This Date in Aviation History: February 14 - February 16

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 02/16/2018 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

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Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from February 14 through February 16.

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February 15, 1986 – The first flight of the Beechcraft Starship. What would happen if you owned an aircraft company, spent years developing and producing the most advanced corporate aircraft of its day, only to have nobody buy it? That is essentially what happened to Beechcraft and parent company Raytheon with the Beechcraft Starship, arguably one of the most futuristic-looking civilian aircraft ever built. Development of the Starship began in 1979 as Beechcraft searched for a replacement for its venerable !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! line of twin-engine aircraft. Hoping to combine high speed and light weight, they envisioned an aircraft that could carry 10 passengers at up to 400 mph while weighing less than 12,500 pounds. What they ended up with was the most advanced private airplane of its time.

Built largely of composites, the Starship was the first business aircraft to have a pressurized passenger compartment built of carbon fiber, and also the first with a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , known for his visionary designs, refined the initial design of the aircraft, and it featured Rutan’s signature placement of the wing at the rear of the aircraft and a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at the front, making it the first civilian aircraft to use this configuration. Power for the Starship came from a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprops mounted on top of the wing in a pusher configuration. After Rutan produced a 85% scale proof of concept aircraft, development of the full sized aircraft began, but major difficulties quickly ensued. Beechcraft had never worked with composites on such a scale, and the first system for fabricating the parts had to be abandoned for a simpler process that ended up adding weight to the aircraft and required that two seats be removed. The added weight also meant that more powerful engines had to be substituted that were not as fuel-efficient as the ones originally intended. Manufacture of various elements of the aircraft were spread around the country, leading to numerous delays in construction, often months at a time.

One of only a handful of airworthy Starships, on display at Fort Worth Alliance Airport

As the aircraft ballooned in weight, it also ballooned in price. Initially, the Starship was to sell for $2.7 million dollars. But once it hit the showroom floor, the cost had almost doubled to $5 million dollars, about the same cost as a private jet. And, once the finished planes were delivered, they were plagued by reliability problems that proved difficult to quash or expensive to repair. Following the FAA certification of the Starship, Beechcraft sold only 11 aircraft in the first seven years of sales. The last of only 53 aircraft rolled off the production line in 1995 and, in 2003, Beechcraft started buying up all available aircraft and destroying them, as the cost to keep them in the air had become prohibitive. Today, only five Starships remain registered as active with the FAA. Evergreen Air, who was overseeing the destruction of the aircraft, sold 24 for only $50,000 each, and most of those were being used for parts, though one was returned to flying status. (Photo author unknown via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; photo by Ken Mist via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; photo by the author)

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February 15, 1946 – The first flight of the Douglas DC-6. WWII witnessed unprecedented advances in aviation technology, and while the needs of military aviation placed the world on the cusp of the jet age, there was still more work to be wrung out of the venerable piston engine. Many of the large propeller aircraft that entered commercial service after the war had begun their life as military aircraft. The US Army relied on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the military version of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . First flying in 1942, the C-54 served throughout WWII and beyond, but by late in the war, the Army needed a larger strategic airlifter and passenger plane, and more imporatantly, something pressurized, as none of the civilian DC-4s or C-54s had pressurized hulls.

An Olympic Airways DC-6 at London Heathrow in 1963

In 1944, the Army commissioned the DC-6 as the XC-112, a longer, pressurized version of the DC-4, and replaced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines of the C-54 with more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radials. These engines were capable of 2,400 hp each with water injection, and could pull the C-54 at speeds of 315 mph with a range of about 4,000 miles. However, by the time the XC-112 took its maiden flight in 1946, the war had ended and the US Army Air Forces rescinded their wartime contract. While the loss of the wartime contract came as a blow to Douglas, they now had a brand new, pressurized airliner they could market to the world. Douglas undertook the task of converting the XC-112 to civilian specifications, and the civilian DC-6 took its maiden flight on June 29, 1946, with deliveries to American Airlines and United Airlines taking place five months later. The new airliner was not without teething troubles, and the type suffered a series of in-flight fires, one of which caused the crash of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the loss of 52 passengers and crew. The crash led to the grounding of the entire DC-6 fleet in 1947. The fault was traced to a fuel vent next to the cabin cooling turbine intake and, once the problem was solved, the airliner returned to service four months later.

Bridging the gap to the jet age: an Eastern Air Lines DC-6 at New York’s John F. Kenndy airport with a pair of Eastern Boeing 707s in 1961

By 1949, the DC-6 was flying all over the world, with United Airlines providing service to Hawaii, and other carriers making flights to and from Europe and South America. Upgrades to the engines provided more power, and the DC-6B was enlarged to accommodate up to 89 passengers. With America’s entry into the Korean War, the Air Force once again needed a large transport to ferry troops overseas, and they adopted the DC-6 as the C-118 Liftmaster, buying 100 from Douglas. The US Navy purchased 65, where it was designated the R6D until !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , when a uniform aircraft designation system was adopted by the US military. The Air Force also modified one DC-6 into the VC-118, a presidential transport with 25 seats and 12 beds. A VC-118, nicknamed The Independence , served as President Harry S. Truman’s personal aircraft until he left office in 1953, and another served President John F. Kennedy until 1962.

With the addition of a rear cargo door, the DC-6 became a popular civilian freighter, and some still serve in this role today, mostly in bush operations in Alaska and Canada, where their rugged construction makes them ideal for operations from unimproved airfields. One notable flying DC-6 is owned by Red Bull energy drink mogul Dietrich Mateschitz, and the last DC-6 to come off the production line and the last in the world to still carry passengers, remains in use with Namibia Commercial Aviation. (Photo via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; photo by RushAS via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; photo by Jon Proctor via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; San Diego Air and Space Museum photo)

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February 15, 1932 – The first flight of the Martin B-10. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! traces its history back to 1912, when founder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! began building military training aircraft in California, then bombers for the US Army during the First World War. The large biplane !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was the first purpose-built bomber produced for the US Army, and its development began a long lineage of large aircraft that continued during the inter-war years and through WWII, where Martin’s company produced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the US Army Air Forces, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the French and British, as well as large flying boats for the US Navy. But one of his earliest successes was with the revolutionary B-10 bomber, a highly advanced aircraft for the time. With its all-metal construction, enclosed cockpits and rotating gun turrets, the B-10 would serve as the template for all future bomber designs.

The Martin XB-907, clearly an aircraft of an earlier era. It’s development into the B-10 would bring the bomber into the modern era.

Development of the B-10 began as the Model 123, a private venture of the Martin Company, featuring a large, twin-engine airplane with open cockpits, an internal bomb bay and retractable landing gear. Upon delivery to the Army, the aircraft became the XB-907 and, after favorable testing, the Army returned the aircraft to Martin for improvements. The redesigned bomber, now dubbed the XB-10, would be the first all-metal monoplane bomber flown by the Army. Improvements made in the XB-10 included full !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on the engines that replaced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of the Model 123, more powerful engines, an increased wingspan, and an enclosed nose turret. Already, speeds were approaching 200 mph. Still more changes followed, including canopies for all crew members, upgraded engines, and the reduction of the crew from four to three. The Army now had a truly modern bomber on their hands, one that could even outrun contemporary Army pursuit planes. Once the B-10 became operational, it rendered all other bombers obsolete.

Martin B-10s drop bombs during a training mission

The B-10 entered service with the Army in 1934, and was soon flying with bomber groups in the US, the Panama Canal Zone and in the Philippines. For coastal patrol duties, a number of B-10s were outfitted with floats for water operation. Once the orders were filled for the US Army, Martin was free to export their bomber, and B-10s were sold to Argentina, China, the Philippines, Russia, Siam and Turkey. The Netherlands purchased 121 bombers. Despite its groundbreaking design, rapid developments in aircraft design soon outpaced the B-10, and by the start of WWII it was already obsolete. Martin attempted to update the B-10 to compete in a 1934 US Army Air Corps competition for a new long-range bomber, but the B-10 lost the competition to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was actually inferior to the older B-10, and its service days were over. Of the nearly 350 aircraft built, only one survives today, an B-10 that had originally been exported to Argentina in 1938. Argentina donated the bomber to the US in 1970, and it is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. (US Air Force photos)

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Short Takeoff

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February 14, 1955 – The first flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21. The MiG-21, NATO reporting name Fishbed , is the most-produced supersonic fighter in history with over 11,000 built between 1959-1985. Notable for its delta wing and traditional tailplane, the MiG-21 was designed principally as a simple, rugged air superiority fighter, and throughout its service history it was the principal low-level air combat fighter flown by Eastern Bloc nations. Comparable to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the MiG-21 was continuously upgraded throughout its service life, and was also built under license by the Chinese. The Fishbed was widely exported, serving historically in 45 countries, and it is still flown by the air forces of 17 nations. (Photo by Rob Schleiffert via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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February 14, 1891 – The birth of Katherine Stinson. At age 21, Stinson was the fourth woman in the US to obtain her pilot certificate, soloing after just four hours of instruction. The following year, she began touring on the exhibition circuit, where she was known as “The Flying Schoolgirl,” and in 1915 she became the first female pilot to perform a loop. In 1917, Stinson set an American record for non-stop flying when she completed a 606 mile flight from San Diego, California to San Francisco. During WWI, Stinson drove an ambulance in Europe, where she contracted influenza and was forced to give up flying. Her brothers, inspired by her feats of flying, started the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1920. Katherine Stinson died in 1977 at age 86. (US Library of Congress photo)

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February 15, 1994 – The first flight of the Eurocopter EC135, a twin-turboshaft civilian helicopter designed by Eurocopter (now !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) fitted with digital flight controls and certified for instrument flight rules (IFR) operation. Development of the EC135 began in the 1970s with the Mo 108 by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (MBB) in partnership with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! prior to the creation of Eurocopter, and finally entered service in 1996 with the Deutsche Rettungsflugwacht (air rescue service). Widely exported, the EC135 was responsible for roughly 25% of all emergency medical flights around the world in 2013. More than 1,220 have been produced, and the EC135 has also been developed into a multipurpose military helicopter as the Eurocopter EC635. (Photo by Von Tachter via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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February 15, 1970 – The death of RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding. As the head of RAF Fighter Command during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Dowding played a vital role in the defense of the British homeland as the Luftwaffe attempted to destroy the RAF ahead of a planned German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In addition to directing defensive fighters against German bombers, Dowding helped develop the world’s first comprehensive air defense system, incorporating !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radar stations, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ground observation posts, telecommunications to coordinate defenses, and information processing to handle reports of incoming bombers. Dowding stepped down from his position on November 24, 1940, largely over his unwillingness to adopt the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! system of defense over his own system, and retired from the RAF two years later.   (Dowding photo via UK Government, Spitfire photo via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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February 15, 1949 – The first flight of the Breguet Deux-Ponts , a double-deck transport aircraft built by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of France after WWII ( Deux-Ponts translates as double-deck , but that was only the nickname of the aircraft, and not its official designation). Designated the 761, 763 or 765 depending on the engines that were fitted, the Deux-Ponts normally accommodated 59 passengers on the upper deck and 48 on the lower deck, though it was capable of carrying 135 passengers in a high density configuration. A total of 20 were built, but the arrival of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! jetliner in 1959 rendered the Deux-Ponts obsolete, though it was not fully retired until 1971. (Photo by Ralf Manteufel via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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February 16-17, 1945 – US Navy Task Force 58 conducts the first carrier-based bombing of Japan since the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of 1942. From January 1944 through the end of the Pacific War in August 1945, Task Force 58 was the main strike force of the US Navy in operations against the Japanese. Flying 2,761 sorties, aircraft from eleven fleet aircraft carriers and five light aircraft carriers attacked targets in the Japanese capital city of Tokyo and in Tokyo Bay, shooting down 341 Japanese planes and destroying a further 190 on the ground. Several ships were sunk in the bay, and the aircraft also damaged a aircraft and aircraft engine factory. The US lost 60 aircraft in combat, plus a further 28 to non-combat causes. (US Navy photo)

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February 16, 1944 – The first flight of the Curtiss SC Seahawk, a scout seaplane developed by Curtiss to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The planes were armed with two .50 caliber machine guns as well as hardpoints for bombs, and accommodation was made for a single stretcher to be carried behind the pilot. Even before the prototypes took their maiden flight, the US Navy ordered 500 aircraft. Seahawks were delivered to overseas units with regular landing gear, then had the floats fitted in the field. The Seahawk’s long development meant that it didn’t enter service until 1944, and didn’t see action until June 1945, just two months before the end of the war. The Seahawk was quickly replaced by helicopter scouts, and no examples remain today. (US Navy photo)

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Connecting Flights

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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, aviators and airplane oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 12:43

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Wow - I didn’t realize that Beechcraft was buying up Starships to destroy them. A shame - such a gorgeous and unique aircraft, though it never really came close to the original design goals.

user314 > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 12:49

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Mmm, Beech Starship...

When my Royal Dutch Shell money comes in, that’s what I want to buy.

phenotyp > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 12:49

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Man, the Starship still reminds me of the future I thought about when I was a kid.

ttyymmnn > user314 02/16/2018 at 12:50

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I’ve never seen that last image before. Super cool.

user314 > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 12:58

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Yeah, I was trying to find a better resolution of that one, couldn’t find anything. I also like  this one from Redit, but it’s blocked by the firewall...

user314 > WilliamsSW 02/16/2018 at 13:05

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Yeah, they had a hell of a time scrapping them too. IIRC, these were the first composite aircraft anyone had ever dismantled. Evergreen wound up shredding and burning them.

IJustWantMyZBack > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 13:13

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Saw a Beechcraft Starship fly out of Hobby in 2016. Was rolling through an intersection so no SR20. Wicked cool.

ttyymmnn > IJustWantMyZBack 02/16/2018 at 13:16

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The photo of the rear end of the Starship is mine. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen one in person. Absolutely gorgeous a/c.

ttyymmnn > user314 02/16/2018 at 13:21

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You mean this one?

Wicked cool. That Rutan unbalanced twin is a wild aircraft. I read an article in the A&S Magazine about it. He designed it to be easily flown on one engine by a more novice pilot. Brilliant stuff.

ttyymmnn > phenotyp 02/16/2018 at 13:22

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It could still be the future. There are lots of advantages to that canard design. It’s a lot harder to stall, for one.

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 13:44

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Burtan’s love for canards has always baffled me.

“Let’s disturb the airflow before it reaches the wing!”

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 13:44

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And lots of disadvantages, like reduced lift.

CKeffer > IJustWantMyZBack 02/16/2018 at 14:47

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I remember seeing one flying out of Hooks some time between ‘99 & ‘03 (Don’t remember the exact date, just that I was in HS at the time). It completely blew my mind because it looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Such a cool looking and distinctive design. You seeing one out of Hobby, paired with the low numbers produced makes me wonder if it wasn’t the same one.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 17:55

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And 32 years later the King Air line is still going strong.

ttyymmnn > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom 02/16/2018 at 18:57

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If it ain’t broke...

IJustWantMyZBack > CKeffer 02/16/2018 at 21:34

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You are probably right.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > ttyymmnn 02/16/2018 at 23:56

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Yep. Beech will be building them until the cows come home. I’d like to see them update it with a composite wing/fuse at some point, but there’s probably no reason for them to spend the money at this point.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 02/17/2018 at 16:59

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The Starship is one of my favorite designs. Someday I will build an R/C version with an FPV rig just so I can fly it. I bet if they tried again with modern engines and construction techniques,it would be a commercial success.