This Date in Aviation History: January 29 - January 31

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 01/31/2020 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 January 29 through January 31.

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January 31, 1958 – The first flight of the North American T-2 Buckeye. If you joined the US Navy to become a Naval Aviator at any time from the late 1950s to 2004, you likely did your primary flight training on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The radial-powered Trojan would have helped you master basic flying skills, but if you wanted to be a jet fighter pilot, your next ride was another North American aircraft, the T-2 Buckeye. After developing proficiency in the Buckeye, you would then transfer to fighter aircraft, if you survived the learning process.

T-2C Buckeyes of Training Squadron Nine (VT-9) “Tigers” perform a training flight over Key West, Florida in 2004 (US Navy)

While not as fast or as sexy as a jet fighter, the Buckeye was designed with the student pilot in mind. It featured straight wings borrowed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Navy’s first operational jet fighter. As opposed to swept wings, straight wings offer better low speed handling characteristics and stability while learning to land on a moving deck. The original Buckeye, the T-2A, was powered by only a single engine, but North American outfitted the T-2B and later variants with two engines, an arrangement that was more common for Naval aircraft where having a second engine acted as an insurance policy while operating over the open ocean. With the T-2C, the Buckeye received a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojets that could push the trainer up to a respectable 522 mph. In order to help ease the transition from the propeller powered Trojan, North American made the cockpit of the Buckeye similar enough that it would be familiar to the new pilot, an important selling point for the Navy, with the student and teacher seated in tandem, as they were in the Trojan. And North American also made the Buckeye tough enough to endure the pounding of inexperienced pilots slamming down on the deck for the first time.

Though the original Buckeye was unarmed, it did come with strongpoints under the wings to carry bombs, rockets or gun pods for armament training. Forty Buckeyes were exported to Greece, where they served with the Hellenic Air Force. These aircraft, designated T-2E, were outfitted with six stations under the wings that could carry up to 3,500 pounds of ordnance, and also had extra armor on the fuel tanks to protect them from ground fire.

The 50-year run of the Buckeye came to an end in 2008 when the Navy retired the T-2 from its training duties and replaced it with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , though a handful remained in service for testing duties or to serve as a director aircraft for aerial drones. The final operational flight of the Buckeye took place on September 25, 2015.

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Short Takeoff

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January 29, 2010 – The first flight of the Sukhoi Su-57, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! under development by Sukhoi as part of the Perspektivny Aviatsionny Kompleks Frontovoy Aviatsii program to develop a new, high-technology fighter for Russian Frontal Aviation. The successor to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the prototype is known as the T-50 and is the first operational Russian fighter to employ stealth technology. The T-50 will be used in both the air superiority and ground attack roles and, like the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , its closest Western competition, the T-50 will feature !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In May 2018, as many as four Su-57s were deployed to Syria for combat testing, and at least one reportedly launched a cruise missile. Ten prototypes have been built to date.

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(San Diego Air and Space Museum)

January 29, 1973 – Frontier Airlines hires Emily Howell Warner, the first woman to command a passenger airliner. Though not the first woman to fly as a commercial pilot, Warner became the only woman working as a pilot for a major airline when she was hired by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1973. Within six months of her hiring, Warner was promoted to First Officer, and became the first female member of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) in 1974. In 1976, Warner became the first woman captain, commanding a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Warner was also the first woman to command an all-female crew. When Frontier went out of business in 1986, Warner went to work as captain of a UPS !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and also flew the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In 1990, she left UPS to work for the Federal Aviation Administration. Warner was elected to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2014.

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(UK Government)

January 30, 2001 – The death of Johnnie Johnson, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! & !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Johnson was a fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force during WWII, and began his service in 1941 flying the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Over the course of 700 operational sorties Johnson scored 34 individual victories and three probable shared victories. He was also credited with damaging a further 10 Luftwaffe aircraft, as well as destroying one on the ground. His tally of victories made him the highest scoring Allied fighter ace versus the German Luftwaffe of WWII. He continued flying in Korea in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , though he scored no further victories. For his service in Korea, Johnson was awarded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from the United States.

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(Deutsches Bundesarchiv)

January 30, 1958 – The death of Dr. Ernst Heinkel. Born on January 14, 1888, Heinkel was a German aircraft designer and manufacturer who supplied some of the most iconic German aircraft to serve in the Spanish Civil War and WWII. He established the Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1922 and, after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1934, Heinkel provided many of the aircraft that Hitler used to build up the strength of the Luftwaffe, notably the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! medium bomber, which made its debut in the Spanish Civil War and served as the backbone of the German bomber fleet throughout WWII. Heinkel also produced the world’s first turbojet-powered aircraft in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the world’s first rocket-powered plane in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Heinkel died in 1958.

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(US Library of Congress)

January 30, 1948 – The death of Orville Wright. Along with his brother !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Orville Wright is credited with helping to design and construct the world’s first successful powered and controlled airplane and the first to achieve sustained heavier-than-air flight. After the toss of a coin, it was Orville who piloted the famous first flight on December 17, 1903. Following Wilbur’s death from typhoid fever in 1912, Orville took over the work of securing patents for their creation, further developing their flying machine, and marketing it to the US military, and finally sold the company in 1915. Orville continued his work in aviation by serving on the board of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (NACA, the predecessor to NASA) for 28 years. On April 19, 1944, Orville took his last ride in an airplane, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! piloted by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . During the flight, Wright commented that the wingspan of the Connie was longer than his first flight. Orville’s death came soon after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1. The world had gone from first flight to supersonic flight in one man’s lifetime.

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(US Air Force)

January 30, 1933 – The first flight of the Curtiss T-32 Condor II, a biplane airliner and bomber that was also used by the US Army as an executive transport. Production aircraft were outfitted as 12-passenger luxury night sleeper transports and served with Eastern Air Transport and American Airways. The US Army Air Corps purchased two Condors which received the designation YC-30, and one was fitted with extra fuel tanks and took part in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Admiral Richard Byrd’s third exploration of the Antarctic. Curtiss also produced eight armed bomber versions which were exported, and a cargo version for Argentina. Curtiss produced a total of 45 Condor IIs.

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(National Air and Space Museum; US Air Force)

January 31, 2011 – The death of Charles Huron Kaman, an American inventor who developed a line of helicopters that are known for their use of dual, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that counter-rotate, thus eliminating the need for a tail rotor. After working for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Kaman developed his first helicopter, the K-125, and the improved !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! became the first helicopter powered by a gas turbine engine. Kaman went on to develop more helicopters for the US military, such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which flew more rescue missions in Vietnam than any other helicopter. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a traditional helicopter design, saw extensive use with the US Navy, and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a medium lift utility helicopter that has also been developed for the US Marine Corps as an unmanned remote control helicopter for resupply missions into dangerous landing zones. Kaman was also a musician, and founded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! guitar company.

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(US Air Force)

January 31, 2002 – The death of Francis “Gabby” Gabreski. Born Franciszek Gabryszewski on January 28, 1919 in Oil City, Pennsylvania, Gabreski was the top scoring American ace in Europe in WWII, where he flew the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and recorded 28 victories before ending the war as a German POW. After WWII, Gabreski served in the Korean War, where he scored 6.5 kills flying a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , bringing his all-time total to 34.5 and making him one of seven US pilots to become an ace in both wars. After Korea, Gabreski served 15 more years in the USAF and commanded three different fighter wings. He retired in 1967 at the rank of colonel after 26 years of service having logged more than 5,000 hours in the air, with 4,000 of those flying jets.

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January 31, 1966 – The launch of Luna 9, an unmanned spacecraft sent to the Moon as part of Russia’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to orbit and land on the lunar surface. When Luna 9 made a soft landing on the Moon on February 3, 1966, it became the first spacecraft to touch down safely on any planetary body other than Earth. Once Luna 9 became operational, it beamed back nine images of the lunar surface, including five panoramas. The Russians did not release the images immediately, but British scientists recognized and intercepted the signals being sent from the Moon and published the images around the world. While the only scientific instrument on Luna 9 was a radiation detector, the landing did demonstrate that the surface of the Moon could support a lander.

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(NASA)

January 31, 1961 – The launch of Mercury-Redstone 2 with Ham the Chimp on board. As part of the American !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! space program, Ham, whose name is an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center at Holloman AFB in New Mexico, was trained to do simple tasks to assess a human’s ability to function safely in space. Ham was launched from Cape Canaveral on a suborbital flight, and he performed his tasks flawlessly before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. After his flight, Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Following Ham’s death, initial plans were to have his body stuffed and put on display as the Russians had done with their space dogs. However, Ham’s remains, minus his skeleton, were buried at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

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(NASA)

January 31, 1958 – The launch of Explorer 1, the first satellite placed in orbit by the United States. Explorer was launched as part of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a project that attempted to open a scientific dialogue between the East and West during the Cold War. Following the successful launch of the Russian satellites !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Explorer 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral and was the first spacecraft to confirm the existence of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Explorer 1 continued to return useful data for nearly four months until its batteries gave out, and it stayed in orbit until 1970. Explorer 1 was the first of more than 90 missions for the ongoing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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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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facw > ttyymmnn 01/31/2020 at 12:49

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Here’s a death for you:

Paul Farnes, last surviving ace of the Battle of Britain, dies at 101

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 01/31/2020 at 12:55

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which flew more rescue missions in Korea Vietnam than any other helicopter.

s/b, if I’m reading Wiki correctly. first operational flight was only three months before the end of the Korean War.

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 01/31/2020 at 13:25

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Military trainers are an interesting animal. What do commercial airlines use to train?  Do they have trainer aircraft?  I’ve never thought about it before. 

ttyymmnn > facw 01/31/2020 at 13:54

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Wow. Thanks. I’ll check that out later today.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 01/31/2020 at 13:55

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I’ll check into it. I guarantee you it’s not the first mistake I’ve ever made.

Thanks.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 01/31/2020 at 13:57

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You’re right. Fixed it. Thanks for the rescue. 

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Chariotoflove 01/31/2020 at 13:58

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Nowadays most training is done in full-motion simulators. More realistic and less risky than using actual aircraft.

But years ago, before these simulators were good enough to accurately replicate the experience of flying, actual aircraft were used. TWA, for example, used the Lockheed JetStar for this purpose. One side of the cockpit was modified to have the same layout and instrumentation as their 707s for this purpose.

Many other airlines also had bizjets that they used for this purpose as this thread explains: https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1435523

ttyymmnn > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/31/2020 at 13:59

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I would wager that most of the US pilots coming to the airlines already have flying experience, if only GA. It’s the hordes of Asian pilots who are coming to US schools now with zero stick time that are the problem. 

ttyymmnn > Chariotoflove 01/31/2020 at 13:59

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I’m going with Gran Fury’s answer on this one. 

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 01/31/2020 at 14:14

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So then I guess pilots just transition to soloing on the model they will be  rated for? They can be allowed to fly for the first time with passengers on board.  There must be some flights flown just for training.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > ttyymmnn 01/31/2020 at 14:18

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A friend of mine, who is now a 757 captain for FedEx over in Germany, got started at Embry Riddle in Arizona. I believe first actual aircraft she flew was a single-engine Piper PA-28, stepping up to a twin, then a turboprop and then to a Cessna Citation. Combine that progression with lots of sim time and before you knew it she was in the right seat of a CRJ making the same money as your average fast-food employee but with a whole lot more debt.

ttyymmnn > Chariotoflove 01/31/2020 at 14:26

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Honestly, I don’t think there are. Enough time in the sim and you can takeoff, fly, and land. You spend a lot of time in the right seat. 

ttyymmnn > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/31/2020 at 14:27

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And a whole lot more responsibility. 

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 01/31/2020 at 15:03

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Feels weird.