This Date in Aviation History: September 11 - September 13

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 09/13/2019 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 September 11 through September 13.

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The radical Northrop XP-79B. (US Air Force)

September 12, 1945 – The first flight of the Northrop XP-79. Since 1903, aircraft have evolution has followed a number of different paths, each one attempting to find new ways of fulfilling a certain mission. However, one thing that seems to remain constant throughout aviation history is a quest for speed. Piston-engined propeller planes, no matter how big the powerplant, can only go so fast (the official record as of today is 528.31 mph), and it wasn’t until the arrival of the jet engine that aircraft began to climb reliably above 500 mph. But before the first operational jets took to the air during WWII, aircraft designers experimented with rocket power. The German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! first flew in 1939, and continuing work on rocket propulsion in Germany led to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the only rocket-powered aircraft to become operational during the war.

The MX-334, an unpowered glider used to test the concept of the XP-79. (US Air Force)

Beginning in late 1942, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! started work on a rocket plane of his own. Unlike the German aircraft, though, his would be a radical flying wing, an aircraft type that would come to be synonymous with Northrop. By 1944, he had constructed prototype gliders to test the flying wing concept, one of which, the MX-324, became the first US-built rocket plane to fly after it was towed aloft by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . With the flying wing concept proven, Northrop received an order for three flying prototypes that were given the designation XP-79A. The aircraft was so small that the pilot flew the plane from a prone position, with his chin placed in a rest to hold his head up. While this was not the most comfortable position, it did allow the pilot to withstand up to 21 Gs in flight.

The pilot’s position inside the XP-79B. While not the most comfortable way to fly, it does allow the body to withstand significantly higher G forces than a traditional seated position. (US Air Force)

The XP-79A also broke new ground in construction techniques. Due to the corrosive nature of the liquid rocket fuel, Northrop built the fuselage using a magnesium alloy which required the development of new methods of welding to work with the exotic material. The magnesium construction of the airframe made for a very strong aircraft, and some thought was even given to employing the XP-79B as an aerial battering ram, using the aircraft’s wings to slice the wings and tails off of enemy bombers. A more traditional armament of four .50 caliber machine guns was also planned though never fitted.

The intakes on the wingtips of the XP-79B supplied air to bellows that powered split-aileron controls. A Fairchild AT-21 Gunner is parked in the background. (US Air Force)

Despite the initial plans to power the XP-79 with rockets, the decision was made to switch to turbojet power when the rockets were found to be unsatisfactory. Two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines were fitted, and the rocket-powered version was canceled. The jet-powered flying wing was designated XP-79B. Ground testing proved troublesome, with burst tires and brake problems plaguing the taxi tests. Once those were worked out, the XP-79B made its first and only flight. Test pilot Harry Crosby took the XP-79B aloft and reached an altitude of 7,000 ft. However, the flying wing then started to roll for an unknown reason, and Crosby was unable to regain control. He managed to bail out of the aircraft, but was killed when he was struck by the wing and was unable to open his parachute. The XP-79 crashed and was consumed by a raging fire fueled in part by its magnesium structure. Soon after the crash, construction of the second XP-79B prototype was halted, and the entire program was cancelled. Despite the setback, Northrop continued his experiments, and some may say obsession, with flying wings, developing the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flying wing bombers, neither of which ever entered production. However, Northrop’s vision was eventually vindicated in 1989 with the flight of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! strategic bomber.

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Short Takeoff

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September 11, 2001 – Terrorists hijack four airliners in a coordinated attack on the United States. Four teams of terrorists boarded early morning flights departing from Boston, Washington DC, and Newark and hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77, and United Airlines Flight 93. After killing or otherwise subduing the flight crew, the terrorists flew the first two aircraft into each of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and crashed the third airliner into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Passengers on board Flight 93, who had learned of the other attacks, fought back against the hijackers. During the struggle, the hijacker pilot crashed the airliner into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, just minutes from Washington, DC. It is believed that their intended target was the White House or the US Capitol. The attacks killed 2,731 people in New York and Washington, DC along with all 246 passengers and crew on the airliners.

For a full account of the events of this day, see !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

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September 11, 1983 – The first flight of the Agusta A129 Mangusta, an armed attack helicopter originally designed by Agusta (now !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) and the first dedicated attack helicopter to be designed and produced in Europe. Comparable to the American !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Mangusta (Mongoose) is armed with a single 20mm three-barrel !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Gatling cannon housed in a chin turret, and can be armed with up to 76 unguided rockets as well as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! anti-tank missiles. It can also carry air-to-air missiles such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The A129 entered service with the Italian Army in 1990, and has seen action in Macedonia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Sixty have been built, and the Mangusta remains in production.

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September 11, 1970 – The first flight of the Britten-Norman Trislander, an 18-seat passenger and utility !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (STOL) aircraft produced on the Isle of Wight and in Romania from 1970-1980. Designed by John Britten and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Trislander is powered by three !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! six-cylinder piston engines, two mounted on the high wing and one mounted in the tail, and has a top speed of 180 mph. The Trislander was developed from the twin-engine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and its STOL capabilities allow it to take off from landing strips less than 500 feet long. It entered service with Aurigny Air Services in 1971, and a total of 72 were built.

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(UK Government)

September 11, 1956 – The death of William Avery “Billy” Bishop. Bishop was born on February 8, 1894 in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada and made his first “flight” in a plane he constructed from wooden crates, cardboard and string that he launched from the top of his three-story house. When WWI broke out, Bishop served with the 7th Canadian Mounted Rifles, honing his skills as a marksman, then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, first as an observer. He received his pilot’s wings in 1916. By the end of the war, Bishop was credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian ace of WWI. During WWII, Bishop served as the Director of the Royal Canadian Air Force in charge of recruitment, and his fame led so many to apply as pilots that many were turned away. His decorations include the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! & Bar, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   with palm.

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September 11, 1946 – The first flight of the North American FJ-1 Fury, the first operational jet-powered fighter to enter service with the US Navy. The wings and tail were derived from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and it was powered by a single !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojet engine that gave the Fury a top speed of 547 mph. The FJ-1 entered service in 1947 and made the Navy’s first operational carrier landing at sea aboard !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CV-21) in 1948. With the rapid pace of fighter development in that era, the transition to swept-wing fighters quickly rendered the FJ-1 obsolete, and only 31 were produced. However, the Fury was soon developed into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , one of the most successful fighters of the 195os, and the Naval variant of the Sabre, now called the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , followed in 1954.

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(ABC News)

September 12, 1994 – Frank Corder deliberately crashes a plane on the White House lawn. Corder, a former US Army soldier and truck driver, was distraught, depressed, and suicidal after his wife left him. Highly intoxicated, Corder stole a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N1405Q) from Aldino Airport in Maryland and flew to Washington, DC. Though detected minutes before the crash by radar operators at National Airport, Corder managed to crash the small aircraft on the South Lawn of the White House, killing himself. The wreckage came to rest against the White Hose, causing minor damage. Corder had stated that he bore no animus toward President Clinton, and the president was unhurt. Rumors persist that the White House is defended by surface-to-air missiles, though the Secret Service has neither confirmed nor denied their existence, and none were fired at the aircraft. The incident led to a significant reevaluation of security procedures.

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(UK Government)

September 12, 1934 – The first flight of the Gloster Gladiator, the last biplane fighter to be flown by the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm. The Gladiator had entered service in 1937 and, though considered obsolete at the start of WWII, it nonetheless served in combat in all theaters early in the war, with a few export fighters even serving the Axis forces. It was soon replaced in frontline operations by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Gladiator was also capable of operating from carriers, and many were redeployed to serve as cover for British trade routes, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea. A total of 747 were built, and Finland was the last country to fly the Gladiator in combat.

British author !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! spent some time flying Gladiators during the war, and had this to say about the old fighter:

Those old Gladiators aren’t made of stressed steel like a Hurricane or a Spit. They have taut canvas wings, covered with magnificently inflammable dope, and underneath there are hundreds of small thin sticks, the kind you put under the logs for kindling, only these are drier and thinner. If a clever man said, ‘I am going to build a big thing that will burn better and quicker than anything else in the world,’ and if he applied himself diligently to his task, he would probably finish up by building something very like a Gladiator.

—Roald Dahl, “A Piece of Cake”, from the short story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

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(US Government)

September 12, 1916 – The first flight of the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, the result of a project to develop a pilotless aerial torpedo or flying bomb and the progenitor of the modern !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is credited with developing the first gyroscopically-controlled autopilot system, and Sperry then adapted his system to control the aircraft remotely by radio. Though flight tests of the system were promising, WWI ended before the flying bomb could be perfected, and development was shelved until 1925 when the US Navy took over the program.

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September 13, 1994 – The first flight of the Airbus Beluga, a modified !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! widebody airliner that was developed to carry oversize cargo, particularly sections of Airbus aircraft destined for final assembly in France, Germany and Spain. Before the Beluga, Airbus used a fleet of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! aircraft in that role, but the idea of Airbus aircraft sections being delivered in Boeing airplanes made for poor publicity. The Beluga entered service in 1995 and is capable of carrying 50,000 cubic feet of cargo weighing up to 50 tons. A total of five were built, and they remain in service today. A new larger !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , based on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , took its maiden flight on July 19, 2018.

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(US Library of Congress)

September 13, 1929 – The first flight of the Fokker F-32, a large transport aircraft created by the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America and the first four-engine transport to be designed and built in the United States. A large aircraft for its era, the F-32 could accommodate 32 seated passengers or 32 sleeping passengers, and had a crew of three. It was notable for having two engines mounted together in a push-pull configuration, with the tractor engine turing a two-bladed prop while the pusher engine turned a three-bladed prop. The aft engine, turing in disturbed air, was prone to overheating, and the F-32 became notorious for a lack of power, even when the original !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines were replaced with more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines. Though seven were built, only two F-32s were purchased, both by Western Air Express. Poor performance, coupled with the Great Depression, meant the F-32 had a relatively short service life and was soon replaced by more modern designs.

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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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CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > ttyymmnn 09/13/2019 at 12:41

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The airplane crash at the white house and the somewhat recent gyro-copter incident (Douglas Hughes) really point out the paradox of sentry’s .

So much money/equipment but 99.9% of the time there is no threat so everyone gets lazy. Then when a threat does arise, it is so mental and outside training that nobody can react to it.

I would assume it is probably super easy to fly into Washington in a small craft to this day.

user314 > ttyymmnn 09/13/2019 at 12:50

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I’ve never understood why the Trislander has it’s third engine in the tail rather than the nose, like most either trip le props. Just seems odd to have all that weight high and way back. not to mention the plumbing to get fuel to the tail. 

benjrblant > ttyymmnn 09/13/2019 at 13:11

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Maybe it’s the little kid in me, but something about the flying wing concept just seems so cool.

ttyymmnn > benjrblant 09/13/2019 at 14:03

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Back in the day, I used drawings of the XP-79 and turned it into a space fighter. That was the heyday (at least for me) of Star Blazers and Star Wars, and I thought it was just the coolest thing.

ttyymmnn > user314 09/13/2019 at 14:18

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My guess is that they needed the nose for luggage. If they put the heavy engine in the front, they wouldn’t be able to balance it with enough load in the back. 

ttyymmnn > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 09/13/2019 at 14:19

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I would assume it is probably super easy to fly into Washington in a small craft to this day.

You’re probably right, but I hope not.

user314 > ttyymmnn 09/13/2019 at 14:20

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Fair point.

user314 > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 09/13/2019 at 14:24

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I’d imagine it’s actually classified, but are there even AAA defenses at the White House, or even the Capitol Building for that matter? Are the Secret Service carrying MANPADs ? I’d try searching, but I’m probably already one at least one watch list....

ttyymmnn > user314 09/13/2019 at 14:26

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Or at least a fair guess.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > user314 09/13/2019 at 14:26

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I deal far to much with department of homeland security to search “how easy to fly airplane into whitehouse?” or “anti aircraft weapons washington DC?”

MarquetteLa > ttyymmnn 09/13/2019 at 14:56

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“The magnesium construction of the airframe made for a very strong aircraft, and some thought was even given to employing the XP-79B as an aerial battering ram, using the aircraft’s wings to slice the wings and tails off of enemy bombers.”  

ummmmmmmmmmm yes please??

ttyymmnn > MarquetteLa 09/13/2019 at 15:03

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I can’t even imagine how hard it would have been to do that accurately and not destroy yourself in the process. Still, it sounds like something that should be featured in a new Star Wars movie. 

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > user314 09/13/2019 at 15:48

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Putting the third engine in the tail allowed them to use short landing gear which makes for easier loading and unloading.  It also keeps the engine and propeller pretty well protected from FOD.  If I remember correctly they were using these on island landing strips that were on beaches.

InFierority Complex > ttyymmnn 09/14/2019 at 05:49

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It’s been a completely viable strategy in Warthunder for years :P

ttyymmnn > InFierority Complex 09/14/2019 at 07:39

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And no damage to the Zero. Amazing.