This Date in Aviation History: May 23 - May 26

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 05/26/2020 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 May 23 through May 26.

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A pair of Nimrod R1s of 51 Squadron, based at RAF Waddington, fly in formation in 2004 ((UK Ministry of Defence)

May 23, 1967 – The first flight of the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod. The de Havilland company changed the aviation world forever with the introduction of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the world’s first operational jet airliner, although the innovative aircraft had a somewhat checkered history. After entering service in 1952, the airliner was plagued by a series of unexplained hull failures which resulted in fatal crashes, and the airliner was grounded for a time until the cause could be determined and rectified. De Havilland ultimately discovered that the problem was a structural weakness at the corners of the square windows, and the redesigned Comet went on to a useful though somewhat brief career, only to be overshadowed by the arrival of the swept-wing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But the story of the Comet didn’t end with its retirement from commercial service.

On June 4, 1964, the British Government issued Air Staff Requirement 381 to find a successor to the piston-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a four-engine maritime patrol aircraft developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber. Corrosion from salt air and metal fatigue were beginning to take their toll, and the Shackleton was due for retirement. A number of aircraft companies responded to the request, including Lockheed with their turboprop-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the similarly powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , as well as variants of the turbojet-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! airliners. But Hawker Siddeley, who had acquired de Havilland in 1960, offered a version of the Comet, which, like the Shackleton, was nearing the end of its service life. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced the decision to adopt the maritime patrol version of the Comet, dubbed the HS.801 by de Havilland, and the first two prototypes were converted from Comet 4 airframes that had not yet been completed as airliners.

But taking a commercial airliner off the shelf and making a long-range maritime and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) platform took a significant amount of conversion, and the Nimrod ended up looking quite different from its Comet ancestor. The fuselage was enlarged by the addition of a second tube on top, giving it a “double bubble” cross section. The nose was extended to house powerful radars, the tail was modified to hold electronic warfare sensors, and a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (MAD) boom was installed on the tail to detect submerged submarines. The Comet’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojets were replaced by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofans which offered better fuel efficiency and longer range. To further extend the Nimrod’s range during particularly long missions, one or two of the engines could be shut down in flight to save fuel. After these conversions were complete, the Nimrod entered production and was introduced into RAF service in October 1969.

The initial model, the MR1, was soon developed into two subsequent variants. The R1 was a signals intelligence aircraft whose mission was to intercept communications and other electronic signals. Three Nimrods were converted to this specification and went into service in 1974, replacing older Comet C2s and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The MR2 was a significant upgrade to the original R1, with modern avionics and more powerful radars. Following the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1982, the MR2 was updated with aerial refueling capability, as well as the ability to carry !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! missiles for self defense. Nimrods were deployed in support of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1990, and again during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, like its Shackleton predecessor, the ravages of age began to catch up to the Nimrod, and work began on a significantly modernized, and essentially all new replacement. But the Nimrod MRA4 suffered from serious delays and cost overruns, and the project was eventually abandoned in 2010. The RAF decided instead to procure the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the signal intelligence mission, and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the maritime patrol and ASW missions. In all, a total of 51 Nimrods were built, and they were officially retired in 2011.

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A formation of F-100D Super Sabres of the 118th Tactical Fighter Wing in Vietnam-era jungle camouflage in 1961 (US Air Force)

May 25, 1953 – The first flight of the North American F-100 Super Sabre. The 1950s was an extraordinary period for fighter aircraft development. The piston engine of WWII had largely given way to the new turbojet engine, and straight wings had transitioned to swept wings that offered higher speeds and reduced drag. But perhaps more than anything, the 1950s was an era notable for the quest for ever greater speeds. Fighters had already broken the sound barrier in short bursts, but the US Air Force was looking for a fighter that could fly at sustained supersonic speeds. North American had built a solid reputation for itself in WWII with the remarkable !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and they followed up the success of the Mustang with the swept-wing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which proved its mettle in the skies over Korea during the Korean War and found a place in the pantheon of the great warplanes. For their next world-beater, North American turned to the F-86 as a basis for the design of an even more powerful fighter.

The North American YF-100, the prototype for the F-100 Super Sabre, deploys a braking parachute on landing (US Air Force)

Work on the F-100 began in 1951 with a company-funded aircraft called the Sabre 45, a designation that came from the aircraft’s 45-degree wing sweep (the F-86 employed 35 degrees of sweep). Though much more powerful and more streamlined, the F-100 still shared its predecessor’s nose air intake and single engine, though the Super Sabre used a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engine which delivered nearly twice the power than the F-86's J47. The Super Sabre also made far more use of titanium in its construction, a metal known for both lightness and strength. The first prototype Super Sabre reached Mach 1.07 on its first flight, even though it was fitted with a purposefully de-rated engine. Due to delays in production of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Air Force accepted the Super Sabre immediately in 1953, and delivery to Air Force squadrons began in 1954.

However, the Super Sabre began to show worrying handling characteristics, and a series of crashes caused the fleet to be grounded in November 1954. Flight tests showed that, during roll maneuvers, the F-100 had a nasty inclination to pitch up and down, and the highly-swept wings made the Super Sabre susceptible to pitch up at low speeds, something that pilots referred to as the “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .” Engineers corrected these problems by enlarging the vertical stabilizer by 27-percent, while also increasing the wingspan by 26 inches.

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With the control problems solved, deliveries of the Super Sabre restarted and existing aircraft were returned to flying status. But even as the redesigned F-100A began returning to duty, the Air Force began phasing the “Hun” out of service, and it was officially removed from active service by 1961. But that wasn’t the end of the Super Sabre. With Cold War tensions rising in Eastern Europe, the F-100 returned to active duty while North American worked to develop a fighter-bomber version, which became the F-100C. This variant had a still more powerful engine and was developed for nuclear !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

A US Air Force F-100D Super Sabre launches rockets against ground targets in Vietnam (US Air Force)

But it was the F-100D that served in the greatest numbers and with the greatest effect. The Super Sabre went to war in Vietnam in 1961 and served for 10 years, becoming the longest serving fighter bomber of the conflict. At the end of the war, Huns had fired over four million rounds of 20mm ammunition, dropped 30 million pounds of bombs, and delivered over 10 million pounds of napalm. Two-seat F-100F Super Sabres served as forward air controllers, flew reconnaissance missions, and carried out search and rescue missions. In a testament to its incredible speed, the Super Sabre set numerous speed records and won the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1955. It was also the first jet fighter to fly over the North Pole, and was flown by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from 1956 to 1968. Just under 2,300 Super Sabres were produced, and it was retired from frontline service in 1979, though it continued serving with Air National Guard units until 1988.

An F-100D Super Sabre of the US Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration team (US Air Force)

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A P-61A painted in US Army Air Forces green some time in the 1940s (US Air Force)

May 26, 1942 – The first flight of the Northrop XP-61 Black Widow. In modern times, it’s difficult or even impossible to imagine a fighter without a radar. Powerful modern radars have made possible fighters that can fly in all weather conditions, day or night, and attack enemy targets that are beyond the pilot’s range of sight. But during WWII, the roles of day fighter and night fighter were, for the most part, separate. Smaller, more agile fighters fought by day, while larger aircraft capable of carrying the early heavy radar sets fought by night. British development of radar (an acronym coined by the United States Navy for “radio detection and ranging”) had been progressing steadily since the early days of the war, and land-based radar stations proved vital during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in detecting incoming German bombers and directing RAF fighters to intercept them. By late summer of 1940, the British finally developed an airborne radar unit, called the Airborne Intercept (AI) radar, but they didn’t have an aircraft that could carry it.

Northrop YP-61 pre-production prototype from the 348th Night Fighter Squadron, showing the blisters beneath for fuselage for its 20mm cannons. The radar is housed in the unpainted nose section. (US Air Force)

While work on the airborne radar was progressing in England, the British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! came to the US to receive assistance in developing new technologies away from the danger of German bombing, and they brought their AI radar with them. With the exchange of technologies, the US saw the potential for making their own night fighter, and the Army made a formal request for such an aircraft. With the head start Northrop had from working on the British proposal, the new XP-61 beat out the only competitor for the contract, the Douglas XA-26A, a night-fighter based on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

The RAF requested aircraft designs for an aircraft to carry the radar from every Allied manufacturer, including Northrop. Jack Northrop understood that any aircraft capable of the speed, altitude, range and firepower that the RAF required, along with the ability to carry the heavy radar, needed to be big and would need more than one engine. Northrop’s design placed a large gondola between twin booms that each housed an 18-cylinder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engine. The gondola housed two machine gun turrets, one in the nose and one in the rear, each with four guns. Eventually, the rear turret was replaced with a powered turret on the top of the fuselage, though buffeting from the turret eventually led to its removal all together. Northrop then finalized the design by placing four 20mm cannons in the belly of the aircraft, making the Black Widow one of the few American aircraft to mount four cannons.

The SCR-720 radar unit mounted to a P-61 Black Widow of the 6th Night Fighter Squadron undergoes maintenance on Saipan some time in 1945 (US Air Force)

Though history notes the Black Widow as America’s first dedicated night fighter, it was difficult, by the standards of contemporary fighter design, to call the Black Widow a fighter. It was a true behemoth, with a wingspan of 60 feet (8 feet longer than the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ), a height of nearly 15 feet, and an empty weight of over 23,000 pounds. When Black Widows arrived in Europe in the spring of 1944, Army commanders were convinced that the P-61 was too slow and cumbersome to counter German aircraft. Instead, they wanted to procure the British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and even went so far as to organize a competition between the two aircraft. However, with a few tweaks to the engine to improve performance, the Black Widow was able to outperform the Mossie in speed and rate of climb, and with its special “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ” and retractable spoilers, the P-61 could even outmaneuver the Mosquito.

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Though it was still unable to outduel German single-engine fighters, the Black Widow proved quite effective against German bombers and fighter-bombers. P-61 squadrons even claimed a number of German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flying bombs. In the Pacific, the Black Widow arrived too late to have a significant impact on the war, but it did play a vital role in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of over 500 Allied prisoners from the Cabanatuan prison camp in the Philippines. Though it never fired a shot, a lone P-61 performed aerobatics over the camp to distract Japanese guards while Army Rangers positioned themselves for an assault. A Black Widow is also unofficially credited with scoring the last aerial victory of WWII.

The Northrop F-15 Reporter, the reconnaissance variant of the P-61. Note the redesigned center section, and the portholes in the nose for photography. (San Diego Air and Space Museum)

While many WWII aircraft were retired quickly at the end of the war, the Black Widow, as America’s only night fighter, soldiered on until the US could produce a jet-powered alternative, which came in the form of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In addition to their combat duties, P-61s also played a leading role in research into ejection seat technology, carried out tests on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines, and took part in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , America’s first large-scale scientific study of thunderstorms. Northrop also developed a reconnaissance variant called the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which removed the top portion of the central gondola and housed the two-man crew under a single canopy. While the final flight of the P-61 was made in 1954, the Reporter served in various roles until 1968.

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Short Takeoff

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(Author unknown)

May 23, 1915 – The first flight of the Fokker Eindecker, the first in a series of monoplane ( eindecker ) fighters designed by Dutch aeronautical engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and flown by the German Air Service in WWI. The Eindecker was based on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an earlier monoplane scout designed by Fokker that first flew in 1913 and was itself influenced by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! monoplane. The major advance of the Eindecker was Fokker’s development of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , also called an interrupter, that allowed the machine gun to be fired through the arc of the propeller and gave pilots significantly improved aim during dogfights. German pilots such as aces !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! enjoyed an advantage over Allied aircraft that were not similarly equipped, allowing the Germans to hold a measure of air superiority for the second half of 1915 until the Allies developed their own interrupter.

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May 24, 1967 – The first flight of the Aero Spacelines Mini Guppy, an oversized cargo aircraft developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Two Mini Guppies were built using parts salvaged from the Stratofreighter, along with parts from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! airliner. While the Mini Guppy retained the wings, engine and lower fuselage of the C-97/377, the upper fuselage was significantly enlarged by the addition of a second, oversized fuselage section, and the aircraft was loaded through a hinged tail section. The first Mini Guppy was retired in 1995, while the second was given upgraded !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprop engines and renamed the Mini Guppy Turbine. However, that aircraft was lost in a crash in 1970.

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May 24, 1936 – The first flight of The Fieseler Storch Fi 156, a small transport aircraft developed for the German Aviation Ministry ( Reichsluftfahrtministerium )   for liaison, forward air control, and medevac duties. The Storch was selected over other contenders because of its outstanding short takeoff and landing (STOL) characteristics and other design elements such as folding wings that made the Storch easy to tow or transport. Long landing gear with shock absorbers allowed for operations from crude runways or unprepared fields. The Storch gained fame for its role in the rescue of ousted Italian Prime Minister !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from a rocky mountaintop ski resort in the Apennine Mountains during !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ( Oak ) in 1943. Mussolini had been arrested and was being at the mountaintop hotel, but was rescued by German gliderborne paratroops and flown off the rock-strewn mountaintop by a Storch , the only aircraft capable of operating from the site.

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(Author unknown)

May 24-25, 1991 – The Israeli military carries out Operation Solomon to airlift Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Operation Solomon was the third of three covert missions to rescue Ethiopian Jews from political instability in the east African country . With help from the American government and the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, military and civilian aircraft were assembled and flown to Addis Ababa where the refugees had gathered, often after harrowing trips bringing only what they could carry. To accommodate as many passengers as possible, the seats were removed from an El Al Boeing 747 and the stripped airliner managed to transport a record 1,112 refugees in a single flight, and pregnant refugees gave birth to five babies during the flight. At the end of the mission, a total of 14,325 Ethiopian Jews were brought to Israel.

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(Michael Laughlin)

May 25, 1979 – The crash of American Airlines Flight 191, a regularly scheduled flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport. The wide body airliner crashed shortly after takeoff when the left engine of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N110AA) separated from the wing, severing hydraulic lines, damaging the left wing’s leading edge, and causing an uncommanded retraction of the leading edge slats. As the aircraft continued to takeoff, the unbalanced configuration of the wing slats caused the left wing to stall while the right wing was still providing lift, and the aircraft rolled to the left until partially inverted before crashing in a nearby field. The crash killed all 271 passengers and crew as well as two people on the ground. It remains the deadliest aviation accident on US soil. The engine separation was found to have been caused by faulty maintenance practices performed by American Airlines, and not a design defect. As a result, American Airlines was fined $500,000 for improper maintenance procedures.

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(US Air Force)

May 25, 1976 – The first flight of the Boeing E-3 Sentry, an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (AEWC) aircraft more commonly known as AWACS that was developed to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The E-3 was derived from the civilian !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! airliner and uses its dorsal radome and other sensors to monitor the battlefield and the airspace around it. The Sentry then provides enhanced situational awareness to battlefield commanders, and helps control air and ground forces necessary for interdiction, reconnaissance, airlift, and close air support. The E-3 entered service with the US Air Force in 1977, and has since been adopted by NATO, the Royal Air Force and Saudi Arabia. Produced from 1977-1992, a total of 68 have been built and it remains operational.

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(NASA)

May 25, 1973 – The launch of Skylab 2, the first of three manned missions to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the United States’ first orbital space station. The Skylab space station was launched on May 14, 1973 (Skylab 1) and remained in orbit for six years. Skylab 2 astronauts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! were launched into orbit atop a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket and docked with the station on May 26. They remained onboard the station for 28 days and set a new record for spaceflight duration. The crew also set records for the greatest distance traveled and the greatest mass docked in space. A primary objective of the mission was to repair a jammed solar array on the station and to cover the station with a solar blanket that took the place of a heat shield damaged during launch. In addition to other repairs, the crew carried out 392 hours of experiments. The Skylab 2 Command Module returned to Earth on June 22, 1973 and was recovered by the carrier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CV-14) near San Diego.

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(US Navy)

May 25, 1968 – The first flight of the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler. Following the success of the two-man !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! electronic warfare aircraft over Vietnam, Grumman stretched the aircraft’s fuselage to add a second row of seating for electronics warfare officers, added an antenna fairing to the vertical stabilizer, and placed more powerful radars in the nose to produce the EA-6B. Introduced in 1971, Prowlers replaced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and flew 720 sorties in support of US Navy bombers and USAF !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Vietnam. The Prowler also served in Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and was retired from US Navy service in 2015 and replaced by the newer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . US Marine Corps Prowlers took part in bombing missions against the Syrian government in late 2018, and were retired in 2019.

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(US Air Force)

May 25, 1939 – The first flight of the Henschel 129, a twin-engine ground attack aircraft flown by the Luftwaffe during WWII. Based on experience of the German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the Spanish Civil War, the 129 was developed to provide heavy fire against lightly defended targets such as convoys or troop concentrations. Because of its role as a ground attack aircraft, the pilot sat inside a tub of steel sheeting and was protected by armored glass, while the engines were protected by armor plating. The 129 was powered by a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial   engines because more powerful inline engines were in high demand elsewhere. Thus, the 129 was always underpowered, and when the two machine guns and two canons were replaced with a single 75mm antitank gun, the aircraft was virtually unflyable. Nevertheless, a total of 865 were produced from 1940-1944, and the 129 fought effectively in the early years of the war in North Africa and the Eastern Front.

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(Author unknown)

May 25, 1937 – The first flight of the Gasuden Koken, a long-range research aircraft developed by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Gasuden) in an effort to break the world record for the longest closed circuit flight (taking off and landing from the same point). The plane was powered by a single Kawasaki V-12 engine that provided a top speed of 155 mph and had a wingspan of over 91 feet. The fuselage was constructed of metal, but the outer wings and control surfaces were covered in fabric. Following two unsuccessful attempts at the record, the Gasuden Koken took off from Kisarazu, Chiba on May 13, 1938 and made 29 laps of a 249-mile circuit. It landed two-and-a-half days later, having flown 7,239 miles, the only record ever set by Japan that was recognized by the   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The record was broken just one year later by an Italian !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which flew 8,038 mi.

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May 25, 1937 – The first flight of the Sikorsky S-38, a twin-engined amphibious !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (a biplane in which one wing is significantly smaller than the other) that could accommodate eight passengers and the first widely-produced flying boat to be designed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both amphibious sesquiplanes that were built in very small numbers, the S-38 flew for Pan American Airways, the US Army (where it was known as the C-6), and the US Navy (where it was known as the PS-3). The S-38 was also popular with civilian pilots and safari companies in Africa. Sikorsky built a total of 101 S-38s.

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(US Air Force)

May 26, 2010 – The first flight of the Boeing X-51A WaveRider, an unmanned, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! research aircraft that took its name from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! created by its own shockwaves that it uses to generate lift. Powered by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engine, the X-51 is carried aloft by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mothership to an altitude of 50,000 feet, then released while attached to a solid rocket booster that propels the X-51 to a speed of Mach 4.5. The booster is then jettisoned and the aircraft flies under power from a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! scramjet engine. Following its maiden flight, and two flights flights with mixed results, the X-51 accelerated to Mach 5.1 on May 1, 2013 and flew for 210 seconds before running out of fuel and crashing into the Pacific Ocean. That flight set a record for the longest duration of flight at hypersonic speeds.

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(Authors unknown)

May 26, 1958 – The death of Constantin “Bazu” Cantacuzino, a Romanian pilot and one of the highest scoring Romanian aces of WWII. Before the outbreak of WWII, Cantacuzino was an aerobatic pilot and chief pilot for the Romanian state airline LARES. With the start of the war, Romania sided with the Axis powers, and Cantacuzino fought both Soviet and Allied aircraft and claimed one of six !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! shot down during a bombing mission. But as the Axis powers began to falter near the close of the war, Romania switched allegiance to the Allied side, and Cantacuzino began to fight his former German allies, downing three !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! attacking Bucharest. But his most spectacular mission came when he was tasked with transporting the highest-ranking American POW in Romania, Lieutenant Colonel James Gunn III, to Italy. Flying a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! emblazoned with an American flag, Cantacuzino landed in Italy to lead a flight of 56 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to return to Romania to repatriate the American POWs. When his Messerschmitt could not be refueled, he was given a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which he mastered after only a single flight. Cantacuzino ended the war with 43 victories, and returned to work with LARES. However, all of his lands were confiscated by the Communist government, and he eventually escaped to Italy in 1947.

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Connecting Flights

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. You can find more posts about aviation history, aviators, and aviation oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Notchback88 > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 12:54

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Some awesome aircraft in this one!

P-61 Widow is one of my favorite twin-engined WWII aircraft, second only to the P-38 Lightning (which is my all-time favorite WWII aircraft.)

Nimrods! I’m pretty sure I had a Nimrod Micro Machine. They were so incredibly dorky and I loved it.

F-100 Super Sabers are cool, kinda wonky looking. They have one on display at Whiteman AFB.

And lastly the EA-6 B Growler, one of my favorites from the 80s Navy. Really wish they’d put them into Ace Combat. 

user314 > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 12:54

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F-100 exhaust sections:

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 12:58

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I think my Jane’s pocket handbook from ‘79 includes the AEW nimrod, just in case one happened to spot the prototype somehow. Optimistic then, completely impossible now, I believe.

Is there a missing paragraph in the P-61 section? There’s a link to the XP-58 Chain Lightning post with no context provided.

ttyymmnn > Notchback88 05/26/2020 at 13:04

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One of the things I like about the older Navy was the variety of aircraft on deck. Here on the USS Constellation in 1967 we’ve got an A-4, black RA-3B Skywarrior, an A-5 Vigilante, F-4s, A-6s, hell, there’s even an A-1 tucked in there. Now it’s just F/A-18s for days. 

ttyymmnn > user314 05/26/2020 at 13:06

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ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/26/2020 at 13:07

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Nothing missing, I just stuck in that link from an earlier article about a similar aircraft. Probably should be down in the Connecting Flights section. 

Notchback88 > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 13:10

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I always forget just how small Skyhawks were, must have been a ball to fly.

As a logistics and aircraft maintenance type, though, I can’t imagine the parts nightmare this was. Trying to keep a steady supply of parts, maintaining bank time, completing phases on 7+ airframes? No thanks.

I can see why it’s all F/A-18 Super Hornets and Growlers, well and F-35Bs. More universal parts and streamlined logistics. Definitely not as cool though.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 13:13

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Another excellent post! Of note are the other fork-tailed favorite, the P-61, and the AWACS. As you know, I once lived near Tinker Air Force base, home to many AWACS, and had an uncle, a Navy communication officer, assigned to that unit. I always liked the P-61 for the forked tail and the model I had as a kid. It was nearly identical to the first picture except it was painted black. I always thought that top turret was awesome!

ttyymmnn > Notchback88 05/26/2020 at 13:13

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Definitely not as cool though.

Definitely.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/26/2020 at 13:21

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That P-61 gun was probably the closest we came to the Millennium Falcon guns. 

user314 > Notchback88 05/26/2020 at 13:25

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I always forget just how small Skyhawks were, must have been a ball to fly. 

There’s a reason why one of the A-4's unofficial nicknames was Heinemann ’s Hot-Rod.  Brazil and Argentina still have a few in active service, and there’s a couple company’s in the US that bought up used Skyhawks to fly for Aggressor training .

user314 > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 13:51

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So both the AAC and the Navy both tried during and again after the war to base P-61s on carriers:

An additional P-61A-10NO, AAF Serial Number 42-39395, was subjected by the Navy to a series of test catapult launches in an attempt to qualify the aircraft for shipboard launches, but the Black Widow was never flown from an aircraft carrier. These aircraft did not receive the naval designation F2T-1, but continued on as P-61s.

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During the war, the Army Air Corps/Army Air Forces tried to fly P-61s off of an aircraft carrier along the California coast in an attempt to mimic the success of the Doolittle Raid’s B-25 Mitchells. However, after those tests proved unsuccessful and with the ongoing Manhattan Project fulfilling its potential, this project was discontinued.

I am both amused and terrified at that idea.

The USMC also acquired a dozen ex-USAAC P-61Bs as F2T-1N trainers for their own F7F Tigercats, though they only had the Black Widows for a couple years.

ttyymmnn > user314 05/26/2020 at 13:53

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I’d be interested to know just what made them unsuccessful. 

3point8isgreat > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 13:56

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I hadn’t noticed how big of an issue this would be before, but the Da Havilland Comet has another structural oddity beyond just the windows issue. By placing the engines inside the wing they make it so that the engines have to go inside of the main wing spars. That just sounds bonkers and would definitely limit engine size . Obviously they got it to work. But I can see why that design was avoided in basically every commercial jet since.

Looks like they even managed it with only 2 spars too.

Also the square window thing would have made a lot of intuitive sense for packaging when you can see how they fit in with the rest of the structure.

ttyymmnn > 3point8isgreat 05/26/2020 at 14:00

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Interesting. I hadn’t noticed that either. 

user314 > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 14:07

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That’s actually a good question. A P-61 is a bit heavier than a Mitchell, but’s otherwise smaller and had a shorter takeoff run (normally, anyway ) . I have a feeling it was more: “this isn’t solving any problems” than an actual deficiency .  

ttyymmnn > user314 05/26/2020 at 14:15

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That’s a good point. Sort of like when they proved that they could operate a C-130 from a carrier, and then decided there really wasn’t much point in it. 

user314 > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 14:53

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Or when the CIA did the same thing with Dragon Ladies:

“Because Sixties and MIC”.

MarquetteLa > Notchback88 05/26/2020 at 16:35

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The Prowler is in Ace Combat 5 and Zero.

The Growler is in Ace Combat 5, Zero, and the latest game, 7 (which is really good!) .

:)

facw > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 22:50

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Just wait a little longer:

And every so often you might even come across something weirder:

facw > Notchback88 05/26/2020 at 22:54

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That’s why I love this picture:

Great fun to compare and contrast the A-4 to the A-5.

facw > ttyymmnn 05/26/2020 at 22:57

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It would have been pretty useful to be able to fly in the C-130. It’s just that “we can do it once” is very different from “we can reasonably do this regularly”. Having to clear the whole flight deck to pull off a stunt with very limited margin for error just was never going to work for normal supply operations.

facw > 3point8isgreat 05/26/2020 at 23:07

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The Tu-104/110/124 airliners had their engines embedded in the wing, similar to the Comet (though they have a more distinct pod):

These were derived from the Tu-16 bomber:

The Chinese still fly a license-built version the H-6 . The most recent K version has enlarged engine pods to fit a larger turbofan engine:

Maybe you could have done something similar with the Comet?

ttyymmnn > facw 05/26/2020 at 23:43

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Wasn’t the Vigilante the largest aircraft to operate regularly from the carriers?

ttyymmnn > facw 05/26/2020 at 23:44

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I know it’s closer to the camera, but that Rafale really looks big compared to the Hornet. I suppose they’re comparable in size, but I always imagined the Dassault as being smaller than it is. 

facw > ttyymmnn 05/27/2020 at 00:05

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I think the A-3 had a bigger wingspan and a higher max takeoff weight. They weren’t far ap art though.

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 05/27/2020 at 08:02

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that Israel flight, i saw on another channel on YT (Half As Interesting) did a video recently too, but they used the number of 1088 passengers

ttyymmnn > pip bip - choose Corrour 05/27/2020 at 08:53

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There may never be an official count. They were planning for about 750 , I think, but the people turned out to be small and light enough that they could put more on board. And then there were mothers with children who were uncounted. Either way, over 1,000 people on a single plane is nuts.

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 05/27/2020 at 08:54

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100% correct, absolutely nuts.

Notchback88 > MarquetteLa 05/27/2020 at 10:55

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I thought the Prowler was in earlier games, but I haven’t played Zero in ages and Unsung War is still sitting on my PS4 untouched.

Growlers are in Unknown Skies? I mean I know the F/A-18 is, but I never flew it that much, was there an ESW special weapon?

MarquetteLa > Notchback88 05/27/2020 at 16:29

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Well, that’s what I get for quickly googling something. The Growler is in AC7, but not as a player-controllable aircraft. Same thing with the F-117 unfortunately :(

However I really enjoyed playing through AC5 again on PS4. It’s my favorite in the series, so I’m glad I have it on PS4.

Notchback88 > MarquetteLa 05/28/2020 at 10:03

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I want to replay Zero so bad. I’d love for a proper remaster of the Holy Trilogy on the AC7 engine.

I know some poopoo AC6 but I spent so much damn time playing that one - probably the most outside of AC7. I even splurged to get the Collectors Edition with the Ace Edge Throttle and Joystick, with the 360 faceplate. (Sadly, no operational 360 to put that on anymore...). I really liked the large operations and the ability to order different forces to do things within a mission.