This Date in Aviation History: September 26 - September 29

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 09/29/2020 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 September 26 through September 29.

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A US Navy A-7E Corsair II from Attack Squadron 146 (VA-146) “Blue Diamonds” in 1974

September 26, 1965 – The first flight of the LTV A-7 Corsair II. Throughout the history of military aviation, a handful of aircraft have been named after successful predecessors, such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which took its name from the potent !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter of WWII, or the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which continued the use of ghostly aircraft nicknames that started with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1945. So, when Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) needed a nickname for their new hard-hitting ground attack aircraft, they found inspiration in the rugged and deadly !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of WWII and Korea, one of the preeminent fighters of the piston era. The A-7 Corsair II actually became the fourth Vought aircraft to carry the piratic nickname.

In 1962, the US Navy began a search for a new attack aircraft to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , hoping to improve both the range and payload provided by the diminutive A-4. The Navy also required that the new attack aircraft show improvements in target accuracy in order to reduce the costs associated with bombs that missed their mark. By 1963, the Navy finalized their requirements and announced the VAL (heavier-than-air, attack, light) competition and, to save money, they stipulated that the aircraft be based on an existing design. Vought turned to their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a supersonic air superiority fighter that entered service with the Navy in 1957. But the Crusader was built for speed, with a long narrow fuselage and afterburning turbojet engine, and ground attack missions call for subsonic speeds closer to the ground. So Vought shortened and broadened the fuselage and removed the variable incidence wing that helped lower the Crusader’s landing speeds. They also increased the wingspan and replaced the Crusader’s afterburning turbojet with an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofan that had no afterburner, since there would be no need for the A-7 to fly at supersonic speeds. Vought gave the A-7 an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radar that offered better targeting than the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and also installed a head-up display (HUD), the first for a US fighter. The Navy selected the A-7 as the winner of the VAL competition in 1964, and it received the nickname Corsair II a year later.

A US Air Force A-7D Corsair II from the 76th Tactical Fighter Squadron drops Mark 82 hi-drag bombs over a bombing range in Florida

By 1967, Navy A-7s were in action over Vietnam, flying from the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CVA-61). However, the hot humid conditions of Southeast Asia limited the amount of engine power available to Navy pilots, and they could not carry a full load of weapons and fuel. The lack of power led pilots to nickname the Corsair II “SLUF,” which stood for Short Little Ugly Fucker. The Corsair II was also pressed into service with the US Air Force when they identified the need for a robust subsonic ground attack aircraft to support US Army troops. Reluctant at first to take the Navy airplane, the Air Force relented under pressure from Secretary of Defense !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , with the stipulation that their version would have a still more powerful engine and an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rotary cannon rather than the two single-barreled 20mm cannons on the Navy version. This aircraft was designated the A-7D, and was later adopted by the Navy as the A-7E. All told, the Navy and Air Force flew more than 100,000 A-7 sorties during the war.

A US Navy A-7E Corsair II from attack squadron VA-72 “Blue Hawks” passes over a ruined fort in the Saudi desert during Operation Desert Shield in 1990

By the end of the Vietnam War, the Air Force began passing the Corsair II over to the Air National Guard (ANG) in favor of the F-4 Phantom II, but the Navy continued flying A-7s, and they saw action over !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and Libya, and limited use in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Air Force and Navy retired their A-7s in 1991, while the ANG finally retired their Corsair IIs in 1993. The Greek Hellenic Air Force flew the A-7 until 2014, 47 years after the type’s maiden flight.

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September 27, 1964 – The first flight of the BAC TSR-2. By the 1950s, the general doctrine of aerial bombardment, either nuclear or conventional, was to penetrate enemy territory by flying as high and fast as possible, beyond the reach of enemy fighters and interceptors. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber, which first flew in May 1949, had a service ceiling of 48,000 feet, and could fly over enemy territory with relative impunity. But the arrival of the surface-to-air missile (SAM) changed the conventional bombing doctrine practically overnight, and a new breed of attack aircraft came to the fore, known as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Since radar-guided SAMS of the era worked on line of sight to track incoming targets, the new bombing method was to fly as low as possible, under the radar, and use terrain features to further mask the attacking aircraft. These high speed, ground-hugging aircraft could carry either conventional or nuclear weapons, and their interdictor role called for them to fly deep behind enemy lines and destroy logistics targets such as airfields and railroad hubs to prevent the enemy from bringing troops and supplies to the front lines.

The prototype BAC TSR-2 at Warton airfield in 1966. This was the only example to fly

In 1956, the British government issued Operational Requirement 399 (GOR.399), an extraordinarily ambitious list of requirements for a new light bomber that would fly at supersonic speeds in all weather conditions, be capable of carrying both tactical nuclear weapons and conventional weapons, have either short takeoff and landing (STOL) or vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities, and be able to perform both bombing and reconnaissance missions. In January 1959, the Ministry of Supply selected a consortium of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (which, along with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! were forced into a merger in 1960 to form the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , or BAC) to produce what would be called the TSR-2 (Tactical Strike Reconnaissance, Mach 2). The new aircraft was designed around the strengths of each company, with Vickers-Armstrongs building the front half of the aircraft and wings, while English Electric built the rear.

Aircraft XR219 in flight, the only TSR-2 to fly. Twenty-four test flights were made over a six-month period before the project was canceled.

The TSR-2 was powered by two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! afterburning turbojets developed from those used on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , engines which would later power the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It was capable of a sustained cruise of Mach 2.05, with a dash speed of Mach 2.35, and a theoretical top speed of Mach 3. In an effort to save money, no prototypes were built. The first tranche of aircraft were supposed to be finished production aircraft, and testing commenced with the first two completed airframes. Despite some early mechanical difficulties, test pilots reported that the TSR-2 flew well. Still, the initial requirements had to be reworked to reflect the realities of the TSR-2's performance. Though the first aircraft was supposed to be a finished production airframe, the sophisticated radars and other electronics had yet to be installed, and the costs of the aircraft continued to climb.

XR222, the fourth production aircraft, after completion of an 18-month-long restoration. It is now housed at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

Some in the British government believed that the TSR was made obsolete by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . When combined with the ballooning cost and complexity of the aircraft, as well as delays in development, the decision was made to cancel the program on April 6, 1965, the day scheduled for the maiden flight of the second aircraft. Following contentious debate, the British government announced that it would instead procure the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rather than develop their own interdictor, even though considerable money and effort had already been put into the TSR-2. And, to add insult to injury, the British government later rescinded their order of F-111s when that program ran into costly delays of its own. Within six months of cancellation, all uncompleted aircraft, plus all tooling, were scrapped. Only two aircraft survived, neither of which is complete. The two finished aircraft, including the one that took part in testing, were destroyed to test for weaknesses in the airframe to gunfire and shrapnel. Only one completed aircraft survived, and is housed at the RAF Museum, Cosford. A second airframe, much less complete, resides at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.  

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September 29, 1954 – The first flight of the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. During WWII, huge formations of bombers ranged the skies over Europe and the Pacific, protected from enemy fighters by a surrounding screen of fighter escorts. Following the war, and before the arrival of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and high altitude surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), the method of penetrating enemy airspace continued basically unchanged, though the fighters and some newer bombers were now powered by jet engines instead of piston engines. To stem the expected waves of Russian bombers should the Cold War turn hot, a new breed of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was needed, purpose-built to fly fast and stop enemy bombers before they could reach their target.

The McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo, a penetration fighter that formed the basis for the F-101 Voodoo

In 1946, the US Air Forced issued requirements for a jet-powered penetration fighter, and three manufacturers responded. McDonnell Aircraft presented the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Lockheed developed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and North American proposed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . McDonnell won the competition but, following the detonation of the first nuclear bomb by the Soviet Union in 1949, the Air Force turned their attention to creating !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the penetration fighter project was shelved. But with America’s entry into the Korean war in 1950, the Air Force quickly discovered that there was still a need for bomber escorts and, in 1951, the Air Force once again issued an operational requirement for a penetration fighter. And once again, they tapped McDonnell to build it. But this time, McDonnell responded with a much better airplane.

An early F-101A Voodoo on loan to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at Edwards Air Force Base in 1956

Based on the earlier XF-88 Voodoo, the redesigned F-101 retained the Voodoo nickname, but the new fighter was made much larger to accommodate three times the fuel capacity of the XF-88 as well as a larger radar. The F-101 also received more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojets, and the horizontal stabilizer was moved to the top of the tail to provide greater stability at high speeds. The F-101A entered service with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (SAC), but was only built in small numbers because the need for a penetration fighter soon became secondary once again to the need for an interceptor. So the F-101A was shifted to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (TAC) in 1957, where its designation changed to strategic fighter, and it was used to carry a single nuclear bomb for tactical strikes against enemy airfields or other important military targets of immediate value. At the same time development of the F-101 was underway, the Air Force was working on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a project designed to create a dedicated, state-of-the-art interceptor to combat Russian bombers. This project eventually led to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but lengthy delays in that program meant that these aircraft would not be ready on schedule. Therefore, the Voodoo was transformed into an interim interceptor as the F-101B.

A pair of two-seat F-101B interceptors belonging to the New York Air National Guard’s 136th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in 1981

The B model received more powerful J57 engines with significantly longer afterburners which increased top speed to Mach 1.8. This variant had a two-seat tandem cockpit for pilot and weapons officer, and was fitted with the Hughes MG-13 fire control radar along with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (SAGE) system which permitted controllers on the ground to direct the aircraft to its target remotely. The internal cannons of the interceptor were removed and replaced by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! air-to-air missiles. Ultimately, more Voodoos were produced in this interceptor variant than any other.

A US Air Force RF-101C reconnaissance aircraft in jungle camouflage flies over Vietnam in 1967

The versatile Voodoo was also developed into the reconnaissance RF-101, which took part in reconnaissance missions over Cuba during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The RF-101 saw extensive action in the Vietnam War and ended up serving longer than any of the fighter/interceptor variants. The Voodoo was retired by frontline USAF units by 1972, but continued to serve the Air National Guard for 10 more years. The F-101 was exported to China and Canada, where Canadian Voodos flew with the Royal Canadian Air Force as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , replacing the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The RCAF finally retired their Voodoos in 1984 with the arrival of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Short Takeoff

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September 26, 1951 – The first flight of the de Havilland Sea Vixen, a twin boom, twin-engine, all-weather, carrier-based fighter developed for the British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. Development of the Sea Vixen began in 1946 as the DH.110, and its twin boom design was borrowed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Where the earlier Venom had been constructed of a composite of wood and metal, the Sea Vixen was of all-metal construction. The Sea Vixen was powered by two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! axial flow turbojets and was the first British fighter capable of supersonic speeds. It could be armed with a mixture of missiles, bombs, or rockets, but carried no internal gun. The Sea Vixen entered service in 1959 and, while it never saw combat, it was dispatched to flashpoints around the world throughout the 1960s wherever a show of military power was required.

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September 26, 1912 – The death of Charles Voisin. Born on July 12, 1882, Charles Voisin was an early French pioneer of aviation who founded an aircraft manufacturing company with his brother Gabriel named Appareils d’Aviation Les Frères Voisin in 1906. The Voisins built airplanes to order for wealthy customers and used these aircraft to further their understanding of controlled flight. Their 1907 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! biplane, flown by aviation pioneer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , made the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe of more than one minute, and that aircraft formed the basis of their fledgling company. Voisin died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident on September 25, 1912, but the company continued under his brother’s leadership, and produced aircraft for the French during WWI.

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September 27, 1956 – Test pilot Milburn G. “Mel” Apt becomes the first person to fly at Mach 3, but is killed when his aircraft crashes. Apt was born on April 9, 1924 in Buffalo, Kansas and joined the US Army Air Forces in 1944. Following his military service, Apt received a degree in aeronautical engineering and graduated from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1954. As a test pilot, Apt was selected to fly the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket plane and became the first person to exceed Mach 3, though that record-breaking flight ended tragically. After the rocket motor cut out, Apt attempted a turn back to base, still flying at Mach 3. Engineers knew that the control surfaces of the X-2 were inadequate at that great speed, and had warned Apt not to turn until the aircraft slowed significantly. When the aircraft turned, it immediately tumbled out of control in an event known as inertial coupling. Apt initiated the separation of the escape capsule, and the capsule’s drogue chute opened, but Apt was unable to exit the capsule to use his personal chute and was killed when the capsule struck the ground. The X-2, once it slowed, fluttered to the ground mostly intact.

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September 27, 1946 – The death of Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr, OBE. The son of famed aircraft designer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. was born on February 18, 1910 at Crux Easton, Hampshire. He served as the chief test pilot for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , piloted the maiden flights of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the jet-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1945. During a test flight of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a radical tailless aircraft based on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , de Havilland lost control of the aircraft before it broke up and crashed. Investigators determined that de Havilland had died when his head struck the canopy during the violent oscillations, breaking his neck.

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September 28, 2007 – The first flight of the Kawasaki P-1, a domestically-produced maritime patrol aircraft developed to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The P-1 entered service with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2013, and is outfitted with a magnetic anomaly detection boom, sonobuoys, bombs, and missiles. Unlike many other maritime patrol planes that were developed from existing airliners, the P-1 was purpose-built for the maritime reconnaissance role, and is the first production aircraft to use “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ” technology. France is considering the P-1 as a replacement for its aging !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprops, and Germany is also looking at the Kawasaki aircraft to replace their aging Orions.

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September 28, 1988 – The first flight of the Ilyushin Il-96, a long-haul, widebody, four-engine airliner that entered service with Soviet !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! airline Aeroflot in 1992. The Il-96 is a development of the Soviet Union’s first wide body airliner, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which first flew in 1976, and features a shortened fuselage, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , winglets for increased fuel efficiency, glass cockpit, and fly-by-wire control systems. In 2015, Russia stopped production of the airliner due to superior aircraft being produced by Airbus and Boeing, though production of the cargo variant continued. However, Russia is considering restarting production of the airliner to avoid dependence on foreign-built airlines. To date, 30 Il-96s have been produced.

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September 28, 1956 – The death of William E. Boeing. Boeing was born on October 1, 1881 to German and Austrian parents (Wilhelm Böing) in Detroit, Michigan. The family made a fortune selling timber, and William at first entered the family business. On a visit to Seattle in 1909, Boeing saw his first airplane, took flying lessons, and purchased his first aircraft, a Martin TA hydroaeroplane. When that plane crashed, rather than wait on parts, Boeing approached his friend George Westervelt and said they should build their own airplane. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! took its maiden flight in 1916, and their company built 50 airplanes for the US Army during WWI. After the war, Boeing focused on commercial aircraft, but he left the aviation industry in 1937 to raise horses and develop property. The company he founded is now one of the world’s largest producers of civilian and military aircraft and spacecraft.

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September 28, 1952 – The first flight of the Dassault Mystère IV, the first !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter to enter service with the French Armée de l’Air . The Mystère IV was an evolutionary development of the earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and, though sharing an outward resemblance to the earlier fighter, was a completely new design featuring improvements in aerodynamics and a more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojet engine. The Mystère IV served from 1953 until the mid-1980s and saw action in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of 1956. It also served in the air forces of Israel and India.

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September 29, 1988 – The launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on ST-26, the first flight following the Challenger Disaster. After the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of the Shuttle !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on January 28, 1986, STS-26 was declared the “Return to Flight” mission after an almost three-year hiatus in Shuttle missions. It was the first flight to have all crew members wear pressure suits during landing, and the first with a crew bailout contingency since !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It was also the first mission since !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! where all crew members had been on at least one previous space mission. Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and spent four days in orbit while the crew deployed a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (TDRS). Discovery was also the first spacecraft to fly with a Voice Control Unit (VCU), a computer capable of interpreting and acting on voice commands.

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September 29, 1964 – The first flight of the LTV XC-142, an experimental !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (V/STOL) transport and cargo aircraft developed for the US Army, Navy, and Air Force. The goal of the XC-142 was to provide an aircraft with helicopter-like performance but with greater range and speed than was possible with a helicopter. The XC-142 was powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboshaft engines linked by a common drive shaft that also turned a small horizontal propeller on the tail to control pitch during hover. Yaw during hover was controlled by the ailerons. In testing, the XC-142 completed all phases of hover and transition to level flight, but the project was canceled after five prototypes were built, and the aircraft were turned over to NASA for testing. One remains today at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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September 29, 1948 – The first flight of the Vought XF7U-1 Cutlass. Allegedly based on design concepts captured from the German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at the end of WWII, the Cutlass had a short and troubled career with the US Navy. A radical tailless design with twin vertical stabilizers, the Cutlass, known by its detractors as the “gutless Cutlass,” suffered from serious handling problems and underpowered engines, and its long nose gear caused difficulty with carrier landings and lead to numerous !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and pilot fatalities. The Cutlass was introduced in 1951 and served for only eight years before being replaced by the extremely successful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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September 29, 1940 – The Brocklesby mid-air collision. During a training flight over Brocklesby, Australia, two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! collided in midair and became locked together. The pilot of the lower Anson bailed out, along with the navigators of both aircraft. The collision caused the engines to stop on the upper aircraft; however, the engines on the lower Anson continued to run at full power, and the pilot of the upper Anson found he could control the connected aircraft using his ailerons and flaps. After flying five miles with the planes connected, the pilot made an emergency landing in a pasture. Only one member the crews suffered minor injuries. The upper aircraft was subsequently repaired and returned to service.

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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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Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 09/29/2020 at 13:04

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The TSR2 reminds me of a quote from Billy Bishop’s “ Winged Warfare”, comparing British aircraft to the Neiu ports he was flying ... I can’t remem ber it word for word, but it ran something along the lines of “Our British aircraft are designed strictly for function with no attention paid to aesthetics. The French do not overlook such things.”*

See also English Electric Light ning, Canberra, etc... he may have had a point. Of course, they made the Spitfire as well but we’ll gloss over that

*If I remember, I’m going to dig up the book tonight and get this right. It bothers me. The gist is right though.

Future next gen S2000 owner > ttyymmnn 09/29/2020 at 13:18

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... were inadequate at that lost speed...

High?

user314 > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 09/29/2020 at 13:29

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See, I’d disagree strongly with that. The Lightning and Canberra are gorgeous aircraft, though, as always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

ttyymmnn > user314 09/29/2020 at 13:38

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I’ll give you the Canberra, but the Lightning is, IMO, pretty fugly.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > user314 09/29/2020 at 14:01

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The Canberra isn’t ugly, but I’d have a hard time calling the looks anything more than “present”. The Lightning is pretty horrendous looking IMO.

I could also add the Victor and Harrier to that list. Not because they’re ugly, but because there’s (IMO) in aesthetic effort being made.

In saying all that, you’re right about it being subjective. At the time, Bishop would have been referring to the Pup, Camel and SE5 I believe—too of which I like the look of more  than the Neiuport, which I always found quite plain. For my money the best looking aircraft of WW1 was the SPAD.

ttyymmnn > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 09/29/2020 at 14:04

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I’d love to hear the original quote, because I rather agree with the sentiment. My favorite quote about British aircraft, though, came from Roald Dahl, who had this to say about the Gloster Gladiator:

Those old Gladiators aren’t made of stressed steel like a Hurricane or a Spit . They have taut canvas wings, covered with magnificently inflammable dope , and underneath there are hundreds of small thin sticks, the kind you put under the logs for kindling, only these are drier and thinner. If a clever man said, ‘I am going to build a big thing that will burn better and quicker than anything else in the world,’ and if he applied himself diligently to his task, he would probably finish up by building something very like a Gladiator.

ttyymmnn > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/29/2020 at 14:08

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Yeah, thanks for catching that. I reworked that story for this post, and obviously didn’t proof it very well. 

Darkbrador > user314 09/29/2020 at 14:55

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I beg to differ. Compare those to contemporary French planes. 

Exhibit A : 

user314 > Darkbrador 09/29/2020 at 15:20

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I’m not discounting that French planes are good looking, just that British planes aren’t.

Roadkilled > ttyymmnn 09/29/2020 at 15:53

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I believe John McDonnell started his Halloween naming theme with the XP-67 Bat. My understanding is that the Navy was impressed enough with the Bat that they gave McDonnell the go-ahead for the FH Phantom.

My father spent a summer working at McDonnell aircraft long enough ago that he got to witness the first test flight for the F3H Demon. From the beginning, they knew it was underpowered. I heard that the Demon was what convinced John McDonnell to refuse to approve any new design that was single-engined.

ttyymmnn > Roadkilled 09/29/2020 at 16:30

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The Bat turned out to be a dud, though. Lucky for McDonnell he got the nod from the Navy before the sole prototype was crisped by an engine fire. It was a good looking plane though. I wrote a piece about the Bat a couple of years ago.

Here’s a picture I took air NAS Kingsville a few years ago. The ghost of John McDonnell......

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 09/29/2020 at 16:50

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All that may be true, but I still love the Gladiator. It may have been technically outclassed, but it was close enough that a skilled pilot could still put up a good fight.

Scrappy underdog. How British of them.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 09/29/2020 at 18:30

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Only Vespas... > ttyymmnn 09/30/2020 at 14:40

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Great Job, T-Man. I do so look forward to your compilations. The family photo of Corsairs: What a study! The 3 jets are throttled back [look at the angles of attack] and the F4U-7 most likely has it at full throttle. The thing I love is the prop jock is busting along with his canopy open for that wind in the hair feel.

ttyymmnn > Only Vespas... 09/30/2020 at 14:59

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Thanks. I appreciate that. As for AOA, check this out:

I wonder how close those Super Swords are from stalling. 

Only Vespas... > ttyymmnn 09/30/2020 at 22:37

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Lord. I believe the L model of the C-97 had J47 jets in place of the drop tanks. I’m sure it helped some...still. By that time the KC-135 was at work and only the ANG got the turner/burners.

ttyymmnn > Only Vespas... 09/30/2020 at 22:52

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KC-97 served for a long time.