Wear This Helmet and You’re Walking on Mars Ready to Take On The T-6? Pearl Harbor I Was There North American T-6 Texan www.airspacemag.com JANUARY 2016 National Air and Space Museum WALL OF HONOR Make a special name last forever... Help support the National Air and Space Museum by contributing $100 or more and your name, or the name of someone you wish to honor, will be seen by millions of visitors for generations to come. You will also receive a handsome Certificate of Registry suitable for framing and have the opportunity to submit a Wall of Honor profile and photograph of your honoree that will be available for viewing on the Museum’s web site. To make a Wall of Honor donation, visit airandspace.si.edu/Honor For more information, contact [email protected] or 202.633.2603. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Contents DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 | VOL. 30, NO. 6 » Mystery Star Every five and a half years, one of the most baffling stars in the sky gets even wilder. BY DAVID DEVORKIN AIRSPACEMAG.COM ESO/IDA/DANISH 1.5 M Features » “The Best-Built Airplane That Ever Was” The North American T-6: Can the air forces of 60 nations be wrong? BY PAUL GLENSHAW » Almost Like Being There Going to Mars is expensive and scary, so let’s bring Mars to us. BY TONY REICHHARDT Boeing’s prototype » Boeing: A Century of a stealthy I WAS THERE unmanned combat air of Flight vehicle is one of the A Fighter Pilot at Pearl Harbor The company that latest inventions in the » company’s 100-year His first warnings: a buddy screaming and a dive gave us the 787 and The humanoid history. robot Robonaut, bomber flying outside his bedroom window. the International sometimes tele-operated by astronauts, helps out INTERVIEW BY RICH TUTTLE Space Station has a big with mundane chores on birthday. the International Space Station. » Fly to Save the Earth When conservationists see damage from the » NASA Turns on the Juice window of a small airplane, they can also see …and discovers that electricity makes better how to stop it. airplanes. BY ZOE KRASNEY BY GEORGE C. LARSON » The Lives They Saved A new documentary reunites medevac pilots with the wounded men they rescued in Vietnam. BY MORTON DEAN AIRSPACEMAG.COM LEFT: NASA; RIGHT: COURTESY OF AND COPYRIGHT © THE BOEING COMPANY Departments » Viewport The long arm of education » Letters » What’s Up Monumental mural One Mustang, three » Soundings A 1951 crash awards » Reviews & report couldn’t Previews fault the pilot of the Air disasters and F9F Panther; it took off » Bill Sweetman Technically without him. Speaking Elementary, Watson space travel » Solar System Chatter » Contributors » Above & Beyond » Forecast Superbowl on high » One More Thing » Oldies & Oddities Stardust catcher An F9F flies itself At the National Aviation Heritage Invitational, ON THE COVER: a 1944 P-51 Mustang won the judges’ approval » In the Museum Photographer Lyle and the crowd’s hearts. Space time continuum Jansma caught the aluminum gleam and prop whirl of Dale » Sightings Antonov An-12, inside Churchill’s long, tall and out Texan. AIRSPACEMAG.COM LEFT: CAROLINE SHEEN; RIGHT: US NAVY Viewport FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM Virtual Visits EVERY YEAR at our two locations, the National An important focus of our digital expansion Air and Space Museum welcomes over eight has been education in subjects known as STEM: million visitors. Still, we know that there are air science, technology, engineering, and math. A and space enthusiasts and other curious folks cornerstone of this effort is “STEM in 30,” a web- who want to visit but can’t. We don’t quite have cast series of 30-minute segments that lets stu- dents access the Museum’s galleries and collections “STEM in 30” is a webcast series of 30-minute segments anywhere, from their class- that lets students access the Museum’s galleries and room to their couch. While collections anywhere, from their classroom to their couch. watching the webcast live, Each webcast teaches students about STEM topics, like the using the CoverItLive fea- effort to put humans on Mars and how composites enable ture, viewers can ask our designers to make aircraft stronger and lighter. docents questions and answer poll questions. Each the technology, described in this issue’s feature webcast teaches students about STEM topics, “Almost Like Being There,” that will let scien- like the effort to put humans on Mars and how tists explore other planets without journeying composites enable designers to make aircraft there themselves. But we are using digital tech- stronger and lighter. Teachers across the coun- nology to reach beyond our walls and connect try use “STEM in 30” in their lesson plans, so virtually with children and adults across the live episodes air at 11 am and 1 pm EST, allow- country and the world. ing classes to watch together. Episodes are also AIRSPACEMAG.COM available on demand on our website, so parents Cincinnati Public Schools and GE Aviation, and kids can learn at home. “STEM in 30” is through which high school and college stu- made possible through the support of the Alcoa dents, trained by Museum staff, use video con- Foundation, Boeing, the International Titanium ference to teach students at select Cincinnati Association, and NASA. schools about such subjects as the forces of For a more interactive experience, kids can flight. The program offers a Museum experience check out “Engineering the Wright Way,” to students hundreds of miles away. an online activity sponsored by the Alcoa And finally, for space fans: Our “What’s New Foundation. The game develops engineering in Aerospace?” series, streamed online and spon- skills similar to those the Wright brothers used sored by Boeing, explores recent work at NASA to create the first airplane. Players learn about and in the aerospace community and lets you wing design, then design the wings of a glider comment and ask questions from your computer. and test it in Wilbur and Orville’s workshop I hope you’ll get the chance to visit the and on the dunes of Kitty Hawk. Although the Museum soon, but in the meantime, we’ll see interactive was designed with kids in mind, I you online! encourage adults to give it a shot as well—it’s harder than it seems! n n n J.R. DAILEY IS THE JOHN AND ADRIENNE MARS We recently announced a partnership with DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM. WASHINGTON, DC CHANTILLY, VA AIRSPACEMAG.COM BACK TO CONTENTS Letters WRITE TO US F-8 vs. F-4 (Continued) FOLLOW US The F-8 Crusader (“Gunfighter,” Oct./Nov. 2015) Twitter twitter.com/ airspacemag was “doomed”—to use the term on the cover— by being a single-purpose fighter-interceptor. Facebook facebook.com/AirSpaceMag With limited deck space on carriers, the Navy sought aircraft that could serve in the all- Pinterest pinterest.com/airspacemag/ weather fighter, interceptor, and attack roles— aircraft like the F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat. WRITE TO US at Letters, Air & Space/ Also, the F-4 Phantom did not “doom” the Smithsonian, MRC 513, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013. Please type or print Crusader; it succeeded it. The Phantom competed clearly. You must include your full address and against and surpassed the highly advanced F8U-3 daytime phone number. Crusader variant, which never entered service. e-mail: [email protected]. All e-mails must And “the Gunfighter” survived only because, include your full name, mailing address, and as your article states, the F-8 had to be within daytime phone number. visual range to engage with its 20mm cannon, and the rules of engagement in the Vietnam War required visual identification of oppos- 1960s, the king of air warfare was the air-to-air ing aircraft. That requirement was an attempt missile—as it still is today. to prevent U.S. pilots from engaging Chinese NORMAN POLMAR aircraft that were over North Vietnam. By the via email AIRSPACEMAG.COM Editors’ note: The writer is the author of Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its FROM THE WEBSITE Impact on World Events and a former Ramsey Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum. (“Paper, Scissors, Rocket,” Oldies & Oddities, Oct./Nov. 2015) I completely agree with Eileen Bjorkman’s assess- As a paper modeler myself, I always find it ment that from a historical viewpoint, the out- amusing when people see my models and standing F-4 Phantom has eclipsed the F-8. But cannot imagine how a flat piece of paper can while the sun did set relatively quickly on the turn into a three-dimensional object, often F-8’s service, it is worth noting that the French more accurate and more detailed than many a navy continued to operate the aircraft into plastic model…. The online community of paper 1999. It is true the F-4 paved the way for large, modelers is relatively small. Most of us know fast, twin-engine air-superiority aircraft like the each other by name or the models we make. F-14 and F-15. However, the limitations of the —PAPER KOSMONAUT Phantom also demonstrated the need for smaller, lightweight fighters, like the later F-16 Falcon and the original F/A-18 Hornet. TOM DOBLMAIER have internal guns, Navy F-4s never did, and North Wales, Pennsylvania rarely carried gun pods. BARRY A. MILLER Your article states: “The F-4 was modified to LT. COL., U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.) carry guns….” While Air Force Phantoms did Poquoson, Virginia AIRSPACEMAG.COM A Harrowing Howard Landing three-point landing, the tail tried to change places with the engine.