Aviation History January 2021 by HistoryNet

cubans over the congo: the CIA’s instant air force

PLUS

alaska’s legendary bush pilots

wild ride to mach 6.7

pete knight’s record x-15 run still stands as the fastest flight ever short fuzes: why bombs on aircraft exploded prematurely over vietnam

lost flight mystery: a young pilot vanishes in the amazon jungle JANUARY 2021

AVHP-210100-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

11/18/20 5:17 PM

Personalized Super Sturdy Hammer Hammers have a way of walking off. Here’s one they can call their own. Hickory-wood handle. 16 oz., 13"L. 816350 $21.99

Personalized Gun-Shaped Pocket Knife Ideal for camper, hunter, or handyman, 6"L tool features a 2¾"L blade and handy LED light. Batteries included. 817133 $16.99

Personalized Extendable Flashlight Tool Light tight dark spaces; pick up metal objects. Magnetic 6¾" LED flashlight extends to 22"L; bends to direct light. With 4 LR44 batteries. 817098 $27.99

Personalized 6-in-1 Pen Convenient “micro-mini toolbox” contains ruler, pen, level, stylus, plus flat and Phillips screwdrivers. Giftable box included. Aluminum; 6"L. 817970 $19.99

LILLIANVERNON_HISAVH11.indd 2 AVHP-210100-005 Lillian Vernon LHP.indd 1

10/23/20 4:10 PM 11/10/20 12:47 PM

RUGGED ACCESSORIES FOR THE NEVER-ENOUGH-GADGETS GUY. JUST INITIAL HERE.

Our durable Lillian Vernon products are built to last. Each is crafted using the best materials and manufacturing methods. Best of all, we’ll personalize them with your good name or monogram. Ordering is easy. Shipping is free.* Go to LillianVernon.com Personalized Grooming Kit Indispensable zippered manmade-leather case contains comb, nail tools, mirror, lint brush, shaver, toothbrush, bottle opener. Lined; 5½x7". 817548 $29.99

Personalized Bottle Opener Handsome tool helps top off a long day with a cool brew. 1½x7"W. Brewery 817820 Initial Family Name 817822 $11.99 each

Personalized Beer Caddy Cooler Tote Soft-sided, waxed-cotton canvas cooler tote with removable divider includes an integrated opener, adjustable shoulder strap, and secures 6 bottles. 9x5½x6¾". 817006 $49.99 Personalized Garage Mats Grease Monkey or Toolman, your guy (or gal) will love this practical way to identify personal space. 23x57"W. Tires 816756 Tools 808724 $39.99 each

Personalized Set of 6 Faux Leather Coasters Elegant individuality, rugged durability, and quality craftsmanship combine to create a set to impress. Water-resistant; 4" dia. 817712 $24.99

The Personalization Experts Since 1951 *FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $50. USE PROMO CODE: H I S AV H 1 1

LILLIANVERNON.COM/AV H

OFFER EXPIRES 2/28/21. ONLY ONE PROMO CODE PER ORDER. OFFERS CANNOT BE COMBINED. OFFER APPLIES TO STANDARD SHIPPING ONLY. ALL ORDERS ARE ASSESSED A CARE & PACKAGING FEE.

LILLIANVERNON_HISAVH11.indd 3 AVHP-210100-005 Lillian Vernon RHP.indd 1

10/23/20 4:10 PM 11/10/20 12:49 PM

JANUARY 2021

DEPARTMENTS 5 MAILBAG 6 BRIEFING 10 AVIATORS

Dive-bomber pilot Dick Best scored direct hits on two Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway— his ”sweet revenge for Pearl Harbor.” By Barrett Tillman

14 RESTORED

A U.S. Air Force F-105D Thunderchief flies a mission over Vietnam on December 18, 1968.

Hundred of volunteers have helped Seattle’s Museum of Flight restore a combat-veteran B-29 to its former glory. By Mark Carlson

features 26 Pete Knight’s Wild Rides

In 1967 the U.S. Air Force major streaked into the upper stratosphere at Mach 6.7, scorching the X-15A-2 and setting a speed record that stands to this day. By Richard P. Hallion

36 The Expendables

16 EXTREMES

44 Alaska’s Legendary Bush Pilots

44 Alaskan bush pilot Joe Crosson.

A colorful collection of intrepid airmen battled abysmal weather in frail aircraft to pioneer Alaskan bush flying during the interwar years. By Mike Coppock

In 1927 Paul Redfern attempted a daring nonstop solo flight across the Caribbean Sea and Amazon jungle to Rio de Janeiro…and disappeared without a trace. By Gregory P. Liefer

60 Cubans Over the Congo

Exiled Cuban pilots squared off against their Marxist countrymen and Simba tribesmen to help the CIA fight communist expansion in 1960s Africa. By Don Hollway

ON THE COVER: The North American X-15A-2 climbs over the desert and dry lakes near California’s Edwards Air Force Base. The black rocket plane would receive a white protective coating before U.S. Air Force Major William J. “Pete” Knight took it to Mach 6.7 on October 3, 1967—to this day the fastest manned aircraft flight. Cover illustration: ©2020 Jack Fellows, ASAA.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-TOC.indd 2

Convair’s sleek 880 and 990 airliners relied on a market for speedy medium-range jets that never materialized. By Stephan Wilkinson

18 STYLE

52 Lost Flight to Brazil

Problems with bombs prematurely detonating and killing American aircrews in Vietnam were traced to faulty fuzes, but more would die before solutions were found. By John Lowery

Showcasing products of interest to aviation enthusiasts and pilots.

24 LETTER FROM AVIATION HISTORY 66 REVIEWS 70 FLIGHT TEST 72 AERO ARTIFACT

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: U.S. AIR FORCE; TED HUETTER/THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT; ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM, HENDON; SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

11/18/20 2:55 PM

Secrets of a Billionaire Revealed “Price is what you pay; value is what you get. Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.” — wisdom from the most successful investor of all time

e’re going to let you in on a secret. Billionaires have billions because they know value is not increased by an inflated price. They avoid big name markups, and aren’t swayed by flashy advertising. When you look on their wrist you’ll find a classic timepiece, not a cry for attention–– because they know true value comes from keeping more money in their pocket. We agree with this thinking wholeheartedly. And, so do our two-and-a-half million clients. It’s time you got in on the secret too. The Jet-Setter Chronograph can go up against the best chronographs in the market, deliver more accuracy and style than the “luxury” brands, and all for far, far less. $1,150 is what the Jet-Setter Chronograph would cost you with nothing more than a different name on the face. With over two million timepieces sold (and counting), we know a thing or two about creating watches people love. The Jet-Setter Chronograph gives you what you need to master time and keeps the superfluous stuff out of the equation. A classic in the looks department and a stainless steel power tool of construction, this is all the watch you need. And, then some. Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Experience the Jet-Setter Chronograph for 30 days. If you’re not convinced you got excellence for less, send it back for a refund of the item price. Time is running out. Now CLIENTS LOVE that the secret’s out, we STAUER WATCHES… can’t guarantee this $29 chronograph will stick around long. Don’t overpay to be “The quality of their underwhelmed. Put a precision watches is equal to many chronograph on your wrist for that can go for ten times just $29 and laugh all the way the price or more.” to the bank. Call today! — Jeff from McKinney, TX

Absolute best price for a fully-loaded chronograph with precision accuracy...

ONLY

$29!

êêêêê

TAKE 90% OFF INSTANTLY! When you use your OFFER CODE

Jet-Setter Chronograph $299† Offer Code Price $29 + S&P Save $270

You must use the offer code to get our special price.

1-800-333-2045 Your Offer Code: JCW352-01

Rating of A+

Please use this code when you order to receive your discount.

Stauer…Afford the Extraordinary.®

Limited to the first 1900 responders to this ad only. “See a man with a functional chronograph watch on his wrist, and it communicates a spirit of precision.” — AskMen.com®

• Precision crystal movement • Stainless steel case back & bracelet with deployment buckle • 24 hour military time • Chronograph minute & small second subdials; seconds hand • Water resistant to 3 ATM • Fits wrists 7" to 9"

Stauer

® 14101 Southcross Drive W., Ste 155, Dept. JCW352-01, Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 www.stauer.com

AVHP-210100-002 Stauer Jetsetter Watch.indd 1

† Special price only for customers using the offer code versus the price on Stauer.com without your offer code.

11/10/20 12:53 PM

MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER DAVID STEINHAFEL PUBLISHER ALEX NEILL EDITOR IN CHIEF

AVIATION H

Aviation History

Online

You’ll find much more from Aviation History on the web’s leading history resource: historynet.com

Across the Hypersonic Divide

On the morning of November 9, 1961, a broad white contrail appeared in the sky over Nevada’s dry Mud Lake. Soon the sudden boom and crackling rumble of an igniting rocket engine filled the air, and U.S. Air Force test pilot Major Robert White accelerated to become the first man to take an airplane to Mach 6. White’s North American X-15 flew to speeds and altitudes never previously achieved by winged vehicles, paving the way for manned spaceflight.

Why Pilots Loved the F-105 “Thud”

A fast mover designed to carry a nuclear weapon, the Republic F-105 Thunderchief became the Vietnam War’s most important conventional fighterbomber. Aircrews loved it: Thud pilot Vic Vizcarra called it “the Cadillac of the air.” Some of the admiration probably wasn’t deserved, as the F-105 was the only aircraft in Air Force history that had to be withdrawn from combat because nearly half the fleet had been shot down or crashed.

Midway’s Forgotten Marine Defenders

On June 4, 1942, Midway Atoll’s air defense radar detected a swarm of Japanese aircraft heading its way, sending pilots of Marine Fighting Squadron 221 scrambling to their Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo and Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat fighters. Outnumbered and outgunned, VMF-221’s pilots paid a heavy price for their heroic efforts to stem the Japanese onslaught that day.

Love history? Sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter at: historynet.com/newsletters Like Aviation History Magazine on Facebook

Aviation History is available via Zinio and other digital subscription services

JANUARY 2021 / VOL. 31, NO. 3

CARL VON WODTKE EDITOR LARRY PORGES SENIOR EDITOR JON GUTTMAN RESEARCH DIRECTOR STEPHAN WILKINSON CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ARTHUR H. SANFELICI EDITOR EMERITUS STEPHEN KAMIFUJI CREATIVE DIRECTOR BRIAN WALKER GROUP ART DIRECTOR PAUL FISHER ART DIRECTOR MELISSA A. WINN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY GUY ACETO PHOTO EDITOR

ROB WILKINS DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIP MARKETING TOM GRIFFITHS CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT GRAYDON SHEINBERG CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT SHAWN BYERS VP AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT JAMIE ELLIOTT PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

MORTON GREENBERG SVP ADVERTISING SALES MGreenberg@mco.com RICK GOWER REGIONAL SALES MANAGER Rick@rickgower.com TERRY JENKINS REGIONAL SALES MANAGER TJenkins@historynet.com

Aviation History (ISSN 1076-8858) is published bimonthly by HISTORYNET, LLC 901 North Glebe Road, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203 Periodical postage paid at Tysons, Va., and additional mailing ofﬁces. POSTMASTER, send address changes to Aviation History, P.O. Box 422224, Palm Coast, FL 32142-2224 List Rental Inquiries: Belkys Reyes, Lake Group Media, Inc. 914-925-2406; belkys.reyes@lakegroupmedia.com Canada Publications Mail Agreement No. 41342519, Canadian GST No. 821371408RT0001 The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of HISTORYNET, LLC

PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA

U.S. AIR FORCE

Major Robert White emerges from an X-15.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-MASTHEAD.indd 4

11/18/20 2:56 PM

Mailbag

fisher XP-75 CRASH

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE/VESELENAK PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

The September issue story about the experimental XP-75 [“Extremes”] brought back memories. It was a warm, clear summer morning in 1944 when my brothers and I looked up to see an XP-75 heading north over our westside neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. We were aware that the new experimental aircraft was being developed and tested at the Cleveland Municipal Airport not far from our home, and we knew it was an XP-75 because of the distinctive sound created by the contrarotating propellers. > > As we watched the aircraft cruise north, we noticed a thin trail of smoke coming from the tail. The smoke became thicker as the aircraft banked to the west, the pilot probably wanting to return to the Cleveland airport. As the smoking aircraft began to lose altitude, I ran upstairs in our home to better observe from the rooftop. Smoke was pouring from the tail and an active fire from the rear engines behind the cockpit could be seen on both sides of the fuselage. As I watched from my vantage point, I saw a parachute open and almost immediately an explosion separated the empennage from the fuselage and the aircraft disappeared from view. By this time the entire neighborhood had seen the incident and our mother, always an adventuresome person, told my brothers and me to get into our car to find out where the aircraft had crashed. When we arrived at the site, along with many other Cleveland westsiders, we found that fortunately the aircraft had come down in a large front yard, not hitting any structures. Only the grass was disturbed and burned from the exploding fuel. We viewed the empennage also on a lawn about a half-mile distant from the crash location.

As a youngster exposed to newsreels relating to our country’s war efforts, to actually see a burning fighter aircraft was something that has remained with me all these years. I am certain that the loss of an XP-75 due to this accident helped to pull the plug on the program that October. Harry L. Geiger Jacksonville, Fla. That crash, of XP-75A serial no. 44-32161, happened on August 5, 1944. Here’s a photo (above) showing the remains of the empennage and gathered crowd.

GUNSHIP ORIGINS

Regarding “Gunship Evolu tion” [September], I was assigned to the Office of Air Force History in Washington, D.C., in 1970 and tasked with writing the history of fixed-wing gunships. After extensive research, including many interviews of key personnel and review of numerous documents, I completed the official Air Force history, Development and Employment of FixedWing Gunships 1962-1972. Following lengthy declassification, the book was pub lished in 1982. It remains the major foundational work on gunship history. In the opening chapter, I carefully reviewed the origin

of the pylon turn, side-firing concept, which was far older and involved much more painstaking scientific research than is usually acknowledged. Before the emergence of Captain Ronald W. Terry, a truly leading individual, both civilians and Air Force personnel had worked on side-firing problems and reached a test of the concept using a Convair C-131 aircraft in 1963. The September article indicates the “gunship program began in 1964” but the concept and development, with the interplay of many individuals, predates that. I am always pleased to see information on the ongoing evolution of the gunships but I hope we don’t lose the deserved recognition of some innovative and dedicated individuals in the beginning of the fixed-wing gunship weapon system. Lt. Col. Jack Stokes Ballard U.S. Air Force (ret.)

FINAL VENGEANCE

Great article by Barrett Tillman [“Last Air Battles of World War II,” September]. I learned a lot of new facts about the end of the war with Japan, but from my knowledge I have to say, as Paul Harvey did, “And now the rest of the story.” But for quirks of fate, the war came very close to continuing. A failed coup d’état was in part foiled by the Tokyo area blackout caused by a 315th Bomb Wing mission to take out Japan’s last oil refinery at Akita, 300 miles north of Tokyo. The track of 140 B-29Bs to and from the target took them in trail over

the Tokyo area, thus causing a blackout there from 11:05 p.m. on August 14, 1945, until early the next morning. This blackout inhibited the rogue Japanese unit that had illegally taken over the palace grounds and prevented them from keeping the emperor from making the recording that ended the war. The blackout, in addition, kept the recordings from being found by the rogue unit. I first learned of this attempted coup d’état from the book Japan’s Longest Day, compiled by the Pacific War Research Society in 1965 and translated into English in 1968. Having been a prisoner myself of the Japanese in the Philippines from age 11 to 14, when we were rescued by 11th Airborne paratroops and a lot of other units, this story of the last 24 hours of the Pacific War sends chills up and down my spine. My e-mail address shows the date of our rescue. Free at last! Lt. Col. George T. MacDonald U.S. Air Force (ret.)

VETERAN A-7E

LTV A-7E Corsair no. 401, shown in the Gulf War article in your November edition [“The Corsair’s Last Hurrah”], is now on display at the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook, Ore. The veteran aircraft appears to have been delivered to the museum in its unrestored, original condition, making it a more accurate and educational display. Jerry Sorrell Kelso, Wash.

SEND LETTERS TO:

Aviation History Editor, HISTORYNET 901 North Glebe Road, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203 OR EMAIL TO aviationhistory@historynet.com (Letters may be edited)

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-MAILBAG.indd 5

11/18/20 2:56 PM

briefing

French Connection After a 21-year restoration, the Sierra Hotel Sponsor Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s A-26, which flew for France in the 1950s, is readied for its return to flight on November 1, 2020.

Indochina Invader Flies Again

Douglas A-26 Invader that spent a year and a half flying for the French in Indochina during 1952 and â&#x20AC;&#x2122;53 has hit the air again, making its first flight on November 1, 2020, after a 21-year restoration. The airplane is being operated

for the Commemorative Air Force by the Sierra Hotel Sponsor Group and is based at Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport in Oklahoma. The Invader is currently flying under the name Lil Twister, a nod to the fact that it was badly damaged by a tornado early in its resto-

ration. But the inauthentic name may not survive when it comes time to choose a proper military paint job. The biggest challenge during the return to flight was replacement of a wing spar cap strip, cracked during retrieval of the airplane from a muddy field by the previous

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-BRIEFING.indd 6

11/18/20 2:57 PM

OPPOSITE PHOTOS: COMMEMORATIVE AIR FORCE/SIERRA HOTEL SPONSOR GROUP; TOP & INSET: FLYINGTHROUGHLIFE.COM: BOTTOM: NATIONAL ARCHIVES

caretaker, the CAF squadron in Pine Bluff, Ark., after an off-runway excursion. When two bulldozers were used to tug on the mired main gear, the uneven forces transmitted to the spar through the landing-gear attachment points apparently caused the damage. Sierra Hotel was looking at a $100,000 bill to fabricate a new spar cap, but a silvertongued member of the group, finding himself one evening sitting on a barstool next to a senior Boeing engineer, got the company to fabricate and donate four new spar caps. (Boeing had recently bought McDonnell Douglas and was anxious to show its respect for the acquired company’s heritage.) Lil Twister is a mutt. In 1959 the airplane was purchased by the Rock Island Oil & Refining Company, which 11 years later converted it into a Marathon 26 executive transport. Rock Island added a ring spar for unobstructed interior space, a door and two large windows to the aft fuselage, reconfigured the fuselage for more headroom, built an executive cabin and lengthened the nose by 30 inches to create a baggage compartment. All of the Marathon 26 improvements other than the long nose remain part of Lil Twister, so the airplane is in fact a cleanup/fixup of a civilian conversion rather than a dead-accurate warbird. Nonetheless, Lil Twister is now one of three flying Invaders that the CAF owns, and it will return as soon as possible to the airshow circuit and will be selling rides inside its seven-seat cabin. Stephan Wilkinson

Pole vaulter Robert DeLaurentis (inset) piloted his Gulfstream Turbine Commander 900 (above) 26,000 miles over both poles on a symbolic flight aimed at promoting international peace.

“WHEN OLD DREAMS DIE, NEW ONES COME TO TAKE THEIR PLACE. GOD PITY A ONE-DREAM MAN.” –ROBERT GODDARD, JULY 1969

Pole-to-Pole Peace Flight

n September 21, 2020—the United Nations’ International Day of Peace—an extensively modified 1983 twin-engine Gulfstream Turbine Commander 900 christened Citizen of the World landed in San Diego, bringing to a delayed close a remarkable 26,000-mile “Peace Flight” over both poles, 22 countries and six continents by local pilot and retired naval officer Robert DeLaurentis. Behind the publicity gesture under the banner of “Oneness for Humanity: One Planet, One People, One Plane,” DeLaurentis’ flight was the result of long and careful preparation to test new materials and technology for NASA. The flight, which began on November 16, 2019, was not without unexpected tests of the pilot’s fortitude, navigational skills and ingenuity. The covid-19 pandemic caused delays that extended a planned five-month series of flights to a total of nine months. Although the flight over the South Pole was notable mainly for its 17½ -hour duration, the other end of the Earth produced some unpleasant surprises in midJuly when the GPS and autopilot failed. Unable to use $150,000 worth of high-tech equipment, DeLaurentis relied on the Jeppesen application charts on an Apple iPad to fly 3,450 miles. After departing from northern Sweden, he overflew the North Pole and landed safely in Fairbanks, Alaska, 11 hours later. Upon his return home, San Diego declared September 21 “Citizen of the World Day.” Jon Guttman

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-BRIEFING.indd 7

11/18/20 2:58 PM

BRIEFING

Jimmy Stewart’s Cessna on a Stick

esides the 80-odd films in which he appeared, Hollywood icon James M. Stewart had a parallel aviation career, including service in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Army Air Forces and Air Force Reserve between 1941 and 1968. In that milieu he is best remembered for flying 20 missions in Consolidated B-24s, for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and the French Croix de Guerre. He also flew Boeing B-52s over Vietnam before retiring as a brigadier general. Jimmy Stewart’s flying was hardly limited to bombers, however, and in September 2020 one of his personal aircraft was unveiled as a monument at Indiana County Jimmy Stewart Airport, in his hometown of Indiana, Pa. Discovered derelict at Dallas Executive Airport in 2015, Stewart’s former private plane, Cessna 310F N6775X, was missing both engines and propellers along with other components. In classic It’s A Wonderful Life fashion, however, local Chapter 993 of the Experimental Aircraft Association, led by Harold Wood, set about restoring it to its former glamor. Funded by a nonprofit

Local hero Above: Jimmy Stewart’s Cessna 310 now resides at the airport entrance in the actor’s hometown of Indiana, Pa. Left: Stewart and his family pose with the Cessna.

established for the purpose, the project took 6,500 hours over 5½ years to complete. The Cessna rests atop a pylon over its former owner’s home airport and plans are underway to build a playground underneath. George Bailey and Clarence would undoubtedly approve.

MILESTONES Cross-country relay DH-4Bs in Salt Lake City, Utah, await their turn to shuttle mail across the U.S. on February 22, 1921.

century ago, on February 22, 1921, the U.S. Postal Service set out to prove that airplanes could deliver mail across the continent faster than trains. Transcontinental airmail actually began in the United States a year earlier, in 1920, though planes only flew during the day. At nightfall they transferred their cargo to waiting locomotives, which ate up mileage trundling overnight to aircraft waiting for the morning flights. Through this tag-team system, a package took 78 hours to cross the country. A train on its own took 108 hours. President Warren G. Harding didn’t feel that 30-hour time savings was enough to warrant the government investing in the more expensive airmail service. So the postmaster general decided to improve upon airmail’s performance numbers. At 6 a.m. on Washington’s birthday, 1921, two pilots took off in de Havilland DH-4 biplanes from New York, heading to San Francisco. One hour later, two pilots left San Francisco in the opposite direction. The goal was to fly throughout the night on what was hoped to be the start of overnight airmail service in the U.S. To make the night flights possible, the Postal Service set up bonfires along the route to aid in navigation. Relay planes were readied

in prearranged spots, a sort of Pony Express of the air. A snowstorm thwarted the westbound fliers, and only one of the two airplanes got even as far as Chicago before the effort was abandoned. Of the two planes that left San Francisco, one crashed in Nevada, killing the pilot. The other DH-4, however, made it through the snowstorm to Chicago, where a relief pilot flew the rest of the way to New York. The entire trip took 33 hours and 20 minutes, more than three days faster than a transcontinental crossing by rail. This time Harding was impressed. He agreed to additional funding, and regular overnight airmail service began in the U.S. on July 1, 1924.

FROM TOP: EAA CHAPTER 993; JIMMY STEWART MUSEUM; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE TOP (BOTH): COURTESY OF OHIO AIR & SPACE; OPPOSITE BOTTOM (BOTH): MUSA SALGEREYEV/TASS VIA GETTY IMAGES

special Delivery

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-BRIEFING.indd 8

11/19/20 10:00 AM

Vintage Ohio Terminal Set for Preservation

locally neglected jewel of aviation architecture, the 1929 air terminal in Port Columbus, Ohio, is the beneficiary of more than half a million dollars in matching funds for restoration. The historic art deco terminal building was erected on a site chosen by Charles Lindbergh on behalf of Transcontinental Air Transport. It was built as part of an ambitious plan to offer coast-to-coast travel in the then-fast span of 48 hours, with trains bringing passengers from New York to Port Columbus, where Ford Tri-Motors carried them in daylight to Oklahoma for another westbound night train trip followed by a final daylight flight to California. In late September 2020, the Ohio Air and Space Hall of Fame signed a long-term lease with the Columbus Regional Airport Authority for use of the vintage art deco terminal. An Ohio state grant for $550,000 puts the project about a quarter of the way to the estimated $2 million cost of renovating the 12,000-square-foot facility. According to Ron Kaplan, executive director of the Ohio Air and Space Hall of Fame and Museum, “The lease-signing is integral to a multimillion-

Art Deco dreams dollar fundraising effort by OAS, which has an initial goal Ohio’s 1929 Port Columbus air terminal (above) is being of raising another $550,000 to double the matching funds reimagined as the Ohio Air required by the state to release and Space Hall of Fame (left). the grant.” The terminal will house the state’s air and space hall of fame along with exhibits and educational facilities based on the STEAM concept, an evolved program that goes one step further than earlier STEM education by adding the arts into the science, technology, engineering and math mix. Ohio has a wealth of resident air and space luminaries to honor, ranging from the Wright brothers to Eddie Rickenbacker, John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. Frederick A. Johnsen

Abandoned Ekranoplan Finds a Home

FROM TOP: EAA CHAPTER 993; JIMMY STEWART MUSEUM; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE TOP (BOTH): COURTESY OF OHIO AIR & SPACE; OPPOSITE BOTTOM (BOTH): MUSA SALGEREYEV/TASS VIA GETTY IMAGES

or nearly 30 years a colossal hybrid vehicle locally known as the “Caspian Sea Monster” has lain abandoned to the elements at the Kaspiysk naval base in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. Although it has wings, the International Maritime Organization classes it as a ship. Unlike a flying boat, however, the ekranoplan, or ground-effect vehicle, is most at home one to five meters (three to 16 feet) above the water. The culmination of Soviet ground-effect experiments, the 380-ton “Lun” entered service in 1987 as the first of a new class of naval weapons capable of skimming the sea with six anti-ship missiles, borne by eight turbofan engines at 340 mph. The effort got no further than this first example before the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the project’s, and the ship’s,

AVHP-210100-BRIEFING.indd 9

abandonment in the 1990s. In July 2020, however, three tugs and two escort vessels arrived with rubber pontoons to convey the rusting Lun (inset and below) on a 14-hour journey 62 miles down the Caspian coast to Derbent, the oldest continuously inhabited city on Russian soil. There it will be restored and preserved at Patriot Park, a projected museum of historic military artifacts. Although it is expected to be a valuable tourist attraction, Lun may not necessarily spend posterity inspiring amusement as well as awe. Singapore, Russia, China and the United States are working on more civil applications of ground effect for a new generation of cargo and passenger carriers. If they succeed, the Lun ekranoplan may serve as a developmental artifact rather than a freakish dead end.

11/19/20 10:09 AM

AvIATORS

The Best Dive Bomber SEEKING PAYBACK FOR PEARL HARBOR, DIVE-BOMBER PILOT DICK BEST HAD A HAND IN SINKING TWO JAPANESE CARRIERS DURING THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY BY BARRETT TILLMAN

date with destiny Diving his Douglas SBD on the Japanese carrier Akagi (above), Dick Best (right) helped turn the tide at the June 1942 Battle of Midway.

Squadron 6 (VB-6) in June. He became flight operations officer—third in seniority— and cultivated his considerable dive-bombing skills. As he candidly admitted, “I intended to become the best bomber in the Pacific Fleet.” Certainly he had ample opportunity: In late 1941 he logged as many as 90 hours per month. On the morning of Decem ber 7, Enterprise’s Douglas SBD Dauntlesses were caught in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Several of Best’s shipmates were killed, leaving him with an abiding

thirst for vengeance. He recalled seeing the Big E’s “number one” battle flag hoisted, “My most memorable sight of the war.” As VB-6 executive officer, Best flew in each of Enter prise’s subsequent operations: hit-and-run strikes on Kwajalein Atoll, Wake Island and Marcus Island in February and March 1942. At Kwajalein he was jumped by Japanese fighters, which

ABOVE: ©ROBERT PERRY; INSET: U.S. NAVY

n the age of industrial warfare, individual combatants seldom make a difference in a battle’s outcome. Richard H. Best was an exception. But he spent a decade en route to his rendezvous with destiny at the Battle of Midway. Appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy from his native New Jersey, Best graduated in the class of 1932. Enamored of aviation, Ensign Best served the obligatory two years at sea before beginning flight training in Pensacola, Fla. An excellent student, he pinned on his golden wings in December 1935. Best’s Pensacola grades earned him the most prestigious seat possible: Fighting Squadron 2, the “Flying Chiefs.” Staffed largely with noncommissioned pilots, VF-2 was widely regarded as the most professional unit in naval aviation. For the next two years Best flew Grumman F3F biplanes from USS Lexington. After 2½ years aboard “Lex,” Best was offered patrol planes or instructing at Pensacola. He chose the latter, and used the time well. As he recalled, “The best way to learn a subject is to teach it, and that’s what I tried to do.” In the spring of 1940 Best was ready to return to the fleet, and he surprised colleagues by requesting dive bombers. As an astute professional, he recognized that naval fighters were inherently defensive while bombers were offensive. “I knew that we would become involved in the war,” he said, “and I thought I could make the best contribution by flying bombers.” Assigned to the carrier Enterprise, Best joined Bombing JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-AVIATORS.indd 10

11/19/20 10:33 AM

The Next Great Italian Masterpiece The Argento Byzantine Bracelet is an impeccable work of art with a price unmatched by any in its class.

Raffinato

™

——— Italy

a Vinci’s Mona Lisa, David by Michelangelo, Madame Butterfly by Puccini. Italy has produced some of the world’s greatest masterpieces. And, it’s no secret it is the epicenter of the best metalworking on earth. Which is why we sought out one of the best artisans to ever melt precious metals to create yet another great Italian masterpiece. For over two decades, Fabio Aguti has pursued his passion for making jewelry of great beauty inspired by the Tuscan countryside. The Argento Bracelet is his latest masterpiece. And, you can own it for under $40! Each bracelet is meticulously made by hand from pure sterling silver and celebrates the traditional woven Byzantine design–– an intricate array of woven links that forms a flexible and elegant drape. Passing the test of time and surpassing the definition of beauty, the Argento Byzantine Bracelet is perfect for the lady who appreciates fine art. And, priced for those who appreciate a fine value. The difference between priceless & overpriced. While shopping for bracelets, I spotted a 7” woven sterling silver Byzantine bracelet with a big designer name for $250. Ridiculous. It wasn’t Italian made. It wasn’t near as nice. High-end design shouldn’t carry a high price just because of a big name designer name up-charge. No questions asked, 30-day money back guarantee. We want you glowing with satisfaction. Masterpiece, not mass produced. Because each bracelet is handmade in Italy–– taking months to create–– we only have a select number available. Don’t miss this opportunity to own a piece of impeccable Italian-made jewelry for a truly amazing price. Call today! • Made in Arezzo, Italy • .925 sterling silver • 7.5" bracelet; lobster clasp

Argento Byzantine Bracelet Stunningly well-priced at

$39 + S&P

 “She loves it and wears it proudly. The quality is outstanding, and her friends recognize the classy and elegant look.”

The classic Byzantine chain pattern has stood the test of time for over 2,500 years To show exquisite details, bracelet shown is not exact size.

—M.B., Minneapolis, MN

Call today. There’s never been a better time to let your elegance shine.

1-888-444-5949

Offer Code: RFJ280-01. You must use the offer code to get our special price.

Raffinato

™

14101 Southcross Drive W., Ste 155, Dept. RFJ280-01, Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 www.raffinatoitaly.com

A c ol l ec tion of impe ccab le d e s i g n & cr af ts m ans hi p f r om I taly.

AVHP-210100-003 Stauer Rafinato Argento Bracelet.indd 1

11/10/20 1:09 PM

ready for action SBD Dauntlesses of VB-6 line up for takeoff from USS Enterprise to attack Wake Island on February 24, 1942.

put holes in his SBD’s tail. His evasive maneuvers were effective: “Not enough deflection,” he observed with Olympian detachment. When flying with VF-2 he had towed the banner target for gunnery practice, “and I knew what a good run looked like.” In May the Enterprise task force sped south during the world’s first carrier engagement, the Battle of the Coral Sea, but the Big E was too late to participate. Lexington was sunk and Yorktown damaged in exchange for a Japanese flattop, so the U.S. carriers were recalled to Pearl. In a frantic three days “Yorky” was fit enough to

deploy in response to a dire threat—Japan’s effort to seize Midway Atoll, barely 1,100 miles from Honolulu. The battle shaped up as a mismatch: Enterprise and Hornet operating together plus Yorktown in its own task force versus four veteran Japanese carriers. However, U.S. aircraft based on Midway evened the odds. On the eve of Midway Best was a thorough professional with 2,700 flight hours and more than 300 carrier landings. Newly promoted to command VB-6, he was confident of his squadron and himself. Of the night of June 3, he said, “I slept like a baby.” On the third call to man aircraft Best told his radioman-gunner, Chief James Murray, “Well, this is it!” Enterprise lofted a full deckload: 34 SBDs, 14 Douglas

TBD torpedo planes and 10 Grumman F4F fighters. But it took time, and at length the air group commander, Wade McClusky, headed outbound with his two Dauntless squadrons. Finding no Japanese at the briefed intercept point, McClusky began a box search and struck gold. Following the path of an enemy destroyer, he arrived over Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s four carriers. Midway-based planes and the task force’s three torpedo squadrons drew the attention of the Zeros, leaving the SBDs a clear shot. Historians still argue whether McClusky ordered a proper attack, but 30 Dauntlesses followed him down on the nearest carrier, Kaga. Best, narrowly avoiding collisions with the plunging SBDs, regrouped his two wingmen and went for the next target, Nagumo’s flagship Akagi. Attacking broad on the port beam, Best put his half-ton bomb into its hangar deck, igniting fuel and ordnance. His wingmen scored very near misses, and Akagi was doomed. So was Kaga. And, incredibly, so was Soryu, victim of Yorktown’s just-arrived strike. But the battle remained in the balance. When the remaining enemy carrier, Hiryu, was located, Best led his VB-6 survivors with over-

flow from the newly damaged Yorktown. That afternoon he made his second dive of the day, scoring his second hit. All four Japanese carriers were destroyed, and the battle ended with Yorktown’s loss on the 7th. It was also the end of Dick Best’s career. That night he began coughing blood, the result of caustic soda in his oxygen rebreather system that activated latent tuberculosis. Medically retired in 1944, Best spent the next several years recovering, then entered civilian life. He was an analyst for the RAND corporation until retiring in 1975. He died in 2001 but always said, “Midway was revenge, sweet revenge for Pearl Harbor.” At the end of the 2019 film Midway, a what-happenedto-them montage notes that Best was one of two pilots to score hits on multiple ships in the battle. The other was his shipmate, Lt. (j.g.) Jack “Dusty” Kleiss, who hit Kaga and Hiryu on June 4 and the cruiser Mikuma two days later. Although Best is portrayed as a hotdog in the movie, attempting an impossible feat (an intentional deadstick carrier landing with no flaps from a steep dive directly overhead), British actor Ed Skrein captures his intense focus on winning his part of the war.

TOP: U.S. NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND; BOTTOM: R.G. SMITH

AvIATORS

the turning point R.G. Smith’s painting shows Best and his squadron mates leveling off after hitting the carriers Akagi and Kaga.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-AVIATORS.indd 12

11/18/20 2:59 PM

MHQP-191000-WWIAD.indd 1

7/1/19 6:20 PM

RESTORED

T Square 54

THE SEATTLE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT’S METICULOUS B-29 RESTORATION HAS RETURNED MOST OF THE VETERAN BOMBER’S CONTROLS TO WORKING ORDER BY MARK CARLSON

iven its location on historic Boeing Field, it’s not surprising that Seattle’s Museum of Flight exhibits a wide variety of Boeing aircraft. Among its latest restorations is another Boeing product, a combat-veteran B-29 Superfortress. The shiny new bomber, serial no. 44-69729, rolled out of the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kan., on New Year’s Day 1945. Accepted by the U.S. Army Air Forces on January 4, the new Superfortress had its “address” prominently displayed on the broad, tall vertical stabilizer: a black “T” for the 498th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) above a square for the 73rd Bomb Wing and the number 54 as the 54th aircraft assigned to the 875th Squadron. T Square 54’s first mission, on the night of March 9-10, was a low-level incendiary raid on Tokyo that burned 16 square miles of the city and marked a change in tactics for the Twentieth Air Force bombers. Over the next several weeks T54 flew missions over Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya to mark targets in advance of the main bomber stream and participated in attacks. During a May 23 night raid, an anti-aircraft shell set the no. 1 engine on fire, but the B-29 made it back on the other three. On August 8, while the radioactive fires were still burning in Hiroshima, T54 flew its 37th and final mission to industrial targets in Yawata.

During the Cold War the veteran bomber was sent back to Boeing’s Wichita plant for conversion as a KB-29 aerial tanker. At Biggs Air Force Base in Texas, no. 729 was part of Strategic Air Command’s 95th Bomb Wing, flying missions to the UK. In 1956, after 11 years of service, it was finally retired from the Air Force and given to the Navy. Transported to the Weap ons Testing Center at Naval Air Station China Lake, high in the California desert, 729 joined several other B-29s as bombing targets for naval aviators. They had little luck in hitting the old veteran. In the 1970s the Air Force, realizing there were few

Museum quality Top: The Boeing B-29 Superfortress shines on static display at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. Above: T Square 54 drops its payload during one of 37 combat missions it flew over Japan in 1945.

Superfortresses left, ordered a stop to using them as targets. By the early 1980s 729 was among the last salvageable wartime B-29s left. In 1986 the dilapidated bomber was trucked in pieces to Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado, where it underwent its first restoration. In 1993, with Lowry designated for closure, the Museum of Flight began negotiations aimed at restor-

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-RESTORED.indd 14

11/19/20 10:35 AM

OPPOSITE TOP: DEAN SHAW; ALL OTHER PHOTOS: THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT

ing 729 to its original appearance. Retired AT&T engineer Dale Thompson eventually oversaw the project. Thompson said the bomber was in bad shape when Lowry first received it. “The aluminum skin was very weathered, some of the windows were broken, so the desert dust had blown in and covered everything,” he noted. “The tires were all flat and cracked. The engines were frozen, with pools of solid oil in the nacelles. All the wiring and cabling was gone or degraded. The wartime bombing equipment was gone, replaced by the air tanker gear. The control surfaces are fabric over an aluminum frame, and after all those years sitting in the sun at China Lake they were nothing more than shreds.” Lowry restored the exterior and repaired the damage, but what Thompson and his team faced was far more daunting. The Superfortress was in effect a huge metal jigsaw puzzle with dozens of missing pieces, some of which no longer existed. Rare wartime armament, radar, navigation, communications and bombing equipment had to be found or machined from original 1944 specifications. All four engines had to be stripped down and rebuilt, along with the hydraulics, instruments, flight controls, and oxygen

good as new Clockwise from above: Jimmy, a mannequin ground crewman, works on one of the engine cowlings; a view of the command pilot’s position and working Norden bombsight; and a closeup of the flight engineer’s station, which is situated just aft of the copilot facing backward.

and interphone systems. Several hundred volunteers gave their time to the old bomber. “We had ex-USAF personnel, people who worked at Boeing and a lot of folks who just offered their time and effort,” reported Thompson. Boeing opened their archives to the project, allowing the team to copy any drawings, diagrams and photos they needed. “The cockpit is about 90 percent complete,” said Thompson. “During the war the inner skin was just bare aluminum, but at all the crew stations it was insulated and covered with cotton fabric. All the cotton fabric is in place now. The tunnel through the bomb bay is lined too. We have the Norden bombsight and it actually works. We had it running and even an hour after it was turned off, the gyros were still spinning. Beautiful machinery. It looks brand-new. “We had machinists who custom-made parts from original Boeing drawings.

Syd Baker built bomb racks from scratch in his garage. All the instrument panels and labels are there, and their surfaces have been done with the proper black finish. It looks absolutely new. “The control cabling has been replaced,” continued Thompson. “The pulleys and guides are perfect and they operate the control surfaces. The command radios do work. Some licensed ham operators were on the team. We had two wartime pilots in the B-17 and B-29 and told them to talk and simulate a mission. They were so happy to use those radios again.” Thompson said the team worked a deal with Travis Air Force Base to wrangle up some critical parts. “It’s the only B-29 in the world where all five turrets work,” he

proudly noted. “We invited a B-29 gunner to come on board. He settled into his old seat at the gunsight and said, ‘I wish I could fire these babies again.’ So I told him, ‘Go ahead. It works.’ This guy takes the handgrips and twists it around. The turret turns and the guns elevate. He was overjoyed, just like a kid. Then I told him to fire the guns. He did, and this chattering roar made him jump,” Thompson laughed. “We had this recorded sound of the .50s firing when he pulled the trigger. He was smiling from ear to ear.” Today the revitalized veteran bomber is on display in the museum’s Aviation Pavilion. You can take a 360-degree virtual tour of the B-29’s immaculate interior at museumofflight.org. JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-RESTORED.indd 15

11/18/20 3:00 PM

EXTREMES

Golden Arrow Misses Mark CONVAIR’S 880 AND 990 AIRLINERS DEMONSTRATED THAT FASTER WASN’T ALWAYS BETTER WHEN IT CAME TO PASSENGER TRANSPORT BY STEPHAN WILKINSON

n the early 1960s I was an editor at the travel magazine Holiday. As a geeky young aviation enthusiast, I was assigned all the dog-and-pony shows that had anything to do with airplanes. So one day my boss said, “Show up at Idlewild [as New York’s JFK was called in those days] tomorrow morning for this thing,” tossing me an invitation to take a ride in an airliner. The airplane turned out to be a Convair 990, essentially a stretched and up-engined 880. We took off and climbed to altitude, then turned around, crossed the airport going like Billy-be-damned and headed for Boston, 190 miles to the northeast. We journalists were sitting up front, in the first-class section, and in those pre-9/11 days the cockpit door was open. I remember hearing the Mach-overspeed bell going off several times as the crew nudged the slim, four-engine jet up against forbidden territory (a 990’s VNE—never-exceed speed—was Mach .94, or 721 mph). Fifteen minutes later, with the help of a tailwind, we streaked over Boston Logan Airport aboard what to this day was the fastest commercial jet ever to carry passengers other than the Concorde and, briefly, the Tupolev Tu-144. Fifteen minutes to cover a stretch that I had driven numberless times between college and home in five hours. Yet this and its more numerous 880 sister ships were the

built for speed The Convair 990 (top) was a sleeker and faster version of the 880 (above), which could still cruise at 615 mph.

airplanes that promptly put Convair owner General Dynamics out of the airline business and sent it packing to its previous specialty: building delta-wing wonders like the F-106 and B-58 Hustler for the U.S. Air

Force. The 880/990 project cost GD a $185 million loss (more than $1.5 billion in today’s dollars), though some estimates are far higher. The demo flight I took was a desperate attempt by Convair to remind travel writers of the need for speed, but by that time nobody cared. Boeing bet the farm on the 707 and won. General Dynamics bet on the 880/990 and lost. Convair had imagined

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-EXTREMES.indd 16

11/19/20 11:11 AM

ALL PHOTOS: SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

a niche in the jet airliner market where none existed: a narrower and shorter, medium-range four-engine jet that would be faster than the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, thanks to a fuselage cross section that held just five seats and an aisle. Fuel was cheap in those days, and at the cost of some extra kerosene, impatient travelers could typically save 15 minutes on some trips. Convair had wanted to call the airliner the Skylark, until somebody reminded them there was already a single-engine Cessna with that name. Then, at the behest of Howard Hughes, they chose Golden Arrow and considered anodizing the entire airplane gold. Finally, to stay within the aviation tradition of alphanumeric designators, some slipstick-happy engineer came up with 880: the number of feet per second the airplane traveled at its max cruise of 615 mph. Hughes had ordered 880s for TWA, the airline that he controlled, and the airplane became his downfall as well. He bought them for the Hughes Tool Company, his fortune-creating manufacturer of oil-drilling bits, and then leased them back to TWA at a sky-high price. A stockholder revolt put an end to that fiddle as well as to Hughes’ control of the airline. The airplane’s speed was in part due to its thin, fast wings and their substantial sweep of almost 40 degrees. Boeing 707 wings were swept 35 degrees, and DC-8s stayed at a conservative 30 degrees (making the Doug 20 mph slower than the Boeing). The 990 took the wings’ aerodynamics a step further with the addition of anti-shock bodies—four large pods like upside-down canoes stretching well past the trailing edge of each wing. Depending on which aerodynamicist you fancied, they were called either Whitcomb bodies or Küchemann carrots, but they in fact had been pioneered

Aerodynamic carrots Anti-shock pods called Küchemann carrots or Whitcomb bodies cut down on wave drag at transonic speeds and helped give the 990 a speed edge.

front office A look at a Garuda Indonesia 990’s flight deck. In 1963 the airline launched a Hong Kong route with the Golden Arrow.

by the Soviet manufacturer Tupolev. Like Richard Whitcomb’s Area Rule, they cut down on wave drag at transonic speeds and made the thirsty airplanes a bit more efficient. The 880’s General Electric CJ805 engines were civil versions of the J79s that powered B-58s, F-104s and F-4s, minus the afterburner. They were noticeably loud and, particularly on takeoff, as smoky as a Bolivian bus. Many assumed this was due to water injection, and some tower controllers called 880s water wagons. But the

engines were not injected— they simply had badly designed burner cans. For the 990, the CJ805s were turned into turbofans, through the unusual device of mounting the bypass-air fan at the back of the engine, downstream from the hot section, rather than at the very front. The most celebrated of all Convair 880s was Elvis Presley’s Lisa Marie, an ex-Delta transport that the King added to his eclectic fleet in 1975. Renovated with what in that pre-Trump era was considered extreme— including gold-plated toilet fixtures—Presley’s Convair served alongside his Lockheed JetStar and Falcon 20. (The JetStar was noted for having as its chief pilot the aptly named Milo High.)

Lisa Marie remains on display at Graceland, in Nashville, despite at least one attempt to auction it off. It is one of only two intact Convair 880s left in the world. The other is parked at Mojave, Calif., owned by a company that supplies the film industry with aviation mockups and aircraft. Only 65 880s were manufactured, in an era when 500 airliner units was considered the break-even point, along with 37 990s. The Convair 880’s most important contribution to aviation may have been that it was largely responsible for the Federal Aviation Administration deciding that airline flight training should be carried out in simulators rather than airplanes. In May 1960, a Delta 880 on a training flight to type-rate two new captains crashed on takeoff from Atlanta Municipal Airport, killing all four crewmen. An FAA check pilot had zero-thrusted both left engines after rotation, and the airplane became unrecoverable. JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-EXTREMES.indd 17

11/18/20 3:01 PM

STYLE We focus our attention on Jessica Ambatsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; spectacular air-to-air photographs, a Jetsonsstyle jet pack and the new Nat Geo series about the Mercury Seven astronauts

Sean D. Tucker goes inverted in his Oracle Challenger alongside son Eric Tucker in the Wolf Pitts Pro.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-STYLE.indd 18

COURTESY OF JESSICA AMBATS

11/18/20 4:31 PM

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-STYLE.indd 19

11/18/20 4:32 PM

STYLE

JA N Ua rY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-STYLE.indd 20

11/18/20 4:32 PM

STYLE

PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF JESSICA AMBATS

Shutter Speed

Opposite: Yak-50s fly over Malibu Beach (top); U.S. Navy Blue Angels over Big Sur (bottom). Top: Rob Holland flies inverted in his MXS-RH over Nicolas Ivanoff in his Zivko Edge 540. Above: A P-51D Mustang passes the Freedom Tower, then under construction in New York City.

Photographer/pilot Jessica Ambats faces the challenges of air-to-air photography with a set plan. Before takeoff, Ambats and her team brief about takeoff/landing, frequencies, altitudes, airspeeds, photo maneuvers and emergency procedures. Weather permitting, they launch. For the next hour or so, with doors off, under cold, noisy and uncomfortable conditions, Ambats radios directions to the formation pilot, at times flying only 20 feet away. She aims her camera armed with an image-stabilized lens and captures the moment. Ambats shares one photo shoot that still haunts her. “We were setting up for a particular shot, and it became apparent that the pilot in the subject plane was maneuvering to fly an opposing pass right at us,” she recalls. “It was quickly called off. I now only work with highly experienced and skilled formation pilots.” Ambats’ photo book of owner-flown jets, Jet Dreams, is due out soon. jessicaambats.com JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-STYLE.indd 21

11/18/20 4:32 PM

STYLE INNOVATION

Rocket Man

During a 2017 TED Talk, in front of a screen showing himself flying in a suit powered by five mini jet engines, Richard Browning set the stage: “The starting hypothesis is that the human mind and body, when given the right chance, can do some really cool stuff…like our brain’s capacity to retune balance.” What’s his inspiration for his groundbreaking invention? “The sheer power of having an idea and learning by doing, learning from failure. That’s the inspiration behind this journey.” His company, Gravity, based in London, has built five Jet Suits, which carry a pricetag of $440,000. For more info visit gravity.co.

Richard Browning with his patented Gravity Jet Suit.

Gravity Jet Suit Specifications First launch: April 2017 Turbines: 5 Fuel: Jet A1 Kerosene, Premium Diesel Engine: 1,050 hp, 144 kg Thrust: 317 lbs. Fight Time: Up to 4 minutes Speed: 85.6 mph (World Record) Max Altitude: 12,000 ft., but limited for safety reasons

Dual Jet Suits fly at the Farnborough Air Show in 2018.

ja n UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-STYLE.indd 22

11/18/20 4:36 PM

STYLE TELEVISION

Lucky Seven

OPPOSITE TOP: DPPHOTOS; LEFT: RICH COOPER PHOTOGRAPHY; RIGHT IMAGES: DISNEY

New from Nat Geo, “The Right Stuff” is an inspirational television series based on Tom Wolfe’s 1979 bestseller by the same name. The series tells the story of NASA’s Mercury Seven astronauts. At the height of the Cold War in 1959, the Soviet Union leads the space race, and newly formed NASA is tasked with sending a man into space, not within two decades as predicted by the engineers, but in two years. Project Mercury trains seven astronauts from a selection of the military’s best pilots, who instantly become heroes before they realize a single heroic action. The series is streaming now on Disney+.

ja n UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-STYLE.indd 23

11/18/20 4:33 PM

LETTER FROM AvIATION HISTORY

HYPERSONIC BARRIERS

hyper-x plane NASA’s B-52B mother ship carries a Pegasus booster rocket tipped with the third X-43A on November 16, 2004. The X-43A hypersonic research plane reached Mach 9.6 (about 7,300 mph) that day, a record for unmanned aircraft.

n March 2006 maverick aerospace engineer Burt Rutan told Professional Pilot magazine: “In a relatively short period of time—maybe 15 to 20 years—I believe we’re going to fly hypersonic....We’ll bounce across the top of the atmosphere at Mach 5-6 or do suborbital lobs flying weightless. Travel time may be reduced to as little as 60 minutes anywhere on Earth.” So, Burt, it’s 15 years later—why are there no signs we’ll be flying hypersonic anytime soon? Aside from Rutan’s well-known tendency toward hyperbole, the main answer lies in the challenges surrounding hypersonic (above Mach 5) flight—it’s notoriously difficult, requiring technological leaps in materials and propulsion. But government interference and red tape have also played a role. To date the only manned hypersonic aircraft were the three X-15s built by North American Aviation and first flown in 1959. The pure research program achieved significant milestones for winged aircraft, including a record speed of 4,520 mph (story, P. 26) and record altitude of 354,200 feet. By the time the program was cancelled in 1968, it had attained all its design goals, albeit at the cost of pilot Mike Adams’ life and the third X-15’s destruction. Progress in hypersonic aircraft research has faltered in the U.S. since the X-15s’ retirement. The only major accomplishments in hypersonic flight since then came from NASA’s X-43A and the Air Force’s X-51A Waverider supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) technology demonstrators. Developed under the eight-year, $230 million Hyper-X program, the X-43As made two successful flights with the help of Pegasus booster rockets, reaching Mach 6.8 in March 2004 and a record Mach 9.6 that November. The X-51A, conceived

in 2004 as a follow-on to the X-43 and first flown hypersonic in May 2010, made its last and fastest flight on May 1, 2013, when it launched from a B-52 and reached a peak speed of Mach 5.1. In the preface to his book X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight, Dennis R. Jenkins wrote that “If the Air Force and NASA were trying to develop the X-15 today, Congress would cancel it long before the first flight.” Jenkins noted, “The military and NACA initiated and funded the X-15 program without congressional approval or oversight” and “there was little second-guessing from the politicians.” When the second X-15 crashed during an emergency landing in November 1962—a disaster that today would likely result in the program’s cancellation—the decision was made to rebuild it as a more capable aircraft, one that ultimately set the manned speed record. “In today’s environment, the system will not allow programs to have problems,” he wrote. Jenkins quotes North American engineer Harrison Storms from an early meeting about the X-15, noting he must have had a crystal ball: “[T]here is a very fine line between stopping progress and being reckless....The answer, in my opinion, is what I refer to as ‘thoughtful courage.’ If you don’t have that, you will very easily fall into the habit of ‘fearful safety’ and end up with a very long and tedious-type solution at the hands of some committee. This can very well end up giving a test program a disease commonly referred to as ‘cancelitis,’ which results in little or no progress.” As for Rutan, in the same 2006 interview he predicted, “Within 25 years, virtual reality meetings will be essentially transparent to being there in person.” Nice try, Burt, but you should have gone with 15 years for that one—with the pan demic’s help, we’re already there.

NASA

BY CARL VON WODTKE

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-ED LETTER.indd 24

11/19/20 7:23 AM

L I M I T E D -T I M E H O L I D AY O F F E R

TWO-FOR-ONE SPECIAL! CHOOSE ANY TWO SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR ONLY $29.99 An Army Wiped Out Bicycles at War Testing the A-Bomb Soviet Female Ace Battle in Paradise Invasion Stripes

HISTORYNET.COM

HISTORYNET.com

s PHluWHEN

HEMINGWAY WENT FROM WRITER TO FIGHTER H HOW U.S. CRYPTOLOGISTS BROKE JAPAN’S PURPLE CODE

Japanese airman Nobuo Fujita

I BOMBED AMERICA

9 Crucial Decisions

Chaos at Shiloh What Grant, Johnston did right...and wrong

ARMY AND GERMANY’S COMPETED WAFFEN-SS’S FAVOR LER FOR HIT

The Union’s critical Plus! Russian connection Tony HorwitZ’s final thoughts on ‘Confederates in the Attic’

THE ONLY PILOT TO STRIKE THE MAINLAND FACED AN UNLIKELY RECKONING

JUNE 2020

DOUBLE TROUBLE JULY 2020

NOVEMBER 2020 HISTORYNET.COM

ACWP-201100-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1 WW2P-200600-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

9/15/20 8:28 AM

3/3/20 7:10 AM

CIA’s Relentless Poisoner in Chief Doughboy Jazzman James Europe Union Goons Bomb L.A. Times Taking Thomas Jefferson to Court

MIHP-200700-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

3/17/20 1:40 PM

GETTYSBURG MYSTERY SOLVED. GEN. REYNOLDS’ SECRET FIANCEE H

THE AMERICAN FRONTIER

Saving Jamestown How John Smith turned chaos into a colony

LEE

M OVE S

NORT H

GETTYSBURG

fighting in sioux 55 wars decades

FATEFUL

DECISIONS

GRANT’S HAMMER PLUS GEN. MARCELLUS CROCKER

H LITTLE BIGHORN lieutenant’s testimony H THE PISTOL-PACKING RABBI H TRAIN DISASTER IN COLORADO

“THE BOYS STOOD AT THEIR GUNS FIRING CANISTER” JUNE 2020 HISTORYNET.COM

April 2020 HISTORYNET.com

WIWP-200600-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

2/18/20 9:37 AM

Controlled Chaos Striking Photos of Carriers at War

AMHP-200400-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

12/19/19 10:46 AM

August 2020 HISTORYNET.com

PENNSYLVANIA ARTILLERYMAN’S DETAILED LETTERS

June 2020 HISTORYNET.com

CWTP-200800-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

6/24/20 8:40 AM

aleutian B-24s: memorials to a forgotten war zone

HOMEFRONT Mary Tyler Moore shows up in new series

Death Valley

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY

7th Cav’s brutal fight to save a trapped patrol ‘We’re now in a war—where you can get killed’

Hitler’s Obsession With the Occult Grenades: The Good, the Bad...

The 1962 battle that shocked U.S. helicopter pilots

Mystery Death in Saigon Diamond smuggling, gunrunning, and the CIA

KILLER INSTINCT

This man taught thousands of U.S. Army Rangers how to fight dirty in World War II.

HISTORYNET.com

phantom vs mig

how u.s. navy f-4 crews scored the first american victories over vietnam flight of the yellow bird: surprised by the first transatlantic stowaway SUMMER 2020 HISTORYNET.com

JULY 2020

northrop flying wings: why the radical late-1940s bomber failed

OCTOBER 2020

VIEP-201000-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

CALL NOW! 1.800.435.0715 MENTION CODE OR VISIT SHOP.HISTORYNET.COM PLEASE HOLIDAY WHEN ORDERING 9/2/20 8:22 AM

MHQP-200600-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

6/12/20 3:56 PM

AVHP-200700-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

5/14/20 9:36 AM

Order by December 6 and you’ll receive FREE gift announcement cards that you can send out in time for the holidays! *For each MHQ subscription add $15

Titles are published 6 times per year except Military History Quarterly, which is published 4 times per year

HNET SUB AD_HOLIDAY-2020.indd 1

9/24/20 3:14 PM

PETE KNIGHT’S WILD RIDES PILOTING X-15S TO A RECORD MACH 6.7 AND THE FRINGES OF SPACE, THE U.S. AIR FORCE MAJOR EARNED THE HARMON TROPHY AND NICKNAME “SPEEDY PETE” BY RICHARD P. HALLION

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 26

11/18/20 3:04 PM

beyond the blue horizon U.S. Air Force Major William J. “Pete” Knight pilots the North American X-15A-2 on a research flight, in a Jack Fellows illustration.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 27

11/18/20 3:04 PM

highs and lows Above: On September 12, 1961, the Boeing NB-52B mother ship overflies the second X-15, which NASA’s Joe Walker had just flown to Mach 5.21. Inset: The NB-52B carries the second X-15 in 1961. Opposite bottom: That X-15 lies wrecked on Mud Lake after Jack McKay’s emergency landing on November 9, 1962.

They had flown past Mach 6 and nearly 60 miles high, launching from two modified Boeing B-52s and propelled by 57,000-pound-thrust rocket engines burning nearly nine tons of anhydrous ammonia and liquid oxygen in less than 90 seconds. Their pilots held the Harmon and Collier trophies, and America’s charismatic young president, John F. Kennedy, hailed their heroism. They had their own motion picture, X-15, featuring Charles Bronson, Mary Tyler Moore and the twangy narration of ex–B-24 combat commander Jimmy Stewart. But when the second X-15 launched on the morning of November 9, 1962, for a Mach 5-plus stability investigation, the rocket plane’s Thiokol LR99 engine sputtered at just 30 percent thrust, forcing NASA Flight Research Center pilot Jack McKay to make an emergency landing on the baked clay of Nevada’s Mud Lake. As it glided

earthward, the X-15 still retained some residual propellants. Then its flaps wouldn’t deflect. Sinking fast, it slammed down at more than 290 mph. A strong down-load imposed by its deflected horizontal stabilizer did the rest. Investigators reported: “The left main-gear strut collapsed; the ventral fin struck the ground and was torn to bits; the left stabilizer dug into the ground and was torn off; the nosewheels failed at the hubs; the airplane skidded for about 1,400-ft on the left wing tip, the right main-gear skid, and the nosewheel strut; the airplane gradually turned toward the left, and finally turned over when the right wing tip dug into the ground.” McKay was trapped in a smoking, rumbling hulk leaking propellants and venting gases. As a twin-rotor Piasecki H-21B helicopter blew ammonia fumes away from the cockpit, rescuers ignored the risks and freed McKay who, though suffering a cracked vertebra, recovered to fly again. So, too, did the second X-15. North American

BY LATE 1962, NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION’S THREE X-15S SEEMINGLY HAD DONE IT ALL.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 28

11/19/20 12:16 PM

suggested, and the U.S. Air Force agreed, to rebuild it as a faster, more capable aircraft. It returned to Edwards Air Force Base in mid-February 1964 with numerous changes and a new designation: X-15A-2. It had jettisonable external tanks, one for liquid oxygen and the other for anhydrous ammonia, boosting engine burn-time to more than 141 seconds, sufficient to exceed Mach 7. A stub pylon for a scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) could replace its ventral fin, and the fuselage had a plug for liquid hydrogen tanks to fuel it. A helium tank for propellant pressurization nestled behind the vertical fin. Extended fairings held additional hydrogen peroxide for two auxiliary power units (APUs). Its landing gear was stronger and longer. The canopy had heat-resistant threelayer elliptical windshields, replacing crack-prone two-layer trapezoidal ones. An experiments bay was situated behind the cockpit. The outer right wing could be replaced for structure and materials studies. Finally, it had strengthened launch shackles to carry the extra weight of its jettisonable tanks and added structure. On June 25, 1964, Lt. Col. Robert A. Rushworth piloted the X-15A-2 on its first flight. Four flights followed—one by McKay and three by Rush worth, each with a disturbing landing gear incident. First, the nose gear extended at Mach 4.3; then a gear door scoop opened at Mach 4.5; and finally the right landing skid extended at Mach 4.3. “Boy,” Rushworth fumed after the last incident, “I’ve had enough of this!” All reflected uneven thermal expansion, forcing changes to up-locks and actuator cables. Rushworth then moved on, succeeded by a new pilot, 35-year-old USAF Major William J. “Pete” Knight. Slight in stature, Knight was a towering pres ence at Edwards. He had been commissioned in 1953 after enlisting during the Korean War, and won the Allison Jet Trophy Race the follow-

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 29

ing year. Awarded a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1958, he then attended the prestigious Test Pilot School at the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), graduating in April 1959. Knight was assigned to Edwards’ legendary Test Ops, flying the early “Century Series” fighters and other aircraft. In 1960 he flew chase for Scott Crossfield during the X-15’s proving flights. Then the USAF picked him to pilot Boeing’s X-20 Dyna-Soar orbital boost-glider. After Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara cancelled the project on December 10, 1963—an infamous decision Knight neither forgot nor forgave—he returned to the AFFTC for spaceflight training.

night checked out in the first X-15 on September 30, 1965, reaching Mach 4.06 at 76,600 feet. He did not pilot the X-15A-2 until the summer of 1966, when he made three flights carrying a star-tracking experiment, peaking at 249,000 feet. Afterward the X-15A-2 team focused on trying to reach and even exceed Mach 7. Their first task was to test-jettison the external tanks and continue on internal propellants, which Knight did on November 18, 1966. Launching near Mud Lake, he dropped the tanks at Mach 2.27 and 69,700

rocket men Top left: President John F. Kennedy (left) presents the 1961 Collier Trophy to the first four X-15 pilots. From left are Scott Crossfield, Bob White, Joe Walker and Forrest Petersen. Top right: The second group of X-15 pilots included (from left) Joe Engle, Bob Rushworth, McKay, Knight, Milt Thompson and Bill Dana. Above: Pete Knight poses with the rebuilt X-15A-2.

11/18/20 3:05 PM

TECH NOTES NORTH AMERICAN X-15A-2 COCKPIT

1. Airspeed Mach indicator (alternate directly below) 2. Accelerometer 3. Dynamic pressure indicator 4. Inertial height indicator 5. Inertial climb indicator 6. Engine indicator and caution lights 7. Angle-of-attack indicator

8. Attitude indicator 9. Inertial speed indicator 10. Emergency battery switch 11. Helium release selector switch 12. Fuel flow indicator 13. Hydraulic pressure gauge 14. Ventral (or dummy ramjet) jettison button

15. Propellant source pressure gauge 16. Propellant tank pressure gauge 17. Propellant pump inlet pressure gauge 18. Generator (AC) voltmeter 19. Auxiliary power unit (APU) switches (2) 20. APU warning/caution lights 21. Landing gear handle 22. Propellant manifold pressure gauge

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 30

11/18/20 3:05 PM

23. APU hydrogen peroxide tank pressure gauge 24. Mixing chamber temperature gauge 25. Cabin helium source pressure gauge 26. Cabin internal emergency release handle 27. Hydrogen peroxide source and purge pressure gauge

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 31

28. Hydrogen peroxide tank and engine control lines pressure gauge 29. Chamber and stage two igniter pressure gauge 30. AC voltmeter 31. APU source pressure gauge 32. APU bearing temperature gauge 33. Cabin pressure altimeter

34. Vent, pressurization and jettison lever 35. Data timer 36. Center control column 37. Auxiliary pneumatic and control pressure gauge 38. Ballistic control stick mount 39. LR99 engine throttle 40. Circuit breaker panel

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

11/18/20 3:05 PM

new and improved After extensive modifications, the X-15A-2 sports a bare Inconel-X finish and external tanks in 1964 (top). The rocket plane was subsequently covered in a pink protective coating (right) and white sealant (above).

feet and raced to Mach 6.33 (4,261 mph) at 98,900 feet. “When those tanks go, it is the loudest bang and jolt I have had in a long time,” he reported. “It sounded like the whole airplane blew up.” The second task was checking flight behavior with a dummy scramjet on the pylon, which Knight performed on May 8, 1967, launching over Hidden Hills dry lake and hitting Mach 4.75 at 97,600 feet. Third was readying the X-15A-2 to survive higher temperatures than its original 1,200-degree

limit. NASA planned to spray MA-25S, a Martindeveloped silicon-based ablative coating, over the underlying Inconel-X nickel-alloy structure and fit preformed ablative strips around the leading edges of the wings, tail surfaces and windscreen. The X-15A-2 could then test what might be an easy method for protecting future spacecraft on reentry. In May and June 1967, technicians applied the dull flamingo-pink ablator and fitted the strips. After the coating cured, they applied white sealer for safety, since MA-25S, exposed to liquid oxygen, detonates if struck with an 8-pound force! Pro gram leaders well remembered how, just a decade earlier, Bell, the USAF and NASA-predecessor NACA had lost three airmen killed or injured, four rocket planes blown up and two mother ships wrecked by explosions caused by lox-chilled leather gaskets that detonated when jolted, and wanted to avoid any repeat. Engineers prevented MA-25S residue from obscuring pilot vision via a Solomonic solution: Since X-15s typically flew left-hand landing patterns, they installed an “eyelid” over the cockpit canopy’s left pane. During hypersonic speed runs, ablating MA-25S would render the right pane opaque, but as Knight neared Edwards he could open the eyelid and fly his approach and landing looking out the clear left pane. On June 29, 1967, while the X-15A-2 received its coatings, Knight flew the first X-15—and it nearly killed him. He was climbing through 104,000 feet at Mach 4.17 and “really enjoying the flight” when an electrical arc from an onboard experiment dumped both APUs, causing the LR99 to quit. Knight radioed a terse “Shutdown” as warning lights flashed on, then off, and the twin APUs wound down, taking away all electrical and hydraulic power. He tried the mechanical reaction controls, but found them ineffective. With out instruments, communications or controls, Knight was a passenger in an ascending ballistic missile. The X-15-1 peaked at 173,000 feet. Going over the top he looked right, seeing Mono Lake, “clear and beautiful.” Left was Mud, Knight thinking (as he told me in 1982), “Take a good look, Pete—that’s probably where you’ll plant it.” Momentarily he considered ejecting in the lower atmosphere. But, as the X-15 descended, he flipped on its emergency battery. The right APU refused to start, but the left did, restoring most controls and some instruments, but not his radio or angle-of-attack (AOA) indicator, both critical for reentry. Reflexively, Knight pulled the nose up until the X-15 began to yaw, immediately easing off, and then pulled to yaw again. It was risky but it worked and the X-15 levelled at 45,000 feet. He then

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 32

11/18/20 3:05 PM

rolled into a sustained 6G left turn, setting up an approach to Mud Lake, and made a no-flap landing. Unscathed save for a bad head bump exiting the airplane, Knight received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his steady nerve and great skill.

OPPOSITE TOP & TOP RIGHT: AIR FORCE FLIGHT TEST CENTER; ALL OTHER PHOTOS THIS SPREAD: NASA

he X-15A-2 was ready by late summer, pristine in its new all-white finish. Pre vious flights had evaluated MA-25S on panels and surfaces, but never as an entire coating. Knight did so on August 21, 1967, launching over Hidden Hills and flying out to Mach 4.94 at 91,000 feet. Decelerating through Mach 2.5, he opened the eyelid, which acted like a tiny canard, inducing a mild coupled pitch-roll-yaw. He jettisoned the dummy scramjet and landed. Engineers found the MA-25S generally in “very good condition,” but the stub ventral fin had suffered severe erosion to its leading edge, the significance of this missed despite engineers recognizing that “shock waves originating from the dummy ramjet shape” had caused it. Technicians added a high-temperature probe at the forward apex of the vertical fin, made APU and propellant checks, and refurbished the ejection seat. The team mated the X-15A-2 to the NB-52B mother ship on September 25, anticipating flying later that week. But rains rendered Mud Lake a reality, so the date slipped to the first week of October. The test plan stipulated 6,500 feet per second (Mach 6.57) at 100,000 feet, faster than any previous manned winged flight. At 1:30 p.m. on October 3, 1967, following a 90-minute hold for a leaky jettison valve and a faulty helmet, the NB-52B, piloted by Colonel Joseph Cotton and Major William Reschke, took off with Pete Knight and the X-15A-2 snugged under its right wing. Four chase planes went up as well: three F-104s and a T-38. A C-130 with paramedics and a rescue vehicle orbited on-call near Grapevine Dry Lake. NASA and the AFFTC pre-placed fire trucks and comm vehicles on Mud, Cuddeback and Rogers dry lakes, together with two helicopters, a UH-1 at Mud and an H-21 at Rogers. The climb-out passed smoothly save for glitches with a yaw check and missed radio calls. At 2:32 p.m., the NB-52B was at 43,750 feet a dozen miles east-northeast of Mud Lake. Launch panel operator Jack Russell radioed “3-2-1-launch,” and Knight hit the launch switch. Briefly, the X-15A-2 remained in place until he hit it again. Thereafter, he reported, “It was one of the smoothest launches I have had.” Knight compensated for a left rolling tendency from the external tanks’ differing weights, transitioned into the 35-degree climb-out (holding a +2-degree AOA) and jettisoned the tanks at Mach 2.2 and 73,500 feet just over a minute into the flight, pressing on into the upper stratosphere.

record run Above: The X-15A-2 accelerates after launch on October 3, 1967, during Knight’s flight to Mach 6.7. Left: Portions of the dummy scramjet carried under the ventral pylon melted and three of four explosive bolts holding it in place detonated, causing it to fall off the aircraft.

He levelled at 100,000 feet, increasing the AOA to +6 degrees to maintain a zero rate of climb. Pitch control was “very sensitive,” with the AOA bobbing between +4 and +7 degrees. When his inertial speed indicator read 6,500 fps, he shut down the LR99 after a 141.4-second burn. In fact, the X-15A-2 had flown significantly faster, as the inertial indicator—like all inertial systems—was subject to lag. More precise data from the X-15 program’s radar tracking station at Beatty, Nev., revealed it had actually attained 6,630 fps, Mach 6.7 (4,520 mph), at 102,100 feet—a speed record for manned aircraft that stands to this day. Though the MA-25S generally protected the underlying Inconel-X structure, it also prevented it from absorbing and radiating the heat its designers had anticipated, creating local hotspots. Inter secting shockwaves from the scramjet and pylon had created roiling turbulent flows generating temperatures exceeding 2,800 degrees. The ablator rapidly eroded, portions of the dummy scramjet melted and the pylon burned through, feeding searing flow into the aft end. At its higher velocity, the X-15A-2 flew a higher deceleration profile than planned, resulting in

INTERSECTING SHOCKWAVES FROM THE SCRAMJET AND PYLON CREATED TURBULENT FLOWS GENERATING TEMPERATURES EXCEEDING 2,800 DEGREES. JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 33

11/18/20 3:06 PM

well done Knight, still wearing his pressure suit, and ground personnel examine damage to the X-15A-2 after his record flight. Below: The airplane exhibits charred leading edges, burnt speed brakes on the vertical fin and damaged ventral pylon the next day at NASA’s Flight Research Center.

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 34

NASA mission controller (and X-15 pilot) Bill Dana twice warning Knight he was “high on energy” and had to “trim down.” Knight, “pretty well relaxed by this time,” performed stability and control maneuvers during which the ball nose sensor briefly stuck, preventing measurement of yaw response, possibly because of heating. Over Cuddeback at 80,000 feet and Mach 4, a hydrogen peroxide overheat light came on, triggered by the superheated air in the aft end, and Dana radioed, “Go jettison on the peroxide, Pete.” Finally, a heat-weakened line and a malfunctioning valve vented all the helium for expelling residual propellants. Knight, like McKay, thus had to land approximately 1,500 pounds heavy. Turning slightly right from his arrow-like launch track, Knight passed five miles east of Edwards’ North Base at 55,000 feet and Mach 2.2, opening the eyelid and beginning a left turn at Mach 1.7 that took him over the south lake at 44,000 feet. As he curved through the turn, the partially melted scramjet separated at Mach 1.02 and 32,000 feet, appropriately falling like a bomb into the Edwards bombing range. Now down to 20,000 feet, Knight wisely rejected landing on lakebed Runway 23, opting for more distant Runway 18, where he made “a very smooth touchdown” at 2:40, eight minutes after launch.

er procedure, after coming to a halt, Knight recorded his final instrumentation readings, wondering why his ground team was looking toward the airplane and not helping him out. The answer became clear when he saw the blackened back end. The damage stunned NASA engineers. The Flight Research Center’s Jack Kolf told me in 1977, “If there had been any question that the airplane was going to come back in that shape, we never would have flown it.” FRC thermodynamicist Joe Watts saw the flight’s major lesson as teaching engineers to take “extreme care in the design of hypersonic vehicles where shock impingement and interference effects are present because of the extremely high temperatures encountered.” NASA’s John Becker—father of the X-15— agreed, urging future designers to pay “maximum attention to aerothermodynamic detail in design and pre-flight testing.” Afterward, NASA generally cooled to both refurbishable ablators for cheap hypersonic protection and hypersonic pylon-mounted engines. The latter reflected the phenomenally destructive power of colliding shockwaves revealed by the X-15A-2. Two conical oblique shockwaves from the scramjet had impinged on a bow shockwave formed by the pylon, generating superheated high-pressure vortices that scoured off the MA-25S ablator, wrinkled the fuselage at the pylon’s base, burnt through the pylon itself and melted portions of the scramjet. Three of four explosive bolts holding the scramjet in place had detonated, weakening the fourth so it fractured, causing the scramjet to fall off the airplane. Though North American returned the X-15A-2 to readiness, it never flew again. Today it is displayed in bare Inconel-X finish at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The NB-52B that carried it is exhibited outside Edwards’ North Gate. As for Pete Knight, on October 17, he flew the third X-15 to 280,500 feet (53.13 miles), earning astronaut wings. (Sadly, on November 15, that

11/18/20 3:06 PM

OPPOSITE TOP: AIR FORCE TEST CENTER MUSEUM VIA PETER W. MERLIN; LEFT: NASA: ABOVE: NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE/KEN LAROCK

X-15 crashed, killing Major Mike Adams.) He and Bill Dana closed out the program the following year. Knight flew the first X-15 three more times, and would have on December 20, 1968—planned as the 200th flight—but Edwards had snow! The team demated the first X-15 and NB-52B, ending an era. The Mach 6.7 flight earned Knight the Harmon Trophy for 1967 (and the nickname “Speedy Pete”), presented by President Lyndon B. Johnson in a Cabinet Room ceremony on December 3, 1968. Johnson noted “his workday is spent on the fringes of space” and “his bravery and his skill have been tested time and again.” Both were soon tested again. Like X-15 pilots Bob White and Bob Rushworth, Knight left the High Desert for Vietnam, flying 253 combat missions in F-100Ds. In 1982 he told me (while shaking his head), “Nothing is as scary as bombing and strafing at night under flares.” Afterward, he rose steadily through Air Force Systems Command, finishing his career as vice commander of the AFFTC, as the Air Force entered the era of the A-10, B-1, F-15 and F-16, all of which he flew. Richly honored, Knight held the Legion of Merit with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with 10 Oak Leaf Clusters, Octave Chanute Award and an Air Force Association Citation of Honor in addition to the Harmon Trophy. He retired in 1982, memorably proclaiming at his Edwards

officers’ club farewell banquet: “People say, ‘It’s time to go’ and ‘We all have to make way for young people.’ Well, I say, ‘To hell with them!’” The room erupted in laughter and applause. Never one to remain idle, he entered politics, serving as mayor of Palmdale, Calif., then in the California Assembly and Senate, his license plate emblazoned with “X-15A-2.” He became president of The Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, California’s Aerospace Walk of Honor and New Mexico’s International Space Hall of Fame. Active to the end, Pete Knight died in 2004 at age 74, justly hailed as one of the world’s greatest aerospace pioneers. But for all his many accomplishments, it is as an airman’s airman that he is best remembered—his flight to Mach 6.7 the highlight of both an extraordinary program and a celebrated career. Aerospace historian and analyst Richard P. Hallion was a founding curator of the National Air and Space Museum, wrote the official history of the NASA Flight Research Center and subsequently served as Air Force Flight Test Center historian and oversaw the Air Force History and Museums Program. For further reading, he recommends: The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings Into Space, by Michelle L. Evans; X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight, by Dennis R. Jenkins; and At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program, by Milton O. Thompson.

back in black The X-15A-2 takes its place in the fourth building of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in October 2015. Note the open “eyelid” covering the cockpit’s left window pane.

THOUGH NORTH AMERICAN RETURNED THE X-15A-2 TO READINESS, IT NEVER FLEW AGAIN. JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-PETE KNIGHT.indd 35

11/18/20 3:06 PM

rolling thunderchief Captain Dan Cherry rolls in on a target, in a detail from Harley Copic’s painting Thunder Over the Red River. Cherry’s Republic F-105D carries 750-pound M117 bombs, which under certain conditions could explode prematurely due to their fuzes’ design.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-EXPENDABLES-V2.indd 36

11/20/20 10:21 AM

THE EXPENDABLES WHEN BOMBS BEGAN EXPLODING PREMATURELY OVER VIETNAM, KILLING AIRCREWS, THE CAUSE WAS TRACED TO FAULTY FUZES, BUT MORE WOULD DIE BEFORE A SOLUTION WAS FOUND BY JOHN LOWERY

AVHP-210100-EXPENDABLES-V2.indd 37

11/20/20 10:21 AM

THE PROBLEM OF AIRCREWS BEING KILLED BY PREMATURE BOMB DETONATION BEGAN EARLY IN THE VIETNAM WAR. danger close Bomb-laden F-105s refuel from a Boeing KC-135 tanker before heading to North Vietnam. In November 1965, Captain William Miller’s Thunderchief was destroyed by a fuze-related premature bomb detonation as he approached a KC-135 to refuel.

The first known instance occurred on November 12, 1965, when Captain William Miller was flying a Republic F-105D on a mission to North Vietnam. His flight of four Thunderchiefs was still over Thailand and the six 750-pound M117 bombs he was carrying should have been secure. Captain Miller was killed instantly when the proximity-fuzed bombs exploded as he approached a Boeing KC-135 tanker to refuel. The M188 variable-time proximity fuzes were supposed to arm only after being released from the bomb rack. But somehow one of the World War II–era fuzes had become armed before release. Then, as the fighter-bomber closed on the tanker, the small radar beam emitted by the fuze on one of the bombs detected the aircraft and detonated. The fuzes were then temporarily withdrawn from service to determine the cause. The 4525th Fighter Weapons Wing at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada was tasked with identifying

the problem. The project was assigned to Captain John Morrissey, who conducted the tests that subsequently revealed the reasons behind the accident. The first thing Captain Morrissey discovered was that the proximity fuzes had been designed during WWII for internal carriage by B-17 and B-24 bombers. In fact, the applicable technical order dated from the early 1940s. If carried externally—as they were on the F-105Ds—they were limited to a maximum speed of 240 mph (204 knots). Yet the bombs were typically carried by F-105s at airspeeds of 550 knots or greater. Until the advent of the Vietnam War, the United States’ national military policy had emphasized “mutually assured destruction,” with atomic weapons as a deterrent. Consequently, development of new modernized conventional weapons lagged badly. In essence, the U.S. Air Force’s Mach 2–capable fighters were forced to carry leftover WWII bombs and fuzes simply because there

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-EXPENDABLES.indd 38

11/19/20 3:32 PM

PREVIOUS SPREAD: ©HARLEY COPIC; ALL PHOTOS: U.S. AIR FORCE

was nothing else available. As Lt. Col. Billy Sparks reported, “They were very old and had a problem with detonation if dropped any distance, even without fuzes installed.” The proximity fuze was designed to detonate the bomb in the air to suppress anti-aircraft fire over a wide area. These old fuzes were armed by a clock-like mechanism after a set number of turns of a small propeller located on the fuze’s nose, with the arm-time set prior to departure. Once armed, the bomb detonated when the fuze’s small radar unit detected anything that would reflect a radar beam—a ground target or, in Miller’s case, the KC-135 tanker. Only limited quantities of these WWII leftovers were available. Despite official denials to Congress by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the supply of M117 bombs was also critical. In fact, as the war heated up in the spring of 1966, when I served as an F-105D pilot with the 333rd Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 335th Tactical Fighter Wing, we completely exhausted the supply. The war reserve munitions stockpiles on Guam had been purged—barged out to sea and dumped—to save on storage costs. Consequently, the Depart ment of Defense was forced to purchase replacements from the reserve stockpiles of allied nations. And despite continuing U.S. losses to anti-aircraft fire, for several weeks we flew fighter-bomber missions into heavily defended North Vietnam armed only with the airplane’s 20mm cannon.

Morrissey’s subsequent flight tests with the M188 proximity fuzes immediately identified the problem. It involved a combination of both high airspeed and the safety wire used to restrain the small arming propeller. Normally the fuze’s safety wire was pulled when the bomb released. This freed the propeller to spin and arm the proximity fuze. But at the high speeds typical of the F-105D, the fuze safety wire sometimes vibrated and broke, allowing the propeller to spin and arm the bomb prior to release. Once the cause of the premature detonation was identified, the fuzes were modified to make the bombs safe to carry.

bombing up Top: A crew chief poses with the six 750-pound bombs loaded on an F-105’s centerline multiple ejector rack. Above: Sergeant Anthony DeBerardinis installs fuzes on M117 bombs carried by a McDonnell F-4E of the 347th Tactical Fighter Wing.

nfortunately, the problem was larger than just one mishap and one type of fuze. In November 1967, the McDon nell F-4 Phantom–equipped 366th Tac tical Fighter Wing, located at Da Nang Air Base JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-EXPENDABLES.indd 39

11/19/20 3:32 PM

TECH NOTES PROXIMITY FUZES The M188 variable-time (VT) nose fuze that caused Captain Miller’s accident was similar to the M166 (below). The long-delay electric FMU-35 fuze (bottom) proved problematic to the F-4 Phantoms of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Da Nang, South Vietnam. ARMING PROPELLER

TRANSMITTER RECEIVER GENERATOR WRENCH LUG

WRENCH LUG LOCK WASHER

FIRING CAPACITOR

EXPLOSIVE TRAIN

LEAD CUP PLATE BOOSTER CUP

LOCK RING SAFETY PIN

BATTERY INITIATOR & LANYARD ASSEMBLY

LIQUID AMMONIA BATTERY

IMPACT SWITCH

EXTERNAL BOOSTER SELECTOR SWITCH

ROTOR

EXPLOSIVE TRAIN ASSEMBLY

DETONATOR

ELECTRONIC SECTION

SAFING PLUG

new challenge Korean War ace Frederick “Boots” Blesse, the 366th Wing’s director of operations, was told “sometimes you get losses like those in combat.”

in South Vietnam, lost eight aircraft and 16 crewmen in rapid succession. At first the losses were attributed to a so-called “golden BB” hit—wherein the aircraft rolled into a dive and was hit by a lucky shot from anti-aircraft fire, then exploded, leaving no survivors. (Medal of Honor recipient Captain Lance P. Sijan did survive a bomb explosion on his F-4, and despite being severely wounded he ejected successfully, only to be captured later and die of his untreated wounds as a POW.) Consequently, the wing’s director of operations, Colonel Frederick C. “Boots” Blesse, attempted to stop all bombing missions to investigate the problem. “But we had no proof that anything was wrong,” wrote Blesse in his book Check Six, adding, “…we were told ‘sometimes you get losses like those in combat.’” Blesse described a “Skyspot” mission that ultimately provided the clue needed to resolve the problem. When a target was covered by clouds, ground-based Skyspot radar was used to vector a flight of four or more fighters to a point at which a countdown was started by the radar controller. Then, in close formation, upon command from the controller, all aircraft released their bombs simultaneously. On this occasion, however, a hurry-up vector to the release point had left the flight’s second element—ships three and four—spread out by several hundred yards. As the flight leader’s bombs

U.S. AIR FORCE DIAGRAMS ADAPTED BY PAUL FISHER

DETONATOR MOTOR HOUSING (MOTOR NOT SHOWN)

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-EXPENDABLES.indd 40

11/18/20 3:08 PM

U.S. AIR FORCE DIAGRAMS ADAPTED BY PAUL FISHER

released, crew members in the second element saw one of the leader’s bombs explode a few feet beneath the aircraft. This destroyed both aircraft in the lead element and killed all four crewmen. Only now they knew where to look for the cause of these heretofore unexplained losses. The problem involved the newly introduced long-delay electric FMU-35 fuzes. Something was causing them to activate prematurely. Yet incredibly, despite now having eyewitnesses, the leadership in higher headquarters didn’t agree. Thus, because the wing didn’t have anything else, aircrews were ordered to continue using the new fuzes. But the order didn’t say the bombs had to be armed. So, Blesse had subsequent missions launched with the bombs unarmed, and the losses stopped immediately. Sometime later these fuzes were withdrawn and replaced by the improved FMU-72. In 1968 the Air Force accepted for testing the new electrically actuated FMU-57 proximity fuze, destined to replace the obsolete fuze that had cost Miller his life. It was designed specifically to counter the surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft fire that was taking a heavy toll on U.S. fighters. Testing of the new proximity fuzes was assigned to the Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) section of the 4525th Fighter Weapons Wing at Nellis AFB. Again, Captain Morrissey was

appointed the project officer. The wing had just received 36 fuzes from the manufacturer, Saun ders Industries, for test and evaluation. Because the new fuzes were urgently needed in Southeast Asia, to expedite the approval process Head quarters Tactical Air Command allowed the use of live munitions for the tests rather than inert shapes. Using live bombs, Morrissey had already dropped more than half of them successfully when the tests were interrupted by his deployment to Southeast Asia as team leader of a munitions introduction team for a related project. In his absence, another member of the OT&E section, Major Robert L. Chastain, was assigned to complete the tests. On December 17, 1968, Major Chastain resumed the fuze testing. The mission of the twoship flight of F-105Ds was to complete the evaluation of these modernized electric proximity fuzes. Each aircraft was loaded with six M117 bombs. Chastain, a recent graduate of the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School, was flying the number-two position on Major John O. Rollins II’s wing. With the call-sign “Winder Flight,” they departed at 10 a.m. and approximately five minutes later entered the Nellis Range III weapons complex. The six bombs on each aircraft were set to be dropped individually. To ensure the safe separation of the aircraft from the bomb blast,

preflight check Colonel Robin Olds, commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, inspects the M117 bombs on his F-4C prior to a mission.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-EXPENDABLES.indd 41

11/18/20 3:08 PM

grim test result Grainy film footage (above) captures the destruction of an F-105D piloted by Major Robert L. Chastain (right) while he tested a new electric proximity fuze at Nellis Air Force Base in December 1968.

THE BOMB RELEASED NORMALLY, BUT JUST A FEW FEET BELOW THE F-105 IT EXPLODED. 42

each electrically activated fuze had a safe-arm time set for six seconds. The test fuzes had been installed and inspected by Air Force munitions specialists, then checked by Major Rollins and a representative of the fuze manufacturer. The test plan called for a 30-degree dive angle, with each bomb released at 470 knots 5,000 feet above the ground. Six single “hot” passes were to be flown by each pilot against the designated target. Rollins was first, and all six of his bomb drops were normal. The only discrepancy involved a bomb that was not an air burst but rather exploded upon ground contact. (It would have been a dud except for the tail fuze used as a safety measure.) Then it was Chastain’s turn. His first pass was a dry run to check bomb-release conditions. On the second pass he toggled his first bomb but it hung up momentarily, then released cleanly three seconds late. Three minutes later, while being tracked by radar and a series of four movie cameras, Chastain rolled in on his second hot pass. The Air Force accident report noted that this pass was normal in all respects. Film footage showed the bomb released normally, but just a few feet below the F-105D it exploded, destroying the aircraft. Major Chastain’s body was found still strapped in his ejection seat.

hen the 36 test fuzes had arrived at Nellis for testing, OT&E section pilots Morrissey and Major Guy Pulliam immediately questioned their failsafe circuitry. There appeared to be a fatal failure path that could lead to premature ignition. When they visited Saunders Industries in Hanscom

Field, Mass., for their initial briefing on the new proximity fuze, they brought up their suspicions. Subsequently they submitted a letter regarding their concerns through the fighter weapons wing to Headquarters Tactical Air Command, then ultimately to Air Force Systems Command and the manufacturer. But Morrissey described the response they received as: “Leave the heavy intellectual lifting to us. You just drop the bombs.” The first commandment for all bomb fuzes had always been that they would not arm until far enough from the airplane to prevent damage if they detonated. With this newly designed proximity fuze the internal battery was inert until a connector was pulled as the weapon released from the bomb rack. Then, upon battery rise, the proximity fuze was armed. The problem identified with the new fuze was that upon release a single failure in the wiring, from faulty construction during manufacture or damage from handling in the field, could cause it to detonate as its internal battery came online— approximately three to four feet below the aircraft! When Chastain was tasked with completing the

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-EXPENDABLES.indd 42

11/18/20 3:08 PM

tests he was briefed on the possible design flaw. And while he was fully aware of the urgency surrounding the new fuzes, his degree in geophysics gave him uncommon insight into the design and construction of the sophisticated electric proximity fuze he was to test. In desperation Chastain and an unidentified officer flew to Washington, D.C., and visited the Pentagon. There they briefed their concerns to USAF director of operations Maj. Gen. George Simler, a fighter pilot and the former fighter weapons wing commander. The two officers showed General Simler how, upon release, there were two places where a short or bad wiring could cause the fuze to function instantaneously once the battery reached full voltage. Simler agreed in theory with them, but noted that half of the fuzes had already been successfully tested. Since there was nothing else available, he overruled the two officers. (It is worth noting that earlier, as a brigadier general and deputy for operations of the 2nd Air Division at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Simler had complained in a secret letter to Headquarters Pacific Air Forces about the lack of progress in improving fuzes for general-purpose bombs used on tactical aircraft. But now, as Headquarters USAF director of operations, he was under severe pressure from above to approve the new fuzes.) As they departed Simler’s office, Chastain re-

AVHP-210100-EXPENDABLES.indd 43

portedly turned and said, “Boss, you are wrong about this, and I’ll prove it if it kills me.” They departed “mad as hell,” according to Lt. Col. Sparks. On the day of Chastain’s accident, the cameras tracking his dive filmed the incident at 1,000 frames per second. This allowed documentation of every six inches of bomb travel. Analysis of the film showed that the second bomb he dropped exploded four feet below the bomb rack. The project officers had been right, but had been ignored. And Major Chastain died proving their point. After redesign and testing by the Fighter Weapons Center, the new fuze finally entered service in 1973. Meanwhile great strides had been made in both munitions and fuze design, including introduction of the “smart weapons” used so effectively today. The 4525th Fighter Weapons Wing officers had spotted the problem and tried to be heard. Despite being rebuffed, they doggedly continued the tests. Until this mishap, however, both the aircrews and airplanes had been treated as “expendables.” It was Major Chastain’s dedication, integrity and bravery that ultimately saved many of us from a similar fate. Korean and Vietnam war veteran John Lowery is the author of Life in the Wild Blue Yonder, which is recommended for further reading, along with Check Six: A Fighter Pilot Looks Back, by Frederick C. Blesse.

CHASTAIN REPORTEDLY SAID, “BOSS, YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS, AND I’LL PROVE IT IF IT KILLS ME.” heavy load An F-105D shows off a max load of 16 750-pound bombs, which was seldom if ever carried in combat.

11/18/20 3:08 PM

ALASKAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LEGENDARY BUSH PILOTS DURING THE GOLDEN AGE OF ALASKA BUSH FLYING, PIONEERING AIRMEN DID THINGS THEIR WAY, REGARDLESS OF WHAT OTHERS THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE BY MIKE COPPOCK

AVHP-210100-ALASKAN BUSH PILOTS.indd 44

11/18/20 3:09 PM

call of the wild The spirit of Alaskaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pioneering bush pilots lives on today as a de Havilland Canada Beaver lands on Ruth Glacier in Denali National Park. More than a century after the first flight in the territory, the majority of Alaska remains inaccessible by road.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-ALASKAN BUSH PILOTS.indd 45

11/18/20 3:09 PM

A HArd Buck Above: Bob Reeve, pilot and owner of Reeve Airways, fought treacherous conditions in ill-suited airplanes to keep his business running. Top: Reeve poses on the mile-high snowfield that served as an airfield for Alaska’s Big Four Mine.

In 1937 Reeve had landed famed mountain climber Henry Bradford Washburn and his team on the slopes of 17,146-foot Mount Lucania near the Canadian border with Alaska. Reeve quickly discovered the air was too thin and snow too slushy for his ski-equipped Fairchild 51 to take off. He tried three times. Then he had a crazy idea. Reeve figured if he launched off the cliff the rush of air as he plunged downward would provide the lift he needed. Washburn vehemently protested, saying it was sure death. “I’m a pilot,” Reeve replied. “You skin

your skunk and I’ll skin mine.” Washburn’s party then pushed the Fairchild into position for Reeve to make a takeoff run off the cliff and were shocked when he actually did just that. The bush pilot went over the cliff and out of view. That was the last Washburn saw of Reeve until a press conference months later when the pilot walked in. Stunned, Washburn stood up, pointed at Reeve and declared he was “the greatest pilot who ever lived!” Reeve was one of only 50 pilots who flew in the Territory of Alaska before World War II. The

PREVIOUS SPREAD: ©PATRICK J. ENDRES/ALASKA PHOTO GRAPHICS; ABOVE: RUSS DOW PAPERS, ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, CONSORTIUM LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, ANCHORAGE; INSET: ALASKA AIR MUSEUM

LEGENDS ARE SPARKED BY UNBELIEVABLE DEEDS. SO IT WAS FOR ALASKAN BUSH PILOT BOB REEVE WHEN HE ASKED A GROUP OF MOUNTAINEERS TO PUSH HIS AIRPLANE INTO POSITION SO HE COULD TAKE OFF FROM A CLIFF.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-ALASKAN BUSH PILOTS.indd 46

11/18/20 3:10 PM

Arctic challenge Left: Celebrated bush pilot Carl Ben Eielson assisted Australian explorer George Wilkins on his attempts to fly to the uncharted Arctic. Above: Eielsen (right) and Wilkins stand with a Lockheed Vega and supply boxes during the 1928 Detroit News Arctic Expedition Below: The 1927 expedition used a Stinson Detroiter, like this one flying for Wien Alaska Airways.

TOP LEFT & RIGHT: UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, FAIRBANKS; TOP RIGHT: GEORGE KING COLLECTION, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, FAIRBANKS

PREVIOUS SPREAD: ©PATRICK J. ENDRES/ALASKA PHOTO GRAPHICS; ABOVE: RUSS DOW PAPERS, ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, CONSORTIUM LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, ANCHORAGE; INSET: ALASKA AIR MUSEUM

period from 1924, when Carl Ben Eielson first took off into the Alaska sky, to the war is considered the golden age of the Alaska bush pilot. For these men there were very few government regulations on flying, and what little enforcement the Civil Aeronautics Authority undertook in the late 1930s was conducted by a handful of agents sprinkled across what amounted to a subcontinent. Thus, planes flew overloaded, sometimes with drunken pilots at the controls. Damaged and worn out aircraft were mended with wire, tape and, in one case, tree branches. Flying to the point of addiction, these bush pilots faced adverse weather and deep subzero cold in frail aircraft powered by undependable engines. They landed where there were no runways on a daily basis. Reeve joked he was not flying an air-

plane at all but a collection of assorted parts that happened to be flying in formation. Almost one-fifth the size of the United States or two and a half times bigger than Texas, Alas ka’s terrain encompasses glaciers the size of small states, the highest mountains in North America, hundreds of active volcanoes and miles of endless wetlands, tundra and unmapped forests. Even today, the vast majority of Alaskan communities are inaccessible by road. For the people who populate them and the businesses they work, everything has to be either flown in or brought in by barge. Alaska bush pilots carried groceries, mail, provided emergency medical flights and even ferried Santa Claus with presents for children to remote villages and cabins. They also flew felons handcuffed to a seat, corpses strapped to the wing and drugged polar bears. They would tie timber, pipe and even a bedspring to the outside of the plane as Sig Wien did—whatever it took to turn a profit. Getting enough fuel in the Alaska frontier was a never-ending challenge. Gasoline and other com-

AVHP-210100-ALASKAN BUSH PILOTS.indd 47

11/18/20 3:10 PM

Glacier Pilot Top: Reeve’s Fairchild 51 sits on Columbia Glacier in the Chugach Mountains with unloaded tractor engine parts for the nearby Ruff & Tuff Mine. Above: Ruff & Tuff miners pose with the pilot, who ferried them south from the mine to Valdez.

bustibles came in 55-gallon drums. There were no automatic fuel pumps, so it had to be handcranked out of the drums and into the aircraft’s fuel tanks. If the cap was not put tightly back on the drum, water could get into the fuel, not to mention dirt and mosquitoes. When Joe Cross crashed in Kotzebue, a ball of mosquitoes was found to have clogged his fuel line. They flew during the age of open-cockpit aircraft with little instrumentation and no de-icing equipment. And they crashed—over and over again. The four Wien brothers were responsible for mapping a large section of interior Alaska simply by walking out from their crash sites and noting the terrain they crossed. Accurate maps were rare. Some sections of Alaska were still using 19th-century Russian colonial charts as recently as the turn of the 21st century. Proper flight bearings were a constant challenge for pilots. During the Alaska winter, the sun rises in the south, not the east. Compass readings are not accurate. The disparity between true north and magnetic north in Fairbanks is 27 degrees.

ABOVE & INSET: RUSS DOW PAPERS, ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, CONSORTIUM LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, ANCHORAGE; OPPOSITE TOP: ALASKA AIR MUSEUM; RIGHT: UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, FAIRBANKS

ike Reeve’s escape from Mount Lucania, the exploits of his fellow bush pilots became legend on some level—local, regional or national. Several, including Fairbanks’ Eielson and Anchorage’s Russ Merrill, never lived long enough to enjoy or even know of their reputations. Tony Schwamm was landing with floats in southeast Alaska when suddenly he felt his plane being lifted upward. He had alighted on the back of a whale! Archie Ferguson was transporting a polar bear cub when it broke free of its bonds, snarling and swatting the back of his head. Soon the airwaves were filled with Ferguson screaming that the bear was loose inside his plane and was going to eat him alive. After battling the cub for 20 minutes, he reportedly made a perfect landing at Kotzebue. The poster child of this era was Harold Gillam. Dashing, ruggedly handsome and full of personality, Gillam went where others did not dare to go. He came to Cordova in 1931 as a pilot flying in supplies and equipment to outlying mines nestled in narrow mountain valleys. In this land of sawtooth peaks and dense fog, Gilliam relied on his instruments and mathematics for navigation. He believed a good pilot could compute speed, distance and elevations of the surrounding mountains and fly in any type of weather. Trapper “Honest John” McCreary gave Gillam the opportunity to prove his theory. During a howling snowstorm, McCreary fell and impaled himself on a large nail. His survival depended on getting to a doctor at the Kennecott mine 125 miles inland through the Chugach Mountains. Gillam loaded McCreary into his plane and took off in the blinding snow. He timed his ascent, climbing

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-ALASKAN BUSH PILOTS.indd 48

11/18/20 3:10 PM

to avoid the peaks he knew were there but were hidden by the storm. Despite the unseen dangers and buffeting from high winds, Gillam delivered McCreary to the mine’s doctor. When the doctor said the man would not last the night, Gillam flew back through the storm to Cordova and brought his son back to be at his side. In that driving snow with high winds, Gillam had mastered the peaks at night for a total of 375 miles flying blind. And despite the doctor’s prediction, McCreary recovered. This hair-raising version of early IFR flying made Gillam a hero throughout the territory. When elementary students at the Cordova school were told to compose a poem about their favorite person, a 3rd-grader wrote: He thrill ’em / Chill ’em / Spill ’em / But no kill ’em / Gillam

poster child Above: Harold “No Kill ‘Em” Gillam was the quintessential bush pilot. Below: A Wien Alaska Airways Detroiter is fueled up from a 55-gallon oil drum. Fuel had to be hand-cranked out of the drums into the airplane’s tanks.

ABOVE & INSET: RUSS DOW PAPERS, ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, CONSORTIUM LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, ANCHORAGE; OPPOSITE TOP: ALASKA AIR MUSEUM; RIGHT: UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, FAIRBANKS

“No Kill ’Em” Gillam became his nickname. Gillam continued his mastery of early instrument flying. On another occasion Oscar Winchell was one of several pilots weathered in at McGrath. They were talking in a cabin trying to stay warm when, Winchell later said, they heard a plane land outside. In walked Gillam. Saying hello, he helped himself to a cup of coffee while his plane was refueled. Then he collected the mail sack, stepped back into the snowstorm and took off. The pilots were weathered in at McGrath for three days while Gillam continued to deliver mail and supplies to the town and returned to Fairbanks. Pilots began talking about three types of weather: Pan American weather, which meant

the skies were clear; flying weather, the usual bad Alaskan weather; and Gillam weather, conditions in which only Gillam would fly—dense fog, violent winds and horizontal precipitation. Not that Bob Reeve was any less daring. He had arrived in Valdez in 1932 with $2 in his pocket after being thrown off a passing freighter. There he found a wrecked Eaglerock A-7 biplane, repaired it and then leased it from the owner for $10 an hour. The Valdez region had a number of potential gold mining sites. The problem had always been how to get equipment up to them. Sometimes Reeve would wrap old mattresses around generators, small engines and mining equipment and drop them from the air without landing. Other times he would do a “controlled crash” on an ice field, running his plane into a snowbank so it would stop. Soon he found himself with supply contracts for 13 mines in the area, earning the nickname Glacier Pilot. Reeve upgraded to a Fairchild, charging 35 cents a pound for deliveries. His new plane was so

AVHP-210100-ALASKAN BUSH PILOTS.indd 49

11/19/20 3:52 PM

FinaL FLight Ben Eielson and his mechanic disappeared in November 1929 while shuttling cargo from an iced-in vessel (top). Harold Gillam (above) first spotted Eielson’s wreckage; the two bodies were recovered three months later (middle).

battered, however, that he patched its floor with grocery boxes, the labels still on them. Mudflats served as his runway in Valdez. A sign hung over the shack in which he slept, advertising: “Always use Reeve Airways. Slow, unreliable, unfair and crooked. Scared and unlicensed and nuts. Reeve Airways—the best.” Rex Beach, a friend of Wyatt Earp’s and author of the bestselling 1906 book The Spoilers, wrote magazine articles about Reeve. Women began writing to the daredevil pilot wanting to marry him. One, Janice Morisette, came up looking for him in June 1935. Reeve hid out in the Yukon Territory for a month before sneaking back to get a peek at her. She soon became Mrs. Reeve. Eventually Reeve found the Alaska hinterland too tame and launched Reeve Aleutian Airways in 1946, taking passengers and cargo out along the storm-plagued Aleutian Islands. He died in 1980 from natural causes, but his airline continued for another two decades.

TOP & MIDDLE: SPUTNIK/ALAMY; INSET: UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, FAIRBANKS; RIGHT: JEAN-ERICK PASQUIER/GAMMA-RAPHO VIA GETTY IMAGES

efore Alaska’s first commercial flight by Carl Ben Eielson, freight had to be hauled by dogsled to every remote corner of the vast territory. Tall and laconic, Eielson came to Fairbanks in 1922 to teach school after serving in the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I. It didn’t take him long to start thinking of making money flying supplies to the mines around Fairbanks. But to get off the ground he needed reliable income. For two years Eielson hounded the U.S. Postal Service to award him a mail delivery contract, and he was finally rewarded with the Fairbanks to McGrath route, a distance of 250 miles. The USPS shipped Eielson a Liberty-engine de Havilland DH-4B in pieces for his use and agreed to pay him $2 a mile—less than half the cost of mail delivery by dogsled. When Eielson took off for McGrath in the open-cockpit biplane at 8:50 a.m. on February 21, 1924, the temperature was 5 below zero. As he approached McGrath a few hours later, musher Fred Milligan and his dogs were arriving at McGrath with supplies, and Eielson flew right over him. “The pilot leaned out and waved at me with his long, black bearskin mittens,” Milligan said. It was a pivotal moment for the musher as he thought it marked an end to freight hauling by dogsled. He quit dog freighting and went into the airline business, working for Pan American. After delivering the mail and picking up his cargo, Eielson made a critical mistake—he shut down the engine to enjoy a meal. Afterward, it took him three hours to restart the de Havilland. Lesson learned. It was that way for several years as he mastered techniques to successfully fly in Alaska. All the issues to which bush pilots would need answers—such as icing or dealing with magnetic north—Eielson encountered first and found solutions. Several legendary bush pilots, including Joe Crosson, got their starts working for him. In early November 1929, Eielson flew to Rus sian waters to assist a cargo vessel that had become trapped in the ice. On his second flight in, on November 9, Eielson and mechanic Earl Borland went missing. Search parties were organized and nearly every bush pilot in Alaska flew for Siberia

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-ALASKAN BUSH PILOTS.indd 50

11/18/20 3:11 PM

that the only sound was the hissing of hot engines in the snow. Though the cockpit had crushed down on Gillam and he suffered a deep gash to his head, he managed to crawl out from the wreckage. He built snow shelters for the injured passengers from pieces of the plane, lit fires to warm them and gave them food. They could hear blasting from construction work on nearby Annette Island, but rescue planes could not find them due to the tree canopy. On the sixth day Gillam decided to set out and attempt to signal a rescue party. When Gillam did not return, two of the passengers dragged two others down the mountainside to a better location near the shore. The fifth passenger had died, and they left her body by the wreckage. A Coast Guard patrol vessel spotted their signal fire along the shoreline. Gillam’s body was found less than a mile away from the signal fire. He had wrapped himself in a parachute for warmth. There were signs he had broken through the ice of a nearby stream and then attempted to dry his clothes before laying down to rest. He never woke up. For many, the death of No Kill ’Em Gillam brought a close to the golden age of the Alaskan bush pilot. Mike Coppock has lived on and off in Alaska since 1985, working as an FAA flight specialist, general store clerk, teacher, editor, state park site manager and cultural interpreter at Denali National Park. Additional reading: Glacier Pilot, by Beth Day; Bush Pilot, by Arnold Griese; Bush Pilots of Alaska, by Kim Heacox; and The Flying North, by Jean Potter.

PILOTS SAW EACH OTHER AS COMPETITION, YET THEY DROPPED EVERYTHING WHEN ONE OF THEIR OWN WENT MISSING.

Continuing legacy In an Alaska not so different from the era before World War II, a next-generation bush pilot prepares for takeoff from a snow-covered lake.

TOP & MIDDLE: SPUTNIK/ALAMY; INSET: UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, FAIRBANKS; RIGHT: JEAN-ERICK PASQUIER/GAMMA-RAPHO VIA GETTY IMAGES

to bring Eielson home. Crosson, who had earned a reputation for flying medical supplies to indigenous villages in the Arctic, led the effort. On January 25, 1930, Gillam spotted Eielson’s wreckage. A Soviet search party found his and Borland’s bodies under several feet of snow on February 18. Despite the concerted effort to locate Eielson, it was not an indication that bush pilots were a close fraternity. They saw each other as competition for the same dollar. Archie Ferguson moved landing strip flags so that passengers onboard Sig Wien’s plane would have a rough landing. To steal Jack Jefford’s passengers, Ferguson would land ahead, telling waiting customers that Jefford had crashed. Yet all of them, including Ferguson, dropped everything when a pilot went missing. Gillam continued to study meteorology and navigational aids to improve his skills. He was one of the first in Alaska to install a directional gyro, altimeter and direction-finder in his plane. But the aviation cliché that there are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots, eventually caught up with him. World War II found Gillam flying for MorrisonKnudsen contractors. During the first week of January 1943 he was assigned to fly five passengers from Seattle to Anchorage in a twin-engine Lockheed 10B Electra. Gillam flew through dense fog on instruments, and since Alaska was considered a war zone, maintained radio silence. As it neared Ketchikan, the plane was struck by a downdraft, dropping 4,000 feet in the dark. Still flying full speed, Gillam swerved to miss a mountain. Seeing a break in the fog, he headed for it when suddenly his right wing struck a tree. After

AVHP-210100-ALASKAN BUSH PILOTS.indd 51

11/18/20 3:11 PM

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-LAST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL-FORD.indd 52

11/18/20 3:13 PM

LOST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL AFTER BECOMING THE FIRST TO FLY ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN SEA, PAUL REDFERN DISAPPEARED IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE, SPAWNING A DOZEN SEARCH EXPEDITIONS AND AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY BY GREGORY P. LIEFER

Risky business Paul Redfern (right) sits beside Paul Varner, chairman of the committee backing his 1927 nonstop flight attempt to Rio de Janeiro, at Sea Island, Georgia.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-LAST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL-FORD.indd 53

11/18/20 3:13 PM

MORE THAN 3,000 SPECTATORS LINED THE DUNES AND HARDPACKED SAND BEACH OF SEA ISLAND, GA., AS PAUL REDFERN WALKED SLOWLY AROUND A BRIGHTLY COLORED STINSON MONOPLANE GLEAMING IN THE AFTERNOON SUN. Endurance run Redfern peers from his green-and-yellow painted Stinson SM-1 Detroiter (inset) before taking off from the beach at Sea Island to begin his aerial odyssey (above).

Reporters jostled in close, firing questions as the young pilot carefully checked the airframe, fuel tanks and engine for the last time. His expression was stern and focused, trying to appear confident without the obvious anxiety he surely felt over his planned 4,600-mile nonstop flight across the Caribbean Sea and South American jungle to Brazil. The date was August 25, 1927, three months since Charles Lindberghâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historic solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris had inspired many aviators of his generation to seek their own fame and glory. The Caribbean had yet to be crossed by air, and to do so by flying from the United States to South America would set a new distance record. Flying the route solo would be another first, but even more difficult with fatigue potentially playing a major role. Whether the plane could carry enough fuel for the nonstop

flight or its pilot could remain alert for more than 48 hours were questions yet unanswered. Paul Rinaldo Redfern was 25 years old, the same age as Lindbergh and with the same slim build. As a teenager in Columbia, S.C., he had constructed and flown a small glider. During his sophomore year of high school he built a full-size replica airplane that was displayed at the UniÂ versity of South Carolina. After completing his sophomore year, Redfern quit school to work for the Standard Aircraft factory assembling planes for the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I. When the plant closed at the end of the war he returned home to finish high school. The following summer he purchased a surplus engine and some wrecked-plane parts to construct his own biplane, and upon graduation began carrying passengers and performing at airshows. Redfern barnstormed across the country and

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-LAST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL-FORD.indd 54

11/18/20 3:30 PM

PREVIOUS SPREAD & OPPOSITE TOP: COASTAL GEORGIA HISTORY; OPPOSITE INSET: AP PHOTO; RIGHT, FROM TOP: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA DIGITAL LIBRARIES; REDFERN FAMILY COLLECTION; COURTESY OF THE PAUL RINALDO REDFERN AVIATION SOCIETY OF COLUMBIA, S.C.

went on to establish the first commercial airfield in Columbia. Relocating to Ohio, he started another flying business and worked as a pilot for wealthy businessman Charles Hillabrand. In 1925 he married Hillabrand’s daughter Gertrude and moved to Savannah, Ga., where he flew for the U.S. Customs Service spotting illegal stills and ships smuggling bootleg liquor. By 1927 aspirations of aviation glory were on the minds of many pilots, especially the young and bold like Redfern. Lindbergh’s success only fueled the fire. Whether Redfern or someone else was the first to propose the idea is unclear, but when the Board of Trade in Brunswick, Ga., offered a $25,000 prize for a nonstop flight to Rio de Janeiro, he was the only pilot to accept the challenge. The city of Brunswick hoped the record flight would entice new investors and help make their port a major East Coast shipping center. The flight from Brunswick to Rio was a significant undertaking. Roughly half the distance was over water and the other half over the dense Amazon jungle. Landing sites were limited to beaches on a few islands and coastal areas, mostly well off the intended route. Any emergency landing in the sea or jungle would leave the pilot with little hope of rescue. Fuel would be critical, requiring accurate navigation. No radio would be carried to save weight and flying solo required staying awake for the duration. Many individuals in the aviation community considered the flight dangerous and irresponsible. For the attempt Redfern chose a new Stinson SM-1 Detroiter, a reliable single-engine monoplane. Powered by a 220-hp Wright J-5 Whirlwind 9-cylinder radial—the same engine Lindbergh used—the SM-1’s top speed was 122 mph and normal cruise speed 105 mph. Redfern purchased the aircraft directly from the Detroit factory with additional fuel tanks installed in the cabin, increasing capacity from 90 gallons to 525. During his nonstop flight from the factory to Georgia, Redfern tested the fuel system with the tanks near capacity. He was accompanied by company owner Eddie Stinson, an experienced aviator in his own right. The plane performed well, averaging 86 mph over the 780-mile route. Based on a fuel consumption of 10 gallons an hour, the aircraft’s endurance would be about 52 hours. Stinson’s only recommendation to Redfern was for another pilot to go along on the flight, since he thought going without sleep for such an extended period “was more than a man could stand.” Redfern ignored the advice, convinced he could safely deal with sleep deprivation for 50-plus hours. In his autobiography The Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh recounted his struggle to stay awake during his 33½-hour flight to Paris. He described

falling asleep several times with his eyes open, prolonged periods of drowsiness and episodes of hallucination. Redfern would be flying much longer. His father, Dr. Frederick Redfern, stated in simple yet prophetic terms what he thought about his son’s intention to fly to Brazil: “It is a matter of endurance, pure and simple; continuous running on the part of the machine and the man.”

fter Redfern arrived in Georgia, the plane was painted green and yellow— the Brazilian flag’s colors—with Port of Brunswick stenciled in white letters on each side of the cowling. The inscription “Brunswick to Brazil” was added to the fuselage.

Lifelong passion Top: The teenage Redfern’s full-size airplane model was displayed at the University of South Carolina. Middle: Redfern and his wife Gertrude pose with the biplane he built after high school. Above: The pilot’s Stinson SM-1 rests on the ramp leading to the takeoff beach.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-LAST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL-FORD.indd 55

11/18/20 3:13 PM

bon voyage Top: Spectators gather around the Stinson prior to Redfern’s departure from Sea Island. Above: A hand-drawn map by Redfern shows his intended route from Georgia across the Caribbean Sea to the South America mainland and on to Brazil.

As reckless as the endeavor appeared, Redfern was meticulous in his flight planning. He plotted the most direct route to the South American continent, minimizing his time over water while passing close enough to larger islands to aid in navigation. His friend and fellow pilot Myron Hutchinson, who helped with preparations, told reporters, “Paul will make it if anybody can....he possesses a sort of sixth sense to guide him in the air.” Navigation would be by dead reckoning alone. Redfern obtained a detailed weather briefing and plotted an alternate destination in case of low fuel or unexpected winds. He also carried survival equipment—including flares, life raft, solar water distiller, netting, weapons and enough food for 10 days—in case of an emergency ditching at sea or forced landing in the jungle. Winds were the biggest concern during the long overwater stretch, as even a slight variation in heading could force the plane well off course. Crossing the thick jungle and inland mountains at night was the main challenge once over land. Redfern would need to identify his exact position upon reaching the South American coast and from there navigate another 2,000 miles of mostly unmapped, inhospitable territory if he hoped to arrive at his destination. Redfern estimated a flight time of 50 hours to reach Rio. With a forecast headwind over the Caribbean Sea factored in, however, that seemed overly optimistic. Even with a favorable tailwind over South America, he needed to average 92 mph for the entire flight. At best he figured he had a two-hour fuel reserve. Ten hours of flight would be at night over the ocean, a point newspaper articles stressed as foolish because the moon was at its lowest phase of illumination. Redfern’s attempt would also be in

the middle of hurricane season, another reason newspapers cast doubt on the flight. Weather reporting and forecasts in 1927 were primitive, dependent on reports from ships at sea and local observations on land. Storms could appear without notice. Redfern’s intended flight track from Georgia would maintain a southeast heading past the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands and cross Puerto Rico at night after covering nearly 1,300 miles. He would use San Juan’s city lights and coastal lighthouses to verify his position before continuing southeast over the Caribbean, roughly paralleling the inside arc of islands known as the Lesser Antilles. The stretch of open water between Puerto Rico and Trinidad, covering more than 700 miles, was expected to have the worst weather and would be flown mostly during the day. From Trinidad he would continue to the South American mainland at British Guiana (now Guyana), before turning inland along the coast to Macapá in northern Brazil, near the mouth of the Amazon River. By then Redfern would have travelled nearly 3,000 miles and depending on his remaining fuel and weather would either turn south toward Rio or southeast toward Recife on the Brazilian coast. He would signal his intent when over Macapá by dropping a green flare if proceeding to Rio or a red flare if diverting to Recife. The distance to Rio was another 1,674 miles and Recife 1,249 miles. Shortly before Redfern departed from Sea Island, a journalist asked him what he would do if his engine quit over the jungle. “Don’t lose hope of my return for at least six months or more…,” he said. “If I should be forced down over the Ama zon Valley, I believe I can live for months with the equipment I am carrying....”

gentle breeze was blowing across the beach as Redfern’s Detroiter was carefully pushed into the wind on August 25. All the available cabin space was filled with fuel tanks and survival gear. In addition to his emergency food, he carried two gallons of water, two thermoses of coffee and a large bundle of sandwiches, all stashed within arm’s reach. For the previous two days Redfern had been anxious to depart, waiting for a hurricane off the Bahamas to move away from his intended flight path. By the 25th it was well to the north, providing the window of opportunity he needed. He kissed and embraced Gertrude before climbing into the cramped cockpit and starting the engine. Redfern waved from the open window, pushed the throttle forward and raced down the beach before slowly lifting into the summer sky at 12:46 p.m. The crowd cheered as the plane climbed and turned out over the Atlantic, fading from view in the distance.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-LAST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL-FORD.indd 56

11/18/20 3:13 PM

mph over the remaining distance to Rio, with no fuel reserve. His alternate destination of Recife was more realistic, requiring an average of 84 mph. In any case, arriving safely over Macapá shouldn’t have been in doubt. Later that day local residents saw a plane flying inland near the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, and American engineer Lee Dennison also observed it from Bolivar City, 150 miles farther upriver. Dennison confirmed the plane as Port of Brunswick by the registration number painted in large letters on the wing. He observed a thin trail of black smoke coming from the engine as it circled and then headed in a southeasterly direction. Redfern’s arrival over the Orinoco River Delta was off track by well over 100 miles. There was no reason he should have headed inland along the Orinoco River unless he had misidentified his position. Georgetown, Guiana’s capital, was 200 miles farther southeast, and Macapá another 670 miles. Had Redfern been aware of his exact position he could also have easily flown to Caracas, some 400 miles in the opposite direction. But by then he had been awake for nearly 40 hours. With a lack of sleep impairing his reasoning ability, Redfern likely confused the Orinoco with the Amazon, since both opened into large deltas and flowed in the same direction. Falsely assuming he was off course to the south instead of north, he headed upriver toward what he thought was Macapá. After arriving over Bolivar City he

“PAUL WILL MAKE IT IF ANYONE CAN.... HE POSSESSES A SORT OF SIXTH SENSE TO GUIDE HIM THROUGH THE AIR.” Best-laid plans Had his marathon flight to Rio de Janeiro succeeded, Redfern would have joined Charles Lindbergh as an early aviation hero.

OPPOSITE TOP: REDFERN FAMILY COLLECTION; OPPOSITE INSET: COURTESY OF THE PAUL RINALDO REDFERN AVIATION SOCIETY OF COLUMBIA, S.C.; RIGHT; ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL REAGAN

The first sighting of Redfern’s plane was by shrimp boats off the Georgia coast, then nothing for five hours until a freighter 110 miles east of the Bahamas reported seeing the green-and-yellow Stinson flying at 2,000 feet in a southerly direction. That position was 550 miles from Sea Island, reflecting a ground speed of 105 mph—better than planned but aided by a favorable wind trailing behind the hurricane. At that speed Redfern would pass Puerto Rico before sunrise the next morning. Factoring in the expected moderate headwinds over the Caribbean, he should have arrived over Macapá later that afternoon. Redfern never arrived over Macapá, but he did make contact with the Norwegian steamship Christian Krohg after midday on August 26, 160 miles north of Trinidad between the islands of Saint Vincent and Barbados. He circled the ship for 45 minutes, dropping five messages, the last asking the captain to point the ship’s bow toward the mainland and to wave a flag once for each 100 miles in distance. The captain obliged by turning south and signaling twice. Redfern rocked the wings in thanks and continued in the direction indicated. The position and time of the sighting meant that Redfern had encountered strong headwinds or gone off course a considerable distance after passing the Bahamas. His overall time and distance since leaving Georgia reflected a ground speed of only 69 mph. Even with favorable winds over South America, he needed to average 100

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-LAST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL-FORD.indd 57

11/18/20 3:14 PM

REDFERN NEVER ARRIVED IN RIO, INSTEAD VANISHING IN THE SOUTH AMERICAN JUNGLE. Nowhere Man Pilot Art Williams (second from left) led a search in Brazil for Redfern nine years after he disappeared.

turned southeast over the featureless jungle, prob ably still believing he was over the Amazon and heading for Rio de Janeiro. If Redfern had real ized his mistake he would surely have turned back to the coast instead of continuing inland. Flying southeast from Bolivar City would have taken Redfern into the Guiana Highlands, a large mountain range bordering Venezuela and Brazil with peaks rising above 10,000 feet. His second night aloft was fast approaching. A successful crossing would have been required with minimal illumination and while under increasing symp toms of sleep deprivation. He never arrived in Rio or any other city, and instead vanished some where in the South American jungle. A limited search ensued on August 28, primar ily focused along the coast after additional reports came forward of an airplane flying over the Ori noco Delta and near St. Cuthbert’s in British Guiana on the 27th. Later that same day a plane was also heard 60 miles south of Bolivar City on the Caroní River. By then Redfern’s fuel would have been nearly exhausted. Some search planes flew a short distance inland over the Amazon Basin, but the vast territory and thick jungle made spotting a downed aircraft almost impossible.

AVHP-210100-LAST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL-FORD.indd 58

Whether the sightings on the 27th were of Redfern’s plane or not is unknown, but if accu rate he would have been without sleep for nearly 60 hours and at the limit of physical endurance. Finding a place to land would have been a priority. Cultivated fields around the few scattered com munities were suitable for at least an emergency landing, but by then he was likely experiencing extreme mental confusion.

ver the years rumors and secondhand reports told of a white man, thought to be Redfern, living with a tribe of Indians deep in the Amazon jungle. Most of the stories described how a man fell from the sky in an airplane and was being held captive by the natives. Other accounts claimed the man was hobbled by broken limbs or living peacefully with an Indian wife who had borne him a son. A dozen expedi tions were launched into the Amazon Basin over an 11-year period ending in 1938 in an attempt to find and rescue him, including searches spon sored by the U.S. government and the Smithsonian Institution. No confirmed evidence of Redfern’s fate was ever found. Questionable sightings were also reported

11/18/20 3:14 PM

LEFT: COURTESY OF THE PAUL RINALDO REDFERN AVIATION SOCIETY OF COLUMBIA, S.C.; ABOVE; HEMIS/ALAMY

by two pilots who frequently flew over the area where Redfern likely disappeared. While conducting an aerial survey of Brazil’s Tumuc Humac Mountains in January 1936, pilot Art Williams overflew a remote village and said the natives had hid from the sound of his plane but a white man remained out in the open waving excitedly as he circled overhead. He plotted the location on his map and later borrowed a boat to travel upriver with a companion, but on arrival several heavily armed tribesmen forced them to leave before they reached the settlement. Pilot Jimmie Angel, noted for his discovery of Angel Falls in Venezuela, claimed he often passed over Redfern’s crashed plane while flying back and forth from the Guiana Highlands. He even provided a latitude/longitude coordinate for the site that was approximately 120 miles southeast of Bolivar City. Unfortunately, because of his tendency to stretch the truth, Angel was never believed. After he died his wife verified the story, claiming she had accompanied her husband on two flights during which she observed Redfern’s green-and-yellow Stinson submerged in a swamp. She said the wreckage had sunk deeper into the marsh on each occasion until only the top of the cabin was visible. Pilot/author Robert Carlin and author Dale Titler conducted a thorough investigation and aerial search for Redfern’s aircraft in 1982. They were convinced the pilot had died after crashing in the jungle where Jimmie Angel said. They over-

flew the area several times searching for evidence, but nothing was visible after 55 years. For many years after Redfern vanished his wife and family believed he had survived and was living with Indians in the Amazon jungle. Only after Redfern’s parents sponsored their own expedition in 1937, which found no verifiable proof of his or the plane’s whereabouts, did they finally give up hope. He was pronounced dead in 1938. Although he is mostly forgotten, Paul Redfern’s legacy lives on. He was unquestionably the first pilot to fly nonstop across the Caribbean Sea. A city street in Rio de Janeiro and an airfield on St. Simons Island (today site of the Redfern Village shopping center) were named in his honor. A movie loosely based on Redfern’s flight, Too Hot to Handle, was released in 1938. A week after Redfern vanished, in referencing the recent losses of aircraft on long-distance flight attempts, Eddie Stinson said it best: “The success of Colonel Lindbergh should not be accepted as a standard....the very men who are good enough to attempt such hops are the very men whom aviation today can not afford to sacrifice.” Gregory Liefer is a retired military and civilian pilot with 32 years’ flying experience. His books include Aviation Mysteries of the North, Broken Wings: Aviation Disasters in Alaska and The Last Flight: A Novel. Further reading: Wings of Mystery: True Stories of Aviation History, by Dale M. Titler; and Oceans, Poles and Airmen, by Richard Montague.

fatal error Redfern likely mistook the Orinoco River in Venezuela (above) for Brazil’s Amazon River. His Stinson still awaits discovery somewhere in the vast jungle.

DESPITE A DOZEN SEARCH EXPEDITIONS, NO CONFIRMED EVIDENCE OF REDFERN’S FATE WAS EVER FOUND. JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-LAST FLIGHT TO BRAZIL-FORD.indd 59

11/18/20 3:14 PM

supply ship strike During the mid-1960s civil war in the Congo, a Douglas B-26K Counter Invader wearing the flag of the Republic of the Congo, but operated by the CIA and crewed by anti-communist Cubans, rockets a boat smuggling rebel arms across Lake Tanganyika.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-CUBANS.indd 60

11/18/20 3:15 PM

CUBANS OVER THE CONGO AFTER BITTER DEFEAT AT THE BAY OF PIGS, THE CIA SENT AN “INSTANT AIR FORCE” TO AFRICA TO FIGHT COMMUNISM…AND CHE GUEVARA BY DON HOLLWAY

AVHP-210100-CUBANS.indd 61

11/18/20 3:15 PM

ironic target On April 15, 1961, during the abortive Bay of Pigs operation, Cuban exile Gustavo Ponzoa destroyed this DC-3, which he had once flown for Cubana Airlines. Here Cuban workers remove the wreckage at Santiago de Cuba’s air base.

No less than a U.S. major general took a jeep out to the flight line at Puerto Cabezas on the Nicaraguan coast to give them the throat-slash, cut-engines wave, then threw his hat to the ground in disgust. “This is straight from Washington,” he fumed. “We can’t make another flight.” At dawn the previous day Cuban exile Gustavo “Gus” Ponzoa had flown the first attacks on the air base at Santiago de Cuba. In a vintage Douglas B-26B Invader bomber disguised with Cuban air force insignia, he’d blown up a DC-3 he once flew for Cubana Airlines and returned to base feeling “sky high,” positive he and his fellow exiles were going to free their island from Fidel Castro’s Communist regime. “You couldn’t get a better bunch of guys,” Ponzoa said. “We were strong as hell.” When the

White House grounded them, leaving their countrymen stranded on the beach, “It was like a cold bucket of water poured over my head....How can they do this?” The Cuban pilots, their U.S. military advisers, the CIA officers running the show—all knew their counterrevolution was doomed. Cas tro himself said as much, when asked why the invasion failed: “They had no air support.” The Bay of Pigs left both the Communist dictator and the Company, as CIA insiders called the agency, overstocked with Latino revolutionaries looking for trouble. Through a Miami front company the agency rehired its exiled vets to form what the New York Times would later call an “instant air force” that could be sent to any hot spot where Washington needed plausible deniability. That turned out to be Africa, where Castro was

PREVIOUS SPREAD: DON HOLLWAY; ABOVE: GILBERTO ANTE/ROGER VIOLLET VIA GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE PHOTOS: JUAN C. PERON/INVADER HISTORICAL FOUNDATION

ENGINES WARMING ON THE RAMP, BOMBED UP, GUNS AND ROCKETS LOADED, THE CUBAN LIBERATION AIR FORCE WAS RARING TO FLY TOP COVER OVER THE BAY OF PIGS ON APRIL 16, 1961, WHEN THE UNITED STATES LOST ITS NERVE.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-CUBANS.indd 62

11/18/20 3:15 PM

PREVIOUS SPREAD: DON HOLLWAY; ABOVE: GILBERTO ANTE/ROGER VIOLLET VIA GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE PHOTOS: JUAN C. PERON/INVADER HISTORICAL FOUNDATION

already sending military advisers and the newly independent former Belgian colony of the Congo was shaping up into a Cold War battleground in 1964. Rebel Simba tribesmen armed with spears and machetes relied on witch doctors and savagery—including cannibalism—to terrify their enemies, but viewed aircraft with near-superstitious fear. Reluctant to become mired in Africa, the U.S. sent its Cuban proxies to help the government put down the rebellion. Exile Félix Toledo was told: “‘When this mission is completed, you will have our unconditional help in the fight against the Castro regime.’ We believed this to be an ideological deal and hence we accepted.” At first it was sufficient, in their unarmed exItalian T-6 Harvard trainers with Congolese colors, to buzz the Simbas at treetop level and frighten them off. But when the rebels captured arms from feckless government forces, the Cuban pilots began taking ground fire. They answered with hand grenades dropped in drinking glasses to release the safety levers on impact, until the CIA sent machine gun pods, rocket launchers and more-powerful T-28 Trojan trainers fitted with .50-caliber machine guns, 500-pound bombs and rockets. “Once the planes were armed,” said CIA Congo Station Chief Lawrence Devlin, “they became an invaluable aid to the government. Without them the government would have fallen.” It nearly came to that. By early August 1964 the Simbas had conquered half the country, including the eastern provincial capital of Stanleyville, instigating a hostage crisis. Neither the T-6 nor the T-28 had the legs to cover the Congo’s vast expanse, almost twice the size of France, Germany and Spain combined. The Company delivered up the old familiar B-26, but the exiles refused to fly them. The Invaders had served from World War II through Korea, and were lately starting to shed their old wings in hard maneuvers. “The normal B-26s were not suitable for the Congo war,” said mechanic Segisberto Fernández. “…In fact, our pilots preferred the T-28.” Way ahead of them, the U.S. Air Force had revamped 40 Invaders to a new B-26K “Counter

heavy hitter Above: B-26Ks fly a mission over the Congo. Left: The Cuban exiles’ airplanes carried the beer logo– inspired emblem of the “Makasi air force.” Below: Locals examine a newly arrived Counter Invader.

Invader” standard, with fresh wings, upgraded engines, wingtip fuel tanks and more. Over the Congo their bomb bays packed internal fuel for even more range and loiter time, since bombs and napalm were political overkill and eight nose-mounted .50-caliber machine guns and four 19-rocket pods were more than sufficient against the tribesmen. For the Simbas it was a whole new war. A Washington analysis declared, “The relatively heavily armed B-26Ks represent such an escalation of anything ever experienced in this part of Africa that they have caused a profound psychological shock.”

ut air power can only do so much. To reclaim the Congo, mercenary Michael “Mad Mike” Hoare enlisted 300 soldiers of fortune. His main column of 200 trucks and jeeps included Swedish armored personnel carriers and a German-made Ferret armored

“THE RELATIVELY HEAVILY ARMED B-26KS…HAVE CAUSED A PROFOUND PSYCHOLOGICAL SHOCK.”

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-CUBANS.indd 63

11/18/20 3:16 PM

hostage rescue Above: A U.S. Air Force C-130 from the 464th Troop Carrier Wing delivers Belgian paratroopers to free civilians in Stanleyville on November 24, 1964. Above right: Mike Hoare (right) and his mercenaries help evacuate the hostages. Below: Ground crew prepare a Makasi T-28 Trojan for a mission.

AVHP-210100-CUBANS.indd 64

car on point, flying red flags fore and aft. For the Cubans above, everything ahead of it was a target. “That was a thick jungle in the Congo, as you can imagine,” recalled Ponzoa, nicknamed El Mirlo, the Blackbird. “We had to fly low—very low, usually following the roads. That was the only way to navigate over that jungle area. I’d spot the enemy and I’d radio down to Hoare’s men: ‘Throw a smoke grenade, let us know where you are.’…Hoare would radio up, ‘We’re down here! You guys are gonna hit us! You’re too close!’…It took a couple of missions before Hoare felt comfortable with the Cuban CIA air support. He’d never had any that was quite that close before.” On November 1 the mercenary advance reached a rebel headquarters upstream from Stanleyville at Kindu. Ponzoa reported: “As we approached what appeared to be the town square we saw that the rebels had taken all the male hostages to the square, stripped them to their underwear and prepared to execute them. There was no time to ask [ground forces] for a decision; we strafed the would-be executioners and radioed for the invading forces to move.” In his memoirs, hard-bitten mercenary Hoare remembered his air cover with childlike enthusiasm: “The warplanes came screaming down from 5,000 feet, each blasting off its eight Browning .50 machine guns in a terrifying cruuuump! Now two

Bravos came out of the sun and loosed off their rockets in a silent swoosh to explode on the target with a sonorous didoom!” “He saw that we knew how to fly—and how to shoot,” said Ponzoa. “From then on, he couldn’t do without us. He was always slapping us on the back when we met, all smiles.” Evidence began to mount, however, that they were up against more than blood-mad tribesmen. Hoare’s mercs captured 60mm mortars bearing Chinese inscriptions. Enemy ground forces cut in on copilot Reginaldo Blanco’s radio to trade curses with him in Spanish. “I didn’t see Cubans from the Castro regime as my countrymen,” he said. “I saw them as the enemy.” “We knew the Cubans were trying to get a stronghold in Africa,” said Bay of Pigs veteran Frederico “Freddy” Flaquer, “and we knew not only were we going to fight the Communists but it was going to be Cuban against Cuban.” But first came rescuing Western hostages in Stanleyville. At 5:45 a.m. local time on November 24, 1964, two Counter Invaders led the way, destroying rebel anti-aircraft guns at the airport. Belgian paratroops arrived in USAF C-130 transports staged out of the British base on Ascension Island. The CIA’s Cuban ground fighters saw to the rescue of captive Americans. Even with Simbas still threatening one end of the runway, the air contingent landed that afternoon to take over. Hoare’s mercenaries liberated a Makasi (“strong” in the Lingala language) Beer brewery, and with

11/18/20 3:16 PM

OPPOSITE: (TOP LEFT) PHOTO12/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES; (TOP RIGHT) PRIYA RAMRAKHA/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES; LEFT: T-28 TROJAN FOUNDATION; ABOVE LEFT: BRIDE LANE LIBRARY/POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES; ABOVE RIGHT: MUSEO CHE GUEVARA

typical combat pilot bravado the Cubans adopted the brand’s snorting-buffalo logo as nose art. The liberation of Stanleyville infuriated the rebels’ Soviet and Chinese supporters. Castro’s right-hand man, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, viewed Western victory in the Congo as a setback in their global revolution. He soon departed for Africa to lead the campaign himself, but like the exiles would find it quite different from fighting in Cuba. “At least two of our guys were shot down in the Congo,” Blanco recalled, “and both of them were eaten.” By mid-1965, as proven by captured documents, Guevara commanded 200 Cuban fighters in-country, with weapons entering the Congo from Tanzania across Lake Tanganyika. In response the CIA set up a “Makasi navy,” including a pair of radar-equipped Swift boats imported in sections aboard C-130s. With Cuban exiles overhead by day and gunboats patrolling the water by night, supplying Guevara became exorbitantly expensive. Swift crewman Generoso Bringas recalled, “We confiscated a shipment of Chinese weapons to Congo which was valued at $2 million in 1965 [$16.5 million today].” “We had overwhelming superiority on the water and in the air,” said Hoare, who assembled a ver itable invasion fleet on the lake. “…The convoy made an impressive sight as six T-28s and two B-26s flew overhead....Two hundred voices raised a cheer, as they dipped their wings in salute.” Bad weather, however, grounded the air force when the troops hit the beach. Rebel opposition, fighting in disciplined European style from fixed positions with heavy weaponry, pinned the mercenaries down until the skies cleared. Then, Hoare recounted, “Six T-28s swooped down low over our position and began to strafe the enemy. As though to make up for their absence the previous day, the Cubans put on a show of aerobatics to beat any flying display, their white wings flashing in the sunlight.” After several days of air attacks Guevara’s men abandoned the fight. The Simbas went back to relying on magic, made an old-fashioned charge and were slaughtered. “This little air force,” Guevara wrote Castro in October, “is sowing terror among the Congolese comrades.” His Soviet and Chinese suppliers never gave him what he needed most: anti-aircraft guns. The rebels’ AA defenses came to just 10 12.7mm

comrades in arms Above: Simba rebels advance on a Congo road in February 1964. Right: Ernesto “Che” Guevara (left), leader of the Cuban troops who fought with the Simbas, poses with a rebel and his baby.

“AT LEAST TWO OF OUR GUYS WERE SHOT DOWN IN THE CONGO, AND BOTH OF THEM WERE EATEN.”

machine guns—little more than was carried in the nose of one B-26K. Harried from the air and on the ground, in November 1965 Guevara made a forced retreat back to Tanzania, and by the end of the year the Simba rebellion was strangled. Hoare went home to South Africa, but some of the government’s French and Belgian mercenaries had been lording it over eastern Congo too long to give it up. In July 1967 they staged their own revolt. For a few weeks it was mercenary versus mercenary, but the rebel commandos made the same mistake the Simbas and Guevara had. Strafing and rocketing, the Makasi air force drove them out of the country. The exiles hadn’t fought for money. Bringas took a pay cut to join and received his bonus pay in worthless Congolese francs. “The only bonus we got at the end of our tour of duty was a large disappointment,” he said. On their return from Africa the Cubans found a changed world. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had made a mutual hands-off agreement about Cuba, and though both were gone, their successors stuck to it. “When we returned from Congo, our leaders were told that conditions had changed, and that they were no longer in a position to help us,” Félix Toledo said. “The rug was pulled out from under us.” Like many Cuban Americans, the Makasis longed all their lives for a free Cuba. No one can say they didn’t do their part. “For me it was a privilege to fly with these people, the ones who died— the Americans, the Cubans,” said Gus Ponzoa at the 2004 groundbreaking for the Bay of Pigs memorial at Miami Executive Airport. It includes a restoration of the B-26 he flew in the aborted liberation attempt. For him and all the other Cubans who flew and fought in the Congo, the Makasi air force at least helped to even that score. Frequent contributor Don Hollway recommends for further reading Cold War in the Congo, by Frank R. Villafaña. For more about the Simba Rebellion, see “Mad Mike and His Wild Geese” at historynet.com. JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-CUBANS.indd 65

11/18/20 3:16 PM

REvIEWS

JAYHAWK

Love, Loss, Liberation, and Terror Over the Pacific by Jay A. Stout with George L. Cooper, Casemate, 2020, $34.95.

While George Cooper’s background is unusual, the story of his commendable service in the U.S. military during World War II epitomizes the contributions of millions of Americans who selflessly fulfilled their patriotic duty. George’s father, Lawrence, left his native Kansas in 1907 for a teaching job in the Philippines, marrying a Filipino teacher and starting a family. > > The second of three children, George grew up in Manila and began to dream about a life in flight while observing aircraft in the Philippines such as the U.S. Army’s Keystone B-3A bombers and Pan Am’s Martin M-130 China Clipper. In March 1940, George 66

sailed to America to begin his studies at the University of Kansas, his father’s revered alma mater. When war broke out, the young man’s plans were interrupted and, with his nation’s survival at stake, he entered the Army Air Corps with a reinvigorated dream of flying. Upon

graduation, Cooper became a medium bomber pilot, flying a B-25 Mitchell that he proudly dubbed Jayhawk in homage to the well-known KU mascot. Cooper was thrown into combat, flying strafing missions out of Port Moresby and Dobodura as an aircraft

commander with the 499th Bombardment Squadron of the legendary 345th Bombardment Group. Author Jay Stout, himself an air combat veteran of Operation Desert Storm, hits his stride describing the grueling attacks on Rabaul and Wewak. Through it all, Cooper never lost his humanity. Prayers for his parents and sister, who suffered under the brutal Japanese occupation of the Philippines, were answered when they were liberated thanks in no small measure to his own heroism in the Pacific theater. Highly recommended! Philip Handleman

U.S. AIR FORCE

hawk outta hell George Cooper piloted the B-25D Jayhawk with the 499th Bomb Squadron, the “Bats Outta Hell,” of the 345th Bombardment Group.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-REVIEWS.indd 66

11/18/20 3:17 PM

LOCKHEED XF-90 PENETRATION FIGHTER by William J. Simone, Ginter Books, 2020, $39.95. The period from 1945 through 1960 saw a proliferation of diverse and exotic aircraft designs. Among the most memorable and influential, if not successful, was the Lockheed XF-90. Widely publicized both by Lockheed and Westinghouse, which supplied its engines, the XF-90 exerted an impact on American popular culture far beyond what might be expected from an airplane that never advanced beyond the mere two prototypes built. Many of the automotive styling cues of the 1950s

such as bulging scoops, sweeping tailfins and bulbous bullet fairings can be traced to the XF-90. During the 1950s Oldsmobile even featured a stylized XF-90 as a hood ornament. Ironically, although the XF-90 captured the public imagination, it failed to impress its prospective customer, the U.S Air Force. Designed to satisfy a very demanding requirement for a “penetration fighter,” it was intended for long-range missions over enemy territory in support of bombers. Due to the need to accom-

SIX-DAY WAR 1967

Operation Focus and the 12 Hours That Changed the Middle East

U.S. AIR FORCE

by Shlomo Aloni, Osprey Publishing, 2019, $24. Although Shlomo Aloni has been writing on military aviation subjects for decades, in Six-Day War 1967 the Israeli author seems somewhat self-conscious regarding his credibility. With each subsection, he presents carefully checked statistics and listed sources—including Arab documentation, mostly Egyptian—in a seeming all-out effort to be believed. More than 53 years after the conflict, one can see why. No war’s struggle for air superiority has ever been so decisively and comprehensively settled in 12 hours, let alone by an air force outnumbered by at least 2-to-1, as occurred on June 5, 1967. In his analysis of how Israel’s preemptive airstrikes worked, the author reveals the multiple plans that the Israeli air force prepared. He also notes the less-than-unified preparations among the Arab states and the flaws in Egypt’s air defenses. Most critical, he argues, was Israel’s knowledge of how long it would take for each Arab power to act in response to a breakout of hostilities, leading to the decision to concentrate its first attack entirely against its principal adversary, the Egyptian air force, with Syria, Jordan and Iraq to be dealt with thereafter. Aloni seasons his scholarship with plenty of firsthand accounts, backed by the usual plethora of photographs and illustrations. Six-Day War 1967 may offer a unique addition to any jet age military aviation scholar’s library. Given the lessons learned on preparedness that it demonstrated, it is unlikely that any air arm—including Israel’s—is likely to achieve such a lopsided surprise victory against a comparable enemy force again. Jon Guttman

modate a large amount of fuel, the resulting fighters inevitably proved excessively large, heavy and slow. As a result, all of the prospective penetration fighters were

rejected and the requirement was cancelled. Lockheed XF-90 Penetration Fighter includes extensive information about the development and testing of the XF-90 as well as its two competitors, the McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo and the North American YF-93. It also describes the XF-90’s subsequent use as a target, during which it demonstrated its structural integrity by surviving no less than three nuclear bomb blasts. Part of the “Air Force Legends” series, this book offers a window into a fascinating era of aircraft development and an airplane that once seemed a harbinger of the future. Robert Guttman

DAVID MCCAMPBELL Top Ace of U.S. Naval Aviation in World War II

by David Lee Russell, McFarland & Company, 2019, $45. Volumes have been devoted to American World War II ace of aces Dick Bong, Marine Corps top gun Joe Foss and other aces. But David McCampbell is the first full-length biography of America’s leading naval ace. There was far more to McCampbell than acedom or even his Medal of Honor might suggest. His naval career, from graduation at Annapolis in 1933 through retirement in 1964, encompassed assignment aboard the heavy cruiser Portland before he transitioned into aviation. He served in Europe prior to his most famous stint as commander of Air Group 15 aboard the aircraft carrier Essex in the Pacific, followed by a variety of Navy and Defense Department senior staff positions. His 34 victories included seven during the Battle of the Philippine Sea and nine in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, the latter an American single-mission record for which he was awarded his country’s highest decoration. David Lee Russell, a naval air intelligence officer, has gathered plenty of information on McCampbell, whose senior officer duties aboard Essex make a supporting cast from the “Fabled Fifteen” virtually mandatory. Accompanying all the events and achievements are ample insights into the personality that seems to have been predicted early on in the U.S. Naval Academy yearbook for 1933: “Mac will always find life enjoyable because he has an amiable disposition, because he is a gentleman, and because he is an optimist.” The only flaws in the book are grammatical—a story so compellingly written could have greatly benefited from some conscientious editing. Jon Guttman JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-REVIEWS.indd 67

11/18/20 3:17 PM

DEAD RECKONING

The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor by Dick Lehr, Harper, 2020, $28.99.

OPERATION VENGEANCE

The Astonishing Aerial Ambush that Changed World War II by Dan Hampton, William Morrow, 2020, $28.99. On April 18, 1943, about a year and a half after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese admiral who had orchestrated it was assassinated near the Pacific island of Bougainville in a precisely timed and expertly navigated aerial interception by American P-38 Lightning pilots based out of Guadalcanal. Ever since, the 1,000-mile make-orbreak mission has been the stuff of lore, with the story dominated by the question of which pilot, Thomas Lanphier Jr. or Rex Barber, scored the decisive blow. Coincidentally, two mammoth books about the mission to shoot down Isoroku Yamamoto were released in 2020 just months apart, and both arrive convincingly at the same conclusion as to who fired the fatal shots: Lieutenant Barber. In Dead Reckoning, journalism professor Dick Lehr makes deft use of his access to the diary and correspondence of ace and mission leader Major John Mitchell. Mining a wealth of additional sources, Lehr traces the lives of Mitchell and Yamamoto from childhood to military service in alternating chapters that provide in-depth character portraits against the backdrop of a world devolving into global conflict. Other leading players like the U.S. Navy codebreakers at Station Hypo in Hawaii and the Marines fighting desperately to hold on at Guadalcanal are brought into the story as it builds to the harrowing clash between the American airmen and Yamamoto’s Japanese escorts. In Operation Vengeance, veteran F-16 pilot Dan Hampton also relies on extensive groundwork, including interviews with Rex Barber’s son. Indeed, Rex Barber is the central figure in this account that intersperses vignettes of each leg of the mission with the origins and unfolding stages of the Pacific War in all its bloody horror. Beginning with a detailed description of firing up the P-38’s twin Allison engines, Hampton puts readers in the cockpit, so we feel that we are flying alongside Barber and his fellow pilots every step of the way. Setting the tone for his version of events, Hampton provides detailed and graphic descriptions of the land and naval battles required to preserve Guadalcanal as a strategic launch point for the projection of American air power. He pulls no punches, condemning Admiral Frank Fletcher for having “deserted” the American forces on Guadalcanal, embracing the gritty Marine grunts as exemplifying the best of the “Old Breed,” suggesting that the American death toll would probably have been much higher if Yamamoto had not been killed and alleging the Japanese admiral knew he was waging an unjust war. Lehr’s take is more nuanced, celebrating the victory over Japan while offering insights into the imperfections of American culture at the time. Buried within these heavily researched tomes are a few glitches: Secretary of War Henry Stimson is misidentified as secretary of state in Lehr’s book and the sinking of the Bismarck is attributed to British torpedo planes (which actually jammed the ship’s rudder) in Hampton’s book. But these do not detract in any way from such sweeping chronicles of men at war. The authors bring their distinct perspectives to bear in offering empathic narratives that honor the legacy of the pilots who pulled off the improbable mission. As would be expected, the two books overlap in their coverage of certain aspects of the story. At the same time, there are differences between them in tenor and technique. Both are meritorious histories and highly recommended. Philip Handleman 68

AVIATION H

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (required by Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code). 1. Aviation History 2. (ISSN: 1076-8858) 3. Filing date: 10/1/20. 4. Issue frequency: Bi Monthly. 5. Number of issues published annually: 6. 6. The annual subscription price is $39.95. 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. Contact person: Kolin Rankin. 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Publisher, Michael A. Reinstein, HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182, Editor, Carl Von Wodtke, HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182, Editor in Chief, Alex Neil , HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 10. Owner: HistoryNet; 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 11. Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent of more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None. 12. Tax status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publisher title: Aviation History. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: September 2020. 15. The extent and nature of circulation: A. Total number of copies printed (Net press run). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 42,494. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 28,342. B. Paid circulation. 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 22,820. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 22,669. 2. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 5,398. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 1,068. 4. Paid distribution through other classes mailed through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. C. Total paid distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 28,218. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date; 23,737. D. Free or nominal rate distribution (by mail and outside mail). 1. Free or nominal Outside-County. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 2. Free or nominal rate in-county copies. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other Classes through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 4. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 481. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 482. E. Total free or nominal rate distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 481. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 482. F. Total free distribution (sum of 15c and 15e). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 28,699. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 24,219. G. Copies not Distributed. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 13,795. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 4,123. H. Total (sum of 15f and 15g). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 42,494. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing: 28,342. I. Percent paid. Average percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 98.3% Actual percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 98.0% 16. Electronic Copy Circulation: A. Paid Electronic Copies. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. B. Total Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 28,218. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 23,737. C. Total Print Distribution (Line 15f) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 28,699. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 24,219. D. Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 98.3%. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 98.0%. I certify that 50% of all distributed copies (electronic and print) are paid above nominal price: Yes. Report circulation on PS Form 3526-X worksheet 17. Publication of statement of ownership will be printed in the January 2021 issue of the publication. 18. Signature and title of editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: Shawn G. Byers, VP, Audience Development & Circulation. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanction and civil actions.

REvIEWS

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-REVIEWS.indd 68

11/18/20 3:17 PM

AIRWARE Digital Combat Simulator I-16

Red Baron Pack

Digital Combat Simulator’s I-16 is a good follow-up to last Airware’s Yakovlev Yak-52 coverage. The stubby Polikarpov I-16 prop fighter recalls images of the Granville Gee Bees and the Brewster F2A Buffalo but its production far eclipsed them. Like most DCS aircraft, the I-16 is lovingly rendered and you can see up-close in this sim how tough its pilots must have been. It is nimble but quirky, requiring a lot of pilot input to fly. The lack of a detailed manual, a trademark of most DCS products, is lamentable. I was able to find a nice alternative online written by a DCS player, but it should have been included in the installation. This airplane module is also sparse in other ways, lacking any historical campaigns or missions. The DCS I-16 fortunately seems to be well modeled. I flew it against a Messerschmitt Bf-109 and true to legend the tenacious I-16 can hold up against early models of the 109. I could out-turn the 109 and tried to drag him to a low altitude fight but the computer adversary was smart and used the Messerschmitt’s superior vertical performance to stay ahead of me. We traded several passes but my terrible gunnery ultimately led to my doom. I-16 is a nice module but the lack of accessories makes it a bit harder to recommend than others.

The Red Baron Pack is a rerelease of a set of older World War I flight simulations available through Steam. It combines the original Red Baron and a sequel, Red Baron 3D. The original games are critically acclaimed products, but they debuted in 1990 and 1998. Do they stand the test of time? The answer is “it depends.” Nostalgia hunters will find this a cheap trip back to games that at the time were stellar. But these reissues come with little change to the original software and have graphics stuck in the pre-3D and early 3D eras. They are playable but a little hard on the eyes, especially compared to the more recent WWI sim Rise of Flight. While modern systems should have no trouble with performance, these oldies can also be a little cantankerous to configure. Historians, however, will find some useful material. The games were made back in a time when creativity and imagination helped compensate for graphics limitations. Flight sims then typically had great manuals and were good about including role-playing elements in historically inspired campaigns. The Red Baron Pack includes digital versions of the original manuals for both games, and they are fine reads loaded with history and photos. Both games feature historical scenarios, and both have mission creation and editing capabilities. On the balance, the chance to revisit these classics proved more pleasing than not. Bernard Dy

OctopusG, Eagle Dynamics SA, $40.

Mad Otter Games, $10.

Taking Flight

The Nadine Ramsey Story Raquel Ramsey and Tricia Aurand Foreword by Maj. Gen. Jeannie M. Leavitt, USAF

“Taking Flight, Nadine Ramsey’s story, is more than the tale of her days as a WASP pilot ferrying high-priority army aircraft across the skies of wartime America. It is the heartfelt account of her family and its collective grit, patriotism, and raw courage. We learn of Nadine’s painful recovery from an early plane crash, the healing that allowed her to fly as a WASP, and finally her battle against the recurring pain in later life. A good read and a ton of great research.”—Sarah Byrn Rickman, author of The Originals: The Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron of World War II and WASP of the Ferry Command: Women Pilots, Uncommon Deeds “From humble beginnings, Nadine Ramsey was destined to fly. Chasing planes and opportunities, she honed her skills as a ‘hot pilot.’ Soon she was in the ranks of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots in World War II and was one of the first women to fly military aircraft. This honest and heartfelt book chronicles the life of a woman who struggled to overcome the barriers of her day, and occasionally brushed the bounds of heaven.”—Lisa K. Shapiro, author of No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat

312 pages, 74 black and white photos, 13 color photos, Cloth $29.95

Ebook edition available from your favorite ebook retailer.

University Press of Kansas Phone 785-864-4155 • www.kansaspress.ku.edu

AVHP-210100-REVIEWS.indd 69

11/18/20 3:18 PM

FLIGHT TEST

BUSH LEGENDS

1. Who established the Farthest North Aviation Company, Alaska’s first, in 1923? A. Marten Hartwell B. Donald Sheldon C. Carl Ben Eielson D. Noel Wien

MYSTERY SHIP

Can you identify this attack aircraft? See the answer below.

2. Who discovered the world’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall, which now bears his name? A. Jimmie Angel B. Marten Hartwell C. Max Ward D. Tom Lamb

DIVE BOMBERS’ GREATEST HITS Match the pilot to the warship he helped sink.

Hans-Ulrich Rudel

A. PO1C Kichichiro Yamada, Hiryu B. Lieutenant Edward A. Sieber, VB-82, Bennington C. Captain Eric D. McIver, 803 Squadron, FAA D. Lt. (j.g.) Shunko Kato, Junyo E. Lieutenant Paul Brehm, VB-87, Ticonderoga F. Lieutenant Hans-Ulrich Rudel, StG. 2 G. Lieutenant Akira Sakamoto, Zuikaku H. PO1C Takeo Yamazaki, Soryu I. Lt. (j.g.) William E. Hall, VS-2, Lexington J. 2nd Lt. Robert E. Kelly, VMSB-132

1. HMS Hermes 2. HIJMS Hyuga 3. Marat 4. HIJMS Kinugasa 5. HMS Cornwall 6. USS Hornet 7. HIJMS Shoho 8. Königsberg 9. USS Yorktown 10. HIJMS Yamato

4. Which Canadian received the U.S. Air Medal for locating and rescuing 26 crewmen from three grounded B-26s in January 1942? A. Russ Baker B. Earl Frederick Crabb C. Bob Reeve D. Donald Sheldon 5. Who was first to solo a single-engine airplane (Piper L-4) up the Alaska Highway in 1946? A. Beryl Markham B. Rusty Blakey C. Pearl Laska Chamberlain D. Noel Wien

ANSWERS: MYSTERY SHIP: Vultee XA-41. Learn more about it at historynet.com/aviation-history DIVE BOMBERS’ GREATEST HITS: A.9, B.10, C.8, D.6, E.2, F.3, G.1, H.5, I.7, J.4. BUSH LEGENDS: 1.C, 2.A, 3.D, 4.B, 5.C. 70

TOP: SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM; BOTTOM: AKG-IMAGES/ULLSTEIN BILD

3. Whose Arctic bush flights, totaling a million miles, earned him the First Nations nickname of Snow Eagle? A. Bob Reeve B. Welland Phipps C. Russ Merrill D. Clennell “Punch” Dickins

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100-FLIGHT TEST.indd 70

11/18/20 3:18 PM

BEFORE WORK STARTED, AN ACTUARIAL FIRM PREDICTED 13 WORKERS WOULD BE KILLED DURING CONSTRUCTION OF THE GATEWAY ARCH. HOW MANY WORKERS ACTUALLY DIED? Twelve, two, seven, or none? For more, visit WWW.HISTORYNET.COM/ MAGAZINES/QUIZ

HISTORYNET.com ANSWER: NONE. HOWEVER, IN 1980 A FATAL ACCIDENT CLAIMED THE LIFE OF A PARACHUTIST WHOSE TWO-PART STUNT WENT AWRY. HEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;D MANAGED TO LAND SAFELY ATOP THE ARCH AND FROM THERE INTENDED TO BASE JUMP TO THE GROUND USING A SECOND PARACHUTE. THAT CHUTE FAILED.

HOUSE_GREATARCH.indd 40

5/29/19 3:18 PM

AERO ARTIFACT

up for adoption

ALL PHOTOS: ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM, HENDON

Britain’s Royal Air Force Museum has launched an unusual fundraising initiative coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. For as little as £25 ($33), members of the public can “adopt” any one of 50 unique artifacts from the museum’s collection for 12 months. In addition to helping support the museum, contributors receive a digital image of the artifact, an official adoption certificate and recognition on the museum’s web page. You can browse the options at rafmuseum.org.uk, but we’ve selected a few of our favorites here. Clockwise from right: This lifejacket artwork (£50) features a black cat, which in British tradition augers good luck for sailors. For £25, you can adopt a fabric doll in the likeness of air pioneer Amy Johnson, who in 1930 became the first woman to fly solo to Australia. Percy the Penguin (£75) was the mascot of Flt. Lt. Stanley Chapman of No. 158 Squadron. In 1944, when Chapman’s bomber was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Germany, he stuffed Percy into his jacket and parachuted to safety. Both spent the rest of the war as POWs. Upping the stakes, an authentic piece of the Möhne dam, one of the Ruhr Valley targets of 1943’s famed “Dambusters” mission, is available for £750. A brass lapel pin of a Spitfire (£25), crafted from an old English penny, was part of a fundraising effort to buy aircraft during World War II. Finally, for £800, you can adopt the logbook of famed legless WWII ace Sir Douglas Bader, one of the best-known names in RAF history.

JA N UA RY 2 0 2 1

AVHP-210100ARTIFACT.indd 72

11/19/20 2:49 PM

Gina Elise’s

PIN-UPS FOR VETS

Megan, USAF Veteran

Pin-Ups For Vets raises funds to better the lives and boost morale for the entire military community! Buy our 2021 calendar and you contribute to Veterans’ healthcare, helping provide VA hospitals across the U.S. with funds for medical equipment and programs. We support volunteerism at VA hospitals, including personal bedside visits to deliver gifts, and we provide makeovers and new clothing for military wives and female Veterans. All that plus we send care packages to our deployed troops.

Supporting Hospitalized Veterans & Deployed Troops Since 2006

2021 Calendar

H NOW H

AVAILABLE!

visit: pinupsforvets.com HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHH

PINUPSFORVETS.indd 22

9/2/20 4:34 PM

ON FR E FO E S UR HI OR PPI M NG OR E

Actual size is 38.1 mm

Why Are Dealers Hoarding These 100-Year-Old U.S. Silver Dollars?

hen it comes to collecting, few coins are as coveted as the first and last of a series. And when big anniversaries for those “firsts” and “lasts” come around, these coins become even more coveted. Take, for example, the 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars. These 90% pure silver coins were the last of their kind, a special one-year-only resurrection of the classic Wild West Silver Dollar. Three years prior, the Pittman Act authorized the melting of more than 270 million Morgan Silver Dollars so their silver could be sold to our allies in the United Kingdom. Facing our own Silver Dollar shortage, the world’s favorite vintage U.S. Silver Dollar was brought back for one year only while the U.S. Mint worked on its successor, the Peace Silver Dollar.

Dealers Begin Stockpiling Last-Year Morgans

Knowing what we’ve told you about special anniversaries, dealers around the country are preparing for a surge in demand. 2021 will mark the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Morgan Silver Dollar—the last-yearof-issue for the most popular vintage U.S. Silver Dollar ever minted. But slow-moving collectors may be disappointed in what they find when they seek out these coins. Since the days of the Pittman Act, millions more U.S. Silver Dollars have been melted or worn down in commerce. It’s been estimated that as few as 15% of all the Morgan Dollars ever minted have survived to the present day. That number grows smaller each year, with private hoards now accounting for virtually all the surviving Morgan Silver Dollars. And that was before silver values started to rise...

Interest in Silver Is on the Rise

19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 LY AUG EPT OCT OV DEC JAN FEB AR APR AY UNE ULY UG U A N J M J J M S

As you can see from the chart on the left, in 2020, we’ve seen daily silver prices close as low as $12.01 per ounce and as high as $28.33 per ounce. That rise in value has led to a sharp increase in buyers’ interest in silver. We’re already seeing a surge of interest from collectors wanting to add vintage Morgan Silver Dollars to their collections. But at what price?

Don’t Wait—Secure Your 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars NOW!

With this special offer, you can secure a lastyear 1921 Morgan Silver Dollar ahead of the rush in About Uncirculated (AU) condition for just $39.95! Mint marks vary. These vintage U.S. Silver Dollars allow you to hold 100 years of American history in the palm of your hand. But only if you secure yours before our limited supply of 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars lasts in our vault. Don’t wait—call 1-800-973-9208 and use the offer code below to secure your 100-year-old Morgan Silver Dollars NOW!

Weight: Purity: Diameter: Condition: Mint Mark:

26.73 grams 90% silver 38.1 mm AU varies

1921 Morgan Silver Dollar AU - $39.95 ea. + s/h

FREE SHIPPING on Four or More! Limited time only. Product total over $149 before taxes (if any). Standard domestic shipping only. Not valid on previous purchases.

Call today toll-free for fastest service

1-800-973-9208 Offer Code MCD232-01

Please mention this code when you call

GovMint.com • 14101 Southcross Dr. W., Suite 175, Dept. MCD232-01, Burnsville, MN 55337 GovMint.com® is a retail distributor of coin and currency issues and is not affiliated with the U.S. government. The collectible coin market is unregulated, highly speculative and involves risk. GovMint.com reserves the right to decline to consummate any sale, within its discretion, including due to pricing errors. Prices, facts, figures and populations deemed accurate as of the date of publication but may change significantly over time. All purchases are expressly conditioned upon your acceptance of GovMint.com’s Terms and Conditions (www.govmint.com/terms-conditions or call 1-800-721-0320); to decline, return your purchase pursuant to GovMint.com’s Return Policy. © 2020 GovMint.com. All rights reserved.

AVHP-210100-004 GovMint 1921 100th Anniversary Morgan Silver Dollar AU.indd 1

11/10/20 12:45 PM