This Date in Aviation History: June 10 - June 12

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 06/12/2020 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 June 10 through June 12.

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June 11, 1926 – The first flight of the Ford Trimotor. For most people, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is a name synonymous with automobiles, interchangeable parts, and the assembly line. But back in the 1920s, Ford made a brief foray into aircraft manufacturing when he joined a group of investors in the acquisition of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Company in 1925. The purchase netted Ford not only the company’s assets, but also Stout’s intellectual property, which included designs for an aircraft that previous owner !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! had been working on. Stout had been influenced by the pioneering work of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the construction of all-metal aircraft in Germany, as well as three-engined aircraft designed by Anthony Fokker.

Stout 3-AT (Author unknown)

Prior to its acquisition by ford, the Stout Company developed the single-engine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which achieved a certain amount of success. Stout followed the Pullman with the ungainly !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! trimotor, the first all-metal aircraft to be certified in the US, but it was an unmitigated disaster. In fact, when Stout’s chief test pilot landed after the 3-AT’s maiden flight he refused to fly it again. So when a fire destroyed one of Stout’s hangars, and the 3-AT along with it, Ford used the opportunity to make a fresh start on the trimotor. The first order of business was the removal of William Stout from the design team.

A detail of the Ford Trimotor (NC8407) showing the corrugated metal skin and exposed control cables. (Tim Shaffer)

The new aircraft was called the 4-AT, and it very closely resembled the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! trimotor, though the Fokker design used far less metal in its construction. The 4-AT also copied Junkers’ wing design, as well as the corrugated metal skin that Junkers had pioneered, which prompted Junkers to sue Ford for patent infringement. When Junkers prevailed, Ford was prevented from marketing his aircraft in Europe. The original Trimotor was powered by three !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 9-cylinder radial engines that gave it a maximum speed of 132 mph and a range of 570 miles. Later variants received a trio of more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radials. And, in much the same way that the Model T had a profound impact on the sale of motor cars in the US, the Trimotor, with accommodation for eight passengers, had an immediate impact on civilian air transport in the US.

The spartan cockpit of the Ford Trimotor. (Tim Shaffer)

Shortly after the arrival of the Trimotor, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (which eventually became !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) was founded by financier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . On July 7, 1929, TAT inaugurated transcontinental service from New York to Los Angeles with passengers making the 51-hour journey by alternating between rail and air transportation. A ticket for this service cost $338, which would be over $3,800 in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Trimotors were also flown by Pan American Airways to Cuba and other destinations in Central and South America. But the Trimotor was not only used for passenger flights. It set numerous distance records, and US Navy Commander !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , along with pilot !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , made the first flight over the geographic South Pole in 1937 while flying a Trimotor. The aircraft’s rugged construction also made it a popular cargo aircraft.

Rapid advances in aircraft design and technology quickly surpassed the Trimotor and Ford left the airplane business, though his company did produce aircraft under license during WWII. William Stout bought the rights to the Trimotor in 1954, hoping to modernize the design and to regain a foothold in the aviation industry. But his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was unable to match the performance of more modern aircraft, and only two were built. Even though the Trimotor’s heyday as an airliner was relatively brief, it would fly into the 1960s as a rugged and dependable cargo aircraft, and a handful remain flying to this day, taking passengers on a flight back to the Golden Age of aviation.  

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An Etihad Boeing 777-300ER lands at Los Angeles International Airport in 2019 (Tim Shaffer)

June 12, 1994 – The first flight of the Boeing 777. As the commercial airline industry progressed through the 1950s and 1960s, airliners got longer but not necessarily wider. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! dominated the market, but they were limited to six-across seating, and there were practical limits on just how long an aircraft could be made. International airlines clamored for higher passenger loads, so the Boeing Company responded with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the world’s first !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! airliner, which entered service in 1970. They followed the 747 with the narrow-body !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and wide-body !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in response to new airliners manufactured by their main rival !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and both the 757 and 767 were immediately successful and continue flying today, though in decreasing numbers.

Following Boeing’s pioneering launch of the 747, Douglas followed suit with their own wide-body !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and Lockheed introduced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both of which were three-engined trijets. However, Boeing found themselves with a gap in passenger capacity between the 767 and 747, so they began to develop their own trijet to fill the void. But advances in engine technology meant that transoceanic flights could now be made with airliners that had only two engines, and airlines had begun flying the twinjet 767 regularly on long intercontinental routes. So Boeing dropped the trijet concept and went instead with an enlarged 767, which they called the 767X. They also proposed a 767 with a larger cross-section while retaining the commonality of the earlier 767 cockpit. But the airlines weren’t interested, saying that they wanted an even wider fuselage with more interior options, intercontinental range, and lower operating costs.

An American Airlines 777 arrives at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (Tim Shaffer)

So Boeing went back to the drawing board and developed an entirely new airliner, the first to be designed entirely using !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CAD) and Boeing’s first airliner to use !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! controls. Boeing also allowed their potential customers to have a say in the design and development of the aircraft. Based on their input, Boeing offered 9-across seating in coach with the ability to accommodate as many as 325 passengers. To make room for all the seats and cargo, Boeing designed the largest twinjet in the world and the first airliner with a fully circular cross section. The 777 comes with engine options from Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, and General Electric, with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! being the largest and most powerful high bypass turbofan in use today, producing 115,000 pounds of thrust. An even larger engine will be made available with the launch of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2019. In a three-class seating arrangement, the 777-300ER, the most popular variant, can accommodate nearly 400 passengers with a range of 8,400 miles. The 777-200LR is capable of even greater range, and can fly halfway around the globe without refueling.

On May 15, 1995, United Airlines received the first Pratt & Whitney-powered 777, and the first revenue flight took place on June 7, 1995 from London Heathrow to Dulles International in Washington, DC. British Airways debuted the first GE90-engined 777 in November of that year, while Thai Airways International received the first 777 to be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent engines in March 1996. Today, the Triple-Seven is flown by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! worldwide, with Dubai-based Emirates operating the lion’s share of aircraft with 161 in the air. United Airlines is a distant second with 88 in service. Before the arrival of the Airbus A350-900 flying a route for Singapore Airlines from Newark to Singapore, 777s of Qatar Airlines held the record for the longest passenger flight, from Qatar to New Zealand, a distance of 9,032 miles.

Currently, Boeing has received orders for nearly 2,000 777s of all variants, with over 1,950 deliveries, though only the 777-300ER, 777F freighter remain in production. Boeing has plans for further development of the 777 with its 777X program, which will see new carbon-fiber-reinforced wings for greater efficiency and folding wingtips for complete airport gate compatibility. The cabin will also be widened and enhanced based on experience learned from development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Two variants of the 777X—the 777-8 and 777-9—are expected to enter service in 2020.

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A restored V-1 Vergeltungswaffen at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC (Tim Shaffer)

June 12, 1944 – The first V-1 flying bomb falls on England. The V-1 flying bomb, along with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ballistic rocket, were known to the Germans as Vergeltungswaffen , or retaliatory weapons . The Allies often referred to them as vengeance weapons, and when guided bombs began appearing in the skies in the final year of the war, the V-weapons were often seen as the last gasp of a desperate Germany as it faced the inevitable prospect of losing WWII. But the history of the V-1 actually began began three years before the war with the work of German engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! who developed a remotely-controlled aircraft in 1936. In 1939, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   (German Air Ministry) received a proposal for a flying bomb that could carry a 2,200-pound payload over 300 miles, but it was plagued with inaccuracy. Even though most of the problems with the guidance system were worked out by 1941, Adolf Hitler did not approve the project until June 1944, soon after the Allied invasion of occupied Europe on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

A cutaway drawing shows the compass in the nose, the warhead, fuel tank, and compressed air tanks to power the gyroscopes and pressurize the fuel. (Imperial War Museum)

The V-1 featured a welded sheet metal fuselage, plywood wings, and was powered by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engine, the first of its kind to power an aircraft. The pulsejet had a distinctive sound as it flew, which led the Allies to give the V-1 the nickname “buzz bomb” and “doodlebug.” As the progenitor to the modern cruise missile, the V-1 was controlled in flight by an internal gyroscope, while a propeller-driven odometer measured the distance the missile was to fly. After covering a specific distance, explosive bolts disabled the control system and the flying bomb dove towards the target. Though fairly inaccurate at first, refinements in the control system eventually enabled the V-1 to strike with an accuracy of roughly seven miles around the intended target. This certainly wasn’t accurate enough for use as a tactical weapon, but as a strategic weapon of terror, it was close enough, as most of its targets were large cities and their civilian populations. At the peak of operation, more than 100 V-1s per day were fired at southeast England, but continuing problems with guidance systems and poor engine reliability meant that only about 25-percent of the buzz bombs actually reached their targets. Nevertheless, over 6,000 British civilians fell victim to the V-1. In addition to the ground-launched bombs, about 1,200 V-1s were also air-launched from modified !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which increased the bomb’s operational range.

A V-1 falls on London on June 15, 1944. (US Air Force)

When the first V-1s appeared over England, the only aircraft fast enough to intercept the low-flying bombs was the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , though eventually !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! were modified to increase their speed. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! also proved relatively effective, and the early jet-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! claimed a handful of buzz bombs as well. The relatively small size of the V-1 made it a difficult target for guns, and the most effective method to stop the V-1s was to fly alongside, put a wingtip underneath the V-1's wingtip, then flip the flying bomb over, causing it to crash.

A Supermarine Spitfire uses its wing to tip over a V-1 in flight and knock it off course (Imperial War Museum)

As the Allies began retaking French territory and moved into Germany, they overran the V-1 launch sites and the number of attacks dropped sharply. Towards the end of the war, V-1s were launched against Antwerp and other sites in Belgium before the final launch site was captured in October 1944. While the bombs themselves weren’t terribly effective, the attacks did cause the Allies to divert about a quarter of their bomber force to attack the launch sites, often without effect. By the end of V-1 operations, 9,521 buzz bombs had been launched against England and Belgium, an impressive number that nevertheless had a negligible affect on the ultimate outcome of the war.

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Short Takeoff

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(Dramatization via National Geographic Channel)

June 10, 1990 – British Airways Flight 5390 experiences explosive decompression, partially ejecting the airliner’s captain. During a routine flight from Birmingham, England to Málaga, Spain, the cockpit window of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (G-BJRT) separated from the fuselage at 17,000 feet. Captain Tim Lancaster was pulled half way out of the aircraft, and would have been ejected entirely had his legs not snagged on the control column. A flight attendant quickly grabbed the captain’s belt to keep him from being completely sucked out of the aircraft. Inside the cockpit, the crew could see Lancaster being pummeled against the side of the aircraft, and they were certain he was dead. But upon landing they found that he was alive, though he suffered frostbite, bruising, and fractures to his arm and hand. Flight attendant Nigel Ogden also suffered frostbite. Despite the harrowing experience, Lancaster returned to work just five months after the incident. An investigation determined that maintenance crews had used incorrect bolts to fit a replacement windscreen.

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(F-16 photo: US Air Force; Parker photo: author unknown)

June 10, 1989 – Capt. Jacquelyn Parker graduates from the US Air Force Test Pilot School, becoming the first female USAF test pilot . Parker was the youngest student to attend the University of Central Florida at age 14, and its youngest graduate at age 17. Too young to join the Air Force, Parker began work as an intern at NASA and became their youngest full-fledged mission controller at age 18. After joining the Air Force, Parker became the first female instructor on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the first woman qualified to fly the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . She is also a two-time winner of the Kitty Hawk Award for achievements in the field of aviation. Parker has accumulated over 3,000 hours flying more than 35 different aircraft, including the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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(US Air Force)

June 10, 1967 – The first flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (NATO reporting name Flogger ), a third-generation fighter which, in spite of its variable-sweep wing, can be considered roughly analogous in mission to the earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Flogger was the first Soviet fighter designed with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radar capable of picking out a target below the radar’s horizon and against the clutter of the ground beneath. It was also the first Soviet fighter to be armed with beyond visual range missiles. While a definite improvement over earlier Soviet designs, the Flogger was hampered by poor radar performance, and the fighter proved difficult to fly and expensive to maintain, suffering particularly from a short engine service life. Nevertheless, over 5,000 were produced, and though it was phased out of Russian service by 1999, the Flogger still serves many export customers.

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(NASA)

June 12, 1979 – The Gossamer Albatross flies across the English Channel. Designed and built by American aeronautical engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and built by his company !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Albatross was the first human-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel and thus claim the second !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! along with its £100,000 purse. The Albatross was MacCready’s second human-powererd aircraft after the earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which had won the first Kremer prize in 1974 for completing a one-mile figure-eight course. Powered and flown by amateur cyclist and hang glider pilot !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Albatross completed the 22.2-mile crossing in 2 hours and 49 minutes at a top speed of 18 mph and an altitude of just 5 feet.

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June 12, 1965 – The first flight of the Britten-Norman Islander, a light utility aircraft, regional airliner, and cargo aircraft and one of the best-selling commercial aircraft produced in Europe. Designers !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! developed the Islander to satisfy a demand for an inexpensive twin-engine transport, and sought to produce an aircraft that was capable of carrying heavy loads while still being simple to maintain. With 1,280 built since 1965, the Islander has proven to be a tremendous success, and it remains in production today. The Islander was developed into numerous variants, and serves with the British Army and UK police forces, as well as over 30 military operators and many civilian operators worldwide.

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June 12, 1934 – The Air Mail Act of 1934 is enacted. As a result of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of the 1930s, and following congressional investigations into the awarding of Air Mail contracts to certain airlines, the Air Mail Act reintroduced competitive bidding for lucrative air mail routes and prevented aircraft manufacturers from operating passenger airlines. The new act, which superseded the earlier act of 1930, resulted in the restructuring of the airline industry, brought new regulations for passenger flight, and spurred the modernization of the US Army Air Corps. To circumvent the new restrictions, aircraft manufacturers simply changed their names, resulting in the creation of American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Eastern Airlines and United Airlines.

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June 12, 1930 – The first flight of the Handley Page Heyford, a biplane night bomber developed to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in RAF service. The Heyford arose from Air Ministry specification B.19/27 which called for a heavy night bomber that could carry 1,546 pounds of bombs at a range of 920 miles, and the Heyford’s two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 12-cylinder engines provided a top speed of 142 mph. As the last biplane bomber to serve the RAF, the Heyford displayed an interesting mixture of both WWI-era and more modern construction techniques, with metal frame, fabric-covered wings supporting an aluminum monocoque forward fuselage, and a fabric-covered tail. Named for the base where it was first deployed, the Heyford entered service in 1933 and eventually filled nine squadrons by the end of 1936. With the arrival of more modern monoplane bombers by 1937, the Heyford was retired in 1939.

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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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OPPOsaurus WRX > ttyymmnn 06/12/2020 at 12:59

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The side view mirror on my Sport Trac was unique to the sport Trac.  It did not match any other Explorer, Ranger, Mountaineer......nothing.

ttyymmnn > OPPOsaurus WRX 06/12/2020 at 13:06

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Henry Ford is dead. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 06/12/2020 at 13:12

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Excellent post as always !

When I was young, the Albatross flight was the inspiration which led to me volunteering to be the engine for another human-powered craft - a submarine. Unfortunately, I was deemed to be too big to be the pilot for the school’s design. I’d still like to take one of them for a spin.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 06/12/2020 at 13:14

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I followed the flights of both the Condor and Abatros with great interest as a kid. I still remember watching news stories about them.

And thanks!

user314 > ttyymmnn 06/12/2020 at 13:50

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Tying two stories together, the US had it’s own copies of the V-1, assembled by Republic Aircraft with parts supplied by Willys-Overland and Ford. Almost two thousand were produced, with a projection of up to 75,000 if the war continued. Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese Home Islands, would have included JB-2s launched from aircraft

as well as navalized versions launched from modified LSTs and CVEs. With the Manhattan Project producing a successful atomic bomb, the end of the war capped production, though testing continued by both the USAAF/USAF and the Navy until the early Fifties, refining propulsion and guidance systems, as well as adding submarine launching capabilities.

 In the end, no Loons were fired in anger, though they did pave the way for future missile systems. 

RacinBob > ttyymmnn 06/12/2020 at 13:54

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Yep, just a bit of similarity......

RacinBob > RacinBob 06/12/2020 at 13:55

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Spoke too fast, I see the Junkers was a low wing, Trimotor was a high wing. 

Deal Killer - Powered by Focus > ttyymmnn 06/12/2020 at 14:38

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My dad, and his step father, flew a tri-motor for Island Airlines in Put-in-Bay Ohio in the early 1950's.

His step dad stalled it during take off, and had a pretty bad crash landing. The fixed the plane, but his step dad retired to Florida. I don’t think he flew again.

facw > RacinBob 06/12/2020 at 16:31

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Yep, as ttyymmnn notes in the post, it was the Fokker F.VII that the Tri-M otor was imitating:

ttyymmnn > Deal Killer - Powered by Focus 06/12/2020 at 16:39

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I was at an air show once, where I took two of the photos that I used in this article, and they were selling rides on the Trimotor. As much as I know it’s a perfectly safe plane, I did not go for a ride.

ttyymmnn > facw 06/12/2020 at 16:40

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IIRC, the Fokker still had a fair amount of fabric on it, where the Ford was metal all over.

ttyymmnn > RacinBob 06/12/2020 at 16:41

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Well, aside from the wing, Ford totally stole most of the rest of the a/c, particularly its corrugated skin.

ttyymmnn > user314 06/12/2020 at 16:46

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When we were in CA last summer, we went on an extended drive down the coast on off-the-beaten-path roads. We came across a static display outside Point Mugu that had an F- 4 and an F-14A on a stick, as well as a little park of various missiles, including a Loon.

user314 > ttyymmnn 06/12/2020 at 16:52

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Looks like it could do with a restoration.

ttyymmnn > user314 06/12/2020 at 16:56

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Yeah, that was a sad little air park. The whole thing was desperately in need of a coat of paint, thought the Phoenix still looked pretty fresh. Here’s the Google Maps link.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 06/12/2020 at 22:46

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My grandfather had just docked in London the night before, and was in london for beer when there was a V1 strike. They ran  back swearing “for once the ship is safer”