This Date in Planelopnik History: Speed Round

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 05/19/2015 at 11:05 • Filed to: planelopnik, planelopnik history

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This is today’s Planelopnik History Speed Round , getting you caught up on milestones and important historical events in aviation from May 16 through May 19.

May 16, 1992 – The 2,000th C-130 Hercules rolls off the production line. American experience in Korea showed the US Air Force that its current fleet of cargo aircraft was incompatible to the demands of modern warfare, so the Air Force issued a requirement for a new airplane capable of carrying either 92 passengers, 72 combat troops or 64 paratroopers, and could operate from short or unimproved airfields. The C-130 entered service with the US Air Force in 1954 and has become only the fifth aircraft in the world to serve continuously for 50 years. With its many variants, the extremely versatile Hercules has expanded its original airlift role to include airborne assault, SAR, scientific research, weather reconnaissance, aerial refueling, maritime patrol, aerial firefighting, and use as a gunship as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . With recent modernizations, there is no end of service in sight for the Hercules.

May 17, 1987 – An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter attacks the USS Stark in the Persian Gulf. During tensions in the Persian Gulf in the 1980s, the US Navy assumed the task of patrolling the Gulf, particularly the strategic Strait of Hormuz, to ensure the safe passage of cargo ships in the embattled region. For reasons that remain unclear, an Iraqi !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fired two French-made !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! anti-ship missiles at the Stark , with the first penetrating just above the waterline but not exploding, and the second entering the ship and exploding in the crew quarters, killing 37 sailors and injuring 21. Despite the gaping hole left in the ship, it did not sink. The Stark failed to detect either the aircraft or the missiles until it was too late, and no countermeasures were taken for defense. The Iraqis claimed that the Stark was in its territorial waters, but the frigate was actually in international waters at the time. Facing courts-martial following the incident, the Stark’s captain and her Tactical Action Officer both chose early retirement.

May 17, 1945 – The first flight of the Lockheed P-2 Neptune. Development of the Neptune began during WWII as a replacement for the Lockheed !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as a maritime patrol and anti-submarine (ASW) aircraft. Entering service in 1947, the P-2 was the first aircraft to be fitted with both piston engines and jet engines, with both types of engine running on the same fuel to save space and limit complexity. Despite the Neptune’s maritime/ASW mission, small numbers of Neptunes were deployed as carrier-based nuclear bombers as a stop-gap measure. The planes would either ditch or recover to land bases after delivering their weapons. In 1946, a modified Neptune nicknamed “The Truculent Turtle” set an unrefueled distance record of 11,236 miles, flying from Perth, Australia to Columbus, Ohio, a record for piston-powered flight that was not broken until Dick Rutan’s Voyager flew around the world in 1986. Replaced by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Neptunes were retired from military service in 1984, though many still fly as civilian firefighters.

May 17-18, 1943 – Modified RAF Avro Lancasters carry out the “Dam Busters” raid on the Möhne Reservoir, Edersee Dam and Sorpe Dam. Before the outbreak of WWII, the British identified industrial and infrastructure assets in the Ruhr River area of Germany as potential targets should war break out. They believed that breaching the dams in the area would flood the valleys, destroying factories and limiting the generation of electricity . Since regular bombs would not be effective against the dams, British engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! developed a unique rotating, drum-shaped bomb that, when dropped from a specific height above the reservoir and a specific distance from the dam, would skip across the surface of the water, over defensive torpedo nets, and settle at the base of the dam before exploding. The mission, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was carried out with 19 modified Lancaster bombers, and while two of the dams were breached, the Germans were able to quickly repair the damage caused by the flooding. Of the nineteen aircraft that set out, eight were lost to crashes or enemy defenses.

May 18, 1953 – The first flight of the Douglas DC-7, the last major piston engine-powered transport produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company. In the late-1940s, American Airlines requested that Douglas create a piston-powered airliner that would be capable of flying coast-to-coast in under eight hours, a time period determined by an FAA regulation limiting pilots to eight hours of flight in a twenty-four hour period. Douglas based its plane on existing aircraft, using the wing from a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , stretching the fuselage of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and powering it with four eighteen-cylinder Wright R-3350 Turbo-Compound engines. Three hundred forty-three aircraft were built. The DC-7 suffered from poor timing, coming as it did at the dawn of the jet era. Propeller-driven airliners were falling out of favor following the introduction of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and Douglas’ own jet-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! would arrive in just five years later. After being removed from most passenger-carrying flights, the DC-7 remained a popular cargo aircraft.

Short Take Off

May 19, 1978 – McDonnell Douglas delivers its 5,000th F-4 Phantom II, twenty years after the first prototype. Eventually, 5,195 examples of the Phantom would be built by the time production was halted in 1981.

May 19, 1967 – The first flight of the Dassault Mirage 5. A total of 582 copies of this nuclear-capable fighter were built, including many variants. The Mirage 5 also served as the basis for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter.

May 18, 1953 – Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran, flying a North American F-86 Sabre, becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier. The holder of many aviation records, Cochran was also instrumental in the founding of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (WASP), civilian women pilots who ferried aircraft during WWII. (Above: Cochran, with Chuck Yeager, following her record-setting flight.)

May 17, 1943 – The Boeing B-17F Memphis Belle makes her 25th bombing mission. Following the final mission, the aircraft and its crew, one of the first to complete 25 missions intact, returned to the US to help sell war bonds.

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 05/19/2015 at 11:18

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Also a great movie. I should go watch it again.

doodon2whls > ttyymmnn 05/19/2015 at 11:31

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Really enjoy these posts... Thank you for doing these !

ttyymmnn > doodon2whls 05/19/2015 at 11:40

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Thanks, I’m glad you’re enjoying them. What began as a one-off post on Oppo has turned into sort of a hobby for me, but aviation history has always been a great interest of mine. As much as we tend to bitch about Kinja, it’s given me a chance to indulge that interest and share it with others, in a format that actually allows me to make it look pretty good. It would be neat if there were a few more readers/commenters, but I understand this is mostly a car place, and ultimately, I’m really doing these for myself. I’m learning a lot, and I’m also enjoying the hell out of it. If you missed any of the installments, you can find them all at the Planelopnik History tag. Thanks for reading.

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 05/19/2015 at 13:31

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Not posting a picture of the original configuration to commemorate the first flight.

Come on! They looked so cool before all of the bulges and tanks and jet engines were strapped on.

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 05/19/2015 at 13:35

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These articles are great. Pity Tyler at Foxtrot Alpha or whoever is running Flight Club hasn’t picked up on these - there are plenty of people interested in aircraft on Jalopnik, and these posts would be appreciated by the readers of either of those blogs.

ttyymmnn > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 05/19/2015 at 13:37

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I have tried, when possible, to illustrate prototypes or early models when writing about first flights. I’ve got an upcoming post about the F-100, and I used an old B&W photo from its testing phase, rather than a spiffy color photo. But you make a solid point, and I will change the picture. I might even use yours, if you’ve got a link to a good version of it. Thanks.

ttyymmnn > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 05/19/2015 at 13:38

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Thanks. I’m afraid these aren’t newsy enough for that space though, and I’m okay with that. I like, and write, history, and I’m not sure history would play well on FA. Besides, I can’t make GIFs.

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 05/19/2015 at 13:43

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Oh, don’t bother changing it, I was cracking a joke. That’s actually a rather nice picture. It is amazing, though, to see how much the aircraft changed between it’s initial deployment and late in it’s career.

And for reference, the picture is from wikimedia

ttyymmnn > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 05/19/2015 at 13:49

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Joking aside, I think you’re right. From a historical perspective, it makes more sense to show people how the old plane looked, rather than how it looks in a form they might recognize.

And yes, it is amazing how it changed, but I think it’s a testimony to the brilliance of the design, or any design, for that matter, when it can be updated and flown for so long (C-130, Canberra, F-16, etc.).

user314 > ttyymmnn 05/19/2015 at 14:08

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There was a P2V parked at the Allegheny County Airport (AGC) for years. It was supposed to be part a museum there, but the funding never materialized, then the plane’s nose was damaged by vandals, the owner started getting fines from the county for leaving it parked there, and then at some point in ‘90 or ‘91 it just disappeared.

ttyymmnn > user314 05/19/2015 at 14:15

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Likely scrapped, but I hope not.

user314 > ttyymmnn 05/19/2015 at 20:34

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Unfortunately, it was. I did a bit of digging (Yes, you can find anything on the ‘net.) and it looks like it was sold in ’94 to Aero Union as a water bomber, and they scrapped it in ‘05.

140980 Lockheed P2V-7 Neptune MSN 726-7082. Converted to P2V-7S 1960. Redesignated P-2H in 1962. To MASDC Feb 5, 1974, SOC Jul 29 1974. To Aerospace Products Aug 13, 1986 as N980AP. To North American Warbirds Museum, Gibsonia, Pennsylvania Mar 1991. To Aero Union Sep 15, 1994, registered Oct 19, 1944. Registration cancelled Sep 22, 2005 as scrapped at Chino, CA

From what I can find, the guy who wanted to start the N.A. Warbird Museum was always looking for cash, and after the mills all closed there was none to be had. It’s a shame, I’d have loved to have had an aviation museum that close. Both the County Airport and the old (now demolished) Greater Pitt have also blown chances to open museums; the one at GP would have been dedicated to General and passenger aviation, a real rarity.

ttyymmnn > user314 05/19/2015 at 20:54

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Thanks for looking into that, even if the news is sad.