This Date in Aviation History: October 31 - November 3

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 11/03/2020 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

5

7

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from October 31 through November 3.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

October 31, 1943 – The first flight of the Budd RB Conestoga. The term “conestoga wagon” often conjures up visions of intrepid American settlers moving westward in search of land and fortune. But the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was actually never used in westward expansion because it was too heavy to cross the prairies. The first time history records the conestoga is in 1717, and the large, boat-shaped wagons first appeared in Pennsylvania, where they were used to haul as much as six tons of cargo. They could even float if they were caulked properly. It’s no wonder, then, that the Pennsylvania-based Budd Company took the name for the innovative cargo aircraft they developed for the US Navy.

The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was founded in 1912 and made its money chiefly in the production of rail cars and automobiles, and pioneered the use of stainless steel for auto bodies in 1913. The company also invented the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! process of joining sheets of stainless steel. Budd’s expertise in the use of stainless steel came in handy when the US Navy started looking for a new large transport and cargo aircraft. Wartime demand for aluminum was high, and the Navy wanted to explore the use of other materials that were in greater supply.

Loading an ambulance onto a Budd RB-1 Conestoga

Though chiefly known for cars and trains, this wasn’t Budd’s first foray into airplane building. In 1931 the company built and flew the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the world’s first aircraft with a framework built entirely from stainless steel. For the Conestoga, Budd worked with US Navy engineers to design a truly innovative aircraft. Not only did it primarily use stainless steel in its construction, it also incorporated other features that established the template future cargo aircraft. The Conestoga had tricycle landing gear, a raised tail with an integrated loading ramp, and a deck that was at truck-bed height to facilitate loading and unloading. It also had a one-ton hoist for handling heavier cargo. The cockpit was placed on top of the fuselage to provide maximum unobstructed space for cargo, and the large hold could carry 24 paratroopers, 9,600 pounds of cargo, or a 1.5 ton truck. It could also hold the largest ambulance in the US military inventory. The Conestoga was powered by a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines that gave it a respectable cruising speed of 165 mph, but a disappointing range of only 700 miles.

A Budd RB-1 Conestoga at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland in 1944

Following the Conestoga’s maiden flight, testing commenced on the first three aircraft. The Navy initially ordered 200 aircraft, and the US Army Air Forces placed an order for an additional 600 designated C-93. However, delays in production caused by difficulties in the welding of the stainless steel, plus increased availability of aluminum, led to drastic cuts in the order sheet. The Navy decided to take just 25 aircraft, and the Army canceled their order altogether.

An RB-1 Conestoga of the Flying Tiger Lines

In the end, only 20 Conestogas were produced, and they never entered squadron service with the US Navy, though they did carry out some cargo duties stateside flying between naval air stations. After less than two years of service, the aircraft were retired in 1945 and transferred to the War Assets Administration for sale to the private sector. A handful of Conestogas became the nucleus for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! air cargo line, named after the famous !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of WWII, and one Conestoga was sold to the Tucker Motor Company to transport the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! sedan to auto shows around the US. Today, only a single incomplete Conestoga remains. It resides at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Arizona, where it is displayed minus its engines and many other bits. But despite the passage of more than 70 years, the stainless steel fuselage looks as good as new.

The remains of the Budd Conestoga on display near Tucson

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

The Spruce Goose taxiing prior to its one and only flight

November 2, 1947 – The first flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules. There’s no question that !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was an eccentric man. Known for his reclusive behavior, he was also one of the wealthiest people of his generation. Through his varied interests and investments, Hughes managed to grow a $1 million inheritance into a billion-dollar empire that encompassed interests in investing, film making, real estate, and philanthropy. But Hughes is also famous for his obsession with aviation, first with the formation of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1932, and later with his purchase of a controlling investment in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1939. Hughes had a fascination with speed and air racing, and built the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , in which he set numerous speed records. The H-1 was also the last privately-developed aircraft to set a world speed record. He developed other aircraft for the US military, none of which were particularly successful, but he is perhaps best known for his greatest failure, the H-4 Hercules.

Popularly known as the Spruce Goose , the Hercules was conceived early in WWII by shipbuilder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and built by Hughes Aircraft in the hopes of providing the US Army with a transatlantic cargo plane that would be capable of carrying either 150,000 pounds of cargo, 750 fully equipped troops, or two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! weighing 30 tons each. Hercules was an apt name for the plane, because it was a true behemoth and the largest flying boat ever built.

The cavernous interior of the Spruce Goose

Its wingspan of 320 feet 11 inches was the longest for more than 70 years before it was surpassed by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2019. In an effort to save weight and conserve metal, the Hercules was constructed almost entirely of birch wood (not spruce, but Spruce Goose has a better ring), and was powered by eight !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines each producing 3,000 horsepower. The H-4 was constructed in Hughes’ Los Angeles factory, then disassembled and transported by a house moving company to Long Beach, where it was reassembled for flight testing.

The first and only flight of the massive H-4 Hercules, better known as the Spruce Goose

With Hughes at the controls, the Hercules made two uneventful taxi runs in the waters off Cabrillo Beach. Then, on the third run, the Spruce Goose rose to about 70 feet above the surface of the water, flew at 135 mph for about a mile, then settled back onto the water—and never flew again. It is impossible to know if the Spruce Goose would have met its design objectives. Its first flight came more than two years after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the US government was no longer interested in such a huge, propeller-powered cargo plane. The Spruce Goose was maintained in a climate-controlled hangar for 30 years, then put on display in a special hangar before being acquired by the Disney company, who had plans to develop a theme park around it, but those plans never came to fruition. The Hercules now resides at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in McMinnville, Oregon.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Grumman F7F-3 (80462) over Long Island in 1945

November 2, 1943 – The first flight of the Grumman F7F Tigercat. During WWII, the piston powered fighter reached the zenith of its development. Unfortunately for the war effort, however, some of the greatest propeller planes ever produced came too late to make a difference in the outcome of the war, and were soon displaced by jet-powered aircraft during the Korean War. Such was the fate of the Tigercat, one of the fastest piston-powered fighters ever built and, in the words of Navy test pilot !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , “...the best damn fighter I’ve ever flown.”

The radical Grumman XF5F Skyrocket (top) and the Grumman XP-50, which formed the basis for the F7F Tigercat

Grumman has a rich history of providing powerful and rugged warplanes for the US Navy, but the aircraft that became the Tigercat actually started out as a project by Grumman to build the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a twin-engine interceptor for the US Army Air Corps, which itself was a further development of the radical !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

But when the XP-50 prototype was lost in a crash, funding was shifted to a new design, the XP-65, and development of the Army interceptor took place simultaneously with development of the Navy version, which bore the designation XF7F. The new interceptor kept the twin engines of its predecessors, but was otherwise a traditional design, albeit with a very narrow fuselage to reduce its frontal area.

The extremely narrow fuselage of the Tigercat is evident in this front view

Initially, the main difference between the Army and Navy versions was the inclusion of superchargers in the Army’s XP-65. But as development continued, it became clear that the Army and Navy had very different requirements, and those needs could not be met by a single airplane (a situation that would plague the development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! twenty years later). So when the Army stopped pursuing the XP-65, Grumman used its considerable experience building naval aircraft and focused entirely on the XF7F. The Navy envisioned their new aircraft both as a fighter and as a ground attack aircraft, and the Tigercat had a serious bite, with four 20mm cannons and four .50 caliber machine guns firing forward, as well as hardpoints on the wings and fuselage for bombs and torpedoes. And not only could the Tigercat hit hard, it was fast. With a top speed of 460 mph, it outpaced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by 80 mph, and was even a bit faster than the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , one of the fastest fighters of WWII. However, the early models were not able to pass carrier qualifications and Tigercats were relegated to land bases to be used as night fighters and for photo reconnaissance. It wasn’t until the F7F-4 variant that the Tigercat was cleared for carrier operations, but only 12 of that model were produced.

An F7F-3N Tigercat night fighter of VMF(N)-13 “Flying Nightmares” Marine Night Fighter Squadron. Tigercat pilots claimed two victories during the Korean War.

Delivered too late to fight in WWII, Tigercats did see limited action in Korea as a night fighter, and claimed two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! biplanes. But this would be its only combat success. Most Tigercats were eventually sent into storage and later scrapped, though some were bought as surplus and used as firefighting water bombers. Of the 364 aircraft produced of all variants, seven remain airworthy, and two currently are being restored, one to airworthiness. Interestingly, Grumman had originally intended to call the F7F the Tomcat, but that name was considered too risqué for the era. The name Tomcat would famously appear later on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Short Takeoff

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

October 31, 2000 – The first crew to man the International Space Station (ISS) launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission, named !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , had a three-man crew commanded by American astronaut !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and included Russian cosmonauts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both of whom had long-duration space experience on board the Russian space station !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Expedition 1 lasted 136 days, during which time the crew activated systems on board the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and unpacked equipment for future missions before returning to Earth on March 19, 2001. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! has been continuously inhabited ever since.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

October 31, 1999 – EgyptAir Flight 990 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. EgyptAir 990 was scheduled !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (SU-GAP) service from Los Angeles to Cairo, with a stop at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The airliner carried a primary and a relief crew, including relief First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti, who took the right seat soon after takeoff, hours before he was scheduled to do so. When primary Captain Captain Ahmed El-Habashi left the cockpit, Al-Batouti was heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying, “ Tawkalt ala Allah ,” which can be translated as “ I rely on God ” before the airliner went into a steep dive towards the ocean. Captain El-Habashi managed to re-enter the cockpit and fought Al-Batouti for control before the aircraft broke apart and crashed into the sea, killing all 217 on board. The National Transportation Safety Board listed the cause as unexplained flight control inputs by the First Officer, with the strong suggestion that it was an act of suicide by the pilot. Egyptian authorities disputed that finding and claimed it was due to a malfunction of the airliner’s elevator, though the NTSB could not identify any malfunctions in the wreckage, nor explain the split elevator condition of the tail, which would have come from the two pilots pulling the control stick in opposite directions.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

October 31, 1956 – A US Navy R4D-5 Skytrain named Que Sera Sera becomes the first airplane to land at the South Pole. Que Sera Sera was the Navy’s version of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , named after a popular Doris Day !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was commanded by RADM George Dufek and piloted by LCDR Gus Shinn, and . The six-man crew were the first Americans to set foot on the South Pole, and the first time anybody had been to the Pole since Royal Navy CAPT Robert F. Scott in 1912. The flight, which planted the first American flag at the South Pole, was part of Operation Deep Freeze, and included the establishment of bases on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , as well as scientific experiments. Dufek also took part in a circumnavigation of Antarctica on board the ice breaker USS Glacier (AGB-4). Que Sera Sera now resides at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

October 31, 1931 – The first flight of the Westland Wallace, a two-seat biplane developed for the Royal Air Force during the period between the World Wars. Building on the success of the earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Wallace featured a lengthened fuselage and more powerful engine, while the Wallace Mk II had spatted wheels and an optional enclosed cockpit. The Wallace entered service in 1933, with the majority flying with the Auxiliary Air Force, and served in all manner of roles. During the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of 1933, a Wallace was the first aircraft to fly over the summit of Mount Everest. Though it was obsolete at the outbreak of WWII, the Wallace continued to serve as a target tug and trainer for aircraft radio operators.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

November 1, 2007 – The death of Paul Tibbets. Tibbets was born in Quincy, Illinois on February 23, 1915, enlisted in the US Army in 1937, and qualified as a pilot the following year. As the commanding officer of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Tibbets flew the lead !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the first daylight heavy bomber mission over occupied Europe in July 1942. After returning to the US to assist with the development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Tibbets became commander of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which was tasked with carrying out the nuclear raid on Japan. Tibbets was at the controls of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   when it dropped the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Tibbets was also involved in the development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and retired from the US Air Force in 1966 with the rank of brigadier general.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

November 1, 1957 – The de Havilland Comet returns to service. When the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! entered service with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (BOAC) in 1952, it was the world’s first commercial jet-powered airliner. However, two Comets broke up in midair in 1954 with the loss 56 passengers and crew, and the fleet was grounded. After extensive water tank testing, the Comet was found to be susceptible to metal fatigue from repeated pressurizations, particularly around its large square windows. All new and existing Comets were fitted with strengthened fuselages and new oval windows, which solved the problem. Though sales never completely recovered, the Comet went on to a successful 30-year career and was finally retired in 1997.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

November 2, 1992 – The first flight of the Airbus A330. One of a number of derivatives of Airbus’ original !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! wide-body, the A330 has a range of up to 8,300 miles and can carry as many as 335 passengers or 150,000 pounds of cargo, depending on the variant and cabin configuration. The A330 was developed alongside the four-engine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and shares a common airframe, though the A340 has a centerline wheel bogey. To accommodate different customers, the A330 was the first Airbus airliner to offer a choice of three different engines. Still in production today, over 1,200 A330s have been built, and they serve numerous civilian carriers, cargo companies, and militaries.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

November 2, 1929 – The founding of The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of woman pilots that provides professional opportunities for women in aviation and “promotes advancement of aviation through education, scholarships, and mutual support while honoring our unique history and sharing our passion for flight.” Founded at Curtiss Field in New York by 99 of the then-117 licensed female pilots, the organization counts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! among its charter members, and includes such notables as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and astronaut !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

November 3, 1957 – The launch of Sputnik 2, the second spacecraft to be launched into Earth orbit and the first to carry a live animal into space. Sputnik 2 was launched atop a modified !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ICBM just 32 days after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! carrying a dog named Laika to provide data on how spaceflight would affect a living creature. Laika survived the launch, but by the third orbit the temperature in the cabin rose to 109ºF and telemetry data indicated that Laika had most likely died, either from the heat or a buildup of carbon dioxide. The manner of Laika’s death caused some controversy, but the dog would have died anyway, as it was 162 days before Sputnik 2 returned to Earth and burned up on reentry.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

November 3, 1952 – The first flight of the Saab 32 Lansen, a two-seat !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter-bomber developed by Saab for the Swedish Air Force. Originally designed as one of the first dedicated ground attack jets, Saab produced three principal variants: the A 32A for ground attack, the J 32B for aerial combat, and the S 32C for reconnaissance. The Lansen was plagued by a rash of fatal crashes early in its service life, and was phased out beginning in 1971 in favor of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , though some continued operations into the 1990s as a target tug and as an electronics warfare platform. A total of 450 Lansens were produced from 1954-1960, and it was the last purpose-built ground attack aircraft developed by Sweden.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

November 3, 1944 – The first Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs are launched against North America. The Fu-Go ( balloon bomb ) was a hydrogen-filled balloon launched from Japan and intended to travel to North America carried by the Pacific !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The first-ever weapon designed with an intercontinental range, the balloons were armed with either a small antipersonnel bomb or multiple incendiary devices, or both, and were intended to kill civilians or start forest fires in the Pacific Northwest. Over 9,000 were launched, but only one Fu-Go attack resulted in fatalities when a group of picnickers discovered one on the ground in Oregon. One of the anti-personnel bombs detonated, killing a pregnant woman and five children.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Connecting Flights

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

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!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

facw > ttyymmnn 11/03/2020 at 12:42

2

Here’s our local classic Budd, a Boston and Maine Budd RDC standing watch over the northwest end of the Minute Man Commuter Bikeway in Bedford, MA.

It will fly just as well as the one at Pima.

user314 > ttyymmnn 11/03/2020 at 12:55

0

This is what happens when railroad car engineers design an airplane. Also, I would have thought stainless steel would have been even more dear to the war effort than aluminum, making a aircraft made from the stuff a non-starter.

There’s a guy I follow on Tumblr who’s posted literal TED talks on how the Spruce Goose wasn’t an airplane and didn’t actually fly, but that it functioned as an ekranoplan and basically sat in it’s own ground effect the whole time. With only one ‘flight’ I can’t really say one way or the other, but he makes a good case.

If you told me the Saab 32 was a swept-wing development of the F-94, I would believe you.

ranwhenparked > user314 11/03/2020 at 13:20

1

That’s exactly why the Navy reached out to Hughes’ heirs in 1976-77 to inquire about the availability of the H-4 for full flight testing. The Navy was doing considerable renewed research into ground effect vehicles at the time, and the Hercules had been meticulously maintained in flight ready condition throughout Hughes’ life. But, when he died, his estate was actually almost broke. The aircraft company had been donated to his medical foundation in the ‘50s, the tool company had been spun off in an IPO in the early ‘70s to pay down debt and compensate his executives, control of TWA had been lost in the ‘60s, and RKO had been sold at a major loss years earlier.

All he had by the end were the casinos (which were losing money due to years of underinvestment on upkeep and marketing), loads of desert land that wasn’t worth much, a barely profitable regional airline, the helicopter company, a TV station, and a company that did TV production for sporting events. To stop the bleeding, his relatives were getting ready to lay off all the staff at the hangar and turn off the climat e control system and the Navy got them to hold off temporarily until a feasibility study could be done regarding a test program.

Also, with careful management, they managed to rebuild the fortune. Updating and expanding the casinos and gradually liquidating assets during the 80s and 90s, and refocusing the company on real estate development to extract value out of all the desert tracts he had purchased for various half baked ideas (new supersonic jet port, silver mining, high speed rail line, etc). I think his net worth was down to well under $100 million by his death, due to all the debts and losses, but his family ended up making out very well in the end, just took awhile to recoup.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 11/03/2020 at 14:32

2

I saw the Spruce Goose before it was moved to its current home. That plane is big.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > user314 11/03/2020 at 21:51

0

yeah but what other major uses for Stainless were there? 

Dakotahound > TheRealBicycleBuck 11/04/2020 at 09:39

1

When the Spruce Goose was still in Long Beach, I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the plane. As you mentioned, it is big. Not only is the fuse lage enormous, but the wings were large enough to walk into without ducking.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Dakotahound 11/04/2020 at 09:59

1

That was where we visited it. I don’t recall being allowed to walk into the wings. They had plexiglass everywhere to keep people from touching anything. I’ll have to look at my old photos to see exactly where they allowed us to go . I remember a staircase and walkway into and through a portion of the plane, but we weren’t allowed to wander far.