This Date in Aviation History: September 2 - September 4

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 09/04/2015 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 September 2 through September 4.

September 2, 1949 – The first flight of the De Havilland Venom. In the late stages of WWII, Britain was at the forefront of jet fighter design, fielding the Gloster Meteor, the first operational jet fighter to be flown by the Allies. Propulsion for the Meteor was provided by two engines, as early jets were not all that powerful, but as engine technology advanced, it became viable to use a single Goblin turbojet engine. The first design to take advantage of this was the De Havilland Vampire, which housed the engine in a central, egg-shaped fuselage between two tail booms. This arrangement shortened the tailpipe and got the most out of the engine. With the success of the Vampire, De Havilland followed it up just a few years later with a more advanced version, one that would be called the Venom. The basic design of the Venom was quite similar to the Vampire, and still used a mixture of wood and metal construction. But a still more powerful de Havilland Ghost turbojet offered more power, and a thinner wing increased the Venom’s speed, and wingtip fuel tanks would increase its range. The Venom was introduced to the RAF in 1952 as a fighter-bomber, and further development saw the introduction of a two-seat night fighter variant in 1953 which saw only brief service. The final version, the FB.4, joined the RAF in 1953, and was the first variant to be fitted with an ejection seat. Additionally, a navalized variant, the Sea Venom, served the Royal Navy, Austraila and France. The Venom provided stalwart service to the RAF for 10 years, and flew for the Swiss Air Force until 1983. (Photo by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

September 2, 1937 – The first flight of the Grumman F4F Wildcat. Grumman has a history of making rugged, strong fighter aircraft, a tradition that can be traced all the way back to the days before WWII. Their penchant for making reliable aircraft that could take a pounding earned them the nickname Iron Works, and the first aircraft to live up to that name was the F4F Wildcat. The Wildcat can trace its lineage back to the first biplane fighter that Grumman produced for the Navy, the FF-1. Grumman continually developed their fighter, eventually dumping the biplane design for a modern monoplane design, but by the time they got up to the XF4-F2, they were still lagging behind the competition, the Brewster Buffalo. After they lost to Brewster for the Navy fighter contract, Grumman went back to the drawing board and gave their fighter new wings, a new tail, and beefed up the power with a supercharged Pratt & Whitney R-1830 “Twin Wasp” radial engine. By the time war broke out in the Pacific in 1941, it was clear that the Wildcat was no match for the Japanese Zero head-to-head, but it was still better than the Buffalo that was chosen over it. So the Wildcat served as the backbone of the Pacific forces until more powerful fighters could be brought to bear. Even though the Zero was more maneuverable, had a better climb rate, and longer range, the Wildcat was tougher, could take damage and still stay in the fight, and new tactics, such as the Thach Maneuver, were developed to make the F4F an effective fighter. By the end of the war, the Wildcat—and her well-trained pilots—enjoyed an almost 7:1 kill ratio over the enemy. As newer, more powerful fighters, such as the Grumman F6F Hellcat, came to the Pacific later in the war, the Wildcat continued to fight from the smaller escort carriers that were too small for the newer fighters, and served throughout the war, with nearly 8000 aircraft built and flown by the US and the British, where it was known as the Martlet. (US Navy Photo)

September 4, 1949 – The first flight of the Bristol Brabazon. Generally, history remembers the great planes, the ones that broke records, helped win wars, or made the world a smaller place. But sometimes, the failures can be as interesting as the successes. Planes like the Spruce Goose may not have been commercially viable, but their story is one that is worth telling. Such is the tale of the Bristol Brabazon. During WWII, the British government chose to focus their efforts on bombers and other military aircraft, and development of passenger aircraft was left to the Americans. In 1943, the Brabazon Committee, led by Lord Brabazon of Tara, was assembled to address the vacuum in British aircraft design left by the absence of passenger aircraft, and the report filed by the committee settled on four different areas of production, one of which being a large, transatlantic airliner. Bristol had already been working on a large bomber, one that would find its closest rival in the American Consolidated B-36, but development was halted when such a large bomber was deemed unnecessary. So when the time came for a large airliner, Bristol returned to its huge, four-engine design and built the Brabazon. Though the Brabazon was an enormous aircraft for its day, almost as large as a modern Boeing 767, the airliner only held 100 passengers, transporting them in large cabins that were similar in size to an automobile. Bristol hoped that such an arrangement would appeal to big money travelers who could afford such accommodations. One protoype was constructed, but the airlines had no stomach for such a large, expensive airplane that would carry so few passengers, and after millions were spent in development, the Brabazon was canceled in 1953. While the Brabazon itself was deemed a failure, Bristol benefited from what it learned building the large airliner, knowledge that they put to use developing the more traditional (and more successful) Bristol Britannia, and the British aviation industry as a whole benefited from an increase in infrastructure and techonological development that went along with it. Following its cancellation, the single Brabazon was broken up for scrap, along with the second prototype, and the Brabazon was relegated to obscurity, a giant that never was.

Short Take Off

September 2, 1998 – The first flight of the Boeing 717. First developed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95, this aircraft entered service in 1999 with AirTran airlines as a medium-range airliner for the 100-seat market and was capable of carrying 134 passengers. Following the merger of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing in 1997, the aircraft was rebranded as the Boeing 717 (not to be confused with the earlier military version of the B707 that would enter service as the C-135 Stratolifter). (Photo by Airwim via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

September 2, 1942 – The first flight of the Hawker Tempest, an improved version of the Hawker Typhoon fighter. The Tempest benefited from a more powerful engine and a new, laminar flow wing, and became a formidable attack aircraft. Introduced in January 1944, just over 1700 Tempests were produced. (RAF Photo)

September 2, 1939 – The first flight of the Messerschmitt Me 210. Developed by Messerschmitt as a replacement for the Bf 110, the 210 proved to be a bitter disapppointment, with no better performance than the plane it sought to replace. Ultimately, the 210 was dropped in favor of the more improved Me 410 after only 90 aircraft had been delivered. (Photo from Bundesarchiv via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

September 3, 1982 – The first flight of the Beechcraft 1900. Developed as a 19-passenger regional airliner, the 1900 was designed with all-weather flight capabilities, as well as the ability to operate from short runways. IT has proven to be one of the most successful small airliners produced, with almost 700 built by the end of production in 2002. (Photo by Juergen Lehle, AlbSpotter.eu, via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

September 4, 1957 – The first flight of the Lockheed JetStar. The first dedicated business jet to enter service, the four-engined JetStar seated 10 passengers and was one of the largest private jets for many years. It served as Clarence Johnson’s personal jet, and entered US military service as the C-140. (Photo by Shahram Sharifi 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!!! .

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

Chris Clarke > ttyymmnn 09/04/2015 at 12:50

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This is a good story that I did not know about.

ttyymmnn > Chris Clarke 09/04/2015 at 12:51

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One the fascinating failures of aviation.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > ttyymmnn 09/04/2015 at 14:54

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I love me some quad tail engines. They look so weird, yet so right at the same time.

“Lockheed C-140A 59-5962 LEB 15.06.63 edited-3” by RuthAS - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Commons -

ttyymmnn > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 09/04/2015 at 15:06

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Goldfinger flew in a JetStar, complete with ludicrously backwards American flag stickers. Pretty sure this is a model, but they also used a real one for the movie.

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 09/04/2015 at 16:04

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I didn’t know these used wood in their construction, but being a de Havilland, I can’t really be surprised. Does anyone know where the wood was used?

I imagine these were one of the few jet aircraft with wood construction, the He 162 being the most famous.

ttyymmnn > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 09/04/2015 at 16:17

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It’s my understanding that the wood was used primarily in the fuselage. And yes, if anybody knew how to work with wood it was de Havilland. The Sea Vixen was all-metal.