This Date in Aviation History: Speed Round

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 06/19/2015 at 11:05 • Filed to: Planelopnik, Planelopnik History

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This is today’s Aviation History Speed Round , getting you caught up on milestones and important historical events in aviation from June 17 through June 19.

June 17, 1986 – The final flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet. When the final Boeing B-47 Stratojet (52-0166) was restored to flying status for a one-time ferry flight from Naval Weapons Center China Lake, California to Castle Air Force Base, California for museum display, it marked the end of one of the most influential designs of the early jet era. In 1944, the US Army Air Force issued a request for a new bomber with a maximum speed of 550 mph, a range of 3,500 miles and and a service ceiling of 45,000 ft. Both Boeing and Martin were asked to develop six-engine designs, and both were reminiscent of WWII designs with straight wings. But based on discoveries of German research following the war, Boeing changed its wing to include a sweep of about 35 degrees, and the iconic shape was born. The B-47 entered service with the Strategic Air Command in 1951, and by 1956 there were 28 wings of B-47 bombers and 5 wings of RB-47 reconnaissance variants, with many staged at forward bases as part of America’s nuclear deterrence policy. Though the B-47 never saw actual combat, it remained the mainstay of SAC’s bomber force into the 1960s. Over 2000 were produced, and the EB-47E electronic countermeasures variant served until 1977.

June 17, 1959 – The first flight of the Dassault Mirage IV. In 1954, France decided that it would create its own nuclear deterrent force, eventually separating itself from the NATO command structure in 1966. The French developed a three-pronged nuclear deterrance ( force de dissuassion ) of land, sea and air assets, but they needed an aircraft that could reach deep into the Soviet Union. Work began on an aircraft capable of carrying a strategic nuclear weapon, and Dassault offered what began as a substantially enlarged version of their Mirage IIIA fighter. The new aircraft would have double the wing surface, with a much thinner wing for high-speed performance, two engines rather than one, and twice the empty weight. Despite the added size, the Mirage IV still required multiple refuelings to reach inside the Soviet Union, and after delivering its nuclear munitions, the aircraft was not expected to return, as its home bases would likely have been annihilated. The Mirage IV entered service with the French Air Force in October 1964, and until 1971 it was France’s only means of delivering a nuclear weapon, as the land and sea components of the f orce de dissuassion were not available until then. The Mirage IV was eventually superseded by strategic nuclear missiles, and the bomber variants were retired in 1996, though the reconnaissance versions served until 2005.

June 17, 1955 – The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-104. Though not the first to fly, the Tu-104 (NATO reporting name Camel) was the world’s first successful jetliner, as the de Havilland Comet had been withdrawn from service due to crashes in 1954 and would not return to the sky until 1958. While other manufacturers worked to get their own designs airborne and certified, the Tu-104 was the only jetliner in the world in operation between 1956-1958 (the Boeing 707 would not arrive until October 1958, and the Sud Caravelle began service in 1959). Czechoslovak Airlines started operating the Tu-104 in 1957, becoming the first airline to fly a regular route with jet-powered transports. Tupolev based the design of the 104 on the earlier Tu-16 strategic bomber, which like the Comet, used engines buried in the roots of the wing. To make the Tu-104, Tupolev widened and pressurized the fuselage and made accommodations for 50 passengers, yet kept the clear bomber nose for use by a navigator. When the Tu-104 arrived in London in 1956, it caused quite a stir in the West because nobody believed that the Soviets had the technology to produce such a modern airliner. While the Tu-104 had a comparable safety record to other airliners of the time, a series of crashes led to its retirement on commercial routes in 1979, and another crash caused it to be removed from military service in 1980. (Photo by Michael Gilliand via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) ·

June 18, 1981 – The first flight of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. The idea that an aircraft might be made nearly invisible to radar was first proposed by a Russian scientist in 1964, though the shapes necessary were impossible at the time because the aircraft would be unflyable. It wasn’t until flight control computers became more sophisticated that the concept became viable. The Nighthawk program began with work in Lockheed’s Skunk Works on a technology demonstrator known as the Hopeless Diamond, a nickname derived from the shape of the aircraft. On paper, Lockheed engineers believed that the new design would be 1,000 times less visible than any other aircraft ever created at Lockheed, showing up on the radar as an object about the size of a marble. In 1976, the Air Force awarded a contract to develop the Have Blue project, the stealth demonstrator that would lead to the Nighthawk. Though given the “F” designation for fighter, the Nighthawk was strictly an attack platform for the dropping of bombs, and after being revealed to the public in 1988, the F-117 saw extensive action in the 1991 Gulf War, flying almost 1400 sorties. Though a number of Nighthawks have been lost to accidents, only one was ever lost in combat when it was shot down during NATO operations over Serbia in 1999. The plane landed relatively intact, and the Serbians invited the Russians and Chinese to inspect it and gain valuable information on American Stealth technology. Sixty-four aircraft were built, and the F-117 was officially retired in 2008, though some military observers have reported continuing flights of the Nighthawk at Groom Lake in Nevada.

June 19, 1944 – The Battle of the Philippine Sea, the largest aircraft carrier battle in history, known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.” In the summer of 1944, American forces launched operations to take the Japanese-held islands of Tinian, Saipan and Guam in the Marianas Islands. In an effort to blunt the American advance the Japanese navy organized a fleet that included five heavy carriers and four light carriers, along with five battleships, eleven heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and twenty-eight destroyers. To oppose the Japanese fleet, the Americans had Task Force 58 under the command of Admiral Marc Mitscher, which included seven heavy carriers, eight light carriers, seven battleships, eight heavy cruisers, thirteen light cruisers and 69 destroyers. Mitscher would divide his fleet into four carrier task groups and one battleship task group, while the Japanese would divide their fleet into four groups. The Japanese opened the battle, but American radar discovered the planes 50 miles away from the fleet, and more than 200 were shot down against the loss of only 23 US planes. American submarines sank two Japanese carriers, and Mitscher’s aerial counterattack sank another Japanese carrier, though with heavier American losses than the previous day. By the end of the battle, between 300 and 400 Japanese aircraft were destroyed, along with their pilots, losses in men and materiel from which the Japanese would never recover. While they still had carriers, they didn’t have the men or planes to operate them, and the ships were reduced to the role of a diversionary force in the later Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Short Take Off

June 17, 1961 – The first flight of the HAL HF-24 Marut. Designed by German Kurt Tank, the Marut was India’s first domestically produced jet aircraft. (Photo by Valder137 via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

June 17, 1928 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane , though only as a passenger. The flight would inspire her to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1932.

June 18, 1983 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space as a member of the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

June 18, 1916 – The death of German ace Max Immelmann (17 victories) when the interrupter gear on his Fokker E.III monoplane malfunctions and he shoots away his own propeller. (Fokker photo by Grzegorz Polak via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

June 19, 2002 – Adventurer Steve Fossett begins the first solo, non-stop balloon flight around the Earth , becoming the first person to complete an uninterrupted, unrefueled solo circumnavigation of the globe in any type of aircraft when he lands in Queensland, Australia on July 3. (Gondola photo by FlugKerl2 via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

All photos are Public Domain or taken by the author unless otherwise credited.