Aviation History July 2021 by HistoryNet

x-plane pilot scott crossfield: first to reach mach 2

PEACEMAKER

convair’s giant b-36 bomber kept the soviets at bay early in the cold war independence day 1942: the mighty eighth’s costly first bombing raid chaco air war: biplanes battle for supremacy JULY 2021 in south American skies

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JULY 2021

DEPARTMENTS

5 MAILBAG 6 BRIEFING 10 AVIATORS

Test pilot Scott Crossfield was the first to reach Mach 2 and fly the X-15, but he never considered himself a hero. By Douglas G. Adler

14 RESTORED

A Convair B-36D spreads its wings over a patchwork rural landscape.

Major Charles Carpenter’s legendary bazooka-toting Piper L-4 Cub, Rosie the Rocketer, has been returned to flight. By Jim Busha

features 26 The Peacemaker

The largest piston-engine airplane ever to go into production, Convair’s long-range B-36 bomber lived up to its nickname as a flying nuclear deterrent. By Stephan Wilkinson

36 “Give ’Em Hell, Cap!”

On July 4, 1942, the United States and Britain launched a European version of the Doolittle Raid, but the moraleboosting joint mission came with a cost. By Richard H. Holloway

44 Air War Over a Green Hell

52 The Free Life balloon takes off for its date with destiny.

The bitter 1930s Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay saw a mixed bag of imported aircraft dogfighting in South American skies. By Javier Garcia de Gabiola

52 Caution to the Wind

Youthful enthusiasm and an experienced pilot weren’t enough to save the crew of The Free Life, who disappeared 50 years ago while trying to become the first to balloon across the Atlantic. By Jerry Copas

60 Epitaph for a Hero

Nearly 80 years after his cousin’s C-47 transport crashed into a Chinese mountainside, the author is still trying to recover his remains. By Robert L. Willett

ON THE COVER: Two 10-engine Convair B-36Hs of the 42nd Bomb Wing fly together in the late afternoon, with “six turning and four burning.” The giant bomber’s nickname, “Peacemaker,” was a reflection of the role it played on the world stage as a nuclear deterrent against potential Soviet aggression. Cover illustration: ©2021 Jack Fellows, ASAA.

14 16 EXTREMES

One of the world’s first carrier-based aircraft, the World War I–era Parnell Panther featured a rare folding wooden fuselage. By Robert Guttman

18 STYLE

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; EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION; NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE; EVERETT RATTRAY/COURTESY OF THE EAST HAMPTON STAR

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

A B-29 mother ship tows two Republic F-84s.

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Mother Ships and Parasites

From early British attempts to ferry Bristol Scouts up to attack Zeppelins during World War I, mother ships designed to carry and launch small airplanes have conducted a wide variety of missions— some successful, others disastrous. Mother ships came of age during the Cold War, when B-36s experimented with parasite fighters and B-29s and B-52s carried X-planes to launch altitudes for record-setting flights.

Flight of the Polar Eagle

On July 11, 1897, three Swedish aeronauts set out in a balloon for the North Pole from Spitsbergen in the Arctic Circle. Unable to maintain altitude three days later, the team was forced to ditch 500 miles short of their goal. The trio eventually succumbed to the elements on uninhabited White Island, where their bodies, extensive notes and undeveloped rolls of film chronicling their fateful odyssey were discovered 33 years later.

JULY 2021 / VOL. 31, NO. 6

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Skyrocketing Through Mach 2

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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 31058, Boone, IA 50037-0058 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

Sixty-eight years ago, high above California’s Antelope Valley, a civilian research pilot flying a rocket-powered airplane ushered in the age of Mach 2. The man was Scott Crossfield, flying for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and the plane was the Douglas Skyrocket. How the man, the plane and NACA came to achieve one of aviation’s signature feats is among the most interesting episodes from the early supersonic era.

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Mailbag

X-14 ENCOUNTER I read with great inter est Douglas G. Adler’s article “Forgotten X-Plane” [March] and how it came to the Rop key Armor Museum in Indiana. In September 2007, during a visit to the museum, I was astounded to see the X-14B in the corner of the hangar. I had no idea that it still existed in one piece! Fred Ropkey was amazed that I knew anything about it and proceeded to tell the tale of his X-plane. I was thrilled… and a little depressed. > > You see in 1990, as a member of the New Eng land Air Museum’s Curatorial Committee, we were offered the X-14B by the Army Avi ation Museum. At the time it was well understood that the airframe was a “wreck” and many thought it had been scrapped. Without asking for a photo (easier these days with email and digital pics), we passed on it. When I stumbled on it at Ropkey’s that warm Sep tember day, I realized the mistake we had made. Thanks to Fred Ropkey [at right in the above photo] and his son Rick, the future of this unique airframe is secured. Next time, I’ll ask for photos! Jerry O’Neill Cheshire, Conn.

COURTESY OF JERRY O’NEILL

CAP CONTRIBUTION In the March issue I was glad to see some recognition given to aviation helping in the covid pandemic [“Letter From Aviation History”]. The Civil Air Patrol has been helping from the very be ginning, conducting covid missions since March 2020. Collectively, CAP members have contributed almost 40,000 days of volunteer service. The March 2021 CAP e-newsletter “Props” published the following sta tistical rundown of what the organization’s missions had delivered as of February 28: 2,134 blood units; 8,108,350

meals; 1,076,781 pounds of food; 2.6 million-plus masks; 177,107 test kits; 116,762 test samples; and 7,301 vials of vaccine. Lt. Col. Michael LeGendre Civil Air Patrol Las Cruces, N.M.

TOMCAT TRIBUTE

I learned a lot from the article “Tomcatting” [March], as I did not realize some problems the F-14 had, especially with its engines. But I thought it was a little unfair because the F-14 nev er had a chance to face off against fighters of its own generation. The only time a U.S. Navy F-14 saw combat against a fighter of its own generation was on January 4, 1989, when two F-14s from VF-32 encountered two Libyan MiG-23 Floggers. Both MiGs were shot down. Although this was not a thrashing dogfight against a well-trained Russian enemy, it was still a significant chap ter in the Tomcat’s history. There were other combat actions such as the Gulf of Sidra Incident, when F-14s shot down two Su-22 attack bombers, and when an F-14 downed a Mi-8 helicopter in the First Gulf War. I’ll never forget in 2006, on my first deployment to Iraq as a new first lieutenant, seeing a Stars and Stripes article about the F-14’s re tirement—I still have that article. And as I keep a dis-

lay of model airplanes in p my garage, dubbed Air man’s Aviation Garage Mu seum, I have the F-14 and MiG-23 models together with the story of their 1989 dogfight. The Tomcat is in the markings of VF-31, the final F-14 squadron. Major Michael Ariano Arlington, Va.

TF30 TROUBLES

I enjoyed the detailed article on the development of the F-14 and its issues with the TF30 engine. The F-111 also had problems with the TF30. I was in the test group at General Dynamics and we spent many hours doing wind tunnel testing to find an easy solution for uniform duct airflow. The F-111 was already in production, so making any airframe chang es was to be avoided. You folks produce a great magazine, and I look forward to every issue. Victor Ammann Jasper, Ind.

CLASSROOM AID

Thank you for Stephan Wilkinson’s excellent story of the P-47 Thunderbolt [November 2020]. As an instructor of future A&P (aircraft) mechanics, I was keenly able to appreciate his technical description of the workings of the “Jug’s” turbocharger. Powerplant induction and exhaust (su perchargers and turbocharg ers) are some of the subjects I teach. Consequently, I am always on the lookout for material to supplement our textbooks, which can become rather dry. Realworld historical examples

such as can be found in your excellent magazine aid greatly in making the sub ject matter more interesting. I will be sharing this entire article with my class. The article was also appealing in Wilkinson’s telling of the background and develop ment of the P-47 as well as the engaging narrative of the T-bolt in combat. His description of compress ibility and propeller perfor mance encountered by Jug pilots was also very well written and this will also aid my efforts to educate my students regarding airspeed indicators and Mach meters. Thank you and keep up the great work! Jim Stevenson Aviation Institute of Maintenance Irving Campus, Texas

FORTUITOUS DROP

The January issue article “The Expendables” brought back a memory. In Viet nam, in June 1968, I had a napalm bomb explode on release. Luckily I was going 450 knots in my F-100 and avoided any damage. The floating nape fire spread out and started falling in trees along a canal, which wasn’t the prime target. A series of explosions started popping up from the trees. My wingman and I made three more passes along the canal, causing numerous explosions of Viet Cong ordnance. We might call this an ordnance mistake that paid off and perhaps saved friendly lives? Lt. Col. Bob Beabout U.S. Air Force, ret. Aurora, Colo.

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

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briefing

Farewell to the DC-7 retirement bound The last operating Douglas DC-7 taxis after its final flight (inset) following a long and varied career that ended as a firefighter (above) for Erickson Aero Tanker.

he world’s last flying Douglas DC-7 was parked, probably forever, on October 14, 2020. Owned by Erickson Aero Tanker of Hillsboro, Ore., and outfitted as a 3,000-gallon firefighting-retardant bomber, the 1956 DC-7B Tanker 60 was flown from Medford to nearby Madras and made

one final local flight, putting paid to a long career that began with Eastern Airlines. Erickson owns three DC-7 tankers, all of them now out of business: The U.S. Forest Service won’t issue contracts to operate large, elderly piston-engine aircraft, and

Erickson’s final state contract, with Oregon, ended last September, when Tanker 60 helped to kill the Ritter Fire, a small lightning-strike burn that was spotted early and quickly shut down. It was the end of the 2020 fire season for Tanker 60, which had

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OPPOSITE PHOTOS: MATT BOOTY; TOP: ©BOEING; BOTTOM: ALLAN GRANT/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES

dropped more than 198,000 gallons of retardant during the year with zero out-ofservice time during some 60-odd sorties. Along with the Lockheed Constellation, the DC-7 was the last of the great piston-engine airliners of the 1950s. (The double-deck Boeing Stratocruiser, of which only 56 were produced, all with troublesome Pratt & Whitney R-4360 “Corncob” engines and Curtiss Electric props, was at best an also-ran.) The ultimate version was the DC-7C, which Douglas called the Seven Seas and entered into the airliner speed-and-range race against Lockheed’s L-1649 Starliner version of the Connie. All later Constellation and DC-7 versions (including Erickson’s DC-7B) used the relatively reliable Wright R-3350 turbocompound engine, producing up to 3,700 horsepower thanks to three turbocharger-like power recovery turbines per engine. The exhaust-driven PRTs returned their boost directly to the engine crankshaft, via shaft drives, rather than supercharging the induction air. Erickson hopes to keep one of its grounded DC-7 tankers as part of its company historic collection, but there is a possibility that Tanker 60 will be scrapped. “We are currently discussing the sale of all our DC-7s to two different interested parties,” Erickson’s director of maintenance Kevin McLoughlin said, “but we have no plans to continue flying any of them.” Stephan Wilkinson

candy-striped T-birds Boeing’s two Canadair-built T-33 jet trainers look good as new even as their age catches up with them.

Boeing Retires Vintage Chase Planes

D “DEATH IS THE HANDMAIDEN OF THE PILOT. SOMETIMES IT COMES BY ACCIDENT, SOMETIMES BY AN ACT OF GOD.” –SCOTT CROSSFIELD

ecember 2020 saw two classic Lockheed aircraft retired from service—by Boeing. The colorful jets in question, T-33s N109X, nicknamed “Red Bird” by its aircrews, and N416X “Blue Bird” had served in flight test support roles for about 40 years. As it announced their retirement, Boeing stated that these relics of jet power’s formative years had been safety chase planes “for every new and commercial airplane starting with the 767 in 1981 through today’s 777-9.” The T-33 Shooting Star was originally a two-seat jet trainer that traced its pedigree to 1943, when Lockheed began development of the P-80 fighter. In 1948 the company unveiled a two-seat trainer version, originally called the TP-80C but later redesignated the T-33. Boeing’s two “T-Birds” were not built by Lockheed, however. In 1954 Canadair began producing the trainers under license, adapting them to the Rolls-Royce Nene 10 turbojet engine in place of the American version’s Allison J33. The two T-33s that have served Boeing so well over the decades are Canadian-built examples. Their replacements have yet to be announced, but suffice it to say theirs will be a tough duet to follow. Jon Guttman

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BRIEFING

Daughter Flies Her Father’s WWII Fighter

MILESTONES

Dizzying Heights

he new science of aerology took off in the 1890s, as scientists from several European countries conducted high-altitude balloon experiments to decode the mysteries of the upper atmosphere and its effects on the weather. Efforts led by German physician and meteorologist Dr. Richard Assmann in Berlin led to a series of 65 flights, both manned and unmanned, from 1893 to 1899 to measure climatic data high above the Earth. On July 31, 1901, 120 years ago, German meteorologists Arthur Berson and Reinhard Süring, both colleagues of Assmann’s and seasoned veterans of the previous decade’s experiments, entered the open gondola of the balloon Preussen for the most ambitious high-altitude flight to date. Loaded with scientific instruments to measure air temperature, moisture, air pressure and radiation levels and with its 300,000-squarefoot envelope filled with hydrogen and methane, Preussen began its ascent at Berlin-Tempelhof, at the time a military parade field. The gondola contained rudimentary breathing tubes connected to oxygen tanks, necessary for the thin air

All in the family Eugenie Brooks (bottom left) rides in the back seat of the restored Hawker Hurricane (above) that her father John Brooks (left) had flown in World War II.

Manston, pilot Anna Walker briefly turned over control to Brooks, who tearfully remarked “Hello Dad” during final approach. “I can honestly say that flying in the Hurri cane was the pinnacle of my quest to honour my Dad and all his RAF colleagues from World War II,” Brooks remarked in an email. “To go up into his airspace and actually fly over RAF Manston—his RAF base when posted there in 174—was so humbling, emotional and exhilarating all at the same time.” Jon Guttman weather balloon Preussen prepares for its record-breaking 1901 flight from Berlin with two German meteorologists at the helm.

above 20,000 feet. All the same, both men passed out at various times after they reached 33,000 feet. They were ultimately able to soar to 35,435 feet—breaking Berson’s record altitude of 30,000 feet from an 1894 solo flight—before guiding the balloon to a controlled descent into Briesen, about 40 miles east of Berlin, after the 7½-hour flight. Preussen’s altitude record would stand for 30 years. The scientific data accumulated by Berson and Süring were critical in confirming climatic information measured by previous unmanned balloons. Assmann and his colleagues had never fully trusted the data, as they feared distorted instrument readings at the atmosphere’s upper reaches. But the Preussen flight allowed Assmann to finalize his theories, and the following year he announced (jointly, with French meteorologist Léon Philippe Teisserenc de Bort) the discovery of the stratosphere.

TOP: BRIAN SHAW; MIDDLE & LOWER INSET: COURTESY OF EUGENIE BROOKS; BOTTOM: SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG PHOTO/ALAMY; OPPOSITE TOP PHOTOS: KINLEY ROBINSON; RIGHT: DOUG TOMAS

ast October the daughter of a former Royal Air Force fighter pilot went up in a two-seat restoration of her father’s Hawker Hurricane. The two-seater is unique among the fewer than 25 Hurricanes now in existence, and its maintenance is partially financed by taking up paying passengers. During World War II, Flight Sgt. John William Brooks of No. 174 Squadron flew the Hurri cane Mark Ib, attacking German shipping and coastal installations along the English Channel from March 1942 to April 1943, when the unit was re-equipped with Hawker Typhoon Mark Ibs. Dur ing that time Brooks earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Flying Medal. Brooks died in 1993, but in September 2019 a team from Hawker Restorations spent the next year returning his Hurricane to the air for the 80th Battle of Britain Day on September 15, 2020. While it was not ready in time for that event, on October 26 the Hurricane made a short flight over the Kent countryside from the famous Biggin Hill airfield to Manston with its original pilot’s daughter, Eugenie Brooks, in the back seat. Upon reaching

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Questions Surround Avenger Ditching

lying restored historic aircraft allows spectators to experience the sights and sounds of a past era, but it always holds the risk of something going wrong, often with tragic consequences. During an airshow of World War II aircraft over Cocoa Beach, Fla., on April 17, the aerial parade had an unforeseen change in itinerary when the engine of an Eastern Aircraft– built TBM-1 Avenger owned by Valiant Air Command began smoking and, at 200 feet above Satellite Beach, seized. What followed was, in its way, a glimpse into history as pilot Terry Rush nursed the torpedo bomber down to a splashdown just off the beach. Rush was quickly rescued and—fortunately for all concerned—there were no injuries. Among other things, the incident demonstrated the extraordinary ditching abilities of the rugged Avenger. Although lauded by the media for his successful emergency landing, Rush was criticized by some for putting the Avenger down too close to shore, narrowly missing swim-

dangerous Splashdown Clockwise from top left: Pilot Terry Rush brings an ailing TBM-1 Avenger in for a risky but successful ditching off Cocoa Beach, Fla.

mers and surfers. There were also reports that the Avenger’s 45-year-old engine had started smoking soon after takeoff, leading the air boss to comment over the radio that he didn’t know the TBM had a smoke system on board. Why the flight was allowed to continue and the circumstances of the ditching are the subject of an investigation. The TBM was recovered and returned to its base in Titus ville, Fla. Valiant Air Command, which had completed 18 years of work on the airplane before its first post-restoration flight in January 2020, vowed to return it to airworthiness.

TOP: BRIAN SHAW; MIDDLE & LOWER INSET: COURTESY OF EUGENIE BROOKS; BOTTOM: SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG PHOTO/ALAMY; OPPOSITE TOP PHOTOS: KINLEY ROBINSON; RIGHT: DOUG TOMAS

Goodyear Corsair Returns to Flight

ight years of restoration work came to its fruition on March 9 when a Goodyear FG-1D Corsair owned by the Warbird Heritage Foundation in Waukegan, Ill., took to the sky from Wisconsin’s East Troy Municipal Airport with Mike Schiffer at the controls. Accepted by the U.S. Navy on May 12, 1945, FG-1D Bureau No. 92050 did not see Pacific combat but nevertheless represents a facet of the Corsair’s overall success story. Initially considered ill-suited to aircraft carrier operations, the Vought F4U-1 was too good a fighter to discard and established a formidable record operating from island bases in the Solomons in 1943. Modifications to the undercarriage, wings and canopy overcame the Corsair’s carrier landing problems,

and by 1945 its ability to haul an additional 2,000 pounds of bombs or rockets made it so much in demand that production had to be licensed by Goodyear as the FG, as well as by Brewster as the F3A, for a total of 12,571 built. The FG-1D was the Goodyear equivalent of the F4U-1D fighter-bomber, and the last one to see combat did so with the Salvadoran air force—trading shots with Honduran Vought F4U-4s—during the four-day “Soccer War” of July 1969. FG-1D 92050 served in several units Stateside until Septem ber 9, 1954. Starting restoration work in 2012 and completing it on January 31, 2021, the Warbird Heritage Foundation chose to finish the plane in the local colors of Illinois’ Naval Air Station Glenview during the 1950s.

Riding on Goodyear A 1945 Goodyear FG-1D makes its first flight on March 9 after eight years of restoration work.

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AvIATORS

Flying to the Limits

TEST PILOT SCOTT CROSSFIELD MADE DOZENS OF DANGEROUS X-PLANE FLIGHTS AND WAS THE FIRST TO REACH MACH 2, BUT HE ALWAYS REMAINED HUMBLE ABOUT HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS BY DOUGLAS G. ADLER

Growing up fast Scott Crossfield stands with an Inland Sport trainer in 1935 (left) and hands over his flight data recorder on November 20, 1953, after the first Mach 2 flight (above).

lazy eights and then got down to business, intentionally putting the Robin into a spin. Before recovering, he heard a loud banging noise that resolved when he returned to level flight. Subsequent spins brought back the same banging noise. On the third go-around he noticed that

the rear door of the plane was open, causing the noise. Upon landing he realized that the other pilots knew this would happen and were having a good laugh at his expense. Still, he had completed his first solo, though he kept the flight a secret from his parents at the time. While studying at the University of Washington, Crossfield took formal pilot training through the govern ment-subsidized Civilian Pilot Training Program. After

TOP: SMITH COLLECTION/GADO/GETTY IMAGES; INSET: FROM ALWAYS ANOTHER DAWN: THE STORY OF A ROCKET TEST PILOT

hile many laypeople know that Chuck Yeager was the first pilot to exceed Mach 1 in level flight, far fewer can recall the name of the first man to fly an airplane at twice the speed of sound. That man, Scott Crossfield, had what was undoubtedly one of the most impressive and remarkable careers of any pilot in the 20th century. Born Albert Scott Crossfield on October 2, 1921, he was raised on a farm in Washington state. By his own assessment a middle-of-the-pack student, Crossfield was nonetheless intensely interested in the goings-on at nearby Chehalis Municipal Airfield, which he described in his autobiography as “a cow pasture adorned with two skeletal airplane hangars.” While still a teenager, Crossfield began to pay for flying lessons at Chehalis when he could afford it. After he had accumulated just seven or eight hours of flight time, the pilots at Chehalis encouraged him to solo and, eager for the experience, he took them up on their offer. Crossfield soon taxied a battered Curtiss Robin high-wing monoplane across the grass and took to the skies. He flew some J U LY 2 0 2 1

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The Makings of a WWII Legend P-51D MUSTANG PIECE OF HISTORY LIMITED EDITION PRINT

only 510 will be made In honor of the P-51D number

Shown much smaller than actual size of 23" H x 23" W. Arrives with hanging device included.

Impressively sized at nearly two feet

The Ace of any WWII Collection, with Actual Material from a P-51D Only from The Bradford Exchange. Order Now! Strong demand is expected for this presentation, limited to only 510 in honor of the P-51D. Make it yours in four installments of $62.49, for a total of $249.99*, backed by our unconditional, 365-day money-back guarantee. Send no money now. Return the order coupon today!

The formidable P-51D Mustang escort helped WWII Allied bombers penetrate deeper into German territory, and no one captures its spirit like acclaimed artist Robert Taylor. Each of these 510 limited-edition presentations, hand-numbered on the front, contains a full-color print of Mr. Taylor’s art plus one of his sketch reproductions, a Mustang mechanical diagram, and historical facts and specs. Most exciting — each one-of-a-kind tribute contains authentic original metal material from an actual P-51! Archival quality paper and matting are framed in solid wood with protective UV glass.

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a stint working for Boeing, he joined the Navy during World War II and underwent additional flight training at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. There he felt his prior training, which had emphasized individualism over working as part of a team, was a hindrance. Despite literally begging the Navy for a fighter pilot slot, Crossfield was assigned to fly two-man dive bombers—a job he found galling. Spending most of the war as an instructor, he never saw combat despite his repeated attempts to get into the action. After the war, and upon completing his undergraduate and master’s degrees, Crossfield joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the forerunner to NASA) and was assigned to the HighSpeed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Crossfield’s test-piloting work there lasted for several years from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. He flew a variety of dangerous experimental aircraft, including the famed Bell X-1, Northrop X-4, Bell X-5 and Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak. His most famous flight was in the D-558-2 Skyrocket, a turbojet- and/or

rocket-powered variant that, like the X-1, was carried aloft underneath a modified B-29 Superfortress (in this case a Navy P2B). Douglas built three Skyrockets, which together made a total of 313 flights, mostly to study the operational characteristics of sweptwing aircraft at transonic and supersonic speeds. On November 20, 1953, shortly before the 50th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight, Crossfield was at the controls of a waxed and over-fueled D-558-2 whose exhaust nozzles had been extended to improve rudder response. The day was cold and blustery, which was felt to be advantageous given the heat and friction that highspeed flights generated across the Skyrocket’s airframe. After being dropped by the P2B at 32,000 feet, Crossfield lit the engines and ascended to 72,000 feet before entering a shallow dive. The Skyrocket became more and more efficient as it accelerated, burned off fuel and lost weight. The extra fuel paid off: Just before the tanks ran dry Crossfield punched through Mach 2, achieving a then world record speed of Mach 2.005. It was the only time a Skyrocket ever flew faster than Mach 2 and it was widely heralded in

the press of the day. Leaving NACA in 1955, Crossfield became the chief engineering test pilot for North American Aviation. There he played a fundamental role in the design and construction of the X-15 rocketplane. Crossfield himself made the very first unpowered flight in the X-15 as well as its first powered flight. He completed a total of 14 X-15 flights (including one in 1959 that ended in a landing so hard the aircraft broke in half), reaching a top speed of Mach 2.97 and a peak altitude of 88,000 feet. After leaving North Ameri can, Crossfield held a variety of jobs in the civil aviation world. On April 19, 2006, the famed test pilot, then 84, was flying his Cessna 210A from Prattville, Ala., to Manassas, Va. He was very familiar with the singleengine, retractable-gear aircraft, but he never arrived at his destination. Wreckage of the plane, along with Crossfield’s body, was found in mountainous terrain near Ludville, Ga.; analysis indicated it had broken up in flight. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Crossfield and the air traffic controllers were both responsible for the

crash, as he had proceeded into severe weather he could have avoided and was not adequately routed around it. The irony of Crossfield perishing in a slow-moving Cessna was lost on few at the time of his death. Although dramatically portrayed in Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book The Right Stuff and the 1983 film based on it, Crossfield himself was always matter-of-fact about his flying, even to the point of rarely discussing it with his family. Of test pilots, he famously said, “It is a profession just like anything else....In my mind, we should divest ourselves of this idea of special people [being] heroes, if you please, because really they do not exist.”

ABOVE: NASA; BELOW: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

AvIATORS

Double quick Crossfield peers from the cockpit of a North American X-15 (above) and poses with the first of the hypersonic aircraft (below).

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Honor the Mighty Wings That Soared to Victory Exclusive Salute to the Storied P-51 Mustang

Commemorative Proof plated in 99.9% fine silver

Showcases the U.S. Flag enhanced with vivid color

Features photographic four-color imagery of the P-51 Mustang in action

The distinctive profiles of WWII aircraft soar on the back This fine collectible is not legal tender and bears no monetary face value. 38.6 mm diameter. Design subject to change.

KEY DETAILS EVENT: Commemorating the iconic aircraft and those who flew them to achieve victory in World War II. LIMITED AVAILABILITY: Due to the extremely low quantity available, only the earliest applicants will be able to successfully secure these superb Proof-quality tributes. EXCLUSIVE DESIGN: Intended as a collector’s item, this exclusive release salutes one of the most famous warplanes of WWII. Richly plated in 99.9% fine silver, it is offered in coveted Proof condition. SECURED AND PROTECTED: Your Proof arrives in a crystal-clear capsule for enduring protection.

Americans knew that winning World War II would take more than raw courage and steely determination. We needed powerful tools born of America’s industrial muscle and endless ingenuity. Fortunately, thanks to President Roosevelt’s call to make America the “great arsenal of democracy,” one of our most pivotal creations, the P-51 Mustang, was soon on the way. Originally built for the RAF (Royal Air Force) in 1940, the first P-51 was completed in just 117 days, with an innovative aerodynamic design. Then, the British added a powerful Rolls Royce Merlin engine, turning it into a superb high-performance, highaltitude fighter, and a formidable escort for long-range bombers. Deployed over Europe in 1944, the P-51 Mustang helped the Allies gain air superiority in just weeks, making victory possible. Now this storied aircraft and those who flew them inspire The P-51 Mustang Proof Coin from The Bradford Exchange Mint.

Richly plated with 99.9% silver.

The front of this Proof tribute features a photographic image of the iconic P-51 Mustang in action. The U.S. flag, enhanced with vivid four-color imagery, is showcased above. The back displays the distinctive profiles of more renowned WWII warplanes. Genuine 99.9% fine silver plating adds to its enduring value, and your non-monetary tribute arrives in coveted Proof condition.

Strictly Limited ... Order Now!

Supplies are very limited, and very strong demand is expected for this exclusive commemorative tribute. Order now at the $39.99* price, payable in two installments of $19.99 each. As always, your purchase is fully backed by our unconditional, 365day guarantee. You need send no money now, and you may cancel at any time.

Don’t risk missing out, return the coupon today.

The Bradford Exchange Mint is not affiliated with the U.S. Government or U.S. Mint.

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Please reserve The P-51 Mustang Proof Coin for me as described in this announcement. I need send no money now. I will be billed with shipment. Limit: one per order. *Plus a total of $5.95 shipping and service. Please allow 4-8 weeks for shipment. Sales subject to product availability and order acceptance. By accepting this reservation you will be enrolled in The Greatest WWII Fighter Planes Proof Coin Collection with the opportunity, never the obligation, to collect additional issues. You’ll also receive a deluxe wooden display with your second shipment — FREE! Issues will arrive about once a month. You may cancel at any time. Offer not valid to MN residents..

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4/27/2021 10:38:50 AM 4/27/21 12:20 PM

RESTORED

Resurrection of a Legend A PIPER L-4 CUB EQUIPPED WITH SIX WING-MOUNTED BAZOOKAS TO ATTACK GERMAN ARMOR HAS BEEN RETURNED TO FLIGHT BY THE COLLINGS FOUNDATION BY JIM BUSHA

hen it comes to finding hidden treasures, sometimes the best place to look is right under our noses. Case in point was the discovery of a true combat legend, a bazooka-toting Piper L-4H Cub named Rosie the Rocketer. After reading a story about the World War II exploits of Major Charles “Bazooka Charlie” Carpenter, Joe Scheil, an airline pilot by day and a serial-number sleuth by night, discovered that Carpenter’s killer Cub was hanging in an Austrian aviation museum. Scheil contacted his friend Rob Collings of the Collings Foundation, who had been looking for a documented Euro pean theater combat aircraft. That set the wheels in motion as Collings traveled to Austria to verify that the Cub had survived. Scheil and Collings learned that L-4H serial no. 11717 had been surplused in a German yard in September 1946 and subsequently flew as a civilian airplane in Austria for a number of years before it disappeared into the Österreichisches Luftfahrtmuseum at Graz Airport in 1976. In late 2018 Collings convinced the museum to sell him the Cub. Shipped back home, it was turned over to Colin Powers of Oregon, who had a string of award-winning L-4 restora tions under his belt.

“It was a mess as far as I was concerned,” said Powers. “The museum in Austria had acquired the airplane as a static representation. It had been used as a glider tug after the war. The fuselage was covered with a variety of stickers and decals all over it. They went ahead and stripped all the fabric off of it and slapped fabric back on it and painted it yellow. It didn’t look very pretty.” Powers stripped it down to bare wood and tubes to see if there were any bullet holes or other combat damage. “I did find a very obvious bullet hole in the right wing,” he said. “It had come up at a 20-degree angle, passed

Rocket science Colin Powers (top) has restored the Piper L-4 Rosie the Rocketer, flown by Major Charles Carpenter (above), to its World War II glory.

through the leading edge of the aileron, into the wing and continued through the steel plate hinge, tearing a big hole in that. It continued on through another rib and then came out the top of the wing. That all matches with a copy of a letter I received from Carol [Carpenter] Apacki, who is Major Carpenter’s daughter.” In the August 12, 1944, letter, Carpenter wrote: “Lately I have been taking

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OPPOSITE TOP & TOP RIGHT: EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION; OPPOSITE INSET & BOTTOM RIGHT: CAROL APACKI; TOP LEFT: JOE SHEIL

quite a few chances but my luck has been marvelous. Yesterday I got a bullet hole through the wing and hit a church steeple with one wheel. It was very little for what might have happened under the circumstances.” Besides combat damage, Powers found signatures and dates from Piper employees on some interior wood surfaces and wing spars. All the combat damage and personal notes have been preserved during the restoration. Collings’ restoration marching orders to Powers were simple: Bring it back to its 1944 appearance. Powers knew there were plenty of replica parts available for Cubs but focused on finding original Piper parts. “The airplane had been modified,” noted Powers. “The boot cowl and a lot of the instrument panel were all different and needed to be replaced. The entire landing gear was another major issue. Somewhere along the journey they had replaced the original and installed Super Cub landing gear legs. We put the stock 1944 gear back on along with removing the Continental C90 engine and replacing it with an original A65 that would have powered it back in 1944.” The instruments were another issue, as Powers said three had been replaced with German versions. “We had the bill list from Piper as to

more than a touchup Top left: The restored Rosie rests in the snow on a winter day. Above: The Piper Cub ended up in Austria after the war and some instruments had been swapped with German versions. They have been replaced with all-new original instrumentation. Left: Erin Pata, granddaughter of “Bazooka Charlie” Carpenter, applies Rosie’s nose art.

what original instruments were in it at the time,” he said. Keystone Instrument in Pennsylvania came up with all new original ones to give the Cub its factory-fresh look. As much as he wanted to keep it 100 percent original, Powers knew that he would have to use some new parts for safety’s sake. Other new items include a Sensenich wood prop, Scott tailwheel and modern fabric covering. New Plexiglas was installed all around, including in the modified overhead “turtle deck” greenhouse, which gave the pilot better defensive visibility. According to Powers, probably the biggest challenge to the entire restoration was the manufacturing and installation of the six bazookas that Carpenter had mounted under the Cub’s wings. There was very little documentation

about their placement and the firing mechanism inside the cockpit. Carpenter had reportedly used the bazookas in airborne attacks on German armor. “The other day we ‘knocked out’ 44 German tanks,” he wrote on September 24, 1944. “The doughboys from their slit trenches gave ‘Rosie the Rocketer’ and me credit for two.” “From my research of old photos and wartime newspaper clippings I found that they apparently were mounted on a piece of plywood on the wing strut,” said Powers. “We didn’t have very good documentation on how that was built and what they used, so we had to fly by the seat of our pants on that one. I think the results speak for themselves and they turned out like the photographs show.”

The replica M1A1 bazooka tubes are mounted at a 20- to 25-degree angle. The firing panel with six toggle switches, three for each wing, is located on the upper left side of the wing channel, just above the pilot’s shoulder. “It gives me a lot of pride that I was asked to perform this restoration,” said Powers. “But I can’t take all the credit. The reproduction of the nose art of Rosie the Rocketer was hand-painted by Carol’s daughter, Erin Pata of California, in the exact location her grandfather had it painted 75 years earlier. To be able to do this and see it take to the skies again not only for the Collings Foundation but for the Carpenter family is one of my greatest honors.” On October 19, 2020, the freshly restored Rosie the Rocketer took flight over the Hudson, Mass., countryside. Pilot Rob Collings said simply of the first flight in Rosie, “She flew perfectly.” J u ly 2 0 2 1

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EXTREMES

Parnall’s Panther

ONE OF THE FIRST CARRIER-BASED AIRCRAFT FEATURED A SPACESAVING FOLDING FUSELAGE AND INFLATABLE FLOTATION DEVICES IN THE EVENT THE PILOT HAD TO DITCH BY ROBERT GUTTMAN

arrier-based airplanes have been a breed apart since their conception. Operating from the deck of a ship imposes special requirements on aircraft design and construction. A case in point is the Parnall Panther, one of the very first airplanes specifically designed to take off from and land on the deck of an aircraft carrier at sea. William Parnall established Parnall Ltd. in 1820 in Bristol, England, for the manufacture of weights and measures, later expanding into shop fittings. By August 1914 the company was under the direction of his descendant George Parnall, a visionary who was interested in aviation. During World War I Parnall’s firm was subcontracted to manufacture more than 600 aircraft, including the Avro 504K, Fairey Hamble Baby and various Short floatplanes. In 1916 the company produced its first original aircraft, the Parnall Scout, a large single-engine single-seater intended as a Zeppelin interceptor. It proved too fragile and overweight and was quickly abandoned. In 1917 Parnall hired an experienced aircraft designer,

on the deck A Parnall Panther prepares to take off from an aircraft carrier (top) and displays its hinged fuselage (above).

Harold Bolas, who had formerly worked for the Royal Aircraft Factory before becoming deputy chief designer at the Royal Navy’s Air Department. Bolas’ Panther was a two-seat spotter-reconnaissance plane designed to operate from an aircraft carrier—a ship that did not really exist at the time. Although numerous seaplane carriers were operational

and landplanes had been successfully launched from their decks, the only ship then capable of launching and recovering wheeled airplanes, HMS Furious, was hindered by the turbulence generated by its midships superstructure and funnels. The Panther’s intended vessel, Argus, featured a continuous, unobstructed flight deck. It was under construction on an uncompleted hull originally meant for an Italian passenger liner, but by the time the carrier was commissioned in September 1918 it was too late to see combat.

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OPPOSITE TOP: IWM A22496; OPPOSITE INSET: IWM Q67084: ABOVE LEFT: IWM Q68222; ABOVE RIGHT: GUY ACETO COLLECTION

In WWI’s immediate aftermath, the big guns of the battleships were still regarded as the principal arbiters of naval power. The main role of airplanes like the Panther was to locate the enemy fleet and then direct the battleship’s salvos. Superficially typical of its time, the Panther was a fairly compact single-bay biplane with a wingspan of 29 feet 6 inches and a length of 24 feet 11 inches. Fully loaded it weighed 2,595 pounds. Although armament was originally one forward-firing .303-caliber Vickers machine gun and a single flexible Lewis machine gun in the rear cockpit, on production aircraft the forward gun was dispensed with in order to save weight. Power was provided by a 230-hp Bentley BR-2 rotary engine, the same engine used on the Sopwith Snipe, the first fighter to be ordered in quantity by the Royal Air Force. The Panther’s maximum speed was 108 mph and its endurance was 4½ hours. Bolas added some unusual naval features to the Panther’s basic biplane formula. The fuselage was humped to raise the pilot’s cockpit above the engine level and afford him a better view while landing on the flight deck. The wooden monocoque fuselage was fitted with watertight bulkheads to help keep the airplane afloat in case the pilot had to ditch in the sea. For additional buoyancy it had a pair of flotation bags fitted to the landing gear legs beneath

In the drink The Panther’s unusually shaped inflatable pontoons, shown on a 1934 “Skybirds” trading card (right), get put through their paces during flotation testing of the prototype (above).

the wing roots, along with a third stowed within the rear fuselage, all inflated by compressed CO2 bottles. A hydrovane was also installed ahead of the landing gear struts to prevent the Panther from nosing over while ditching. Perhaps the Panther’s most unusual feature was its hinged fuselage, which could be folded 90 degrees to the right, just behind the observer’s cockpit, to save space during stowage. The concept had been pioneered on the Sopwith Baby and was a feature of the Hamble Baby that Parnall built under license. Later carrier-based airplanes employed folding wings for the same purpose. Also unlike later carrier planes, the Panther did not have a tail hook, simply because no such arresting system had yet been developed. Following evaluation during 1918, Parnall received an order for 300 Panthers. With the cessation of hostilities, however, the order was cut back to 150, leading to a falling-out between Parnall and the Royal Navy. As a result, the production order was transferred to the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which completed delivery during 1919 and 1920. Panthers were among the

initial complement aboard Argus as well as Hermes, commissioned in 1924. As with all technological innovations, both the ships and their aircraft experienced teething troubles. For example, the system of arresting wires developed by the Royal Navy shortly after the war, consisting of a set of longitudinal cables to be snagged by hooks on the aircraft, proved inadequate and caused many landing accidents. The Panthers themselves also demonstrated operational shortcomings. While a hinged flap at the rear of the upper wing center section afforded entry and exit from the rear cockpit, the only way into or out of the pilot’s cockpit was through a narrow opening in the center section. That was awkward for the pilot while on the rolling deck of a ship and dangerous in an emergency ditching. The Bentley rotary engine proved difficult to start, unreliable and insufficiently powerful. Moreover, it soon became apparent that the Royal Navy required a larger, heavier

and more powerful aircraft with longer range, room for a crew of three and space for navigation and radio equipment. By 1926 the last Panthers were replaced. In its heyday the Panther attracted the attention of other naval-minded countries. In 1921 Japan bought 12 Panthers to evaluate for possible use on its first carrier, IJN Hōshō, which would be commissioned in 1922. The U.S. Navy also purchased two Panthers in 1921 for its first carrier, USS Langley, undergoing conversion from the collier Jupiter. Two Panthers were also purchased by Spain and one is said to have been dispatched to Africa in 1922. Parnall continued to develop aircraft up to 1939, including several interesting designs, but none were produced in significant quantities. During World War II it built Frazer-Nash gun turrets for British bombers, and after the conflict it made washing machines and stoves. Still in business today, Parnall Ltd. is currently building a nonflying Panther replica. J U LY 2 0 2 1

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STYLE Someday James Bond will likely pursue the villain in an eVTOL. Odds are it will be in one made by Aston Martin—with special options, of course.

Top View The Aston Martin Volante Vision hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing fixed-wing aircraft features a panoramic cockpit canopy providing spectacular views.

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COURTESY OF ASTON MARTIN

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STYLE FUTURE

Up, Up and Away While other electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle companies are designing aircraft that look like those boring first renditions of the electric automobile, Aston Martin’s hybridelectric version has the style and finesse of, well, an Aston Martin. The three-passenger Volante Vision, powered by RollsRoyce, is projected to sell for a cool $9.2 million, with the goal of transporting the rich and famous within this decade.

Air Born The aerodynamic design will cut through the skies at a cruising speed of 250 mph.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ASTON MARTIN

Wing Stop The tips of each wing fold down vertically to form the landing gear.

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STYLE Up Lifting Four tilting front rotors lift and propel the aircraft while two large stacked rear rotors are used during vertical flight only.

Aston Martin Volante Vision Specifications

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ASTON MARTIN

Aircraft type: Hybrid-electric VTOL Piloting: Autonomous or partially piloted Passengers: 3 (including the pilot) Cruise speed: 250 mph Range: 500 miles Rotors: 6 (4 forward, 2 rear) Electric Motors: 6 Power source: Rolls-Royce hybrid-electric Fuselage: Carbon fiber Wings: Forward modified swept-back wing secured to the fuselage with 4 struts, plus a modified rear delta wing Tail: Twin vertical rudders Landing gear: Each wingtip turns down vertically to form the 4-point landing gear. Safety: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) provides redundant safety. Multiple rotors and motors ensure that if any fail the other working motors and rotors can safely land the aircraft.

Three’s Company The stylish interior of the Volante Vision seats three (including the pilot).

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STYLE BOOKS

Air Time

LEFT: ©BREITLING SA/KATSUHIKO TOKUNAGA

The inextricably linked elements of time and flight are handsomely illustrated in the new book Air Time: Watches Inspired by Aviation, Aeronautics and Pilots, by Mark Bernardo. The book showcases more than 90 iconic timepieces, from 1904 to today, worn and made famous by those who fly. It also explores the watch pairings of fearless balloonists and wartime jet pilots to globetrotting jet-setters and space explorers. The chapters incorporate historical milestones such as Charles Lindbergh’s invention of the Longines Hour Angle watch, and the Omega Speedmaster—the first watch to land on the moon. Also featured are the Breitling Navitimer, IWC Big Pilot’s watch, Breguet Type XX and the Rolex GMT-Master. Air Time, $85, rizzoliusa.com

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COLLAGES: EXCLUSIVELY CREATED FOR AIR TIME: WATCHES INSPIRED BY AVIATION, AERONAUTICS AND PILOTS, ©LILIANA GUIA

STYLE STYLE

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LETTER FROM AvIATION HISTORY

A LITTLE INGENUITY

flight on mars On April 25, during its third flight, the Ingenuity helicopter hovers 16 feet above the Martian surface, in an image captured by the Perseverance rover’s left Navcam.

he tiny rotorcraft, weighing in at about four pounds and just over 1½ feet tall, boasts a big accomplishment. On April 19 NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter made its first flight on Mars, a modest 30-second hop to 10 feet in altitude. The demonstration was roundly cele brated as the first powered controlled flight on another planet, though some might question how that can be said with confidence in an observable universe of roughly 70 billion trillion potential planets. Certainly it was humanity’s first extraterrestrial flight. NASA hailed the event as “a Wright brothers moment,” an appropriate comparison given the flight’s brevity and historical importance. The Wrights’ first powered flight on December 17, 1903, lasted just 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. The brothers did not achieve what could definitively be called controlled flight until the last of four that day, a 59-second jaunt by Wilbur covering 852 feet. In a similar manner Ingenuity’s earthbound controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) programmed the rotorcraft to make successively longer leaps, culminating in a 117-second, 872-foot roundtrip during the April 30 fourth demonstration flight from what has been dubbed Wright Brothers Field. In another tribute to the groundbreaking brothers, Ingenuity carries a small swatch of fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer taped to a cable underneath its solar panel. The flights and $3 billion Mars mission in general required more than a little ingenuity and perseverance amid the challenges of the pandemic. Launched on July 30, 2020, Ingenuity traveled some 300 million miles attached to the belly of the aptly named Perseverance rover. The rover’s February 18, 2021, landing in Jezero Crater was a nail-biter, requiring everything to work perfectly during a carefully choreographed sequence of events characterized by those involved as “seven minutes of terror.”

Once the helicopter was deployed, its first flight was delayed by a software glitch that JPL flight controllers quickly overcame. Additional challenges included the thin Martian atmosphere, just 1 percent as dense as Earth’s (equivalent to about 100,000 feet altitude), and nighttime temperatures below minus-100 degrees. Ingenuity’s specially designed four-foot carbon fiber rotors had to spin at about 2,500 rpm to achieve lift, though the helicopter got an assist from Mars’ gravity, which is one-third Earth’s. The distances involved meant that JPL had to relay flight commands to Ingenu ity prior to each autonomous demonstration, since messages take between five and 20 minutes to reach Mars. Following the stunning success of Ingenuity’s first four flights, NASA announced that the test program would enter a new phase focused on demonstrating how aerial scouting and surveying could benefit future exploration of Mars and other worlds. With the Perseverance rover also performing well and ahead of schedule in its mission to search for possible traces of ancient microbial life, plans call for Ingenuity to conduct aerial observation of potential rover routes and science targets as well as geological features that are inaccessible to the rover. To do so it will have to find new landing sites, since flight duration is no more than 90 seconds and “there’s a high probability of a bad landing,” noted MiMi Aung, JPL’s Ingenuity project manager. Still, Aung said, “We will be celebrating each day that Ingenuity survives and operates beyond the original [30-day] window.” Perhaps lost in the microcosm of these accomplishments on Mars is the mind-boggling big picture that in the short course of less than 118 years, humanity has gone from its first tentative forays in powered flight on Earth to flying an aircraft on another planet. That’s an achievement worth celebrating.

NASA/JPL-CALTECH

BY CARL VON WODTKE

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THE PEACEMAKER CONVAIR’S GIANT B-36 BOMBER FULFILLED ITS PRIMARY MISSION BY NEVER SERVING IN COMBAT BY STEPHAN WILKINSON

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cold war peacekeepers Two Convair B-36Hs fly a mission, helping keep the peace by virtue of their intercontinental range and nuclear payload capability. Jack Fellows’ illustration gives an idea of scale of the massive bomber, the largest piston-engine airplane ever to go into production.

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first armed model Above: B-36Bs of the 436th Bombardment Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing (Heavy), fly over Texas. Inset: A design concept for the neverbuilt B-36C called for the six R-4360 pusher engines to be replaced by four turboprops and four turbojets mounted in tandem.

Igor Sikorsky’s Ilya Muromets, a vast stork of an airplane famously photographed with two crewmen strolling atop its fuselage, first flew in 1913. It was followed by a succession of Russian giants, including the Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, TB-3 bomber and Kalinin K-7. Even today, the world’s heaviest airplane is the Antonov An-225 Mriya, with a maximum takeoff weight of 705 tons. But there was one interruption amid the steady stream of Soviet behemoths and it flew at a time when the United States’ archest enemy was that evil empire. When America needed a club with which to threaten the Russians, Convair produced the six-engine—eventually 10—B-36 longrange heavy bomber. It was the largest and heaviest piston-engine airplane ever to go into production. The B-36 was nicknamed the Peacemaker, with a nod to the infamous Colt six-shooter. Some religious organizations objected, saying the only true Peacemaker was Jesus. That scared off the Air Force, which never called the airplane anything but B-36. Many assume the B-36 was designed as a nuclear bomber, but the airplane’s origins predate the possibility of any such mission. When first conceived during World War II, the big bomber was originally intended to reach Germany from the U.S. in the event that Britain fell. During its devel-

opment, the B-36 was also touted for its potential ability to bomb Japan from Hawaii or Alaska. When B-36s were slated to become nuclearcapable in the late 1940s, atomic weapons were controlled by the civilian Atomic Energy Com mission and transferring them to the military was a cumbersome process. Pre-strike bases had to be set up where a B-36 would land, refuel and pick up its bomb, the fissionable core of which presumably had been flown in by the AEC. Hardly a quickreaction strike force. These bases were all in remote northern locations, where technicians worked outdoors in bitter cold to assemble and load the bombs. Some B-36s were actually equipped with studded snow tires. In

THE SOVIETS HAVE TRADITIONALLY HELD PRIMACY AS AVIATION’S GIGANTISM SPECIALISTS.

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TOP RIGHT & BELOW: U.S. AIR FORCE; MIDDLE RIGHT: JOSEPH SCHERSCHEL/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES

1951 control of nuclear weapons was turned over to Strategic Air Command, but SAC’s B-36s were still intended to stage and refuel through bases in Greenland, Canada and Alaska. The first XB-36 prototype had single-wheel main landing gear fitted with the largest aircraft tires ever manufactured—9 feet 2 inches in diameter. The configuration was chosen so it could easily retract into the wings. The extreme pressure of the tires’ footprint, however, meant that only three runways in the world—at Carswell, Eglin and Fairfield (later Travis) Air Force bases—could bear the weight of the prototype. The single tires also meant that a blowout could wreck the bomber. Four-wheel bogies on each side of the airplane were quickly engineered to spread the load. One challenging part of duty aboard an early B-36 was that, before landing, crewmen had to enter each wing—they were 7½ feet thick at the root—and clamber out to the gaping wheel well to confirm that the landing-gear downlocks were correctly configured. “My first time, I was very scared,” admitted ex-crewman Dick Graf. “I could look back and see that prop turning and knew that if I slipped I would be hamburger.” “If the gear didn’t appear locked, we were supposed to hold on, stretch down between aircraft and oblivion and kick the [drag link] knuckle until a down lock was indicated,” said retired Captain Reginald Beuttel Jr. “Talk about an exhilarating experience.” Microswitches with cockpit indicators for the up and down locks were soon added. The walk-in wings also made it possible to do some minor accessory-section work on the inboard engines. “Between the walkaround air bottle, the fresh-air rush, fuel and oil fumes, and the roar of the engines, doing the actual repair was simple, though it was always a memorable experience,” recalled Staff Sgt. Bill Holding. At some point early in the manufacturing process, Convair decided it needed to sweep the wings back a further three degrees to solve a center of gravity problem. The nacelles were already in place, with the engine centerlines established. Rather than reengineer everything, the nacelles

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and mounts were left alone, so the B-36 flew with the propellers of its six pusher engines pointing three degrees inboard. The B-36 was originally intended to be a carpet bomber, spreading the largest number of iron bombs over the widest area. In a 1956 demonstration for congressmen and senators at Eglin AFB, a B-36 dropped a stick of 132 500-pound bombs in a line 2½ miles long—a conflagration that wouldn’t be seen again until the advent of the B-52D “Big

bigfoot From top: The XB-36’s original single main wheels made a big impression; a B-36 crew poses with their bomber at Carswell Air Force Base; the XB-36 takes off on its first flight in August 1946.

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Bellies” over Vietnam. The 66,000-pound load was far from the B-36’s max capacity—87,200 pounds for later models—and way beyond even a B-52’s capability.

fter a long, contentious and problematic development phase, the XB-36 made its first flight on August 8, 1946. Until the arrival of the B-36D in 1951, however, the airplane was not considered fit for combat. Its deeply buried Pratt & Whitney R-4360 pusher engines were difficult to cool, for the bittercold air at cruising altitude was too thin to get the job done. Carburetors would literally ice over, causing uncontained fuel spillage and fires. (One

ABOVE: SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM; LEFT & OPPOSITE TOP: JOSEPH SCHERSCHEL/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE MIDDLE: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES; RIGHT: UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES

upscaled Top: A B-36 dwarfs its predecessor, Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress. Above: The B-36’s remote-controlled turret guns were scaled up from the B-29’s system. They proved unreliable and were later removed.

advantage of the pusher engines was that the crew could simply shut off the fuel feeding an engine fire and wait for it to blow out, with no damage to the wing’s primary structure.) There were also constant propeller-vibration problems, and throughout the B-36’s career some pilots would shut down the two inboard engines to prevent the hammering of propwash against the fuselage and the huge horizontal stabilizer. “Keeping the B-36 in commission and battleready was a nightmare,” recalled retired Staff Sgt. Manfred Wiest. “It would return from missions with pages of write-ups. It is questionable how serviceable it would have been in a combat situation.” The airplane’s complex, radar-guided remote guns—a scaled-up B-29 system—were useless. The guns froze at altitude, their electronics interfered with every radio on the airplane and rarely could any gun fire a single belt of ammunition without a malfunction. Convair boasted that it was the most extensive defensive armament ever fitted to a warplane, though they failed to mention that it didn’t work. Soon, B-36s were stripped of all but their tail guns. Actually, the bomber’s designers didn’t intend the B-36 to defend itself with 20mm cannons. The plan was for the airplane to slowly labor to altitude—initially 40,000 feet, later 45,000 feet— where its thick wing continued to give it good handling qualities. Fighter opposition would struggle to match its climb, if not its moderate 250-mph cruise speed, and once bomber and interceptor engaged, all the B-36 had to do was turn away

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from the fighter, which would be unable to follow the maneuver. “We could evade them just by making a slight turn,” recalled former B-36 pilot David Flaming. “They could barely maneuver at those altitudes, and we could fly at 40, 45,000 feet pretty easily. You just alter your direction a little bit and they couldn’t compensate.” When Chuck Yeager flew an F-86 in a test intercept against a B-36, he scored a few gun-camera hits but admitted that it was hard to hold a Sabre steady enough for accurate firing at 40,000 feet. Stripped and lightened late-model B-36s called Featherweights were able to cruise as high as 50,000 feet, and rumor has it that one special B-36 made it to 59,000. Things would change by the mid-1950s with the arrival of the MiG-17 and then the MiG-19, and the first ground-to-air missiles. The B-36’s useful operational life was barely four years long. The R-4360 Wasp Major was the B-36’s dedicated engine, an unreasonably heavy, 28-cylinder radial with four rows of cylinders, leading to the nickname Corncob. Despite its 3,000 horsepower—climbing to 3,800 hp in its most sophisticated, fuel-injected version, introduced in the B-36H—even six of them left the airplane underpowered. Convair wanted to pursue development of a more powerful engine, perhaps even a turboprop, but the Air Force’s budget wouldn’t allow it. So Convair added four General Electric J47 turbojets to the B-36D’s powerplant array. They were B-47 engines, affixed to B-36s still in their original two-engine Stratojet pods, and they burned avgas, not jet fuel. The jets were used to aid takeoff, but their real purpose was to augment dash speed over a Soviet target, which they did by 60 to 75 mph. Get in, get out and go home were the bywords for

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a bombing run, supposedly leaving fighters and anti-aircraft guns as little time as possible to identify and track an attacking B-36. Fire up the jets, twoblock all 10 throttles and use the airplane’s substantial top speed—which, at 435 mph, was remarkable for a big bomber— to evade interception. Military planners seem to have ignored the fact that Soviet radar would have painted the lumbering bomber somewhere between the North Pole and the Barents Sea. In 1966 the New York Central Railroad mounted a surplus B-36 dual-engine pod upsidedown atop a Buddliner self-propelled diesel car and set an American rail speed record—183.68 mph—that stands to this day. The Peacemaker lived its decade-long career

jet power From top: Crewmen board a B-36 through its bomb bay; with the help of a B-36 jet engine pod, this diesel car set a speed record; the B-36D was the first jet-equipped variant.

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complex controls Top: The pilots’ (left) and flight engineers’ (right) stations in the B-36J at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Above: A B-36J flight handbook diagram shows the forward crew positions.

largely as a PR tool. Even when the only B-36s flying were still in beta test, the Air Force sent them on low-altitude flights that would expose every large city in the country to their droning formations. Soviet spies were welcome to peek at the airplane on airshow ramps, since that was the point of the whole exercise: making sure Stalin knew that we had what Teddy Roosevelt called a “big stick.” Certainly the Soviets quickly learned of the airplane’s many deficiencies as well. In the late

1940s, when just 40 B-36s were in squadron service, only five to eight were ever actually flyable. Still, the Soviets never came up with their own B-36 counterpart. The best they could do was the four-turbojet Myasishchev M-4 Bison strategic bomber, which had the range to reach the U.S. but not to return home. (When the Bison’s designer told Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev that the bomber could land in Mexico, Khrush chev responded: “Do you think Mexico is our mother-in-law? You think we can go calling any time we want?”) And yes, B-36s did drone. During my teenage years in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., I would hear a B-36’s baritone as contrails etched the path of a tiny silver cross seven miles overhead. Nobody has ever authoritatively identified the source of the low-frequency, felt-as-well-as-heard growl, but the best guesses seem to be that it was caused by the hum of the near-supersonic prop tips, or that it was the sound of 18 prop blades cutting through the wash of air over the wings, or perhaps slicing through the engine exhausts. Since no fighter had the range to escort a B-36 and aerial refueling was still under development, the B-36 was the focus of several parasite-fighter experiments. The best-known was the footballshaped McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, intended to be carried in one of the B-36’s bomb bays, to be launched from and retrieved by a hooklike trapeze. No B-36 ever carried a Goblin, but it was tested—unsuccessfully—using a B-29. Had the XF-85 ever gone into production, the best that could have been hoped was that MiG pilots would have died laughing. Other experiments involved fighters towed along while attached to a B-36’s wingtips, an idea that foundered when wingtip turbulence caused two Republic F-84s and their B-29 towplane to crash in a ball of aluminum, killing all the participants. The most successful parasite utilized a full-size RF-84 snugged up against a B-36’s belly. It was released not to wage combat but to do high-speed recon while its mother ship loitered on the safe side of the Soviet border. RB-36/RF-84 FICON (Fighter Conveyor) combos actually briefly became operational.

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OPPOSITE TOP PHOTOS: NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE/KEN LAROCK; OPPOSITE BOTTOM: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES; ABOVE: U.S. AIR FORCE; BOTTOM LEFT: CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM RIGHT: MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES

hen the B-36 was designed, the engineers were well aware that it would be flying 30- to 40-hour missions, so they put extra effort into making crew accommodations as comfortable as possible: well-padded seats with armrests, carpeting, extensive soundproofing and insulation, built-in ashtrays, facilities for heating food, washbasins, beds, food-storage units and other luxuries never before seen on a bomber. In 1954, when the lightened B-36 Featherweights began to come online, these fripperies were the first to go. The Featherweights were developed to add enough range to eliminate the need for the Arctic staging bases. They also increased the B-36’s bombing altitude as well as its speed over the target. The Air Force had asked Convair to engineer space for the 43,600-pound T-12 “bunker-buster” bomb, which was just over 30 feet long and 4½ feet in diameter. By doing so, they guaranteed that the B-36 would be able to carry the largest postwar atomic and hydrogen weapons. During its time in

service, the Peacemaker was the only SAC bomber capable of carrying every bomb—conventional and nuclear—in the country’s arsenal. B-36s occasionally carried nuclear weapons, usually deactivated, and between 1952 and 1957 a group of them participated in a series of nuclear tests. Most of the experiments were in part directed toward assessing the effects of large ground or low-altitude explosions on the aircraft at altitude, the concern being that B-36s were too slow to escape serious shock-wave damage unless the nuclear weapon was parachute-retarded. In 1955, during Operation Teapot, B-36s performed three

belly of the beast Top: A Republic RF-84 connects with its RB-36 mother ship during testing of the FICON (Fighter Conveyor) concept. Above: The Peacemaker’s spacious bomb bays (right) could accommodate the 21-ton Mark 17 thermonuclear bomb (left, casing display).

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PILOTING THE B-36 WAS “LIKE SITTING ON YOUR FRONT PORCH FLYING YOUR HOUSE AROUND.” 34

successful drops of low-yield 1.5- and 3.5-megaton weapons over a Nevada test range. Nearly all of a B-36’s fuselage was devoted to its two huge bomb bays, with a small pressurized flight deck and crew compartment at the nose and a second one for gunners and spotters far aft, connected by a pressurized central tunnel. The pressurized portions of the fuselage are apparent because they are shiny aluminum, while the rest of the hull is dull magnesium, which doesn’t take to the skin flexing of pressurization. The B-36 represents the largest use ever of magnesium in an airplane or spacecraft.

The Convair’s long nose was flexible, and in turbulence it hunted from side to side enough to make the ride uncomfortable. “It could get rather violent at times,” said Colonel Richard George. “I got calluses on my butt from the sideways motion.” This also affected the forward guns, which could become misaligned with their sighting stations, and the accuracy of the bombsight. “They were never a lot of fun to fly,” said ex-B-36 pilot Lt. Gen. James Edmundson. “It was like sitting on your front porch flying your house around.” One important variant, the RB-36 reconnaissance version, was largely intended to do

ABOVE: LOCKHEED MARTIN; FAR LEFT: AVIATE COLLECTION/ALAMY; LEFT: MARGARET COURKE-WHITE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE TOP: U.S. AIR FORCE; RIGHT: PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

big sticks Above: Accompanied by an unmistakable droning sound, four B-36Bs fly in formation. Right: The B-36’s two pressurized crew compartments were connected by a central tunnel. Far right: A flight engineer checks the no. 5 engine from inside the aircraft wing.

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ABOVE: LOCKHEED MARTIN; FAR LEFT: AVIATE COLLECTION/ALAMY; LEFT: MARGARET COURKE-WHITE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE TOP: U.S. AIR FORCE; RIGHT: PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

follow-up photography of a just-struck target. The RB-36 served as a platform for a variety of cameras, the most sophisticated of which was the sole K-42 “Boston camera,” so named because it was designed at Harvard and built by Boston University. The largest aerial camera ever made, with a 20-foot focal length, the Boston camera could photograph a golf ball from 45,000 feet. A photo displayed alongside the camera in the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force proves it, and an oblique shot of Manhattan taken from a distance of 72 miles shows individual New Yorkers strolling in Central Park. In 1956 the first B-52s began replacing B-36s, and the Peacemakers began arriving at the DavisMonthan AFB boneyard. They were immediately turned into aluminum and magnesium ingots. The last official B-36 mission was flown in Febru ary 1959, and SAC subsequently became an all-jet bomber force. Of the 385 manufactured, few B-36s survive. One of the two original prototypes went to the Air Force museum, but they scrapped it. The late avia tion hoarder Walter Soplata bought most of the fuselage and cockpit for $760, and he stored it in his Ohio junkyard. It is now in the hands of a company in California that turns old airplanes into engraved metal “planetags” for enthusiasts. Four Peacemakers are still intact, though none will ever fly again. In Dayton, Ohio, the Air Force museum has a B-36J; the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., displays a B-36J; the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Neb., owns a B-36J; and a B-36H is parked at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, Calif., east of San Francisco. Was the B-36 an effective weapon, even though its operational career was short and pacifistic? Or was it yet another defense industry boondoggle, wreathed in controversy and corruption, birthed at the expense of the Navy’s need for supercarriers

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while the bomber’s performance was exaggerated? Though the giant Convair was designed to be an offensive weapon, it turned out to be the biggest defense the U.S. offered to an enemy. Because the B-36 existed, the Soviet Union didn’t risk starting a war in Europe during the opening decade of the Cold War. As imperfect as the B-36 was, it still was the first leg of what would become America’s nuclear deterrent triad: very long-range strategic bombers, intercontinental missiles and nuclearmissile-equipped submarines. Legs two and three were yet to come, but the big Convair barred the door in the meantime. Its message was a simple one—“don’t you dare”—and the Peacemaker spoke effectively.

grounded forever Peacemakers parked at Davis-Monthan AFB await their final fate— scrapping and smelting into aluminum and magnesium ingots. Below: The B-36J at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., is one of four surviving Peacemakers.

For further reading and viewing, contributing editor Stephan Wilkinson recommends: Cold War Peace maker, by Don Pyeatt and Dennis R. Jenkins; Magnesium Overcast, by Dennis R. Jenkins; and Convair B-36, by Meyers K. Jacobsen. Also the 1955 film Strategic Air Command, starring Jimmy Stewart, a magnificent look at the B-36 in operation.

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Ground pounder A Royal Air Force Douglas Boston Mark III piloted by U.S. Eighth Air Force Captain Charles C. Kegelman bottoms out on Dutch soil and loses a propeller, in The First Mission/July 4, 1942, by Nixon Galloway. The first U.S. Army Air Forces action against German-occupied Europe was a PR coup for the Allies.

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“GIVE ’EM HELL, CAP!” THE JOINT AMERICAN-BRITISH INDEPENDENCE DAY 1942 AIR RAID WAS A COSTLY START TO THE EIGHTH AIR FORCE’S EUROPEAN BOMBING CAMPAIGN…BUT IT WAS A START BY RICHARD H. HOLLOWAY

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help on the way American ground crewmen prepare a Lend-Lease Douglas DB-7B for shipment to Britain, where it will be redesignated a Boston Mark III. Opposite: A Boston like those used on the July 4 joint U.S.-British raid flies over the English countryside.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Ira C. Eaker watched as Maj. Gen. Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz made his way down the line, pinning medals on all of them. The bomber’s commander, Captain Charles C. “Keg” Kegelman, was the first recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross in the Eighth Air Force, while his crew, Lieutenant Randall Dorton and Sergeants Bennie Cunningham and Robert Golay, were all awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for their July 4 mission. Kegelman was also promoted to the rank of major, effective immediately. Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of all U.S. troops in Europe, had read

Kegelman’s after-action report upon the latter’s miraculous return and then wrote in pencil across the page, “This Officer is hereby awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.” Shaking his head, the astonished Eisenhower looked up at his aide and asked, “Are all of the reports going to be like this one?” Kegelman’s unit, the 15th Bomb Squadron (Light), had docked in Wales on May 13 and been swiftly transported by train to Grafton Underwood, a cleverly hidden Royal Air Force base near Kettering, England. The airfield was entirely covered in ankle-high grass with swaths

ALL PHOTOS: 15TH BOMB SQUADRON ARCHIVES, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED; PREVIOUS SPREAD: NIXON GALLOWAY, COURTESY OF MEADOWLARK GALLERY; ABOVE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE INSET: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES; RIGHT: IWM CH 5618

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY IN ENGLAND ON JULY 11, 1942, AS THE CREW OF THE DOUGLAS BOSTON MARK III LIGHT BOMBER STOOD STIFFLY AT ATTENTION IN THEIR BEST THEATER DRESS UNIFORMS.

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using sunken ships along the shore as well as vacant fields as targets, simultaneously honing their gunnery skills. Along with Kegelman, Captains Bill Odell and Martin Crabtree had been commissioned officers for two years and had each logged more than 1,000 hours of flight time. In his diary, Odell wrote, “Our junior pilots, like [Leo] Hawel, [Fred A. “Jack”] Loehrl and [Stan] Lynn had completed flying school in December, 1941.” Not mincing words, Odell explained that the British wing commander, J.H. Lynn, surely recognized “we knew and flew the Boston aircraft better than his own [squadron].” He further noted, “Wing Commander Lynn advised his superiors that aside of providing the initial baptism of fire, his ability to further the Americans’ pre-battle education was limited. They [the Americans] could be turned loose anytime and be perfectly confident of finding their way around in the dark.”

fighting 15th Top: Flight crews of the U.S. 15th Bomb Squadron (Light) assemble for a group portrait at RAF Swanton Morley. Above: The 15th’s shoulder patch.

cut through it to resemble cultivated farmland. The illusion was further enhanced by full-scale replicas of black-and-white Holstein cows randomly scattered across the area. Several pilots were dispatched on June 4 to RAF Swanton Morley to gain operational experience before conducting their own forays. Early on, Lieutenant Howard Cook tried to tell airmen of the resident No. 226 Squadron how to fly low. This advice did not go over very well and the men of the 15th were sent back to their base two days later. Not all of the British had their feathers ruffled by the bold Americans. Harry Castledine of 226 Squadron noted: “The Americans were a really wild lot, but great fun. I was told they played cowboys and Indians in the woods around Bylaugh Hall with live ammo! At the All-Ranks dances you might think that they would win a jitterbug contest, but a lot depended on the partner and the WAAFs [members of the RAF Women’s Auxiliary Air Force] were not so experienced.” On June 6 the RAF loaned the Americans A-20 Havocs (called Bostons by the British), twin-engine airplanes on which they had already trained. Almost immediately tragedy struck, however, as the 15th suffered its first casualties. One of their bombers hit a high-tension wire mid-flight, killing two crewmen. Nine four-man flight crews and 36 ground personnel were eventually sent back to Swanton Morley for extensive instruction. One of the hardest parts of training was learning the intricate system for identifying friendly planes in England’s crowded skies, especially in silhouette. The airmen were trained in low-level bombing

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Gearing up Clockwise from top left: Lieutenant Howard Cook (second from left) tried to school the RAF pilots in flying low but was rebuffed; bombs are loaded into a Boston before takeoff on the July 4 mission; Sergeant Bennie Cunningham gets a shave before the raid.

The Bostons’ Wright R-2600-A5B Twin Cyclone engines propelled the bombers to a little over 300 mph in a pinch and their large fuel tanks enabled them to fly long-range missions. These agile aircraft could not destroy an entire industrial plant, but they were very effective in damaging airfields and dispersing troop concentrations. The 97th Bomb Squadron’s Lieutenant James Wash recalled the Bostons’ advantage of “sur prising ground defenses and presenting difficult targets to enemy fighters.”

ack in Washington, D.C., political leaders clamored for some type of demonstration to be made against the Germans on the European front. “After seven months of war, they were eager for evidence of American air power,” Wash noted. “The blitz-wearied British and the folks back home in the United States badly needed a shot of good news.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Independence Day would be honored “not in fireworks of make-believe, but in death-dealing reality of tanks and planes and guns and ships.” What more fitting way to commemorate the United States’ separation from Great Britain than to bring both sides together in a joint operation? Roosevelt further observed how important it was to “not waste one hour, not to stop one shot, not to hold back one blow—that is the way to mark our great national holiday in this year of 1942.” With his subordinates kept in the dark, U.S. Army Air Forces Commanding General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold had written to Prime Minister Winston Churchill promising that American and British airmen would be fighting together by July 4. Orders came through on June 28 to Eaker and

Spaatz for them to begin combat operations on Independence Day. The two generals were both aghast and protested against the directive, to no avail. Despite the military’s advice, some sort of dramatic event, much like Jimmy Doolittle’s Tokyo raid back in April, was going to happen to satisfy the politicians, who knew it would likely have a positive effect on American voters. Eaker’s aide, James Parton, recalled his boss “argued that a quickie out of England would accomplish no real damage, risk heavy losses and hurt the morale of his tiny command.” As neither the Eighth nor the RAF had any planes available for the 97th Squadron, it was an easy choice to use the 15th since it had both the local training and the loaned bombers on hand. The British roundels on the six borrowed Bostons were quickly painted over with the USAAF’s white star to boost American morale. The British had already scheduled a raid with 12 Bostons of 226 Squadron on June 29, and substituted Kegelman and his crew for one of theirs. This would be the first time that members of the AAF took part in European bombing operations. The mission’s targets were the marshalling yards and other military facilities at Hazebrouck, France. All of the Bostons managed to get through the mission unscathed, though their escorts lost three planes. Bombing between 12,500 and 13,000 feet, the formation recorded several hits on the rail lines and adjoining buildings. In the process Kegelman and his crew accrued some valuable combat experience for their upcoming mission. Given the short time available for organization, Eisenhower, Eaker and Spaatz all visited the 15th at Swanton Morley in late June. They gave directions in person for the bombing runs and took time to shake hands with the airmen. As they would only be using six American crews paired with the equivalent number of British ones, Hawel recalled: “On July 1st, Captain Kegelman put all nine pilots’ names in a hat. Six were marked with a ‘yes’ and three marked ‘no.’ I drew a ‘yes’ and later discovered I was one of six American pilots who would fly the famous 4th of July raid over Holland. The six pilots drawn were Captains Kegelman, Crabtree and Odell and Lieutenants Lynn, Loehrl and myself.” The next day, Eaker and Spaatz returned and spoke at length with Kegelman. On July 3 the intelligence officer for VIII Bomber Command,

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Harris Hull, came by the airfield to give the men their first combat briefing. “Just shows you how much our brass hats know or how they value the cost of men’s lives,” wrote Odell in his diary. The men of the 15th thought it peculiar that they were garnering such attention for a raid that the British had conducted many times before. Odell mirrored the other airmen’s feelings when he wrote, “It seemed a little ironic that they [the RAF] had been pressed into taking part in an American Independence Day celebration commemorating the severance of ties between our two countries.” But as AAF airman Francis Chartier noted, “Our national holiday was just another day to our allies in England.” Four airfields in German-occupied Holland were selected as targets and the attacking force was separated into four three-plane formations. The first objective along the shore of Holland was De Kooy, which was to be bombed by 226 Squadron Leader Shaw Kennedy, followed by Americans Kegelman and Loehrl. The second target was Ber gen Alkmaar, with an assaulting force of 226 Flight Lt. Ronald A. “Yogi” Yates-Earl and Pilot Officer Charles M. “Hank” Henning along with the 15th’s Lieutenant Lynn. The third site to be attacked was Valkenburg with the lone British crew of Squadron Leader John Castle in addition to the 15th’s Crabtree and Hawel. The final flight was directed at Haamstede, led by 226 Flight Lt. A.B. “Digger” Wheeler and Pilot Officer A. “Elkie” Eltringham, with Odell bringing up the rear.

t 5:15 on the morning of July 4, the pilots and crews were awakened and served coffee in the airfield’s mess hall before heading to the operations room. “We turned in our papers and got packed for the combat flight (concentrated food, water purifier, com-

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pass and French, Dutch, German money),” Odell later documented. “More dope on the trip and then out to the airplane. Had no trouble but was a bit anxious on take off.” Eisenhower returned to the field to send off the 15th, recalling, “To mark our entry into the European fighting I took time to visit the crews immediately before the take-off and talked with the survivors after their return.” He understood the public ramifications of the raid while participants such as Odell tried to downplay the historic date and concentrate solely on the mission at hand. The first Boston lifted off at 7:09 a.m., with the rest of the formation taking off five minutes later. “Take off time was to be early in the hope of catching the German defences off guard,” wrote RAF Swanton Morley historian and airman Stephen W. Pope. The raiders would fly across the North Sea at low level to avoid detection. Once they reached the Dutch coast they would split up and attack their assigned airfields. In Kegelman’s plane, Dorton remembered how graceful they looked trundling across the grass field against the dawn. “As we flew over the English countryside [toward] the coast, farmers already at

no turning back The six 15th Bomb Squadron crews participating in the raid pose after their mission briefing on July 3. Below: The Americans’ borrowed Bostons, their RAF roundels overpainted with USAAF stars, fly low over the English Channel en route to their Dutch targets.

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Heroes’ welcome Top left: On July 11, Maj. Gen. Carl A. Spaatz (left) decorates newly promoted Major Kegelman (right) and crew: (from left) Cunningham, Tech Sgt. Robert Golay and 2nd Lt. Randall Dorton Jr. Top right: Golay peers from the gunner’s position after returning from the raid. Above: Kegelman received the Distinguished Service Cross, the first earned by a member of the Eighth Air Force, and his crewmen were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the mission.

work in their fields waved to us as our ships roared over their heads at less than 100 feet,” he wrote in his journal. “After getting in the air we settled down and flew right on the trees to the coast,” recalled Odell. “Felt a little uneasy, because there was a cloudless sky but no fighters appeared.” As they approached the Dutch coast, Dorton noticed “yellow-sailed fishing boats a mile to their left. That was unlucky as the Germans kept observers on off-shore boats.” Wheeler’s section reached Haamstede just before 8 a.m. Close behind him flew Eltringham and Odell. The Bostons raced across the airfield at 20 to 100 feet above ground, dropping 500-pound general purpose bombs with time-delay fuzes and incendiaries. Hits were made on administration buildings, a hangar and dispersal points. Odell unleashed his inner daredevil during the bomb run, maneuvering his plane sideways while flying between two hangars and strafing smaller targets near the runway. Wheeler used his nose guns to good effect, shooting up 160 German airmen in their flying kits gathered in a crowd for roll call. Additionally, the rear gunners of all three planes managed to score some casualties on their way out of the area. As the formation left the target area, smoke was seen rising over the southeastern section of Haamstede. The Bergen Alkmaar contingent led by YatesEarl arrived at their destination at 8:02. They had difficulties in identifying the proper objective, causing the formation to attack at 100 feet in line astern, starting fires in hangars located on the north side of the field. Lynn’s plane was hit by flak right after bombing and crashed on the airfield, killing all on board in a fiery eruption. Henning safely left the area after his bombing run, only to be shot down 15 miles off the Dutch shore by a Focke-Wulf Fw-190 flown by Sergeant Johannes Rathenow of Jagdgeschwader 1. The Valkenburg attacking force found themselves too far south after hitting the coast. Castle’s

bomb bay doors jammed and he was unable to drop his bombload. Americans Crabtree and Hawel waited in vain for Castle to open his doors. “We were so low I saw two young ladies eating breakfast right out of my side window,” Hawel said. Finally, the two Americans used their machine guns to strafe the airfield and disperse three Messerschmitt Me-109s, setting one on fire. All three Bostons returned with their full complement of bombs. “I noticed numerous lines of splashes walking out to meet us,” Dorton reported on their approach to De Kooy, “and it was hard to realize they were bullets striking the water. The closer we got, the more splashes there were and suddenly Kennedy veered sharply to the left. Now our engines were wide open and we shot across the land at close to 300 mph. We were jinking about violently, so close to the ground that a gun trying to fire at us hit a German soldier on a bicycle. He flew straight up into the air and the cycle rolled on down the road.” The gunfire was getting heavier and tensions rose as Dorton recalled: “We twisted over violently and I heard Sergeant Cunningham scream, ‘Loehrl hit the ground…he’s breaking all to pieces!’ At the same moment our plane gave a tremendous lurch and we hit the ground. We skidded along for a sickening moment and then the captain [Kegel man] pulled her nose up and we were pointed straight at an old structure that looked like a windmill without sails. There were guns mounted in it and they were firing.” As Kegelman’s Boston skidded on the ground, Sergeant Golay yelled, “Give ’em hell, Cap!” Golay saw a propeller fly by “and I thought Ben nie had got a Messerschmitt. Then I saw smoke and looked out and saw it was our propeller and I didn’t feel so happy anymore.” The bomber’s starboard engine had been hit by flak, causing the prop to shear off. “I was wondering what to do when I heard Golay shout,” Kegelman reported. “I thought we were goners

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but somehow Golay’s shout made me try to pull us out.” The captain managed to keep the Boston aloft by jettisoning its bombload. “Then our nose section jumped and shook as Kegelman fired our forward guns into the flak tower,” remembered Dorton. “I thought we would ram it but Keg lifted a wing over [it] and then dove between the banks of a canal heading for the North Sea. “I looked to the right and saw that the shell that had knocked us to the ground had sheared off the forward section of the right engine, prop and all. Gas was pouring out of the fuel line and burning as it hit the hot cylinders. Luckily, our airspeed with one engine was enough to blow out the flames.” “It was a long 140 miles home, but they made it,” said Wash. “When the plane finally parked and the bomb bay doors were opened, Netherlands soil fell out on the tarmac.” Kegelman’s bomber was the last to touch down and despite only having one engine made a safe landing and taxied to the control tower. Inspection of his aircraft revealed scratch marks on the Boston’s belly where he had obviously touched the ground. “All the brass were on the field with us, anxiously awaiting the captain’s return,” recalled AAF airman Eben W. “Wright” Holloway. “A great cheer arose when Keg’s plane finally came hobbling in.” Eaker was present when Kegelman landed,

congratulating him and the other crewman. Hull handled the debriefings for the flight crews. Eaker called Eisenhower, who was relieved to hear of the bombers’ return but concerned about the losses. The positive press generated by the attack soothed the politicians in Washington. The Wash ington Post gave front-page billing to the raid with the headline “Yanks Raid Nazis In Holland” and The New York Times opined, “The attack was no holiday stunt.” Despite the loss of three planes— two American and one British—and most of their crews (the bombardier on Loehrl’s Boston, Lieutenant Marshall Draper, miraculously survived and became the first Eighth Air Force POW), the mission was deemed a success. On the British side of the Pond, RAF officials applauded their allies. They described the 15th’s joint mission with them as a “daring event which, occurring on July 4, symbolized American ability once more to strike for freedom!”

happy to be alive Crewmen (from left) Cunningham, Golay, Dorton and Kegelman stand with one of the squadron’s borrowed Bostons after receiving their decorations.

Richard H. Holloway is the 15th Bombardment Squadron’s historian and the son of one of its members, Eben Wainwright “Wright” Holloway. Suggested reading: We Were Eagles, Volume 1: The Eighth Air Force at War, July 1942 to November 1943, by Martin W. Bowman; and The Mighty Eighth: A History of the Units, Men and Machines of the U.S. 8th Air Force, by Roger A. Freeman. J U LY 2 0 2 1

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Bolivian birds A Bolivian pilot poses before a Curtiss-Wright Cyclone Falcon bomber at Villa Montes airfield, with a Curtiss-Wright CW-14R Osprey in the background. The 1930s Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay saw an influx of foreign-built military aircraft.

AIR WAR OVER A GREEN HELL A MIXED BAG OF AIRCRAFT IMPORTED FROM THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE PLAYED AN OUTSIZED ROLE IN THE 1930S WAR BETWEEN BOLIVIA AND PARAGUAY BY JAVIER GARCIA DE GABIOLA

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american export Top: Less expensive than the Falcon and well-liked by its pilots, the Osprey was a mainstay of the Bolivian air corps. Above: Paraguayan General José Felix Estigarribia utilized his air assets more aggressively than the Bolivians did.

While Bolivia pursued a World War I–style strategy, conducting controlled trench warfare with slow but secure movements, Paraguay adapted its limited military resources to the characteristics of its territory for a remarkable war of movement similar to Germany’s Blitzkrieg in World War II. Bolivia tied its larger air force to supporting its cautious advances, while Paraguayan General José Félix Estigarribia described his airplanes as “the eyes of the army,” but used them far more aggressively. One anecdote from September 23, 1934, epitomizes the camaraderie between Estigarribia and his aviators. A Paraguayan Fiat CR.20bis flown by Captain Tomás A. Ruffinelli Jr. was being chased by a Bolivian Curtiss-Wright CW-14R Osprey crewed by Sub Lts. Alberto Paz Soldán and Sin

ecio Moreno. When Ruffinelli checked his tail, he heard firing and the sound of broken glass. Turn ing his gaze forward again, he saw his windscreen was riddled with bullet holes. That slight head turn had saved his life. Estigarribia met Ruffinelli a couple of days later and asked him for his age. When the pilot replied that he was 24, the general answered, “Wrong, just two days old!” The disputed territory behind the war was the Chaco Boreal, a huge flatland roughly the size of Colorado. Although it is covered with quebracho trees, cacti, thorn scrub and tall grass savanna, the area is arid except during the November to April rainy season, which turns it into muddy swampland. At night temperatures fall drastically from highs above 100 degrees to well below freezing. As a result, every afternoon during the war the air-

PREVIOUS SPREAD: COURTESY OF ANTONIO LUIS SAPIENZA VIA RAMIRO MOLINA ALANES; TOP: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES; INSET: KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-KEYSTONE VIA GETTY IMAGES

THE CHACO WAR OF 1932-35 WAS THE BIGGEST SOUTH AMERICAN CONFLICT IN THE 20TH CENTURY, INVOLVING THE CONTINENT’S ONLY LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES, BOLIVIA AND PARAGUAY.

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craft mechanics were forced to drain the coolant from the radiators to avoid their being broken by the frozen liquid, then refill them every morning. Omnipresent dust rendered engines unserviceable with alarming speed. Its flora notwithstanding, the Chaco had the characteristics of a desert—a hellish green desert. Its lack of geographical landmarks made aerial navigation extremely difficult, and pilots often got lost over the vast expanse. The Chaco had been historically claimed by Bolivia since the days of the Spanish empire, but it was better connected geographically and ethnically with Paraguay. When oil was discovered in the region near Villa Montes, both governments took steps to explore and occupy it. This led to the first clashes in 1928, culminating four years later in open conflict. When the war effectively began in July 1932, Bolivia’s air assets were entirely based in Villa Montes, near the Chaco border. The Bolivian air corps at that point consisted of three Vickers Type 143 Bolivian Scouts, five Vickers Type 149 Vespa IIIs and three Breguet 19A.2 two-seater army cooperation aircraft. Collectively they formed the 1st Air Group under Major Jorge Jordán Mercado, with a fighter squadron and a reconnaissance-bomber squadron. The Paraguayans facing them had six Wibault 73C.1s in the 1st Fighter Squadron and five Potez 25A.2s in the 1st Reconnaissance and Bombing Squadron, but not all of those aircraft were operational. Although slower and less maneuverable than their opponents, Paraguay’s Potez 25s survived 12 out of 14 dogfights with Bolivian planes and even shot one down. The secret to this, apart from the Potez’s robust design, lay in the defensive doctrine implemented by Major Vicente Almandos Almonacíd, an Argentine volunteer in the French air service during World War I who was a member of the Argentinian military mission in Paraguay in 1932. Almonacíd taught his pilots that when attacked by enemy fighters they should fly at treetop level and reduce their speed to near stall, zig-zagging every 10 seconds. With that defensive maneuver the faster enemy fighters would typically overtake the two-seater too rapidly to aim at it. The pilots were also instructed to fly in a tight

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V formation, so that the crews could cover each other’s rear and flanks. Consequently, a fighter attacking a formation of three or four Potez 25s from 6 o’clock would face return fire from six to eight machine guns. The results could be lethal. The first large military operations began in Boquerón, an isolated Bolivian-occupied post in the south-central Chaco whose only value lay in its water source and two rough roads leading east to the Paraguay River. In August the Paraguayans moved all their operational aircraft—three Wibaults and five Potezes—to Isla Poí, near Boquerón, to support their offensive. Meanwhile, the Bolivian aircraft remained 340 miles away. On September 9 the first aerial combat of the war occurred when a Bolivian Vespa and two

viva PAraguay Top: Paraguay used its sole Morane-Saulnier 35E.P.2 to train pilots, including 2nd Lt. Emilio Rocholl (left) and 1st Lt. Leandro Aponte. Above: Aponte leans on a Fiat CR.20bis of the “Los Indios” squadron. Below: Paraguayan airmen and ground crews line up for a photo op with their Italian-built trainers.

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B O LI V I A

El Carmen Camacho Ballivián

ARGENTINA

Pil

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Fuerte Olimpo

Villa Montes

Puerto Casado

Boquerón

Nanawa yo

Riv

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Area of map detail

BOLIVIA

CHILE

PARAGUAY

AR GENTINA

Dangerous duty Above right: Bolivians train an anti-aircraft gun to the sky in May 1934. AA fire proved more dangerous than enemy aircraft during the Chaco War, though accidents claimed the most casualties. Opposite bottom: Bolivian pilots (from left) Captain Eliodoro Nery, Major Jorge Jordan and 1st Lt. Juan Antonio Rivera stand with a Junkers K-43 bomber during the 1934 Battle of Ballivián. Nery was killed in July, though there were conflicting accounts of his demise.

Scouts caught a pair of Paraguayan Potez 25s as they were bombing Boquerón. One of the Scouts, flown by Major Jordán, bounced a Potez and badly wounded its pilot, 1st Lt. Emilio Rocholl. Nevertheless, Rocholl’s observer, 1st Lt. Román García, took control of the plane and maintained close formation with the other Potezes as they flew at treetop level, keeping their attackers at bay until they returned to Isla Poí. In the end, Boquerón fell into Paraguayan hands and the Bolivians were expelled from the central Chaco.

n late 1932 each of the warring countries received a new batch of airplanes that would dominate the Chaco sky for the rest of the conflict. Between October and December, the Paraguayans took delivery of eight new Potez 25 TOEs, which had bigger fuel tanks for longer range. The surviving three Potez 25A.2s were sent to Asunción for refit, while the four remaining Wibaults were relegated to home air defense. Also, in January-March 1933 Paraguay received five Fiat CR.20bis fighters, which formed the 11th Fighter Squadron, “Los Indios” (The Indians). Beginning in December the Bolivians imported up to eight Curtiss-Wright Model 35A Hawk II fighters and 18 CW-14R Osprey fighter-bombers, the latter of which they constantly used, even as two-seat fighters, while rarely deploying the Hawks. In January they fielded 12 combat planes in two squadrons. The Bolivians retired their worn-out Breguets and Vespas from frontline ser-

vice in April and began withdrawing their Scouts around July. The older types still had a historic role to play, though. On December 4, 1932, Paraguayan Potez pilot 1st Lt. Trifón Benítez Vera was attacked by Captain Rafael Pabón Cuevas (see sidebar, P. 51) in one of the remaining Scouts. The Bolivian dived on Benítez and, in a second attack from below in spite of the Potez’s low altitude, hit its fuel tank and killed the observer, Captain Ramón Avalos Sánchez. A third pass killed Benítez and sent the Potez down. Historians used to consider this action the first air-to-air victory scored over the Americas, but in fact that had occurred some four months earlier during Brazil’s Paulista War. Nevertheless, this was the first shootdown with a fatal outcome. In January 1933 the Bolivian forces under newly appointed German-born General Hans Kundt focused their efforts on taking Nanawa in the south. When that post was about to be overrun, four Paraguayan Potezes managed to land under enemy fire, carrying 1.6 tons of vitally needed supplies. In the process, three of them were so badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire that they had to be left in Nanawa, though they were later recovered and completely rebuilt in Asunción. The Bolivian Hawks and Ospreys operating over the combat zone were unable to intercept them, probably because of the long distance between their bases and the front. An Osprey crewed by Captain Arturo Valle Peralta and 1st Lt. José Max Ardiles Monroy was shot down by AA fire on February 25. During the burial ceremony two Bolivian Scouts overflew the area and dropped a wreath of flowers. Not a single shot was fired on them by the Paraguayans. On June 12 the Bolivians, alerted to the presence of the new Paraguayan Fiats, dispatched five Ospreys, three Hawks and one Scout to destroy them by bombing Isla Poí airfield. Watchtower teams alerted the Paraguayans to the incoming

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tí pe ra Pa

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planes, however, enabling them to scramble three CR.20s to defend the aerodrome. The Fiats dived from 8,000 feet on the Ospreys, which broke formation, dropped their bombs and fled. Turning to engage the Bolivian fighters, Lieutenant Ruffinelli attacked one of the Hawks, which took evasive action. Meanwhile the Scout pilot, Major Luis Ernst Rivera, got on the tail of a Fiat flown by 1st Lt. Walter Gwynn, who suddenly went down and crashed. It is possible that Gwynn lost consciousness during the dogfight due to an injury sustained in a Fiat crash the previous week. A Paraguayan with blonde hair and blue eyes of Welsh parents, Gwynn had been advised to stay in the hospital, but he declared that “with so many Paraguayan soldiers fighting on foot, a pilot cannot be in bed in the meantime.” After the June 12 action there was a long pause in air-to-air encounters, but aircraft continued to carry out ground attacks and artillery-correction missions. In July most of the Bolivian forces facing Nanawa were enveloped and destroyed by a massive Paraguayan counterattack led by Estigarribia through the overextended Bolivian left flank, similar to what would later befall the Germans at Stalingrad late in 1942. After suffering 10,000 casualties, Kundt resigned his command and the Bolivians evacuated all of the southern Chaco.

LAtin warriors Top: Three Bolivian Curtiss Hawk IIs arrive at Ballivián in 1934. Above: Paraguayan Potez 25 observer 1st Lt. Rogelio Etcheverry was shocked to learn he had shot down Bolivian hero Major Rafael Pabón Cuevas on August 12, 1934, near Fuerte Olimpo.

uly 8, 1934, saw one of the most intense air actions of the war when four Paraguayan Potez 25s struck Ballivián airfield on the Pilcomayo River, where they caught eight Ospreys on the ground. The raiders made

two passes over the airfield, destroying or damaging several Ospreys. As they were making their third firing pass, however, the Paraguayans were attacked by two Ospreys and two Hawks that had arrived from another airfield. During the ensuing battle, Captain Job von Zastrow, manning the twin machine guns in one of the Potezes, claimed an Osprey piloted by Major Eliodoro Nery (though the Bolivians said Nery was killed in a training accident nine days later). Meanwhile, Potez observer 2nd Lt. Fabio Martínez was wounded, as was the crew of another Potez, 2nd Lts. Arsenio Vaesken and Cesar Corvalán Doria, who were nevertheless able to control their stricken aircraft and maintain a tight formation. Consequently, their defensive fire damaged an Osprey piloted by Lt. Alberto Alarcón and Captain Juan Antonio Rivera’s Hawk, compelling them to abandon the fight. The remaining Hawk pilot, Sub Lt. Carlos Lazo de la Vega, now facing the combined fire of eight machine guns, also departed. The Paraguayans’ success was so thorough that July 8 was declared their national Aviation Day. On August 12 a Potez was on a reconnaissance mission near Fortin Florida in the northern Chaco when its crew spotted a Bolivian Osprey taking off

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AIRPLANES OF THE CHACO WAR

Paraguayan Potez 25 TOE

Paraguayan Fiat CR.20bis

Bolivian curtiss-wright cw-14R Osprey

Bolivian curtiss-wright model 35A Hawk II

to attack them. The Potez dived and began its standard zig-zagging maneuver at treetop level. The Paraguayan observer, 1st Lt. Rogelio Etcheverry, fired at the Osprey, but its pilot evaded and hit the Potez’s fuselage on his first pass. As the Potez pilot reduced his speed to almost stalling, the Osprey made a second pass, damaging its wings. But when the Osprey came on for a third pass, Etcheverry held his fire until the enemy was just 250 yards away and then opened up. Suddenly, the Osprey stopped firing, smoked heavily, turned to the left and crashed in a wood. After the heavily damaged Potez landed, Etcheverry learned to his surprise that he had killed the war’s first victor in air-to-air combat, then-Major Pabón. The Bolivians’ aircraft losses were quickly made up as they imported more reinforcements in September and October. The nine CurtissWright Cyclone Falcon bombers and three Junk ers K-43 bombers equipped the “Punta de Alas” (Wingtips) Squadron. On November 14 the Battle of Ballivián ended in a massive Paraguayan victory, with the Bolivians suffering 15,000 casualties and being expelled from the Chaco. As a small consolation, on December 11 two Bolivian Hawks flown by Lieutenants Alberto Alarcón and Emilio Beltrán shot down a Potez piloted by 2nd Lt. Vaesken that was exploring the El Carmen area. The Bolivians damaged the Potez’s engine, so Vaesken dived and landed, surviving but seeing his plane completely destroyed. To balance this, on November 26 AA fire downed a Bolivian Hawk and killed its pilot, Lieutenant Lazo de la Vega, as he was flying a recce mission in Puesto Central. In December 1934 Bolivian aviation was organized into the 1st Aviation Combat Group, led by Major Jordán from Villa Montes, and the 2nd Aviation Combat Group, under Major Ernst in Charagua, each with a fighter and a bomber squadron adding up to some 11-14 planes at any one time. By then operational Paraguayan air strength had been reduced to four Potezes and two Fiats based at Camacho. With all their air assets placed near the front this time, the Bolivians were able to repulse Estigarribia’s assault in Villa Montes, near the oil wells, but not without paying a price. On January 12, 1935, a Bolivian Falcon flown by Lieutenant Aurelio Roca Llano was downed by AA fire over the Paraguayan lines, and on the 18th another Falcon piloted by Lt. Alberto Montaño shared the same fate. Ironically, both shootdowns were made by Oerlikon guns of Bolivian origin captured by the Paraguayans. In February-March the Paraguayans moved farther north, bypassing Villa Montes and crossing the Parapetí River to carry the war into Bolivia proper. They took Charagua after four Potezes destroyed the 2nd Bolivian Corps head-

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quarters, but were driven back into their own ter ritory by a massive counterattack in May. During this time the Bolivians created the 3rd Aviation Combat Group with two Hawks and an Osprey at Puerto Suárez, in the northeast. Nevertheless, when the battle ended, the Bolivian 1st and 2nd groups were reduced to just two Hawks and one Osprey each by attrition and by transferring air craft to other theaters. By April 1935 both sides were in a stalemate, unrelieved by a Bolivian diversionary attack on the other side of the Chaco that had failed by May 25. Paraguay had occupied nearly 68,000 square miles, but at a cost of 36,000 dead and 3,800 cap tured, while Bolivia had lost 67,000 dead, 21,000 captured and 10,000 deserted, mainly to Argen tina. Both sides had suffered as many casualties to disease, insects and venomous snakes as to com bat. Mutually exhausted, both parties arranged an armistice that went into effect on June 12. In a treaty signed in Buenos Aires on July 21,

1938, Paraguay was awarded three-quarters of the disputed territory, but Bolivia was given an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the Paraguay River. With that, the war in—and above—what both sides came to call the “Green Hell” was over at last. Javier Garcia de Gabiola writes from Spain, where he works as a lawyer in a multinational company. A passionate military and aviation historian, he has published some 50 magazine articles as well as his first book, Paulista War: The Last Civil War in Brazil, 1932. Further reading: Aircraft of the Chaco War 1928-1935, by Dan Hagedorn and Antonio L. Sapienza; The Green Hell, by Adrian J. English; and The Chaco Air War 1932-35, by Sapienza.

early Axis assets Above left: Bolivia aquired Junkers Ju-52s during the war, using them to evacuate wounded troops and ferry supplies. Above: Paraguayans pose with one of five CR.20bis fighters to serve in Los Indios squadron; two survived the war.

OPPOSITE: ILLUSTRATIONS BY TOM COOPER; ABOVE LEFT: KURT SEVERIN/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES; ABOVE RIGHT: COURTESY OF ANTONIO LUIS SAPIENZA; RIGHT: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES

THE BOLIVIAN “RED BARON” Rafael Pabón Cuevas was born in 1903 in a little village near La Paz and studied at the American Institute in the Bolivian capital. In 1920 Pabón enrolled in the U.S. Army and after a period at the Aviation Mechanics School at Kelly Field, Texas, he graduated as a pilot from Chicago’s American School of Aviation in September 1921. He became a reservist and made a remarkable nonstop flight from New York to Miami in 1924. Returning to Bolivia in 1926, he was promoted to captain and became a flying instructor and an aerobatic pilot. In May 1931 he flew to a height of 10,500 meters (34,500 feet) without oxygen and soon after published a treatise about flying in which he anticipated the general use of helicopters. He married and had a daughter, Sally, shortly before the Chaco War broke out. On December 4, 1932, Pabón shot down his first and only confirmed enemy airplane, afterward writing and reciting a prayer for the two slain Paraguayan crewmen: “Knights of the Air, victims of your own heroism, brave among your people, you died in a noble battle. Fate made me your victor, but before death there are no winners or losers. Your remains will rest on Bolivian soil with the respect and admiration of your fellow countrymen.” Promoted to major, Pabón allegedly scored his second and third victories on June 18 and 26, 1934, while flying a single-seat Curtiss Hawk II that he called El Tigre-Hawk. He wrote that while pursuing “three [Paraguayans], the shots were raining over me, but with my Tiger Hawk machine I lunged on them until I expended all the ammuni tion, then [Lieutenant José] Chacón came, and he did the same. It’s not easy to fight one versus three.” Though there is little doubt he damaged the Paraguayan planes, his victories were unconfirmed. Days later death caught up with Pabón and his observer, Sergeant Mario Calvo, as they were attacking another Paraguayan on August 12. The remains of their Curtiss-Wright CW-14R Osprey were unearthed on a Paraguayan farm near Fuerte Olimpo in June 2018. J.G.G.

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CAUTION TO THE WIND FIFTY YEARS AGO A BRITISH BALLOONIST AND A HUSBAND-AND-WIFE TEAM DISAPPEARED WITHOUT A TRACE AS THEY ATTEMPTED TO FLY THE ATLANTIC IN A BALLOON DUBBED THE FREE LIFE BY JERRY COPAS

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Bon voyage Well-wishers surround The Free Life Rozier balloon in a pasture near East Hampton, N.Y., on September 20, 1970, prior to its attempt to cross the Atlantic.

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CROSSING THE ATLANTIC OCEAN HAS PROVEN AN IRRESISTIBLE CHALLENGE TO BALLOONISTS FOR MORE THAN 150 YEARS. Cast and crew Above: The Free Life project was led by an enthusiastic but inexperienced pair: commodities broker Rod Anderson (center) and his actress wife, Pamela Brown (left). Right: British balloonist Malcolm Brighton served as pilot and director of the effort.

In the summer of 1970 Rodney Anderson, his wife Pamela Brown and British balloonist Mal colm Brighton were convinced they had the skills and the balloon necessary to become the first to complete the epic journey. But their efforts came up short when the likable trio underestimated or disregarded the risks involved. The three adven turers launched their balloon, The Free Life, from Long Island on a beautiful September day, sip ping champagne to the cheers of friends and family, hoping to reach Europe in five days. They were never seen again. The transatlantic crossing idea came to 32-yearold Rod Anderson in the mid-1960s. The New York commodities broker became intrigued by the notion that no one had flown a balloon across the Atlantic. Anderson had no ballooning experi ence, but he thought the endeavor would provide

an opportunity to make a name for himself as a member of the prestigious Brown family of old Kentucky, into which he had recently married. Anderson’s wife, Pamela, 28, was the daughter of a prominent Kentucky attorney and U.S. con

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PREVIOUS SPREAD: RALPH MORSE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE TOP & TOP RIGHT: YALE JOEL/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE BOTTOM, TOP LEFT & BOTTOM RIGHT: EVERETT RATTRAY, COURTESY OF THE EAST HAMPTON STAR

gressman. Her older brother, John Y. Brown Jr., would serve a term as Kentucky governor and earn millions developing the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain. At a young age she left behind the country club scene of Kentucky to pursue an acting career in New York City. She knew next to nothing about ballooning when Anderson suggested the Atlantic flight, but agreed the endeavor’s success would result in worldwide exposure and prestige and perhaps boost her career. Brown’s family was naturally reluctant at first and her mom was steadfastly against the risky project. But her wealthy father would soon come around, offering both his moral and financial support. Anderson once said in an interview, “It doesn’t seem like it’s that complex” to fly across the Atlan tic, “you just inflate this big balloon and off you go.” But the reality of transoceanic ballooning is far more challenging. In 1977, three days after launching their balloon Double Eagle from Mas sachusetts, pilots Maxie Anderson and Ben Abruzzo found themselves drifting off course, dodging icebergs near the coast of Iceland. The following year British pilots Don Cameron and Chris Davey were forced to ditch their balloon Zanussi just 110 miles short of the French coast, partly due to lack of wind. It was never Anderson’s original intent for he or his wife to be onboard for the flight. He saw his role as that of a project manager and Brown’s as helping out with what was expected to be a flurry of media attention. The new balloon was built by Mike Semich of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and was an advanced hot-air/helium hybrid known as a Rozier, named for pioneer balloonist JeanFrançois Pilâtre de Rozier, who invented the concept in 1784. Finding a qualified pilot for the venture proved to be challenging. Anderson was convinced the job should be comparable to that of a helmsman aboard a yacht. A balloon “commander” would give orders and the pilot would simply “steer” the vessel through the air. Naturally, qualified balloonists saw this arrangement quite differently,

so disagreements were inevitable. An overland test flight of the new balloon in 1969 ended in disappointment when equipment failure forced pilot Jim Contos to make a premature landing. The damaged balloon required costly repairs and modifications, $6,000 worth of helium was gone and Contos quit the effort. Anderson’s frustration over the test flight could have provided the motivation for him to take a more active role in the expedition by assuming the role of balloon commander. Three years of work had only produced a modest 40-mile flight and expenses were piling up. Anderson and Brown felt pressured to get their project off the ground. The couple referred to The Free Life as their “monster in the backyard,” requiring constant attention and feeding. The Atlantic ballooning season of 1970 was fast approaching, but without a pilot the project was desperately in need of a hero to step in and save the day. British balloonist Malcolm Brighton was aware of the proposed American transatlantic project and had considered such an adventure himself,

Buoyant spirits Clockwise from top left: Launch day brought sunny skies and a festival atmosphere as Anderson saw his dream about to take off; volunteers help to inflate The Free Life; a makeshift ground crew secured the balloon until Brighton told them to let go.

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last Night Above: The three crewmates got little sleep as preparations for takeoff proceeded through the night. Above right: The launch attracted more than 1,500 spectators, a number of whom embraced the casual counterculture lifestyle that defined the era.

but the costs were beyond his means. Brighton was well-known in the European ballooning community, highly regarded as a safe and responsible pilot. The call from Rod Anderson left the 32-year-old father of two both flattered and intrigued. A successful Atlantic flight would set him apart as the world’s premier balloonist and secure him a place in the history books. Brighton’s enthusiasm increased upon meeting Anderson and Brown in New York that summer. The trio’s personalities simply “clicked.” Brighton even approved of Brown joining in the flight, a detail they would keep secret up until launch time, since her mother clearly forbade it. The couple were captivated by Brighton’s air of confidence and deep well of aeronautical knowledge. Brown said the handsome Englishman was “an absolute gem. He’s rescuing this project.” In this turnkey operation, the balloon pilot saw the opportunity for fame, glory and fortune. That is, until he saw The Free Life. “I think I could have done better,” Brighton told the press after he inspected Anderson and Brown’s “monster in the backyard.” His expert observations quickly revealed the balloon’s many shortcomings. The helium capacity of 73,000 cubic feet was smaller than he preferred to carry enough supplies for a five-day journey. The crude propane burner was beset with leaks and misfires. The gondola’s seaworthiness was questionable,

since its shallow saucer shape could be swamped in high waves. Above all else there was the lack of any method to quickly detach the balloon from the gondola in the event of an open-sea ditching. Anderson had deemed this option too costly since the project was already way over budget. The solution was for the crew to cut the 10 load straps simultaneously upon hitting the water, releasing the envelope and leaving the three occupants to ride the waves in the floating gondola until rescued. In perfect conditions this would demand careful coordination at a most critical time. With rough seas and a fresh breeze, slicing all 10 straps at once would prove all the more challenging. Just one or two straps remaining intact could tip the gondola, dumping the passengers and contents into the water. Time was growing short to address these issues, as the autumn storm season was fast approaching. But putting off the flight until 1971 was out of the question for the weary couple. “We’ve already cancelled for two years,” Brown said. “We have to go. There is no alternative.” Brighton relented in his critique and agreed to return to Long Island in September to take his place on the team.

he weather was perfect for launch day, Sunday, September 20, 1970. More than 1,500 people gathered in George Miller’s pasture on Long Island near a village called Springs to watch the preparation of the red, white and yellow balloon. The inflation process took most of the night, and Anderson, Brown and Brighton had gotten little sleep. But by midday the three heroes were center stage, sharing their moment of glory with friends and family. Anderson looked authoritative in his yellow jumpsuit. Brighton radiated confidence with his charming British accent and tousled blond hair, completing the look of an aristocratic explorer with a pipe clenched in his teeth. Brown flashed a movie-star smile, capturing the highlights of the day with her handheld Super 8 camera. Supplies were loaded aboard the gondola, radios were checked and the flags of the United States and Great Britain were hung side by side

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OPPOSITE LEFT & BOTTOM RIGHT: YALE JOEL/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE RIGHT & TOP RIGHT: EVERETT RATTRAY, COURTESY OF THE EAST HAMPTON STAR; ABOVE LEFT: COURTESY OF GENIE CHIPPS HENDERSON

in the rigging of the eight-story balloon. Brown’s father was there, standing out from the crowd in his brown alpaca suit. Her mother was at a spa in South America, where she had learned only the night before that her daughter was planning to be onboard when The Free Life departed. She frantically phoned family members in an attempt to prevent the launch, to no avail. As they lifted off to the cheers of the adoring crowd, the trio passed around a bottle of champagne while waving goodbyes. It was the perfect exclamation point to a fabulous day filled with hope and promise for a successful crossing to Europe. This was Brighton’s 100th balloon flight but the first for Anderson and Brown. Launching a balloon from a crowded venue is a study in contrasts. One moment you’re surrounded by humanity, with hundreds of people gathered around the gondola, shooting photos, asking questions, craning to have a look inside. Then all at once you’re enveloped by silence as you slowly drift away. This was the first moment of peace the adventurers had experienced in many hours. As Miller’s farm receded into the distance and the Atlantic loomed before them, the trio must have been thinking about how their journey might end. Where would they land? Ireland? France? Spain? No doubt Brighton was hoping for England, to be near home and family. Radio transmissions provide a few insights into the progress of the flight, which quickly went awry. The troublesome burner continued to malfunction and was soon declared inoperative. Without the burner to warm the balloon’s helium, precious ballast had to be jettisoned throughout the night to keep the overweight balloon in the air. In the light of Monday morning, after taking stock of the remaining ballast and the miles achieved thus far, Brighton must have come to the inevitable conclusion that reaching Europe was impossible. The underbuilt Free Life simply lacked the range to stay aloft for the next four days. One can only imagine the discussions that ensued among the trio, when Brighton laid down

Start the party Clockwise from far left: Brighton pops a champagne bottle just before launch; Brown, Anderson and Brighton survey the scene at George Miller’s farm from the gondola; volunteers prepare to release the balloon.

these brutal facts. The prudent action would have been to summon search and rescue at once and ditch into the sea early in the day, providing searchers with enough daylight hours to locate and pick up the crew. But to give up so early in the flight must have been an appalling notion to Anderson and Brown. They had spent so much time and money to get to this point—shouldn’t they continue until the last ounce of ballast? They surely would have appealed to Brighton to keep going. But there was yet another partner with a stake in this decision, albeit a silent one up to now: Mother Nature. And she was about to turn hostile. A westbound airplane radioed a warning of deteriorating weather ahead. The warming sunshine had given way to clouds, cooling the balloon’s helium and denying the crew the benefit of “free lift” enjoyed by gas balloonists on sunny days.

A WESTBOUND AIRPLANE RADIOED A WARNING OF DETERIORATING WEATHER AHEAD. J U LY 2 0 2 1

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Final farewell Above: Pamela Brown’s father, who helped finance the flight, stood out in the colorful crowd as one of the few men dressed in a suit. Right: The last time he would see his daughter was as the balloon lifted off and headed east toward open water.

DESPITE THE THREATENING CONDITIONS, THE TRIO CHOSE TO DELAY DITCHING UNTIL NEARLY SUNSET. 58

A meteorologist confirmed the bad news that the balloon was approaching a cold front. The forecast called for a westerly surface wind of 20 knots and wave heights up to six feet. A cold rain may have started about this time, obscuring visibility and compounding the problem of lost lift, as a rainsoaked balloon can accumulate unwanted pounds very quickly. But despite the threatening conditions, the trio chose to delay ditching until nearly sunset. Brighton’s final dramatic radio transmission to Gander, Newfoundland, indicated they were going into the sea and requested search and rescue. They had been in the air only 30 hours. Anthony Smith, balloonist, adventurer and author of the book The Free Life: The Spirit of Courage, Folly and Obsession, later said in an interview, “They really hadn’t worked out the business of what to do when coming down in the water.” If things went perfectly, as the gondola touched the

sea, Anderson, Brighton and Brown would have simultaneously cut those 10 straps. The unburdened envelope would then quickly climb into the sky, leaving the gondola and its occupants afloat on the waves. Brighton would have reported a successful touchdown to Gander along with an approximate position, engaged the emergency locator beacon and the trio would have ridden out the storm while they awaited rescue. But evidently the landing did not go perfectly. No further transmissions were reported and no signal was picked up from the emergency beacon. Search planes from the U.S. and Canadian coast guards were on the scene at first light Tues day morning and began an extensive search of the ocean around The Free Life’s last reported position, 500 miles east-southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The gondola was equipped with flares, medical supplies, a large amount of food and a four-person rubber raft, giving hope that the crew would be rescued. After three days of searching, the coast guards proposed calling off the effort since nothing had been found. Brown’s father called in favors around Washington, and the search was extended for a couple more days. A total of 370 search hours were flown and sightings of a few objects were investigated. In all cases the items turned out to be remnants of fishing gear or other debris unrelated to The Free Life. Once the coast guards retreated, Brown’s father secured the services of a civilian DC-6 with a crew of eight to continue scouring the area. The aircraft flew 68 hours of search patterns, with observers stationed at every window, including some family and friends. But the effort yielded no results. Out of desperation the family brought in a Dutch clairvoyant who, after handling some personal effects belonging to Brown, Anderson and Brighton, declared that two of the three were still alive, eight days after ditching. He said the survivors could be found several hundred miles from the original search grid. Yet another plane searched this area, but no traces of the balloon or crew were ever found.

erhaps the most enduring legacy of The Free Life tragedy was the immediate effect it had on the world’s ballooning community, and what would become known as the “race for the Atlantic.” The deaths of three intelligent and capable people clearly increased the stakes, creating a new sense of drama and urgency. This endowed further attempts with a newfound sense of virtue, as if each new flight was in honor of the trailblazers who had given their lives to show the way. Within three years the next attempt on the Atlantic was made, followed by nine more flights before the decade was out. Two balloonists were killed in separate attempts

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OPPOSITE TOP: EVERETT RATTRAY, COURTESY OF THE EAST HAMPTON STAR; OPPOSITE BOTTOM: COURTESY OF GENIE CHIPPS HENDERSON; RIGHT: RALPH MORSE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES

in 1974, one disappearing without a trace. Three Americans finally completed the crossing in 1978, landing their helium balloon Double Eagle II in France 137 hours after departing from Presque Isle, Maine. Pilots Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman were mobbed by hundreds of well-wishers as they made a perfect landing 50 miles west of Paris. Corks popped, cameras clicked and the three men were instantly proclaimed heroes of the air. After a gourmet dinner at Maxim’s in Paris, the trio flipped a coin to decide who would sleep in the “Lindbergh Bed” at the American Embassy (the original bed Charles Lindbergh slept in on his first night in Paris, May 21, 1927). Photos and footage of Double Eagle II were spread across the world’s newspapers and televisions. The balloon appeared on the covers of Newsweek, National Geographic and Sports Illustrated. A tickertape parade welcomed the trio home to Albuquerque, N.M. President Jimmy Carter saluted the balloonists from the White House and Congress struck a special gold medal to honor them. Double Eagle II’s gondola was displayed in the National Air and Space Museum, near Lind bergh’s Spirit of St. Louis. The Atlantic has been crossed by balloon 17 times in the 50 years since The Free Life attempt. The Rozier design of hot air and helium has since been perfected and is now the standard for long-distance ballooning. Record-breaking balloonist Troy Bradley, who has flown across the Atlantic and Pacific, said of The Free Life effort, “Although they failed to produce the desired result of crossing the Atlantic, the system they chose was the right one for the job. Since 1992, when Richard Abruzzo and I set the absolute duration record in a Rozier balloon, the hybrid system has proven itself time and again as the best system for ultra-long-distance flights.” By 1999 the Rozier technology was further advanced when Breitling Orbiter 3 made the first balloon flight around the world, a feat that has been repeated twice, each time in a Rozier balloon. In retrospect the flight of The Free Life raises an important question: Just what could entice three smart and successful people to climb aboard a balloon of questionable design, throw caution to the wind and fly off into the unknown, on a quest with only the narrowest odds for success? Individually, any one of them might have considered the risks unacceptable and ultimately decided to stay on the ground. But with their combined ambitions bound together, Rod Anderson, Pamela Brown and Malcolm Brighton inspired one another to the point that not one of them had the heart to step up and say “no.” A mere hint of discouragement could seem like a betrayal of their collective dream. It was the perfect storm of sound reasoning offset by bad judgment and reckless emotion.

Genie Chipps Henderson, Brown’s closest friend since childhood, had helped with planning and preparations for the flight and was present at the launch. In the weeks following the tragedy, she penned lines to Brighton’s widow that served as a fitting epitaph for the trio: “My only thoughts now are that all three, for their own individual reasons, were doing something they dearly loved and believed in—the day they left I can’t describe how beautiful it was. It was a moment when the whole world seemed perfect—for them and for the rest of us, too. That brief perfection was a heavy price, I know.”

Tragic fate Liberated from its earthly bounds, The Free Life sets off on its transatlantic flight. Instead of drifting to Europe, the balloon ditched in the ocean with the loss of all three crew members.

Indiana-based author Jerry Copas has been a balloonist for 40 years and is the historian for the Balloon Society of Kentucky. Further reading: The Free Life: The Spirit of Courage, Folly and Obsession, by Anthony Smith; and Hands Off ! Epic Adventures of the Balloon Flyers of Akron, by William G. Armstrong Jr. and Michael C. Emich. J U LY 2 0 2 1

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EPITAPH FOR A HERO NEARLY 80 YEARS AFTER THEIR C-47 CRASHED INTO A MOUNTAIN IN CHINA, THE REMAINS OF A TRANSPORT PILOT AND HIS FELLOW CREWMEN HAVE YET TO BE RECOVERED BY ROBERT L. WILLETT

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over the hump A Douglas C-47 of the China National Aviation Corporation flies above the Himalayas, carrying a load of cargo destined for China, in Roy Grinnell’s painting Over the Top of the World. The author’s cousin, CNAC pilot Jim Browne, came to grief on a similar transport flight.

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HIS NAME WAS JIMMIE BROWNE AND HE WAS MY COUSIN, MY NEIGHBOR, MY ROLE MODEL AND MY HERO.

wartime lifeline Top: CNAC C-47 no. 32 makes a “Hump” run with supplies for beleaguered China. Above: Browne was 21 when his C-47, CNAC no. 60, crashed into a Chinese mountain on November 17, 1942, killing all on board.

He was personable, good-looking, intelligent and brought joy to our families. His passion was flying—anything, anywhere—and apparently he was good at it. All that ended at age 21 on November 17, 1942, when Jim and a crew of three in a Douglas C-47 impacted the green slopes of a mountain called Cang Shan at 13,200 feet near Dali, China. Jim was adopted by loving parents virtually at birth and was a happy boy in suburban Winnetka outside Chicago, but he was curious, restless and inclined to push the limits of his older but tolerant parents. They decided Jim should go to a military school and he ended up at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Ga., where he was an average student, except in aviation. When he was first introduced to flying he knew he had found his calling. By the time Jim graduated, he had already received his private pilot and multiengine licenses. That was in 1940, when the world was exploding, and he felt the need to do his part. After graduation from Riverside, Jim tried to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps’ flight training program, but it required at least two years of college. Next he told his parents he wanted to join the British Air

Transport Auxiliary in England, ferrying aircraft to scattered British bases. He told his aunt, “I want to go, but I don’t want to kill anyone!” With his mother’s tearful consent Jim traveled to Canada and then on to England to begin his adventure. He flew Spitfires, Hurricanes, Blenheim bombers, trainers, amphibians—anything except fourengine bombers. After 10 months he came home to Winnetka and soon found another flying job, ferrying U.S. aircraft to Africa for Pan American Airways. But before he got started with Pan Am, the Air Corps canceled the Pan-Africa contract to set up its own system. Meanwhile, however, Pan Am owned 45 percent of the China National Aviation Corporation. CNAC was a Chinese airline with an Air Corps contract to fly supplies on the Hima layan “Hump” route from India into China, and it needed pilots. Jim didn’t hesitate and joined five other newly recruited pilots headed to Asia in September 1942. The six arrived in Dinjan, India, in early Octo ber and were quickly assigned their flying duties. Sadly, three of the six would be lost in the war. CNAC had pioneered flying the infamous Hump over the majestic but deadly Himalayan mountains in late 1941, finding routes that were accept-

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PREVIOUS SPREAD: ROY GRINNELL; OPPOSITE TOP: CNAC.ORG; OPPOSITE BOTOTM: COURTESY OF ROBERT L. WILLETT; TOP RIGHT: WW2DB.COM; INSET: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES

able to the reluctant U.S. Army Air Forces. The AAF had originally declared the routes too risky and it was only when President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the U.S. to join the CNAC flights from India into China that it began to beef up its supply effort. Jim joined the small cadre of fliers who struggled to take their underpowered, overloaded, worn-out transports over the mountains to help keep China fighting Japan. The route began on the flatlands of Assam, India, and crossed three major rivers—the Yangtze, Salween and Mekong— before reaching the Himalayas. Weather conditions were absurd: 100 mph winds at altitude, with updrafts and downdrafts that could render the lumbering C-47s uncontrollable without warning. There was little ground communication, radios were primitive and bailing out into jungle or mountain peaks was not an attractive option. But the pilots knew the risks and understood the importance of their daily missions. Jim started flying the route on October 7, 1942. Forty-eight days later, on November 17, Harriet and Herbert Spencer Browne, living their comfortable life in their comfortable home in Win netka, got the telegram that broke their hearts. Pan Am vice president Harold Bixby wired simply that Jim’s C-47, CNAC no. 60, was overdue in Dinjan and presumed missing. Seven months later, on June 16, 1943, the U.S. State Department certified his death, and the Browne household descended into a cloud of grief. In those days there were no search and rescue units to look for downed pilots. CNAC and AAF airmen were asked to look for wreckage as they flew their routes, but snow and high winds soon concealed lost aircraft. Jim’s C-47 joined the ranks of aircraft and crews lost on the pitiless Hump route, ranks that would tragically grow to unpredicted lengths in the coming months. CNAC no. 60 was virtually the first of those crews lost, as the war of logistics was just beginning in Asia.

ast forward to about 1991, when I began to focus on uncovering the details of Jim’s disappearance. I was determined to find out what had happened to him. I soon found that the search would be doubly difficult since Jim was a civilian working for a Chinese airline, but in 1992 the U.S. government gave the CNAC pilots veteran status. However, the only information available about his fatal flight was the fact that CNAC no. 60 left Kunming after bringing in a load of supplies from its home base in Dinjan and was planning to return to Dinjan. After that, nothing. Research in various repositories turned up little information and it was not until I discovered the website cnac.org that I started to learn about the airline. The webmaster, Tom Moore, had dedi-

cated years to unearthing data on CNAC personnel. But even there, not much was known of Jim’s brief tenure. Then I met Clayton Kuhles of MIA Recoveries, Inc. at the 2003 CNAC Association reunion in San Francisco and we began to do some in-depth research into air activity in the flight path area. Kuhles had contacts in the region and probed them for any recollections of a late 1942 crash. Glimmers of information came back and we felt that we were getting somewhere. Finally, in 2010, my wife Donna and I put together a tour of China’s Yunnan Province, covering some of the Chinese sites associated with CNAC. During the trip we had a real breakthrough. We learned that a young Chinese author, Liu Xiaotong, had written a book about the Hump flights. Of course it was in Chinese, but on one page, in English, were two names: James S. Browne and John J. Dean. Dean was the pilot and Jim the copilot of CNAC no. 60. Amazingly, the book included the last two radio transmissions of Jim’s final flight. In the first transmission the crew reported that they were approaching the mountains, with information about their position. The second call indicated the weather had closed in, winds were horrible and they were dumping the cargo. When we came home, Kuhles found a report from a World War II pilot who had seen a crash site on Cang Shan mountain in the same region early in the war. That was enough to convince us to send an MIA Recoveries mission to explore the area. In September 2011 Kuhles, having pinpointed the probable location of the aircraft, led his expedition up the treacherous slopes of Malong Peak on Cang Shan. After three arduous ascents he found the site and identified the wreckage from the Douglas Aircraft construction number, 4681. Against all odds, he had found CNAC no. 60, but there was no evidence of the crew.

high fliers CNAC crewmen pose with their C-47 Skytrain at Kunming, China. Inset: Locally made CNAC wings.

JIM’S C-47 JOINED THE RANKS OF AIRCRAFT AND CREWS LOST ON THE PITILESS HUMP ROUTE. J U LY 2 0 2 1

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forbidden zone Members of the MIA Recoveries search party (above), including Clayton Kuhles, left, camp out on Cang Shan mountain (below) during their 2011 expedition to locate Browne’s crash site. The remains of his C-47 were identified by the Douglas Aircraft construction number, 4681 (above right).

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hile we believed that the U.S. government was committed to bringing home MIAs from all wars, we found there were very few agencies, organizations or individuals committed to that mission. We tapped veterans organizations and contacted congressmen, who proficiently wrote letters but otherwise made little effort to help. We got some media coverage that rapidly died down, tried crowdfunding with little result and even approached some celebrities in vain. Despite support from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, we received no help. We really thought the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, then the government agency responsible for MIAs) would mount a search for the crew’s remains. After all, we had

done our investigating, found the aircraft wreckage and reported its location to JPAC, all without help from our government. But they apparently had little interest in organizing an effort to visit the site and recover any remains. It appeared the Chinese were blocking all attempts to reach the wreckage. First, they said local officials objected, yet I had met with local authorities on a 2015 trip and they were courteous and friendly to me and my son Tom. Then they said that they did not have sufficient manpower for a search due to the extensive celebration marking the anniversary of the end of WWII. Finally, they said it was too dangerous. We offered to have Americans do the search so no Chinese would be at risk, but they refused. While this was discouraging, I thought the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (which in 2015 took over JPAC’s mission) could counter these excuses, but from virtual transcripts of one meeting with the Chinese it was obvious DPAA

5/5/21 5:25 PM

ALL PHOTOS THIS SPREAD: COURTESY OF ROBERT L. WILLETT

was not pushing. As a DPAA official recently told me: “Not sure when we will be allowed to travel to or meet with Chinese. Things are a bit tense with that country as you no doubt have read in the news.” Failing to get any help in examining the crash site for remains of the crew, I turned my efforts to other forms of recognition of Jim’s sacrifice. I applied for an Air Medal and a Distinguished Flying Cross, but my congressional representatives repeatedly informed me I needed an eyewitness to the event. When I applied for a gravestone at Arlington, I was told “he just doesn’t qualify.” At the time of his death, Jim was a civilian, but after the war the government gave veteran status to Pan Am pilots who served in combat areas and referred to them as “active duty designees.” Karen Durham-Aguilera, executive director of Arlington National Cemetery, was compassionate but firm: “I regret the tragic circumstances surrounding your cousin’s death. However, current burial legislation precludes active duty designees from ground burial and therefore eligibility for a government memorial marker.” Finally, our family purchased a stone to be placed with his parents in Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Ill. It is Jim’s only memorial in the U.S. Interestingly, the Chinese remember and honor the heroism of the CNAC pilots and crewmen who risked and gave their lives for China. A bust of Jim was recently placed in the Square of Chivalrous

Friends of China, at the Jianchuan Museum near Chengdu, with his smiling face looking out at the likes of Lt. Gen. Claire Chennault and other heroes of the war with Japan. In addition, he is listed, twice, on the impressive Monument to Aviation Martyrs in the War Against Japanese Aggression in Nanjing, and he has been added to the list of those lost on a CNAC plaque in Beijing’s National Aviation Museum. So, China remembers Jim and pays him homage. But here in the U.S., in spite of MIA flags, MIA days, MIA testimonies and the slogan “You Are Not Forgotten,” Jim and the 83,000 remaining MIAs from all wars are in reality all but forgotten by the nation they served. With these MIAs still unaccounted for, the government agency responsible for their recovery and identification— DPAA—lists only an annual average of 200 MIAs identified during the past three years, and many of those were sailors from USS Oklahoma killed during the Pearl Harbor attack. It would appear efforts to recover MIA remains in distant lands have been stalled by lack of funding, lack of will, lack of effectiveness and, in our case, excessive bureaucracy. Maybe we can’t bring them home, but we can still tell their stories. Robert L. Willett is a U.S. Army WWII and Korean War veteran and retired banker who writes from Rockledge, Fla. He is the author of An Airline at War: Pan Am’s China National Aviation Corporation and Its Men and The Hunt for Jimmie Brown: An MIA Pilot in World War II China, which are recommended for further reading.

unforgotten Browne is honored with a bust in the Square of Chivalrous Friends of China near Chengdu (left) and entries on a monument to aviation martyrs in Nanjing (above).

THE CHINESE REMEMBER AND HONOR THE HEROISM OF THE CNAC PILOTS AND CREWMEN WHO RISKED AND GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR CHINA. J U LY 2 0 2 1

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REvIEWS

IN COLD WAR SKIES NATO and Soviet Air Power, 1949-89 by Michael Napier, Osprey Publishing, 2020, $40.

British historian Michael Napier lived a bit of this history as a participant in the Cold War, an ongoing confrontation in which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact glowered at each other from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea. > state of the art in aviation— among other means of mass annihilation—advanced while both sides nervously wondered whether some incident somewhere on the peripheries might upset the nuclear balance of power that was the principal factor preventing the war from turning “hot.” In his new book,

Napier reveals the decadeby-decade evolution of the aircraft employed during the conflict, along with the strategies and tactics for their use. The comparison of NATO and Warsaw Pact forces, as well as chapters devoted to neutrals such as Sweden who armed themselves to keep clear of the antagonists, is complemented by a colorful

and comprehensive collection of photographs. Arguably the most intriguing feature of the book, however, are the pilots’ accounts of occasions when a bomber or reconnaissance plane would stray into the other side’s airspace, to be duly intercepted and escorted back to its side, and the less publicized incidents when the interloper was shot

down, as a number of former Soviet aircrews describe themselves doing—actions that held potentially dire consequences. These firsthand memories are what truly make In Cold War Skies a worthwhile purchase for anyone with an interest in the aerial side of the four-decade faceoff. And at just $40 this profusely illustrated coffeetable book is a real bargain. Jon Guttman

BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

> From 1949 to 1989, the

cold warriors Two Convair F-102 Delta Daggers from Alaska Air Command fly over Denali.

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5/5/21 5:48 PM

P-51B MUSTANG

North American’s Bastard Stepchild That Saved the Eighth Air Force by James William Marshall and Lowell F. Ford, Osprey Publishing, 2020, $50. Aeronautical engineer James Marshall (son of P-51 Mustang ace Bert W. Marshall Jr.) and former North American Aviation employee Lowell Ford tell the familiar tale of the P-51’s development in the dark early days of World War II and how the fighter protected American bombers over Europe. What makes this book stand apart are its expert technical descriptions, attention to historical context and detailed chronology leading up to D-Day on

BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

OFF TARGET

June 6, 1944. You know it’s going to be a great read from the opening pages because the authors thank dozens of legendary figures associated with the Mustang for their insights during consultations. The story starts in 1940, when the British Purchasing Commission visited the U.S. looking to buy fighters and placed a bet on North American Aviation, a small General Motors offshoot that had not previously produced a fighter. The company’s talented executive and engi-

America’s Guided Bombs, Missiles and Drones 1917-1950 by William Wolf, Fonthill Media Ltd., 2021, $60. Drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and so-called “smart bombs” have appeared in the news so frequently in recent years that people might think such devices are recent innovations. Some may be aware that missiles and remotely guided bombs were deployed operationally by Germany in World War II. However, William Wolf ’s intriguing new book reveals that efforts were being made in the United States to develop UAVs, drones, guided missiles and flying bombs as early as World War I. In fact, the author traces the first step in that process to 1898, when Nikola Tesla filed a patent in the U.S. for a remotely controlled guidance system. Although Tesla’s system was intended for use in boats, the principles involved could have worked equally well in aircraft. During WWI the U.S. Army and Navy pursued separate secret programs to develop flying bombs—essentially pilotless airplanes serving as guided missiles. Although neither service used them operationally, numerous prototypes were constructed and flown. It is rare to come across a book that seems to cover an entire subject with which the reader has hitherto been completely unaware. Yet this encyclopedic volume describes many U.S. military programs that have been shrouded in such secrecy that the author may well be revealing their details publicly for the first time. Off Target is a fascinating and comprehensive work on a neglected subject that deserves far more attention than it has received. Robert Guttman

neering team scrambled to get the P-51flying in nearrecord time, incorporating such innovative design features as a laminar-flow wing

and a drag-reducing cooling system. When the ingenious airframe was mated to the incomparable Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the hurried creation became the best all-around piston fighter of the war. By the time the B and C models began arriving in quantity at Eighth Air Force bases in Britain in early 1944, they provided much needed long-range escort for the heavy bombers, which helped assure victory. The book is augmented by an impressive array of archival photos and informative technical data in four appendices. There are many books on the famous Mustang, but this one ranks among the best. Philip Handleman

LECTURES OF THE AIR CORPS TACTICAL SCHOOL AND AMERICAN STRATEGIC BOMBING IN WORLD WAR II Edited by Phil Haun, University Press of Kentucky, 2019, $50. World War I’s nightmarish attrition on gridlocked battlefields gave rise to a school of thought that air power could quickly win wars. During the 1930s a cadre of forward-thinking U.S. airmen, known as the Bomber Mafia, refined the ideas of early air power advocates in lectures at the Air Corps Tactical School that resulted in a distinctly American concept of high-altitude daylight precision bombing. As Phil Haun, dean of academics at the Naval War College, explains in his learned commentary to this anthology, the lectures laid the intellectual foundation for America’s strategic air campaign of World War II. The Bomber Mafia’s central thesis is contained in Major Harold George’s 1936 lecture, which stated that independently employed air power can be decisive in a war against an industrialized nation because bombers have the ability to strike at the heart of that nation’s economic system, thereby destroying its capacity to continue to fight. Actual experience in WWII exposed flaws in the lecturers’ strategic bombing theory: Unescorted bombers fell prey to interceptors, poor weather severely impeded the efficacy of the Norden bombsight and both Germany’s economy and people proved more resilient than anticipated. Nevertheless, the bombing campaign was an essential factor in defeating the Axis powers. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in the development of offensive air doctrine, especially today’s war planners. Philip Handleman J U LY 2 0 2 1

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REvIEWS CLASSICS ACE OF THE IRON CROSS by Ernst Udet During the 1920s and ’30s public interest in the exploits of World War I airmen was whetted by the posthumous publication of diaries and letters home by such literate fliers as James McConnell, James McCudden and Manfred von Richthofen, as well as postwar memoirs from Cecil Lewis, René Fonck, Elliott White Springs and James Norman Hall. That they emerged from a variety of foreign pens only made these accounts more interesting, while showing the common bond that united these former adversaries in a postwar brotherhood of the air. To these was added Mein Fliegerleben (My Flying Life) by the highest-scoring German fighter pilot to survive the war, Ernst Udet. Entering military service at age 18 as a motorcyclist, Udet soon transferred to aviation, and after a shaky start that nearly got him thrown out of the Luftstreitkräfte, he advanced from two-seaters to the new single-seat fighters in which he felt much more at home. In his first combat Udet froze at the trigger, but in his second encounter he shot down a French airplane and his score rose from there. He also earned a lieutenant’s commission and command of Jagdstaffel 37 until the “Red Baron” Richthofen offered him a squadron command in his famous “Flying Circus,” Jagdgeschwader I. Leading Jasta 11 and then Jasta 4, Udet survived the war with 62 victories and the Orden Pour le Mérite. Amid the bitterness of a defeated and destitute postwar Germany, Udet continued to pursue his passion as a civilian pilot, taking on special transport jobs from the Sudan to Greenland, designing his own aerobatic aircraft and thrilling crowds at international airshows as the “Flying Fool.” Published in 1935 and translated into English as Ace of the

GRUMMAN F2F/F3F AND CIVILIAN VARIANTS by Richard S. Dann, Ginter Books, 2020, $44.95. The 1930s saw dramatic advances in the structure and configuration of airplanes as cantilever designs and stressed-skin construction confirmed the monoplane as the high-performance aircraft of the future. In particular biplanes that seemed advanced in 1934 would be viewed as quaint by 1939. A classic case in point was the Grumman F2F. After establishing a new company on Long Island in Bald win, N.Y., in December 1929, Leroy R. Grumman patented a retractable landing gear mechanism in 1930 and applied it to both amphibious biplanes and a two-seat fighter, the XFF-1, which was accepted for limited production in 1932. Thus established, Grumman’s next offering was the XF2F, an allmetal, single-seat biplane fighter with stressed skin, retractable landing gear and a pilot’s sliding canopy. This impressed the U.S. Navy enough for a 54-plane production contract in 1934, 68

Iron Cross, Udet’s book is not so much a comprehensive autobiography as a roughly chronological collection of anecdotes. They range from amusing to exciting to poignant, with passages that have become mini-classics in themselves, such as his one-on-one encounter with France’s number-two ace, Georges Guynemer; Richthofen’s casual invitation to join the Circus; his hair-raising escape from a disabled Fokker D.VII by parachute; and his two meetings with his first American victim, Walter Wanamaker—first after shooting him down in 1918 and the second time in the more cordial setting of the Cleveland National Air Races in 1931. The memoir captures the attitudes of the time and one German’s rather whimsical perspectives of the British, the Americans and numerous others with whom he became better acquainted through their shared passion for flight. It is not until the last chapter, “Curtain,” that one catches a glimpse of a reality that seems somehow out of place in Udet’s flying playboy world: “We had been without colors. We have unfurled them once again. The Führer has given them back to us. For old soldiers, life is worth living again.” Are those really Udet’s words…or a postscript added by the editor to allow the book to be published? We may never know, which adds a final melancholy end note to the memoir’s mystique. For posterity knows the end of innocence that awaited Udet after 1935: a senior position in Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe and a ton of pressure in the wake of the failed Battle of Britain, much of it heaped on him by his former comradein-arms, Hermann Göring, leading to Udet’s suicide on November 17, 1941. But Ace of the Iron Cross remains to evoke an earlier era, earning its place among the classics. Jon Guttman which led in turn to a succession of more refined fighters along the same lines, culminating in the F3F-3 in 1938. Decked out in the high-visibility colors and markings of the era, these corpulent but oddly appealing fighters dominated the skies over Navy aircraft carriers and Marine airfields, even while Japan was unleashing its Mitsubishi A5M monoplane fighter over China and laying plans for its successor, the A6M Zero. Fortunately for the United States, Grumman too was working ahead, again applying the F3F’s retractable gear to a monoplane variant, the F4F Wildcat. Grumman F2F/F3F gives a thorough and comprehensive treatment of the very personification of a transitional airplane design, describing and illustrating all its aspects and listing the deployment and fate of every bureau number built. There is a section devoted to civilian variants such as Al Williams’ Gulfhawk II, which can still be seen at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center; one in which all surviving and restored aircraft have their back stories told; and another devoted to the motion pictures of the era in which the fat but photogenic F3F played roles. Finally, in recognition of the multitude of modelers (this reviewer included) who could not resist the ingenious 1/32nd-scale Monogram kit whose undercarriage retracted when the propeller was turned, the book ends with a survey of every F2F and F3F model kit produced, including the still-available 1/32nd giant. Jon Guttman

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SUPERMARINE SOUTHAMPTON The Flying Boat That Made RJ Mitchell by Jo Hillman and Colin Higgs, Pen & Sword Books, 2020, $42.95. In 1920 the brilliant young aircraft designer Reginald Mitchell rose to become chief engineer of Supermarine Aviation Ltd. at just 25 years of age. Mitchell and Supermarine are best remembered today for the legendary Spitfire of World War II, as well as the spectacular series of racing seaplanes they created for the 1920s and early 1930s Schneider Trophy races. However, Mitchell would not have been afforded the opportunity to create those successful aircraft if Supermarine did not have the capital to finance them. What kept Supermarine solvent during the lean years of the 1920s and 1930s was not air racing but the production of a successful series of flying boats that Mitchell designed for the Royal Air Force, the best known of which is the subject of this new book. Although not as glamorous as Mitchell’s later creations, the Supermarine Southampton became the first large maritime patrol flying boat to be ordered in quantity by the RAF after World War I. Entering service in 1925, it was not retired until 1936, making it the second-longest-lived British flying boat after the Short Sunderland. When the Southampton finally became obsolete, Mitchell designed improved versions, the Scapa and Stranraer, the latter of which was still in service well into WWII. In addition to Britain, Supermarine built Southamptons for other nations, including Turkey, Japan, Australia and Argentina. This lavishly illustrated volume contains a wealth of infor-

mation about an aircraft that became one of the RAF’s mainstays in the interwar years. It also generated a great deal of positive publicity abroad both for the RAF and for the British aircraft industry. While it is not as well-remembered as some of Mitchell’s other creations, there can be no doubt that, had there not been a Southampton, there would never have been a Spitfire. Robert Guttman

A BACKSEAT VIEW FROM THE PHANTOM A Memoir of a Marine Radar Intercept Officer in Vietnam

TOP: IWM Q81987; BOTTOM: IWM Q82023

Colonel Fleet S. Lentz Jr. (USMCR, Ret.), McFarland & Company, Inc., 2020, $29.95. This small publisher has put out a few interesting books recently, and this is one of the best. Although much has been written about the Vietnam air war, very little has covered the unusual situation that developed after the cease-fire of January 1973 brought the main fighting to an end and allowed most of the long-held American prisoners of war to be repatriated. Combat continued in Laos and Cambodia, as communist forces tried to consolidate their positions in Southeast Asia. While

American sea and land forces largely withdrew from the area, the Marine Corps kept one squadron each of F-4 Phantoms and A-4 Skyhawks in-country well into the summer of 1973, operating from Nam Phong Royal Thai Air Base, fondly referred to as the “Rose Garden” in wry reference to a popular country song whose lead lyric reminded, “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.” That line was certainly applicable because the base offered little in amenities for the long-suf-

fering Marine aviators and ground troops. From the moment they arrived, the “Silver Eagles” of VMFA-115 struggled to maintain their big fighters as well as their morale, while flying almost daily missions

into areas that still promised major enemy defensive fire, largely from anti-aircraft artillery. A newly minted radar intercept officer when he arrived, 1st Lt. Fleet S. Lentz quickly began flying with the veteran pilots who had preceded him, eventually accumulating 131 missions. These flights, mainly to provide close air support but occasionally against enemy ground targets, proved to be just as dangerous as any in the Vietnam War. Lentz’s writing is superb and puts the reader right into the action. While quite a few Vietnam veterans are now writing their stories, this new book is one of the best and focuses on a period of the war about which many people know little. Peter Mersky

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5/5/21 7:13 PM

FLIGHT TEST

CASTING FATE TO THE WIND

1. Besides Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries, what was in the first hydrogen balloon to cross the English Channel in 1785? A. A sheep B. A dog C. A pigeon D. A letter

MYSTERY SHIP

Can you identify this giant Soviet transport? See the answer below.

3. When was the first Gordon Bennett Cup gas balloon race held? A. 1877 B. 1896 C. 1906 D. 1913

A. Short S.41 B. Vought VE-7 Bluebird C. Sopwith Pup D. Mitsubishi 1MT E. Sopwith 2F.1 Ships Camel F. Beardmore W.B.III G. Douglas DT-2 H. Mitsubishi 1MF I. Sopwith T.1 Cuckoo J. Nakajima A1N

Douglas DT-2

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

First carrier fighter with folding wings First carrier plane to perform a combat mission First Japanese torpedo bomber—a triplane Ship-based floatplane introducing folding wings Japanese carrier fighter based on Britain’s Gloster Gambet 6. First U.S. Navy carrier-based torpedo bomber 7. First U.S. Navy plane to land on a carrier 8. First wheeled aircraft designed for carrier operations 9. First aircraft to land on a Japanese carrier 10. First airplane to land on a moving carrier deck

4. At 51,793 feet, what was Auguste Piccard’s gas balloon first to attain in 1931? A. The mesosphere B. The stratosphere C. The troposphere D. A record that still stands 5. Besides being first around the world in a Rozier balloon, what distinction does the flight by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones still hold? A. Longest B. Highest C. Fastest D. All of the above

ANSWERS: MYSTERY SHIP: Tupolev ANT-20bis. Learn more about it at historynet.com/aviation-history. PIONEER CARRIER PLANES: A.4, B.7, C.10, D.3, E.2, F.1, G.6, H.9, I.8, J.5. CASTING FATE TO THE WIND: 1.D, 2.B, 3.C, 4.B, 5.A. 70

TOP: SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM; BOTTOM: NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND

PIONEER CARRIER PLANES

Match the airplane with its role in the development of aircraft carriers.

2. How many miles were flown in 18 hours for the first recognized long-distance balloon record in 1836? A. 115 B. 480 C. 610 D. 925

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5/5/21 5:49 PM

DURING POLICE INTERROGATION FOLLOWING THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY, LEE HARVEY OSWALD STATED, “NO, I AM NOT A COMMUNIST. I AM A _____.” Law-abiding citizen, proud Texan, Catholic, or Marxist?

For more, visit WWW.HISTORYNET.COM/ MAGAZINES/QUIZ

HISTORYNET.com ANSWER: MARXIST. OSWALD WAS SHOT IN THE BASEMENT OF THE DALLAS POLICE HEADQUARTERS WHILE BEING ESCORTED TO THE CITY JAIL. OSWALD DIED LESS THAN TWO HOURS LATER AT PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, THE SAME HOSPITAL WHERE KENNEDY WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD TWO DAYS PRIOR.

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AERO ARTIFACT

High roller

The story of Convair’s B-36 (see P. 26), produced from 1946 to 1954, is one of size and superlatives. With a length of 162 feet, a wingspan of 230 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of 410,000 pounds, the bomber still holds the record as the world’s largest and heaviest production piston-engine airplane. Superlatives continue with its massive tires—the biggest aircraft tires ever produced—that served as the prototypes’ main landing gear. Built by Goodyear, they were 110 inches (9 feet 2 inches) in diameter, a yard wide and weighed 1,320 pounds—the equivalent of about 60 car tires. By comparison, the Cessna 172’s 6.00-by-6-inch tire (bottom left, to scale) measures about 17 inches across. In the inset photo below, diminutive Convair employee Grace Pur celly tightens a completed B-36 prototype wheel’s axle nut using an appropriately large wrench. But a tire of that size caused problems. The intense pressure generated by the airplane’s unparalleled weight pinpointed on two tires (156 pounds per square inch) confined the B-36 to only three runways in the U.S. That problem was solved by the adoption of a B.F. Goodrich system of tandem twin tires in four-wheel bogies that spread the airplane’s mass over a 47 percent larger area of runway. The production models of the B-36 were thus able to take off and land on any airfield that could accommodate B-29 bombers.

convair B-36 Cessna 172

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ABOVE: NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE; INSET: LOCKHEED MARTIN ARCHIVES; LEFT: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES

5/5/21 5:50 PM

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