This Date in Aviation History Speed Round: August 26 - August 28

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 08/28/2015 at 12:35 • 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 August 26 through August 28.

August 26, 1959 – The first VC-137 enters service. In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt became the first US President to travel on an airplane for official government business when he flew from the US to Casablanca on the Moroccan coast for a war strategy meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. President Roosevelt made the trip in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flying boat named the Yankee Clipper . Presidents have been flying ever since, but it wasn’t until 1959 that the White House entered the jet age with the arrival of the VC-137A, a modified Boeing 707-120 airliner. The story goes that Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was dismayed by the visuals of the President of the United States arriving for a summit with the Russians in a propeller plane (President Eisenhower was traveling in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) while his Russian counterpart arrived on a jet. In an era of Cold War competition, such one-upmanship could not be allowed. So Dulles (the man for whom the international airport in Washington, DC is named) pressed the Air Force to upgrade the President’s plane to something more modern and impressive. Near the end of Eisenhower’s term, the Air Force ordered three 707s for VIP travel, the first being Special Air Mission (SAM) 970, and the others SAM 971 and SAM 972. The new aircraft featured living and working spaces for the president and his staff, as well as modern communications equipment. SAM 970 served Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, and after the original SAM 970 was replaced in 1962 by the newer VC-137C, it continued flying VIPs and the Vice President until 1996, with its last executive passenger being Vice President Al Gore. SAM 970 is preserved and is now on display at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Seattle, Washington. (Photo via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

August 27, 1990 – The first flight of the Northrop YF-23. As long as there have been wars there has been a race to develop newer and better weapons. Every advance by one side must not just be met, but surpassed. In the 1970s, a new generation of surface-to-air missiles developed by the Soviet Union led the US Air Force to begin looking for a new fighter that would eventually replace the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. By the 1980s, the Air Force needed to counter the latest generation of Russian fighters, such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In 1981, The Air Force issued requirements for a new fighter that would take advantage of developments in new construction materials, engines that could provide !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and, perhaps most importantly, stealth technology. While stealth doesn’t make an aircraft invisible, it does reduce its radar signature so that it can be difficult to detect, and stealth technology had already been demonstrated brilliantly by the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. In response to the Air Force call for designs in their Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, two groups of manufacturers—Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics and Northrop/McDonnell Douglas—paired with Pratt & Whitney and General Electric to produce two prototype aircraft each. The Lockheed-led group proposed the YF-22, which incorporated some measure of stealth but employed thrust-vectoring engines for increased maneuverability, while the Northrop-led group proposed the YF-23 Black Widow II (the second prototype was dubbed Gray Ghost), which placed more emphasis on stealthy design but saved weight and complexity by eliminating thrust-vectoring. During an extensive testing and evaluation program, the YF-23 was proven to be stealthier and faster than the YF-22, while the YF-22 proved to be more agile, and on April 23, 1991 the Air Force announced that the Lockheed design was the winner. Both YF-23 prototypes were sent to NASA for use as test beds, though they never were flown again, and some talk was made about a Navy version, or an interim bomber version for the Air Force, but those plans never came to fruition. The first prototype is now housed at the Air Force Museum in Ohio, and the second prototype is on display at the Western Museum of Flight in California. (US Air Force Photo)

August 28, 1988 – The Ramstein airshow disaster. Ever since the dawn of aviation, people have been fascinated by airplanes, first gathering in fields to watch pilots execute feats of skill and daring in their magnificent flying machines. Today, air shows have become popular all around the world, as aerobatic pilots look for an opportunity to show off their skills, and the military looks to advertise to the public how their tax dollars are being spent. And while air show organizers take safety very seriously, accidents are always a possibility, especially during particularly complex maneuvers with many planes in the same patch of sky. In 1988, civilians and service members had gathered for Flugtag 88 at Ramstein Air Force Base, a US facility near the city of Kaiserslautern in then-West Germany. Spectators were watching a demonstration by the Italian Air Force team !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flying ten !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! aircraft, a trainer that had been specially modified for the Frecce Tricolori. The team was performing their “pierced heart” formation, where two groups of aircraft fly head-on and parallel to the runway, while a third aircraft “pierces the heart” by flying perpendicular to the runway and towards the spectators. As the lone aircraft flew through the formation, the pilot struck one of the crossing aircraft. One of the airplanes crashed onto the sole Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk medevac helicopter, whose pilot died of burns some weeks later. The pilot ejected, but was killed when his parachute failed to open in time. The second formation pilot died as his aircraft crashed along the runway. The solo aircraft, however, careened into the crowd and burst into flames, killing 67 spectators and seriously injuring 346, making it the deadliest air show disaster in history until the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2002. Following the crash, West Germany declared a three-year moratorium on public air shows, and new rules were put in place that dictated specific distances from the crowd for demonstrations to take place, and also banned maneuvers were the energy of the display takes place in the direction of the crowd. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration publishes !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on how air shows must be presented to make them as safe as possible for the spectators and participants.

Short Take Off

August 26, 1975 – The first flight of the McDonnell Douglas YC-15, an unsuccessful entrant into the Air Force competition to find a replacement for the Lockheed C-130 Hercules. While the YC-15 failed to win the contract, its design served as the basis for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! following McDonnell Douglas’ merger with Boeing in 1997. (Photo by Steve Fitzgerald via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

August 26, 1969 – The first flight of the Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner. An evolution of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprop business aircraft, over 600 Metroliners were produced at the Swearingen (later Fairchild) factory in San Antonio, TX. The Metroliner served as both a small regional airliner carrying 19 passengers, and with the military in reconnaissance variants. (Photo by Andreas Hoppe via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

August 26, 1944 – The first flight of the Martin AM Mauler , a single-seat, carrier-based attack aircraft produced for the US Navy. Problems with the aircraft’s development delayed its entry into service until 1948, and it served for only 2 years before being replaced by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . (US Navy Photo)

August 27, 1940 - The first flight of the Caproni Campini N.1. The N.1 was incorrectly credited by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (FAI) as the first jet-powered aircraft to take to the skies, as news of an earlier flight by the Heinken He 178 had not been widely reported. The N.1 was not a true jet, as it used a standard aircraft engine to turn the compressor that propelled the aircraft in an arrangement Caproni called a “thermojet” but is more commonly called a “motorjet.”

August 27, 1939 – The first flight of the Heinkel He 178 , the world’s first practical turbojet-powered aircraft. Heinkel received little support for his private venture from the German Air Ministry, as they were focusing on engine developments being made by BMW and Junkers. The only airframe built by Heinkel was destroyed in an air raid in 1943. (US Air Force Photo)

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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!!! .

Unless otherwise credited, all photos are, or are believed to be, Public Domain, ownership could not be determined, or were taken by the author.

HammerheadFistpunch > ttyymmnn 08/28/2015 at 12:43

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I was just reading up on the STOL cargo planes, the YC-15 was interesting but it was NOTHING compared to the YC-14. What a cool concept worth revisiting.

Motoroso > ttyymmnn 08/28/2015 at 12:51

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Maybe because I’m a bit of a geek, but the YF-22/23 battle was during my aviation formative years. I wanted the 22 to win so badly.

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 08/28/2015 at 12:53

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Such a gorgeous machine. I wish we could have selected both.

ttyymmnn > Motoroso 08/28/2015 at 12:54

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And as I was writing this article, I was looking at pictures of the YF-23 and thinking that it was just a gorgeous damned airplane. Hindsight is 20/20, but I wonder if we would have been better off with the BWII. It’s impossible to know if it would have had the same teething problems that the F-22 has had, but I think the AF went with a plane that looked more traditional, and had better maneuverability, even though dogfighting may well be a thing of the past.

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 08/28/2015 at 13:15

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This is why I love your posts - though I know a lot of obscure facts about aircraft, I’ve never heard of this thing. Very cool.

ttyymmnn > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 08/28/2015 at 13:17

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Thanks. It was a real eye opener for me when I first learned of it. The motorjet alone could warrant a full post.

Margin Of Error > ttyymmnn 08/28/2015 at 13:21

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Damn I love Old Force One

T5Killer > Motoroso 08/28/2015 at 13:33

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I was a av geek kid (9 years old) when the YF-22/23 battle was happening my dad and I (also an av geek) both agreed that the -23 was a way better looking bird. the YF-23 is still the best looking modern fighter to me. Shame even the FB-23 or NATF did not go into service.

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 08/28/2015 at 13:42

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I agree that it would make a great post. It would also be interesting to post about diesel power and compound engines. There were lots of obscure aircraft powerplants over the years that most people have never heard of.

Rock Bottom > HammerheadFistpunch 08/28/2015 at 14:55

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Don’t forget the NASA Quiet Short-haul Research Aircraft (QSRA). It landed and took-off from an aircraft carrier without arrester or catapult gear!

HammerheadFistpunch > Rock Bottom 08/28/2015 at 14:57

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Super cool, than AN72 uses this and is the only production jet to do it, I think its worth a revisit.

Rock Bottom > HammerheadFistpunch 08/28/2015 at 15:11

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Yeah, the Coanda Effect can be pretty useful. NASA has been testing it’s application in their Environmentally Responsible Aircraft (ERA) Program, though they’re not currently using the jet exhaust (to my knowledge).

Skip to about 1:20 to see what a little high pressure air can do when applied in just the right place!

facw > ttyymmnn 08/29/2015 at 06:12

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Is I like to point out any time the old SAM jets are brought up, they originally had a blinding high visibility paint scheme:

After Jackie Kennedy had Raymond Loewy design something classier for SAM 26000, the new design was applied to the older aircraft as well.

ttyymmnn > facw 08/29/2015 at 09:47

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Thanks for that bit of information. I knew that beautiful Loewy livery wasn’t original, but I couldn’t find a reference to what you posted. If I could find a hi-res or at least higher quality photo of that orange livery on on SAM 970 I’d use it. Whenever possible, I like the photo to reflect what the plane looked like at the time I’m writing about.

facw > ttyymmnn 08/29/2015 at 10:52

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Yeah, it’s hard to find good photos. The second photo is clearly marked as 970, but sadly doesn’t show the plane well.

ttyymmnn > facw 08/29/2015 at 10:54

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There are actually more photos (that I could find) of 971 and 972. But that makes me think that I should check a couple of the DOD photo sites. I forgot to check there.

facw > ttyymmnn 08/29/2015 at 11:08

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Yeah, there are some black and white ones I saw that weren’t great, but at least weren’t super low-res, though the most distinctive aspect of the design was the color scheme so a shame to go b/w:

There is a color version of the second one (branded with a LIFE logo) and much lower resolution.

I feel like there’s another color one I seen in the past showing Kennedy disembarking that shows more of the aircraft, though cuts off the tail, but can’t find it now (and don’t recall which of the three it was).

ttyymmnn > facw 08/29/2015 at 11:33

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Check out this shot from Boeing. Fabulous photo of 970, unfortunate watermark.

Cé hé sin > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 08/29/2015 at 16:20

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Like this which was a two-stroke, horizontally opposed, turbocharged, supercharged, afterburning, turbo-compound flat 12 diesel engine.