This Date in Aviation History: July 19 - July 21

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 07/21/2017 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 July 19 through July 21.

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July 19, 1989 – United Airlines Flight 232 suffers complete hydraulic failure over Iowa following engine failure. Statistically, commercial aviation is one of the safest forms of transportation in the world. Considering the number of flights every day the world over, and the number of passengers carried, fatal accidents are exceedingly rare, a safety record made possible by rigorous maintenance and highly trained crews. But one of the most important advances in aviation safety came with the adoption of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CRM) which arose out of two significant accidents: The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1977, and the crash of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1978. In the first, two fully-loaded !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! collided on a foggy runway when the captain of one airliner refused to listen to the tower or his co-pilot, and in the second, the cockpit crew became so engrossed with solving a problem with the landing gear that they failed to monitor their fuel levels. The plane simply ran out of fuel and crashed in the Florida Everglades. Had both these crews been able to work together more effectively, delegating tasks, focusing on communication, and simply flying the plane, the crashes may not have happened. United Airlines was the first major airline to institute CRM in 1981, and it paid off brilliantly just 8 years later at Sioux City, Iowa. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was a regularly scheduled flight of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N1819U) from Denver International Airport to Chicago O’Hare. The sequence of events leading to the crash began as the airliner was cruising at 37,000 feet when the fan disk on the tail-mounted !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofan engine failed. Pieces of the broken disk ruptured all three hydraulic lines on the DC-10, leaving the aircraft virtually uncontrollable. As Captain !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and first officer William Records stuggled to control the aircraft, they were joined in the cockpit by Training Check Airman Captain !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a passenger on the flight. The crew discovered that they could gain a measure of control over the plane by steering using alternating thrust of the two operable wing engines, and they could change altitude by adjusting the thrust of both engines together. Working as a team, Haynes and Records focused on trying to fly the plane and communicate with air traffic controllers, while Fitch worked the throttles. After considering their options, they decided to attempt an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa.

Aerial photo of the crash site [AP]

Without control of the flaps and slats, they could not flare, nor could they slow the plane down to a safe landing speed. They brought the DC-10 down hard and fast, slightly off center of the runway. The airliner cartwheeled down the runway, with portions of the fuselage ending up in a nearby cornfield. Despite the crash landing and fire, 185 of the 296 passengers and crew survived. The flight deck crew, badly injured yet still alive, was heralded as heroes, with their teamwork held up as a shining example of CRM. The failure of the fan disk was found to have been caused by improper manufacturing processes and a failure to identify cracks in the blades during routine maintenance. As a result, maintenance and manufacturing procedures were changed to prevent future accidents, and changes to the hydraulic system were implemented to ensure that complete loss of hydraulic pressure would not happen in the future.

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July 20, 1976 – Viking 1 lands on Mars. By the late 19th century, theories about Mars, particularly about whether or not there was life on the Red Planet, were at a fever pitch. Astronomers made detailed maps of the planet based on their observations through telescopes, and some determined that the features they were seeing on the planet’s surface were undoubtedly canals built for transportation by Martian inhabitants. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! wrote one of the great seminal works of science fiction when he published The War of the Worlds in 1898, chronicling the harrowing tale of a Martian invasion of Earth. But looking at a distant world through a telescope only gave scientists so much information. Ultimately, there is no substitution for actually going to the planet and making firsthand scientific observations. Spurred on by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Soviets launched the first of a series of probes to Mars in 1960, though it was not until 1965 that NASA’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! performed the first successful fly-by of the planet. Six years later, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! became the first space probe to orbit another planet when it circled Mars and returned the first pictures of the Martian surface. The Russians were the first to put a spacecraft on the planet, but problems with the landers meant that no useful data was returned. NASA’s efforts to put a lander on Mars began with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which planned to use rockets and landers based on those used in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Though that initiative was canceled in 1968, the impetus to go to Mars remained, and the project became known as Viking, a much less complex—and less expensive—alternative. For Viking, NASA launched two probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each spacecraft was composed an Orbiter and a Lander. The Orbiter was designed to carry the Lander, but it also had its own important functions in the mission. It made scientific observations of the Martian surface with its cameras, looked for water vapor with its infrared spectrometer, and created a thermal map of the surface with its infrared radiometer. The Orbiter also served as a communication relay between the Lander and Earth. The second part, the Lander, was a three-legged assemblage of instruments that descended under the protection of a heat shield and was then slowed by parachutes before touching down on Mars. It carried it own cameras and scientific instruments. Viking 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 20, 1975 atop a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket and, after a 10-month journey, began orbiting Mars on June 19, 1976. Viking 1's sister ship, Viking 2, launched a month later. After Viking 1 reached Mars, it spent its first month in orbit making observations and selecting a safe spot for the Lander to touch down. Then, on July 20, the Lander separated from the Orbiter and touched down on a smooth Martian plain known as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Golden Plain).

The first clear photo ever taken from the surface of Mars

Viking 1 didn’t find any signs of technologically advanced cultures planning to invade the Earth, nor any signs of life at all. However, the first clear photos ever taken from the Martian surface showed geological forms such as valleys and erosional features on volcanoes that indicated the presence of large amounts of water at one time in Mars’ history. This discovery fundamentally changed scientists’ theories about the history of Mars, and influenced future missions in the search for water in the form of liquid or ice. The Viking 1 Orbiter powered down on August 7, 1980 after 1,489 orbits of Mars, and the Lander made its final transmission to Earth on November 11, 1982. Its 2,307 days of service set a record for surface duration that was only broken by the rover !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2010. (NASA illustration and photo)

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July 20, 1951 – The first flight of the Hawker Hunter. It is difficult to understate the importance of the transitional period of WWII as the aviation world moved from the piston engine to the jet engine. This fundamental change in aviation power not only brought with it new realms of speed, it also brought about significant changes in airplane design, particularly the use of swept wings. Though the jet engine was a product of technological advances during the war, the idea of sweeping the wings dates back to the earliest days of aviation, and significant theoretical work was done in the 1930s by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Despite this, the first operational jet-powered aircraft were all straight wing designs, essentially piston aircraft given a new power plant. The British introduced the first Allies’ first (and only) operational jet of WWII with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1944, and Hawker followed in 1947 with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was essentially a jet-powered development of earlier piston-powered designs. In 1946, the British Air Ministry issued specification 38/46 which called for an investigation into the flight characteristics of a swept wing aircraft at low speeds. Hakwer responded with a swept-wing variant of the Sea Hawk, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which had been designed by Hawker’s chief designer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Only two were built, but development continued with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and by now, the characteristic and classic lines of the Hunter were beginning to emerge. Later that year, the British Air Ministry issued a specification for a new daytime, jet-powered interceptor to be powered by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojet, a more compact and more powerful engine that provided as much power as the two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines used on the Meteor combined. Hawker responded with the P.1067, a graceful, swept-wing design with a nose air intake, but Camm moved the intakes to the wing roots to allow for the installation of a nose-mounted radar.

Hawker Hunter prototype

Two prototypes were built, and the Hunter was ordered into production in 1950, the first jet-powered aircraft by Hawker to enter service with the RAF and the first British fighter with truly !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! performance. Hawker was competing with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an aircraft of similar design, but the Hunter proved to have significantly better performance, and was the first RAF aircraft capable of matching the performance of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber. It was armed with four 30mm !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , could carry 7,400 pounds or ordnance on external hardpoints, and had a top speed of Mach 0.94. The Hunter entered service with the RAF in July 1954, replacing the Meteor, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and saw its first action escorting Canberra bombers during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1956. The Hunter also proved popular with flight demonstration squadrons such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the RAF’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which set a world record by performing a loop with 22 Hunters in formation. With the introduction of the supersonic !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1959, the Hunter’s role changed from interceptor to ground attack and reconnaissance. Nearly 2,000 Hunters were produced, and roughly half of those were sold to twenty-one export customers around the world. The Hunter served the RAF for over 30 years, and some were flying for international customers as late as 1996. A number of Hunters can still be seen flying the air show circuit in the hands of private collectors. (Photo by Mike Freer via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; prototype photo author unknown)

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Short Takeoff

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July 19, 1943 – The first flight of the Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender. Fearing that American aircraft development was stagnating, the US Army Air Corps hoped to encourage innovative aircraft designs by issuing Request for Data R-40C in 1940. In response, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! proposed the XP-55 Ascender, a monoplane with a pusher propeller and a forward canard. Three prototypes were built, but testing showed that the airplane displayed poor stall characteristics, and the first prototype was lost to a crash. The third prototype of the Ascender (known derogatorily as the “ass ender”) saw further improvements to the wing, but this prototype was also lost to a crash that killed the pilot as well as two (or four) civilians on the ground. Ultimately, the Ascender’s performance was found to be inferior to conventional fighters, and advances in jet fighters led to the XP-55’s cancellation. (US Air Force photo)

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July 20, 1925 – The first flight of the Boeing Model 40, a mailplane developed as part of a requirement by the US Post Office to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . After the Model 40 lost the airmail contract to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Boeing revised the design to make use of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engine, which weighed less than the original !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! V-12 engine that had been stipulated by the Post Office. Boeing also strengthened and lengthened the fuselage to accommodate two passengers, with subsequent models having room four passengers. Thus, the Model 40 became the first passenger airplane to enter production for Boeing, and, in 1927, Boeing Air Transport, the precursor to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , began operations between San Francisco and Chicago. Boeing produced 80 Model 40s, and one remains airworthy today. (Photo author unknown via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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July 21, 2011 – The Shuttle Atlantis lands in Florida after mission STS-135, marking the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was announced during the Nixon Administration as a reusable spacecraft to help reduce the cost of going to space. The first Shuttle, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was used for testing and never went to space. NASA built five operational orbiters, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and Columbia launched on the first mission to orbit, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , on April 12, 1981. Over the course of 135 missions spanning 30 years, the Shuttle fleet transported over 3.5 million pounds of cargo into space and completed 20,830 orbits. Shuttle astronauts also deployed 180 satellites and components for the construction of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (ISS). Two Shuttles, Challenger and Columbia , were lost to accidents that claimed the life of 14 astronauts. (NASA photo)

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July 21, 1947 – The first flight of the Aero Ae-45, a twin engine civil utility aircraft and the first aircraft to be produced by Czechoslovakia following WWII. The Ae 45 was powered by a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! air-cooled 4-cylinder engines, and could carry one pilot with up to four passengers at a cruising speed of 155 mph. The Ae 45 proved to be very popular, and was widely exported to Eastern Bloc countries and allies of the Soviet Union, along with Italy and Switzerland. Nearly 600 were produced from 1951-1963. (Photo by Fiver der Hellseher via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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July 21, 1946 – The first landing by a purely jet-powered aircraft aboard an American aircraft carrier. Though the unfortunately named !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mixed propulsion fighter actually made the first jet-powered carrier landing, it did so only because its piston engine had failed. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which first flew on January 26, 1945, made the first true jet-powered landing when it touched down aboard the carrier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CV 42) near Norfolk, Virginia. US Navy fighter squadron !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , flying the FH Phantom, became the US Navy’s first operational jet carrier squadron in 1948, flying from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   (CVL 48). (US Navy photo)

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July 21, 1911 – Denise Moore becomes the first woman to die in an airplane crash. Moore’s real name was E. Jane-Wright, but she flew under a pseudonym because flying wasn’t considered a proper pastime for women and she wanted to conceal her hobby from her family. At the time of her death, Moore was learning to fly at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! aviation school at Étampes, France, and flying one of Farman’s aircraft, most likely a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . At an altitude of 150 feet, Moore lost control of the airplane and fell to her death when the airplane inverted. (Photo authors unknown)

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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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user314 > ttyymmnn 07/21/2017 at 12:46

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[Jerry Wayne (“Pasadena Control”)]
It’s looking good. It’s going good. We’re getting great pictures here at NASA Control, Pasadena. The landing-craft touched down on Mars 28 kilometers from the aim-point. We’re looking at a remarkable landscape, littered with different kinds of rocks - red, purple... How ‘bout that, Bermuda?

[Jerry Wayne (“Bermuda Control”)] Fantastic! Look at the dune-field

[Jerry Wayne (“Pasadena Control”)]
Hey, wait. I’m getting a no-go signal. Now I’m losing one of the craft. Hey, Bermuda, you getting it?

[Jerry Wayne (“Bermuda Control”)]
No, I lost contact. There’s a lot of dust blowing up there

[Jerry Wayne (“Pasadena Control”)]
Now I’ve lost the second craft. We got problems

[Jerry Wayne (“Bermuda Control”)]
All contact lost, Pasadena. Maybe the antenna’s-

[Jerry Wayne (“Pasadena Control”)]
What’s that flare? See it? A green flare, coming from Mars, kind of a green mist behind it. It’s getting closer. You see it, Bermuda? Come in, Bermuda! Houston, come in! What’s going on? Tracking station 43, Canberra, come in, Canberra! Tracking station 63, can you hear me, Madrid? Can anybody hear me? Come in, come in!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 07/21/2017 at 12:47

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The Ascender is one of the planes that played a large influence in an alternate history tabletop strategy game called Crimson Skies and several computer and Xbox games derived from it:

Here is the fictional Hughes Devastator:

...Fairchild Brigand...

etc.:

It would fit loosely into the genre usually referred to these days as “Dieselpunk” - romance of highly-experimental designs, Zeppelins, men in scarves, etc. etc.

The RAF museum has several Hawker Hunters, to get back on your main topics. I know I’m a broken record that it’s worth seeing...

X37.9XXS > ttyymmnn 07/21/2017 at 12:51

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The Hunter also did something most unusual

During the War of Attrition (1967-70)Flight Lieutenant Saiful Azam, on exchange from the Pakistan Air Force, shot down three Israeli jets including a Sud Aviation Vautour and a Mirage IIICJ

Not everyone could do that

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 07/21/2017 at 12:52

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Al Haynes is an amazing guy -he spent much of his life after that crash talking to people about the accident, so that others could learn from it. And as much of a miracle as it was, they perhaps were one wing drop away from saving many more lives—

Leon711 > ttyymmnn 07/21/2017 at 12:59

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I believe that the Hunter is still grounded in the UK following the Shoreham Airshow crash, it might not be as it was found to be pilot error, if it still is, I don’t see how any will fly again in the UK.

user314 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/21/2017 at 13:48

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There’s also the music video for Garbage’s Special , which also takes the same design cues.

ttyymmnn > Leon711 07/21/2017 at 13:58

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That would be a shame. It’s one of my favorite aircraft, and has such an important place in the history of the RAF.

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW 07/21/2017 at 14:02

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Miracle, yes, but I’m not all that religious about things like this (if, by miracle, you truly mean Divine intervention rather than a boatload of good fortune). Those men did one hell of a job to salvage a situation where by all rights they should all have died. I prefer to give the humans the credit in those situations. But I know what you mean. This thing could have gone in a lot of directions, and I think it came out far, far better than it had any right to.

ttyymmnn > X37.9XXS 07/21/2017 at 14:03

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A Hunter also did this , which I have written about here before.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/21/2017 at 14:09

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Neat! I didn’t know that. I will admit that, back in my Starblazers days, I took the Ascender and turned it into a space fighter of my own. I think I still have the drawing somewhere. A friend and I took many line drawings of aircraft and converted them to space fighters.

The Ascender arose from Request for Data R-40C in 1940, an attempt to stay at the forefront of aircraft technology. It also brought us the Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose and the Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet , all three of which were pushers and all three of which were duds. I did an article two years ago (wow, has it really been that long??) on the XP-54, and meant to follow it up with the other R-40C aircraft. Maybe I’ll get back to it.

ttyymmnn > user314 07/21/2017 at 14:16

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I am not familiar with this, but will make sure that I become familiar with it soon. I read WOTW back in 5th grade or middle school, I think, and it blew me away. I loved it. And Thunder Child is probably the coolest name for a ship ever. It wasn’t until I read it again later in life that I found my favorite quote from the book:

He heard footsteps running to and fro in the rooms, and up and down stairs behind him. His land landlady came to the door, loosely wrapped in dressing gown and shawl; her husband followed ejaculating.

Needless to say, that word had a different meaning back in Wells’ day.

user314 > ttyymmnn 07/21/2017 at 14:18

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Oh my god, Jeff Wayne’s WOTW is amazing . Cannot recommend highly enough.

ttyymmnn > user314 07/21/2017 at 14:19

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I am familiar with that artwork. And I may have heard this a long time ago, but I need to listen again.

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 07/21/2017 at 14:29

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I’m not very religious, either — it’s just a word to describe an enormous amount of good luck to me.

Interesting that the first part of your reply is similar to what Al Haynes himself said - “ I ’ m not a very religious individual, but so many things fell into place for us that a lot of people do credit it to luck, and some would call it God ’ s will, some would call it the will of Allah, some would call it something else. . . so whatever anybody wants to call it is fine, that ’ s why I call it luck. I don ’ t want to step on anybody ’ s toes. ” It goes on from there, basically him being humble about his (and his flight crew ’ s) role in that landing.

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW 07/21/2017 at 14:39

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Well, it seems that I’m in good company! I didn’t mean to disparage your use of the word, but it does fit this situation. There is a saying that I like to repeat to my sons: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Haynes and his crew were lucky, but they were also highly skilled and worked as a team to save many, many lives. And I also have a deep respect for anybody who can do such a thing and remain humble about it. They were all consummate professionals that day, they kept their heads, and they followed Rule Number One to the letter: Fly the plane.

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 07/21/2017 at 14:45

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Very true! I didn’t take it as disparaging - believe me.

I sent you a link to a Popular Mechanics article on UA232 the other day via reply to something else- -you’ve probably read it already, but it really highlighted the humanity of the crew and passengers, and how that entire flight crew kept their wits about them that day, and did their jobs incredibly well under frightening conditions. It served as a good reminder of what the flight crew is really there for, and how good they are.

someassemblyrequired > WilliamsSW 07/21/2017 at 16:37

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Had the pleasure to hear Al Haynes give a talk about UA232 - he said that they were coming in way too fast - the cartwheeling may have saved some lives by burning off a lot of the forward momentum quickly. They were apparently very worried in the cockpit about controlling the aircraft once it reached the ground, since they had no hydraulics and a high landing speed. So he speculated that a “perfect” landing might have had a similar or worse outcome.

WilliamsSW > someassemblyrequired 07/21/2017 at 16:43

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Very true - at 250mph with no brakes, they were going to hit hard eventually somewhere. It is what it is - -it may have just traded some lives for others. I’ve been emailed a few opportunities to hear him, but was never able to make it, unfortunately—I hear it’s a great discussion.

someassemblyrequired > WilliamsSW 07/21/2017 at 17:11

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Definitely worth going out of your way to hear Capt. Haynes talk if you get another chance. His usual talk is more about the team - he spends a lot of time talking about the contributions of the other crew and the tower/airport staff. Best CRM training ever.

WilliamsSW > someassemblyrequired 07/21/2017 at 17:57

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I think he’s retired from that now (he’s ~85) - - but it’s on YouTube, so I need to sit down and watch that.

X37.9XXS > ttyymmnn 07/23/2017 at 10:49

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Fly THROUGH Tower Bridge?!?!?

OMFG, I have a new spirit animal

Just as an FYI, evidently the gods were kind to Al

http://www.rafjever.org/4sqnper004.htm

Which is a VERY GOOD thing

ttyymmnn > X37.9XXS 07/23/2017 at 11:40

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That will be a fun read. Thanks!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 09/01/2017 at 07:44

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Al Haynes returned to work after Sioux City.

I watched the final STS mission land, live, on the NASA Channel back when I had Dish.