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 Hawaii. (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 Strategic Air Command 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 aerial refueling 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.