This Date in Aviation History: May 5 - May 8

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
05/08/2018 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, planelopnik history, Planelopnik

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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 May 5 through May 8.

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May 6, 1941 – The first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. From its inception in WWI up until the middle of WWII, the single-engine fighter was, by design, a relatively small aircraft. Most designers and fighter pilots believed that a smaller, lighter aircraft would be more agile and more maneuverable in the air. Fighters such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! are perhaps the finest examples of this way of thinking during the Second World War. So, when the enormous P-47 Thunderbolt arrived in England in late 1942, weighing in at 10,000 pounds (about 2,500 pounds more than a P-51, and fully twice the weight of a Spitfire), pilots were skeptical. But that skepticism was proven wrong, and the rugged, hard-hitting Thunderbolt soon secured a place in the pantheon of the greatest fighters of the war. However, the P-47 didn’t start out as a huge aircraft.

The Thunderbolt traces its roots back to 1939, when !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! proposed the development of a lightweight fighter, similar in size and capability to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which had been rejected by the US Army Air Corps. The Army wasn’t interested in Republic’s proposal either, so designer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! went back to the drawing board and the fighter gradually got bigger and bigger as more guns were added to it. Republic’s proposal now called for two .50 caliber machine guns in the nose and eight .50 caliber guns in the wings, with power coming from an Allison V-12 engine turning a 10-foot diameter propeller. But, as development progressed, reports from the front lines in Europe indicated that even this aircraft would not be adequate for the Army’s needs. Kartveli now proposed a massive fighter that would be powered by a supercharged 18-cylinder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engine, the same engine that was used in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the same one that would also power the forthcoming !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In a nod to the importance of the supercharger for high-altitude performance, the layout of the engine and supercharger were actually developed first, and the airplane was essentially built around it. The pilot sat on top of the main air intake duct, and the carburetor ducts were routed around the cockpit. The enormous supercharger was placed in the tail of the aircraft, where it actually proved to be quite a successful arrangement, and rarely suffered any battle damage.

P-47Cs of the 61st Fighter Squadron in 1943. Note the “razorback” canopy of the earlier Thunderbolts. (US Air Force)

To pull the giant fighter through the air, the 10-foot diameter propeller of the P-47's predecessor gave way to a huge 12-foot diameter Curtiss Electric !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (the Corsair’s was even larger, at 13 feet 4 inches). But having such a large prop meant that the landing gear needed to be long enough to keep the prop from striking the ground. Kartveli’s team solved that problem by creating a telescoping strut that extended by nine inches after it was lowered. Early models of the P-47 used a razorback canopy configuration, but pilots complained about poor visibility. To correct that shortcoming, the British fitted a P-47 with a plexiglass bubble canopy taken from a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and soon all Thunderbolts were built with such a canopy. This became the definitive model through the rest of the war.

Republic P-47N Thunderbolt, specially designed for B-29 escort duty over Japan. Fuel tanks were added to the wings, and the wingtips were squared off to improve roll rate. This was the final variant of the Thunderbolt line. (US Air Force)

Nearly two years of testing followed the Thunderbolt’s first fight, and the P-47 flew its first combat missions in April of 1943. Pilots who were at first dubious of the mammoth fighter soon discovered that the Thunderbolt, or Jug as it came to be known, could out dive anything in the sky, and its rugged construction became legendary for bringing pilots home after suffering massive battle damage. Although initially supplanted by the P-51 in the bomber escort mission, the P-47 eventually regained that role as continued development increased its range, and many Thunderbolts escorted bombers to the target and then dropped down near the ground on the return flight to destroy targets of opportunity along their path using machine guns, bombs or rockets. The top American fighter ace over Europe in WWII, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , scored 34.5 victories while flying a P-47. When the war ended in 1945, the Army still had nearly 6,000 P-47s on order, but those orders were canceled. Nevertheless, more than 15,600 had already been built, just beating out the Mustang as the most-produced American fighter in history. Passed over for service in Korea, the Jug was retired in 1955, though some remained in service for another 11 years by the Peruvian Air Force.

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(US Navy)

May 6, 1937 – The crash of the Zeppelin Hindenburg . Before nonstop transatlantic airliners entered service around 1940, flying passengers across the Atlantic Ocean was the the bailiwick of the rigid airship. During the 1920s and 1930s, these “ocean liners of the sky” grew ever larger, culminating in the Hindenburg and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the largest aircraft that ever took to the skies. The Hindenburg , German dirigible LZ-129 ( Luftschiff Zeppelin #129, registration D-LZ129) was a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the lead ship of the Hindenburg class. Designed and built by the Zeppelin Company !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ), Hindenburg was constructed of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! frame fitted with 16 cotton gas bags and was named after the late Field Marshal !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the President of Germany from 1925-1934. The outer skin of the dirigible was made of cotton fabric covered with a reflective coating meant to protect the gas bags from ultraviolet and infrared radiation. Power for the Hindenburg was provided by four 16-cylinder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! diesel engines which produced 1,200 hp each, and gave the airship a top speed of 85 mph.

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Hindenburg was originally built to be filled with helium, but helium was rare and came at an exorbitant cost. Construction of the Hindenburg went ahead regardless, even though the designers knew they would have trouble obtaining helium from the United States, where it was a byproduct of natural gas mining. When the US refused to lift the export ban on helium, Hindenburg’s designers made the fateful decision to switch to highly flammable hydrogen instead, even though the dangers of hydrogen were well known.

Hindenburg flies over New York City in 1937 (AP)

Hindenburg took its maiden flight on March 4, 1936, and was soon plying the route from Germany to America, and completed its first crossing of the Atlantic on May 6, 1936. That voyage set a record at the time, completing the trip in 64 hours, 40 minutes. Eastward transatlantic flights, with help from prevailing winds, averaged around 55 hours. On May 3, 1937, Hindenburg departed Frankfurt for a transatlantic crossing to Lakehurst, New Jersey. Slowed by strong headwinds, the airship arrived over New Jersey on May 7, but the landing was delayed by a line of thunderstorms. Hindenburg was finally cleared to land at about 7:00 pm. At 7:21 pm, shortly after dropping mooring lines to the ground crew, Hindenburg suddenly burst into flames and crashed next to the mooring mast. Within thirty seconds, Hindenburg was reduced to a smoldering wreck of twisted, charred metal. Thirty-five passengers and crew died in the crash and flames, and one man on the ground was killed.

The cause of the explosion and crash has been the topic of much debate and remains a mystery to this day. Some suspect sabotage, while others believe that atmospheric conditions could have played a role in the explosion and fire. One of the more plausible theories is that hydrogen gas leaking from one of the cells was ignited by static electricity. During Hindenburg’s landing, witnesses reported seeing large amounts of water ballast being dumped, which could indicate a significant leak of hydrogen that was causing the airship to descend more rapidly than normal. After the crash, the duralumin hulk was returned to Germany where it was recycled for use in the construction of Luftwaffe aircraft. The crash of Hindenburg effectively signaled the end of transatlantic Zeppelin transport, despite a long list of passengers who were still willing to cross the ocean in an airship. With WWII under way in Europe, Graf Zeppelin II was scrapped in 1940 while still under construction, and its duralumin also went to support the German war effort.

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Short Takeoff

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Tim Shaffer

May 5, 2005 – The first flight of the Dassault Falcon 7X, a long-range trijet developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and one of only three trijets currently in production (Falcon 8X, Falcon 900). The 7X is powered by three !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofans and has a maximum speed of Mach 0.9 with a range of just under 6,000 nautical miles. The 7X was further developed into the 8X, which has a longer range achieved by improved engines and aerodynamics and greater fuel capacity. More than 260 7X aircraft have been built, and just about half of the fleet is operated in Europe. It serves the governments and militaries of six nations.

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NASA)

May 5, 1961 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American and second person to fly in space. The first launch of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program, Shepard and his Freedom 7 capsule, named in honor of the seven Mercury astronauts to convey a sense of teamwork rather than an individual accomplishment, launched atop a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and reached an altitude of 263.1 nautical miles in a flight that lasted just over 15 minutes. Though the mission was a success, the United States was still stinging from the fact that the Russians had beaten them into space by only 23 days, after cosmonaut !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! orbited the Earth in his Vostok 1 space capsule on April 12, 1961.

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(US Navy)

May 5, 1948 – The McDonnel FH Phantom enters service with the US Navy. Designed in the waning days of WWII and too late to see action in that conflict, the FH Phantom was the first production aircraft built by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first jet-powered aircraft to land on an American carrier, and the first jet flown by the US Marine Corps. The Phantom was only built in small numbers, but it proved the viability of jet operations from carriers and ushered naval aviation into the Jet Age. Following the development of the more advanced !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , production on the FH Phantom was halted, cutting the program off at just 62 aircraft. The Phantom was retired from frontline service in 1949, though it was flown by the US Naval Reserve until 1954.

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(US Air Force)

May 6, 2006 – The US Air Force retires the Hanoi Taxi , the last Lockheed C-141 Starlifter. The Starlifter was a strategic airlifter that entered service with the Air Force in 1965 and was used extensively during the Vietnam War. Starlifter serial number 66-0177, known as the Hanoi Taxi , made history as the aircraft that repatriated the first prisoners of war released from Vietnam as part of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1973. After the war, the Hanoi Taxi continued its regular airlift duties, and aided in the evacuation of victims of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2005. With the scheduled retirement of the final eight Starlifters, veterans and former POWs were given the opportunity to fly in the Hanoi Taxi once more and, on its arrival at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the aircraft was enshrined into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Dayton, Ohio.

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(US Air Force(

May 6, 1942 – The first flight of the Kawanishi N1K Kyf , a floatplane fighter developed for the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII. When the floatplane version turned out to be ineffective, the N1K was further developed into the N1K-J ( Shiden ), a land-based fighter known to the Allies as the George, which proved to be one of the most effective fighters of the war. The Shiden was heavily armed and highly maneuverable, and was equipped with a mercury switch that automatically extended the flaps, helping to decrease the turning radius during a dogfight. In battle, the Shiden proved a match for the best Allied fighters, but came too late in the war, and in insufficient numbers, to make a significant contribution to the Japanese war effort.

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(US Air Force)

May 6, 1935 – The first flight of the Curtiss P-36 Hawk. A contemporary of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the P-36, also known as the Hawk Model 75, was an early example of the new generation of all-metal cantilever monoplane fighters. Introduced in 1938, the Hawk saw little service in WWII with the US Army Air Corps, but found great success as an export fighter, where it was flown by the French during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It is perhaps best known as the predecessor to its much more famous descendant, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Only 215 Hawks were built for the US Army Air Corps, but 900 were exported to international customers. The last Hawks were retired by the Argentine Air Force in 1954.

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(Author unknown)

May 6, 1930 – The first flight of the Boeing Monomail , so named because of it monoplane design and its intended purpose as a mail plane. The Monomail was an important development not only for its design but also for its all-metal construction, and featured a streamlined fuselage with fully-retractable landing gear. Eventually stretched to carry six passengers, the Monomail suffered from an underpowered engine and the lack of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and was soon surpassed by more modern designs. However, many of the technological advances made with the Monomail found their way into later Boeing designs, notably the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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(NASA)

May 7, 1992 – The first flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour , the sixth and final !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! constructed and the fifth flown into space by NASA ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first shuttle, was used for static testing and glide tests). Construction of Endeavour began in 1987 as a replacement to the Space Shuttle !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , along with its crew, in 1986. Endeavour was named for British explorer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (hence the British spelling), and it accomplished a number of firsts, including carrying the first African American woman astronaut to space, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and completing the first mission to repair the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Following its first flight in 1992 on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Endeavour served until 2011, flying a total of 25 missions before its retirement following !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , when it was moved to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Los Angeles where it is on display.

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May 7, 1946 – The first flight of the Handley Page Hastings, a British troop transport and general cargo plane that served the Royal Air Force as a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Hastings was powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines and was capable of carrying either 50 troops, 35 paratroops, 32 stretchers or 20,000 pounds of cargo. The Hastings first saw service as part of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1948, where it was used primarily to deliver coal to the blockaded city. The Hastings also served during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1956, and was finally retired in 1977 and replaced in RAF service by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . A total of 151 Hastings were produced from 1947-1952.

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(US Air Force)

May 7, 1944 – The first flight of the Beechcraft XA-38 Grizzly, a twin-engine ground attack aircraft developed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the planned invasion of Japan. The US Army Air Forces was looking for a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that would be capable of destroying bunkers or other hardened targets. The Grizzly was armed with a 75mm cannon in the nose, along with two forward-firing .50 caliber machine guns. Though the Grizzly showed promise, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! took priority in the allocation of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines, and the Grizzly never entered production. Only two were built, with one scrapped and the whereabouts of the other unknown.

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(NASA)

May 8, 2004 – The death of William J. “Pete” Knight. Knight was born in Noblesville, Indiana on November 18, 1929, and joined the US Air Force in 1951. He served as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base flying the !!!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!!! . Following the cancelation of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! project, Knight was selected to fly the hypersonic !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . On October 3, 1967, Knight piloted the X-15 to a speed of Mach 6.72 (4,520 mph), setting an absolute speed record for manned flight that still stands. He was also one of five pilots to earn astronaut wings when he reached an altitude of 280,550 feet in the X-1. After his stint as a test pilot, Knight flew 253 combat missions during the Vietnam War, and retired from the Air Force in 1982. Knight also served as a California state politician.

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May 8, 1927 – Former WWI fighter ace and aviation pioneer Charles Nungesser disappears over the Atlantic Ocean. Nungesser was born in Paris on March 15, 1892 and began as a mechanic and race car driver before becoming interested in aviation. As a fighter pilot, Nungesser claimed 42 victories during WWI, making him the third-highest scoring French ace of the war. Following the war, Nungesser went to the US to work as a pilot in the film industry, and became interested in the idea of a transatlantic flight. Teamed with navigator !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the pair took off from Le Bourget Airport near Paris on May 8, 1927 in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! biplane emblazoned with Nungesser’s famous skull and crossbones marking from the war. After passing Ireland, Nungesser and Coli were never seen again, and no wreckage was ever recovered. Just two weeks later, Charles Lindbergh successfully crossed the Atlantic alone.

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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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DISCUSSION (16)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn
05/08/2018 at 12:43

That Thunderbolt could be one of your photos.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/08/2018 at 12:46

I wish. Haven’t seen one in the air in a long time, before I had a proper camera.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn
05/08/2018 at 12:48

The Grizzly is very similar in conformation to the 18, which naturally made me wonder if there was any developmental relation other than coming from Beech. Doesn’t seem so, as the Grizzly is *much* bigger. Half again as long, nearly half again the wingspan. Bigger than an A-10.

A testament to the “single big engine ground attack/multirole” theory behind the P-47 is that the Corsair stayed in service into Korea, and the AD served into Vietnam, all playing a role in the philosophy behind the A7 and the F8.

AfromanGTO > ttyymmnn
05/08/2018 at 12:53

One interesting thing about the Empire State Building is that it was designed to dock airships.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/08/2018 at 12:55

Which reminds me, I should have linked an old article I wrote about Alexander Kartveli from my early writing days. I have fixed that glaring omission!

ttyymmnn > AfromanGTO
05/08/2018 at 12:55

Indeed, but I don’t think it was ever used. Hard to imagine passengers willing to climb down to that spire.

Spaceball-Two > ttyymmnn
05/08/2018 at 12:55

It always strikes me at how massive the Jug is.

Kinja'd!!!

ttyymmnn > Spaceball-Two
05/08/2018 at 13:01

To wit:

Kinja'd!!!

Look at the plane compared to the guys working on the wheel. This was the “lightweight” XP-47J, the first piston-powered aircraft to top 500 mph in level flight. Zoom.

Spaceball-Two > ttyymmnn
05/08/2018 at 13:11

Wow. Reminds me of the A-1 too. Brute force all around.

ttyymmnn > Spaceball-Two
05/08/2018 at 13:15

What still trips me out is that one the bit from the cowl flaps forward is engine.

Kinja'd!!!