This Date in Aviation History: April 1 - April 4

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 04/04/2017 at 12:35 • Filed to: planelopnik history, Planelopnik

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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 April 1 through April 4.

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April 1, 1939 – The first flight of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. The Japanese surprise !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on December 7, 1941 served as a deadly wakeup call to the United States, as Japanese plans for the expansion of their empire came home to the American people. But that rude awakening also extended to the US Army Air Forces and US Navy, who came face to face with the remarkable A6M Zero for the first time, an aircraft that was clearly the best fighter in the Pacific at the time. In early 1937, the Imperial Japanese Navy issued specification 12-shi to develop a new fighter to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (allied reporting name Claude), which had the distinction of being the world’s first ship-based monoplane fighter. The requirements in 12-shi were rigorous, and included a top speed of 370 mph, a high rate of climb, heavy armament (two 20mm cannons, two .303 caliber machine guns, two 130-pound bombs), and enough range to cover the vast distances of the Pacific Ocean. Lead Mitsubishi designer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! realized that the only way to design a fighter to these specifications was to make it as light as possible. so, in order to save weight, the Type 0 Carrier Fighter as it was called was constructed of a new, top-secret aluminum alloy, had no armor to protect the pilot or engine, and no self-sealing fuel tanks. This made for a fighter that possessed excellent aerobatic and dogfighting characteristics, but also one that caught fire easily and could not withstand the pounding from heavier American fighters. The Zero (also known to the Japanese as Rei shiki Kanj sentki, or Rei-sen for short) entered service in 1940 fighting against obsolete Chinese biplane fighters during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! where it quickly gained a reputation as an unbeatable dogfighter. As the Japanese expanded into areas of the British and Dutch empire, the Zero came up against some of the best Allied fighters of the time, and even provided a serious challenge to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which, while faster, was no match for the Zero in a turn. The Zero also far outclassed all American fighters of the early part of the war.

The A6M3 Zero of Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, one of Japan’s top aces of WWII

However, American pilots soon developed new techniques for combating the Zero. Flying a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! into a one-on-one dogfight with the Zero was practically suicidal, but high speed passes from above and the development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! helped the Allies to fight on a more even footing. Though the Zero had earned an aura of invincibility early in the war, its mysteries were finally unlocked when an almost intact A6M was recovered from the Aleutian island of Akutan in 1942 after its pilot was killed in a crash landing. The fighter was shipped back to the US, repaired, and its flight characteristics were thoroughly analyzed. Testing showed where the Zero’s weaknesses lay, such as the propensity for its ailerons to freeze up at speeds above 200 knots, and a carburetor that caused the engine to quit in certain negative G maneuvers. These discoveries led to specific tactics that helped the Allies defeat the Zero in combat. Throughout its life, the Zero was consistently updated, most significantly with more powerful engines, a supercharger, shortened wings that improved roll rates, redesigned ailerons and trim tabs. A new exhaust system also provided a modicum of thrust. Ultimately, nearly 11,000 Zeros of all variants are produced. However, the Zero’s dominance was short lived, as Allied designs quickly improved. By the second half of the war, American fighters such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! were every bit the match for the Zero. The war had also taken a heavy toll on experienced Japanese pilots who could never be replaced. By the end of the WWII, the Zero was relegated to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! attacks against Allied shipping in the Pacific, an ignominious end for such a remarkable aircraft. (Photo by Marc Grossman via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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April 1, 1935 – The first flight of the North American T-6 Texan. In baseball, it’s rare to hit a home run your first time at bat. But that’s exactly what happened to North American Aviation with the T-6 Texan. Back in 1935, North American debuted the model !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first trainer aircraft they had ever designed. and in 1937, North American submitted the aircraft in response to a US Army Air Corps request for a “Basic Combat” aircraft. The USAAC initially ordered 180 of the BC-1 variant, which had retractable landing gear and provisions for up to three .30 caliber machine guns. Early models were powered by a single !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engine, which gave the BC-1 a maximum speed of 170 mph. North American experimented with a host of modifications including redesigned wings, different engines, fixed and retractable landing gear, open and enclosed cockpits. They also experimented with various rudder shapes before settling on a recognizable triangular shape that helped prevent a loss of control during maneuvers with a high angle of attack. It was the BC-2 variant of the Texan, now called AT-6 to signify its role as an advanced trainer, that received its iconic shape and name, with squared wingtips and triangular rudder. The addition of a more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial increased the Texan’s top speed to just over 200 mph, and the USAAC ordered more than 1,500 of that model, designated AT-6A. North American also produced 400 aircraft for export to the RAF where it was known as the Harvard I, and a handful for the US Navy, where it was known as the SNJ-1. The Texan became the primary trainer for the USAAF, where it proved to be an extremely reliable and sturdy aircraft. It was responsible for training the vast majority of pilots who flew during WWII, providing student pilots with a more powerful and maneuverable aircraft as they transitioned from basic trainers to frontline fighter aircraft. The Texan had excellent flight characteristics, and could perform all the necessary aerobatic maneuvers that combat pilots needed to learn, including dogfighting, dive bombing and ground attack. The armed AT-6B variant was used for gunnery practice, and armed Texans saw actual combat in low-intensity conflicts following WWII. By the time production ended, 15,495 Texans had been built, and they were in service in 34 countries around the world. The Texan remains a workhorse today, where it is popular on the air show circuit and it forms the basis for numerous historical squadrons and aerobatic teams. Others have been modified to mimic Japanese Zero fighters for historic reenactments and roles in movies. And the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Reno, Nevada still maintains a unique racing class for Texan and Harvard aircraft. (US Air Force photo)

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April 4, 1957 – The first flight of the English Electric Lightning. At the beginning of the Cold War, and before the advent of the intercontinental ballistic missile, the long-range bomber was the primary means by which one nuclear power might attack another, and defense against these bombers relied on the use of interceptor aircraft. An interceptor of the 1950s was essentially a missile-armed fighter that could fly at great speed to meet the incoming bombers and shoot them down as far away as possible from their intended targets. As there was no expectation that the interceptor would have to engage in a dogfight with other fighters, extreme maneuverability was sacrificed for all out speed. Development of the Lightning interceptor began all the way back in 1947, when !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , maker of the brilliant !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber, was awarded a contract to develop a supersonic research aircraft. Designers decided to employ a radically swept wing, and the Irish company !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (better known as Shorts) was hired to build the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to evaluate the innovative wing at three different sweep angles: 50, 60 and 69 degrees. Once the sweep of 60 degrees was shown to be stable in low-speed flight conditions, development of the Lightning prototypes continued.

Short SB.5, developed to test different wing sweep angles for the Lightning

While jet fighters or interceptors with two engines were nothing new, English Electric took the unique approach of stacking the engines one atop the other, rather than the more traditional method of placing them side by side. This arrangement kept the fuselage as narrow as possible to reduce drag. The first developmental aircraft, the P.1A, took its maiden flight on August 4, 1954, and even without afterburners (or “reheating,” as the British call it) the P.1A officially reached Mach 1 just a week after its first flight, though analysis of testing data showed that it had actually broken the sound barrier on its first flight. A misaligned Mach meter failed to indicate the correct speed. The next step in the development of the Lightning was the P.1B, which featured new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! reheating turbojet engines. Now the Lightning showed its true speed potential, reaching speeds of Mach 2, and it became the world’s first aircraft capable of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , supersonic flight without the use of afterburners. The P.1B entered production as the F.1 and received its official designation of Lighting in October 1958. The Lightning entered RAF service in 1960, and soon took on its designed role by intercepting high-flying Russian bombers such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as they probed the edges of British airspace. With so much power available to Lightning pilots, the fighter could achieve an altitude of 36,000 feet in less than three minutes, and tests showed that the Lightning was capable of intercepting the high-flying !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! spy plane at 65,000 feet, though the results of those tests were a closely held secret. However, that speed came at a cost. The Lightning was a very thirsty aircraft, and the length of many of its missions was determined simply by the amount of fuel it could carry. The Lightning was armed with two 30mm !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , along with hardpoints on the fuselage and both over and under the wings for mixtures of missiles, rockets or bombs. Cameras could also be housed in a ventral weapons bay. While the RAF was the primary operator of the Lightning, a number of the 337 aircraft produced were exported to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The RAF retired their Lightnings in 1988, but a small number of aircraft remain flying in the hands of private pilots. (Photo by Mike Freer via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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April 4, 1917 – The first flight of the SPAD S.XIII. When WWI broke out on July 28, 1914, the airplane was still in its infancy. The Wright Brothers first flight had taken place a mere 11 years earlier, and military planners were only just beginning to discover a role for the airplane in combat. Initially, aircraft were used solely for reconnaissance, but the crews of scout planes soon started taking pistols and rifles into the air to take shots at enemy aircraft, and the concept of the dedicated fighter plane soon followed. Development proceeded apace and fighters were soon being produced by all the belligerents in the war, and one of the greatest of those was the SPAD XIII. The SPAD XIII (named for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) was a development of the earlier, highly successful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but by 1917 the S.VII found itself outclassed by newer German designs. The primary need was for greater speed, and engine manufacturer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , who had upgraded the engine in the S.VII to gain more horsepower, was working on a yet more powerful, geared version of their 8A engine, an 8-cylinder, liquid cooled vee which would be used to power the S.XIII. The S.XIII was larger than its predecessor, and its armament was doubled by the fitting of two Vickers machine guns in place of the single machine gun of the earlier fighter. The S.XIII proved to be faster than its contemporaries such as the British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and could outclimb them as well. Though the geared engines proved to be somewhat unreliable, the Allies considered it a price worth paying when when weighed against the S.XIII’s increased performance. Subsequent development of the engine, and improved construction methods, helped improve reliability. Following its first flight, the S.XIII was quickly introduced to frontline units the following month. Though deliveries were slow, the SPAD S.XIII eventually outfitted a total of 74 squadrons ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ), nearly every combat unit in action at the time.

American ace Eddie Rickenbacker with his SPAD X.III

Fifteen of the 16 American squadrons fighting in WWI flew the S.XIII, including the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , better known as the Hat-in-the-Ring Squadron, where America’s leading ace !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! notched 26 confirmed victories, many coming at the controls of an S.XIII. The US and French were the primary users, but SPAD XIIIs also served with the Royal Flying Corps and the air forces of 16 other nations. Nearly 8,500 were produced, and an additional 10,000 more were slated for construction at the end of the war, but those orders were canceled following the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Despite the development of newer, more advanced fighters in the latter stages of the war, the S.XIII remained in service with the US until 192o, and with France until 1923. (US Air Force photos)

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Short Takeoff

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April 1, 2001 – The Hainan Island incident. While operating approximately 70 miles from the Chinese island province of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a US Navy !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted by two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters. One of the fighters collided with the American plane, resulting in the death of the Chinese pilot. After regaining control of the heavily damaged aircraft, pilot Lt. Shane Osborne ordered the destruction of sensitive data and surveillance equipment before making an emergency landing on Hainan Island. The American crew of 21 men and 3 women was held and interrogated for 10 days before being released, and the EP-3E was dismantled and flown off the island on a chartered Russian !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . For his actions in saving the ARIES and its crew, Lt. Osborne was awarded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for “heroism and extraordinary achievement” in flight. (Lockheed photo)

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April 3, 1982 – The first flight of the Airbus A310, a medium- to long-range wide-body airliner and the second airliner built by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to enter production. The A310 was developed as a smaller derivative of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (initially designated the A300B10) at a time when airlines were showing interest in smaller airliners for shorter routes with fewer passengers. Still, the A310 has a greater range than its larger predecessor, and has become popular on many transatlantic routes. The A310 has also been developed into a convertible freight version and an aerial tanker for the military. Produced between 1983-1998, a total of 255 have been built. (Photo by Laerent Errera via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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April 3, 1933 – The US Navy airship USS Akron (ZRS-4) crashes into the Atlantic Ocean. Commissioned in October of 1931, the Akron was the world’s first purpose-built flying aircraft carrier and one of the largest airships ever built. After encountering severe weather off the coast of New Jersey, the Akron crashed into the sea, killing 73 of her 76 crew members, including Rear Admiral !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a leading proponent for the military applications of airships. The disaster caused the largest loss of life in any airship crash, and signaled the beginning of the end of the use of airships by the Navy. (US Navy photo)

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April 3, 1933 – The first flight over Mt. Everest. Twenty years before the first successful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Flight Lieutenant D.F. McIntyre and Douglas Douglas-Hamilton (Lord Clydesdale), along with two observers, piloted a Westland PV-6 and a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! over the summit of the tallest mountain in the world. The aircraft had been modified with a supercharged !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engine, an enclosed rear cockpit, cockpit heating, and oxygen for the crew. The mission was called the Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition in honor of its patron, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the aircraft cleared the top of the 29,029-foot summit with just 100 feet to spare. The observers provided the first aerial survey of Everest and the surrounding area, and the flight emphasized the need for the development of pressurized aircraft. (National Geographic photo)

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April 3, 1926 – The birth of Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom. Born in Mitchell, Indiana, Grissom was a test pilot, mechanical engineer, US Air Force combat pilot in Korea and one of the original !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! astronauts. As part of the Mercury program, Grissom was the second American to fly in space after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the first US astronaut to go to space twice when he flew aboard !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Grissom was chosen as the Command Pilot for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but he and astronauts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! were killed on January 27, 1967 when a fire broke out in the Command Module during a ground test. All three astronauts were posthumously awarded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . (NASA photo)

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April 4, 1983 – The launch of Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-6, the sixth launch of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the maiden flight of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . During the 5-day flight, astronauts deployed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (TDRS-1), and conducted the first spacewalk from a Shuttle, employing the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (EMU) spacesuit for the first time. STS-6 was the last Shuttle flight with a four-astronaut crew which consisted of Paul Weitz, Karol Bobko, Story Musgrave and Donald Peterson. Challenger returned to Edwards Air Force Base on April 9, ending the first of its 9 successful flights before the orbiter was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in an explosion shortly after launch on January 28, 1986 with the loss of 7 astronauts. (NASA photo)

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April 4, 1993 – The first flight of the Fokker 70, a medium-range airliner derived from the larger !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both of which were developments of Fokker’s first airliner, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Fokker 70 was designed to fit a capacity gap between the smaller !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprop airliners and the larger !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Fokker 70 is powered by a pair !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofans and can accommodate up to 85 passengers in a single-class configuration at ranges of up to 2,119 miles. A total of 47 aircraft were built before production ended in 1997, and they mainly serve shorter routes in Europe. (Photo by Björn Strey via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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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!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation and aviators at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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For Sweden > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 12:45

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Is this the Mitsubishi Tread?

ttyymmnn > For Sweden 04/04/2017 at 12:46

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No, this is the Mitsubishi Tread.

Viggen > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 12:56

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Ah, finally, actual content on Oppo and not another shitpost. The Lightning still looks wild.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 12:57

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One thing that tended to cripple engagements of American fighters with the Zero early on was simply being in a defensive role. With all advantages of speed and weight at no effect when first attempting to gain altitude, it was the poorest possible basis to engage. If I’m not mistaken even the earlier types improved their records when able to meet the Zero on more equal footing than a scramble or flying low cover - even beyond changes in tactics.

A very nice flight of Lightnings appears at the end of Those Magnificent Men.

The Akron’s sister ship, the Macon, was also lost dramatically. The Navy did not have the best time of it with airships...

ttyymmnn > Viggen 04/04/2017 at 12:57

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Thanks for that. Really. The Lightning embodies everything I love about 1950s military aviation. Big, fast, who cares how much it costs, will this work?, I don’t know, let’s try it.

S65 > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 13:02

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I like this post, this is a good post. Have a Hawker Hunter good sir.

user314 > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 13:03

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Love the EE Lightning!

Engines stacked on top of each other, the external tanks above the wings, the missile rails on the side of the fuselage… and it still looks gorgeous!

Viggen > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 13:09

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Any time.

In a way, the RAF really went through the same stages and issues the USAF did with the Century Series. Same could probably be said with the FAA and USN. 

ttyymmnn > S65 04/04/2017 at 13:19

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Thanks. That’s one of my all-time favorites, though I prefer the single seater just a bit more.

Viggen > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 13:24

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Looks so good in the ETPS colors.

ttyymmnn > Viggen 04/04/2017 at 13:29

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Had to look up ETPS, so I learned something today. Thanks. Here’s another favorite in the same livery.

Viggen > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 13:35

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The livery’s nickname is ‘Rasberry Ripple’

ttyymmnn > Viggen 04/04/2017 at 13:42

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Well, that makes sense? It’s sharp, regardless. I just noticed the Hunter hiding behind the Jag.

Viggen > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 13:44

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Basically everything in the RAF’s Cold War tactical fleet wore the livery at some point. The F-4, Buccaneer, and Tornado included.

ttyymmnn > Viggen 04/04/2017 at 13:52

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Ooh, looky here .

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 04/04/2017 at 22:55

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Great stuff, as always. The Zero was always a fascinating airplane to me. Probably from the war movies I used to watch with my dad as a kid, I guess.

It seems to me that Japanese aircraft development stagnated during WWII, as compared to the US. The Zero was great fighter at the outset of the war, but not later on.

Also, it amazes me that a crew crossed Everest by 100 feet. With the weather and winds that the Himalayas generates, that must have been a wild ride.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 04/05/2017 at 19:02

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I like the Zero photo that you lead with. I also enjoyed being reminded of the Hainan incident. I have a friend who was driving one of those out of Japan right after the Sakalin Island KAL shootdown and he thinks he’d be dead right now if the fighter that intercepted him had look-down/shoot-down capability. As he tells it, someone in the tube vectored him to the nearest American ship, and it turned out to be a Russian ship, and he sailed past at 400 knots and maybe 50 feet off the water. He had his turbines running at maximum effort, as indicated by the engine overtemp lights coming on, one by one. He found an American destroyer and flew a very tight pylon until a friendly escort flew over and picked him up. He tells of the Senior Chief (E-8) running up from the tube clutching his rosary beads and saying that he’d intercepted the radio broadcast giving the Soviet fighter(s) permission to splash them. Bob said he cut the power, which turned his airplane into a toolbox, dropped to his minimum altitude, then poured on the gas.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/05/2017 at 20:21

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I’ve come across a lot of incidents, particularly in the 50s, of US snoopers being shot down by the Soviets. I have not come across any the other way round.

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW 04/05/2017 at 22:32

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Japan continued to develop fighter aircraft, and some, such as the Ki-84 , were every bit the match of America’s best fighters. However, even though they were produced in decent numbers, the Japanese simply didn’t have enough trained pilots to fill the cockpits. The Zero gets all the press because of Pearl Harbor and Midway, but it was an old design by the end of the war.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 04/06/2017 at 21:55

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I’m still amazed with the hainan incident the SOP wasn’t to ditch in the ocean.

ttyymmnn > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 04/06/2017 at 22:46

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There’s a comment in this thread from O.C. that recounts an incident with a friend of his who flew P-3s back in the day. It’s a good read. I guess that if he had ditched, he wouldn’t have been able to guarantee the safety of his crew. Landing on Hainan wasn’t exactly a guarantee either, but it was a better chance than ditching. It would have been interesting to fly behind that Orion and seen all the gear getting pitched overboard.