ambassadors in our Summer 1989 issue. We hope you will enjoy retrracing the flight of the "LUCKY LADY II .• LuckyLady's Right (Top Secret) By Harold J. Bourgeois Major, USAFR (Ret)

The big newspapers and national then watch for the MEGO (Mine Eyes Glaze magazines raised hell in print because Over) syndrome to set in. Strangely, her they had not been told in advance · ... of non-stop, globe-girdling flight does not the most spectacular flying achievement live in history like other aeronautical in the short history of aviation.· The feats. flight that caused one Strategic Air Perhaps her timing is partly to Command historian to exult: "The thing blame. World War II was too recently was done. The thing that had never been ended, and military heroics were old hat done before. The thing that the odds to readers of that era who were busy insisted could not be done!· For the trying to restore normalcy to the globe record, the so-called impossible flight just conquered by the Lady. was completed when an oil-streaked Lucky In sharp contrast to the Air Force Lady !l. touched down trailing smoke at historian's exuberance, Life magazine's Carswell AFB, Texas, at 0931 hours on editorial writer was piqued at having to March 2, 1949. learn of the first non-stop, around the And yet, for all this hyperbole the flight of this B-50A, now, forty years The "Lucky Lady 11· comes to a halt on later, seems almost a non-event. Voice a the r>amp before a cr>owd of well-wisher>s comment today about the Lucky Lady !l., at Car>swell AFB, Texas, after> completing even in an animated discussion among its 94 hour r>ound-the-world flight on 2 supposedly knowledgeable air enthusiasts, Mar>ch, 1949. ( AP Wirephoto) *

page 4 L;rFRIENDS BULLETIN Vol.12, No. 3, Fall 1989 *

The route flown by "Lucky Lady 11· on its 94 hour, non-stop, round-the-world flight. The aircraft was refueled in-flight by KB-29 tankers over the Azores, Dhahran, the Philippines and . (USAF) world flight like everyone else--after it selecting the names of his two aircraft, was over. · The press was not uni versa! ly because ·1uck" came into play almost from pleased,· he wrote, ·especially at the the outset. Out of the five B-50s primed secrecy that shrouded the flight.· Other for the mission, the Global Queen was editorialists adopted more of less the chosen to make the initial attempt. If same attitude to temper their praise of the Queen had to abort within an hour the Air Force for sending up one of its after take-off, the Lady was poised on B-50 bombers to fly more than 23,000 the end of the runway with idling miles around the world without landing engines, ready to seek her historic for refueling. niche. The Queen, wanting to live up to Second Pilot lLt Arthur M. Neal, of her name, continued majestically on her Vasalia, California, was responsible for way. The hour up, the Lucky Lady II naming the Lucky Lady ll- He commanded taxied back to the ramp--maybe not so the first Lucky Lady on a more leisurely lucky after all. 15-day around the world trip in 1948. But she got to make her bid for fame If one is inclined to think along the next morning, because late in the those lines, he might say that Lieutenant night the Queen's subjects (her engines) Neal displayed psychic powers in failed her, and forced her majesty to land in the Azores. On-lookers watching "Lucky Lady 11· takes off on its non­ the "lady in waiting· struggling to get stop, globe-circling flight from Carswell her own 57 tons and 23 tons of fuel AFB, Texas at 11:21 am, 26 February, airborne were unaware they were watching 1949. (USAF) history in the making. Their brief

page 5 glimpse at history ended when the Lucky exp�nd the Air Force to 70 air groups, a Lady II disappeared into a 2,500 foot dramatic increase from the 48 air groups over-cast. then planned in President Harry Truman's Although the fledgling Air Force's 1950 budget. With the outbreak of the had invited sixty Korean War only slightly more than a year newsmen to assure that the historic in the future, The New York Times on flight received world-wide coverage, March 3, 1949, reported that the flight Lucky Lady's fourteen crewmen had not of Lucky Lady ll greatly bolstered the taken her up 94 hours earlier on a mere Air Force's chances of getting publicity stunt. Other headlines shared congressional approval for more money and by Lucky Lady II in newspapers and more planes. magazines around the world spelled out Another message from the Lucky Lady the unspoken significance of her "first was directed toward the Air Force's time· mission. Captain James G. Gallaher sister service--the Navy. In effect, it and his fellow crewmen carried a message. undermined the Navy's plans for a similar No -- several messages! flight using carriers instead of aerial Two of the Lucky Lady's mid-air tankers. Both services had been refueling points--Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, jockeying for more funds from the tight­ and Clark AFB, Philippines clearly fisted Congress to advance inter­ indicated to Russia that U.S. nuclear­ continental bombing capacity. Lucky carrying bombers could hit both European Lady's flight abruptly and decisively and Asiatic USSR from bases far removed ended that interservice rivalry. There from retaliatory strikes. Just in case is no record of a similar attempt by the the Soviets needed official clarifi­ Navy. cation, SAC's General Curtis LeMay In the span of just 94 Hours, the succinctly and bluntly stated, "This Lady thus decisively proved to naval means that we can now deliver an atomic aviation skeptics the capabilities of bomb to any place in the world that long-range bombers and effectiveness of requires an atomic bomb.· strategic bombing. LeMay's popularly quoted declaration SAC's commander pointed to the was intended as much for the American Global Queen's fate to silence press Congress as for the Russians and our criticism of the Lucky Lady's European allies. While there are no on­ secretiveness. LeMay stated simply that the-record reactions of the Russians, it did put a burr under at least one W. Stuart Symington, Secretary of the Air American politician's saddle blanket. Force and General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Senator Millard E. Tydings, chairman of Chief of Staff, welcome home the crew of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ·iucky Lady 11· on 2 March, 1949 at introduced a bill the following day to Car>swell AFB., Texas. (USAF)

page 6 LtFRIENDS BULLETIN Vol.12, No. 3, Fall 1989

a series of announcements and failures earlier. concerning the flight would have been Both the B-36 and the B-50 had made embarrassing. In fact, he added, the flight from Carswell non-stop. But security for the mission had figured in the B-50 had been refueled in flight on SAC's plans as being a goal of equal both legs of the round robin mission. value to the actual flight itself. Feeling it was on a roll, the Air Force Still six months away from ordered the B-50 to refuel for the third celebrating its second birthday, the USAF time upon its arrival over Carswell and did not want egg on its face, and proceed onto Montgomery, Alabama. likewise did not want to lose out to the The infant USAF was vigorously Navy's air arm in their competition for crusading against the Navy's equally congressional funds. Failure of such an vigorous challenge to its long-range ambitious attempt as Lucky Lady's flight bombers and the idea of strategic would have been sensationally splattered bombing. And leading the crusade was the over the front pages of the press. newly appointed SAC commander, General SAC's caution was well justified. LeMay. Somebody on his staff must have Brigadier General J.B. Montgomery, been an expert in psychological warfare, Strategic Air Command Director of because the B-50s ATA over Maxwell AFB Operations, replied there was about a exactly coincided with the general's twenty-five percent chance of success address to an Air University audience in when the Secretary of the Air Force asked which he was forcefully staking out the him how SAC rated its attempt to complete Air Force's position on strategic a non-stop, around-the-world flight with bombing. Of course, it just happened a single plane. In fact, SAC's original that the speech was generously covered by blueprint had called for six B-50s to the press. depart individually at 24-hour intervals. The SAC commander was no slouch in General Montogmery's optimism was not the PR arena. Captain David B. Parmalee, based upon SAC's Lucky Lady's flight engineer, told the experience. According to SAC Historians, as late as December 20, 1948, the 509th Bomb Group had made only a dozen refueling contacts, and the 43rd Bomb Group but one. Lucky Lady II was assigned to the 43rd Group. The idea for the Lady's flight didn't just pop into a few skulls sheltered beneath brass hats. Rather, it filtered in after a B-50 made a 42-hour flight from Carswell AFB, Texas, to drop, undetected, a full-size simulated nuclear weapon into Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1948--a very symbolic act on a very symbolic date. . The Air Force compounded the Navy's embarrassment when one of its B-36s sneaked in the same morning to simulate another nuclear bomb drop onto Japan's target of exactly seven years

General Hoyt S. Vandenberg and General Curtit5 E. LeMay welcome Captain Gallagher, the aircraft commander of "Lucky Lady II," at Cart5well AFB after his Peturn from the history-making f 1 ight. (USAF)

page 7 writer that LeMay, knowing his remarks oil tank, a spare oil supply with a would be read in Moscow, concluded his transfer system to selectively replenish speech with: · We can take off from Fort any of the four main oil tanks was Worth, bomb Pearl Harbor, and return to required. In spite of the large number Montgomery, Alabama, through mid-air re­ of personnel involved in all of these fueling. That aircraft you hear circling preparations, no one, other than those overhead just did.· (Parmalee was with a special clearance, was aware of involved in planning the Pearl Harbor­ exactly what was being planned. Montgomery venture and the Lady's Apparently, the immediate post-World War flight.) II airmen were extremely close-mouthed SAC's security problem was two­ even with their wives, for the Air Force pronged. First, the planners had to cope claims that not a single one of them was with terrific logistics problems of in on the ·secret.· deploying and staging twenty KB-29 tanker Such security measures were more or aircraft at four points around the world. less standard operating procedure after Intensive practice of refueling hook-up the big war, so no really new innovations flights had to be conducted with five were required. But the Air Force almost modified B-50s scheduled to make the had to peek into The CIA manual on covert flight. Also, SAC's Global Weather operations to maintain a cloak of secrecy Service at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, had to around Lucky Lady's true intentions once be brought into the mission planning. she embarked on her mission. In order to Although the flight was intended to hide the fact that the flight was simulate normal combat conditions as continuous, each of the five legs of the nearly as possible, some slight flight was logged separately. As Lucky modifications had to be made in the B- Lady continued to the next refueling 50s. None were required for the KB-29 point, from the Azores Islands to tankers, but even with "low time· engines Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, for instance, she and no leaks on a four-day flight, the B- filed her flight plan by using the number 50s could be be expected to run out of of one of the tankers which had just oil somewhere between Hawaii and the refueled her. In the event an alert California coast. Although each of the operator on the ground might wonder about B-50's four engines had its own 70-gallon the same voice coming from supposedly

The crew of "Lucky Lady n· at Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona, prior to their history­ making flight. Kneeling (I,-R): JLt A.M. Neil, pilot; Capt G.E. Hacker, navigator; JLT E.L. Rigor, navigator; Capt D.B. Parmelee, flight engineer; JLT W.F. Caffrey, radar operator; ]Lt R.B. Bonner, radar operator; Capt James G. Gallagher, aircraft commander; and Capt J.H. Morris, co-pilot. Standing: SSgt M.G. Davis, gunner; SSgt R.G. Davis, flight engineer; TSgt V.L. Youny, flight engineer; SSgt D.G. Traugh, gunner; SSgt R.R. McLeRoy, radio operator; TSgt B.E. Cantrell, radio operator.(USAF) L:rFRIENDS BULLETIN Vol.12, No. 3, Fall 1989 different aircraft, a second radio country in peacetime, and to base tankers operator would transmit while using the on their airfields at strategically new number. located points for a mission they must Lucky Lady did encounter an alert know nothing about? Of course, in the flight operations officer who nearly late 40s, the USA still carried the big exposed the whole charade. He tried to stick on the international scene. What force what he thought was a KB-29 tanker Uncle Sam wanted, Uncle Sam got. (Ah-h to return to Clark AFB, Philippines, --those were the ·good ole days,· Lady's third refueling point, when he indeed.) realized the plane had insufficient fuel No exceptional problems were capacity to proceed to Honolulu as filed encountered at the first refueling point in its flight plan. This plane's number, over the Azores, or the fourth over John of course, was the one Lucky Lady had Rodgers AFB in the Hawaiian Islands. But assumed so as to continue its mission. over Dhahran, Lucky Lady established Someone aboard one of the five tankers another historic "first· on her flight. with more rank than the air operations As Captain Gallagher wrote: ·we ran into officer finally persuaded the operator to bad weather on our second refueling over forget the matter. Dhahran. Got the first tanker OK. This writer doesn't recall when Ian However, the second refueling was hairy. Fleming's James Bond made his appearance Willie Sontag from Roswell really did a on the literary scene, but the famous good job. Ran into a squall line with fictitious spy master would have lots of turbulence, thunderstorms, etc. applauded the Air Force's contorted Believe that was a first. Refueling on efforts to keep the Lucky Lady's mission instruments.· lLt Roland B. Bonner, the secret. What explanations (fabrications) radar officer who logged the flight, also are foisted off on other countries for singled out Lieutenant Sontag for his permission to fly warplanes over their skillful performance over Dhahran. ·well, we made it again. We are full. The Form 1 of B-50A serial number 46-010, Sontag (refueling pilot) flew a perfect "Lucky Lady II," covering the record­ job or we might still be there.· breaking flight. (Bourgeois) Trouble of another sort was

FIRST NON- STOP AROUND-THE-WORLD FUGHT AIRCRAFTR..IGHr REPORT-OP£RAllONS- 1Mm26 Feb m1.JOOMa"'� hru 2 l,IJl.r h A7 D'".Jl'B /llllltCIWITT\'N,...... ll,.5{),I. *

page 9 encountered during the third refueling A Boeing B-50A being r>efueled in flight over the Philippines. Fuel from the by a KB-29 dur>ing a tr>aining mission over> first tanker was transferred without Ar>izona pr>ior> to ·Lucky Lady ll's· incident, but the second tanker, which celebr>ated flight. Althogh the B-50 later crashed into a mountain while shown is fr>om the same unit as the returning to Clark Field through an ·Lady,· it is not "Lucky Lady 11· as has undercast, veered off course before the often been r>epor>ted. Note tail number> of hose had been disconnected in Lucky Lady. this air>cr>aft is 6043 - the • Lady· was The pilot of the tanker apparently 6010. (USAF) thought all fuel had been transferred. Captain Parmalee, one of three do when the tanker peeled off too soon, flight engineers on Lucky Lady, described the 'weak link' in the cable held firm. how the problem was solved: "The chain Also, we proceeded warily, not merrily that broke drove the reel and was powered along, as Parmalee said. He was the by an hydraulic motor. We were carrying engineer. I was the pilot,· Captain a couple of extra chains, but when we Gallagher wrote. As noted earlier, it opened the packages to use one, we found was a matter of different points of view. that they were about six inches too long. Captain Parmalee had solved his problem We were also carrying a whole new winch. in the aircraft's tail, so all was In as much as we were still proceeding merry· in his eyes. on course to Hawaii, a quick decision Much of the tension that had built­ had to be made as to whether we should up during the flight's longest stretch change winches or spend time cutting and over water eased somewhat when the fitting a new chain. We chose to change tankers from John Rodgers Field, on Oahu, winches. The job was completed in time rendezvoused with Lucky Lady over for the second tanker to completely fill Johnston Island to supply her with the us up and after a few sighs of relief, we fuel needed to return to Fort Worth, proceeded merrily on our way. Our Texas. But the relief did not last for happiness was short-lived, however, for long, because the first tanker had we soon got the news that the second difficulty getting the vital fuel to flow tanker had crashed ... · into Lucky Lady's nearly depleted tanks. In the cockpit, Captain Gallagher With that problem corrected after a few saw the situation from a slightly minutes, the crew again relaxed and began different viewpoint. He had additional counting down the few remaining hours problems. The fol lowing is how he before touching down on the same runway amended Captain Parmalee's version. 'The from which they had lifted off three days winch problem happened at dusk. In order earlier. to take advantage of oncoming darkness, I Captain Gallagher and his crew reversed course to take advantage of the really unwound when they made radar, and waning daylight. (Note: refueling had then visual, contact with the last of the never been done at night). After getting tankers awaiting Lucky Lady over Tucson, the second tanker we did a 180 degree Arizona, so as to escort her into Fort turn and proceeded warily on course. Worth. In his eagerness to complete the ·rt was not an hydraulic problem. mission, Captain Gallagher had out­ Instead of breaking as it was supposed to distanced the tankers. As a result, he page 10 L:,FRIENDS BULLETIN Vol.12, No. 3, Fall 1989 had to circle over El Paso, Texas, in boom, which evolved from the drogue order to complete the rendezvous. system used in refueling Lucky Lady. The sixty photographers and Also, many a silent word of thanks went reporters knew before being told out to Lucky Lady's crew during hook-ups specifically about their assignment that with a KB-29 tanker's boom in gratitude it was "big' when they saw Air Force for the technique they introduced and Secretary W. Stuart Symington, Chief of proved feasible. Officially, the Air Staff Hoyt S. Vandenburg, and General Force called her flight a sort of LeMay on the ramp waiting to greet Lucky graduation exercise for the air-to-air Lady's crew. Each of the fourteen men refueling technique.· A view in which I who made the flight was later awarded the heartily concur. Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air The Air Force wasted no time in Force's of 1949. despoiling any doubts that might remain The crew's DFC citation stated: in the minds of any would-be aggressor as 'The successful execution of this to the practicability of mid-air refuel­ historic flight demonstrated the ing at subzero temperatures. SAC planners feasibility of aerial refueling to extend knew that the human and mechanical the operating range of military aircraft exposures necessary in mid-air refueling and contributed other data of inestimable would suggest that such a task would be value to the future of military extremely difficult, if not impossible, aviation.· And the Mackay Trophy at unusually low temperatures. Accord­ citation read in part: "These inflight ingly, on March 31, 1949, just four weeks refuelings resulted in a graphic after Lucky Lady completed her flight, demonstration that the range of the lLt Patrick B. Lewis and his crew modern military aircraft is unlimited.· successfully completed a mid-air re­ Many times during World War II, fueling in another B-50 over the icy while flying off aircraft carriers, I shores of Greenland. This refueling was would have welcomed the availability of accomplished at a temperature ranging far aerial filling stations. And later, in below zero degrees centigrade. The feat the Korean War, I gratefully received didn't quite match Lucky Lady's head­ into the left wing of my F-84 the flying lines, but Russia understood the message, and that's what mattered. The last "mission of the "Lucky Lady II" After completing several goodwill was as a mobile display fop the United flights to publicize the round-the-world States Air Force Orientation Group. She feat, Lucky Lady was returned to her tour,ed the countl'y-side, spr,eading the squadron to resume mundane duties for Air, For,ce stor,y far, and wide and which she was built. She continued in encouraging young people to consider, 'Air, normal squadron flight operations until For,ce Blue .. (USAFOG) see 'LADY"/page 35

�-=◄-- ..._...... ,...______,;. ______==-- - I page 11 "LADY" from page 11 one year after he� brief time for glory, accustomed to doing in the B-29, when he when she came to an inglorious end by actually placed it in the ·cut Off" bellying-in onto the western desert. positions on a takeoff roll. According to Captain Gallagher, a flight Captains Gallagher and Parmalee engineer who was newly transferred from state that Lucky Lady was not destroyed B-29s to B-50s, was responsible for her by the crash or deliberately set afire to slithering along the desert knocking down train Air Force fire fighters, as had large cacti. The fuel mixture control in been rumored. Both men, now retired, say the two aircraft worked in reverse to Lucky Lady !J. is on display at Ed each other. The hapless engineer thought Maloney's "Planes of Fame' Museum in he was putting the mixture control into Chino, California--a suitably named the "Full Rich" position, as he was retirement home for such a famous lady.*

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