This Date in Aviation History: May 27 - May 29

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 05/29/2020 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 27 through May 29.

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May 27, 1958 – The first flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. In our modern military, the multi-role fighter aircraft has become the mainstay of the US Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. During WWII, specialized aircraft took on their individual missions, but the 1950s saw a move to aircraft that could be equally effective in the roles of ground attack, air superiority and, for the Navy, fleet defense. But with the adoption of multi-role aircraft came a significant increase in size, complexity, and cost.

The mockup of the McDonnell F3H-G, which formed the basis for the F4H Phantom II. Note the completely horizontal wingtips and tailplane. (US Navy)

As the Korean War drew to a close, McDonnell Douglas began an internal project to develop a new fighter that they hoped would be of interest to the US Navy. Starting with the F3H Demon, McDonnell worked to develop a so-called Super Demon, which would be powered by a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! axial-flow turbojets which promised a top speed approaching Mach 2. The program progressed as far as a mockup before the Navy decided that they already had supersonic day fighters under development with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both of which could adequately cover their need for a supersonic fighter. Though the Tiger and Crusader were effective fighters, McDonnell set to work on developing their Super Demon concept into an all-weather fighter and bomber. When the Navy saw the progress on the new fighter, they asked McDonnell for a fleet defense interceptor with a radar that required a second crewman. Not only was the Phantom growing in size, it was also gaining complexity.

The F4H-1 Phantom II prototype. Note location for the second pilot, and its limited visibility. This position was known as “the hole.” (US Navy)

McDonnell’s initial offering needed some redesigning, and the result was the odd assortment of competing up and down wing angles that made the Phantom instantly recognizable. Wind tunnel testing indicated an instability that could be cured most effectively by a 5-degree dihedral (upward sweep) to the wings. However, changing the design at this point in the Phantom’s development would require a complete redesign of the titanium central section at a significant cost of time and money. So McDonnell engineers gave just the wingtips a 12-degree dihedral, and the Phantom’s iconic upswept wingtips were born. The Phantom also received another one of its characteristic features, the anhedral (downswept) elevators. These were declined at 23-degrees to improve handling at high angles of attack. For the interceptor role, the Phantom needed a powerful radar, as well as a second crewman to operate it. In the early Phantoms, the rear seat was occupied by a pilot sitting “in the hole,” but later variants replaced the pilot with a radar intercept officer (RIO) who had a higher seat and larger canopy. Once the Navy accepted the new fighter, it was given the designation F4H-1, and McDonnell delivered 45 of these aircraft, essentially pre-production Phantoms that were !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as the F-4A. The F-4A was followed by the F-4B, which was given upgraded J79 engines and a more powerful radar.

US Air Force F-4C Phantom II of the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. (US Air Force)

By now, the US Air Force was showing interest in McDonnell’s new interceptor. As part of Defense Secretary !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! push to have one fighter serve all the flying branches of the military, the Air Force took 29 aircraft on loan from the Navy before eventually ordering their own. Initially, the Air Force designated the aircraft as the F-110A Spectre, but finally settled on calling it the F-4C. With the Air Force’s adoption of the Phantom, it marked the first time that all three fixed-wing aviation branches of the US military—Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps—flew the same fighter. In a relatively short time, the Phantom began setting records for speed and altitude, and eventually garnered 16 world records, all of them set by unmodified production aircraft.

An F-4B Phantom II of US Navy Fighter Squadron VF-111 “Sundowners” on a bombing mission over Vietnam in 1971. (US Navy)

The Phantom was soon fighting in the skies over Vietnam, where it became the principal ground attack aircraft and air superiority fighter, and crews of both the Navy and Air Force became aces flying the F-4. But despite these victories, the Phantom was hampered by its reliance on guided missiles in combat. When the Phantom was initially designed, the Air Force felt that the age of the gun given way to the age of the missile, and the Phantom did not have an internal gun for close range engagements. To make matters worse, early missiles were unreliable, and often failed to hit their targets. This shortcoming was eventually addressed by the addition of a rotary cannon mounted in a pod underneath the fuselage, though it proved difficult to use in combat, and the F-4E was finally fitted with an internal gun.

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In addition to its fighter and attack duties, the F-4 proved to be an excellent reconnaissance aircraft as the RF-4, and was also developed into an electronic warfare variant known as the F-4G !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both of which served long enough to see action in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of 1990 before being retired for good in 1996. Many of the remaining F-4s ended their life as QF-4 target drones. The Phantom was widely exported, and a handful of nations still operate the Phantom to this day. By the time production ended in 1981, McDonnell had delivered just under 5,200 Phantoms.

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May 27, 1955 – The first flight of the Sud Aviation Caravelle. Following the maiden flight of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1949, commercial air travel officially entered the Jet Age.   Though the Comet was a relatively large aircraft by the standards of its day, its early configurations carried only 36 passengers, due in part to very few seats being placed in the spacious cabin—a luxury by today’s standards. But soon after its introduction, the Comet suffered a series of high profile crashes whose cause was eventually traced to metal fatigue at the corners of its square windows, and the revolutionary airliner was removed from service until the fuselage could be redesigned. The aviation industry was ripe for a challenger to the Comet, and the Sud Aviation Caravelle was waiting in the wings.

In 1951, a year before the Comet entered service, the French Comité du matériel civil (civil aircraft committee) announced specifications for a new medium-range airliner that could accommodate 55-65 passengers, have a cruising speed of 370 mph, and a range of 1,200 miles, though they did not specify the type or number of engines to be used. They received no less that 20 proposals of varying designs, most of which employed the new turbojets that were coming into use at the time. By March 1952, the committee had winnowed the list down to three entrants, one of which was a proposal by   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , better known as Sud-Est or SNCASE. The SNCASE design was originally powered by three engines, but the arrival of more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines meant that just two engines would be sufficient and the tail-mounted engine was removed. The two engines were left on the rear fuselage rather than moved to the wing, an arrangement that had the added benefit of making the passenger cabin quieter during flight.

The nose section of the Caravelle was a direct copy of that of the Comet, which Sud licensed from de Havilland. After the experience of the square windows in the Comet, the Caravelle received its distinctive teardrop shaped windows, which maintained the strength of the fuselage while also allowing passengers to look downward. The lack of engine pods under the wing resulted in an aerodynamically clean wing, which SNCASE gave a 20-degree sweep. Unwittingly, the Sud designers had created the template for almost all future rear-engined aircraft to come. Air France placed the first orders for the new airliner in 1956, followed by SAS a year later, and the Caravelle entered service with both carriers in 1959.

The Caravelle became an instant success, and eventually served air carriers in 47 nations, as well as the militaries and governments of 12 others. United Airlines was the sole US operator of the Caravelle when it purchased 20 airliners which entered service in 1961. As the Caravelle became more and more popular, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (as it became known following the merger of Sud-Est and Sud-Ouest in 1957) continued development of the airliner with eight variants following the original production model, mostly with improved engines. By the sixth variant, the Caravelle 10R, the Rolls-Royce turbojets gave way to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! low-bypass turbofan engines, the same ones used on the comparable !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and larger !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . By the final variant, the Caravelle 12, the length of the fuselage had been stretched thirteen feet and passenger capacity had grown to 140. A total of 282 Caravelles were produced between 1958-1972, and the last was retired in 2005.

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(Tim Shaffer)

May 29, 1940 – The first flight of the Vought F4U Corsair. In the world of a fighter pilot, speed is life. Not only does speed give a pilot an advantage over their opponent, it also gives them the ability to run to safety if outnumbered. So, when the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) requested proposals for a new single-engine fighter in early 1938, they stipulated that the fighter must provide the maximum speed obtainable, which meant that it would have to be fitted with the most powerful engine available, along with the largest propeller.

The XF4U-1 prototype. Note the placement of the cockpit farther forward on the fuselage, before it was moved aft to make room for a larger fuel tank. (US Navy)

Following the unsuccessful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (which were actually developed from an aircraft originally designed by Northrop), Vought design team leader !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! took the same basic design of the earlier aircraft but made it considerably larger and gave the new XF4U-1 a prototype an 18-cylinder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! twin row radial engine. This marked the first time that the Double Wasp was fitted in an aircraft, and that engine would go on to power some of the most iconic military aircraft in history. In the early Corsair, the Double Wasp provided 1,805 hp and, when mated with the largest propeller ever fitted on a fighter up to that time, the Corsair became the first single-engine US fighter to exceed 400 mph in level flight. And it was that large propeller that gave the Corsair its iconic inverted gull wing. The shape of the wing actually had nothing at to all do with aerodynamics or performance; rather, the bend in the wing was to provide ground clearance for the huge propeller while using shorter landing struts. The fully retractable !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! were also a first for a US Navy fighter, and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! center portion of the wing also housed the Corsair’s oil coolers.

By the time the F4U-1 entered production, some significant changes had taken place in the design. The original armament of two .30 caliber machine guns mounted in the engine cowling and two .50 caliber machine guns in the wings gave way to six .50 caliber guns in the wings. But with all the armament in the wings, the fuel had to be placed somewhere else. So the cockpit was moved aft and the wing fuel tanks were relocated to a larger self-sealing tank ahead of the cockpit. Thus, another practical design consideration was responsible for the Corsair’s iconic long nose which preserved the aircraft’s center of gravity. A new more powerful Double Wasp engine now provided the Corsair with 2,000 hp, while later production models added water injection for still more power, a plexiglass canopy, and a raised seat to aid visibility over the long nose.

But even with the raised seat, Corsair pilots still had trouble seeing over the nose during carrier landings, and this led to the US Navy’s initial refusal to accept the Corsair for carrier operations. It wasn’t until the British devised a turning landing procedure that allowed the pilot to see the deck until the last part of the landing pattern that the Navy accepted it as a carrier fighter. With the Navy already flying the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was powered by the same Double Wasp engine, the Corsair became the primary weapon of land-based US Marine Corps units who flew the F4U with devastating effectiveness in the Pacific Theater, where the Japanese called it “Whistling Death.” Marine Corps pilots proved that the Corsair could be an effective ground attack platform, particularly in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mission (CAS) working with Marine landing forces.

F4U-4 Corsair over Korea in 1951 (US Navy)

While many WWII fighters were retired at the end of the war in favor of new turbojet fighters, the Corsair’s speed, power, and range ensured its continued service with the Navy and Marine Corps. The Corsair saw extensive action in the Korean War, where it was used primarily in the CAS role, and though outclassed by the new Russian jet fighters, Marine pilot Capt. Jesse Folmar nevertheless managed to shoot down a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! while flying a Corsair. The Corsair proved to be a robust yet flexible platform, and no less than 16 variants were developed throughout its service life, including the addition of cannon armament, a wing-mounted radar pod for night fighting, and the addition of superchargers.

Following, the Corsair also proved popular on the air race circuit, and heavily modified variants took part in races all over the country. Over 12,500 Corsairs were built between 1942-1953, the longest production run for any American piston-powered fighter, so many that Vought had to enlist the aid of Goodyear and Brewster to help build the fighter during the war, though poor production quality meant that none of the Brewster-built Corsairs were sent to battle. Of that number, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! remain airworthy or are undergoing restoration.

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May 29, 1935 – The first flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109. In the years leading up to WWII, Germany was working all out to rebuild its air force following the harsh restrictions placed on the country by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that brought an end to WWI. Though Germany was technically restricted from creating any new weapons of war, civilian designers forged ahead with the development of new aircraft that could easily take on fighting roles. When the Bf 109 took its first flight, it heralded the end of the biplane era and the ascendancy of the monoplane fighter.

The inverted Daimler-Benz engine, with the canon shown mounted beneath and between the cylinders.

One of the first truly modern fighters of its day, the Bf 109 (often erroneously called the Me 109) featured the first operational use of all-metal !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! construction, retractable landing gear, and an enclosed cockpit. It was developed as one part of a four-part requirement for new military aircraft put forth by the   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Ministry of Aviation) in 1933. The requirement called for a single-seat fighter with a top speed of 250 mph and a rate of climb that would allow the fighter to reach 20,000 feet in a minimum of 17 minutes. Arado, Heinkel, Focke-Wulf, and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Bf), led by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , all submitted designs, with Messerschmitt’s aircraft declared the winner as it offered a higher speed, better rate of climb, and superior diving characteristics. The 109 was powered by the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! inverted V-12 engine but, not without a touch of irony, the prototype’s first flight was powered by a British-made !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mounted upright, since the Jumo was not yet ready. The use of inverted engines provided certain benefits over the more traditional mounting, such as improved visibility over a narrower nose, greater ease of maintenance in the field, and a lower center of mass that improved handling. It also allowed for the placement of a cannon that fired through the propeller spinner, with the propeller turned by a series of gears. The Jumo was used primarily in pre-war fighters, and was replaced in wartime production by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Bf 109E with desert camouflage off the cost of North Africa in 1941 (Author unknown)

The Bf 109 was an immediate success, setting numerous speed records in the years prior to the war, and a specially prepared Bf 109 set a speed record for piston aircraft that stood until 1969. The 109 saw its first action in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (1936-1939) in support of Franco’s fascist government, which the Luftwaffe used as a dress rehearsal for the coming invasion of Poland. Development of the 109 continued throughout the war, with refinements of the design that improved handling while the installation of ever more powerful engines increased its top speed. Though more advanced fighters, such as the radial-engined !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , were introduced during the war, the Bf 109 remained the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter force throughout the war, and remained effective, particularly against more poorly trained Russian pilots on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Bf 109 pilots accounted for more aerial victories than any other aircraft in the war, with the highest scoring ace in history, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , claiming an astonishing 352 victories, most against Russia. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , fighting against significantly better opponents in North Africa, tallied 154 victories.

A Messerschmitt Bf 109G of the Finnish Air Force. Though the swastika is associated with Fascist Germany, the Finns used it as a symbol of good fortune, and it marked their aircraft from 1918-1945. (Author unknown)

The 109 was widely exported to countries allied to Germany, and though most German aircraft were retired after the war, the 109 continued to serve foreign air forces, particularly the Swiss and Finnish air forces, into the mid-1950s. By any metric, the Bf 109 was a remarkable fighter, but perhaps most telling is the sheer number of aircraft built. By the end of production, nearly 34,000 Bf 109s of all types had been produced, making it the second-most produced combat aircraft in history behind the Russian !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (36,183).

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Short Takeoff

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May 28, 2020 – The first flight of an electrically powered Cessna Caravan. Dubbed the eCaravan, the aircraft is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that was modified to be powered by a 750 hp (560 kW) motor and a 1 t (2,200 lb), 750V lithium-ion battery. Developed jointly by AeroTEC and engine manufacturer magniX, the eCaravan flew for 30 minutes and, according to the builder, used approximately $6 of energy. The developers also say that the eCaravan is now the world’s largest electrically-powered aircraft. The flight follows last year’s successful flight of an electric-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! operated by Harbour Air in Canada. The eCaravan is capable of making flights of 100 nautical miles while still keeping power in reserve, and carrying up to 5 passengers. Future upgrades to batteries should allow for more passengers and increased range

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May 28, 2017 – The first flight of the Irkut MC-21, a narrow-body twin-engine airliner developed by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and produced by the Irkut Corporation, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned United Aircraft Corporation and the same company that produced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! family of multi-role fighters. Developed as a replacement for the aging !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! trijet, the MC-21 features a carbon fiber reinforced polymer wing and is powered by either !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofan engines. Irkut plans to produce the airliner in two lengths that will accommodate up to 165 (MC-21-200) or 211 (MC-21-300) passengers in a single-class configuration, and the company touts its new airliner as being more efficient than its Boeing or Airbus counterparts. As of 2019, Irkut had produced four flying prototypes and taken orders for 175 aircraft.

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May 28, 2010 – The Solar Impulse 1 makes its first flight powered solely by solar energy.   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (HB-SIA) is a long-range, experimental aircraft developed to demonstrate the viability of solar power for extended flight and designed to promote clean technologies. Following an 87-minute flight on April 2, 2010, Solar Impulse 1 made its first entirely-solar powered flight, with the aircraft’s batteries charged during the flight by solar panels on the wings. Solar Impulse 1 was followed by Solar Impulse 2, which carries more solar cells and a more powerful engine. Flying Solar Impulse 2, pilots André Borschenberg and Bertand Piccard departed from Abu Dhabi in March 2015 and successfully completed a circumnavigation of the globe on July 13, 2016 using only solar power.

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May 28, 1997 – Linda Finch completes a recreation of Amelia Earhart’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe .   Finch, an aviatrix and businesswoman from San Antonio, TX, took off on March 17, 1997 in a restored 1935 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that had been prepared identically to Earhart’s plane. Her flight took 10 weeks to complete, flying legs of 8 to 18 hours at a time and stopping at 36 different locations in 18 countries. The flight covered approximately 26,000 miles. After completing the circumnavigation, Finch’s Electra was acquired by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Seattle, Washington where it is now on display.  

(Note: The date Finch began her flight, March 17, is the departure date for Earhart’s first attempt at circumnavigating the globe which ended in Hawaii following a takeoff accident. The second attempt, in which Earhart and copilot Fred Noonan disappeared, was begun on July 2, 1937.)  

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May 28, 1987 – Mathias Rust lands in Moscow’s Red Square.   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an 18-year-old aviator from West Germany with only 50 hours of flying time, hoped to hasten the end of the Cold War by creating what he called an “imaginary bridge” between East and West. The inexperienced Rust departed from Hamburg on May 13 in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! modified to carry extra fuel and flew first to the Faroe Islands, then to Norway and Finland. When he departed Helsinki on May 28, Rust told air traffic controllers he planned to fly to Stockholm, but then deactivated the Cessna’s transponder and turned toward Moscow. The Cessna was detected by Russian radars, fighters were scrambled and surface-to-air missiles were targeted, but confusion among the Russian air defenses allowed Rust to fly unmolested until he landed his Cessna on a bridge and taxied into the middle of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In a way, Rust’s plan to help bring an end to the Cold War was successful, as the veneer of invincibility had been removed from the Russian military, and many of the old, entrenched Russian officers who bungled the interception of Rust’s plane were ousted by General Secretary !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , helping to pave the way for reforms that ultimately led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

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May 28, 1971 – The death of Audie Murphy. Murphy was one of the most highly decorated American service members in American military history, receiving !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from the US Army, as well as awards from the French and Belgian governments for his heroism in combat. Following the war, Murphy enjoyed a successful acting career, and documented his wartime exploits in the 1955 film !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . On the night of his death, Murphy was a passenger in an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as the plane flew through rain and fog with zero visibility. The pilot, though experienced, was not rated for instrument flying, and was unfamiliar with the aircraft type. Murphy’s plane crashed near Roanoke, Virginia, and the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the pilot’s decision to continue flying under !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (VFR) in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (IMC) led to the crash.  

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(Tim Shaffer)

May 29, 1951 – Capt. Charles Blair makes the first nonstop solo flight over the North Pole . After setting a speed record flying nonstop from New York to London at an average speed of 446 mph earlier in the same year, Blair set his sights on crossing the North Pole. He departed from Bardufoss, Norway in his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! named Excalibur III and flew nonstop to Fairbanks, Alaska, a flight that covered 3,260 miles. Blair was awarded both the prestigious !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the Gold Medal of the Norwegian Aero Club. Blair was killed in 1978 in the crash of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! he was piloting for Antilles Air Boats, and the Excalibur III is on display at the Smithsonian’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Virginia.

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(US Navy)

May 29, 1944 – The aircraft carrier USS Block Island is torpedoed near the Azores. Block Island (CVE-21) was a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! escort carrier commissioned on March 8, 1943 that originally entered service as an aircraft ferry and made two trips between New York City and Belfast before WWII. During the war, she operated as part of a hunter-killer group and took part in four anti-submarine cruises that resulted in the sinking of four German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . While sailing off the coast of the Azores, Block Island was struck by three torpedoes from the German submarine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was in turn sunk by American destroyers. Remarkably, only six sailors were lost in the attack, with the other 951 picked up by members of the battle group. Block Island was the only American carrier lost in the Atlantic during WWII.

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May 29, 1934 – The Collier Trophy is awarded to the Hamilton Standard Propeller Company for development of the controllable-pitch propeller. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (or variabile-pitch) is one in which the blades can be rotated along their long axis to alter the blades’ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as they pass through the air, increasing the propeller’s efficiency. The hydraulically actuated propeller designed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! allowed the pilot to have direct control over the propeller’s pitch, and was a significant advance in aircraft technology. For their work, the company received the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which is awarded for “the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year.”

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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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user314 > ttyymmnn 05/29/2020 at 12:52

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Oh, and here’s a fascinating article about the various Corsairs used in the filming of Baa Baa Black Sheep, which probably did more to imprint the F4U in the minds of Boomers and GenXers than anything else.

ttyymmnn > user314 05/29/2020 at 12:56

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My brother and I never missed an episode. That looks like a fun article. I look forward to reading it. Thanks!

TheRealBicycleBuck > user314 05/29/2020 at 13:02

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One of my favorite shows as a kid. 

Gone > ttyymmnn 05/29/2020 at 13:03

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F-4  Phantoms on a Friday? Shut it all down ‘cause it won’t get any better.

facw > ttyymmnn 05/29/2020 at 13:09

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After completing the circumnavigation, Finch’s Electra was acquired by the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington where it will be displayed.  


I believe it is already on display (at back, under the F-104) :

ttyymmnn > facw 05/29/2020 at 13:13

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Looks like it. Thanks. I think that copy was first written about three years ago. 

Notchback88 > ttyymmnn 05/29/2020 at 13:28

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I got to see Solar Impulse II in ‘16 when it stopped in Phoenix as part of it’s route. An impressive aircraft in every respect! We were down at Pinal Airpark for UH-60A/L AQC, and being a bunch of aviation nerds we had to go see it.

ttyymmnn > Notchback88 05/29/2020 at 15:25

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That’s awesome. What sort of climate control is going on with the engines? Humidifying? Dehumidifying?

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 05/30/2020 at 00:57

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If the lights are on, it may need battery cooling.