This Date in Aviation History: November 27 - November 29

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 11/29/2019 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 November 27 through November 29.

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November 29, 1999 – The first flight of the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. When the US Navy introduced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as its new multi-role fighter in 1984, they knew they had a winner on their hands, and the Hornet quickly became the Navy’s primary fighter and attack aircraft. But as the Navy began phasing out the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and when the high-tech stealth !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flying wing attack plane never made it off the drawing board, the Navy realized that it needed a larger aircraft, similar in size to the Tomcat or the Air Force’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , to fill the roles of both fleet defense fighter and ground attack. Back in the early 1980s, McDonnell Douglas pitched the idea of an enlarged Hornet to the Navy, originally calling it the Hornet 2000. They suggested that a larger aircraft derived from the F/A-18 could carry more weapons, more fuel, and have more powerful engines than its predecessor, and the program was officially announced in 1988. But while the single-seat F/A-18E and two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet bears a strong resemblance to the original F/A-18, it is, in fact, an entirely new aircraft, not just a scaled-up variant.

Size comparison between the original F/A-18 and the Super Hornet.

The Super Hornet is roughly 20 percent larger than the Hornet and 7,000 pounds heavier. It carries 33-percent more fuel, which increases the range by 41-percent over the Hornet. The Super Hornet is also equipped with a “buddy store” refueling system that allows it to act as an airborne tanker, taking over the aerial refueling mission of two other retired Navy aircraft, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But despite its larger size, the Super Hornet actually contains 42-percent fewer structural parts than the Hornet. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! afterburning turbofans used on the Super Hornet are a more powerful derivative of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines found on the Hornet, and the same engine that would have powered the canceled Avenger. The F414 engines give the Super Hornet a 35-percent boost in thrust and provide a top speed of Mach 1.8. The engines are fed by distinctive, box-shaped !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! similar to those seen on the F-15.

An F/A-18F two-seat Super Hornet refuels an F/A-18E Super Hornet over the Bay of Bengal in 2007 (US Navy)

The Super Hornet, nicknamed Rhino by its crews to avoid confusion with the Hornet, reached initial operating capability in September 2001 and quickly became a vital part of the Navy’s strike capabilities. Super Hornets flew their first combat missions over Iraq during !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (1992-2003), and have since become regular participants in the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. While the Super Hornet has become a stalwart of the US Navy, the US Marine Corps has staunchly opposed adopting the F/A-18E/F, fearing that doing so will compete with their ability to procure the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! variant of the newer Joint Strike Fighter. The only other nation currently operating the Super Hornet is Australia, which purchased 24 F/A-18Es to replace its fleet of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , though in November of 2016 the Canadian government announced a plan to purchase 18 Super Hornets while they reconsider their decision to purchase the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as a replacement for their aging fleet of CF-18 Hornets. However, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! between Boeing and Canadian manufacturer Bombardier caused Canada to cancel their order. Boeing has built over 500 Super Hornets, and the aircraft remains in production. As older Super Hornets begin to show their age, the Navy is seeking to buy more F/A-18Es to fill the gap until the the F-35C is delivered in large quantities.

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B-29s Superfortresses from 500th Bombardment Group drop incendiary bombs over Japan in 1945 (US Air Force)

November 29, 1944 – The US Army Air Forces carry out the first incendiary raids against Tokyo. In the closing stages of WWII, as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! campaign brought the Allies closer and closer to the Japanese homeland, American forces steadily increased the number and size of bombing raids against Japan’s manufacturing assets. However, unlike most Western countries, where manufacturing was generally concentrated in large factories and industrial centers, Japan’s war materiel was produced in smaller dispersed factories, and in homes as a cottage industry. This rendered traditional “precision” strategic bombing, which was carried out in daylight and from high altitude, largely ineffective. So General !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , head of all strategic air operations against Japan, made the decision to switch to fire raids against Japanese cities, missions in which the bombers flew at altitudes of 5,000-8,000 feet, and at night, since accuracy was not required.

The conventional bombing of Tokyo, using high explosives, had commenced on November 24, 1944 when 111 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! struck an aircraft factory on the outskirts of the city. This was followed by another conventional bombing mission on the 27th. The first incendiary raid was carried out on the night of November 29-30, which destroyed 2,773 structures. The B-29s were armed with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and, though a single M-69 munition weighed only six pounds, it was dropped inside a canister that held 38 munitions each. Normally, each B-29 carried 37 bombs, totaling 1,400 individual fire-starting munitions per plane. After it was dropped, the canister opened automatically and dispersed the smaller munitions, which ignited on contact with the ground and spread a highly flammable jellied gasoline compound.

Aerial photograph of Tokyo after the war, showing the extent of the destruction of the city (US Air Force)

Though conventional bombing missions continued, the fire raids against Tokyo rose to a horrifying crescendo with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on March 9-10, 1945. In a mission that has gained notoriety as the single most destructive bombing raid in history, 346 B-29s left Guam and headed for the Japanese capital. Arriving over the city at 2:00 am on March 10 (Guam time), the bombers dropped almost 1,700 tons of incendiaries on a city built almost entirely of wood. The resulting firestorm destroyed 16 square miles of buildings, or seven percent of the city’s urban area. The fires burned so fiercely that many of those killed were suffocated as the fires consumed all the oxygen. Following the raid, Tokyo police estimated that nearly 84,000 people had been killed, 41,000 injured and 1,000,000 left homeless. Postwar estimates are as high as 100,000 killed. The USAAF lost 14 aircraft, below the 5-percent loss rate that was considered acceptable.

The charred remains of Japanese civilians after the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945 (Ishikawa Ky)

The firebombing raids continued in the belief that the attacks would cause Japanese leaders to capitulate. They did not. According to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the incendiary campaign resulted in the destruction of 180 square miles in 67 cities, and killed more than 300,000 people, a number that exceeds the death toll in both atomic bombings combined. At the time, the US had few moral qualms about destroying such large areas of cities along with their civilian populations. Military planners believed that these raids would shorten the war and save American lives by preventing a costly invasion of the Japanese home island. It wasn’t until the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in August of 1945 that the war finally ended. But there were still two more firebombing raids after Nagasaki before Japan’s formal surrender.

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Short Takeoff

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November 27, 2005 – Boeing delivers the 1,050th and final 757 to Shanghai Airlines. Designed as a larger replacement for the three-engined !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! while retaining the 727's short field capabilities, the 757 took its maiden flight on February 19, 1982 and entered service with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on January 1, 1983. The 757 was developed concurrently with the wide-body !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and shares essentially the same cockpit, allowing crews to transition easily between the two types. Of the 1,050 produced, 913 were built as the 757-200 which seats up to 239 passengers. Production of the 757 ended in October 2004 as Boeing shifted emphasis to further development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and 655 757s remained in service as of March 2019.

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November 27, 1969 – The first flight of the IAI Arava, a light short takeoff and landing (STOL) utility aircraft and the first major design by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to enter production. In order to achieve IAI’s design goals of carrying up to 20 passengers while maintaining STOL and unprepared runway capability, the Arava has a large central fuselage placed between a twin-boom tail and high wing, and the rear of the fuselage can be opened for cargo loading. The Arava is powered by two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprop engines, and first saw service in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of 1973, though the Israeli Air Force did not buy them in any large quantities until 1988. The majority serve primarily in third world countries.

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(US Air Force)

November 27, 1949 – The first flight of the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II. The C-124 was developed from the smaller !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and served the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) as the primary heavy lift cargo and passenger carrier throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s before it was replaced by the jet-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The C-124 could carry 68,500 poulds of cargo, including tanks, bulldozers and other heavy equipment without needing to disassemble them prior to loading. It could also carry 200 fully equipped troops on its two passenger decks. The Globemaster II served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and ended its career with the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. A total of 448 were produced, and nine still survive as museum pieces.

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(US Air Force)

November 27, 1944 – The first flight of the Boeing XF8B, a long-range carrier-based multi-role fighter/bomber initially developed to protect bombers on missions over the pacific while leaving US Navy aircraft carriers at a safe distance from Japan. Boeing designed the XF8B to fulfill the roles of fighter, dive bomber, interceptor, level bomber, and torpedo bomber, and the massive fighter, indeed the largest piston-powered, single-seat US fighter developed during WWII, was powered by an equally massive !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! supercharged 28-cylinder four-row radial engine, the largest-displacement piston aircraft engine to be developed during the war and the same engine that powered the postwar !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Ultimately, the war ended after the construction of a single prototype, and the remaining unfinished preproduction aircraft were scrapped.

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(Author unknown)

November 27-28, 1929 – Richard Byrd and his crew make the first flight over the South Pole. Explorer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! began his first expedition to the South Pole in 1928, taking two ships and three airplanes for use in exploration of Antarctica. After establishing a base camp on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Byrd and his crew took off in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! named Floyd Bennett in honor of the recently deceased !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from Byrd’s previous expeditions. During a round trip flight of 18 hours, in which they jettisoned much of their equipment to maintain altitude, the team crossed the South Pole and returned to base. For his exploits, Byrd was promoted to the rank of rear admiral at the age of 41, becoming the youngest admiral in the history of the US Navy.

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November 28, 2008 – The first flight of the Comac ARJ21, a narrow-body, twin-engine regional airliner built by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Comac) as part of China’s effort to reduce its reliance on foreign aircraft manufacturers. The ARJ21 bears a significant resemblance to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but Comac says that they did not copy the American airliner, though they did reuse tooling provided by McDonnell Douglas for the construction of license-built MD-80s in China. The ARJ21 also features a new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! wing that was designed with the help of Russian engineers. The ARJ21 entered service in June 2016, and Comac currently has over 300 orders for the regional jet, with eight deliveries to Chengdu Airlines as of November 2018.

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November 28, 1979 – The crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901, a flight that operated from Auckland, New Zealand on sightseeing trips over Antarctica. On the fourteenth flight on the route, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (ZK-NZP) crashed into !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the second highest volcano in Antarctica, killing all 257 passengers and crew. Initially, Air New Zealand blamed the crash on pilot error, but a Royal Commission of Inquiry found that the course the pilots usually flew on the return leg had been altered in the flight computer before the plane took off, and the pilots hadn’t been informed. Instead of flying over !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as planned, the plane flew into the volcano. The crash remains New Zealand’s deadliest peacetime disaster.

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(NASA)

November 28, 1964 – The launch of Mariner 4, the fourth in a series of spacecraft designed for fly-by planetary exploration. On July 14-15, 1965, Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to perform a fly-by of Mars and sent the first pictures of the planet’s surface back to Earth. With nothing visible but rocks and craters, the photographs changed many scientific opinions on the possibility of life on Mars. After two years without contact from the probe, NASA re-established communications in 1967, and recorded numerous micrometeoroid strikes on the spacecraft, leading NASA to suspect that Mariner 4 had flown through the remnants of a destroyed comet. In December 1967, NASA terminated communications with Mariner 4, and the derelict probe remains in a heliocentric orbit.

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November 29, 1975 – Two-time Formula 1 World Champion driver Graham Hill is killed in the crash of his private plane. Hill was at the controls of his twin-engine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! while on a return flight to England after a test session at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France. On board with Hill were driver Tony Brise in his first season of Formula 1, mechanics Terry Richards and Tony Alcock, designer Andy Stallman, and manager Ray Brimble, all members of Hill’s Embassy Hill racing team. While approaching Elstree Airfield at night and in heavy fog, Hill’s Piper crashed onto a golf course north of London, killing all on board. While investigators could find no direct cause for the crash, they did learn that Hill’s aircraft registration had lapsed, as had his instrument flight rating. Investigators gave pilot error as the most likely cause.

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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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Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > ttyymmnn 11/29/2019 at 13:06

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Lots of focus on the Erebus disaster in NZ this year as it’s the 40th anniversary.  Among a heap of other media coverage.

The government and Air New Zealand have apologized for their roles:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12289222

A controversial (re appearance and location) public memorial has been proposed: ://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12287444

Two excellent podcast series:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-erebus-flight-901-litany-52293966/

https://shorthand.radionz.co.nz/white-silence/

user314 > ttyymmnn 11/29/2019 at 13:08

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Comac says that they did not copy the American airliner, though they did reuse tooling provided by McDonnell Douglas for the construction of license-built MD-80s in China.

I mean, I guess that’s technically correct (the best kind of correct!), but this still brings to mind Clarkson’s quip that “copyright infringement” must not translate into M andarin.

Grindintosecond > ttyymmnn 11/29/2019 at 13:12

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757/767 are a common 'type' requiring only one checkride. I wish they'd clean sheet the 757 cause that's dearly needed out there.

ttyymmnn > Grindintosecond 11/29/2019 at 13:38

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https://www.askthepilot.com/757-v-737/

ttyymmnn > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 11/29/2019 at 13:40

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I saw a story on the BBC News today about that. I guess I hadn’t connected that it was the 40th anniversary. 

user314 > ttyymmnn 11/29/2019 at 13:53

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TIL the first image of Mars from a space probe was actually composed ‘paint-by-numbers-style’ as an error-trapping exercise .

Mariner 4's tape recorder was actually a back-up unit from the failed Mariner 3 probe, and the engineers were unsure if it would hold up. While they waited the several hours it took for the computers to process the 1s and 0s into an image, Dick Grumm ran to an art store near NASA JPL and purchased a collection of pastels (after his initial attempt to buy chalk was rebuffed).

In the meantime, the digital data was converted into brightness values and printed out on 3" wide paper strips, which were then lined up to form the image.

Grumm and his team then colored the areas based on the values, using a scheme of reds, browns, ivory and yellow .

When compared to the computer-generated image, the result proved that the tape recorder was functioning as intended.

ttyymmnn > user314 11/29/2019 at 14:05

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And who says engineers can’t be artists? Though they took a decidedly scientific approach to their artwork. Great story. Thanks!

user314 > ttyymmnn 11/29/2019 at 14:18

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That’s the kind of problem solving I love to see.