This Date in Aviation History: May 25 - May 27

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 05/27/2016 at 12:35 • Filed to: planelopnik, planelopnik history

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Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from May 25 - May 27.

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May 26, 1942 – The first flight of the Northrop XP-61 Black Widow. In modern times, it’s hard, or even impossible, to imagine a fighter without a radar. Powerful modern radars have made possible fighters that can fly in all weather conditions, day or night. But during WWII, the roles of day fighter and night fighter were, for the most part, separate. Smaller, more agile fighters did the fighting by day, while larger aircraft capable of carrying the early heavy radar sets did the fighting by night. British development of radar had been progressing steadily since the early days of the war, and its land-based radar stations had proven vital during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in detecting incoming German bombers and directing RAF fighters to intercept them. By late summer of 1940, the British finally had an airborne radar unit, called the Airborne Intercept (AI) radar, but they didn’t have an aircraft that could carry it. So they requested aircraft designs from every manufacturer they knew, one of which was Jack Northrop, who realized that any aircraft capable of the speed, altitude, range and firepower that the RAF needed, along with the ability to carry the heavy radar, needed to be big and would require more than one engine. While work on the AI was progressing in England, the British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! came to the US to receive assistance in developing their new technologies away from the danger of German bombing. They brought with them their AI radar and, with the exchange of technologies, the US saw the potential for making their own night fighter, and the Army made a formal request for such an aircraft. With the work Northrop had already done on the British proposal, his new XP-61 beat out the only competitor for the contract, the Douglas XA-26A, a night-fighter based on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Northrop’s design placed a large gondola between two booms housing 18-cylinder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines. Following the earlier British request, the gondola housed two turrets, one in the nose and one in the rear, each with four guns. Eventually, the ventral turret was removed, and the rear turret was replaced with a powered turret on the top of the fuselage, which was often fixed in a forward firing position to provide more forward firepower. Northrop also finalized the design by placing four 20mm cannons in the belly of the aircraft, becoming one of the few American aircraft to mount four cannons. Though history notes the Black Widow as America’s first dedicated night fighter, it was difficult, by the standards of contemporary fighter design, to call the Black Widow a fighter. It was a true behemoth, with a wingspan of 60 feet (8 feet longer than the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ), a height of nearly 15 feet, and an empty weight of over 23,000 pounds. When Black Widows arrived in Europe in the spring of 1944, Army commanders were convinced that the P-61 was too slow and cumbersome to counter German aircraft. Instead, they wanted to procure the British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and even went so far as to organize a competition between the two aircraft. However, with a few tweaks to the engine to improve performance, the Black Widow was able to outperform the Mossie in speed and rate of climb and, with its special “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ” and retractable spoilers, the P-61 could even outmaneuver the Mosquito. While still unable to outduel German single-engine fighters, the Black Widow proved quite effective against larger German bombers and fighter-bombers. In the Pacific, the Black Widow arrived too late to have a profound impact on the war, but it did play a vital role in the rescue of over 500 Allied prisoners from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! prison camp in the Philippines. Though it never fired a shot, a lone P-61 performed aerobatics over the camp to distract Japanese guards while Army Rangers positioned themselves for the assault. A Black Widow is also unofficially credited with scoring the last aerial victory of WWII. While most WWII designs didn’t last after the war, the Black Widow, as America’s only night fighter, soldiered on until the US could produce a jet-powered alternative. They also played a leading role in research into ejection seat technology, and as part of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the nation’s first large-scale, scientific study of thunderstorms. Northrop also developed a reconnaissance variant called the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which removed the top portion of the central gondola and housed of the two-man crew under a single canopy. While the final P-61 flight was made in 1954, the Reporter would serve in various roles until 1968. (US Air Force photo)

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May 27, 1958 – The first flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. In our modern military, the multi-role fighter aircraft has become the mainstay of both the US Navy and the US Air Force. Where specialized fighters had once taken on their individual missions, the 1950s saw a move to aircraft that could be equally effective in the roles of attack, air superiority and, for the Navy, fleet defense. As the Korean War drew to a close, McDonnell Douglas began an internal project in hopes of creating a new fighter that would be of interest to the US Navy. Using their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as a starting point, McDonnell began by adding more powerful engines, fitting two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! axial-flow turbojets would eventually propel the new fighter to speeds approaching Mach 2. The Navy was interested, but they already had two aircraft in the pipeline, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that could adequately cover their need for a supersonic fighter. What the Navy really needed was an all-weather fighter-bomber that could attack targets day or night and in any weather, and could also serve as a fleet defense interceptor. So the Navy asked McDonnell to redesign their fighter for this new role. As an interceptor, the Phantom would need a powerful radar, and a second crewman was added to handle the duties of tracking targets. Wind tunnel testing had shown an instability that would be most effectively cured by a 5-degree dihedral (upward sweep) to the wings. But changing the design at this point in the Phantom’s development would require an entire redesign of the titanium central section, at the cost of significant time and money. So engineers instead gave just the wingtips a 12-degree dihedral, and the Phantom’s iconic upswept wingtips were born. The Phantom also received another one of its characteristic features, the anhedral (downswept) elevators. These were declined at 23-degrees to improve handling at high angles of attack. Once the Navy accepted the new fighter, it was given the designation F4H-1, and they received 45 of these aircraft, essentially pre-production aircraft that were eventually reclassified as the F-4A. This was followed by the F-4B, which was given upgraded J79 engines and a more powerful radar. By now, the US Air Force was showing interest in McDonnell’s new interceptor, and, as part of Defense Secretary !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! push to have one fighter in all the services, the Air Force took 29 aircraft on loan from the Navy and eventually ordered their own. Initially, the Air Force designated the aircraft as the F-110A Spectre, but eventually settled on calling it the F-4C. With the Air Force’s adoption of the Phantom, it became the first time in history that all three fixed-wing aviation branches of the US military—Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps—were flying the same fighter. In a relatively short time, the Phantom began setting records for speed and altitude, eventually garnering 16 world records, all of them set in unmodified production aircraft. The Phantom was soon fighting in the skies over Vietnam, where it became the principal ground attack and air superiority fighter, with pilots of both the Navy and Air Force becoming aces flying the F-4. But despite these victories, the Phantom was hampered by its reliance on guided missiles in combat. Designers had not fitted the Phantom with an internal gun, and many of the early missiles proved unreliable. This shortcoming was eventually addressed by the addition of a rotary cannon mounted in a pod underneath the fuselage, though it proved difficult to use in combat. This was addressed with the F-4E, which finally received an internal gun. In addition to its fighter and attack duties, the F-4 also proved to be an excellent reconnaissance aircraft as the RF-4, and was also developed into an electronic warfare variant known as the F-4G !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both of which served long enough to see action in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! before being retired for good in 1996. Many F-4s ended their life as QF-4 target drones. The Phantom was widely exported, and by the time production ended, McDonnell had produced just under 5,200 Phantoms. (Photo author unknown)

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May 27, 1955 – The first flight of the Sud Aviation Caravelle. Air travel officially entered the Jet Age in 1949 with the first flight of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Though the Comet was a relatively large aircraft, its early configurations carried only 36 passengers, due in part to very few seats being placed in the spacious cabin, a luxury by today’s standards. But soon after its introduction, the Comet suffered a series of high profile crashes, and it was removed from service until the cause could be determined. The aviation industry was ripe for a challenger, and the Sud Aviation Caravelle was waiting in the wings. In 1951, a year before the Comet entered service, the French Comité du matériel civil (civil aircraft committee) announced specifications for a new medium-range airliner that could accommodate 55-65 passengers, have a cruising speed of 370 mph and a range of 1,200 miles, though they did not specify the type or number of engines to be used. They received no less that 20 proposals of varying designs, and most employed the new turbojets that were coming into vogue at the time. By March 1952, the committee had winnowed the list down to three entrants, one of which was proposed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , better known as Sud-Est or SNCASE. The SNCASE design was originally powered by three engines, but with the arrival of more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines, it became clear that two would be sufficient, and the tail-mounted engine was removed. The other two engines were left on the rear fuselage rather than moved to the wing, with the added benefit of making the fuselage quieter during flight. The nose section of the Caravelle was a direct copy of that of the Comet, which Sud licensed from de Havilland. After the experience of the square windows in the Comet, the Caravelle was given its distinctive teardrop shaped windows, which maintained the strength of the fuselage while allowing passengers to look downward. The lack of engine pods under the wing resulted in an aerodynamically clean wing which was given a 20-degree sweep. Unwittingly, the Sud designers had created the template for almost all future, rear-engined aircraft to come. Air France placed the first orders for the new airliner in 1956, followed by SAS a year later, and the Caravelle entered service with both carriers in 1959. The Caravelle became an instant success, and was eventually serving air carriers in forty-seven nations, as well as the military and government of twelve nations. United Airlines became the sole US operator of the Caravelle with the purchase of twenty airliners which entered service in 1961. As the Caravelle became more and more popular, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (as it became known following the merger of Sud-Est and Sud-Ouest in 1957) continued development of the Caravelle with eight variants following the original production model, mostly with improved engines. By the sixth variant, the Caravelle 10R, the Rolls-Royce turbojets had given way to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! low-bypass turbofan engines, the same ones used at the time on thethe comparable !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and larger !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . By the final variant, the Caravelle 12, the length of the fuselage had been stretched thirteen feet and passenger capacity had grown to 140. A total of 282 Caravelles were produced between 1958-1972, and the last Caravelle was retired in 2005. (Photo by RuthAS via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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Short Take Off

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May 25, 1979 – The crash of American Airlines Flight 191, a regularly scheduled flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport that crashed during takeoff when the left engine of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! separated from the wing, severing hydraulic lines, damaging the left wing’s leading edge, and causing an uncommanded retraction of the leading edge slats. As the aircraft continued to takeoff, the unbalanced configuration of the wing slats caused the left wing to stall while the right wing was still providing lift and the aircraft rolled to the left until partially inverted before crashing in a nearby field, killing all 271 passengers and crew, as well as 2 people on the ground. It remains the deadliest aviation accident on US soil. The engine separation was found to have been caused by faulty maintenance practices performed by American Airlines, and not a design defect. American Airlines was fined $500,000 for improper maintenance procedures. (Photo by Michael Laughlin)

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May 25, 1976 – The first flight of the Boeing E-3 Sentry, an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (AEW&C) aircraft more commonly known as AWACS that was developed to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The E-3 was derived from the civilian !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! airliner, and uses its dorsal radome and other sensors to monitor the battlefield and airspace around it. The Sentry then provides enhanced situational awareness to battlefield commanders, and helps control air and ground forces necessary for interdiction, reconnaissance, airlift and close air support for ground forces. The E-3 entered service with the US Air Force in 1977, and has since been adopted by NATO, the Royal Air Force and Saudi Arabia. Produced from 1977-1992, a total of 68 have been built and it remains operational. (US Air Force photo)

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Skylab 2 crew: Joseph Kerwin, Charles Conrad, Pul Weitz

May 25, 1973 – The launch of Skylab 2, the first of three manned missions to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Skylab, the United Stats’ first orbital space station, was launched on May 14, 1973 and remained in orbit for six years. The three astronauts were launched into orbit atop a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket and docked with the station on May 26, remaining onboard the station for 28 days and setting a new record for spaceflight duration. The crew also set records for the greatest distance traveled and the greatest mass docked in space. One of the primary objectives of the mission was to repair a jammed solar array on the station and cover the station with a solar blanket to take the place of a damaged heat shield. In addition to other repairs, the crew carried out 392 hours of experiments. The Skylab 2 Command Module returned to Earth on June 22, 1973 and was recovered by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CV-14) near San Diego. (NASA photo)

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May 25, 1968 – The first flight of the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler. Following the success of the two-man !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Vietnam, Grumman stretched the fuselage to add a second row of seating for electronics warfare officers, and an antenna fairing was added to the vertical stabilizer, as well as more powerful radars in the nose to produce the EA-6B. Introduced in 1971, EA-6B Prowlers replaced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and flew 720 sorties in support of Navy bombers and USAF B-52s in Vietnam. The Prowler also served in Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and was recently retired from service in favor of the newer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . (US Navy photo)

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May 25, 1937 – The first flight of the Gasuden Koken, a long-range research aircraft developed by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Gasuden) in an effort to break the world record for the longest closed circuit flight (taking off and landing from the same point). The plane was powered by a single Kawasaki V-12 engine that provided a top speed of 155 mph and had a wingspan of over 91 feet. The fuselage was constructed of metal, but the outer wings and control surfaces were covered in fabric. Following two unsuccessful attempts at the record, the Gasuden Koken took off from Kisarazu, Chiba on May 13, 1938 and made 29 laps of a 249-mile circuit. It landed two-and-a-half days later, having flown 7,239 miles, the only record ever set by Japan that was recognized by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The record was broken just one year later. (Photo author unknown)

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May 25, 1953 – The first flight of the North American F-100 Super Sabre, a supersonic fighter developed as an unsolicited upgrade to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the hopes of providing the US Air Force with a day fighter capable of sustained supersonic speeds. The F-100 featured a 45-degree swept wing, as well as over 100 additional upgrades and design changes, including the first widespread use of titanium in its structure. Due to delays in production of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Air Force accepted the Super Sabre immediately in 1951. Nicknamed “The Hun,” it was the first of the so-called !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters, and was the first Air Force fighter capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. The F-100 saw extensive action in Vietnam, serving from 1961 to 1971, the longest-serving fighter bomber of the war. It set numerous speed records, won the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1955, was the first jet fighter to fly over the North Pole, and was flown by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from 1956 to 1968. Just under 2,300 Super Sabres were produced, and it was retired from frontline service in 1979, though it continued serving with Air National Guard units until 1988. (US Air Force photo)

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May 25, 1937 – The first flight of the Sikorsky S-38, a twin-engined !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (a biplane in which one wing is significantly smaller than the other) amphibious aircraft that could accommodate 8 passengers and was Igor Sikorsky’s first widely-produced flying boat. Developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both amphibious sesquiplanes that were built in very small numbers, the S-38 flew for Pan American Airways, the US Army (where it was known as the C-6), and the US Navy, where it was known as the PS-3. The S-38 also was popular with civilian pilots. Sikorsky built a total of 101 aircraft. (Photo via the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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May 25, 1889 – The birth of Igor Sikorsky. Russian-born Igor Sikorsky is best known for the development of one of the first successful helicopters, but he started his career as a designer of fixed-wing aircraft. Before emigrating to the United States in 1919, he designed and flew the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the world’s first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the world’s first airliner. After coming to the US, Sikorsky created the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923 and produced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for Pan American Airways. But it was in rotary-winged aircraft that Sikorsky made his greatest mark on aviation history, first with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1939, the first helicopter to use a single engine to power both main and tail rotors, and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the world’s first production helicopter, in 1942. (Sikorsky photo via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; R-4 photo via US Coast Guard; S-42 photo via US Navy)

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May 26, 2010 – The first flight of the Boeing X-51A WaveRider, an unmanned, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! research aircraft powered by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engine, taking its name from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that is created by its own shockwaves and used to generate lift. The X-51 is carried aloft by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mothership to an altitude of 50,000 feet, then released while attached to a solid rocket booster that propels the X-51 to a speed of Mach 4.5. The booster is then jettisoned, and the aircraft flies under power from a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! scramjet engine. Following its maiden flight, and two flights flights with mixed results, the X-51 accelerated to Mach 5.1 and flew for 210 seconds before running out of fuel and crashing into the Pacific Ocean. (US Air Force illustration)

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May 26, 1951 – The birth of Sally Ride, a physicist, astronaut, and the first American woman in space. Ride joined NASA in 1978 and went to space in 1983 as a Mission Specialist on board Space Shuttle !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on mission !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , becoming the youngest American astronaut to fly in space at age 32. Ride went to space a second time the following year, again on Challenger , as a Mission Specialist on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Ride left NASA in 1987, but served on the investigation committees into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! disasters. After teaching physics at the University of California, San Diego, Ride died of pancreatic cancer in 2012 at age 61. (National Archives photo)

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Recent Aviation History Posts

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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!!! .

vondon302 > ttyymmnn 05/27/2016 at 12:41

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Lotsa first this week. Makes sense though waiting for good weather after winter. Thx these are always good posts btw.

ttyymmnn > vondon302 05/27/2016 at 12:44

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Thanks for reading. Funny you should mention that, because as I progressed into the fall with these posts I figured that the maiden flights would slow down over the winter. I don’t have any hard numbers, but I was surprised when it seemed like they didn’t.

vondon302 > ttyymmnn 05/27/2016 at 12:46

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Huh? Well there goes my theory.

ttyymmnn > vondon302 05/27/2016 at 12:47

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Well, like I said, I have no hard data for it. You could always dig back through the old posts and see which one of us is right.

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > ttyymmnn 05/27/2016 at 13:13

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The aviation museum in Reading is currently restoring a Black Widow that they pulled off of the side of mount Cyclops. Hopefully it will be done within the decade.

ttyymmnn > Flyboy is FAA certified insane 05/27/2016 at 13:25

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Are they making it airworthy, or just displaying it?

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 05/27/2016 at 13:48

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It appears I have a soft spot for twin-boom aircraft. It all started when I was a kid with a model of the P-61 in full night-fighter livery. That all black airplane just blew me away. It carried on with the P-38 and the F-82, both which I saw in person at the Parade Grounds outside Lackland AFB in San Antonio. If you ever have a chance to visit San Antonio, this is a must-see site, especially now that they have an A-10 and a Blackbird on site.

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > ttyymmnn 05/27/2016 at 13:49

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Oh yea, it will be an Airshow demo!

ttyymmnn > Flyboy is FAA certified insane 05/27/2016 at 13:53

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Outstanding. I can’t wait to see it.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/27/2016 at 13:59

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I went to an air show at Lackland a few years ago, but first with the sequestration, and then with schedule conflicts, I have not made it back. Speaking of twin-boom aircraft, how about this one? If you don’t know what it is, there are some strong hints on the boom.

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > ttyymmnn 05/27/2016 at 14:31

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Me too. My understanding is that it’s almost done. Last time I saw it, it had both engines, was sitting on its own gear, and had the full tail.

They’re also using all of the old equipment, such as the forward radar and the night vision goggles. Really trick stuff.

ttyymmnn > Flyboy is FAA certified insane 05/27/2016 at 14:45

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I googled the museum, and saw the photos of the wreck. I simply can’t imagine what would go into trying to restore such a mess. Where would you even start??

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > ttyymmnn 05/27/2016 at 15:58

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I know, right? But they did.