This Date in Aviation History: September 23 - September 25

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 09/25/2020 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 September 23 through September 25.

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September 24, 1949 – The first flight of the North American T-28 Trojan . The career of any military pilot begins with primary flight training carried out in a two-seat trainer, with one seat for the student and one for the instructor. Since before WWII, most American pilots flew the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , one of aviation history’s truly great airplanes. The Texan became the primary trainer for no less than 61 nations and ultimately served for 60 years. But even a great plane like the Texan would need to be replaced one day. When that time came, though, the US military didn’t look for just a trainer. They hoped to adopt an aircraft that would also work well in the close air support (CAS) and ground attack roles.

A US Navy T-28B Trojan of Training Squadron VT-2 over Florida in 1973

Based on the success of the T-6, the US Navy and Air Force once again turned to North American Aviation, and the aircraft that the storied company came up with proved to be every bit as effective as the one it was meant to replace. Like the Texan, the Trojan was a simple, rugged, straight-wing aircraft. It was powered by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! nine-cylinder supercharged radial engine, the same one that powered many of the great warplanes of WWII such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and a host of other military aircraft and helicopters. The Cyclone provided a top speed of 343 mph with a climb rate of 4,000 feet per minute. The two pilots were housed under a frameless canopy that afforded excellent visibility for both instructor and student.

A pair of South Vietnamese Air Force T-28C Trojans over the Vietnamese coastline in 1962

The T-28A first entered service with the US Air Force, and was quickly adopted by the US Navy and US Marine Corps in two variants: the T-28B, which was similar to the Air Force version but with a more powerful engine, and the T-28C, which was designed for carrier operations with a smaller propeller and added arrester hook. In the ground attack role, units of the South Vietnamese Air Force flew an armed variant of the Trojan known as the T-28D Nomad in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (COIN) role, as well as reconnaissance, search and rescue, and forward air control. For dedicated ground attack missions, the AT-28D provided a sturdy, flexible platform with six underwing hardpoints that could carry bombs, rockets, or napalm for ground attack missions, and was also fitted with an ejection seat. Trojans also served as an armed escort for attacks by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or attack helicopters.

T-28A warbird performing at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth

While the Air Force phased the Trojan out of service by the 1960s, it continued to serve the Navy and Marines as a trainer well into the 1980s before being replaced by the turboprop-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . And, like its predecessor, the Trojan was widely exported, serving a total of twenty-eight international customers, with nearly 2,000 produced from 1950-1957. The last T-28 was retired by the US Navy in 1984, but the aircraft served for another ten years with the Philippine Air Force, and privately-owned Trojans remain popular performers on the air show circuit.

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Short Takeoff

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September 23, 1938 – The first flight of the Supermarine Sea Otter, an amphibian aircraft developed for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force before WWII and the last biplane to be flown by either service. The Sea Otter was a development of the earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , with the principal difference being the placement of a single !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engine in the center of the upper wing in a puller configuration rather than between the wings as a pusher. The Sea Otter entered service in 1942 and carried out air-sea rescue missions and maritime reconnaissance, while postwar aircraft flew small numbers of passengers and cargo. Just under 300 were built before the end of the war halted production.

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September 24, 1930 – The birth of John Young, an American aeronautical engineer, US Naval Aviator, test pilot, and astronaut. Young began flying with the US Navy as a helicopter pilot in 1954 before transferring to jets, and joined NASA in 1962 as a member of Astronaut Group 2. During his time with the space agency, Young made six space flights, including the first manned !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mission. In 1969 he became the first person to orbit the Moon alone during !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , drove the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on the Moon during !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1972, and is one of only three people who have flown to the Moon twice. Young is also the only person to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft, including the first launch of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1981. Young’s retirement from NASA in 2004 marked the end of the longest career of any NASA astronaut.

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September 24, 1929 – Lieutenant James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle makes the first blind flight using only instruments. Flying a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with instruments that included a sensitive altimeter, a directional gyro developed by the Sperry company, and a radio range finder, Doolittle, along with safety officer Lt. Benjamin Kelsey in the front cockpit, took off from Mitchel Field in New York and flew a prescribed course which covered 20 miles and lasted 15 minutes. From takeoff to landing, Doolittle was underneath a hood in the rear cockpit and was flying completely blind. The flight proved the capabilities of the new instruments, and opened a new era of flight safety where pilots could rely on instruments rather than instinctive “seat of the pants” flying.

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September 24, 1918 – US Navy Lt. David Ingalls becomes the first US Navy fighter ace. Ingalls enlisted in March 1917 as Naval Aviator No. 85 and was sent to Europe six months later attached to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , where he flew a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from a base in Dunkirk in northern France. With six credited victories by the end of the war, Ingalls was the first fighter ace in US Navy history and the Navy’s only ace of WWI. For his service, Ingalls received the US Navy !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the French !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Following the war, Ingalls became a director of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and assisted !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with charting eastern air routes for Pan Am.

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September 25, 2015 – The first flight of the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus, the newest aerial refueling and strategic airlifter slated to enter widespread service with the US Air Force. In 2011, the Pegasus was announced as the winner of the Air Force !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! competion over a Northrop Grumman/Airbus offering in a protracted and often acrimonious debate over which aircraft would replace 100 older !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Pegasus is based on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! widebody airliner and will have seating for up to 114 people or 65,000 pounds of cargo, and will be capable of transferring over 207,000 pounds of fuel. The Air Force has placed an order for a total of 36 aircraft, and the tankers will be based at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas. The first was delivered to the Air Force in January 2019, but problems with systems such as the remote controlled refueling boom, cargo tie downs, and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! inside the aircraft have seriously delayed the operational capability of those aircraft delivered so far.

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September 25, 1978 – A Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 collides in midair with a private plane over San Diego. PSA Fight 182, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N533PS), was approaching San Diego’s Lindbergh Field (now San Diego International Airport) when it collided with a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The crew of the 727 had been alerted to the presence of the Cessna, but had lost sight of it and failed to notice when the small aircraft made an unauthorized change of course. The pilot of the Cessna was under a hood practicing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (ILS) approaches, but his instructor had no limitations on his vision and failed to see the 727. Air traffic control detected a conflict alert but did not warn the aircraft since they believed that they could see each other. The two aircraft came down in a residential area, killing 142 passengers and nine people on the ground. Following a similar !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the FAA mandated that !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (TCAS) be installed in all commercial airliners flying in US airspace.

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September 25, 1960 – The death of Ruth Rowland Nichols. Born on February 23, 1901 in New York City, Nichols was introduced to aviation when her father arranged a ride with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as a graduation present in 1919. She took flying lessons in secret while attending Wellesley College, and served as a copilot on the first non-stop flight from New York to Miami in 1928 with her instructor Harry Rogers. Though she disliked the moniker, Nichols became known as the “Flying Debutante” based on her high-society background. She worked as a sales manager for Fairchild Aviation, was a founding member of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and took part in the only official air race for women pilots. She set numerous records during the 1930s, including beating !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! cross country record. She also set an altitude record 19,928 feet for diesel-powered aircraft in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , became the first woman to pilot a commercial airliner, and was also the first woman to hold a hydroplane boat license. Nichols was nearly killed in 1935 in a crash while piloting a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and later worked for various charitable organizations. For her final record-setting flight, Nichols co-piloted at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to a top speed of 1,000 mph and an altitude of 51,000 feet, and is the only woman to hold simultaneous world records for altitude, speed, and distance flown. Nichols died at age 59 after struggling with severe depression, and her death was ruled a suicide.

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September 25, 1945 – The first flight of the de Havilland Dove, a short-haul passenger plane that was designed as a feeder to larger airports and one of the most successful designs to come out of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in their search for a domestically produced British airliner following WWII. The Dove was a monoplane successor to the pre-WWII !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! biplane and had accommodations for eight passengers. De Havilland produced 542 Doves from 1946 to 1967, and it entered service in 1946, with the first aircraft purchased by Argentina. The Dove was widely exported and served airlines around the world, and remains in limited service today.

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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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John Norris (AngryDrifter) > ttyymmnn 09/25/2020 at 21:52

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I guess it was still early in aviation, and perhaps they were getting ahead of others in aerodynamics and style, b ut th at has so much ugly I can’t even plot a course to corrective action ville .

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 09/26/2020 at 07:38

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astounds me that someone couldn’t see a 727

ttyymmnn > pip bip - choose Corrour 09/26/2020 at 10:46

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Gotta be looking to see something. 

Only Vespas... > ttyymmnn 09/29/2020 at 12:32

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A 172 with it’s high wing, struts, and the usual general aviation aircraft limited visibility on top of a training regime that usually involves the student pilot wearing f oggles, or a limited vision visor in a congested area is a major factor  here. The instructor is teaching, and monitoring the student’s ability to stay on the course. The 172 is flying a little over a hundred knots. The 727 twice that. The closure rates leave little room for error.