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THE

ULTIMATE SPITFIRE?

Spiteful and Seafang examined in depth

January 2023 Issue No 597, Vol 51, No 1

HISTORY IN THE AIR SINCE 1911

MASTERS AIR of the

Assessing the American contribution to victory in Europe

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Contents January 2023

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80 NEWS AND COMMENT

FEATURES

FROM THE EDITOR NEWS • Disquiet over RAFM Mustang disposal • Shock at Dallas B-17/P-63 mid-air • B-25 and second Bolingbroke for ‘EK’ …and the month’s other top aircraft preservation news 20 HANGAR TALK Steve Slater’s comment on the historic aircraft world 22 FLIGHT LINE Reﬂections on aviation history with Denis J. Calvert

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REGULARS 24 SKYWRITERS 26 Q&A Your questions asked and answered 88 PERSONAL ALBUM A selection of de Havillands ‘down under’ 114 NEXT MONTH

Your Aviation Destination

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Assessing the American contribution to victory in the European theatre air war 8th AF BOMBING TACTICS The ‘Mighty Eighth’s’ daylight campaign didn’t evolve in the way its commanders had imagined TROOP CARRIER GROUPS The US troop carrier aircrew of D-Day: poorly trained, cowardly or just lowgrade? We debunk the myths FIGHTERS IN THE ETO Debate still rages about which was the US Army Air Forces’ best ﬁghter in the European theatre of operations. But can we reach a verdict?

FOKKER S11 AT 75 Seventy-five years on from its maiden flight, the Dutch trainer continues to delight 68 OPERATION ‘PEGASUS’ The BBC’s pioneering airborne live broadcast 74 RNZAF AVRO 626 A pilot’s perspective on flying a unique survivor — one long since grounded 80 AEROPLANE MEETS… DOUG ROZENDAAL It’s not just flying different aircraft that means a lot to this US warbird pilot, but the people involved, too

DATABASE: SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG Were these two Spitﬁre developments a step too far? Tony Buttler investigates

IN-DEPTH PAGES

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 16

PRESERVATION REVIEW OF 2022 The year’s big stories from the worldwide aviation heritage scene 108 REVIEWS The second part of our Christmas special gift guide — featuring books, watches, games, ﬂight experiences 112 CHRISTMAS PRIZE QUIZ Test your aviation history knowledge COVER IMAGE: In a shoot organised by the Centre of Aviation Photography, B-17G Flying Fortress Sally B appears at North Weald last September with a group of actors who will be seen in the upcoming Masters of the Air TV series. ADAM BULL

FREE! AEROPLANE ARCHIVE ART PRINTS Featuring Mosquito BIVs DZ353 and DZ367 from No 105 Squadron at Marham in 1942 — colourised by Richard James Molloy — and BOAC Comet 4 G-APDA during 1958.

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From the

Editor W

e’ve mentioned it a lot, I know, but the Royal Air Force Museum’s programme of loans and disposals has — while provoking some criticism, not least from us — been transformational for the wider UK aviation museum scene. This is emphasised again this month, in which our news pages are dominated by the latest round of airframe moves. Who can deny that the B-25 Mitchell, while it was never displayed to best advantage at Hendon, will be a significantly more exciting sight ground-running at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre? The Avro 707C is clearly far better as a star attraction at the Avro Heritage Museum, rather than spending periods in and out of storage at Cosford, while the CASA 352 will end up a much more educative exhibit in Luftwaffe Ju 52/3m colours at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum than it is in prewar British Airways livery. In both of the latter cases, the addition of these aeroplanes is helping spur broader expansion efforts, thanks to the longer-term need to get them under cover. Good news all round. However, to see one of the RAFM’s two P-51D Mustangs being gifted to a collection in Australia has, understandably, raised eyebrows. This is in no way a slight against its recipient, the Hunter Fighter Collection, which will doubtless give the aeroplane a very good home. It is also a perfect

destination for the other aircraft it’s receiving from the RAFM, Vampire FB5 WA346, given how it will be restored to represent Australia’s first example of the type. But I still can’t help but think how the addition of a genuine Mustang would have been a major boost to many a UK collection or museum, just as the likes of the Avro 707C and CASA 352 are at Woodford and Hawkinge. There were, the RAFM says, British-based applicants for the Mustang, but they failed to score as highly against its application criteria. Given the P-51’s significance in Britain, might it, in this instance, have been worth offering a little more leeway? Still, given how the same process will hopefully end up with the B-25 running by night at East Kirkby, in RAF markings, exhausts flaring and glowing, I’m sure any disappointment will be forgotten. The whole Aeroplane team wishes all of you reading this a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. May it be an enjoyable time for you! And we’ve got plenty to look forward to during 2023, especially the 50th anniversary of Aeroplane Monthly. We’ll be celebrating in style with our May issue, which you won’t want to miss. And that’s just one of the highlights we’ve got planned. We look forward to bringing them to you.

ESTABLISHED 1911

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CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH ADAM BERRY Adam is an historian on troop carrier and airborne operations in World War Two, with a particular focus on the US 82nd Airborne Division and IX Troop Carrier Command. He has written three books on the subjects, with four more in the pipeline, many of which have been co-authored with Dutch historian Hans den Brok. Adam juggles the history work with his day job in the family security business, with what’s left of his time dedicated to his wife and daughters.

THOMAS McKELVEY CLEAVER A published aviation historian for 40 years, Thomas has maintained a lifelong interest in the aircraft and the people who ﬂew them in the Second World War. During three decades as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he wrote the cult classic The Terror Within and worked as a supervising producer on a number of TV series. He served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War and currently lives in Encino, California.

DONALD NIJBOER Ben Dunnell

BRUCE HALES-DUTTON: A TRIBUTE We were deeply sad to learn of the death on 21 November of Bruce Hales-Dutton, one of Aeroplane’s foremost contributors. Having spent a decade as a journalist, he joined the Department of Trade and Industry’s press oﬃce, heading up its aerospace desk, before becoming public relations manager with the British Airports Authority. Moving to the Civil Aviation Authority, he retired as its head of public relations. In retirement Bruce resumed his writing career for a very wide range of publications, mostly on commercial aviation topics, but also taking in many other subjects

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that fascinated him. He tackled all of them with the same aplomb, keen to interview those who were involved — and, as a result, he gained insights from some great names, such as Eric Brown and Harold Bamberg. He also volunteered at the Brooklands Museum. On a personal note, editing diﬀerent magazines for nearly two decades, Bruce was one of my favourite writers to work with, always entertaining to talk to, never missing a deadline and generating immaculate, well-researched and above all stimulating articles. Some of his work will continue to appear in our pages — the most ﬁtting tribute possible, I feel. Bruce will be very sorely missed indeed, and we send our condolences to his family and friends. BD

Aeroplane traces its lineage back to the weekly The Aeroplane, founded by C. G. Grey in 1911 and published until 1968. It was relaunched as a monthly in 1973 by Richard T. Riding, editor for 25 years until 1998.

Donald is a best-selling aviation author, historian, documentary writer/producer and Smithsonian Speaker who lives in Owen Sound, Canada. He is the author of 19 aviation titles to date, including The Mighty Eighth — Masters of the Air over Europe 1942-45, his latest for Osprey Publishing. In addition, he has contributed to several of the world’s leading historic aircraft magazines.

SVEN VAN ROIJ-REICHGELT A photo-journalist based in the Netherlands, Sven took his ﬁrst images at GilzeRijen air base during 2005. It didn’t take too long for his passion for photography to grow signiﬁcantly. While his day job is as a primary school teacher, he dedicates a good deal of his free time to seeking out beautiful areas with unique photographic opportunities. Since 2016, he’s also been doing air-to-air shoots.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

AA27111 Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 (Trop)

W W I I

‘Red 1’, Hauptmann Werner Schröer, Officer Commanding 8./ JG27, Rhodes, Greece, early 1943

£59.99 RRP

GERMAN DESERT ACE Welcome to the War Under the Sun! This distinctive Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 (Trop) was piloted by German Fighter Ace Werner Schröer out of Rhodes in early 1943. Schröer would go on to become the second most successful claimant of the Mediterranean theatre, and by the end of the war was credited with shooting down 114 aircraft. This model is the first in Corgi’s new range of Second World War aircraft in the new ‘War Under the Sun’ range.

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News

NEWS EDITOR: TONY HARMSWORTH E-MAIL TO: tony.harmsworth@keypublishing.com TELEPHONE: +44 (0)7791 808044 WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK

Here being dismantled in one of the storage hangars at the RAF Museum Midlands at Cosford in early November, P-51D Mustang 44-73415 is on its way to New South Wales, after being given away by the RAF Museum. RAFM

Disquiet at export of RAFM Mustang

orth American P-51D Mustang 44-73415 left the RAF Museum Midlands at Cosford on 11 November, heading for a new home in New South Wales, having been gifted to the Scone airfield-based Hunter Fighter Collection as part of the RAFM’s current disposals and loans programme. The former US Army Air Forces/Royal Canadian Air Force fighter had been obtained by the RAFM in the late 1980s in a swap deal that saw Supermarine Spitfire XVI SL574, the former Bentley Priory gate guard, go to the USA. The Spitfire is now on show at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. Airframes belonging to the Hunter Fighter Collection are displayed adjacent to the airworthy fleet of Hunter Warbirds, which already boasts a flying, former Royal Australian Air Force Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation-built

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Mustang, A68-107, at its aviation attraction. Several museums and collections in the UK have expressed surprise at the RAFM’s decision to gift the Mustang to an organisation on the other side of the world, when it could have become a prized exhibit in a UK museum, especially at a time when heritage organisations in Britain are feeling the eﬀects of the cost-of-living crisis and would welcome with open arms an uptick in visitor numbers that the addition of a World War Two ﬁghter would bring. In mid-November, Aeroplane sought to contact RAF Museum CEO Maggie Appleton about the

“

story, but she was unavailable for comment. Adam Shepherd, head of collections services at the museum, did reply to a request from Aeroplane, saying, “Following the advertisement of the P-51D Mustang for transfer by gift, the RAF Museum received formal applications from UK and overseas organisations. Most of these applicants were not museums. RAFM’s crossdepartmental assessment of these applications saw the Hunter Fighter Collection’s bid score the highest and indicated that they were in the best position to care for the aircraft long-term. The museum also deemed that the aircraft was more relevant to the access aims

The RAFM said, ‘Most of the applicants for the Mustang were not museums’

”

of this museum than the UKbased organisations”. However, this magazine has been informed that at least one major collection did apply for the Mustang, and it seems likely that others did too. The Mustang was one of two owned by the RAFM. Florida-based former Jaguar racing driver and anglophile Bob Tullius donated his ﬂyable P-51D, 44-74409, following the 2003 airshow season in the USA, and after being shipped to the UK it was unveiled during the opening of the Milestones of Flight building at Hendon on 17 December that year. P-51D 44-73415 had been wrecked in a fatal accident following engine failure after take-oﬀ on 19 March 1977 at Olympia Municipal Airport, Washington and was subsequently restored by a now long-defunct Californiabased restoration company on behalf of the Eagle Squadron

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

News January 2023 Association. Following its arrival at RAF Lyneham from the USA aboard an RAF Lockheed C-130K Hercules on 13 February 1989, the Mustang rebuild was found to be decidedly sub-standard, and a second restoration was entrusted to a largely volunteer team at the Halton-based No 1 School of Technical Training. Work to bring the fighter up to museum display standard began with the total dismantling of the aircraft in June 1989, and over the next year tasks completed included the repair and correct fitting of engine cowlings, manufacturing and installation of engine carburettor air intake scoops and ducting, fitting of a radio aerial, skin repairs to the fuselage, provision of gun port leading edges, the correct fitting of all flying controls, provision of all hydraulic pipelines and components in undercarriage bays and a complete respray, the previous restoration having lacked even primer paint. The completed machine was unveiled at RAF Halton’s open day on 14 June 1990, and in March 1991 44-73415 went on display in the Bomber Command Hall at Hendon wearing the markings of a Mustang from the 357th Fighter Group, 363rd Fighter Squadron, based at Leiston, Suffolk during September 1944. It was moved to Cosford in July 2003, but has been kept in storage for the past few years. Likewise gifted to the Hunter Fighter Collection by the RAFM is de Havilland Vampire FB5 WA346, which had also been in storage at Cosford. After it arrives at Scone in early 2023, the HFC will restore WA346 to represent one of Australia’s first jet fighters, FB5 A78-3, which was imported from Britain to familiarise the Royal Australian Air Force and Australian industry with the type prior to the manufacture of Vampires by de Havilland Australia, which built 88 examples at Bankstown. Meanwhile, at Hendon in late November, Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-8/U1 Werknummer 584219 — the world’s only surviving two-seat example of the type, which was dismantled during the spring of 2022 — still hadn’t left for Germany, where it is said to be headed on loan to a major museum.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

B-17G Texas Raiders performing at the 2019 Wings over Houston show. ALAN WILSON

CAF tragedy in Dallas leaves historic aviation community in shock

he loss of six crew members in the widely reported mid-air collision between the Commemorative Air Force’s Bell P-63F Kingcobra, 43-11719/N6763, and Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 44-83872/N7227C Texas Raiders during the CAF’s Wings over Dallas airshow at Dallas Executive Airport, Texas on 12 November has shaken the historic aviation community worldwide.

Killed in the accident were the P-63 pilot, Craig Hutain, and the five-man crew of the B-17, comprising Terry Barker, Len Root, Curtis Rowe, Kevin Michels and Korean War veteran Dan Ragan. A preliminary report on the accident from the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to appear before the end of the year, although a final report may not be published for up to 18 months.

The CAF’s P-63F was a unique example of the type. ALAN WILSON

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News January 2023

B-25 and another ‘Boly’ for East Kirkby

The nose of thrice film star TB-25N Mitchell 44-29366/N9115Z, after arrival at East Kirkby on 9 November. MARTIN KEEN

ollowing the arrival of a Bristol Bolingbroke, RCAF 9980, at East Kirkby on 22 October from the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Manitoba (see News, Aeroplane December 2022), the second week of November saw two further additions to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre in the shapes of North American TB‑25N Mitchell 44‑29366/N9115Z, and a second Bolingbroke. The Mitchell, which arrived on 9 November, has been gifted to the centre by the RAF Museum, the former Hanover Street film bomber having been on show in the Bomber Command Hall at Hendon since 1983. The Bolingbroke, RCAF 10073, has been acquired from the Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona. The second Bolingbroke — a Canadian‑built Bristol Blenheim — comprises one complete airframe and a spare set of wings. The centre section and tail are still due to be delivered, but the machine will provide much‑ needed parts and spares for the centre’s project to turn 9980 into a taxiable airframe. The spare wings are destined for the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge to enable completion of its Blenheim project, the final piece in a swap deal started during 2021

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for some Lancaster parts that were held in storage at Hawkinge. Reassembly of the B‑25 was due to commence during the last week of November. Andrew Panton, general manager at the centre — whose centrepiece exhibit, Avro Lancaster VII NX611 Just Jane is being restored to flying condition — remarked, “It’s an absolute delight to be able to bring the B‑25 to East Kirkby. The addition of this wonderful aircraft enables us to tell the story of Nos 98 and 180 Squadrons, RAF prior to D‑Day as part of No 2 Group, Bomber Command. Our role is to educate future generations about Bomber Command so they will continue

to be remembered. Having a range of aircraft operated by the command helps us to bring their memory alive. We hope to breathe life back into 44‑29366 in the coming years. We must extend our sincere gratitude to the RAF Museum for entrusting the future of the B‑25 to us, and to Welch’s Specialist Movements for their conscientious transportation.” Maggie Appleton, the RAF Museum’s chief executive officer, stated, “It’s wonderful to be sharing this announcement with the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. The B‑25 Mitchell is an aircraft steeped in history and has many inspiring

Bolingbroke RCAF 10073, with a spare set of wings, at East Kirkby on 14 November following its arrival from Arizona. MARTIN KEEN

stories to share — from its original development to the pilots that flew it. I look forward to visiting soon to see the aircraft in its new home.” Built by North American Aviation in Kansas City during September 1944, this B‑25 saw service as a trainer at bases all over the USA until 1958. After conversion into a fire‑bomber and the fitting of a 1,000‑gallon tank in the fuselage, it went into service with Sonora Flying Services in Columbia, California in 1960, registered N9115Z as ‘Tanker 48’, but was withdrawn in 1966 following a spate of accidents with firebombing B‑25s. During November 1968 it was acquired by Frank Tallman, the boss of Tallmantz Aviation and modified into bomber configuration at Orange County Airport for the film Catch-22, during which it wore the tail code 6M and nose art Hot Pants while filming was under way at San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico from January‑April 1969. In 1972 David Tallichet acquired the B‑25 for his Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation at Chino, California, and it was displayed at Tampa, Florida, adjacent to one of Tallichet’s Specialty Restaurants, bearing the signature of James Doolittle and wearing the name Toujours au Danger, the motto of the 16th Bomb Group. During the spring of 1978 it was one of five B‑25s flown to the UK for the Harrison Ford vehicle Hanover Street, filmed at Bovingdon, Hertfordshire during that summer. It wore the nose art Marvellous Miriam during filming, after which it was stored at Blackbushe. The Mitchell was acquired by Doug Arnold in June 1979 for his locally based Warbirds of Great Britain collection. A third feature film appearance, albeit static, came at Blackbushe during production of the 1981 World War Two spy drama Eye of the Needle starring Donald Sutherland, before a move to Hendon on loan to the RAF Museum in October 1982. It was acquired by the museum as part of a trade the following year.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

News January 2023

NEWS IN BRIEF STARLINER AND JU 52 TO EMERGE FOR LUFTHANSA 100TH In mid-November, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr announced that Lockheed L-1694A Starliner N7316C and Junkers Ju 52/3m ‘D-AQUI’/D-CDLH — both currently stored at Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport — will be put on permanent display in either Frankfurt or Munich in 2026 to celebrate the airline’s centenary. The latest, spectacular addition to the Military Aviation Museum fleet, A6M3 Zero 3148, outside the Legend Flyers hangar in Everett, Washington during October. VIA MAM

MAM bags a Zero

n 10 November the Virginia Beachbased Military Aviation Museum announced the acquisition of Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero c/n 3148, which will fly soon following restoration by Legend Flyers in Everett, Washington. Built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in September 1942, 3148 is now painted in its original wartime markings, replicated down to an unusual set of insignia on the fuselage that indicate the fighter was donated to the Imperial Japanese Navy by middle-schoolers in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. The machine was stationed at bases across the South Pacific, research undertaken by Legend Flyers suggesting 3148 was part of the 252nd Kokutai (Naval Air Group). Later it would fight from bases at Rabaul, as well as Balalae and Munda, in the Solomon Islands, before being ordered to Taroa in the Marshall Islands in March 1943. During its operational career, 3148 saw action against both US Army

Air Forces and US Navy aircraft, but it was shrapnel damage from a bomb blast while parked close to the runway at the important Japanese base on Taroa that would end its career. The A6M sat at Taroa until 1991, when it was transported to the USA in the hope of restoration. Following several changes of ownership, the Zero finally found its way to Legend Flyers in the spring of 2011. Work on the aircraft began in earnest a decade ago. Military Aviation Museum director Keegan Chetwynd explains, “Aircraft acquisitions by the museum are always a carefully thought-out endeavour. Restorations represent a significant investment of time, and of funding, requiring that they be planned out long in advance. The museum has a collection plan that has identified aeroplanes that are key to sharing the narrative of World War Two with a modern audience, and the Zero was one of our highest-priority targets.”

AUSTER MOVES TO COVENTRY In another of the current series of RAF Museum aircraft moves, Auster C4 Antarctic WE600 has left Cosford bound for the Midland Air Museum at Coventry. BEN DUNNELL

ELVINGTON TOWER APPEAL The Yorkshire Air Museum has launched a fundraising campaign to help with the restoration of the grade 2-listed World War Two control tower at its Elvington base. The windows and external rendering need replacing, to which end the YAM is looking to raise £100,000. The work is being carried out by specialist builders and engineers at a total cost of around £200,000. BD

CLOSE CALL FOR OLDEST CHIPMUNK During an airshow at Bragado airfield, Argentina on 5 November, the world’s oldest surviving DHC-1 Chipmunk, LV-NRY (c/n 3), was seriously damaged when it hit an antenna during a pass, the pilot managing to land the historic machine with the outboard starboard wing missing.

THUNDERBOLT FIRES UP The Pratt & Whitney R-2800-59 Double Wasp engine newly fitted to Republic P-47D Thunderbolt 42-27609 burst into life for the first time on 26 October in Bemidji, Minnesota, as the hefty fighter nears a first flight following a complete rebuild by AirCorps Aviation which has lasted seven years to date. The Thunderbolt is owned by the Minot, It will almost be a shame to paint the North Dakota-based Dakota Territory Air gleaming P-47D 42-27609 in its wartime olive drab scheme. It is pictured having its Museum. Believed to have served with the R-2800-59 run in October. AARON PRINCE 35th Fighter Group, it was recovered from Dobodura airstrip in New Guinea during 1998, 52 years after it had been written off and stripped for usable parts. The hulk of the fuselage spent many years at Dobodura being displayed vertically, with the firewall set in concrete. Recovered to Sydney, Australia in January 1999, the P-47 was acquired by the Dakota Territory Air Museum in 2014.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

CSERIES NOSE ON SHOW IN MONTREAL The nose section of a pre-production Bombardier CSeries, C-FPGI, a type which is currently in production as the Airbus A220, recently went on show outside the Montreal Aviation Museum in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec.

NEWQUAY MUSEUM CLOSED As expected, the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre closed its doors at Newquay Airport following the termination of its lease at the end of October. In a Facebook post, the CAHC says, “We continue to campaign for staying on the Newquay Airport estate whilst developing alternative plans.” BD

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News January 2023

Hawkinge gets another CASA

he Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge, near Folkestone, took delivery of a CASA 352, the Spanish-built version of the Junkers Ju 52/3m, on 19 November from the RAF Museum Midlands at Cosford. The tri-motor transport joins an example of the CASA 2.111B, the Merlin-engined, Spanish-built version of the Heinkel He 111, which was gifted to the Hawkinge museum by the Imperial War Museums in October 2019. Dave Brocklehurst MBE, chairman of the Kent Battle of Britain Museum Trust said, “We are extremely grateful to the RAF Museum that they have transferred this beautiful aircraft to Hawkinge. Following their due diligence and bidding process, we were deemed the most appropriate location for the machine. “Now it has arrived, the volunteers have already started to scotch the existing paintwork in preparation for a high-spec automotive paint to be applied. The scheme will represent an aircraft that would have been used if Operation ‘Sea Lion’ had taken place. Internally, as with the [CASA 2.111], it will be thoroughly treated with preservative (ACF 50) to protect and inhibit it from further corrosion or deterioration. This is carried out annually with the Heinkel and our Bristol Blenheim IV (Bolingbroke) project and, as anyone who has already visited has seen, this is working extremely well. From the 2023 season onwards the interior of the CASA 352 fuselage will be turned into the museum’s new

The fuselage of CASA 352 T.2B-272 being unloaded at Hawkinge on 19 November, with Kent Battle of Britain Museum Trust chairman Dave Brocklehurst in the cockpit.

education facility where we can accommodate school and college groups and teach them about the Battle of Britain and the planned invasion of Great Britain during the summer of 1940. “In the meantime the trustees are working hard to acquire 1.6 acres of allocated land adjacent to our current site, and as soon as we do we will be erecting a hangar suitable to house all these aircraft and several others that we are currently trying to acquire. This, we anticipate, will take around two to three years. If anyone is aware of any historic pre-war or World War Two hangars currently under threat of destruction, please contact me as we are hoping to secure and safeguard one or two of these for the museum’s planned expansion.” Built in late 1954 by Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) at Getafe, just south of Madrid, as the 163rd of 170

CASA 352s for the Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force), the machine was originally fitted with BMW 132 engines built under licence from Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke. As a 352A-1 paratroop version, with a capacity of 18 paratroopers, it was rolled out on New Year’s Eve 1954, entering service as serial T.2-272 on 18 January 1955 at the Military Parachutist School at Alcantarilla, Murcia. During a June 1958 overhaul at Getafe it was fitted with Spanish-built ENMASA E9B ‘Beta’ engines, a copy of the Wright R-1820 Cyclone, and on 8 February 1961 it was assigned to Ala 36 (the 36th Wing) at Gando in the Canary Islands with a new serial, T.2B-272. The aeroplane returned to the parachutist school at Alcantarilla on 6 November 1968, serving there until retirement in December 1972 when it was

flown to Cuatro Vientos, Madrid to go into storage with several other CASA 352s. Although the type was officially retired from Spanish Air Force service in late 1973, T.2B-272 made its last flight under military ownership from Cuatro Vientos as late as June 1976. The following June it was put up for auction and acquired by the RAF Museum, being brought back to flying trim by Spanish Air Force engineers in a hangar at Cuatro Vientos during October. The ferry pilot for the flight back to UK was Don Bullock of Euroworld, accompanied by engineer Peter Warren, who was to lose his life alongside Bullock in the Douglas A-26 Invader crash at Biggin Hill in September 1980. After a night-stop at Cazaux air base in the south of France, the CASA arrived at Biggin Hill just in time to go on display in the static park at the 1978 Air Fair, being intercepted on the day before the show over Kent by Supermarine Spitfire IX MH434 with Ray Hanna at the controls. Four days later it made its last flight, from Biggin to the then Aerospace Museum at Cosford. Having spent six years on display, during October 1985 T.2B-272 — with the aid of sponsorship from the then state-owned flag-carrier British Airways — was painted up as a pre-war British Airways Ju 52/3m, G-AFAP, which had entered service with the airline during 1938 and was captured by the Germans at Oslo’s Fornebu airport on 9 April 1940.

An illustration of the Operation ‘Sea Lion’ colour scheme it is surmised would have been applied to Junkers Ju 52/3ms of transport unit 6./KGrzbV 1, had the invasion of Britain gone ahead. CLINT MITCHELL

12 www.Key.Aero

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News January 2023

Airline Gemini goes on show at Kristiansand

iles M65 Gemini 1A LN-TAH went on display in the terminal building at Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik in southern Norway at the end of October, 74 years after it entered service with Sørfly A/S at the same location. The historic Miles twin, which first flew as G-AKKA at Woodley on 13 October 1947, has been restored over the past few years in a workshop in a local barn by a team lead by Frithjof Johan Ruud. Although a static restoration, no detail has been overlooked, and the Gemini has a fully fitted-out cabin, with every instrument installed. Sørfly was a general aviation operation, set up in 1946, its office being in a Luftwaffe barrack block built during the occupation with the aircraft housed in a wartime Luftwaffe hangar. Initially equipped with three Auster Autocrats for

The immaculate Gemini 1A LN-TAH on display in the terminal building at Kristiansand Airport, Norway, where it was operated by Sørfly during the late 1940s and early 1950s. VEST-AGDER-MUSEET

sightseeing work, the arrival of the Gemini two years later saw the start of scheduled services, under contract to DNL, otherwise known as Norwegian Air Lines. This continued until 1951, when DNL took over the service. The Gemini was

Four of the Hurricanes that will be part of IWM Duxford’s upcoming exhibition flying together in September. BEN DUNNELL

also used on photographic work and as a target tug for the Royal Norwegian Air Force, but in 1956 that contract was also terminated, the air force requiring tugs with far better performance than the Gemini could provide.

The airline was shut down in 1962. After time with a couple of private owners, the Gemini was donated to the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo during 1982, being transferred 10 years later to the Sola Aviation Museum.

DUXFORD RESTORATIONS BACK ON VIEW On 17 October, IWM Duxford’s Conservation in Action hangar reopened following an extensive refurbishment. Among the restoration projects now available for viewing are Avro Shackleton MR3/3 XF708, the restoration of which began in early November, with a planned completion in three years’ time. The IWM’s Heinkel He 162A-1 Werknummer 120235, the only known complete surviving A-1 variant of the ‘Salamander’, is also on show again as a forensic conservation programme on the last-ditch Nazi fighter gets under way.

‘UNSUNG HERO’ HURRICANES AT DUXFORD Following the huge success of the IWM’s Spitfire: Evolution of an icon exhibition held at Duxford from December 2021-February 2022, a Hurricane: Unsung Hero display will be staged in the conservation hall part of the AirSpace hangar from 27 December 2022-19 February 2023. Seven Hurricanes are scheduled to be on show, including the Shuttleworth Collection’s Sea Hurricane Ib Z7015, visiting from its Old Warden base. There is no extra charge to view the exhibition on top of general admission to Duxford, though a variety of ticketed events will also be held during the period for which additional entry fees are levied.

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Paint-stripping of the fuselage of the IWM’s Shackleton MR3/3, XF708, was well under way at Duxford on 19 November. MIKE SHREEVE

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

News January 2023

Unique 707C arrives at Avro Heritage Museum

he unique, experimental Avro 707C WZ744 arrived at the Avro Heritage Museum at Woodford, Cheshire, from the RAF Museum Midlands at Cosford on 15 November, having been gifted by the RAFM. Of the ﬁve 707 ‘proof of concept’ delta-wing experimental aircraft built between 1949 and ’53, WZ744 was the only two-seater, making its maiden ﬂight on 1 July 1953. Museum spokesman John Hepple says, “The aircraft is now assembled here at Woodford in one of the old simulator halls. We have short-term use of the building, and will soon be starting ‘behind the scenes’ sessions there, dependant on volunteer availability. We are currently working hard on getting an extension to properly display the 707C and other airframes, including Avro Shackleton AEW2 WR960.”

Avro 707C WZ744 immediately after arrival at the Avro Heritage Museum on 15 November, with one of the aircraft it spawned, Vulcan B2 XM603, in the background. NEIL DRAPER

The chairman of the Avro Heritage Museum, Terry Barnes added in a statement, “We are extremely grateful to have been chosen by the RAF Museum as the new location for the aircraft, Woodford being its spiritual home. WZ744 was the ﬁrst ﬂy-

by-wire, sidestick and two-seater delta-wing jet. Yet another Avro ﬁrst. This is a major part of Avro history and adds greatly to the museum’s story of aircraft development from 1907 to 2011. The ﬁve 707 aircraft were a critical test element in the design

of the Avro Vulcan. Visitors will now be able to directly compare the 707C with our Vulcan B2, XM603. Visitor numbers are now signiﬁcantly higher than pre-pandemic, and the 707C will greatly add to the visitor experience.”

HERO’S WHIRLWIND UNDER REBUILD AT MORAYVIA The current restoration project at the Morayvia museum at Kinloss is 1955-built Westland Whirlwind HAR10 XJ723, which has an illustrious search and rescue history. Previously used as an instructional airframe at Newcastle University, the Whirlwind was donated to Morayvia during 2017 by Yorkshire Helicopter Preservation Group veteran Brian Dixon, and was kept in storage at Spey Bay, Elgin prior to its recent arrival at Kinloss. On 27 December 1965, the Leconfield, Yorkshire-based, No 202 Squadron-operated XJ723, crewed by pilot Flt Sgt Leon Smith, navigator Flt Lt John Hill and winchman Flt Sgt John Reeson, was scrambled to rescue the crew of Britain’s first offshore drilling platform, the Sea Gem oil rig. It had capsized off the north-east coast of England after two of the structure’s 10 steel legs collapsed, killing four of the 32 crew. In severely adverse weather conditions, winchman Reeson helped to rescue the majority of the Sea Gem crew, although a further 13 were to lose their lives, with another five suffering serious injuries. For his heroic work Reeson was awarded the George Medal, with John Hill receiving the Air Force Cross and Leon Smith a Queen’s Commendation. John Reeson died in November 2014, and the helicopter is being restored in tribute. Morayvia founder John Pountney says, “The Whirlwind was originally covered in magnesium alloy which wasn’t the best of materials for an aircraft that flew in a salt-laden atmosphere for most of its life. Work on reskinning is progressing well with most of the

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

The fuselage of one of the most historic surviving Westland Whirlwinds, HAR10 XJ723, in the Morayvia workshop. JOHN POUNTNEY

fuselage ready for priming, and then the really boring task of ﬁlling all the holes in the rivet heads, as we had to use non-aviation rivets for cost-cutting purposes — and there are thousands of them. We hope to start on the interior soon. The instrument panel is complete and the seats are salvageable, the three-man cabin seat is new, and we now just need a starboard collective lever.”

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CHRISTMAS SPECIAL Preservation Review IWM Duxford’s newly restored Victor B(K)1A, XH648. KEY/MARTIN NEEDHAM

PRESERVATION REVIEW OF 2022 As we enter the festive period, what better time to look back at the year’s big events on the worldwide aviation heritage scene WORDS: BEN DUNNELL

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JANUARY

The Helicopter Museum receives Bristol Belvedere HC1 XG454, formerly exhibited at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester

Ex No-32 (The Royal) Squadron BAe 146 CC2 ZE701 arrives at IWM Duxford on delivery to the Duxford Aviation Society. To make room, Handley Page Dart Herald 201 G-APWJ later leaves, on loan to Morayvia at Kinloss

KEY/BEN DUNNELL

his has been a year rich in maiden post-restoration flights, and when they include such notable aeroplanes as a combat veteran F4U-1 Corsair, Messerschmitt Bf 109G and Spitfire XIV, a very historic Nieuport 28, and a Wildcat in a colour scheme not previously seen in preservation, there is truly a great deal to cheer. Add in completion of several longterm reproduction projects, like the Fokker D.XXI, and the picture is even more positive. These are machines which will hopefully grace the skies for many years to come — and the public debuts of several are eagerly awaited as we move into 2023. Against that, the UK preservation movement is being adversely affected by several high-profile airfield and museum closures. The need to move Vulcan XH558 from Doncaster Sheffield Airport hit the headlines, while the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre has been forced to shut its Newquay Airport premises. Elsewhere, however, positive outcomes have been derived from the dispersal of the Manchester Science and Industry Museum’s aircraft exhibits, which have significantly enriched other collections around the country. Other loans and disposals from national collections that are on the cards emphasise that these decisions, while not always welcome, can be used for the broader good.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

FEBRUARY

Avro 707A WZ738 and English Electric P1A WG763, the last two complete airframes to leave Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum, arrive with the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection at Old Sarum The RAF Museum’s former special duties Westland Lysander IIIa R9125 returns to Hendon after restoration at Cosford At Titusville, Florida, Doug Matthews gets airborne in North American F-86F Sabre 52-5116/ N286CF following its restoration

Vought F4U-1D Corsair VH-NQW, owned by North Queensland Warbirds, completes its post-restoration ﬂight at Mareeba, becoming a rare airworthy specimen of a World War Two combat veteran F4U.

MARCH

APRIL

Ex-QinetiQ variable-stability Beagle Basset CC1 XS743 becomes latest former test airframe to arrive at the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection The RAF’s last BAe 146 CC2, ZE700, lands at St Athan to join the South Wales Aviation Museum

Mikael Carlson completes the first post-restoration flight of the Collings Foundation’s Nieuport 28C-1 at his airfield near Sebbarp, Sweden Martin Phillips’ two-seat Spitfire IXT, BS410, takes to the air following restoration by the Spitfire Company at Biggin Hill; it subsequently enters service with Goodwood-based Spitfires.com on passenger rides Dutch Hawker Hunter Foundation announces sale of single-seat Hunter

VIA PLATINUM FIGHTERS

F6A XF515/G-KAXF to Canadian defence contractor Lortie Aviation, and replacement with two-seat T68 J-4205 At La Ferté-Alais, France, the Memorial Flight association’s Royal Aircraft Factory BE2f reproduction ﬂies for the ﬁrst time Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker 60-0329, a Vietnam War veteran, is added to the National Museum of the US Air Force collection and subsequently goes on public display

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Vintage Wings of Canada’s Hawker Hurricane XII, RCAF 5447/C-FTPM, makes its maiden ﬂight from Ottawa’s Gatineau airport after a 15-year restoration

RAFM

Legendary combat veteran Boeing Chinook HC6A ZA718 ‘Bravo November’ goes on show at RAF Museum Cosford

Conﬁrmation that ownership of Avro XIX G-AHKX, Blackburn B-2 G-AEBJ and de Havilland DH60 Moth G-EBLV is being transferred from BAE Systems to the Shuttleworth Collection Lockheed 12A G-AFTL, ﬂown over Germany on clandestine photoreconnaissance duties by Sidney Cotton, arrives at the Air Leasing premises at Sywell following acquisition by Fighter Aviation Engineering Ex-USAF and CIA Lockheed U-2C 56-6716 is received by the Hill Aerospace Museum in Utah from DavisMonthan AFB, Arizona

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

MIKE POTTER/VWOC

www.Key.Aero 17

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL Preservation Review MAY JULY

Europe gets an airworthy Cessna T-50 Bobcat, as N60453 completes a trans-Atlantic delivery flight to its new owners, the FliegerStadl group at Landshut, southern Germany The W Aircollection’s combat veteran Supermarine Spitfire FRXIVe RM927/G-SXIV, restored by Air Leasing at Sywell, flies for the first time in more than 70 years; shortly afterwards it arrives at its La FertéAlais base The Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington is announced as the future home of the Shackleton Aviation Group’s taxiable Avro Shackleton MR2 WR963, being forced to move with the impending closure of Coventry Airport The highest-scoring US fighter ace of World War Two still surviving, C. E. ‘Bud’ Anderson, has his 100th birthday celebrated during the EAA AirVenture show at Oshkosh by a formation of a Bell P-39 Airacobra and two North American P-51 Mustangs all in his former Old Crow markings; ‘Bud’ flies with them in a TF-51D The last flying Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer in the world, VH-SYS, is ferried to Albion Park, New South Wales from nearby Wedderburn after being donated to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society

The RAF Station Czechoslovakia’s Miles Magister, N3827/G-CLHY, gets airborne at Henstridge after two-and-a-half years of restoration by Kevin Crumplin; the next day, it flies in a unique fiveship Magister formation at an Old Warden evening show, prior to delivery to its new home at Podhorany in the Czech Republic

JUNE

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The Aeroplane Collection opens its doors at the historic former aerodrome at Hooton Park for the first time in many years Douglas C-47B KK116/G-AMPY leaves Coventry Airport after being resident for decades, en route to its new owner, the US-based Dakota Airlift Foundation Vanguard Self Storage puts first production Hawker Hunter F1 WT555, newly restored by North Weald Heritage Aviation, on show at its west London headquarters The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada reopens in spectacular new premises near Winnipeg National Airport, highlights including freshly restored Bellanca Aircruiser CF-AWR Reproduction Fokker D.XXI PH-XXV makes a first, short, flight at Hoogeveen, the Netherlands — not since the type’s retirement by the Finnish Air Force had any example of the Dutch fighter been airborne

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Pete Kynsey takes the Lakes Flying Company Waterbird replica into the air from Lake Windermere for the first time Navy Wings announces a stop to work on returning de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW2 XP924 to flying condition, but that it will pursue the restoration of Hawker Sea Hawk FGA6 WV908 The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s Fairey Firefly AS6, WH632, flies at Hamilton, Ontario, after eight years of work Ed Storo makes the maiden flight of his Pratt & Whitney Wasp-engined replica Bristol Bulldog at Independence State Airport, Oregon, concluding a 24-year build project

de Havilland Mosquito B35 VR796/C-FHMJ flies from Vancouver to Kelowna, British Columbia, the ex-Bob Jens aircraft’s new home as part of the freshly founded KF Aerospace Centre for Excellence Air Museum

MARTHA MARTIN

BEN DUNNELL

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Hawker Hurricane XII RCAF 5481/G-ORGI flies at Sywell, having arrived from Australia the previous September; subsequently delivered to Warbird Experiences at Biggin Hill

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KF AEROSPACE

At Danville, Illinois, Steve Hinton takes Bruce Winter’s Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 Werknummer 410077 into the air upon completion of its rebuild by Midwest Aero Restorations

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

KEY/BEN DUNNELL

AUGUST

A news release conﬁrms the longheralded acquisition of the entire Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum collection, established by the late Paul Allen, by entrepreneur and philanthropist Steuart Walton; it also announces that it will remain at its Paine Field, Washington, location Hawker Hurricane IV KZ321/ OO-HUR, operated as part of the

Aviation Museum collection at Tocná in Prague, is destroyed in an accident while displaying at an airshow in Cheb, Czech Republic, which kills pilot Petr Paces The Vulcan to the Sky Trust says Vulcan B2 XH558 will have to leave its home at Doncaster Sheﬃeld Airport — under threat of closure — during 2023; the airport, the old RAF Finningley, was due to shut in late November

Lockheed 10A Electra CF-TCC becomes the latest exhibit at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada

One-off Reid and Sigrist RS4 Desford VZ728/G-AGOS makes its final flight from Spanhoe to the Newark Air Museum, with Dan Griffith at the controls

SEPTEMBER

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The Helicopter Museum receives EHIndustries EH101 Heliliner prototype G-IOIO/ZJ116 from the RAF Museum

OCTOBER

IWM Duxford unveils newly restored Handley Page Victor B(K)1A

XH648

Tom Harris’s Grumman FM-2 Wildcat BuNo 86690/G-KINL flies at Duxford, having been returned to airworthiness by the Aircraft Restoration Company Three airframes — Supermarine Spitfire LFXVIe TE214, an Avro Canada CF-100 and Canadair Sabre — are gifted by Ingenium to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, a move which will see the Spitfire being restored to fly Closure of the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre at Newquay Airport, following termination of its lease by the local council

NOVEMBER

Mid-air collision during the Commemorative Air Force’s Wings over Dallas show at Dallas Executive Airport, Texas kills a total of six crew aboard the CAF’s B-17G N7227C Texas Raiders and P-63F Kingcobra N6763 Woodford’s Avro Heritage Museum announces receipt of Avro 707C WZ744, formerly stored with the RAF Museum at Cosford; this follows the departure of another previous Cosford exhibit to its new home, Auster C4 Antarctic WE600 moving to the Midland Air Museum at Coventry, while CASA 352L (Ju 52/3m) T.2B-272 heads for the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge

PHAM

An ex-Imperial Japanese Navy Aichi D3A ‘Val’ dive-bomber, believed to have been recovered from the Solomon Islands in 2019, arrives at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum for restoration

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

www.Key.Aero 19

Comment

STEVE SLATER

HangarTalk Comment on historic aviation by the chief executive of the UK’s Light Aircraft Association

he launch on 16 November of NASA’s huge Artemis 1 rocket and associated Orion spacecraft on its 26-day mission to the moon and back will for so many have evoked memories of the excitement of the Apollo launches of five decades ago. I can remember as a schoolboy devouring reports of those missions and the superstar astronauts who flew them. I never imagined, though, that I’d ever get to meet one of the true greats. Artemis is set to break a longstanding record for the longest lunar mission, travelling 280,000 miles (450,000km) from earth, and 40,000 miles (64,000km) beyond the far side of the moon. That will surpass the distance set in 1970 by Apollo 13, when — as a result of an extended orbit following the explosion of an oxygen tank — it flew 249,500 miles (401,056km) from earth before starting its return home. For several days, NASA technicians and the crew of Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise effectively redesigned the systems of their craft to allow sufficient oxygen and power to be saved to bring them home. When they splashed down in the Pacific on 17 April 1970, they had flown the furthest distance humans have ever travelled from earth. That record remains, at least until the manned Artemis 2 mission launches in 2024. My personal contact came in October 2013 when the Apollo 13 commander, Jim Lovell,

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Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell inspiring a new generation at the Science Museum. ANDREW SMITH

was invited to London by the Honourable Company of Air Pilots to receive its Award of Honour. As the company’s PR man, I helped set up a photocall at the Science Museum with the Apollo 10 command module,

“

friendliest, most likeable people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. By coincidence, I recently found my old notebook containing my scribbles from his visit. At that time Jim was in his mid-80s but was still happily

When you look back at earth, you know that’s where you want to be before some interviews with Jim at the RAF Club in Piccadilly. As assignments go, this had to be one of the best. It was made all the better by Jim and his wife Marilyn, who turned out to be two of the

”

commuting in his Cessna 340 twin between his summer home near Chicago and his ‘winter quarters’ in Florida. “I still get a big kick from ﬂying”, he said. “No matter what you ﬂy, the thrill’s the same.”

My notes also stated he enjoyed the more manual flying of the earlier spacecraft to the complex Apollo craft. Prior to Apollo, Lovell flew on two Gemini missions, Gemini 7 in 1965 and Gemini 12 in 1966, and then Apollo 8 and Apollo 13. He was thus the first person to fly into space four times. In total, Lovell flew 715 hours on his Gemini and Apollo flights, a record for hours in space that went unbeaten until the Skylab orbital missions began in the 1970s. “Gemini was more of an aeroplane than Apollo”, he commented. “It was simpler. It had a four-gimbal platform with gyros that would never tumble. Great to fly… Technology changed with Apollo — by the end there were cutbacks — but even if I was the age I am right now, and we have the technology, I’d be on that Mars flight right now.” One moment will forever remain. After a photocall and TV interviews at the Science Museum, Jim spotted a party of youngsters on a school visit. At Jim’s instigation, I asked their teacher if they wanted to talk to a real astronaut. Jim spent half an hour chatting to the youngsters, clearly in his element. The best question: “What is the moon really like?” Well, said the man who had seen it up-close twice, even if he had never landed, “It’s really a bit dull and grey. And dusty. When you look back and see the earth all blue and white in the sky, you know that’s where you want to be”.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

HELP US RAISE £100,000 Our 1942, Grade II listed, Control Tower needs some love and attention. It was witness to thousands of bombing raids during the War, which came at a huge cost to the aircrews involved. But time and the elements have taken their toll and now it needs the windows and rendering replacing. Help us preserve this living memorial to Bomber Command by ak aki a donation towards our target of £100,000. making

MAKE A DONATION AT MUSEUM ADMISSIONS OR SCAN THIS QR CODE TO VISIT OUR FUNDRAISING PAGE

More information at yorkshireairmuseum.org

Comment

DENIS J. CALVERT

Flight FlightLine Recollections and reflections — a seasoned reporter’s view of aviation history

he aviation world has always been assiduous in celebrating its notable anniversaries. Yet one truly momentous event that occurred almost exactly 75 years ago ‘as I write’ has gained little recent publicity. I refer, of course, to 14 October 1947, the day Charles ‘Chuck’ Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier, in a rocket-powered Bell X-1 over California’s Mojave Desert. Far from making the next morning’s papers, news of the achievement only leaked out on 22 December, when the Los Angeles Examiner broke the story, quoting ‘unofficial sources’. The X-1 was the result of a US Army Air Forces/National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics development programme, its construction being entrusted to the Bell Aircraft Corporation of Niagara Falls, New York with the final specification agreed in December 1944. The rocket engine, a four-chamber design, was the Reaction Motors XLR-11. It had no throttle control, but each of four chambers could be ignited individually, so the pilot could select anything from 1,500 to the full 6,000lb thrust. The X-1 was not designed for conventional ground take-offs, its rocket engine having fuel for only a very limited burn time, so it was carried to height in the bomb bay of a converted Boeing

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Lesser publications might call this an ‘iconic’ (ugh) image, but it almost merits the over-used description: Bell X-1 46-062 with rocket lit. USAF

B-29. Three X-1s were built, 46-062, 46-063 and 46-064, and flight-testing started in early 1946. Bell’s Jack Woolams was appointed as X-1 project pilot and made the initial glide flights, but was killed in the crash of a race-configured Bell P-39 in August 1946. Chalmers ‘Slick’ Goodlin then took over and made the first powered flight at Muroc Army Air Base (now Edwards AFB) in 46-063 on 9 December 1946, achieving Mach 0.75. He would likely have gone on to achieve supersonic flight, were it not for a strange turn of

events. It is said Goodlin tried to negotiate with the AAF for hazard money for ﬂights above Mach 0.85. This, and the AAF’s desire to put military test pilots onto the programme ‘to speed things up’, led to the assignment of Yeager as primary X-1 pilot, with Bob Hoover as back-up. On the morning of 14 October 1947, 46-062 was fuelled and made ready for an attempt at supersonic ﬂight. The launch from B-29 45-21800 was made some 23 miles south-east of Muroc, when the mother-ship was at 20,000ft. Two Lockheed

P-80s were flying chase, with Bob Hoover in the ‘high chase’ position. Yeager in the X-1 was released from the B-29 at 10.26hrs and ignited all four chambers in quick succession, climbing to 40,000ft. As the X-1 passed the high chase P-80, Hoover took a classic (black-and-white) photo of the still-accelerating X-1, a print of which was delivered to President Harry S. Truman the following morning. Yeager landed back at Muroc after a flight of just 14 minutes. His instruments indicated he had reached Mach 1.05, and he reported no buffeting or other indication in the cockpit as he passed through the ‘sound barrier’. Confirmation later came that he had reached Mach 1.06. Yeager went on to make 35 flights in the X-1, achieving Mach 1.5 and 70,000ft. As well as being feted as ‘the first man to pass Mach 1’, Yeager claimed another tongue-in-cheek achievement. In 1997, the US Postal Service issued a 32-cent stamp featuring a profile of the X-1 and the legend ‘First Supersonic Flight 1947’. He declared that he was the first living person to feature on a US postage stamp, but close examination of the image under magnification shows there is nobody — not even a bonedome — in the cockpit. The strict USPS regulations that forbid depicting a living person had, indeed, been respected.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

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LETTER of the MONTH

The advert from The Aeroplane 80 years ago featuring No 218 Squadron Stirling W7530 (left), and a picture of its crew.

ighty years ago this month, The Aeroplane included an advert for Short Brothers which featured a Stirling I, W7530/Q-HA. As the son of the navigator on this Stirling, I thought your readers might be interested in the fate of the aircraft and its crew. W7530 was built by Austin Motors at Longbridge and was first delivered to No 218 Squadron at Marham, Norfolk on 8 May 1942. It was the replacement for Stirling R9313, which had crashed in Sussex on 5 May 1942 having been shot down in a ‘friendly fire’ incident involving a Hurricane/Turbinlite Havoc combination based at Tangmere. Thankfully, all the crew survived, although on the night of 20-21 June they were not so lucky. W7530 departed Marham at 23.30hrs under the command of 40-year-old Sqn Ldr Harold Ashworth, joining 286 other bombers whose target was the German port of Emden. On the way back, the aircraft was intercepted by a German night fighter over the Netherlands and, despite the heroic efforts of the crew, was shot down, eventually

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crashing in a field at Wadway, north-west of Hoorn, a city north of Amsterdam. Sadly, Ashworth and the upper gunner, 19-year-old Sgt William Watt, died in the crash, while the front gunner, 22-yearold Sgt William Whitehead, perished as his parachute failed to open. The remaining five crew members bailed out successfully, including my late father Plt Off Alan Green, the

navigator, who had just turned 22. After a couple of days spent hiding in a copse, supported by Dutch farmers, Alan made his way towards Amsterdam to meet the resistance, although he was arrested at a nearby tram station and became a PoW, eventually ending up in Stalag Luft III, famous for the ‘Wooden Horse’ and the ‘Great Escape’. Meanwhile, the other four crew members were quickly taken

Stuart Green revisits the memorial to W7530.

prisoner, the second pilot, Flt Lt Des Plunkett, and the wireless operator, Reg Attwood, also ending up in Stalag Luft III, while Sgts Thomas Mulroy and William Hayden, the rear gunner and flight engineer respectively, were sent to Camp 357. Ashworth had been a celebrated civilian pilot before the war, having gained his licence in 1928 and competed in several air races; he was posthumously awarded the DFC in June 1943. Des Plunkett went on to play a major role in the ‘Great Escape’, firstly as the ‘map-maker’ and then as the 13th man out of the tunnel. He evaded capture for two weeks and travelled the furthest of all the British escapers, but was arrested on the Austrian border. Having suffered weeks of torture and interrogation at the hands of the Gestapo in Prague, he was eventually sent to Stalag Luft I for the remainder of the war. This was my father’s 23rd mission and his 16th with Ashworth as captain, although they had in fact flown together a total of 33 times on training and operational duties prior to this fateful night. My father’s

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

Skywriters Bomber Command career started with seven missions on the Wellington, including the famous ‘Channel Dash’ in February 1942. He was involved in a number of notable raids, such as a top-secret mission to bomb the Skoda factory in Pilsen on 25-26 April 1942 (Operation ‘Canonbury’) and the first thousand-bomber raid on Cologne, when his crew had AVM Baldwin on board W7530 as an observer. Having survived the ‘Long March’ in January/ February 1945, he ended up in another overcrowded camp near Berlin, before being liberated by the Russians and handed over to the US Army. Although he survived the war, its effects caught up with him, as he died suddenly on his 56th birthday in 1976. In 2011, I started researching his story, starting with a trip to Stalag Luft III with my family. Later that year, I discovered there was a memorial on the crash site, which had only been built in 2010. A hastily arranged visit with my two sons led to a civic reception on our arrival, as we were the first relatives of any of the crew to visit the memorial. Incredibly, I was introduced to the son of the farmer who had helped my dad and was then presented with pieces of his parachute harness which they had kept all these years, having found my dad’s parachute after his capture. Apparently, the parachute itself was used to make a wedding dress, a common practice during the German occupation. On 21 June this year, I returned for the 80th anniversary of the loss of W7530. After visiting the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Bergen, where around 250 RAF crew are buried, to lay flowers at the graves of the three crew who died, I went back to the memorial, where I was greeted by some local people and members of their remembrance committee, who are so respectful of the sacrifice and courage of the crew of W7530 and all the other men lost in Bomber Command in World War Two. Stuart Green

enjoyed the BAe 146 STA article (Aeroplane October 2022) very much. It’s always interesting to read about projects one has worked on and to reminisce. I was employed at BAe Hatfield throughout the The BAe 146 STA’s side 1980s, completing loading door was a tight squeeze. an apprenticeship and then moving into the reliability department that formed part of the safety and certification group. I worked on the failure modes and effects analysis for the STA para door, which was designed and fitted at Cranfield. I made a few visits there to review the FMEA work with one of their engineers. The door was an up-and-over arrangement; initially opening inwards, a bungee counterbalance assisted the lifting and lowering. It travelled on a (rather rough) track over the fuselage to stow upside-down on the opposite side of the fuselage in front of the rear service door. It wasn’t an easy operation, and even with the bungees it was a bit of an effort. I’m pretty sure I took the accompanying photo at Farnborough in 1988. The arrangement was, very obviously, totally unsuitable for operations where rapid deployment was necessary. The picture shows the open para door in its stowed position and a Land Rover on board; I wonder how difficult it was to load. I think a strut was also required beneath the rear fuselage during loading and unloading. I once watched some army types wriggling a small six-wheeled utility vehicle on board one summer’s evening. Matt Southam, Hatfield, Hertfordshire

t was good to see the news item about the O/400 nose going on show at Stow Maries in the October edition of Aeroplane. Many thanks. I would like to point out, though, that as it is always important to have facts recorded correctly for future historians a number of points — as presented in the text — are somewhat misleading or incorrect. The photograph of the cockpit has the caption, “…although the padded seat covering didn’t originally come as standard”. This statement is not true. The original drawings for the O/400 have sheets devoted to the seating, giving full details of frame construction, springing, padding and covering. The original covering called up is of ‘black American cloth’ (an original type of the ‘leathercloth’ used today), also used for the cockpit coaming. The seat buttoning is as near as we could get to that shown on the drawings and as seen on the very few original photographs that show the seats in any detail. As these aircraft were built by a number of diﬀerent companies,

there may well, of course, have been variations in their final appearance. But padded they were. The microfilms used by the Paralyser Group are indeed from the original HP drawings, but they were produced by the Imperial War Museum (part of the consortium that saved the Handley Page archive material after the company ceased to exist in 1970) and copies bought from them at significant cost in the 1980s. The original drawings may now be with the RAF Museum. We have also had other original drawings donated over the years and had access to the invaluable O/400 drawings held by the Shuttleworth Collection, which filled in much important detail. It is true that we have found no definite knowledge on manufacturing techniques used originally, and any information on that will be most welcome. All the steel brackets (mostly 14swg) for our replica nose structure were lasercut shaped blanks which we folded up using simple bending bars. The origin of the ‘Bloody Paralyser’ story is a mystery. In their day the O/100 and O/400 were ‘Handley Page biplanes’ or ‘Handley Page twins’ — never, ever ‘Bloody Paralysers’. The first time any reference was made to this, that I know of, is in the book Forty Years On… issued by the company to its employees and others in 1949. There are also variations on the story itself as to who coined the phrase, and how. Maybe one day a researcher will come across some original 191415 documentation to substantiate it. Bryan Bowen, chairman, The Paralyser Group

s one of those who took part in Short Sandringham VP-LVE’s pleasure ﬂights (Flight Line, Aeroplane November 2022), it was nice to recall the trip and the hospitality of Charles Blair, Ron Gillies and Maureen O’Hara. Maureen made us cocktails from behind the spar bar, called Maureen O’Hara Specials. I remember them well. Charles invited us all to visit the cockpit and allowed us to stand on the navigation table and look through the astrodome at the Ring of Kerry. We also had a chance to sit in Maureen’s chair, which is still in position in the preserved Sandringham [at Solent Sky — Ed]. There was an opportunity given to the public by Edward Hulton to visit his Sunderland conversion. It landed on the Pool of London, was towed through Tower Bridge and moored at an old pier alongside Potter’s Fields, on the Southwark side directly opposite the Tower of London. I visited on 14 August 1982. For a modest £1.50, you could go on board from the boarding ﬂoat and walk round the whole aircraft. As Denis Calvert says, the absence of an accredited conversion prohibited its passenger-carrying in the UK. Both visits were, each in their own way, the last of their kind for me. Robin Dawson

Watch out for a full feature on Sunderland G-BJHS, coming up in a forthcoming issue — Ed.

The editor reserves the right to edit all letters. Please include your full name and address in correspondence.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

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Q&A

COMPILER: BARRY WHEELER WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK E-MAIL TO: aeroplane@keypublishing.com, putting ‘Q&A’ in the header

Are you seeking the answer to a thorny aviation question, or trying to trace an old aviation friend? Our ‘questions and answers’ page might help

THIS MONTH’S QUESTIONS Medal man

Leslie Spicer sent the adjacent photograph with a request for readers to identify the RAF personage exhibiting a remarkable display of medals.

The picture is believed to date from the 1960s and has been said to show AVM ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, but positive identity is required to settle a friendly argument!

North-west Frontier transport

Ken Potter asked in the November issue if anyone could help with drawings of the Vickers Victoria in order to build a model of the aircraft. The request prompted Simon Cauthery to offer a photograph of what he believed was a ‘Vic’ taken by his father at Kohat on

the North-west Frontier of India around 1932. However, on further scrutiny, the flat roof, a lack of side windows, radial engines and large upper

wing centre section fuel tanks appear to be very unlike a Victoria. Can anyone provide the identity of this biplane transport?

THIS MONTH’S ANSWERS Coronation film

In mourning the recent loss of Queen Elizabeth II, Bert Furlong requested confirmation that film of the 1953 coronation was flown by RAF Canberras across the Atlantic to Canada in order that the event could be seen in the Commonwealth country before those in the USA. Apparently, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has claimed it chartered helicopters and aircraft to do this, but Bert believes this to be incorrect.

Could someone confirm the Canberra involvement? In the House of Commons on 6 May 1953, the UnderSecretary of State for Air George Ward was asked what provision had been made regarding films of the coronation and whether the RAF would be flying them across the Atlantic on behalf of United States film companies using Bomber Command Canberras. Ward replied that no such operation was planned to involve the USA. However, at the

A Toronto Star photo showing the RAF Canberra crews who were set to fly the Atlantic with film of the 1953 coronation. GETTY

request of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation arrangements had been made with the BBC for Canberras, in co-operation with the Royal Canadian Air Force, to fly television recordings of the event to Canada for viewing on the evening of coronation day. These recordings would also be made available to US TV networks through CBC. BBC engineers made high-quality 35mm film of the event as it aired, and as soon as each film was ready a helicopter left Alexandra Palace for London Airport where technicians loaded the footage onto Canberras and “processed it as the aircraft flew over the Atlantic”. Of course, CBC may well have used helicopters to transfer the recordings from where the Canberra landed, but that may be something another Canadian reader might know.

Blackbushe film set

In the November 2021 magazine, Richard Vandervord requested the

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identities of a number of Douglas C-47s at Blackbushe in 1980 for use in the film Eye of the Needle. Colin Barron responded in the January 2022 edition with details of the aircraft taking part, including the registrations of five C-47s. However, emphasising how Aeroplane will always make room for subjects covered in past issues which provide additional data, Lars-Erik Ingerlo from Sweden found a listing in the March 1981 edition of Air Pictorial which gave the identities of four: G-BFPW in USAAF colours as ‘6273’, codes SB-B; G-BGCE as RAF Dakota ‘FD772’, codes ZK-Y; G-BGCF in USAAF markings as ‘1476’, codes SB-S; and G-BGCG as USAAF ‘74316’, codes SB-P. While the picture in the November 2021 issue shows ‘SB-B’ and ‘SB-P’, it leaves N54607 in Colin’s initial listing unaccounted for. Perhaps someone can confirm its attendance or whether it was indeed at Blackbushe, but unconnected with the film?

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

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MASTERS OF THE AIR

8th AF bombing tactics

HIT OR MISS? The contribution made to Allied victory in Europe by the Eighth Air Force’s heavy bomber force was considerable, but its campaign didn’t evolve in the way its commanders had imagined WORDS: DONALD NIJBOER

A famous colour image of 381st Bomb Group B-17Gs being escorted on a training sortie by a 355th Fighter Group P-51. USAF

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AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

t was one of the largest and most important bombing missions of the war. Yet after extensive planning, target selection, bomb tonnage assignment and training, it would prove to be a dismal failure. At 30 minutes past midnight on 6 June 1944, the first wave of three Allied air forces began bombing targets on the French coast of Normandy. First in were 100 Lancasters and Halifaxes of No 1 Group, RAF Bomber Command, dropping 534 tons of bombs on the gun emplacements on Hitler’s ‘Atlantic Wall’. As dawn broke it was the turn of the ‘Mighty Eighth’. In all, 1,361 heavy bombers were dispatched on the first mission on D-Day. Of those, 1,015 dropped their bombs. By 08.00hrs that morning, more than 3,200 Allied heavy and medium bombers had dropped in excess of 10,275 tons of ordnance on coastal targets. Instead of lauding their success as part of the opening salvo of the greatest air, land, and sea invasion of the war, the Eighth Air Force stood back in silence. Even a decade after the war, the official histories of the Eighth sought to minimise its use of heavy bombers on that historic day. The first had to do with the ingrained culture of US bomber commanders. The role of the heavy bomber was strategic. Hitting German industrial targets was their primary mission and raison d’être. Supporting ground troops was the furthest thing from their minds. But more troubling was the fact that the D-Day bombing operation was a complete failure and the least effective Allied air operation of the entire war. Eighth Air Force ‘heavies’ failed to destroy any of their assigned targets. Sadly, more French civilians died in the raids than German soldiers. After two-and-a-half years of daylight bombing, Eighth Air Force crews still faced a major problem. Their ability to find and hit their targets accurately was far from great. While daylight raids in good visibility produced acceptable results, the vast majority of missions were flown in less-than-ideal conditions. Obscured by cloud, smoke and constant anti-aircraft fire meant accuracy remained elusive. To get more bombs on target, the Eighth instituted several tactical changes and turned to technology to aid in its quest. On 2 January 1942, the order activating the Eighth Air Force

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

was signed by Maj Gen Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces. Arnold and many other prophets of the air believed air power, and specifically the strategic bombing of enemy industrial targets, could win a future war without the need for ground forces. The Eighth arrived in Britain with a core belief in purpose based on three articles of faith: tight formations of self-

“

Eighth Air Force doctrine was dominated by defence

”

defending bombers getting to and from the target without fighter escort, daylight ‘precision’ bombing with the aid of the infamous Norden bombsight, and the fact that the combination of the first two would lead to the destruction of Germany’s vital war industries, thus shortening or winning the war outright. The ability of bombers to defend themselves against fighter attack had already been disproven.

It would take the Americans almost a year to come to the same conclusion. The early bomber attacks starting in August 1942 were small and considered successful for the most part. The first raid, on 12 August, saw 12 B-17s dropping 45 600lb and nine 1,100lb bombs on the locomotive and rolling stock repair shops in Rouen, France. Visibility was unlimited and accuracy reasonably good. Elated by the mission, Eighth Air Force commander Gen Carl Spaatz declared, “We ruined Rouen”. It was far from the truth, but it seemed to confirm the AAF’s view of daylight precision bombing. Eighth Air Force doctrine was dominated by defence. Tight formations of well-armed B-17s and B-24s with interlocking fields of fire would be sufficient to deal with any Luftwaffe fighter attack. As the Eighth Air Force penetrated deeper into Germany, Luftwaffe fighter attacks made it obvious that individual bombers could not spread out and make their own bomb run. As early as July 1943 formation bombing became standard operational procedure. Entire formations would now drop their bomb loads in unison when the lead ship dropped his. The resulting bomb pattern scattered

BELOW: Gen Carl Spaatz (second from left), the former Eighth Air Force commander who by this point was commander of US strategic air forces in Europe, and the then-current boss of the Eighth, Lt Gen Jimmy Doolittle (third from left), discuss the results of a bombing raid with airmen who have just returned from the mission. USAF

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MASTERS OF THE AIR

8th AF bombing tactics

A fine example of a colourful ‘assembly ship’ is provided by this 458th BG B-24 from Horsham St Faith. USAF

bombs all over the target, negating any hope of ‘precision’ daylight bombing. To make formation bombing work, the Eighth Air Force directed that each squadron select a special ‘lead crew’, including the best bombardiers along with pilots and navigators. Lead crews were chosen for their ability to fly smoothly and keep the formation together. They would be responsible for finding the target and leading the combat formation on the bomb run. Once the release point was reached, the order to drop bombs was given. The rest of the formation dropped on this command. Only three other aeroplanes in each group carried bombsights — the wingman of the lead group and the leaders of the high and low squadrons. These were the back-up crews in case the leader was shot down. The task of the other crews was to hold tight formation and release their bombs when the lead ship dropped. ‘Droppingon-the-leader’ reduced the other bombardiers to glorified ‘togglers’, simply flipping a switch on cue.

❖

Showing well a typical combat box formation, B-17Fs of the 305th BG’s 422nd BS en route to a raid against Villacoublay airfield south-west of Paris in August 1943. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

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Crucial to the whole operation were the few seconds immediately before the lead crew released its bombs. This aircraft had to hold a steady course through flak, turbulence and fighter attack. Any manoeuvring, slips, skids or change in altitude would mean a loss of accuracy. VIII Bomber Command decided a mechanical autopilot could hold the precise position more accurately than the best pilot. Known as automatic flight control equipment (AFCE), it allowed the bombardier to control the aircraft on the bomb run with mechanical precision by synchronising the Norden bombsight with the aircraft. Inputs by the bombardier guided the machine more steadily and helped increase accuracy. The designated lead ships were soon equipped with AFCE. Even with these improvements and tactical changes, just 25 per cent of their bombs dropped were hitting within 1,000ft of the aim point. “The accuracy of our visual bombing, and probably to some extent of our radar bombing, has been substantially reduced by the necessity of bombing a large proportion of the time at extremely high altitudes”, said the Eighth Air Force’s Report on Bombing Accuracy for September to 31 December 1944.

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The first problem faced by Eighth Air Force navigators was to find their assigned target area and individual factory or installation. Europe was dotted with many small towns and cities, some just miles apart, and identifying the right one was sometimes difficult. Weather and atmospheric conditions also led to inaccurate bombing. Industrial haze, especially over the Ruhr, could obscure the target. Cloud cover was another significant deterrent. And as the Eighth went deeper into Germany, the Germans began to ring their vital factories with smoke generators. The Luftwaffe relied on traditional camouflage and the building of decoy factories to draw bomber formations away from their intended targets. Once in the target area, the bombardier had to first identify the specific factory or installation they were briefed to hit. This had to be done through anti-aircraft fire, haze on the ground or a smokescreen generated early enough to obscure the target. If it was covered in cloud they would have to divert to a secondary target, thus diminishing the destructive impact. Smoke generators placed around vital targets proved highly effective and easy to use. The aforementioned report on bombing accuracy concluded, “on the basis of our past experience, from four to five times the force is required to achieve the required density of bombs on a target protected by smoke screen than would be necessary were there no smoke screen. No effective countermeasure has yet been found

in this theater to neutralize the effect of smoke screens. Here the problem is essentially the same as that arising from our own bomb smoke. Some form of off-set bombing or some marking technique may provide the answer. Undoubtedly, however, considerable experimentation is necessary to develop such techniques.” Bomber crews quickly learned that the weather over England and Europe was bad for flying, let alone finding and bombing a target from 30,000ft. During the winter, cloud cover over Germany averaged

“

Flak forced the bombers to fly at between 23,000 and 30,000ft

”

between 60 and 80 per cent, and even in the summer months the unpredictable conditions impeded target identification and accuracy. Another major and unforeseen problem was seeing the target after the first formation had dropped its bombs. Smoke, dust and debris were blasted into the air, often obscuring the target for the rest of the formation. Bombardiers simply aimed into the smoke and hoped for the best. While Capt Lawrence S. Kuter from the US Army Air Corps Tactical School once said, “Anti-aircraft may

The bombardier of 91st BG/401st BS B-17F 42-5132. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

be annoying but should be ignored”, this proved impossible in practice. German anti-aircraft defences had two important roles to play during the war. One was to shoot down enemy aircraft, and the other, more important one was to force bombers to drop their bombs sooner or from a higher altitude, thus reducing accuracy. Eighth Air Force commanders never considered German flak a problem until much later in the war. As the Allied bomber offensive continued to grow, so the Luftwaffe responded with more guns and fighters. By the end of June 1943 there were 1,089 heavy flak batteries compared to 659 in January. Flak gun production had almost tripled between 1941 and 1943. The Germans also proved adept at modifying captured enemy flak guns. Between 1939 and 1944 the Luftwaffe managed to use 9,504 captured flak guns of all calibres and almost 14 million rounds of ammunition. Flak forced the Eighth’s bombers to fly at between 23,000 and 30,000ft. As the altitude increased, flak accuracy decreased, but dropping a bomb from that height and hitting a target was extremely difficult. Once released, a bomb would encounter changes in wind direction and speed, temperature and air density — all factors that sent it off target. Even slight damage to a bomb fin would mean a miss instead of a hit. When the skies were clear, Eighth Air Force bombers sometimes missed their targets by miles. Bomber crews began to

NOT A PRETTY SIGHT

he Norden bombsight was one of the most expensive military procurements of the 1930s and ’40s. Its development and production cost $1.5 billion, second only to the Manhattan Project. Originally commissioned by the US Navy, the Norden was a marvel of technology. Under clear skies and ideal conditions, well-trained bombardiers using the Norden could place their bombs withing 100ft of a target. However, this was from 5,000 to 8,000ft in altitude. Above 10,000ft, bombs fell between 200 and 400ft from the objective. The combat conditions over Europe made the Norden bombsight even less accurate. Fighters, flak, weather and the need to fly at between 23,000 and 30,000ft caused half the bombs dropped to hit more than 1,000ft from the target. The Norden was best when used by single aircraft that could manoeuvre to line up on the target independently. In the European theatre of operations, this was never the case.

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MASTERS OF THE AIR

8th AF bombing tactics

RIGHT: On 17 August 1943, a year to the day since VIII Bomber Command’s maiden raid, B-17s mounted a mission against ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt — over which these B-17Fs were photographed — and aircraft factories in Regensburg. It proved unsuccessful, demonstrating the need for better escort provision. USAF

joke that they were “killing sheep” or conducting “a major assault on German agriculture.” By late 1943 the Eighth was finally starting to take the menace of German flak defences seriously. That October it introduced into service a gun-laying radar jammer codenamed ‘Carpet I’, and two months later it began using chaff, in the form of 12in aluminium foil strips. The lead bombers in each group would release bundles of chaff a few miles from the target in order to blind and confuse German radar. But while these methods reduced losses, still the bombers remained at high altitude. “[It] is apparent”, said the September-31 December 1944 Report on Bombing Accuracy, “that the development of effective means of neutralizing enemy anti-aircraft defenses to permit bombing at substantially lower altitudes would have the result of vastly increasing the efficiency of our heavy bomber attacks”. Gen Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold later confessed, “We never conquered the German flak artillery.” For the Eighth Air Force to achieve its goals, it needed clear skies, but it became apparent that

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Europe’s bad weather meant targets were often covered in cloud and impossible to ﬁnd. This meant vital objectives were not hit and exacerbated aircraft losses. The Eighth was not a fair-weather bombing force. Sorties needed to be generated, and bomb tonnage increased. In desperation, VIII Bomber Command looked to the

“

For the Eighth Air Force to achieve its goals, it needed clear skies

”

RAF for help during the late summer of 1943. British heavy bombers like the Halifax and Lancaster were already equipped with blind bombing and navigational aids. These electronic and radar devices included Gee, a navigational aid using signals from ground stations, Oboe, a short-range precision navigational device, and H2S, an airborne ground mapping radar.

Because of short supply the RAF was reluctant to provide the Eighth with these new pieces of equipment. Another reason was the fear of them falling into German hands, even though RAF Bomber Command was losing dozens of heavy bombers every night over Germany. Trials with modified B-17s began in August 1943. At the start of the war the RAF relied on one method of navigation, dead-reckoning, aided by celestial or astro-navigation. In poor weather or at night, dead-reckoning was extremely limited. What was needed was some form of electronic aid for rapid position-fixing. Tested in flight from August 1941, Gee consisted of a ‘master’ and two ‘slave’ stations which created a web-like system of radio beams over Germany. These beams were picked up on a cathode ray tube in the navigator’s position. By plotting the signals from each station, the navigator could work out where the aircraft was to a high degree of accuracy. Inevitably, Gee had its limitations. It was very useful as a navigation aid, getting aircraft to the general area of the target and home again, but could not provide any degree

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

of accuracy for bombing through cloud. With a view to precise targetmarking and bomb-aiming, Oboe was designed to not find a city but a precise spot in that city, such as a factory or rail yard at night or in heavy overcast. It involved two synchronised beams. Two UK-based stations, codenamed ‘Cat’ and ‘Mouse’, sent out a series of dots and dashes. The ‘Cat’ signal kept the aircraft on a track that would take it over the target; at the same time, ‘Mouse’ plotted the aircraft’s position, height and ground speed. The Oboe operators transmitted a ‘bomb release’ signal to the crew at the appropriate spot. Whereas Gee’s range was 450 miles, Oboe’s was just 250 miles, good enough for attacks in the Ruhr but no further. It could also handle just one aircraft per frequency at a time. Such issues caused the Eighth Air Force to set its sights on H2S, a small ground-search radar mounted on the outside of the aircraft’s belly. The radar sent out a narrow beam which scanned the land below, creating an image on a cathode ray tube in the navigator’s position. The first B-17 equipped with H2S appeared in March 1943, and by October the Americans began to deploy their own improved version, called H2X. This was semi-retractable and was mounted in place of the belly turret on lead squadrons of B-17s and B-24s.

Col Bud Peaslee, commanding officer of the Scouting Force (Experimental), with his P-51D 44-13283 Carolyn Ann. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

❖ With H2X the Eighth could now mount ‘blind bombing’ or area raids. But, unlike Gee and Oboe, it couldn’t afford real accuracy. The image produced on the radar tube took considerable skill and experience to interpret. A large city like Hamburg appeared as a white blob with no discernible detail to identify it. Where H2X performed well was when a city was close to a body of water, coastline or river. Those features created an image with excellent contrast and provided navigators and bombardiers with important information to fix their position before their bomb run. But while H2X allowed the Eighth Air Force to bomb through cloud, its accuracy wasn’t even close to visual bombing. H2X bombing yielded an average circular error of 1.1 miles under five-tenths’ cloud cover, or 2.5 miles under ten-tenths. The Germans also knew how H2X worked and developed their own countermeasures against it.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

EYES IN THE SKIES

ven with the addition of Gee, Oboe and H2X, the Eighth Air Force continued to find ways in which to improve its visual bombing methods. Weather was the most challenging and greatest obstacle to accurate visual bombing. It also presented other deadly hazards. Sending hundreds of fully loaded bombers into the head of unexpected thunderstorms with high turbulence and icing conditions caused formations to break up and the loss of many lives and aircraft. The key to avoiding bad weather and cloud over the target was real-time intelligence. Having an aircraft out in front of the attacking force that could report on conditions ahead meant changes in course and altitude could be made and secondary targets assigned well in advance in case of inclement weather. While the primary function of the advance aircraft was to offer details of weather conditions, it could furthermore relay information on flak

concentrations and incoming enemy fighters. The scout fighters and their escort also engaged enemy fighters when the opportunities presented themselves. In December 1944 Col Bud J. Peaslee, commander of the 384th Bomb Group, suggested the idea of a scouting force to Lt Gen Jimmy Doolittle, now commander of the Eighth. Shortly afterwards, Peaslee began setting up shop. Recruiting ex-bomber pilots to fly the missions in P-51 Mustangs was the key to success, since they had better navigation and all-weather flying skills. Regular fighter pilots had little understanding of bombing operations and the requirements for a successful mission. In July 1944 the Scouting Force (Experimental) was formed as part of the 355th Fighter Group at Steeple Morden. The early missions were a great success and led to the formation of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Scouting Forces, which operated until the end of the war.

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MASTERS OF THE AIR

8th AF bombing tactics

RIGHT: A B-17 navigator at his station. The range of aids at the disposal of Eighth Air Force navigators increased as the war went on. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

The lakes around Berlin, the city of course being a major target, offered navigators valuable reference points. To confuse the incoming bombers, the Luftwaffe placed cruciform-shaped floats in rows across the lakes on the western approaches to the capital. These reflected the H2X’s energy back to an approaching bomber and produced an image that showed two lakes instead of one. Unfortunately, most Eighth Air Force bombardiers didn’t have a

clue as to what they were seeing on their radar screens. But it wasn’t entirely their fault. The lack of lengthy training and the limits of the available technology were both to blame for this situation. After a full year of using blind-bombing methods, their eﬀectiveness was questionable. In the last quarter of 1944, some 80 per cent of all Eighth Air Force missions used one of the three blind bombing devices. Most employed H2X as the primary method.

CATEGORIES OF BOMBING 1 SEPTEMBER-31 DECEMBER 1944

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H2X — ten-tenths’ cloud

35 per cent

H2X — eight/nine-tenths’ cloud

15 per cent

H2X — six/seven-tenths’ cloud

5 per cent

H2X — four/five-tenths’ cloud

3 per cent

Oboe

3 per cent

Gee-H

15 per cent

Visual — poor visibility

10 per cent

Visual — good/fair visibility

14 per cent

Operational research concluded that more than half of the missions were total or near-total failures. “The plans for an attack are generally formulated with the primary purpose of making a visual attack”, said the bombing accuracy report. “Thus there is a tactical sense in which H2X attacks are in fact last resort attacks. The mission is set up and executed, at least up to the I.P. [initial point], in a way that would be appropriate for visual bombing. When it became clear that a visual attack will be impossible, H2X is asked to take over although there may be difficulties in executing such an attack.” While visual bombing results improved in late 1944, the last major bombing campaign of the war would prove the struggle for accuracy was far from over. Eighth Air Force attacks on Germany’s oil and synthetic fuel production plants began in May 1944 and would last until April 1945. This focus led the Luftwaffe deploying more flak guns in their defence — 500 heavy guns were

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assigned to the Leuna plant alone. While this could not in itself stop the attacks, the weapons did inflict heavy damage and kept the bombers at high altitude. Flak also intimidated bomber crews and played a crucial role in degrading accuracy. Between May 1944 and April 1945, the Eighth mounted 233 raids on German fuel production. Because of the importance the Allies applied to the oil campaign, a study of the results was conducted after the war. The most significant finding was the difficulty in destroying an industrial target due to the poor accuracy of World War Two bombers. Multiple missions were required. The three main plants — Leuna, Ludwigshafen-Oppau and Zeitz — were hit with 30,000 tons of bombs, of which only 3,781 tons landed within the confines of the plants. And of the bombs that did hit their targets, 14.1 per cent of them were duds, according to German records. The other problem the Eighth Air Force faced was the weight of its bombs. The 500lb bomb was the

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most numerous used by the Eighth, 1,365,387 being dropped on targets in Germany and occupied Europe. Short of a direct hit, they proved ineffective and made the task of destroying a set target costlier in terms of the missions needed to do the job and the number of aircraft damaged and lost. After nearly three-and-a-half years of bombing, the Eighth Air Force’s dream of ‘precision’ daylight raids winning the war had been dashed.

The inherent inaccuracy of a World War Two heavy bomber was too great for the existing technology to overcome. While the Eighth did hit and destroy select targets — many requiring repeated attacks — and played a critical role in securing victory in Europe, it came at a heavy price. As the Army Air Forces’ official history later acknowledged, the only way it was able to hit a target was by ‘drenching’ the entire area with bombs.

ABOVE: B-17Gs belonging to the 401st BG’s 613th BS at Deenethorpe. The weight of the bombs dropped by the Eighth was always inadequate. KEY COLLECTION

BELOW: An H2X-equipped B-24 from the 449th BG. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

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Troop Carrier Groups

“

Honourable men seeking redress

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The US troop carrier aircrew of D-Day: poorly trained, cowardly or just low-grade? It’s time to debunk these myths WORDS: ADAM BERRY

C-47A 42-92717 Stoy Hora led the 440th TCG’s elements of the D-Day operation, in the hands of group commander Col Frank Krebs. On board were 16 men from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, as well as a war correspondent. USAF

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n the morning of 6 June 1944, 14 troop carrier groups belonging to IX Troop Carrier Command of the US Ninth Air Force entered the skies over Normandy, carrying the parachute and initial glider elements of two American airborne divisions. These were the men flying the Douglas C-47 Skytrains and troopcarrying gliders, taking thousands of battle-ready soldiers to their drop or landing zones. By daylight on D-Day, hundreds found themselves far from their correct drop zones, often fighting alongside unfamiliar units. Of course, many lay dead in the fields and marshlands surrounding towns like Sainte-Mère-Église and Carentan. Almost from the very moment their boots touched French soil, there was scrutiny of the performance of IX TCC’s aircrew, many of whom were labelled as cowboy pilots, ill-trained, inexperienced and even cowardly. But has our perception of what happened that fateful morning been warped by the poor research of those entrusted to tell the stories of that day? Did the very earliest D-Day historians fail to look at both sides of the coin? It started in a literary sense with S. L. A. Marshall’s 1962 book Night Drop: The American Airborne Invasion of Normandy. Looking at Marshall’s references, it soon becomes apparent that at no stage of his research did he confer with any troop carrier aircrew. Just 17 years from the conclusion of World War Two, he had an opportunity to interview hundreds of those who crewed the C-47s that night, yet he chose not to. Much of his data is drawn from after-action reports and interviews with survivors of the Normandy campaign from the two airborne divisions. That same information was compiled by the 14 troop carrier groups which flew the missions to Normandy on 6-7 June. Had Marshall consulted these, his assertions may well have differed. The American author Stephen Ambrose, who released no fewer than four best-sellers, had this to say on page 198 of his D-Day: “The pilots were afraid. For most of the pilots of Troop Carrier Command, this was their first combat mission. They had not been trained for night flying, or for flak or bad weather. Their C-47s were designed to carry cargo and passengers. They were neither armed nor armored. Their gas tanks were

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neither protected nor self-sealing. The possibility of mid-air collision was on every pilot’s mind…” This can be viewed as a suggestion of cowardice, of distrust in the machines they flew and, most

“

Many of IX TCC’s aircrew were labelled as cowboy pilots

”

importantly, of an overall lack of adequate training. As with Marshall, Ambrose relied on the testimony of many former US paratroopers, but not troop carrier aircrew. How could he have known they were all afraid, or concerned about collisions?

In 2002, the late Randy Hils, whose father had served in the 440th Troop Carrier Group, published an article. Randy was concerned by how troop carrier aircrew were being perceived, so he began to tackle the issue headon. Throughout the nineties several veterans sent letters to Stephen Ambrose, addressing his comments and asking him to consider changes. His typical responses were that he could not make amendments due to contractual reasons, or there was simply no reply at all. This culminated, in September 2001, with a face-to-face encounter between Ambrose, troop carrier veteran Michael Ingrisano and his wife, Nancy. In the short time Nancy had with Ambrose, she compelled him to review the documentation and to have errata sheets included with all subsequent copies of his book that were sold. At that stage, Ambrose “promised to make it up” and

ABOVE: A mass paratroop training exercise prior to the Normandy landings. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

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MASTERS OF THE AIR

ABOVE: Maj Gen Matthew Ridgway, who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division through Sicily, Italy, and Normandy, recognised early on how important joint air-ground training was. US ARMY

Troop Carrier Groups

instructed Michael and Nancy to send him letters he would follow up on. They went unanswered. His son Hugh would later claim that the attacks on his father were not a discussion but a diatribe. British writer Max Hastings was challenged in January 1986 over his opinions on troop carrier pilots and aircrew by Col William Parkhill, a pilot and former executive oﬃcer of the 441st Troop Carrier Group. Hastings admitted in his response that he was “unfamiliar” with the points raised by Parkhill and agreed “the whole issue needed further consideration”. Several other publications relating to the airborne

missions over Normandy — or the battle for Normandy as a whole — appear to have regurgitated much of this information. One degrading accusation aimed at troop carrier pilots is that they were the dregs of the US Army Air Corps’ aviation cadet programmes. There is simply no evidence to suggest this. Those who ended up flying with troop carrier units graduated from classes with men who became fighter and bomber pilots. Many didn’t even see active ‘front-line’ duty. To cite just one example, Flying Cadet Edison Heins graduated from the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas, on 11 July 1941, as a fighter pilot in the same class as ‘Doolittle Raider’ Richard Cole. He later requested a transfer to C-47s and, as a captain, became the personal pilot of Maj Gen Paul L. Williams, the commander of IX TCC. They weren’t selected to fly transports because they were poor pilots. Many had demonstrated special abilities or may have lacked the requirements to become a fighter pilot. It was necessary to meet the height and weight criteria in order to fly fighters. For instance, in the aviation cadet programme, anyone taller than 6ft 9in and heavier than 160lb could not train to be a fighter pilot and was instead pushed into other roles. Physical attributes like strength were also assessed when choosing where to post a cadet, as pilots of four-engined heavy bombers had to demonstrate greater strength over longer periods than a fighter pilot needed. A bomber pilot had to physically manhandle his aircraft to and from a target for, in rare cases, more than 15 hours and often with damage.

And, quite apart from anything else, it was necessary to direct pilots towards the parts of the AAF where they were most needed. In May 1943, when the initial plans for D-Day were first discussed, it became apparent that a greater troop carrier force would be required. At that stage, just two wings and seven TCGs existed in Europe. More would be needed for the delivery of multiple airborne divisions across a broad front. As part of the build-up of forces, any pilots pushed towards twin-engine pilot training in the aviation cadet programme were often assigned to fledgling TCGs. As many as 40 per cent of those who ended up as glider pilots within the TCGs with a service pilot rating had been drafted on account of their prewar flying experience. “…nearly all of my class at flying school were ordered to troop carrier [units], and the following class was worse. They had all been trained as fighter pilots!” Lt Col Dwight C. Baier, pilot, 438th Troop Carrier Group Many were selected to fly transports thanks to their prewar experiences, too. Group commanders like Col James J. Roberts, a pre-war airline pilot with more than 10,000 hours flying the DC-2 and DC-3, were led to postings based on their knowledge of the aircraft. Col Maurice Beach, CO of the 53rd Troop Carrier Wing, flew twin-engined aircraft with the air corps. Other group commanders such as Clayton Stiles and Hamish McLelland, as well as squadron bosses, boasted hours of flying time on aircraft they would go on to captain in World War Two.

RIGHT: Turf and Sport Special was the name applied to C-47A 42-92841, operated by the 61st TCS, 314th TCG at Saltby. This Skytrain is preserved by the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover AFB, Delaware. USAF

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Of the 14 TCGs that operated on D-Day, only four had dropped paratroopers during a combat mission. Those were the 61st, 313th, 314th and 316th, each of which disgorged elements of the 82nd Airborne Division over Sicily and Italy in 1943. One of the primary criticisms members of these groups had in preparing for the Sicilian and Italian missions was a lack of training time in co-operation with the airborne divisions. These units were rushed in from the States, having carried out a small number of unrealistic mock exercises. Once in theatre, practice drops were virtually non-existent. Soon these aircraft were in the skies over Sicily, being shot to hell by their own navy, following which the AAF finally accepted that increased emphasis should be placed on training. After the Sicilian debacle, in which the 82nd Airborne Division was left widely scattered across the battlefield, its commander, Maj Gen Matthew Ridgway, argued his division should be allowed to train directly with the troop carrier units that had deployed it during Operation ‘Husky’, as the division’s report goes on to explain: “Profiting from the lessons learned in Sicily, he repeatedly and vigorously urged a minimum of three weeks combined Air-Ground training with the Troop Carrier Command. He urgently

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recommended that the 82nd be immediately concentrated in the Kairouan area for the purpose of re-organization, re-equipping, and training.” As of 29 July 1943, Ridgway had been aware of the army’s intention to use his division in the invasion of Italy, and therefore wanted both it and Troop Carrier Command to be better-prepared. Regardless of the perceived importance of his division’s involvement in the mission

“

There is no evidence the pilots were the dregs of the cadets

”

to come, which was changed to accommodate them, the army was slow in withdrawing the 82nd and reequipping it for the combat that lay ahead. Just 19 days before the date of the mission, only half of Ridgway’s division had been withdrawn from Sicily. As the report goes on to say, “Gone was the expectation of any substantial air-ground training with Troop Carrier Command. It was too late. Every effort had to be concentrated on getting the troops

back from Sicily and re-equipping them.” When the 52nd TCW arrived in England, it was joined by a fifth group, the 315th, which had not dropped paratroopers in anger to date. Nine more groups across two further wings were despatched to the UK to bring IX TCC to full strength. A lack of experience can be cited, but this is inevitable and could not be avoided on D-Day as experienced troop carrier pilots were rare. However, that cannot be presented as a reasonable argument for the mis-drops because there is such variance in the performances of the groups across those with and without experience. Perhaps the most catastrophic and costly mis-drop on D-Day involved elements of the HQ Company, 3rd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, seven aircraftloads of men, around the village of Graignes. They were dropped by elements of the 61st TCG, which had deployed paratroopers into combat at least twice before. Yet one of the best drops was into DZ ‘D’ by the 441st TCG, a group with no prior experience. Perhaps the most impressive drop that night was by the 315th TCG. Remember, this was a group that prior to D-Day had never dropped paratroopers in combat, and which just one month earlier had been

ABOVE: C-47As of the 88th Troop Carrier Squadron, part of the 438th Troop Carrier Group at Greenham Common, tow Waco CG-4 gliders over Normandy in June 1944. USAF

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MASTERS OF THE AIR

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period of weeks rather than days. By working together in this manner the success of a mission is virtually assured, assuming the weather is favourable and there is no failure of equipment.” These training exercises include only those organised at command and wing levels. All groups were supported in the execution of such taskings as regularly as the weather permitted. In the case of the 315th TCG, its early experiences in flying group formations with no cargo showed just how difficult this could be at low level. On several formations in poor drop conditions it found the aircraft were bouncing from one altitude to another, and pilots were seldom able to maintain flight on the wing of another aeroplane. This took an immense amount of practice, and to achieve acceptable levels the group flew multiple formations each day, including night-time flights.

ABOVE AND OPPOSITE: Period US Army maps showing (above) the overall plan for the D-Day airborne assault, and the actual drop patterns achieved by the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, which illustrate the degree of scatter. US ARMY

under-strength, with only two squadrons, a smaller complement of aircraft and fewer pilots. It had spent its war to date ﬂying search and rescue missions or delivering supplies. The 310th and 309th TCSs were formed at the end of April and the beginning of May respectively, and although seasoned pilots were brought in from other groups, these two squadrons were ‘green’. This group and its four squadrons dropped the 1st Battalion, 505th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division, which reported an excellent drop. Was this achieved despite a lack of training? Were they just lucky? It happened as a result of performing formation training ﬂights, with or without paratroopers on board, as often as the English weather allowed. The suggestion the TCGs had not trained in the run-up to the invasion is not true, and it is ridiculous to even suggest so. Between 15 March and 27 May 1944, IX Troop Carrier Command executed no fewer than

“

33 combined troop carrier/airborne exercises in the UK, in co-operation with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, the British 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions, and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. Though their success varied, there are suggestions that one of the primary reasons for this was the liaison between the airborne units and the troop carrier group that would deploy them. That March, the 316th TCG at Cottesmore had noted a greater level of success in deploying British airborne forces than American. This is what it had to say: “Close liaison supplied by the British 1st Airborne Division was an important contributing factor. In the field of paratroop work, we have much to learn from the British in the way of liaison. Any Airborne unit which is expected to furnish troops in practice or actual drops should supply an Officer, whose sole duty is to work out all the details with our operations and S-2 staffs over a

It is ridiculous to even suggest that the groups had not trained

”

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“‘Untrained?’ I certainly didn’t feel untrained. I had 18 months of technical and academic training, which included 400 hours’ pilot time before I joined the 316th Troop Carrier Group in Sicily in late 1943. By D-Day I had acquired over 800 hours of total flight time. Some of this involved miscellaneous supply missions, but was primarily devoted to close day-night formation flying, practice drops of paratroops, glider pulls, short-field landings, instrument flight training, etc. We all knew the invasion of Europe was coming and we concentrated on perfecting our skills on a daily basis. Pilots were rigorously trained and routinely tested to maintain their eligibility for a green card instrument rating — which was required of all first pilots” 1st Lt Julian Rice, 316th Troop Carrier Group On the formation of the 309th TCS, Maj Smylie Stark gathered all his pilots together in the base theatre at Spanhoe and spoke to them about the job that lay ahead. He emphasised how they were expected to be among the very best, and training would be intense. His squadron alone flew formation practice on 17 of the 31 days in May, including twice in one day. Three of those flights involved dropping paratroopers with successful or good results. The remaining days of the month were used for classroom sessions.

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“One other thought that comes to mind in the matter of ill-trained pilots: do you believe that Gen Eisenhower would have entrusted delivery of 16,000 of his elite parachute infantry to DZs in Normandy, at night, on such a crucial mission on D-Day, to a rag-tag assembly of pilots who had ‘not been trained for night flying, or flak, or bad weather’? You have inadvertently or wilfully impugned the military judgement of Gen Eisenhower” 1st Lt Donald Orcutt, flight leader, 440th Troop Carrier Group A starting point for assessing the mis-drops would be to consider the typical US paratrooper load. It is commonly accepted that the paratroopers entered combat with loads far exceeding what they would typically carry. We could look in some detail at how this is possible, but it is relevant because it affects the aircraft’s stall speed, forcing it to fly beyond the typical jump speed for a drop. The weight of the paratroopers only contributes to a tremendous opening shock and the loss of equipment. A typical manifest shows the 17 paratroopers of E Company, 508th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division, who jumped from C-47 42-92841 of the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron, 314th Troop Carrier Group, flying from Saltby in Lincolnshire. Firstly, the aircraft was carrying 1,141lb of equipment in four A-5 drop containers slung below the fuselage in ‘para-racks’. The 17 paratroopers, assuming the average weight was around 160-170lb — 1st Lt Richard Winters of E/506th weighed 165 — completely un-equipped would equate to around 3,060lb. In addition, the aircraft was crewed by six men on D-Day, making another 1,080lb, bringing the C-47 close to its 6,000lb lift capacity. Additional weight for each paratrooper would, virtually as standard, be close to 80lb, adding a further 1,300lb to the gross weight. Again, this harmed the aircrew’s ability to drop the paratroopers at the required speed. Coupling this problem with how the paratroopers were jumped on practice missions, often without proper combat loads and without bundles under the aircraft, meant the aircrew were not gaining experience in dropping a heavier-than-standard load and how doing so affected aircraft performance.

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of collisions in poor conditions. This was achieved by aircraft ascending, descending, or turning to port or starboard, leading to them flying at different altitudes with greater separation than was typical for a regular formation. It did reduce the risk of collision, but had to be immensely precise to maintain a formation. This was because the formation lights on each aircraft were designed to be seen only when viewed from precisely the correct angle, which could not be done with a ‘fanned-out’ formation. Each aircraft would have struggled to know where the others were, whether deep in the cloud or not. To counter this, some squadrons opted to fly above the clouds, in formation, but at around 2,500-3,000ft.

RIGHT: Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower met with members of the 101st Airborne Division just before they took oﬀ for France. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

BELOW RIGHT: The C-47 could carry an absolute maximum of 20 paratroopers. They were laden with kit, many with it strapped to their legs or carried in leg bags that were held below them on a tether for the drop. Typical sticks were between 16 and 19 men.

“When we turned to cross over Jersey and Guernsey, we saw they were almost completely obscured by the low cloud deck. We were in our proper position, following closely behind and slightly above the ﬂight ahead. Without warning, the ﬂight in front of us dimmed their formation lights, and as we dropped into the clouds, I lost sight of them completely. My wingmen were tucked in tightly as they should be and I turned my formation lights to bright so they could keep me in sight. At that moment, as far as I know, I was leading the rest of the invasion airborne assault!” 1st Lt Louis R. Emerson Jr, 437th Troop Carrier Group

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

The most significant factor on D-Day was the cloud bank. The 21st Weather Squadron was assigned to IX TCC with detachments of six or seven men typically led by one officer assigned to each airfield or HQ site. Like flying control, as air traffic control was known, each section provided weather updates locally but would obtain its information from a more central command. If a group was operating solely by itself on a formation flight, the weather information was obtained and analysed by the detachment assigned to that group. For an exercise planned by the wing, details of the weather would come from wing HQ. Additional information was added by a group if more localised conditions affected it. On D-Day, the weather forecasting was provided by IX TCC, being passed down through each wing and to the groups. It would have come

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directly from the same reports by met stations that other units of both the AAF and RAF relied on that day. IX TCC was particularly interested in the weather from the embarkation points, along the flight routes, and at each initial point (turning point), but most critically at the drop zones. At no stage during the briefing of the groups were they informed that a cloud bank would be covering the western coastline of the Cotentin peninsula and for some miles inland. Had they known, they could have adjusted the flight paths and altitudes flown between the final initial points running up to the DZ. When the groups hit the western coast, they were met by a dense cloud bank reported as being as low as 500ft, rising to a height of 2,500ft and some miles in depth. Like their bomber counterparts, troop carrier crews were trained to ‘fan out’ a formation to limit the risk

“Suddenly, without warning, the s*** hit the fan! Just as we started to cross the beach area, we flew into a 1,500fthigh wall of heavy land fog that blanketed our entire portion of the formation. Not only did the critical blue lights vanish from sight, but [all the airplanes] in the formation disappeared. It was impossible for me to see my own wing. Now the fear of enemy fire was secondary. The immediate concern was mid-air collisions from the planes all around. In the darkness of the cockpit, the […] air speed, altimeter and artificial horizon instruments demanded immediate attention” 1st Lt Julian Rice, 316th Troop Carrier Group Aircrew were left with a quick decision to make. Should they continue flying through thick clouds with no indication of whether the aircraft in their formation were still nearby, or fly above or below the clouds with little idea of when they

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

LEFT: Illustrating splendidly the ‘bocages’, the small hedge and tree-lined fields so characteristic of Normandy, a famous image shows a melee of C-47s releasing CG-4 and Horsa gliders as reinforcements following the initial airborne assault of 6 June. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

would end? It appears the cloud bank did break up before the drop zones were reached, but for each scenario, this presented a problem. “As we neared the drop zone, I was faced with an important decision! Was it better to drop down and fly through the clouds and risk having the formation break up with the possibility of mid-air collisions or to stay above and drop the paratroopers at an altitude that would cause them to become widely separated?” Maj Benjamin F. Kendig, commanding officer, 44th Troop Carrier Squadron, 316th Troop Carrier Group Scenario one meant a formation was leaving the clouds at roughly the right height but with no discernible formation remaining. Therefore, pilots were scanning the skies, their aircraft often alone, looking

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for friendlies to form up on, or they were more concerned about identifying the correct DZ. For those aircraft flying without navigators or pathfinder equipment, it was a near-impossible task. Looking for landmarks was one way, but if they strayed some miles off course, this was very difficult. In some cases, pilots were flicking the green light on knowing they were approaching the east coast or having attempted to locate the DZ. This caused mis-drops of varying severity. “Those few minutes in the soup felt like eternity in a blindfold. When we finally broke out of the fog, there were scattered planes left and right and in front of us. I breathed a sigh of relief — but not for long. We had little time to get the plane back down from 1,500 to 700ft for the upcoming drop” 1st Lt Julian Rice, 316th Troop Carrier Group

Flying above the clouds, the situation was worse. If a formation had been maintained by flying above the clouds and good navigation had kept that formation on the correct course, that was a bonus, but the DZ still had to be located. When the cloud ended, the DZ may have been visible a few miles ahead, but you had a formation of C-47s flying more than 2,000ft too high, and needing to descend to the correct altitude while maintaining the right jump speed. Add into the mix aircraft from advanced serials criss-crossing the countryside to find their DZ, and you had chaos. The pilots had several ways to reduce their air speed in a descent or immediately after descending to the correct height. The first was to destroy what few aerodynamic properties a C-47 has. They could do this by dropping the flaps or ‘kicking’ the rudder to rock the aircraft.

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MASTERS OF THE AIR

ABOVE: Taken prior to September 1944’s Arnhem landings, but a scene redolent of earlier operations that year: Brig Gen Anthony C. McAuliﬀe addresses his CG-4 glider pilots at Aldermaston, with C-47s of the 434th TCG’s 72nd TCS also on hand. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

Troop Carrier Groups

This, most likely, contributed to the paratroopers’ belief that pilots were attempting to ‘fly around’ the flak. At less than 1,000ft, and with most of the post-mission flak damage reports by groundcrew attributing that damage to small arms fire, it’s debatable and probably unlikely that pilots could avoid the flak. They could only see what was in front of them, and what was in front of them was not going to hit them. “So, just step on the brakes, right? What brakes? To reduce the speed of a C-47 in a hurry, you get resourceful quick. Co-pilot Wells extended the flaps and lowered the landing gear to help produce drag, while I kicked the rudder and yanked elevator and aileron controls around to slow the descent. The resulting ride down was rough. It may have caused anger among the paratroops” 1st Lt Julian Rice, 316th Troop Carrier Group The pilots could, if necessary, drop the aircraft’s landing gear, which created such drag as to drastically reduce speed in a short space of time. This had its own quite apparent dangers. If trying to reduce

“

speed while descending, the pilots could use another method, which was to kill all throttle and drop the manifold pressure right back to the point where the engine was idling. This caused the propeller to spin in the wind, creating an airbrake effect. However, this generated tremendous noise. The spinning prop made the engine sound as though it was being pushed hard, thus explaining the perception among paratroopers that pilots were increasing air speed just before a drop. “Only the people flying and operating those aircraft were qualified to comment in detail on such things as air speed, altitude and attitude of the aircraft. Anything else is pure speculation and should be treated as such” 1st Lt William M. Prindible, 316th Troop Carrier Group Also worth considering is how long it took a group of paratroopers to vacate an aircraft and how far they would travel in that time. A welltrained stick of paratroopers can exit an aircraft in around 12 seconds, at which time it will have travelled between 0.3 and 0.5 miles. It may

The D-Day drops were compromised the moment they hit a cloud bank

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”

seem inconsequential, but this can be the difference between making your DZ following a short walk or being lost for days. Take, for example, the saga of Lt Col Louis Mendez, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 508th PIR. Mendez was lost for around three days, suggesting he missed his DZ by a considerable distance. In fact, he did so by around two miles, but because his aircraft was slightly off course and the green light was perhaps a little late, he was carried south of the Douve river. Had his stick been released just 20 seconds earlier, he may have landed on the correct side of the Douve and a short walk from his objectives. Similarly, an aircraft-load of men from the 507th PIR was split due to a refusal in the door after half the stick had already vacated. By the time the hesitant jumper had been cleared, the aircraft had travelled around two miles and dropped the remainder of the stick on the eastern side of the Merderet river, between La Fière and Sainte-Mère-Église. While half the men landed roughly within their regimental area, the second half ended up fighting as part of a composite unit at the La Fière bridgehead and were not able to rejoin their own regiment for three days. In summary, the drops carried out by IX Troop Carrier Command on D-Day were compromised the moment they hit a cloud bank, or ‘wall of fog’, which had not been mentioned as part of the briefing. It caused the break-up of many of the formations and resulted in pilots having to decide how best to react. We can count on several instances in which pilots made multiple passes over an area to locate the correct DZ. While the mis-drops were unfortunate and often costly, the suggestion that troop carrier failures caused them is unfair. Some time spent analysing the causes and the results indicates that there’s much more to it. I believe the myths of erratic behaviour, flying to avoid flak and increased air speeds can be explained. Perhaps it is time to consider not that the pilots were flying in the best interests of self-preservation but more to rectify a situation affected by the unexpectedly poor weather conditions. In the words of the late Randy Hils, “The letters in my possession are the words of honourable men seeking redress as gentlemen.”

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Fighters in the ETO

DOGFIGHT! COMPARING THE P-38, P-47 AND P-51 IN THE EUROPEAN THEATRE Debate still rages about which was the US Army Air Forces’ best fighter in the European theatre of operations: in order of their appearance with VIII Fighter Command, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt or the North American P-51 Mustang. But is it even possible to reach a meaningful verdict? WORDS: THOMAS McKELVEY CLEAVER

In May 1944, a P-38 Lightning pilot of the Eighth Air Force climbs aboard his mount, which totes two 500lb bombs. Beyond sit a number of P-51B/C Mustangs. KEY COLLECTION

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ach of the P-38, P-47 and P-51 achieved greatness. Two were radically different responses to the same specification, while the third had to prove itself to American operators since it was designed for another nation’s air force, a traditional kiss of death with US services even when the aeroplane in question came from the North American factory at Mines Field, 30 miles from the Lockheed plant at Burbank Airport. Partisans point to differing operational requirements, the use of British spark plugs, and whether the aircraft were fuelled with American or British avgas to explain away alleged failures and buttress claims of success. At the time of Pearl Harbor, only the P-38 had the performance to make it a contender. Originally created as a high-altitude interceptor, in September 1941 a P-38D carrying two 160-gallon drop tanks demonstrated potential as a long-range fighter. On Friday 5 December 1941, there were 69 P-38s of all sub-types in the Army Air Forces; 12 were considered operationally ready. The Lightning demonstrated gremlins heretofore not experienced. Most disturbing was a tendency to tuck the nose in a dive, increasing the dive while the controls stiffened to the point at which a pilot could not pull out even when bracing his feet on the instrument panel. If started high enough, there was a possibility of successful recovery as

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the fighter entered thicker air that slowed its rush towards the ground, but if it had nosed over beyond the vertical, there was no avoiding the inevitable crash. During training in 1942, the first four groups lost in the region of two to three P-38s a week as inexperienced pilots transitioned to the fighter. January 1941 saw the appearance of the XP-47B, soon named Thunderbolt. Originally a highaltitude point-defence interceptor, its amenability to take on roles

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It is not true that AAF leaders did not believe in escort fighters

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unforeseen when designed — which would guarantee its place in history — was unknown. The P-47 was also plagued by compressibility when the pilot nosed over at high altitude and went into a dive. A Republic test pilot was killed when the fifth production P-47B went out of control in a dive on 26 March 1942 and crashed, due to tail assembly failure after its fabric-covered tail surfaces ballooned and ruptured. The 56th Fighter Group, based a few miles from the Republic factory on Long Island, became both the

P-47’s operational test unit and first active-service fighter group. Both the P-38 and P-47 would solve the problem of compressibility with ‘dive flaps’ underwing that disrupted the supersonic airflow, but these did not arrive until 1944. The AAF, conventional wisdom has it, barely noticed the third fighter. On 7 December, two examples of the XP-51 were in a hangar at Wright-Patterson, its test and evaluation centre, where they had sat since delivery two months earlier. North American Aviation and its RAF customer called it the Mustang, and it was of course the result of NAA president ‘Dutch’ Kindelberger turning down a request by the British Purchasing Commission to produce Curtiss P-40s, telling the commission he could promise a better fighter in 100 days. Kindelberger knew his chief designer, Edgar Schmued, had taken what he learned by studying the first Bf 109 brought to the US from Spain, and his knowledge of the latest aeronautical developments in his native Germany to create a winner. Speaking at Chino during the Planes of Fame museum’s P-51 40th anniversary event in 1981, Schmued explained, “It’s true the Mustang was built in 100 days, but I had been designing it for three years.” Many histories of the strategic bombing campaign hold that the AAF leaders did not believe escort fighters were needed. That is not true. The Battle of Britain had

ABOVE: P-47Cs of the 56th FG during spring 1943, displaying the shallow ‘keel’ on the bottom of the fuselage before the Thunderbolt was modified to carry drop tanks on the centreline. USAF

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Lt Col John S. ‘Jack’ Jenkins, CO of the 55th FG, in front of his P-38H Texas Ranger. Jenkins led the 55th through the difficult winter months of 1943-44 when it fought to prove the Lightning’s value as an escort fighter in VIII FC despite experiencing many mechanical difficulties. USAF

proved how bombers suffered excessive losses without escorts. Following Pearl Harbor, four groups were created to take P-38Fs to England to escort the B-17s. The plan to fly P-38s trans-Atlantic ended in disaster with a formation crash-landing on the Greenland ice cap. In the end, all went by sea; the 1st FG arrived in early August and the 14th at the end of the month. The 1st was only able to fly two missions over France before both groups were transferred to XII Air Force for the invasion of North Africa. The 82nd FG, which arrived in October, soon followed. In February 1943, the 78th FG lost its P-38s and pilots other than squadron and flight leaders, sent to North Africa to make up unexpected losses. VIII Fighter Command would equip with the P-47. The 56th arrived with eight months’ training on the big fighter. The former Eagle Squadrons, now the 4th Fighter Group — and the only group with combat experience — reluctantly exchanged their Spitfires for Thunderbolts. The 78th, which had no combat experience, no pilots and no aeroplanes, took on the Thunderbolt with American pilots formerly in the RAF transferred into the group. All three were under orders to fly their first combat missions by April 1943.

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From left to right, ‘Bud’ Mahurin, group commander ‘Hub’ Zemke and ‘Bob’ Johnson were leading aces with the ‘Wolfpack’, as the 56th FG became known. USAF

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There was no fighter less ready for the assigned mission. The P-47 was outmanoeuvred in tests by the RAF’s ‘tame’ Fw 190s and Bf 109s, able to outperform them only above 30,000ft. Range was so short they could barely make it to the Dutch coast from bases in East Anglia. Pilots were ordered not to engage below 25,000ft. The first victory came on 15 April, when Don Blakeslee dived on two Fw 190s at 5,000ft and shot down the wingman 500ft above the Channel’s choppy waters. Congratulated for his success, he famously retorted, “By God, it ought to dive! It certainly can’t climb!” Over the next six months a technical battle to extend the P-47’s range ensued, while the groups ironed out tactics that would allow them to provide proper escort. At the beginning of July, the 56th’s Bob Johnson demonstrated the P-47’s toughness. Hit badly by enemy fighters in their first pass against his squadron, he managed to recover from the wild spin. Just as he got to the Channel, he was intercepted by

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an Fw 190 that played with him for what seemed an interminable time but was only 10 minutes. Luckily, the enemy pilot was out of cannon ammunition. Pulling alongside Johnson’s flying wreck he turned away, later receiving confirmation for the P-47 kill. Johnson managed to hold on until Manston appeared. Landing, he was unable to get out until the jammed canopy was cut away. Standing beside his Thunderbolt, Johnson counted 200 bullet holes without moving. The three groups began flying escort missions in May. By July they could take the bombers almost to the Dutch-German frontier. When they turned away for lack of fuel, the Luftwaffe defenders were in the distance waiting to pounce. Good weather in the second half of July allowed the first coordinated missions, the ‘Baby Blitz’. VIII Technical Command fitted the fighters with unpressurised 200-gallon ferry tanks, extending the P-47’s range to the German border. 29 July 1943 is the most important day in VIII Fighter Command history. Maj Gene Roberts of the 78th FG’s 84th Fighter Squadron led the group to pick up bombers returning from a strike against the Fw 190 factories in Oschersleben. Staying low to use all the gas in the ferry tanks, a tailwind let them penetrate 50 miles into Germany. They engaged the surprised enemy fighters and in a blazing 10-minute battle shot down 12 for the loss of two, saving the bomber formation. Capt Charles London scored two to bring his score to five and become the first P-47 ace. The Thunderbolts had engaged the enemy successfully over his own territory. August saw VIII Technical Command plumbing the P-47 to carry a pressurised metal 75-gallon drop tank. Flying at altitudes above 25,000ft and able to drain the tank before dropping it, the Thunderbolts could fly 30 miles further. September brought the introduction of locally produced 108-gallon paper tanks. With these, they could fly into western Germany. The P-47Cs were modified with a centreline keel allowing carriage of an underfuselage store, while the P-47D, which entered production in May, came from the factory plumbed for a drop tank. The Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission on 17 August 1943 showed how much more was needed. The original plan had one air division

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LEFT: The 4th Fighter Group’s legendary commander Col Donald J. M. Blakeslee, the P-51’s leading exponent, flew more combat time than any other American pilot. He told VIII FC boss Gen William E. Kepner the group could transition from the P-47 to the P-51B in two days and told his pilots, “Learn to fly ’em on the way to the target.” USAF

hitting the Bf 109 factories at Regensburg, then flying to North Africa, while a second attacked the ball bearing factories in Schweinfurt and returned to the UK. By going for two targets simultaneously, then splitting the force, it was hoped the defenders might be overwhelmed and losses lessened; both would both be flown far beyond the range of escorting fighters. In the event, nothing went as planned.

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The P-47s had engaged the enemy successfully over his own territory

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Fog in England prevented both groups taking off on time. The first managed to get off, but by the time the escorts returned and refuelled and the clouds finally lifted, the second mission was hours behind it. The Luftwaffe, able to refuel and rearm, struck with as many fighters as had hit the first. The result was the worst set of losses VIII Bomber Command had yet suffered and proof unescorted bombers could not survive on their own. For the rest of

August and September, the weather was such that the bombers were limited to targets within range of the escorts. Pleas for reinforcement with P-38s were finally answered during August 1943. The 55th Fighter Group arrived in mid-August, followed by the 20th in early September. The two were available because of a manufacturing mix-up in Burbank. The P-38J entered production in late April, a significant upgrade with new, larger radiators that allowed the leading edge of the wing to carry additional fuel, and more powerful engines. Unfortunately, supply of the new radiator cores did not keep up with demand. Airframe production backlogged. A decision was made to revert to the old cooling system, while using the new engines. The result was the P-38H, a ‘half-way house’ between the earlier models and the P-38J. Unfortunately, the P-38H brought the resulting problems with it to England. While the freshly formed P-38 groups trained, two new aircraft arrived in England that September. They were P-51B Mustangs, with Packard Merlins inside their cowlings rather than the Allison engines used to that point by RAF Mustangs. Famously, Rolls-Royce’s tests with Merlin-powered Mustang I airframes showed the change

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ABOVE: Fourteen P-38s return to base in Italy after escorting heavy bombers over Austria in January 1945. KEY COLLECTION

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of powerplant was astoundingly successful in increasing not only overall performance, but range too. North American had used the test results to create the P-51B. Pilots at VIII Technical Command were astounded by the variant’s performance, but shocked to discover its destination: IX Tactical Air Command, just transferred from the Mediterranean to become the American contribution to the coming invasion. Word got around about the new aeroplanes. The 4th Fighter Group’s Steve Pisanos, who had flown Mustang Is with No 268 Squadron, RAF before becoming an Eagle Squadron pilot, flew one in late September and told deputy group commander Don Blakeslee that it “performed like a dream”. The Eagles hated the P-47s they had been forced to take in place of their beloved Spitfires. Blakeslee cadged an opportunity for a test flight and was sold. He told VIII Fighter Command’s Gen William Kepner, “It’s a long-range Spitfire — get it for us!” Unfortunately, IX TAC was not interested in giving up its new fighter. Pisanos later explained the reasoning: “The RAF used the Mustang as tactical recon because the Allison had no high altitude performance. When the B came along, the Air Force decided it was

just a variety of the earlier airplane so that meant it was for tactical use.” In the meantime, winter was on the horizon and VIII Bomber Command had not achieved its goal of major disruption of any German war industry. Despite the bombers being forced again to operate beyond escort range, a second strike on the vital Schweinfurt ball bearing factories was laid on. 14 October 1943 was the last day forecasters

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Industrial production capacity transformed the battle

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could promise skies would be clear enough over central Germany for the mission. Known forever after as ‘Black Thursday’, this was the day the German defenders defeated VIII Bomber Command. It was marred by mistakes and failures from the outset. Again, low clouds delayed take-oﬀ, and poor weather broke up the force. The Germans brought in 800 ﬁghters from around Europe. Of the 290 B-17s that made it to

Schweinfurt, 60 failed to return. Among the 230 survivors, another 60 were so badly damaged they never flew again. On the morning of 15 October, VIII Bomber Command could not muster 100 operational bombers. Unlike the Luftwaffe over London on 15 September 1940, 14 October 1943 did not signal defeat of the daylight campaign. The inability to fly major missions was covered by the weather over central Germany closing in for the next eight weeks, making it impossible to fly a mission beyond escort range. In the meantime, the industrial production capacity of the United States transformed the battle. Six recently arrived bomb groups became operational; four more arrived to train. The fighter shortage was reversed. The 55th FG’s P-38s were declared operational the week following Schweinfurt. More importantly, the P-47 was transformed into a long-range escort. The P-47D-15s now reaching England differed from their predecessors with a pylon under each wing that could take either a 1,000lb bomb or a 160-gallon drop tank. The Thunderbolt could now carry three 108-gallon tanks and fly almost to Berlin. Kits allowed the P-47s in the groups to be plumbed and fitted with the pylons. By

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January 1944, all P-47s in England would be so equipped. There were so many Thunderbolts that the groups were doubled in strength. By the end of November, VIII Bomber Command was renamed as the Eighth Air Force. It was triple the size it had been on 14 October. Most important of all, the P-51B Mustang arrived, in the form of the 354th Fighter Group, which reported to IX TAC in early November. Once equipped, it named itself the ‘Pioneer Mustang Group’. AAF politics came into play, and it was agreed the unit would be ‘temporarily’ assigned to VIII Fighter Command, “pending the invasion.” With P-47s, P-38s and P-51s, the bombers could now be escorted all the way to the target and back. Thunderbolts accompanied them across the Channel and into Germany, with the Lightnings taking up the escort over central Germany. They were relieved by Mustangs just before arriving at the target, after which the process was reversed. Having only two groups of P-38s and one of P-51s made the escort tenuous at the most important point of the mission, but a second Mustang group was scheduled to arrive for IX TAC in late December, as well as a third of Lightnings for VIII FC.

❖ However, while most of the problems with the P-47 had been worked out since it entered combat the previous May, the P-38H had its own set of maladies, and the early P-51B was hardly reliable at all. The heating system in the P-38H cockpit was inadequate for winter conditions over Germany. Pilots wore so many layers of clothes they had difficulty flying the aircraft, and still they suffered from the cold. Worse were the engine problems. When power on the Allison was rapidly increased from military cruise power to combat power after a few hours in the cold skies, it had an unfortunate tendency to explode. Pilots said it was good the fighter had two of them, to get home on one after losing the other. Their opponents soon spotted this and Bf 109s were sent out to search for wounded Lightnings returning to England, many of which never made it home. There were also the well-known aerodynamic difficulties in high-speed manoeuvring. Many pilots were afraid to push their fighter to maximum performance

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1st Lt John T. Godfrey (left) and Capt Don S. Gentile (right) stand in front of Gentile’s P-51B Shangri-La on 3 March 1944. The two became the unwilling subjects of an AAF publicity campaign, with Gentile as leader and Godfrey as wingman, to promote teamwork during the Battle of Germany. According to Godfrey in his memoir The Look of Eagles, he and Gentile flew just some 15 missions together with the 4th FG. USAF

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ABOVE: A lone Liberator is accompanied back to British shores by P-47D 42-26272 Angel Eyes, belonging to the Martlesham Heath-based 361st FS/356th FG. KEY COLLECTION

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and paid the price. The groups looked at the problem-free reports from the P-38 groups flying with the new Fifteenth Air Force and wondered what the difference was. It was that the groups in Italy were using US avgas, while those in England employed British avgas. The P-47 groups had already exchanged their US spark plugs for British ones, which improved the operation of the R-2800 with this fuel. Doing the same reduced the Allison’s problems, but they were never fully conquered while the Lightning served in VIII Fighter Command. The P-51 was even more problematic. Its worst fault was gun jamming. In hard manoeuvres, a Mustang pilot could end up trying to shoot down his opponent with only one gun, as Medal of Honor recipient James O. Howard did in his epic battle. The problem was traced to the position of the guns in the wing. Due to its thinness, they were mounted at an angle, requiring the ammo belt to make a sharp turn to feed, which could jam in high-g manoeuvres. The eventual solution was to fit electric rollers to keep the belts straight and feeding right, but this took valuable time to discover and more to solve. Engine problems were remedied by exchanging American for British spark plugs. The gremlins that infested the P-51 were so numerous that on many missions

a group-strength formation was reduced by nearly a squadron due to mechanical aborts. Missions flown in the clearing skies of December demonstrated the effectiveness of round-trip fighter escort, and the crying need for more P-51s. This was partially solved when the Mustang-equipped 357th FG assigned to IX TAC was exchanged for the P-47-equipped 358th, newly arrived for VIII FC. The timely arrival of more P-51Bs from the US allowed

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The answer to the question of which was best is, ‘It depends’

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ﬁrst the 4th FG and then the 352nd to re-equip in time to participate decisively in the crucial phases of the Battle of Germany during the spring of 1944. As important as the equipment of VIII FC was, the change in escort strategy approved by Gen James H. Doolittle when he relieved Gen Ira Eaker as commander changed everything. The ﬁghter shortage had left leaders unable to change from the original strategy of a single

fighter group escorting a single bomber wing, with the fighters wasting gasoline as they S-turned above the slower bombers to keep up sufficient speed to respond when German defenders hit the formation. The tactic of ‘close escort’, which reassured bomber crews when they saw fighters nearby, also made the fighters completely defensive. Doolittle had already changed this system when he took command of the Fifteenth Air Force, so it was not difficult to get his approval to do the same with VIII FC. Under the new system, a fighter group patrolled a box of air through which the bomber stream flew, rather than covering a particular group. This allowed them to fly direct to their assignment, saving fuel and extending both their range and the time they could be on station. Additionally, fighter leaders were given permission to take offensive action against enemy fighter formations as they assembled for attack, rather than waiting for them to hit the formation. This was first used in the February 1944 attacks known as ‘Big Week’. The winter weather cleared sufficiently for seven visual bombing raids to be flown against the German aviation industry, with four nearly consecutive strikes at the end of the month. The new tactics allowed the fighters to go after the Jagdwaffe. The result was the loss of many experienced German pilots, something that was irreplaceable. The Jagdwaffe would never recover from these losses, ‘Nachwuchs’ — ‘new growth’ — replacements who came to the units with less than 150 hours’ total flight experience being thrown into battle with American pilots who arrived in Britain out of training with 500-600 hours, including 200 in the fighter they flew. ‘Big Week’ was followed by the three Berlin missions in March. On the first, flown on 6 March, the Eighth Air Force lost 60 bombers, as many as went down on ‘Black Thursday’. However, this represented less than five per cent of the attacking force, and the losses were made good within two weeks, now the production of both bombers and aircrews was operating at maximum capacity. By the third sortie, the Jagdwaffe failed to appear. Air superiority had been won. The last of the big escort battles happened in early April, followed by bad weather through to the invasion. With the Germans no longer rising

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to the challenge, VIII FC was ordered to attack the enemy on its airfields. This was a completely different war. While aerial combat was a contest of skill between two opponents, strafing a heavily defended airfield, flying into the fire of as many as 100 automatic weapons, was an exercise in the laws of probability and chance. Over the course of VIII FC’s battle with the Luftwaffe between August 1942 and May 1945, the overwhelming majority of losses would come in the final year, to defensive ground fire when strafing enemy aerodromes. At this point, one can look at the record and attempt to come to a conclusion as to which fighter was best. The answer is, ‘It depends.’ The P-38 demonstrated early on it could have the range. Unfortunately, delays in airframe and engine development prevented it achieving its full potential before it was withdrawn from VIII FC over the summer and autumn of 1944. The decision came just as its problems were being fixed; the P-38J-15s that came off the production line in June 1944 were equipped with dive flaps. The P-38L, which appeared just as the type was leaving the 479th FG, had power-assisted controls that allowed pilots to manoeuvre with any opponent. P-38Ls flown by IX TAC had an excellent record during the war’s final year. Robin Olds’ status as the only man to ‘make ace’ in both the P-38 and P-51 in VIII FC shows that when the aircraft was flown by a pilot who could make the most of its good qualities, it was certainly competitive.

❖ The P-47 demonstrated an amenability to modification that saw it change from short-range interceptor to long-range air superiority fighter. Had the P-51 not been available, equipping Thunderbolts in the European theatre with the 160-gallon wing tanks Pacific-based P-47s carried, and the 160-gallon ‘flat tank’ developed in England on the belly shackles, would have given it the range to appear over Berlin on 6 March. The Curtiss-Electric ‘paddle’ propeller that arrived in February 1944 transformed its flight characteristics. Flying a P-47 with one of these props, Bob Johnson outflew a Spitfire IX using the enhanced dive-and-zoom capability. The P-47’s ruggedness was legendary. When pilots of the 78th

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TOP: American pilots in the ETO used to say one could always find home by looking for the biggest cloud in Europe and England would be under it. Three flights of P-51Ds from the 353rd FG head back under overcast skies in the winter of 1944-45. USAF ABOVE: P-47 pilot William E. May of the 78th FG’s 82nd FS delivers the coup de grâce against an Fw 190 on 9 April 1944. The location was near the Dümmer See, a lake situated not far from Diepholz. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

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ABOVE: Despite initial misgivings, the pilots of Duxford’s 78th FG came to appreciate the Mustang — and discovered it could withstand a good deal of battle damage, as sustained by P-51D 44-63187 Bum Steer while strafing Lüneburg airfield during the group’s first escort mission to Berlin on 3 February 1945. IWM/ROGER FREEMAN COLLECTION

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FG, the last VIII FC unit to convert to the P-51D, were informed of the change-over, they were told, “The P-51 will let us get to the fight”, to which one wag replied, “But the P-47 will get you home!” This toughness allowed pilots to survive the strafing missions that became VIII FC’s focus. The 78th’s Huie Lamb, who chased and shot down a Me 262 over its home field, recalled that as soon as the jet went in, “every flak gun there opened up on me”. He flew through a sky full of flak, but after a week’s repairs at Duxford the P-47 was returned to operations. A P-51 wouldn’t have made it out of that cauldron of fire. There were really two different Mustangs used by VIII FC. Pilots who flew both the P-51B/C and the later P-51D were unanimous in preferring the earlier model for its lightness and manoeuvrability. The 4th FG’s leading ace, Jim Goodson, compared the pair to a “sports car” (the P-51B) and a “Packard sedan” (the P-51D). Most VIII FC pilots flew only the D-model after their groups converted over the summer and autumn of 1944, and the aeroplane was liked for its armament — the six

.50-calibre M2 machine guns were mounted upright, which solved the jamming problem — as well for the visibility aﬀorded by the ‘bubble’ canopy, and the range that allowed them to ﬂy at will over Europe. The K-14 gyroscopic sight gave much better results in air-to-air combat, leading to its nickname, the ‘nomissum sight’.

❖ The performance of the 487th FS at Asch airfield in Belgium on New Year’s Day 1945 demonstrated what the P-51D could do in a completely disadvantageous situation. Caught at take-off by German fighters in Operation ‘Bodenplatte’, the final score was 24 Bf 109s and Fw 190s destroyed for no US losses and only two P-51s damaged in battles that raged over the airfield for 40 minutes. It made sense from a logistics angle for VIII FC to choose one fighter, and the P-51D offered the best overall range of capabilities. Its only serious fault was the vulnerability of its liquid-cooled engine and coolant system to ground fire. A P-51 could be downed by a

single hit in the radiator, whereas P-47s were known to return home with an entire cylinder blown off. This toughness was why the Thunderbolt was the primary equipment of IX TAC in the fighterbomber role. Either the P-47 or P-38 could have succeeded had there been no alternative. The fact the P-51 was such an effective alternative made the ultimate choice easy. In the end, however, the primary reason for the victory enjoyed by American fighters in the ETO was the fact the United States had planned from the outset for a long war. President Roosevelt’s call for 50,000 pilots by 1944 was met and then some, more than 100,000 being trained during the war. Compare that with the Luftwaffe’s total of less than 8,000 between 1940 and ’45. Additionally, the American pilot came to his unit with 500-600 hours, including 200 in the fighter he would fly in combat. The poor ‘Nachwuchs’ arrived in his Staffel with less than 150 hours. Flying a Bf 109 or Fw 190 other than straight and level was simply beyond his skills.

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CLASSICS Fokker S11 at 75

THOSE WHO CAN, INSTRUCT It’s a beautiful Thursday afternoon in December 1947, and Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport is about to witness a notable flight as Gerben Sonderman — wartime resistance fighter and one of the most famous Dutch pilots — takes the Fokker S11 Instructor prototype into the skies for the first time. Seventy-five years on, the Dutch trainer continues to delight WORDS: SVEN VAN ROIJ-REICHGELT

The classic four-ship S11 Instructor formation of the Fokker Four, on a sortie out of Lelystad. SVEN VAN ROIJ-REICHGELT

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CLASSICS Fokker S11 at 75

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: An early tandem-seat concept for the new trainer. KEY COLLECTION Production under way in the Amsterdam-North factory. NIMH The first prototype S11, PH-NBE, as it initially appeared 75 years ago, with a smaller fin and rudder. NIMH A rather more recognisable form for PH-NBE after the embodiment of various design changes aimed at improving the Instructor’s flying qualities. NIMH

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ust like many air arms, the Royal Netherlands Air Force realised soon after World War Two that it required a more modern training fleet. Its elementary flying school, the Elementaire Vliegopleiding — or EVO — at Woensdrecht had been using 56 former RAF de Havilland Tiger Moths, while further afield the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force was also in need of greater training capacity. As it turned out, a home-grown offering provided an ideal solution. Dutch aircraft designer and manufacturer Anthony Fokker conceived a new-generation trainer, and the Netherlands government saw its potential. In refining the concept, Fokker discarded the original wooden wing, and chose not to pursue the three-seat layout shown in early drawings. The company instead opted for a fabric-

covered, steel tube airframe with an all-metal wing. Still a taildragger, it became a two-seater in which student and instructor would sit side-by-side. The space for the third seat was filled with a luggage compartment. Propulsion was provided by the Lycoming O-435-A, a six-cylinder, air-cooled boxer engine developing 190hp. The construction of two prototypes was ordered in 1946, while the air force would actively participate in development of the type, dubbed the S11 Instructor. In early October 1946, a hundred examples were ordered by AvioDiepen, a company owned by Fokker sales partner Frits Diepen, who was closely involved in the post-war reconstruction of the Dutch aviation industry. He saw the potential for widespread sales. The first S11 prototype, registered PH-NBE, performed ground runs at

Fokker’s Amsterdam-North factory before being transported by barge to Schiphol airport. From there, Fokker test pilot Gerben Sonderman took it into the air for a maiden 28-minute test flight on 18 December 1947. It went so well that two further sorties were made that day, one lasting three minutes and the other six. Official testing began a month later. It revealed a flaw in the aircraft’s aerodynamics, which caused a fierce pitch-down when the rudder was deflected in flight. The dive angle increased at low speeds, an unacceptable characteristic for a trainer. During the 54 test flights that followed, PH-NBE was modified several times. Tests were conducted with a partially fixed canopy, a larger fin and rudder, and winglets. The solutions not only proved unsuccessful, but sometimes even exacerbated the undesirable behaviour.

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Second prototype PH-NBF took to the air on 12 March 1948. It too was given numerous modifications in the name of improved stability. The solution eventually turned out to be changing the angle of attack while lowering the horizontal tail and adding a dorsal fin. To promote the S11 overseas, Sonderman took PH-NBF to a flying school in Ljungbyhed, Sweden, during June 1949. There the S11 underwent simultaneous tests with a Beechcraft Mentor. Swedish pilots flew the Instructor 45 times, regularly exceeding its maximum g-loadings. This caused a disastrous outcome on 16 June. In the course of the morning’s third flight, eyewitnesses saw the aircraft crash after the port wing folded up over the fuselage. One of the occupants bailed out at low altitude, but both Swedish pilots lost their lives, and the aeroplane was destroyed.

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After this, the Royal Netherlands Air Force demanded that the S11’s wing be strengthened. Fokker therefore had to remake wings, wing spars and fuselages it had already produced. This unforeseen

“

For students, the Instructor was ideal for basic aerobatics

”

but significant change delayed manufacturing considerably. Finally, Fokker was able to ramp up production, the initial series variant being known as the S11.1. An air force order for 25 Instructors was officially placed

in late 1949. A contract for the remaining 14 followed a year-anda-half later. Gradual replacement of the EVO’s Tiger Moths thus took place from 1950 onwards. Serials E-1 to E-39 were delivered with unpainted, aluminium wings. Later, the wings and fuselages were painted yellow with dayglo on the nose, wingtips and tail fin. During the EVO course, which took place variously at Woensdrecht and Gilze-Rijen, a student pilot would notch up about 30 flying hours on the S11. For student pilots, the Instructor was ideally suited for basic aerobatics, before they moved on to the heavier North American Harvard. But, pretty soon, the air force experienced problems. The S11s were equipped with the Koppers Aeromatic variable-pitch propeller, which rapidly showed signs of deterioration. There were even two instances of them parting company with the aircraft in flight. Replacement with fixed-pitch propellers made the type much slower and even underpowered. Other modifications over the years involved the installation of a proper heater and different radios. The distinctive undercarriage, resembling a pair of knees, gave maintenance crews another headache. It was too weak and prone to both corrosion and lateral loads. Every time a change was made to the S11, it contributed to an increase in overall weight, making certain aerobatic manoeuvres more difficult or impossible to fly as part of the EVO syllabus. Not only did the school conduct the air force’s elementary flying training, but it also instructed aspiring pilots for the Royal Netherlands Navy. When the navy felt the need to perform flight training in-house, it formed VSQ-9 at De Kooy in April 1959. Equipment came in the form of nine S11s rotated between the air force, now known as the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu) and the naval air arm, the Marineluchtvaartdienst (MLD). That changed in early 1970, when Instructors E-31 to E-39 were transferred to the MLD. They went on to be repainted and given serials 174-179 and 197-199. A total of 365 Instructors were built in the Netherlands, Italy and Brazil. By the early 1970s, the type’s operational life was coming to an end. Naval unit VSQ-9 was disbanded in the summer of 1973, all nine of its S11s having remained

LEFT: The initial S11 to see Royal Netherlands Air Force service was serial E-2, delivered in February 1950, since E-1 never joined the inventory. NIMH

BELOW LEFT: After a November 1968 training flight from Gilze-Rijen in S11 serial E-13, the Elementaire Vliegopleiding instructor signs his student’s logbook. NIMH

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CLASSICS Fokker S11 at 75

Fokker Four aircraft E-27/PH-HOL shows the S11’s delightful aerobatic qualities. SVEN VAN ROIJ-REICHGELT

in service despite a growing shortage of parts. They were flown to the Aircraft Materiel Depot (Depot Vliegtuig Materieel, DVM) at GilzeRijen for storage. As for the air force, elementary flying training for KLu pilots was moved to Canada, so the need for the Instructor decreased. Ten were struck off charge in the summer of 1972, these mainly being aircraft already cannibalised for parts and engines to keep the rest of the fleet airworthy. Six had been written off. The KLu’s remaining 14 S11s were withdrawn during a small ceremony in September 1973. Some were transferred to museums, and others sold on the private market. These were not the first production Instructors to appear on the Dutch civil register. At different times between 1950 and 1960, the national civilian flight training school, the Rijksluchtvaartschool (RLS), operated three, two of which went into private hands. So did an Israeli-assembled example, ferried to the Netherlands in 1959. But it wasn’t until the phasing-out of the Dutch military machines that the S11 became a more common private-owner mount.

❖

Instructors from Royal Netherlands Navy unit VSQ-9 — including one still in air force colours — up from their De Kooy base. NIMH

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Today, seven are still airworthy in the Netherlands. The most famous operator is the Stichting Fokker Four, founded on 31 August 1982, and which has thus recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. A highlight was the four-ship team’s debut at the Duxford Summer Air Show in June. Made up of former Royal Netherlands Air Force pilots, it’s funded through sponsorships and donations. The goal of the Stichting, or foundation, is to use its four Instructors to preserve and demonstrate an important part of the Netherlands’ national flying heritage. It is also possible to take part in close formation and aerobatic flights as a paying passenger. Based in the T2 hangar at the Aviodrome aviation theme park, located at Lelystad airport, the S11s are all painted in their original KLu colours. They comprise E-14/ PH-AFS, E-27/PH-HOL, E-29/ PH-HOK and E-39/PH-HOG, the latter having been the last Instructor delivered to the air force in 1954. Prior to that it had spent a period with Fokker as a demonstrator, registered PH-NFA, and undertaken a US tour. E-39 also became serial 199 with the navy from 1970-73.

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In addition to those machines, the Fokker Four sometimes uses a couple of ‘guest’ aircraft. Now in group ownership at Teuge, E-38/ PH-SLO flew with the MLD as 198 before being sold to private pilot Henk Sloots in 1975. Even though the aircraft is no longer owned by the Sloots family, the personal registration PH-SLO is still carried. The MLD-marked 179/PH-ACG was originally in air force service as E-36 and was one of the nine Instructors transferred to the navy in 1970. Its owner is Arjan Dros, previously chairman of the foundation that operated PBY-5A Catalina PH-PBY before its 2019 sale to the Collings Foundation. And that’s far from the end of the local Instructor population. The Royal Netherlands Air Force Historic Flight has S11s 197/PH-GRY and E-20/PH-GRB at Gilze-Rijen, the former under maintenance after cylinder problems and the latter awaiting repair after a nose-over. It also has E-6 (previously PH-HOE), E-24 (formerly PH-SII) and E-32 (ex-PH-HOI) in storage. Hitherto in Belgian ownership as OO-LMC, E-25 has — confusing matters somewhat

— become PH-SII, and is now in private hands as a restoration project at Lelystad. Leopoldsburg airfield in Belgium, known for the Sanicole Airshow, houses E-26/OO-MSH. Several museums have Instructors in their collections, such as the Aviodrome and the National Military Museum at Soesterberg. Add in those specimens that have found

“

The KLu’s last 14 S11s were withdrawn during a ceremony

”

their way further afield, among them Britain’s sole flying S11, 174/G-BEPV at Spanhoe, and you have a healthy survivors list. Why is it still so popular? The president of the Fokker Four foundation, and team pilot, Dominique van Wijk says, “Flying the S11 continues to be an experience for me time and time

again — the sound of the sixcylinder engine and the technology from the 1940s. With its robust build and 190hp, it is still possible to fly most aerobatic figures”. He adds, “The Fokker Four foundation is maintained by a number of volunteers who have been doing a great job for years. Both the 50-hour and 100-hour inspections may be signed off by our own qualified technicians. Our foundation consists of about 25 volunteers that keep our old Fokkers in the air.” A former KLu F-16 pilot, Stephen ‘Kiwi’ van Dijck hails from New Zealand but is resident in the Netherlands, and is a regular Fokker Four team member. He says, “A major advantage of the S11 compared to its period competition is the side-by-side seating configuration. An instructor pilot can better monitor the student — their well-being, control inputs, where he’s looking and so on. Conversely, the student can better follow instructional demonstrations. “The S11 is certified for all basic manoeuvres including spinning. Having been specifically designed as a trainer, it has all the qualities

A CONCEPT TOO FAR

okker’s engineers deliberately conceived the S11 as a taildragger in order to make the transition to the Harvard at the advanced flying training stage easier for student pilots. At the same time, a broad market was targeted, so the S11 was also developed with a nosewheel as the S12.1. Fokker thought it was putting forward a groundbreaking idea. Air forces looking for both nosewheel and tailwheel trainers would only need to order one type, encompassing both the S11 and S12. This could bring significant economies. The manufacturer’s initial S12 production drawings appeared in March 1947, and construction of the first prototype began a year later. In the process, the set budget of 42,000 guilders was exceeded more than

three-fold. Just as the S11 was recognisable by way of its ‘bent knees’, eyebrows were raised at the sight of the S12’s nosewheel. Its tricycle undercarriage was originally developed for the F25 Promotor, a four-seater with retractable landing gear, which Fokker was working on at the same time. The nosewheel on the S12 was fixed. The prototype, PH-NDC, was flown for the first time by Gerben Sonderman on 8 November 1948. Despite demonstrations abroad, including a US tour alongside an S11 in 1952-53, the type proved unsuccessful. In the end, no more S12s were built in the Netherlands, but — as described separately — series production was undertaken in Brazil.

Just one example of the tricycleundercarriage S12, prototype PH-NDC, was built in the Netherlands. NIMH

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CLASSICS Fokker S11 at 75

SELLING THE S11 An S11.2 of the Israeli Air Force, which did not use the type extensively or for long. NIMH

Israel As soon as it was established in 1948, the Israeli Air Force had to be operationally ready, and pilot training using more modern equipment than the rag-tag selection of obsolete types it possessed became a necessity. With this in mind, the new state of Israel purchased an S11.1 for test and evaluation purposes. Gerben Sonderman left Schiphol in PH-NBX on 12 December 1949. He completed the 4,000km ferry flight to Lod, just south-east of Tel Aviv, in five days. Prior to the long-distance flight, Fokker engineers had made several modifications to the aircraft. The starboard seat was removed, an additional fuel tank installed and extra batteries and radios provided. No less importantly, they fitted a urine funnel to the left-hand seat with a drain under the fuselage. Test flights were conducted from Lod for several months. Eventually the Israeli Air Force placed an order for 40 Instructors with various changes. Small details aside, an adjustable trim tab was added to the rudder, and, given the hot Israeli climate, the canopy needed larger air vents. The enlarged trim tab made the aircraft 6in longer. As a result, the variant was given the type designation S11.2. Fokker produced the aircraft for the Israeli order between October 1950 and May 1951. After completion of test-flying at Schiphol, the wings were removed and the S11.2s crated-up for the sea journey to the port city of Haifa. On arrival in Israel, the components were transported to the Bedek Aviation factory — now part of Israel Aerospace Industries — to be assembled. Alas, the Israeli Air Force barely used the Instructor. The lack of the Aeromatic variable-pitch propeller may have contributed to the aircraft’s underwhelming performance in such a hot climate. Unofficial reports say the type was quickly withdrawn from service and some crates even left unopened.

Italy Larger production numbers were achieved in Italy. As the Italian Air Force rebuilt post-war, modern trainers were sorely lacking. Fokker saw an opportunity because the Italian preference for a type with side-by-

Macchi M416s outside the Italian manufacturer’s factory in Varese. NIMH

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side seating was clear. S11 PH-NDX was flown to Italy in mid-May 1950 and conducted two days’ worth of aerial demonstrations at Guidonia air base near Rome. The visit proved to be a success. A contract for licencemanufacturing was signed in September 1950, allowing Aeronautica Macchi to build the aircraft in-house under the designation M416. To further expedite production, a sub-licence was granted to IMAM (Industrie Meccaniche e Aeronautiche Meridionali) to turn out 60 more. Like the Israeli Instructors, the M416 received minor alterations. The trim tab in the rudder was enlarged, the cockpit layout changed and several levers reshaped. So modified, the aircraft received the designation S11.3. To help the programme get started, Fokker transported several Instructors to Italy by rail between February and July 1951. There are doubts about the exact number since the Fokker plant’s records do not match those of the Italian manufacturer. By all accounts, 10 aircraft without engines and one fuselage were involved. Production ceased at the end of 1955, by which time 180 M416s had come off the lines. The last of the fleet was retired by the Aeronautica Militare a decade later. More than half of the total run were transferred to the civil register and used by flying clubs.

Brazil A quartet of Brazilian Air Force T-21s, manufactured under licence at the jointventure plant in Galeão. NIMH

Since the early 1950s, Fokker had been in contact with investors in Brazil. With several types in production and development, the South American country offered a large market for the Dutch manufacturer. Agreements were made between Fokker and the Brazilian Air Force during the 1952 Paris Salon to set up an aircraft factory in Brazil. Direct support from the Brazilian government gave Fokker confidence. A Fokker delegation flew to Rio de Janeiro to establish a company in the spring of 1953. It was named Fokker Indústria Aeronáutica and had access to an existing aircraft factory at Galeão. The investment capital was divided evenly between a Brazilian shareholder and Fokker. The deal gave Fokker Indústria Aeronáutica the rights to build 190 aircraft independently. The Brazilian Air Force ordered 100 S11s and 50 S12s, while S14 Machtrainer jets could also be produced. Five Instructors were shipped to the Galeão plant to help start up the manufacturing effort. Fokker called the Brazilian version the S11.4, while it received the local designation T-21. The S12 became the T-22. Overseas production was a step too far for the Dutch manufacturer. Unskilled employees, the difference in wages and the political situation contributed to delays and a rift between the two shareholders. Shortly after production of the 95th and last T-21 to be built wholly at Galeão, the Brazilian state took over the facility in February 1959. The run of T-22s marked the end of the collaboration, since the planned S14 production line never opened. However, both the T-21 and T-22 stayed in Brazilian Air Force service as late as 1973. Eight T-21s were also passed by Brazil to the air forces of both Bolivia and Paraguay.

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one would expect. It doesn’t react violently, nor is it unpredictable. It is docile in the slow-speed regime with very controllable engine torque effects. Its biggest drawback compared to modern trainers is its lack of engine power. However, due to the large, cambered wing, with some aerodynamic twist or wash-out, the ailerons remain effective well into the approach to the stall and up to the critical angle of attack. The elevator effectiveness decreases considerably in this speed regime, but the fat, cambered wing continues to provide lift. This means pilots really must make control inputs well outside of what they would normally use in order to initiate a stall, be it an aerodynamic or accelerated stall. The rudder remains effective as long as there is airflow, which makes stall turns a pleasure to perform. “When at the top of a loop or rolling manoeuvres on a steady line, it takes a gentle hand to unload the wing without achieving zero or negative g. The engine does not have an inverted oil or fuel system, but it will roll slowly but nicely when at, for example, 0.5g. The biggest challenge is remaining co-ordinated during a roll. This requires a good feeling for the balance of the aircraft. Using too much rudder causes a sideslip, and with insufficient engine power to pull it straight, drag is increased; the aircraft labours through the roll, and feels and looks ugly. Small changes in air speed require appropriate changes in control input. “Compared to other primary trainers of the same era it scores very highly. But it’s important to not compare apples with oranges. It is a primary trainer and not a fighter lead-in trainer such as a Harvard. I think it’s fair to place it somewhere between a Tiger Moth

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and a Chipmunk for performance and effectiveness as a trainer, but way higher for fun value and a pilot’s sense of accomplishment having mastered the S11.”

“

Compared to other trainers of the era it scores very highly

”

Michiel, one of the co-owners of PH-SLO, backs this up: “The ingenious technology used in the Instructor is simple but also advanced for its time, and makes

for an easy-to-fly trainer. Still, the S11 can be challenging at times, due to its tailwheel configuration and strong undercarriage. The aircraft was designed to take off into wind on grass runways. Nowadays, we mostly fly from paved runways, often with crosswinds. A ground swing or bouncy landing possibly resulting in damage is therefore always a risk. During take-offs and landings in crosswinds, I also have to be careful not to make too much aileron input, since you can quickly over-correct.” Current Instructor owners are unanimous. There is no wellfounded reason to own a Fokker S11. The aircraft consumes a lot of oil, has a low payload for a two-seater and is slow. But the fact that it’s so much fun to fly makes up for everything.

ABOVE: E-38/PH-SLO is owned by a group based at Teuge. SVEN VAN ROIJ-REICHGELT

BELOW LEFT: With the numbers of its commercial types in service now dwindling, the S11 plays an ever more important role in recalling Fokker’s heritage. SVEN VAN ROIJ-REICHGELT

BELOW: Flying alongside the Fokker Four in a fifth Instructor, 179/ PH-ACG in the hands of Maarten van Eeghen. SVEN VAN ROIJ-REICHGELT

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RETROSPECTIVE BBC Operation ‘Pegasus’

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Unlike the Blue Peter elephant or the first episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys, Operation ‘Pegasus’ didn’t make it into the BBC’s recent choice of highlights from its 100 years. But it was an undeniably significant event in the corporation’s history — the first time its cameras ever took to the skies and broadcast live WORDS: BEN DUNNELL

succession of Olympic Games, beginning in London during 1948, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the 1966 World Cup, and countless other major national or international events — Alan Chivers was the pioneering producer who brought them to the nation’s flickering screens. For years, Chivers was the British Broadcasting Corporation’s behind-the-scenes king of the live outside broadcast, whether in the form of a Brian Rix Whitehall farce, or a famed weekend of coverage showing climbers ascending the Old Man of Hoy. His work helped the BBC set a standard for televising big occasions that rightly persists to this day. So, when in June 1949 Chivers wrote to his colleague Peter Dimmock, the assistant television outside broadcast manager, suggesting another inventive idea, it wasn’t at all surprising. That it was to do with aviation might partly have been expected, too. While working pre-war as an assistant stage manager in repertory and film studios, Chivers had learned to fly, becoming a member of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. On the outbreak of hostilities, he joined the RAF, serving consecutively in Fighter Command, as a test pilot and instructor, and ending the war as a photo-reconnaissance Spitfire pilot. His proposal came about over lunch with “an old flying colleague”, Sir Archibald Hope, now a director of charter firm Airwork. It was, wrote Chivers, “suggested that should our Research Department be considering carrying out experiments in the nature of cameras in the air, he would be delighted to place an aircraft at our disposal”. Specifically, Hope suggested a Bristol Freighter. It was a generous offer, especially since Airwork was happy “to accept financial responsibility”, despite the understanding that the BBC could give the firm no publicity. And, in Peter Dimmock, Chivers knew he

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had a sympathetic recipient. Later best-known as the first presenter of Sportsview, BBC Sports Personality of the Year and Grandstand, Dimmock had himself been an aviator, transferring from the army to the RAF in 1941 and instructing on Tiger Moths and Magisters, before holding a staff role in the Directorate of Flying Training at the Air Ministry. “From a programme point of view”, he wrote, “the value of an airborne camera would be immense”. Presciently, Dimmock foresaw how it could lead to the use of helicopters. He also felt the Freighter, “would be eminently suitable for such tests as it is a comparatively stable machine and the rear door could be removed”. But while his superiors liked

“

The Freighter was to be put at the BBC’s disposal for several weeks

”

the concept, at this stage other considerations intervened. Cecil McGivern, head of television programmes, wrote back to say, “all available research strength is being used on current and urgent problems.” It could hardly be postponed forever, though. A renewed flurry of interest led in July 1950 to a letter from Norman Collins, the BBC’s controller of television, to Air Marshal Sir Alec Coryton at the Ministry of Supply. He asked whether the ministry might collaborate in experiments, the objective of which was to capture “merely aerial views of London as seen from an aeroplane”, by providing “a transport plane or heavy bomber”. Coryton said, “I think we can collaborate”, but added that the lack of any “direct

interest of the fighting services” in the results meant the BBC would have to cover all costs, estimated at being “in the region of £70 per flying hour”. Contact was re-established with Airwork over its much cheaper offer. By now it was mid-August, and the proposed broadcast was just over a month away. A visit to Airwork examined possible alternative platforms, in case the Freighter was unavailable. A Vickers Viking proved impractical, but a Douglas DC-3 was fine, so long as a suitable generator could be provided. In the end, the choice fell upon a Freighter, but one provided by the Bristol Aeroplane Company itself. It was to be put at the BBC’s disposal for several weeks, and for only “a token payment.” With the aircraft confirmed, the technicalities of what the corporation dubbed Operation ‘Pegasus' could be ironed out. Dimmock wrote that test flights were due to start on 15 September, with a rapid decision as to the practicality of the venture thereafter. If successful, he planned two broadcasts: one from 15.30-16.00hrs on Saturday 30 September, showing London and the surrounding countryside, and then Sunday 1 October’s main event, an hour-long programme from a North Weald ‘At Home’ Day between 15.30 and 16.30, showing in-service RAF and new civil aeroplanes from the air. Bristol managing director Cyril Uwins told Norman Collins, “This should have great historic importance and I feel you may be starting something which will have far wider implications than we can at present foresee.” The Freighter was to be Mk21 G-AIND, flown by Bristol test pilot Hugh Statham. A first test ended up taking place on 21 September, showing “that to obtain anything like satisfactory television pictures from the air it is necessary for the platform aircraft to fly between 1,000 and 1,500ft”. On board was a Marconi Mk1a Image Orthicon

OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: Still firmly on the ground, BBC cameraman Duncan Anderson wields the Marconi Mk1a Image Orthicon camera in the door of the Bristol Freighter during preparations for Operation ‘Pegasus’. With him stands assistant television outside broadcast manager Peter Dimmock. GETTY Bristol Freighter Mk21P G-AIND was the aircraft used for the pioneering broadcasts. This was a military transport version of the standard Bristol 170, incorporating parachute doors, and it went on to be supplied to the Pakistan Air Force during 1951. BBC

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RETROSPECTIVE BBC Operation ‘Pegasus’

ABOVE: Consideration was given to using a camera on loan from either Marconi or Pye, but in the end one was drawn from the BBC’s own resources. It had recently been used for a crossChannel live outside broadcast from Calais. BBC

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camera, a standard type used for BBC outside broadcasts at the time, mounted on a “special vibration free mounting”. Marconi also supplied the transmitter unit, “the smallest and lightest type possible”, requiring 30 watts of power. From the aeroplane, it would beam the pictures either to an existing BBC receiving station at Swains Lane, Highgate or a mobile unit at North Weald, which would relay them to the production centre at Alexandra Palace for broadcast. The trials did not go well. Maybe it wasn’t the best omen for the van taking the TV equipment to Bristol for installation in the Freighter to break down en route; it was a day late arriving. As soon as the aircraft started up with the camera on board, it was obvious that vibration was a problem after all. Once airborne, with the receiver still at Swains Lane, it was found

that having G-AIND circle over certain London landmarks “had the effect of completely screening the transmitting and receiving aerials from each other while the aircraft was banking and resulted in complete loss of signal”. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the receiver was subject to “quite severe interference”: this was traced to passing lorries, equipment in a nearby dairy, taxi frequencies and a local radio ham.

❖ Attempting a solution, the receiver station was moved to a higher location, namely the roof of the University of London’s Senate House. There was less interference, though an adjacent lift caused some signal disturbance. But the results were little better. The receiving gear was taken back to Swains Lane, though communications

equipment was left at Senate House, enabling two-way comms between the commentator aboard the Freighter — BBC aeronautical correspondent Charles Gardner — and technicians on the ground. Still it was anticipated that “the picture quality would at times be very poor”, despite provision of the second receiver at North Weald. Indeed, those who tuned in at 15.30 on the Saturday for what was billed in the Radio Times as Test Flight: Television Takes Wings didn’t see much. The Freighter was scheduled to fly along the Thames from Hampton Court to the Thames Estuary, accompanied by an escort of No 615 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force Spitfires. On the way, a selection of airliners would fly past for the camera’s benefit: in sequence, a BOAC Canadair Argonaut, and from their manufacturers a Vickers

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Viscount, Airspeed Ambassador, Handley Page Hermes, DH Comet 1 and Bristol Brabazon. Poor weather prevented all of this, so instead Statham orbited North Weald at some 200ft, allowing the transmission of a few pictures. Even then, the Freighter’s steep banks caused an “extremely variable” signal level. If Sunday’s weather was better, the BBC was still embarking on a flight into the unknown. To make up for the previous day’s disappointment, the airliner flypasts were incorporated into the hour-long broadcast alongside the RAF’s offering. They duly joined the Freighter as it proceeded along the Thames. However, as Dimmock reported back to their operators, picture quality was not the best. Far more favourable results were obtained by having the airliners each overfly North Weald, where

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they were captured by ground cameras. The same issues bedevilled coverage of the RAF aeroplanes. In turn, a Chipmunk, Prentice, Balliol, Meteor T7, Mosquito and

“

Interference was traced to lorries, a dairy, taxis and a radio ham

”

Wellington from Flying Training Command joined up, interspersed with pilot interviews. Finally, nine Vampire FB5s belonging to the North Weald-based No 72 Squadron ‘scrambled’, making a line-astern mock attack on the Freighter before

breaking away. Having re-formed, they performed a slower pass. The aerial camera’s work was done, but as a finale the Vampires conducted an airfield attack for the benefit of the ground camera positions. This went wholly unseen. A transcript records how continuity announcer Mary Malcolm suddenly interjected, “Well I am afraid that, after all, we shan’t have time to watch these Vampires land as it is time now to say goodbye to the RAF at North Weald…” With that, it was time for Children’s Hour. Airborne with the Royal Air Force was scheduled for 16.00-17.00. By now, the time was 17.30, and the decision was taken to pull the plug. Cecil McGivern was unimpressed. “Was the programme timed by guess and by God?” he asked. “I should have thought it was obviously impossible to deal with all these aircraft inside sixty

ABOVE: The Freighter sits on the ground at North Weald during the testing phase, framing a resident No 72 Squadron Vampire. BBC

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RETROSPECTIVE BBC Operation ‘Pegasus’

Severe technical issues, and poor weather, bedevilled the aerial filming attempts, but the problems were far from insurmountable as technology developed. BBC

minutes”. Thanking the technical staff, Peter Dimmock admitted it had been “a case of trying to put a quart into a pint pot”, though in another letter he cited the wind direction as causing delays due to the need for aircraft to backtrack. The end product, he said, undermined “the considerable technical achievement of obtaining pictures from the air.” The Freighter was quickly turned around to fly a final sortie at 18.00, for a 15-minute programme called Wings at Dusk. It was intended to provide, said Radio Times, “A last look at London and the Thames Estuary from the air at sunset”. Predictably, perhaps, the picture quality was deemed “very poor.” Operation ‘Pegasus’ had, in part, been beyond the capabilities of the available technology. “At times”, said a technical report, “the field strength at either receiver

“

The results ‘were fairly acceptable as a novelty entertainment’

”

was too low to give a recognisable picture”. It called the time given over to testing “totally inadequate”, noting also that provision of an omnidirectional aerial either beneath the camera-ship or towed behind it would be desirable, as would a much stronger transmitter. The results, the report’s author opined waspishly, “were fairly acceptable as a novelty entertainment…” But it was above all an experiment, and a worthwhile one. The Ministry of Civil Aviation offered its assistance with future trials, and the Home Office too was interested, most likely with a view to potential police applications for aerial filming. When the BBC tried its hand at a still more ambitious airborne broadcast, August 1955’s Television Goes Flying, the experience gained through Operation ‘Pegasus’ and several further years of dedicated technological development were brought to bear. The author thanks the staff of the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham.

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LIVE FROM PEBBLE MILL…

or an innocuous daytime chat show, it was an audacious bit of broadcasting. Mind you, Pebble Mill at One was always a quirky affair, and all the more memorable for it. It was 20 September 1979, and presenter Bob Hall declared, “Over the horizon we’re expecting the Royal Navy’s first Sea Harrier…” Sure enough, as if on cue, it appeared above the Birmingham skyline. Sea Harrier FRS1 XZ451 hailed from 700A Naval Air Squadron, the Intensive Flying Trials Unit for the type, and at the controls was the commanding officer, Lt Cdr Nigel ‘Sharkey’ Ward. He’d taken off from Yeovilton just a quarter of an hour earlier. Approaching via a route carefully selected to cause minimum noise disturbance, as far as such things were possible in leafy Edgbaston — where the nearby nature centre had taken precautions to protect its more sensitive inhabitants — Ward slowed XZ451 into the hover. All the while he was in radio contact with 700A’s qualified flying instructor, RAF pilot Flt Lt ‘Bertie’ Penfold, positioned atop the Pebble Mill studios. Ward descended vertically to land on an aluminium pad, specially laid by a party of Royal Engineers on the BBC Social Club football pitch. This brilliant publicity coup had been grasped by the Royal Navy after the RAF turned down the BBC’s request to bring a Harrier into Pebble Mill. What viewers didn’t know was that Ward’s landing had been prerecorded, but his later take-off took place live on air. It was a potent demonstration of the unique capabilities afforded by the navy’s newest fighter, and in front of millions of viewers. You can’t buy PR like that. Not for the last time, it was an opportunity the air force missed. ‘The Mill’ welcomed quite a few flying visitors down the years — Sea King and Wessex helicopters, Ken Wallis in his Little Nellie autogyro, even parachutists and a hot-air balloon. But the first time it brought a Sea Harrier to a city centre surely outranks all of them.

ABOVE: Pebble Mill at One presenter Marian Foster talks to ‘Sharkey’ Ward. STEVE RICHARDS

Dozens of BBC staﬀ look on as Lt Cdr Nigel ‘Sharkey’ Ward brings Sea Harrier FRS1 XZ451 in to land at Pebble Mill in September 1979. STEVE RICHARDS

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PRESERVATION HISTORY RNZAF Avro 626

JOYOF 626

THE

Avro 626 NZ203: survivor of the pre-war Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the sole example of its kind in the world. Just one pilot can still claim any experience on this delightful biplane, thanks to its brief postrestoration flying career nearly 40 years ago WORDS: JOHN LANHAM

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arn find: the very words are alluring, conjuring up images of something old, rare, maybe valuable, definitely historic. This came true for the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1980. At the time, the service was seeking to perform a major aircraft restoration as the centrepiece of a great project — an RNZAF Memorial Museum, to be formally opened during 1987, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The RNZAF Museum at Wigram, Christchurch, now called the Air Force Museum of New Zealand, is a small but high-quality treasure-trove commemorating the men, women, aircraft and times of the country’s military aviation. In a prominent position is its oldest inhabitant, a distinctive silver biplane, Avro 626 NZ203. NZ203 was purchased for the RNZAF with three others in 1935. A development of the Tutor and Prefect but with 275hp, the 626 was designed as an export version for sale to Commonwealth and foreign countries. It was an early multi-role aircraft, capable of a variety of training tasks from piloting to fixed and free gunnery, from wireless telegraphy to stretchercarrying and bomb-aiming. This example remained in service until 1943 and, while its fellows were pranged or scrapped, survived the war. Following a spell as a training airframe, the biplane was sold in May 1947 to Havelock North farmer Jim Frogley, who placed it on the civil register as ZK-APC and used it as a personal runabout. Known as ‘Annie’, ’APC provided sterling service to the family and became a familiar sight in Hawke’s Bay, in eastern North Island. When its certificate of airworthiness ran out in April 1948 it was grounded, but the machine was brought out of retirement in 1957 and flown to RNZAF Wigram to take part in the air force’s 21st birthday celebrations. Again dismantled in 1958, ’APC went back into storage in the Frogley barn and the registration was cancelled on 23 August 1965. The airframe entered a slow deterioration, as the roosting place of chickens and idle dreams. In 1980 came the ‘barn find’ moment. After negotiation and a very respectable profit to Jim Frogley, ZK-APC was taken back on charge by the RNZAF that October. It was painstakingly restored at RNZAF Base Ohakea by a dedicated team of tradesmen, in the gleaming silver-

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and-red colours of A Flight, No 1 Flying Training School at Wigram. NZ203 had claims at the time to being the finest restored antique aircraft in the world. But while that’s a matter of subjective judgment, it has other exclusive attributes. This is the only remaining Avro 626 and was, when we flew it in the 1980s, the sole surviving aircraft from the pre-war RNZAF and the oldest flying aeroplane in New Zealand, with the only airworthy Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah V engine in the world. A rara avis by any measure! As my

“

I preferred to use the centre cockpit… it just felt right

”

good luck would have it, I was then officer commanding the RNZAF Strike Wing at Ohakea and had the privilege of lifting NZ203 back into the air on 8 July 1985, with the Chief of Air Staff, AVM David Crooks, in the front cockpit acting as observer. At a distance NZ203 is that object of so much nostalgia, a little silver biplane. Closer to, it becomes more substantial, long and wide, much bigger than a Tiger Moth and about Harvard-size. At 26ft long and 34ft span, it has a certain presence, with straight, square wings behind the chunky Cheetah radial. Mounting-up was achieved by climbing footsteps in the fuselage,

before settling into surprisingly wellequipped cockpits. In them can be found oil pressure and temperature gauges, inclinometer and air speed indicator in mph, cockpit lighting, adjustable seats, a fully movable tailplane trim-wheel and differential brakes. There are even aerodynamically controlled slots with a locking lever and four Frise ailerons. It’s not surprising 626s were considered pricey in their day. The front and centre cockpits were pretty much identical, although the forward position has a circular spade grip for weapons release and the centre one a hollow metal stick. The aircraft could be flown solo from either, but if you sat up front 70lb of ballast was required in the third cockpit. Personally, I preferred to use the centre cockpit. The visual references aft of the wings were much better, like in a Tiger Moth, and it just felt right. The rear, or third, cockpit was blanked over for convenience in NZ203 but could mount a Scarff ring for a Lewis gun or find space for a casualty evacuation stretcher. Starting the Cheetah V was a throwback to an earlier era, the one before electric starters. Cranking a handle in either cockpit turned an impulse magneto which put a shower of sparks to the cylinder on compression. You could either set the prop on compression by hand and crank — so the resultant firing kicked the prop to the next compression — or have a crew member turn another handle to wind the engine over. Either way, there could be a lot of priming and cranking before much happened.

ABOVE: Three of the RNZAF’s four Avro 626s in formation over the Port Hills, near Christchurch, with NZ203 in the foreground.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The author well above some rugged terrain in Avro 626 NZ203. ALL PHOTOS RNZAF

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PRESERVATION HISTORY RNZAF Avro 626

RIGHT: NZ203 being recovered from the Havelock North farm. BELOW RIGHT: The restoration, undertaken by RNZAF personnel, nears completion at Ohakea.

BELOW: Returned to flying condition for the first time, ZK-APC appeared at RNZAF Station Ohakea for the air arm’s 1957 anniversary celebrations. In the background is No 75 Squadron Vampire FB5 NZ5761.

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The crew member could also lose amounts of skin on the flying wire which runs onto the fuselage within 3in of his handle. Eventually the Cheetah could be encouraged to fire a few times and, finally, to run sweetly and evenly. It took a little practice to get the technique right, and initially we felt more than a tinge of chagrin about Jim Frogley’s passing comment, “The wife used to start it for me while I was getting ready.” Now we were ready to taxi. Directional control on the ground was achieved by a British triumph over simplicity: differential braking. Common to a number of British aircraft of the period, in New Zealand differential braking can also be found in Proctors, de Havilland twins and Chipmunks. To operate it you needed two feet and three hands. Down on the floor on the left-hand side was a large brake handle on a ratchet with a squeeze trigger. Pulling up the brake lever with the rudder neutral gave you equal braking to both wheels, the amount proportional to the pull. The differential bit came when you pulled on, say, two or three clicks of the ratchet: with pedals neutral there was no braking, but with full rudder there was just enough take-up in the cables to give you a touch of brake to that wheel. This sounds simple enough and it was, pretty much, on tarmac in light winds. Not so easy in 15-20kt of wind on heavy grass. That’s when you needed two feet to pedal, one left hand to pull the brake handle, one right hand to work the throttle — cross-armed — and the other arm (or leg) to hold the stick back,

or forward or into wind. However, as with all things, it became easier with practice and, it must be said, very eﬀective. With revving, handle-pulling and pedalling, we would arrive at the take-oﬀ point. There wasn’t a lot to check and I was mindful of

RAF Air Publication 129, Volume 1, 1934, which suggested that the pilot should, “ensure the machine is pointing into wind and that the petrol is turned on”. Sound advice but, in the interests of professionalism I checked trim neutral, mixture rich, fuel contents/

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First impressions were of magnificent visibility from the second seat, both above and around. The long, elegant wings framed the horizon as we settled down at 1,850rpm and 100mph. In the front seat the top wing loomed over you claustrophobically, but in the back the whole world was available for inspection.

LEFT: Hawke’s Bay farmer Jim Frogley in 1980 with the ‘barn find’ Avro.

❖

cocks, instruments, harness and controls. Into wind and we’re off. Up front, the surprisingly quiet radial growl took on a more determined note and NZ203 gathered speed without drama. Stick forward, tail up, gentle back pressure and off she came

at 60mph. Twenty-three minutes later, you could be at 10,000ft, if you wanted to, climbing at about 750ft per minute initially before dropping off to 200-300ft per minute higher up. At Angels 10 NZ203 was still surprisingly agile but, at -8°C in July, once was enough.

I tried a few turns and manoeuvres with increasing pleasure. The aircraft was delightful to fly — light, wellharmonised and very responsive. The four Frise ailerons did their thing especially well, so rolling and turning required the merest pressure. The elevators were light but powerful and trimmable over cruise speeds with the large wheel at the left hand. Surprisingly, the all-flying tailplane (another British invention) ran out of nose-down authority at only 105-110mph, but such high speeds were uncommon and caused little concern. Never-exceed speed was 200mph, and in early testing I dived to around 180mph to find that stability and control response were excellent, with no vibration or buzz. Stalling proved pleasant and uneventful: throttle closed, hold the nose up and 203 sighed down to 50mph before sinking gracefully with no sign of a wing drop. Second time, slot release lever to ‘free’ and, at about 55-60mph, way out at the wingtips, out came the aerodynamic slots as advertised. A couple of mph slower, 47, and there was a little more aileron response, but otherwise little difference. It seemed the 626’s slots were mainly decorative.

LEFT: Touching down after the 626’s first postrebuild flight, on 8 July 1985.

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PRESERVATION HISTORY RNZAF Avro 626

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Post-flight congratulations, 8 July 1985: from left to right, the author, OC Strike Wing; Gp Capt Stuart Boys, CO of RNZAF Base Ohakea; and the Chief of Air Staff, AVM David Crooks. An inspection by the governor-general, Sir Paul Reeves, and Chief of Air Staff AVM Patrick Neville during the RNZAF 50th anniversary event on 1 April 1987. Not for long did the Avro fly as part of the RNZAF Historic Flight, with Tiger Moth NZ662 and Harvard NZ1015.

Regrettably, the preservationists in the Air Staff had won the day and aerobatics and spinning were prohibited in such a valuable machine. However, in exploring a few ‘unusual attitudes’, I could readily see how easily the type would loop and roll. It is an Avro, after all. Of course it would be so. With a sigh I pointed the nose for home, checking fuel from the big float gauge plonked a foot ahead of the front seater’s nose. Plenty remaining in the 30-gallon fuselage tank, centre section 20-gallon tank empty. Consumption was asbout 1517 gallons per hour in cruise, I noted, rising to maybe 18-20 for prolonged circuits or general handling. Not an economical machine, really, in construction or fuel burn, which may have influenced the RAF to replace the Tutor with the Tiger Moth in the mid-1930s. Circuits were easy: tip in with speed reducing from 100mph to an approach speed of 65-70. Now the rear seat was not so advantageous as the big, round nose and long fuselage blocked the view and the situation becomes back-seat Harvard-like. If you could see your landing path you were not going to land on it. However, at 65mph life can’t get too difficult and NZ203 floated in for a classic three-pointer at 55.

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I then had the great privilege of flying the aircraft around New Zealand on a series of exhibition flights, totalling nearly 50 flying hours. We went to other RNZAF bases and carried several VIP passengers including the then Minister of Defence, Frank O’Flynn, himself ex-wartime RNZAF aircrew. However, the good times suddenly ended on 30 August 1985 when we came close to losing the Avro.

“

The good times came to an end when we nearly lost the Avro

”

By coincidence the day was spent flying to the east coast city of Hastings, primarily to show the aircraft to its erstwhile owner, Jim Frogley. Late in the afternoon we headed home to Ohakea. En route I detected a slight engine vibration, which we had previously noted and attributed to worn cones in the propeller mounting. Our engine specialist, who had taken part in the rebuild, removed the prop for

inspection. While wiping off oil, his rag snagged in a torsional fatigue crack in the prop splines. We had been perhaps minutes away from a catastrophic crankshaft failure. For nearly two years NZ203 remained grounded at Ohakea, with its flying future in doubt. We found evidence that Cheetah Vs were prone to this defect, which probably explained the engine’s then rarity. After much investigation and decision-making, Rolls-Royce undertook to repair the crankshaft in the UK using a process called electron beam-welding. This was a temporary fix only and the crankshaft was lifed by R-R at 20 hours. Happily, this was more than enough finally to get Cinderella to the ball — the RNZAF 50th anniversary and opening of the RNZAF Museum at Wigram on 1 April 1987. By this stage I was in NZ Defence headquarters in Wellington on my final posting but, as the only Avro pilot, I was assigned the happy duty of NZ203’s resurrection and ferry. I was only too pleased to be released from that post-ANZUS Alliance graveyard for a few days. However, I was aware that the RNZAF high command was somewhat fretful about ferrying its icon from Ohakea to Wigram, and particularly flying

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across Cook Strait, a famously angry stretch of water separating North and South Islands. Thought had even been given to trucking it. The day before leaving for Ohakea I met in the Air Staff corridor, by chance, the Chief of Air Staff, AVM Patrick Neville. An old squadron commander of mine, Pat had been something of a mentor and friend during my service career, but CAS was CAS. “Morning, sir”. “Are you taking the 626 to Wigram this week?” “Yes, sir”. “Will you have an escort?” “Yes, sir, a No 3 Squadron Iroquois”. “What height do you intend to cross Cook Strait?” “Around 8-10,000 I expect, sir”. “Well”, he said, “if you ditch it in Cook Strait, stay with it!” I have preferred to think to this day that he was joking. I duly air-tested NZ203 at Ohakea and, on 17 March 1987, we crossed Cook Strait at 8,500ft — escorted by the promised ‘Huey’ — to deliver the treasure safely to its final home. During the next fortnight I had the double pleasure and privilege of test-flying the spanking-new rebuilt RNZAF Historic Flight Tiger Moth, NZ662, and then displaying the Avro before the governor-general and a large crowd on that historic day, 1 April 1987. Shortly afterwards, a command decision grounded the Avro permanently and it was retired

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to the RNZAF Museum. It has never flown since. I remember NZ203 with affection. It was agile and forgiving to fly, with respectable but gentlemanly performance from its 275hp; an Avro through and through, without a doubt. A bit like a large, spongy Tiger in some ways, but less demanding of your concentration. It could even be said to be a little bit… well, unexciting. But wait! As NZ203 growled and vibrated its way along, when I listened carefully, I heard an echo of something that I had missed early

on, a sound of something long gone. The Royal Air Force of the 1930s, said to be ‘the best flying club in the world’. The skill and excitement of Hendon on the great display days, with tied-together aerobatics and inverted flying by the RAF Central Flying School’s three-aircraft Tutor team. World War Two fighter pilot Air Cdre Stan Quill, another mentor of mine, making his pre-war first solo in this very aircraft. And hundreds of young men like him making their initial ventures into the new element in the face of the gathering storm.

ABOVE: “Growling and vibrating its way along”, the 626 was a most pleasant aeroplane, despite the odd snag. BELOW: This unique survivor on public display in the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.

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meets

DOUG ROZENDAAL

CAF

It’s not just ﬂying diﬀerent aircraft that means a lot to this top US warbird pilot, but the people involved, too WORDS: BEN DUNNELL

ecome involved in historic aeroplanes for any length of time, and you’re bound to cross paths with more than a few interesting individuals. Along with everything the operation of the aircraft themselves brings, those human connections can often be a big part of what makes the inevitable trials and tribulations worthwhile. Maybe they’ll be veterans and their relatives, perhaps fellow pilots and crew members, or indeed members of the public. Some of the encounters may be specially organised, others matters of chance. What they all have in common is the richness they afford to the whole experience. Doug Rozendaal puts it well. “The opportunities that flying warbirds have afforded me have little to do with the airplanes”, he says. One of the most prominent American warbird pilots, he’s treasured the encounters that have surrounded his activities on the display circuit and more broadly for the past 30 years. Many of those have resulted from his part at the

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forefront of a particular project, the Commemorative Air Force’s ‘Red Tail’ P-51C Mustang, paying tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen. But there have been countless others. “I grew up on a farm in Iowa”, says Doug from his office in Clear Lake, in the north of the state. “I had an uncle who was in the army during Korea who learned to fly on the GI Bill. I don’t remember it, but evidently he flew an Aeronca Chief down from Minneapolis and landed in our hay field. When I was two years old I went for a ride in this Chief, and my mother said I never quit talking about airplanes. “The summer between my freshman and sophomore years at Iowa State I was driving home from college with all my worldly belongings in the back of my pick-up truck, and I stopped at this little grass strip in Nevada, Iowa, an airport long since ploughed up. I walked in, and there was a guy sitting on the couch reading Trade-A-Plane. I announced that I wanted to learn to fly. He explained that it was expensive; well, I knew that. ‘Most people

Doug with Rob Hutchison, one of the DC-3 captains he flew with in the summer of 1986. VIA DOUG ROZENDAAL

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Doug flying the Commemorative Air Force Red Tail Squadron’s P-51C Mustang, an aircraft he’s been involved with for years. DAVID LEININGER

Southwind’s DC-3 N890P was one of the first of the type Doug flew. PETER R. MARCH

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AEROPLANE MEETS Doug Rozendaal

BELOW: Bombers old and new: the CAF Minnesota Wing’s B-25J Miss Mitchell, with Doug at the controls, leads a US Air Force B-52H from the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, North Dakota. USAF

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don’t finish’, he said. I said I was pretty committed to this. ‘Well’, he said, ‘I guess we could put you on the schedule’. He opened up this schedule book that was feet-deep, and it was showing some dates the following week. But I only had three months to do it in summer. I told him, ‘I was thinking tomorrow morning’. The guy said, ‘Oh, you’re serious’. “In the summer of ’77 there was an unprecedented drought in central Iowa, and there was no work. I ran out of money, and I was getting frustrated. I didn’t get it done that summer, but the following spring — March, I think it was — I soloed, and I was very close, but didn’t quite get it finished up. The next spring I went back and got my private pilot’s licence in a Cessna 150. “After I graduated, I got a job and moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and got my instrument rating there. A couple of years later I moved back to Des Moines where I took a job with a British company, ICI. I took a job with ICI Americas selling agricultural chemicals, and they let me fly. Officially I was covering Iowa and the north half of Missouri, but I was really covering several

states. I was renting a Cessna 182RG from my uncle, and life was grand. Then in 1984 my uncle who I was renting the airplane from came to me and said there was a lubricating oil business for sale in Mason City. He suggested I quit my job, he and I buy it, and go up there and run it. That’s what I did, but, starting a new business, cash was tight and I didn’t

“

I didn’t know my time in the Beech 18 and DC-3 was so valuable

”

have any reason to fly. I pretty much quit flying anything other than occasionally. “One day I was driving home from work and there was a DC-3 parked at the airport. I slammed on the brakes, pulled into the airport, went to the café and there sat these two guys surrounded by all the usual suspects. I met Bob Harper, one of the owners of the airplane from

Southwind Airlines in south Texas. They had arrived in our town to initiate FedEx service. Prior to 1986, we did not have overnight package service there. That DC-3 arrived, and its mission was to fly from Mason City to Des Moines, pick up the late freight in Des Moines, take it to Cedar Rapids and put it on a 727. They had gone from [Dassault] Falcons to 727s in Cedar Rapids and were dramatically expanding. I started riding along. We slept in sleeping bags in the back of the airplane. “Bob Harper, the owner, was flying it. He said, ‘Man, you’ve done some real flying’. By that time I had about 800 hours, and flying as a salesman I had flown in pretty much any kind of weather. ‘If you had a multi-engine and a commercial, we would check you out as a co-pilot’. The next day I took my commercial pilot rating, stone-cold. I got an FAR [Federal Aviation Regulations] book, studied a little bit overnight and went and took the written test. Back in those days you had to wait six weeks to get the results. I waited the six weeks, the results came back, and miraculously I had passed. “In the meantime, I had gotten a private multi-engine [licence], and the moment I got my results I got my commercial multi-engine. That weekend I got a Part 135 charter check-out and SIC [secondin-command] check in the DC-3. On the sly, they’d let me fly some. The primary responsibility of the co-pilot on that mission was to load and unload the airplane — 7,000lb of boxes up the hill, and back down when you unloaded. By now it was May 1986, and I was a co-pilot on a DC-3. That was my first tailwheel airplane. “Autumn came, and with winter there was no hangar for the DC-3 at either Mason City or Cedar Rapids. It was going to be impossible to get through the winter without a hangar, so they split the run into two runs and put two Beech 18s on it. The local FBO [fixed-base operator] had a Beech 18 — his name was Jerry Dwyer, and he was, incidentally, the guy who owned the Beech Bonanza that Buddy Holly crashed in. That September, I began flying the ‘Twin Beech’ as captain, but I only had 900 hours total time so I could only fly VFR. I was scud-running at night in the wintertime over north Iowa, which was more than a challenge. But I flew the ‘Twin Beech’ part-time for almost 10 years.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

“In the meantime, in 1989 I went to Harlingen, Texas, to see Bob Harper and Bob Steenbock of Southwind Airlines. They were based in Cameron County, Texas, right on the border and near Harlingen. They were involved with the Confederate Air Force, so I decided to go down there for the CAF Airsho, reunite with these guys and see what the CAF was all about. I had no understanding or real concept of warbirds or anything like that. My attraction was not to the warbirds — I was a farm kid, and it was to big trucks, big tractors, big machinery. That was the intrigue of it. “I joined the CAF — interestingly enough, that was in the midst of its decision to move from Harlingen to Midland. There was a big, raucous discussion about it that I witnessed in the auditorium, and I realised it was a pretty lively organisation. Once home, I had heard there was a CAF B-25 in Minneapolis, 100 miles north of Mason City, that was under restoration, but I did not know anything about it and had no contacts up there.

❖ “In 1991 a cropduster customer/ friend of mine called me up one day. He owned a T-6, and said he’d met a guy at the Offutt airshow who was coming to Mason City to have lunch. Why didn’t we go together? [He] was an airline pilot from Minneapolis. He had a BT-13, so he flew it down and we went and had lunch. He said, ‘You’ve got this DC-3 and Beech 18 experience — you have to come up and see this B-25 we’ve got. You need to get involved in the Minnesota Wing of the CAF’. “At that point I’d bought into a partnership in a Cessna 195, so I flew that up to South St Paul Airport. There was this beautiful B-25 in restoration and very close to getting ready to fly. On 18 April 1992, they started flying the airplane. I had made some extra money doing some sideline contract flying work, so I invested that in a sponsorship of the B-25. I quickly got checked-out as a co-pilot, but I had no aspirations of flying it as captain, ever. I was just a lowly, low-time guy and they had all these airline pilots with thousands of hours. “What I didn’t understand was that my time in the Beech 18 and the DC-3 was incredibly valuable. I got in the B-25 and it was just like I’d died and gone to heaven. This is an

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

airplane that’s considerably easier to fly than a Beech 18, and it has power. A Beech 18 at night, at gross weight or a little better, just has no power. I fell instantly in love with the B-25, and immediately got checkedout in the left seat. Then I started working the airshow industry hard, booking airshows for it, and flying it a lot in the summer of ’92 and ’93. That was really the beginning of my warbird career. “It’s been an incredible run since then. One thing leads to another. I was the co-pilot when we flew Miss Mitchell over Arlington for Jimmy Doolittle’s burial; that was an incredible experience. We got a PBY, and I started flying that. Through airshows I got to know the ‘North Dakota mafia’, Gerry Beck, Bob Odegaard and all those guys, and became friends with them. “The airport manager in Fort Dodge, Iowa called me up one day — I was booking the B-25 and developing relationships with all these airshow people. She said, ‘Hey, we’re looking for some warbirds for our airshow’. I told

her we’d obviously got the B-25, and she wanted that, but she also wanted a fighter. I asked what her wish-list was. She told me her favourite airplane was the Corsair, so it would be fantastic if I could get one. I called Gerry Beck up and said, ‘Hey, Beck. They’ve got an airshow down here in Fort Dodge and they’re looking for a Corsair… What do you want to charge?’ He said, ‘Whatever’s fair. Are they charging admission?’ It was Fly Iowa, so it was free. So, he told me, ‘Give ’em a good deal’. I called up and negotiated a deal, and they agreed to it. I called Beck back: ‘Here’s the deal — put this on your calendar for next year.’ “About two hours later he called me back. His wife just informed him they had a conflict that weekend. I said I’d find somebody else with another airplane. ‘No, don’t do that’, he said. ‘Why don’t you get an LOA [letter of authorisation] in the Corsair and you can take the airplane to the airshow?’ Long pause… ‘Don’t **** with me, Beck’. ‘No, I’m serious. There’s some demand for this airplane and I

ABOVE: There were many good times to be had with the Texas Flying Legends Museum aircraft, such as taking part in this stack comprising the A6M2 Zero, P-40K Warhawk, P-51D Mustangs Dakota Kid II/Long Island Kid and Little Horse, the FG-1D Corsair and B-25J Mitchell. Doug was in the P-40. LUIGINO CALIARO

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AEROPLANE MEETS Doug Rozendaal

BELOW: Two ‘Red Tail’ P-51Cs in formation during Sun ’n Fun 2012, as Doug in the CAF aeroplane leads Kermit Weeks’ Ina The Macon Belle. DAVID LEININGER

don’t want to be doing that much. I need somebody to back me up’. OK. Spring comes around, and we’re getting ramped-up. I called Gerry and said I was going up for my T-6 recurrent next week. If I was going to get this letter in the Corsair, this would be a good time to start working on that. ‘But’, I said, ‘if you’ve come to your senses and changed your mind, I have not told a single, solitary soul about this… it won’t affect our friendship, and I’ll understand’. ‘No’, he told me. ‘You need to get a letter in the Corsair.’ “I did the T-6 check ride and got all signed off for the Corsair. I went

up to North Dakota, spent some time in the cockpit and spent some time with Beck talking about it. Finally, it came time to pull it out and go fly. I got up in the airplane and got it cranked up, with Beck standing there watching. I taxied out, and he waved and went back to work in his shop. I went and flew it around, and it flew great. I made three landings and came taxiing back in. Everybody showed up from town because the Corsair was flying. When I got out of the airplane, they were all clapping. The main door in the hangar opened — Beck looked out, saw that his airplane was in

one piece, closed the door and went back to work! That was who he was. “The Minnesota Wing had this pile of scrap that was the bones of a C-model Mustang. There was a guy named Don Hinz, who was not a CAF member, but who was a retired naval aviator who had gotten out of the navy and started flying for the airlines. On the side he bought a garbage truck, and he decided he liked tipping cans better than flying airliners. He bought several more garbage trucks and became incredibly successful. He sold his refuse business, bought some Marchettis [SIAI-Marchetti SF260s] and started a ‘laser-tag’ combat business at our airport. I knew Don, but not well, and Don knew we had this Mustang. Bob Odegaard by now had figured out how to extrude spars, and the wings of this airplane had been cut off. Prior to that it wasn’t really a candidate for restoration, because there just weren’t any spars. The Minnesota Wing raised a little money and sent the wing up to North Dakota to get it restored.

❖ “Don Hinz witnessed some things in the navy regarding the way African-American pilots had been treated that he wasn’t very proud of. He knew we were trying to restore this airplane as a Tuskegee Airmen airplane. He came onto the scene, joined the CAF and took charge of the project. Don was a visionary leader with infectious energy. He brought the same level of enthusiasm to the ‘Red Tail’ project, and when he got involved, I knew we had a winning team and I wanted to be on it. When it was still a heap of corroded aluminum on the ground, I sponsored the P-51. “Don understood that to be successful it had to be more than just another cool Mustang. He had the vision it could be an education programme — that we were going to inspire young people. In short order we had a flying airplane. From Don’s initial involvement in the project until its first flight was maybe three years. We were going backwards and forwards to Wahpeton, doing the restoration, so I got really close to Beck and Odegaard. By now I was flying their airplanes. “We formed the Red Tail Squadron, got the P-51C flying in 2001 and got affiliated with some teachers. We were working on curriculum development, bringing

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the story of the Tuskegee Airmen into schools. Well, we found out pretty quickly that neither schools nor school boards had much interest in what airplane drivers had to say about what should be taught in their schools. We were failing miserably. Even when we got the airplane flying, we were still failing miserably. “Then came Memorial Day in 2004. We were into the Red Wing Airshow [at Red Wing Airport], which was the Minnesota Wing’s home show. Don was flying the Mustang, I was flying the B-25, and he came on the radio to say the engine was quitting. I think everybody knows the story there. He didn’t make the runway, put it in a field, tore the wing off and he died. I became the de facto leader of the project. We loaded the parts up, took them back to North Dakota and started raising money. There was a guy who was involved in politics and got wind of our story. He told me we really needed to get involved in direct mail. I went to CAF headquarters and said we wanted to try a direct mail campaign. They agreed, somewhat hesitantly, and it began to flourish. Now I was saying the curriculum thing wasn’t working — the schools were never going to let us come in and dump a programme in their lap. We had to figure out a different way to get to these young people we wanted to inspire.”

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When long-time CAF instructor and examiner Randy Sohn persuaded Doug to get an instructor’s rating of his own, it proved something of a revelation. “The first sentence in the old ‘red book’, the flight instructor handbook, said, ‘The definition of learning is a change of behaviour as a result of experience’. I thought, ‘Wow, now there’s a concept’. I dug into this, and it changed the way I ran my business, the way I

“

I sponsored the ‘Red Tail’ P-51 when it was still a heap of corroded aluminum

”

motivated my employees. It was transformational. “We were trying to develop this education project. We needed to do something that rose to the level of an experience. I looked back at my own life: what were the experiences that had an impact on me growing up, which were exciting and immediately come to mind? I have asked literally hundreds of flight instructor applicants: what organisation in America is best in

class and has no peer at creating experiences?” The answer: Disney. “We needed to create Disneyland in some sort of a mobile venue that we could take to schools. I drew up a concept for a mobile exhibition trailer, and at airshows I would go look at all the other exhibition trailers that you walk through to see what they had. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to […] put people in there, turn off the lights and ‘own’ them for 15 or 30 minutes. “In the five years the ‘Red Tail’ was down, we were trying to raise money for this exhibit. My plan was to charge airshows for the appearance and appear with the airplane and the exhibit at the airshow. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we would go to a school for free. We would control the message in the exhibit. We were promoting the airshow, we were giving the airshow a connection with the community, we were giving the airshow an education outreach arm. That was the vision. “In 2009 we got the airplane put back together after Don’s accident. I had the opportunity to develop close personal relationships with numerous original Tuskegee Airmen, most notably Charles McGee. Charles became a close family friend, and I’m still in contact with his son and daughter. I spoke at his 90th birthday party, I spoke at

ABOVE: Closing in on the camera-ship with the Texas Flying Legends’ P-40K 42-10256, an exSoviet machine. LUIGINO CALIARO

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AEROPLANE MEETS Doug Rozendaal

his 100th birthday party. He was just a man to aspire to, and it’s certainly humbling to realise that, if that’s the standard, I fall so miserably short. He is one of the finest people that ever walked across the face of the planet. I learned so much from him. I can’t overstate the impact that my relationship with him had on my life. Such a kind man — for all the things he endured, he always saw the positives in all of it.” By now, Doug was active in a broader range of aircraft. He participated in US Navy Legacy Flight displays, both in the Corsair and the CAF’s F6F Hellcat, while he was one of the very few pilots to fly Bob Odegaard’s sensational F2G Super Corsair. And there were more to come. “Henry Reichert had a Mustang, Dakota Kid, that Warren Pietsch was going to sell for him. I needed to renew my aerobatic card, and I called Warren up — he was an aerobatic competency evaluator. I thought I’d fly up the next day. ‘Hey, that’d be great’, he said, ‘because I’ve got some guy coming here to have a look at the Mustang. You come up here and we’ll show him a good time’.

❖

TOP: Just one of the memorable scenes from the D-Day Squadron’s 2019 European tour, as Doug and That’s All Brother lead Eric Zipkin at the helm of the Tunison Foundation’s C-47A Placid Lassie, and Hugo Mathys’ C-47. RICHARD PAVER MIDDLE: Piloting C-47A That’s All Brother on its maiden post-restoration flight, on 31 January 2018. JIM KOEPNICK ABOVE: That’s All Brother leads a specially marked US Air Force C-130J from the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein over Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, on 8 June 2019. USAF

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“I flew up to Minot, North Dakota, in my Rocket, I renewed my aerobatic card with Warren, and this guy showed up. He was there representing a billionaire from Houston who was interested in buying a Mustang… Lo and behold, the day after that, before we left he had bought this airplane for his boss, and we were going to crew it for him. That was the birth of Texas Flying Legends. “He bought a whole bunch of airplanes, a hangar in Houston, and Warren and I created a formation warbird team — B-25, Corsair, two Mustangs, ultimately a Spitfire. That was an incredible deal. We did two airshows in St Barts, we did all kinds of things. It took on a whole life of its own. But it was becoming too much, and I stepped back from it. A year or two after that, it fell apart. The owner had scratched that itch, and Warren liquidated all those airplanes for him. Bruce Eames still has part of that collection, and I’ve flown some of those airplanes for Bruce — the Spitfire and the Hurricane.” A particularly historic C-47 has been the subject of an even longer association. “Twenty-something years ago, a friend of mine called me up and said he was going to

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

buy a DC-3. Could I check him out on it? He bought it, and it was out in Arizona… I got him trained up, called in an examiner, got him a type rating and we flew it back to Iowa. I flew it with him for several years, but then he’d kind of scratched that itch and flew it down to Casa Grande, Arizona, and parked it there. “Fast-forward now to probably seven or eight years after he bought it; he called me up and said, ‘Why don’t you buy my DC-3?’ I laughed — first of all, I didn’t have a place to put it, and you can’t leave it outside in the Midwest or it’ll get torn up. Secondly, I had no use for it, and I didn’t have a team of mechanics to take care of it. He’d figured that, so he was going to sell it to Basler. But he wasn’t current any more, so he asked if I could ferry it with him to Oshkosh. We went to Casa Grande and spent a day working on the airplane to get it all up and running. It flew flawlessly, and we took it all the way to Oshkosh and parked it. “I am not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes when I walked away from it, because it was going to get chopped in half and stretched and have turbines put on it and all of that. You know, this was an airplane I had a lot of history with. Every year at Oshkosh I’d be flying in the airshow, I’d look down and there was ’847, or ‘Puff’ as we called it — it was in Vietnam gunship colours, and it had these big dummy guns that poked out the windows. “One day I was sitting right here at my desk when the ’phone rang. It was Steve Brown, who was president of the CAF at the time. He said they thought they’d found the lead airplane from D-Day. ‘Really, where?’ ‘At Basler’. ‘Which one?’ ‘’847’. I told him I knew that airplane — I’d flown it there. I was on the board of directors then, and we made a deal with Basler to buy

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

the airplane. Being here in northern Iowa I’m close to Basler, so I was heavily involved, running back and forth. The CAF raised the money and restored it to like-new condition. I got to do the first flight on it.” With the name That’s All Brother and in service with the 87th Troop Carrier Squadron, C-47A 42-92847 had on the night of 5-6 June 1944 led the seventh serial of Mission ‘Albany’, the first element carrying the main body of paratroopers after those that dropped the pathfinders into battle. In June 2019 it memorably returned to Europe for six weeks of D-Day and Berlin Airlift commemorations, as part of the D-Day Squadron led by Eric Zipkin.

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The D-Day Squadron was an experience on so many levels

”

“It was an incredible experience on so many different levels”, says Doug. “I met Eric Zipkin the first time when we were in St Barts. He operates an airline down there, and we needed our pilots to be ferried back to St Barts for a reception after one of our airshows. Eric took us in his PC-12. I didn’t really take him too seriously — he was just a rich guy who drove turbines and smelled of kerosene. When Eric started to put together the D-Day Squadron to go to Europe, I saw there was more to him than I’d realised. Over the course of the year, he and I became very close, lifelong friends. “People said, ‘Aren’t you worried about flying a DC-3 across the North Atlantic?’ I’d say I have a brand-

new airplane, with 150 hours on it. It was well broken-in, it would fly on one engine, and it was going to be cold weather, so overheating was not a worry. I was mostly concerned about taking 75 type-A people and putting them under stress in close confinement. That was a psychological experiment. But Eric’s leadership style proved to be successful herding those cats, and corralling all that ego and pointing it in the right direction. I can’t say enough about how critical he was to the success of that mission.” The DC-3/C-47 family has been a big part of Doug’s life. His goal is to still be flying them in 2036, the year after the type’s centenary, so he can mark a personal halfcentury of ‘Dak’ operations. But his time on other types is scarcely less considerable, and as an FAA specialty examiner covering most fighters, the B-25 and PBY, he’s much involved in training the next generation, too. In turn, Doug’s used his experience to further the cause of flight safety, whether in warbirds, homebuilts, or many other genres of aircraft. One story in particular takes him back to flying Gerry Beck’s Corsair for the first time. “I got out of the airplane with everybody congratulating me, all excited, and walked into the hangar. Beck was over on his toolbox, working on one of the gadgets he was so famous for. He asked, ‘So, what do you think?’ I said, ‘Well, it was really cool, but it wasn’t really a big deal’. He put his glasses down and replied, ‘If it was a big deal, you shouldn’t be here’. “I’ve told that to an untold number of people I’ve checked-out on fighters since then. If you’re properly prepared, it’s not a big deal. These airplanes were flown by 19-year-old kids with less than 200 hours’ total time. Anybody who tells you they’re hard to fly is probably trying to pad their own ego. Some of them have some idiosyncrasies and all of that, but for the most part, the reason why they were good fighters is because they were relatively easy to fly and could be flown well by low-time pilots.” No wonder, then, that Doug gets such interest and pleasure from pretty much everything he flies. “I can find redeeming qualities in almost any airplane. Each one has something to teach you, and if you can store those in your database of experiences then you don’t get surprised very often.”

LEFT: CAF Red Tail Squadron pilots Brad Lang, Doug, Alan Miller, Paul Stojkov and Bill Shepard with the Hinz family on the occasion of the late Don Hinz being inducted into the CAF Hall of Fame. CAF

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PERSONAL ALBUM

DE HAVILLANDS ‘DOWN UNDER’ The products of de Havilland have always had a strong presence in Australia and New Zealand. Bob O’Brien captured several of them aeroplane, An ex-Royal Flying Doctor Service up ZK-DDD on arrival took A Mk3 er Drov this DA, VH-F . Auckland-based in New Zealand during August 1970 -85. 1983 from it had s Great Barrier Air Line

DHA-3 Drover Mk3 VH-FDS started life in 1951 as a MkI, VH-DRC. It was converted to the later mark, with Lycoming O-360 engines and other changes, a decade later and subsequently re-registered. The machine was on the strength of Murchison Air Services in Perth, Western Australia, from July 1969 until July 1971, when the company merged with Trans-West Air Charter. VH-FDS is today preserved by the Queensland Air Museum in Caloundra.

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AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

DH104 Dove VH-ABM was a much-travelled aeroplane, having been built in 1946 for Iraqi Airways, and served thereafter in Jordan and the UK. The Riley-converted machine’s arrival in Australia during July 1974 presaged a couple of years with the short-lived Central Australian Airways in Adelaide. It survives at the Ballarat Aviation Museum in Victoria.

ds the New Zealand Warbir at Ardmore as part of no has It . and ckl Au DHC-2 Beaver ZK-CKH of y F example NZ6001 Cit G in fleet, marked as RNZA South Africa as ZS-DC been delivered new to ing hav y, tor his It arrived in New ya. military Lib in ed rat ope e G-ARTR but 1947, and then becom re ever since. 1964 and has been the Zealand by ship during

Devon NZ1808 was on Roy between November 195 al New Zealand Air Force strength 2 and May 1980. Initiall y stored, during 1984 it was sold into civilian hands as ZK-KTT, soon sporting New Zealand Warbirds titles as a me mber aircraft of that org anisation. The DH104 flies today as part of the Classic Flyers New Zea land fleet at Tauranga.

Wearing Royal Mail titles on its nose, Drover Mk3 VH-EOO sits outside at Sydney’s Bankstown airport during 1970. It was the penultimate DHA-3 to see airline service, being retired by Adelaide-based Coveair in January 1974.

Have you got photos to contribute to Personal Album? If so, e-mail the editor at ben.dunnell@keypublishing.com

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

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DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG

IN-DEPTH PAGES

A well-known colour photo of Spiteful RB515 taken by Charles E. Brown on 27 July 1945. RAF MUSEUM

Insights Insights

WORDS: TONY BUTTLER

Flight-Testing Flight-Testing

SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG

Technical Details Details Technical

Seafang F32 VB895, the second full prototype of the type. CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY

Development Development

DATABASE DATA

DEVELOPMENT

Creating a Spitfire and Seafire follow-on — and the performance problems that resulted

The new wing design is illustrated well as Spiteful RB515 banks away. CROWN COPYRIGHT

he improvements and changes introduced to the Spitfire enabled new variants to match the equivalent developments in the enemy’s fighters, to the point that by the end of the war their destructive power and performance — especially their speed — were far in excess of the marks that in 1940 had taken part in the Battle of Britain. It was hoped that the new tapered, laminar-flow wing on the Spiteful would push that performance even higher. In aviation science, the boundary layer is the layer of air adjacent to the aircraft’s surface which has zero velocity at the surface itself and then increases to free stream velocity — the speed at which the air is moving over the aircraft — at its outer edge. The theory that made the laminar-flow wing of interest was that the boundary layer transition point would be moved further aft on the wing surface, and the point where turbulent

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airflow began consequently held back. This would reduce drag because a thin, laminar-flow boundary layer would create less skin friction drag than a thicker or turbulent layer. The principal benefits were expected to be an improvement in performance, the avoidance of the effects caused by compressibility,

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just a short time meant current ﬁghters were now much faster than they had been in 1940. The potential was there for still further improvement, but it was also known that drag would increase at these higher speeds and be diﬃcult to overcome, leading to the idea of a ‘sound barrier’.

The new wing structure was easier to build than the Spitfire’s and an increase in rolling manoeuvrability as a result of the reduced span and wing area. Compressibility is the result of shockwaves building up when an aircraft flies ever closer to the speed of sound, and during 1943-44 this was becoming more of a concern for fighter-type aeroplanes. The pace at which piston engine power had risen in

”

Clearly some research was required, and during 1943 the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough began testing models in a newly commissioned high-speed wind tunnel. In addition, a full-scale flight test programme with Spitfires commenced under the official title ‘Measurement of Tail Loads’. One of the pilots on the

RAE’s Aerodynamics Flight was perhaps closer to the mark when he called this “an attempt to break the world air speed record vertically downwards”, because this work involved full-power dives carried out from around 40,000ft (12,192m), so the ‘Spits’ achieved their peak Mach numbers at altitudes between 25,000ft and 30,000ft (7,620m and 9,144m). In April 1944 Sqn Ldr Tony Martindale, ﬂying Spitﬁre IX EN409, exceeded 600mph (965km/h), or Mach 0.90, in a dive from 40,000ft (12,192m) to 27,000ft (8,230m), but in the process the aircraft lost its propeller and the structure was strained quite severely. To get home, Martindale had to glide his mount for 20 miles (32km) with very considerable skill before he was able to make a safe landing at Farnborough. In a later sortie the same pilot recorded more than 600mph in diving from over 36,000ft (10,973m), but this time the engine supercharger

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DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG

The design and construction of the Spiteful was covered by specification F1/43 of May 1943. As noted, this document basically described a single-seat aircraft with the laminar-flow wing and a Spitfire VIII fuselage. Initially Supermarine allocated its Type 371 to just the wing, but later this number covered the full aircraft. At this stage the powerplant was to be either a Rolls-Royce Merlin or Griffon fitted with a

The ill-fated ‘hybrid’ Spiteful prototype NN660, which mated a Spitfire XIV body with the new wing. CROWN COPYRIGHT

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Insights

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contra-rotating propeller, so the wing would also need to be compatible with the Griffonpowered Spitfire 21. In the event, no Merlin-powered aircraft would fly with the laminar-flow surface, but it was not until mid1944 that Supermarine agreed to drop the Merlin Spiteful. The plans for Merlin versions explain why the first Spiteful mark was the Griffon-powered XIV, the direct equivalent to the Griffon Spitfire XIV, because the lower mark numbers had been left vacant for Merlin-powered variants. A maximum speed of 525mph (845km/h) and a Mach number of 0.83 were used as a basis for the Spiteful’s strength and stiffness calculations.

Flight-Testing

chord. This effort embraced a range of variations including different wing settings, increased fin area, five- and six-bladed propellers, alternative radiator ducts and the effects of Mach numbers up to 0.82.

The structure with its straight leading and trailing edges was certainly much easier to build than the Spitfire’s elliptical form, but it did present some new problems. To enable it to bear the loads expected in flight, this thin surface had to be made much heavier for its size than an equivalent thick wing, with the result that there was rather less space available inside for fuel. And from the production standpoint, to ensure laminar flow was achieved, the wing demanded great accuracy of manufacture along with a far better surface finish than was usual. Indeed, for the first time in a production aircraft, this new principle in wing design required contours which had to be accurate to within five thousandths of an inch. Such was the optimism for this fighter project that by 1 October 1943 proposals had been put forward to switch production at the Castle Bromwich factory to Spitefuls sometime between August and November 1944, though mating the wing to the fuselage would, in the end, necessitate substantial changes to the latter. Production schedules would also be hampered by a lack of available skilled draughtsmen and other labour, a real problem because of the extra care necessary to ensure the wing was made accurately, with its extremely smooth surface. The three prototype Spitefuls, serials NN660, NN664 and NN667, were covered by a contract dated 4 February 1943. That said, NN660 was in fact a unique hybrid prototype since it had a Spitfire XIV body with its original non-bubble canopy plus the new wing. Supermarine

Technical Details

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

Supermarine chief designer Joseph Smith, one of the masterminds behind these two Spitfire offshoots.

Development

burst. Martindale survived a crash-landing in a wood. Flying at those speeds was a serious and most dangerous business. Supermarine’s efforts to create a laminar-flow wing appear to have begun officially with discussions at the firm’s Hursley Park facility on 19 November 1942, chief designer Joe Smith and colleagues Clifton, Mansbridge and Taylor being joined by Irving and Thomas from RAE Farnborough. The proposed wing was a straight affair, tapered along both edges, and the provisional dimensions were a span of 35ft (10.67m) and an area of 210 sq ft (19.53 sq m); the thickness/chord ratio was 13 per cent across the innermost 70in (178cm) of the semi-span, tapering to 8 per cent at the tip. The estimated weight was 200lb (91kg) lighter than the wing fitted on the Spitfire F21 and it was hoped that an increase of 55mph (88km/h) in speed would be realised. Taylor had made calculations covering various aileron planforms, which indicated that the larger the ailerons the less the degree of balance required to produce a given maximum rolling moment for a given stick force. It was hoped this wing would give a rate of roll better than any existing fighter. The meeting brought confirmation that Supermarine should proceed with the full design of the new wing and aileron. On 29 December 1942 it was agreed that four 20mm cannon should be fitted inside the wing. The first two wings were expected to be completed by about August 1943, and Supermarine was instructed to build three prototype fighters using Spitfire VIII fuselages. In due course the new aircraft was to be officially named the Spiteful. A major contributor in the development work required for this special wing section was the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington which, with the RAE, provided a prolific quantity of tunnel testing. The objective was to maintain laminar flow as far back as possible to a point where there was no interference from the slipstream or from the projecting gun barrels, with the maximum thickness coming at about 42 per cent of the wing

DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG to be much better than later versions of the Spitfire. The Spiteful was discussed at a meeting held on 7 February 1945 and attended by J. E. Serby, deputy director of research and development (air) and E. M. Fraser, director-general of aircraft production at the Air Ministry, along with Supermarine’s Joe Smith and general manager Cdr James Bird. Bird stressed how the company was worried about the lack of labour to hold the Spiteful programme on schedule, so perhaps, he suggested, some work should be moved to other factories. He also emphasised that the Spiteful, being the first thin-wing aircraft, should be regarded as a new design on which teething troubles were to be expected. Smith added that flying trials had begun on the second prototype and alterations would be required, chiefly to the tail unit and ailerons (as outlined above), but no serious design difficulties had come to light.

Spiteful NN664 at Boscombe Down on 29 June 1945. CROWN COPYRIGHT

chief test pilot Jeffrey Quill took NN660 for its maiden flight on 30 June 1944, though taking quite so long to get this machine into the air had brought the manufacturer some criticism. The equivalent Spitfire variant was the MkXIV and NN660 was found to be comfortably faster, but not as quick as had been anticipated or hoped for. Test pilot Frank Furlong was killed in NN660 on 13 September 1944 during a flight from High Post airfield in Wiltshire, used by Supermarine for flight-testing purposes. During a mock dogfight against a Spitfire XIV, Furlong at one point pulled high g. The Spiteful flicked onto its back and hit the ground near the airfield before the pilot could recover. The reason was never clarified, but it is thought the ailerons may have jammed momentarily, a phenomenon experienced later by Quill himself in NN664, though at a higher and thus safer altitude. During December 1944 Supermarine was again criticised by the ministry over the programme’s slow progress, but Quill finally got the first fullstandard prototype, NN664, into the air on 8 January 1945. Early Spiteful flight trials had, however, uncovered problems with aileron ‘snatching’ and

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wing drop ahead of the stall, while under high g there was a pronounced flick at the stall. Covering the wing with wool tufts revealed that, in flight, the area ahead of the ailerons would begin to stall before the rest of the wing. This was the opposite of what happened with the Spitfire, on which the stall began at the root and worked its way along the wing to the tips. The stall on

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onset of shockwaves and the associated increase in transonic drag, but the levels of skin friction drag were found to have changed little when compared to the Spitfire’s wing. Prototype NN664 began its flying career with a standard Spitfire F21 tailplane and fabric-covered elevators and rudder, but the standard, much larger-area Spiteful tailplane

The hoped-for reductions in drag were not being achieved the laminar-flow wing appeared to begin at the tips and move inwards. On top of this, when these advanced laminar sections were flight-tested on the Spiteful it became clear that the hopedfor reductions in drag were not being achieved. One factor was that tiny elements of surface roughness — for example, specks of dirt or dead insects stuck to the wing — proved sufficient to create some turbulent flow within the boundary layer, thus destroying the laminar flow and reducing the speed. At higher speeds the laminar sections did delay the

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went on to be fitted. To try and solve some of the Spiteful’s in-flight weaknesses, NN664 later flew with reduced-span ailerons, modified wing sections near the ailerons and beading on the aileron trailing edge. The redesigned and enlarged tail surfaces on this prototype, which were fitted to production machines as well, improved the low-speed handling characteristics, lateral control approaching the stall and lateral stability. But these changes lowered the maximum speed, with the result that the Spiteful’s performance was not now going

❖ However, in view of the experimental nature of the Spiteful’s design, and the fact that considerably more prototype flying was needed, neither the Supermarine representatives nor Serby felt able to give any estimate of the date on which the fighter would be technically cleared for production. Bird said the production of fuselages and parts was proceeding, but modifications were required and the manufacture of some items had been halted because of the prototype crash. Consequently, it would be necessary to manufacture another 100 to 150 Spitfires to maintain the level of wartime production. The ministry representatives stated it would be misleading to inflate the aircraft and engine programmes by increasing the quantity of Spitfires without making a compensatory reduction in Spitefuls, particularly as Griffon engines for both were in short supply. For these reasons, and because production tooling was not ready, it was agreed that the Spiteful build-up would have to be slowed and that the resulting gap should be filled by an increase in Spitfire production before the middle of the year.

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TECHNICAL DETAILS

The anatomy of Supermarine’s ultimate piston-engined fighters

CROWN COPYRIGHT

Development

Production Spiteful RB517 with a five-blade propeller.

Technical Details

The ﬁxed armament consisted of four 20mm-calibre guns with 624 rounds of ammunition, 167 for each inboard gun and 145 to each outer one, while combinations of rocket projectiles or bombs could go underneath the wings with little loss of performance. A camera gun was provided. Armour protection was added to the cockpit and other vulnerable points, while the fuel tanks (other

than those with armour) were self-sealing. Normal fuel capacity was 178 Imperial gallons (809 litres) and a 90 (409-litre) or 180-Imperial gallon (818-litre) drop tank could be carried without reduction in normal military load. Early Spitefuls could hold only 118 gallons (537 litres) internally, but a 60-gallon (273-litre) tank was introduced in the rear fuselage. The smaller external tank gave

NN664 was the first true Spiteful prototype, finished predominantly in natural metal and with the air intake set back. CROWN COPYRIGHT

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Insights

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

appearance, with the pilot’s seat further reclined than in the Spitfire, and an improved view over the nose. The type’s large fin and rudder was also used by latemark Spitfires and Seafires, and was thus often referred to as the ‘Spiteful-type’ tail. When in the ‘up’ position the undercarriage was totally enclosed by doors, as was the case with the tailwheel; the mainwheels were fitted with pneumatic brakes.

Flight-Testing

he Spiteful was a single-seat, low-wing monoplane fighter and fighter-bomber powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon 12-cylinder ‘V’-type liquidcooled engine. Its structure and components were all-metal, with stressed skin covering the frames and a surface finish taken to very fine limits. The laminarflow wing shape, formed from Supermarine’s own high-speedsection two-spar mainplane aerofoil, enabled conventional two-spar construction to be employed, unlike the Spitfire which had a single-spar wing. It was made in two sections with detachable tips and the structure was described by the manufacturer as “very robust”, but the designers still kept the weight very low. All flying controls were conventional, the ailerons being operated by push-pull rods and the elevators and rudder by cables, and metal-covered split flaps stretched along the trailing edge from the wing roots to the ailerons. The two-spar wing permitted an inwards-retracting undercarriage to be fitted — it was some 4ft (1.22m) wider than the Spitfire’s narrow-track gear. The Spiteful’s fuselage was a redesign of the Spitfire’s. It had more of a humped-back

DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG SPITEFUL F16 RB518

SEAFANG F32 VB895

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DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG Development

a duration in cruise of four hours and the larger tank 5.4 hours, these times being obtained with the aircraft flying at a cruising speed of 240-260mph (386418km/h) and using about 27 per cent of the maximum engine power; they included an allowance for take-off, climb to 20,000ft (6,096m) and then 15 minutes at combat power.

A good idea of the Seafang’s wing folding arrangement comes courtesy of VB895. BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE, FARNBOROUGH

DATAFILE

SPITEFUL FXIV AND SEAFANG F32 Seafang F32

One Rolls-Royce Griffon 69 liquid-cooled in-line engine, 2,375hp at 1,250ft (381m)

One Rolls-Royce Griffon 89 liquidcooled in-line engine, 2,350hp at 1,250ft (381m)

DIMENSIONS Length: Wingspan:

32ft 11in (10.03m) 35ft 0in (10.67m)

Height:

13ft 5in (4.09m)

34ft 1in (10.39m) 35ft 0in (10.67m), or 27ft 0in (8.23m) wings-folded 12ft 6.5in (3.82m)

WEIGHTS Normal (take-off): Overload (with 180-gallon/818-litre) tank):

9,950lb (4,513kg) 11,400lb (5,171kg)

10,450lb (4,740kg) 11,900lb (5,398kg)

483mph (777km/h) at 21,000ft (6,401m) at normal weight

475mph (764km/h) in fully supercharged gear at full-throttle height of 21,000ft (6,401m) 41,000ft (12,497m)

PERFORMANCE Maximum speed:

Service ceiling:

42,000ft (12,802m)

ARMAMENT

Four 20mm cannon; provision for two 1,000lb (454kg) bombs or four 300lb (136kg) rocket projectiles

As for Spiteful

Not all Patrick Shea-Simonds’ flights in RB515 went as smoothly as this photographic sortie. RAF MUSEUM

BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE, FARNBOROUGH

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Insights

Spiteful FXIV POWERPLANT

Flight-Testing

Second full Spiteful prototype NN667 introduced the longer ‘low-drag’ air intake directly behind the airscrew.

Technical Details

❖ The engine installation consisted of a detachable powerplant assembly. The engine, its auxiliaries and systems could all be taken off the airframe in one piece by the disconnection of system joints and the removal of the four attachment bolts. The two-speed, two-stage supercharged Griffon drove a RotoI Hydraulic fiveor six-blade, constant-speed, variable-pitch propeller and the maximum power for periods of 60 minutes was 1,490bhp at 2,600rpm at 13,500ft (4,115m). Provision had also been made to augment this with rocket-assisted take-off gear. Turning the Spiteful into the Seafang involved the introduction of hydraulically folding wings — in truth, folding wingtips or outer wings — plus an arrester hook placed right at the end of the fuselage, a long-stroke undercarriage and other naval fittings and equipment. Powered ailerons were incorporated and the Seafang could carry 180 gallons (818 litres) of external fuel. The visual differences to the Spiteful were relatively small. The Seafang FR32 was to have been equipped for fighter-reconnaissance work with provision in the rear fuselage to take one vertical and one oblique camera.

FLIGHT-TESTING

Testing of both the Spiteful and Seafang proved a far from trouble-free aﬀair

Patrick Shea-Simonds at the controls of Spiteful RB515. RAF MUSEUM

Spiteful Spiteful NN664 went to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down in June 1945, to begin the type’s official trials. Both Jeffrey Quill and Royal Navy pilot Lt Patrick SheaSimonds presented the type at the RAE Farnborough ‘At Home’ exhibition and display held in late October of that year. The third prototype, NN667, introduced a longer, ‘low-drag’ air intake directly behind the airscrew, but it still experienced the problems that had affected the earlier examples. Fitted with an 11ft (3.35m)-diameter, five-bladed Rotol Hydraulic

variable-pitch propeller, NN667 was assessed at Boscombe between 1 February and 6 June 1946, but its engineering and maintenance appraisal was not encouraging. Supermarine had stated in its proposal documents that particular consideration

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importance, but in general the A&AEE considered the aircraft below-average. The cockpit layout was bad and too much time was required for routine operations such as refuelling, rearming and changing oxygen bottles and accumulators. In

Interest in the Spiteful died, and it never entered RAF service had been given to the aircraft’s suitability for ﬁghter operations under conditions where rapid servicing was of primary

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summary, it was thought this aircraft would be diﬃcult to service or maintain, although the powerplant layout was generally

good, and the accessories and major components were reasonably accessible. On its arrival at Boscombe, NN667 had flown 14 hours 55 minutes; by its departure, it had completed a further 25 hours 40 minutes. Later, in an unpainted condition, NN667 made a surprise appearance at the Marham flood relief display in 1947. The first 17 production machines, all FXIVs, were serials RB515 to RB525, RB527 to RB531, and RB535. In the end these were to be the only examples produced, the remainder being cancelled. With the two true prototypes, just 19

Spiteful RB518 eventually qualified as Britain’s fastest piston-engined aircraft. CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY

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DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG As the only Spiteful F16, RB518 had its air intake position moved to beneath the nose — in fact, this was the original intake position as used on NN660. It had a ﬁve-blade propeller and a Griﬀon 101 engine. CROWN COPYRIGHT

Technical Details air intake and a Seafang-type windscreen and hood. The flight test programme compared the level speed performance when an 11ft 0in (3.35m)-diameter, wide-chord, NACA 16-section propeller was fitted, and then with a double wedge-section propeller of similar diameter. The latter tests came to an end prematurely when RB518 was forced to make a landing with its undercarriage retracted. It was found that the doublewedge propeller provided a slight gain in level speed — 3-4mph (4.8-6.4km/h) below full throttle height (FTH) — and possibly an increase in full throttle height of up to 1,500ft (457m). The NACA propeller had an FTH of 33,600ft (10,241m) with a speed at that height of 487mph (784km/h); the equivalent double wedge figures were 35,100ft (10,698m) and 494mph (795km/h). The figure of 494mph logged during a sortie in 1947 was the highest recorded speed by a British pistonengined aircraft in level flight. Between 3 December 1946 and 3 March 1947, no less than 13 Spitefuls arrived at No 6 Maintenance Unit at Brize Norton, most of them in the first few days of December.

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Insights

❖ The Air Ministry had told Supermarine on 23 August 1945 that the Spiteful was to be dropped from the ﬁghter programme, but it could be retained as a ﬁghter-bomber. Interest in the type gradually died, however, and it would never enter RAF service. Consideration was given that November to equipping one

squadron with Spitefuls for trials, as a replacement for Spitfire 22s, but this idea was dropped and production came to an end in December 1945. The intention had been to make 88 deliveries in 1945 and another 248 in 1946. On 9 August 1948 Supermarine reported on a programme of propeller tests using RB518 with a Griffon 101 installed with its two-stage, three-speed supercharger. In this form this one-off airframe was designated as the Spiteful F16, the Roman numerals in UK military designations having now been replaced by Western Arabic ones, and it was flown at a weight of 8,600lb (3,901kg). RB518 had the original Spiteful

Flight-Testing

was employed on propeller development; on 28 July 1945 the latter was at Supermarine’s High Post ﬂight development airﬁeld for diving trials. RB519, RB520 and RB521 were all used for general testing, and RB523 for armament trials.

Jeﬀrey Quill waits to take oﬀ in Spiteful RB522 at the display held at Farnborough between 27 and 30 June 1946. JO WARE

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Development

Spitefuls were built. The FXIV had a Griffon 69 engine, a short air intake and five-blade Rotol propeller, while the FXV was to have Griffon 89s or 90s and a sixblade contra-rotating prop. It is thought that all of the RB serials appeared as MkXIVs since there are no known photos of a MkXV. The Griffon 69 with its two-stage supercharger was little different from the Spitfire’s Griffon 61; the main change was that the 69 could operate at a maximum of 25lb per square inch boost when using 150-grade fuel, but for 100-octane fuel it had to be restricted to 18lb per square inch using throttle stops. RB515 made its maiden flight on 2 April 1945 with the original Spitfire F21 tailplane, but after three further flights the larger Spiteful tail replaced it. This brought considerable improvements to low-speed lateral control near the stall and better directional stability. However, on production Spitefuls the clean stall at 109mph (175km/h) was preceded by a lateral ‘pecking’ of the wings and then a very sharp port wing drop. With everything down the stall occurred at 101mph (163km/h) and was even more unpleasant with a tendency towards an incipient spin. On 28 September 1945 the first-stage supercharger in RB515’s Griffon disintegrated at 30,000ft (9,144m), but SheaSimonds made a safe wheels-up landing at Farnborough. There was a possibility of using the Spiteful in the fighterbomber role, and with this in mind RB516 was tested as such by the A&AEE from April 1946. RB517 was used to conduct engine cooling and performance testing at Boscombe and RB518

DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG

Despite the ‘P’ for prototype marking on the fuselage side, VG471 was the first production Seafang. KEY COLLECTION

These were serials RB516, RB517, RB519, RB520, RB521, RB522, RB524, RB525 and RB527 to RB531 inclusive. All these airframes were sold for scrap in July 1948 to John Dale and Sons at London Colney, presumably in pieces, this company being a specialist in what was termed secondary (recycled) aluminium. The dismantling of prototype NN667 appears to have started on 1 May 1947 and it was transported to Brize Norton for salvage. RB518 was possibly the last Spiteful to survive, being recorded with No 49 MU at Colerne for breakdown on 21 March 1949.

wings, and it could carry bombs or rockets. Spiteful RB520 was modified with just a sting-type arrestor hook to operate as an interim Seafang prototype, first flying as such in early 1945. Supermarine conducted all the early flight trials with RB520. It was made available for Royal Navy use but never collected, and struck off charge on 13 January 1947. The ‘hooked’ Spiteful made its public debut on 2 October 1945 at a display of new naval aeroplanes

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Down on 30 June. Information on VB893 is very scarce, but it was delivered to the A&AEE on 20 December 1946. Little more is known, in part because no history card has been found for this aircraft. Jeffrey Quill displayed VB895 at the event held at Farnborough from 27-30 June 1946 to show off British aerodynamic achievement. Then on 21 August Supermarine test pilot Lt Cdr Mike Lithgow flew the Seafang in front of Dutch, French and

Seafang

Eric Brown felt the Seafire 47 was the better aeroplane

From early October 1943, Supermarine looked into the possibility of fitting the laminarflow wing to the Seafire XV, but the concept of a naval Spiteful had no official backing until specification N5/45 of 17 July 1945 was issued to cover such a version, which Supermarine called its Type 396, or the Seafang. The document described a prototype based on the Spiteful, with a maximum folded wingspan of 27ft (8.23m) and a folded height of 13ft (3.96m). A single Griffon 85 or 87 would be fitted; again four 20mm Hispanos would go into the

staged by the Admiralty at Heston. A contract dated 12 March 1945 covered two true Type 396 Seafang FXXXII (Mk32) prototypes, serials VB893 and VB895, fitted with Griffon 89s, contra-rotating propellers and hydraulically operated wingfolding. These airframes were manufactured by Supermarine’s Hursley Park facility and VB895 made its first flight there in early 1946. From 18 June it underwent production testing at Eastleigh, arriving at A&AEE Boscombe

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American naval representatives during a four-day visit to Valkenburg in the Netherlands, but this did not generate any export orders. Lithgow had replaced Shea-Simonds in early 1946 and took over from Quill as Supermarine chief test pilot in 1947. Next, in the week from 10 September, Supermarine sent a Seafang 32 and a Seafire 47 to the first post-war Society of British Aircraft Constructors show at Radlett. During its display the Seafang demonstrated exceptional aileron control. Back

at High Post in mid-October, VB895 was used to test powerfolding of its wings and a longstroke undercarriage. Further demonstration flying took place at Wisley on 9-10 January 1947. Deck trials commenced on 1 May 1947, opening with approximately 45 simulated trial landings at Supermarine’s new flight development airfield at Chilbolton. For these Lithgow flew VB895 at an all-up weight of 9,870lb (4,477kg) with flap settings of 30° for take-off and 76° for landing. Engine-off stalling speed was 89kt (164km/h) indicated, at which there was a certain level of elevator and general buffet, the beginnings of general aileron snatching, and a high descent rate. Fortunately, the snatching was much less prevalent during the landing itself and the problem was thought to have been caused by ground effect. Lithgow considered that both the spring tab elevator and long-stroke oleo legs were vital for deck landings with this aircraft. This was because the former proved most effective in reducing the otherwise large stick forces involved in manipulating the flaps, and the latter would eliminate bounce and absorb the shock of the necessarily heavy landings experienced in carrier operation.

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DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG

On 29 May 1947, VB895 was demonstrated at RAF West Raynham. Then between 27 April 1948 and May 1949 it was on the strength of ‘C’ (Naval) Squadron at A&AEE Boscombe Down for gun clearance trials. To begin with, the ground functioning checks proceeded satisfactorily, but on 10 May 1948 — during ground trials of the Supermarine

The pitot comb installation fitted to the inboard wing trailing edge of VB475 for measuring the critical Mach number and then establishing the degree of laminar flow achieved. BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE, FARNBOROUGH

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Insights

❖

Attacker jet fighter’s cannon — an explosion in the gun bay seriously damaged VB895’s port mainplane. The wing had to be repaired at Chilbolton and the aircraft rejoined ‘C’ Squadron on 24 June, but there was another explosion in the port wing on 1 October 1948. Chilbolton again made the repairs and VB895 came back to ‘C’ Squadron on 16 December. As a consequence of these explosions, ventilators were fitted to ensure that for future firings the gun gases would always be cleared out. These had intakes below the wings with the exits above. The development of a gas plug by A&AEE removed any danger of an explosion in the gun bay and enabled air

Flight-Testing

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

the lack of float when cutting the throttle. Later VB895 was used to trial a 170-gallon (773-litre) drop tank shaped something like a torpedo. Carrying this in flight cut VB895’s speed at 10,000ft (3,048m) from 373mph (600km/h) down to 360mph (579km/h).

Technical Details

VB895 flew to RNAS Ford on 20 May 1947 and first went aboard HMS Illustrious for full trials on the following day. Eight landings were completed without incident and the view of the oncoming deck ahead was found to be excellent overall. Indeed, Lithgow realised he could make his final approach, over the last 200 yards (183m), from directly astern. The approach at 95kt (175km/h) was “quite comfortable”, the only criticism being over-light aileron control with no selfcentring tendency, which was a feature of the Spiteful family’s characteristics overall. Lithgow matched the approach speed of the Seafang against that for the Seafire FR47. Although the position error correction figures were not especially accurate, the Seafire’s approach speed came to 77kt (143km/h) indicated while the Seafang recorded 95kt (175km/h) indicated, so there was little difference. On receiving the ‘cut’ signal, the Seafang sat down on the deck extremely well and without any float. With take-off flap and plus 18lb per square inch of boost, its take-off was straightforward and easy. Lithgow considered the Seafang prototype to be a good deck landing aeroplane, primarily because of the good view and

Development

Spiteful RB520 was flown as an interim Seafang prototype after the addition of a sting-type arrestor hook. BAE SYSTEMS

functioning to be checked later with the ventilators removed. After finally being struck off charge, VB895 was used for ‘vulnerability trials’ by the Proof & Experimental Establishment at Shoeburyness, where it may have survived until 1956. The Spiteful and Spitfire contract also covered 150 production Seafangs with serials VG471-505, VG540-589, VG602-650 and VG664-679. In fact, the Spiteful order was cancelled on 2 May 1945 and the Seafang order placed five days later, so the latter was really a reinstatement. Materials and parts rendered surplus by the Spiteful reduction were to be used in Seafang airframes whenever possible. The Seafangs from VG480 onwards were themselves cancelled, though the first seven were delivered in dismantled form, and the nine actually completed (up to VG479) appeared as F31s with a five-blade Rotol propeller. The last Seafang was completed in 1947. When compared to the Spiteful the first production Seafang, VG471 — which lacked wing folding — introduced an additional 3° of wing dihedral plus more rounded leading edges, both of which would appear on the Spiteful. VG471 flew in January 1946 and made the journey from High Post to Farnborough on 15 February to begin arrester hook trials. These had to be suspended for a period because the rudder skin became wrinkled during off-centre arrests, to the point where VG471 had to be flown back to High Post on 16 March for modifications including a thickened leading edge. The prototype was back at Farnborough on 27 April. It finally cleared its arrester hook trials on the 30th and A&AEE test pilot Capt Eric Brown undertook the aircraft’s official deck landing assessment on 1 May. In fact, Brown flew many of the A&AEE’s assessment flights in the Seafang, and the deck trials left him with the impression that the Seafire 47 was the better aeroplane. The contra-rotating propeller and wide undercarriage made taking off in a Seafang easier than in a Seafire 46 with its non-contra-

DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG Seafang VB895 — test-flown from Hursley Park, Eastleigh and Boscombe Down — photographed on 13 December 1946. BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE, FARNBOROUGH

rotating propellers, because there were no effects from torque roll. In flight the Seafang’s controls were superbly light and effective at normal speeds, but Brown described the Seafang’s stall as “vicious”. Furthermore, lowering the undercarriage and flaps for landing produced a strong nose-up change of trim and the new fighter gave the impression of being unsafe when flying at approach speeds under 110mph (177km/h). Although the Seafire 47 had slightly inferior performance compared to the Seafang 31, it was clearly the preferable choice as a carrier fighter. The Seafire 47’s performance at high altitude was, in addition, better than expected. In the end the navy rejected the Seafang and went on to order the FR47 in April 1946. Orders were also eventually placed, in quantity, for the Hawker Sea Fury. This was not the end for the Seafang, though, because the type would find work in several trials programmes. To begin with VG475, a Mk31 fitted with a Mk32 contra-rotating propeller, had a pitot comb unit attached to its inboard wing trailing edge. This permitted the drag coefficient to be compared against the Mach number and necessitated a reduction in aileron span by 15in (38.1cm).

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VG475’s guns were taken out and the rear fuel tank replaced by cameras, and from 23 June 1947 test pilot John Derry conducted several dives with the aircraft in this form. In one such dive, started at 27,000ft (8,230m), VG475 reached 400mph (644km/h) indicated at 20,000ft (6,096m) and Mach 0.77, but a violent pitching was experienced at Mach 0.75 in the form of a high-frequency phugoid, and it was impossible for the pilot to hold the stick steady. In further dives where the Seafang reached

“

Previously this aircraft had been there from 15 August 1946 for drag and boundary layer investigations. VG475 was struck off charge on 20 October 1948 as a source of spare parts, and on 16 June 1953 was collected by No 49 MU to go to the Farnborough dump. Another trial involved the testing of a Servodyne-assisted aileron system on VG474. This aircraft had contra-rotating propellers and had joined ‘C’ Squadron at Boscombe Down on 10 May 1946, where it was

The navy rejected the Seafang and ordered the Seafire 47 450mph (724km/h) at 10,000ft (3,048m), and then 480mph (772km/h) at just 1,000ft (305m), there was no problem with pitching, so the phenomenon was related to a specific Mach number. The source proved to be the wake apparatus fitted to the airframe and subsequent modifications permitted VG475 to be taken to Mach 0.83 in a dive without difficulty. The drag comb tests were ongoing at High Post until, it is thought, 28 August 1947.

”

used initially for further takeoff trials and deck landings; in mid-August it moved on to the testing of hydraulic brakes. By 5 September 1947 it was back at High Post where it began handling trials with the Servodyne ailerons, measuring rates of roll. The results were excellent, the Seafang’s rate of roll at medium speeds having been improved considerably. Nevertheless, when flying at 450mph (724km/h) the results were inferior to the follow-on

Attacker jet fighter’s spring tabs. The two types had essentially the same wing and the spring tabs were the only change to the Attacker’s ailerons from the Seafang’s standard balance tabs. In March 1948, Eric Brown flew VG474 with power-operated ailerons which he described as “superb”, except that at speeds in excess of 460mph (740km/h) there was a steep build-up in force. He piloted VG474 again in July 1948 after it had been fitted with Attacker-type ailerons and was able to report nearperfection in lateral control over the entire speed range. VG474 had joined the Royal Navy’s 703 Squadron, a trials and development unit based at Lee-on-Solent, by 10 June 1949, before being struck off charge on 21 August 1950. It became another Seafang to go to the P&EE at Shoeburyness for ‘vulnerability trials’, and most likely it was still there in 1956. Finally, production Seafangs VG477, VG478 and VG479 were at Vickers-Armstrongs’ facility at Eastleigh in either December 1946 or January 1947, but all three airframes were almost immediately sent to No 6 MU at Brize Norton. There, presumably, they followed the same path to their disposal and scrapping as had the Spitefuls at that same location.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

INSIGHTS

“

the stall seemed to begin at the tips and work its way in. You did not get a violent wing-drop, but you did get a wing-drop and there was pronounced ‘kicking’ of the ailerons. As a warning of a stall that was reasonable enough, but it felt nothing like as pleasant as the Spitﬁre’s. When it approached the stall, the Spiteful felt as if it was about to do something nasty. On the ﬂare-out before

The main snag with the Spiteful was its low-speed handling

The Spiteful’s stall was one area where its flying characteristics were definitely worse than the ‘Spit’, and its lower-speed handling was less than pleasant. RAF MUSEUM

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

www.Key.Aero 103

Insights

landing, for example, it felt as if it was balanced on a pin and might tilt one way or the other at any moment. In fact the aircraft didn’t do anything unpleasant, but it felt as if it might and that was disconcerting until one got used to it.” When taxiing, the Spiteful’s handling was again markedly diﬀerent from that of the Spitﬁre: “Many people

Flight-Testing

eased back on the stick, the stall started at the wing root and worked its way out toward the tips. If you continued to hold the aircraft straight, it could be made to sink in a stalled glide with a measure of lateral control. “The approach to the stall in the Spiteful was quite diﬀerent. With the laminar-ﬂow wing there was no wash-out, and

”

complained about the Spitfire’s narrow-track undercarriage, and it certainly wasn’t ideal for deck operations. But it did have a curious sort of ‘bicycle stability’. Once the aircraft was rolling forwards, it tended to go straight in the direction in which it was pointing. The SpitefuI was different. During taxiing and landing runs it tended to wander off course, and one had to rely on differential braking to keep it going straight.” During normal operations the Spiteful’s lack of directional stability on the ground was no more than an irritation. But during one flight Shea-Simonds suffered hydraulic failure. “The undercarriage, brakes and flaps were all hydraulically operated in the Spiteful (on the Spitfire the undercarriage was hydraulically operated, the brakes and flaps were pneumatically operated). I knew I could get the undercarriage down with the carbon-dioxide emergency system, but I would have no brakes or flaps. Since I had to make a flapless landing

Technical Details

After the Spitfire’s superb handling, however, almost any other aircraft was going to be a disappointment. “The main snag with the Spiteful was its low-speed handling. The Spitfire had washout along the wing (the angle of incidence was greatest at the wing root, and decreased progressively toward the tip). If you held a Spitfire straight and level, throttled back and

Development

n the July 2001 Aeroplane Lt Patrick Shea-Simonds, a Fleet Air Arm test pilot who was seconded to Supermarine during the period the Spiteful was under test, remembered what the fighter was like. “There were obvious similarities with the Spitfire”, he wrote, “but there were also many differences. The cockpit layout of the Spiteful was quite different; it was no longer a ‘Spitfire cockpit’. The most obvious change was to the seating position, which was more reclined. Sitting in the seat, one’s feet on the rudder pedals felt as if they were ‘up in the air’. Several of the shorter pilots did not like the new seating position. But being 6ft 6in (1.98m) tall, sitting in a Spitfire even with the seat fully down I always felt rather squashed in. I found the Spiteful cockpit much roomier, and the view over the nose was definitely better than in the Spitfire.” As Shea-Simonds gained experience in the Spiteful, he found it pleasant to fly and it performed well at high speed.

Not all the new fighter’s flying characteristics were entirely pleasant

DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG modified ailerons. The changes improved the aircraft’s lowspeed handling, which became noticeably more pleasant. But these improvements were all made at the expense of all-out level speed. As a result, the performance of the Spiteful was little better than that of the Spitfire 22.” RB515 was designated as a Spiteful FXIV. During a test flight in RB515 on 28 September 1945, Shea-Simonds experienced a near-catastrophic engine failure. He had taken off from High Post to examine handling and longitudinal stability at 30,000ft (9,144m). Up to 28,000ft (8,534m) the climb was normal, and he reduced power to bring the aircraft to maximum cruising speed in level flight at 30,000ft (9,144m). Slowly the indicated air speed increased to 240mph (386km/h), but, “Suddenly there was a loud explosion and I saw something (a piece of the engine) fly past the cockpit on the starboard side. The engine began to vibrate very violently, and oil streamed back over the windscreen and cockpit hood. The engine rpm counter was hard against the upper stop, reading 4,000rpm. Obviously the propeller had ‘run away’.”

❖

A Spiteful, probably RB515, demonstrates its agility, the rate of roll having been a particular improvement over the Spitfire. JO WARE

I decided to go to Boscombe Down, where the runway was much longer than the one at High Post. I got the aircraft down on the ground and was rolling down the runway, but as the speed fell away the rudder became less and less effective. The aircraft started to wander to one side. With no brakes, all I could do was to give a quick burst of engine to put slipstream over the rudder and get the

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aircraft going straight again. I ran on down the runway with a series of ever-decreasing ‘blips’ of the engine, gradually getting slower and slower. The Spiteful ran off the end of the runway at a walking pace and came to rest on the grass without damage.” Supermarine’s design team worked hard to improve the Spiteful’s low-speed handling characteristics. Redesigned and enlarged tail surfaces gave better

lateral control and stability at low speed. These were fitted to the first production aircraft, RB515, soon after its first flight in April 1945. The new tail was also fitted to NN664, and was standard on all subsequent Spitefuls. Shea-Simonds wrote, “The aircraft were all fitted with new wings having slightly blunted leading edges, and enlarged tails. We also tested it with root spoilers and

The prop’s constant-speed unit had failed, putting the blades into fully fine pitch, and the engine went into overspeed, literally shaking itself to pieces. Shea-Simonds continued, “l took what action I could to deal with the situation. I brought the constant-speed control lever back to positive coarse pitch, closed the throttle, pulled the engine cut-out, turned off the fuel and switched off the ignition. At the same time I pulled the nose up, reducing speed to 140mph (225km/h) indicated. I then opened the cockpit hood, released my safety harness and prepared to abandon the aircraft. I expected the engine either to disintegrate completely or to be torn from its mounting. The vibration and high rpm persisted, while oil and glycol streamed around and into the cockpit.” A test pilot’s duty was to get his aircraft back on the ground

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG

“

British military and captured German aircraft at Farnborough. It made little impression, though, as Shea-Simonds recalled, “Jeffrey [Quill] flew the Spiteful on the first day and I flew it on the second. The occasion was embarrassing for us, however, because Geoffrey de Havilland stole the show with his very

It was clear the end was in sight for the piston-engined fighter impressive demonstration of the Vampire. It was clear that the end was in sight for the pistonengined fighter.” Some accounts have declared that developing the Spiteful and Seafang was a big mistake — a

Thanks to Phil Butler and the National Archives.

Armament trials made use of Spiteful RB523, which carried 20mm guns in the wings. BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE, FARNBOROUGH

Flight-Testing

Commendation for valuable service in the air. RB515 suffered surprisingly little damage and, repaired and with a new engine, it resumed flying. In October 1945 the Spiteful took part in a display of the latest

”

‘Spitfire too far’. In part, perhaps this is true, but much was gained from these programmes. The creation of the tapered laminarflow wing was of benefit to and used by the Supermarine Attacker jet fighter that followed, while the testing conducted with the Spiteful and Seafang, both in the air and in the wind tunnel, made a serious contribution to the knowledge of aerodynamics at transonic speeds, so they can hardly be considered a waste of effort. In addition, regardless of how promising these aircraft might have been, or not, they were always going to be defeated by the arrival of the jet fighter. And it should not be forgotten that the Spiteful remains one of the fastest piston aircraft ever to have flown.

Technical Details Insights

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

considerable damage to the hydraulic, glycol and oil pipes at the rear of the engine, as well as to the cowling and fillets in the vicinity of the supercharger. On the starboard side, part of the crankcase had shattered and at least one connecting rod had broken. For saving the aircraft, Shea-Simonds received a King’s

Development

in one piece, if possible. The damaged aeroplane was a valuable piece of evidence, and unless the fault was corrected others would encounter it. Shea-Simonds prepared to bail out, but resolved to stay with the aeroplane and save it if he could. “After about 15 seconds,” he recalled, “the rpm fell rapidly, the propeller came to a stop and the vibration ceased. I called Boscombe Down on the radio and informed them that my engine had blown up and I was preparing for a forced landing. By this time I was over the Swindon area, which like Boscombe and High Post was covered in cloud. To the east the skies were clear, and as I did not feel like letting down through cloud with the engine out, and could see Farnborough clear and within gliding distance, I decided to land there. I had plenty of height, and once the vibration ceased the Spiteful handled quite well as a glider.” Shea-Simonds refastened his harness and began his approach to Farnborough from the southwest. Although this would bring him in for a downwind landing, the surface wind was light and he preferred to approach the airfield over open country rather than over the town. “It was obvious that the hydraulic systems were no longer working fully, and I had no idea what damage had been done to them. Rather than risk finding that only one undercarriage leg would extend, I decided to land the aircraft with the wheels up. I selected flaps down and worked the hand pump until resistance ceased, at which point I had about quarter-flap. I made my final approach and landed wheels-up on the grass alongside the main runway. Surprisingly, the touchdown was the least dramatic part of the whole business. The Spiteful had a large wide-span radiator under each wing, and it slid along the grass on these; it felt just like putting down a flying-boat on water. As I touched down I saw the fire tenders and ambulance driving down the runway, practically in formation with me.” Later examination revealed the Griffon’s first-stage supercharger had disintegrated completely. There had been

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Reviews

REVIEWS RATING ★★★★★ Outstanding ★★★★★ Excellent ★★★★★ Good ★★★★★ Flawed ★★★★★ Mediocre Enough said

The latest books and products for the discerning aviation enthusiast Messerschmitt Me 262 Development & Politics

However, Sharp does not unduly labour that aspect in his overall analysis. Some previous writing on the by Dan Sharp Me 262 has made a great deal published by Tempest Books of Hitler’s insistence that the Quite a lot of trees have been machine be employed as a felled over the years in pursuit bomber, and how this delayed of the Me 262’s story, and the whole programme to the with good reason. The world’s point at which it failed to show first operational jet is an its full potential before the K BOO undeniably fascinating subject, war ended. Sharp does give e of th the Führer’s involvement due and there are many angles from H consideration, but also stresses the which to approach it. Make no MONT parts played by other individuals mistake, some fine books have resulted, but any serious newcomer in the German political and military to the fray is still to be welcomed, and hierarchies, and the different factors Dan Sharp’s offering is certainly that. that further came into play. This he does One of the first things to strike me was with the aid of copious archival evidence how pleasing it is to see a volume that from German, British and American sticks so closely to its brief. If you’re after sources. The text reads very easily, the a mostly operational history, you’ll need photos are well-chosen, and some of the to look elsewhere, not that options are period diagrams of proposed variants are exactly lacking. Nor are there the screeds fascinating. No matter how many of those of explanatory background that some previous Me 262 titles you own, this one writers and publishers deem necessary, deserves to accompany them. It’s a fine but which can feel like a case of teaching authorial achievement. Ben Dunnell grandmother to suck eggs. Rather, an ISBN 978-1-911658-27-6; 12 x 8.5in examination of the Me 262’s development, hardback; 326 pages, illustrated; not least during its Luftwaffe service, and £30.00 from www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/ the underlying politics this is — and, my product/view/productCode/15030 goodness, were there a lot of politics to do with this aeroplane. ★★★★★

Lightnings to Spitﬁres by Clive Rowley published by Air World Subtitled ‘Memoirs of an RAF Fighter Pilot and Former Oﬃcer Commanding the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’, this is the autobiographical account of a man whose front-line career started in RAF Germany, on the Lightning F2A with No 19 Squadron at Gütersloh. Following two tours as an instructor, he then returned to the Lightning force, this time at Binbrook. He relates entering an (intentional) spin in a two-seat Lightning during a QFI course sortie, a manoeuvre which was normally prohibited on the squadrons, and came out of it using the standard recovery drill. “No drama at all”, Rowley notes. With the

108 www.Key.Aero

withdrawal of the Lightning from RAF service, he transitioned to the Tornado F3 and was posted to Coningsby. The co-location there of the BBMF inspired him to apply to fly the Spitfire and Hurricane as a secondary duty. Twice told there were no vacancies, he was accepted after an interview in 1995 to become the flight’s Chipmunk qualified flying instructor. Conversion to the Hurricane followed, to the author’s clear delight: “Flying displays down to 100 feet was licensed hooliganism”. In July 1996, he realised a long-held ambition to check out on the Spitfire. His first flight was to be in Battle of Britain veteran MkIIa P7350, which he describes as the world’s most precious and irreplaceable Spitfire. His comment: “No pressure there, then.”

The penultimate chapter relates his experiences — and his joy — in flying with the BBMF for 11 years, ending as its officer commanding, but also having had a few hairy moments including a forced landing in Hurricane LF363 with a “popping and banging” Merlin and what might well have been a wheels-up landing in Spitfire PS915. All in all, this is a delightful account of one man’s RAF flying career over more than 40 years, to be enjoyed both by the aviation enthusiast and the more general reader. Think Christmas? Denis J. Calvert ISBN 978-1-39901-562-2; 9.5 x 6.3in hardback; 324 pages, illustrated; £25.00

★★★★ Blind Landing: A History by R. Bruce Lumsden published by R. Bruce Lumsden In improving aircraft safety and either the reliability commercial operations or the ability to perform military missions in adverse conditions, there have been few more signiﬁcant technological developments than those relating to all-weather landings. With his latest volume, Lumsden — who spent eight years with the UK’s Blind Landing Experimental Unit, stationed at RAE Bedford — recounts the entire history of this capability, dating back to experiments conducted prior to the First World War. As the author notes, ‘blind landing’ is a convenient and catchy term, but not strictly accurate; rather, this book deals with automatic or instrument landing systems through the ages, concluding with those used for carrier operations by the F-35 Lightning II. Self-published, some of the book’s design elements rather lack polish, and image reproduction is generally poor, even bearing in mind the need to use a lot of older photos, but this is hardly the point. Its coverage of the subject matter is second-to-none, and more than 540 A4-sized pages for 30 quid represents excellent value, especially

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

Reviews considering the amount of research involved. The only title in town if you want to read about this topic in depth. BD ISBN 978-1-9999174-1-8; 11.75 x 8.25in softback; 541 pages, illustrated; £30 plus £5 P&P (UK addresses only) from wavaeropubrbl@yahoo.com

★★★★ From Mons to Mali by Andrew Thomas published by Grub Street So long as it’s done well, there’s just as much value to the type of book that’s interesting simply to dip into for an easy read as there is to a definitive work of research on a particular subject. Here we have an example of the former. What Aeroplane contributor Thomas has done here is gather 50 short stories — ‘vignettes’, as they are described — of lesserknown acts of aerial heroism by British and Commonwealth aviators, beginning in 1914 with the first British losses of the First World War when a No 5 Squadron, RFC Avro 504 was shot down near Enghien, and concluding in 2013 with — in a nice touch — a No 5 Squadron Bombardier Sentinel surveillance aircraft operating over Mali in support of French forces. Between those two tales, the subject matter is all well-chosen. Particularly intriguing is the section on Sqn Ldr Graham Hulse, a wartime Spitfire pilot who volunteered to fly with the US Air Force in the Korean War, and whose F-86E was shot down by MiG-15s on 13 March 1953. Still listed as missing in action, Hulse was never given the ace status his final total of aerial kills merited. All the stories are wellwritten and justify their presence; the image selection is good, too. Nicely done. BD ISBN 978-1-911667-40-7; 8.55 x 6.1in hardback; 192 pages, illustrated; £20

★★★ The RAF in Cold War Germany by Ian Smith Watson published by Fonthill Media There have been other books on RAF Germany, with the late Bill Taylor’s Royal Air Force Germany since 1945 (Midland Publishing, 2003) arguably the standard work but long since out of print. Here, author Watson covers the same time period, from the aftermath of World War

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

Two through to the end of the Cold War in 1991 and the subsequent draw-down of RAFG, leading to its disbandment in 1993. All the major aspects of RAFG and its mission are discussed, with the chapter ‘The Nuclear Option’ going into some detail on the tactical nuclear forces, initially equipped with the Canberra, which were at the centre of NATO’s deterrence in central Europe. Declaration to NATO of the first nuclear-armed Canberra squadron was made in 1958, the aircraft using a LABS ‘over-the-shoulder’ delivery to escape the effects of the blast. The last chapter, ‘Memories’, offers humorous recollections from those who served in or were detached to RAFG. If previous chapters underline the deadlyserious nature of the role of RAFG, this provides some lighter relief and rounds out a useful and readable volume. Photos, in black-and-white and colour, are concentrated in a 32-page section and exhibit a good standard of reproduction. DJC ISBN 978-1-78155-842-3; 9.5 x 6.3in hardback; 252 pages, illustrated; £30.00

★★★ N-4 Down by Mark Piesing published by Custom House The story of the Italian semi-rigid airship N-4 Italia is a fascinating one. Central to it is Umberto Nobile, engineer and airship pilot, who embarked on a series of polar expeditions. The expedition of May 1928 in Italia started with great expectations. Nobile, leader and airship captain, declared before setting out, “our venture is difficult and dangerous… Had it been safe and easy other people would already have preceded us”. Shades of JFK to Congress, 25 May 1961. Just how difficult became clear as the flight staged northwards, when they faced adverse weather and a series of technical problems. They reached the North Pole and dropped a few symbolic items onto the ice, but conditions made it impossible to land. Icing conditions on the return leg

resulted in shards of ice detaching from the propeller blades and puncturing the envelope. Headwinds made for very slow progress. Finally, with elevator control lost and a gas valve frozen open, Italia hit the ice. Several crew members died while others, including Nobile, were injured. The author’s description of the expedition to this point occupies around half this volume’s pages. The other half relates the subsequent rescue effort, which ultimately proved just as dramatic and tragic as the expedition itself. A genuinely gripping read. DJC ISBN 978-0-06-285153-6; 8.0 x 5.3in softback; 428 pages, illustrated; £12.99

★★★ X-Planes No 17: McDonnell XP-67 ‘Moonbat’ by Steve Richardson and Peggy Mason published by Osprey Publishing As the McDonnell Aircraft Company’s first clean-sheet design, the XP-67 ‘Moonbat’ deserves a (minor) place in aviation history. Designed as a single-seat, twinengined, longrange interceptor, it featured a futuristic-looking airframe in which both the fuselage and the engine nacelles were faired smoothly into the wing. The first — and, in the event, only — prototype made its first flight on 6 January 1944, but flight-testing was delayed by engine problems with the Continental XIV-1430 powerplants, while an engine fire on 6 September 1944 destroyed the aircraft and brought an end to the programme. This title thus revolves around a single example, 42-11677, but the story of the aircraft’s origins, its testing, and the increasing doubts felt by those in the US Army Air Forces observing its progress makes for fascinating reading, as do details of plans to install a jet engine (Rolls-Royce, General Electric or Westinghouse) in the rear of each nacelle to boost performance. Given the paucity of extant photos of the aircraft, the illustrations featured are as good a selection as could be hoped for. They are complemented by a couple of excellent pieces of double-page artwork featuring ‘might-have-been’ service examples of P-67s in action. A most worthwhile volume featuring a little-known type, this one comes recommended. DJC ISBN 978-1-4728-5303-5; 9.7 x 7.3in softback; 80 pages, illustrated; £14.99

★★★★

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Reviews Forgotten Heroes of the Battle of Britain by Dilip Sarkar published by Air World There is, it need hardly be said in these pages, no shortage of published volumes on the Battle of Britain, but here author Sarkar approaches the subject from a slightly different angle, aiming to put into context both the battle itself and the individual contributions made by RAF aircrew who fought in it. While some, such as Douglas Bader and Sailor Malan, have become household names and others have published their memoirs, the vast majority of the nearly 3,000 aircrew who took part remain virtually anonymous, at least partly as a result of Air Ministry policy. These are the ‘Forgotten Heroes’ of the title. The lives of those whose names were selected for inclusion here are related in considerable detail, with attention being given to their day-to-day activities on the squadron alongside their flying exploits. There are also some interesting organisational details of Fighter Command squadrons. Under the ‘Stabilising Scheme’, squadrons were put into one of three categories: ‘A’ were those with a full complement of operational pilots, ‘B’ had fewer combat-ready pilots but could be called to the front line if needed, while ‘C’ were rebuilding after suffering losses and would not normally be called upon. This one reads well and underlines still further the debt we owe to ‘the Few’. DJC ISBN 978-1-39907-572-5; 9.6 x 6.4in hardback; 318 pages, illustrated; £25.00

★★★

GAMES Fighter Ace A fast-paced, two-player air combat card game — and, as such, something rather different — Fighter Ace is set in the summer of 1940 with the Battle of Britain at its height. “The objective”, says the accompanying information, “is to climb, dive, break and barrel-roll your fighter into a firing position, hold your nerve, take your shot and bring down your foe. Only ace flying will command the skies. Be the first to record five victories and become a famed Fighter Ace.” Price: £16.99 Information and ordering: www.fighteracecardgame.com

WATCHES Christopher Ward C65 Cranwell Officially licenced by the Ministry of Defence, Christopher Ward’s Military Collection has been in existence since 2019. The first three watches in this all-chronometer range were named after the legendary training institutions of all three services: the C65 Sandhurst for the army, the C65 Dartmouth for the navy and, of course, the C65 Cranwell for the RAF. These have now been subject to a complete renewal, the Cranwell being the most significantly redesigned. Modelled on the Jaeger-LeCoultre MkXI 6B/346, an aviator watch aimed at bomber navigators using celestial ‘look-up’ navigation, its case size has been reduced to 38mm, while the dial has had a comprehensive and classic refresh.

Prices: from £895 Information and ordering: www.christopherward.com

Timex x Pan Am Collection Celebrating the great airline Pan American World Airways, this new family of watches from Timex uses the 42mm stainless-steel case construction of the classic Waterbury timepiece, with precision and legibility to the fore. The date function or chronograph movement and brown leather strap feature Pan Am’s famed globe logo, while each watch comes in a custom gift set box with a Pan Am lapel pin. Prices: £180-£220 Information and ordering: timex.co.uk

FLIGHTS Chipmunk WD292 de Havilland Canada Chipmunk WD292 arrived at Fenland airfield in August 2022 and is now available for experience flights, formation experience flights, training and even solo hire. Free from controlled airspace and close to the stunning Norfolk coast, this must be one of the best places to experience the delightful handling of the Chipmunk. Information and booking: telephone Fenland Flying School at 01406 540461, or www.chipmunkwd292.co.uk

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AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

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CHRISTMAS SPECIAL Quiz

CHRISTMAS QUIZ Win a £100 Key Shop voucher and a year’s subscription to Aeroplane in our festive prize quiz

ettle down for our 2022 Christmas quiz, your chance to prove your aeronautical brain cells still work after the excesses of the annual festivities. Once again, it’s in two parts — historical aviation questions and aircraft recognition — and the overall winner will receive both a £100 Key Shop voucher and a year’s subscription to Aeroplane. All the answers to these first 30 questions can be found somewhere in 2022’s issues of the magazine. The best of luck…

Which type of aircraft was the first to make a successful crossing of the Atlantic in the hands of a Polish pilot?

What was unusual about the sole XSB2C-2 version of the Curtiss Helldiver?

Representatives of which mainland European airline were on board Britannia G-ALRX when it force-landed on the River Severn mudflats in February 1954?

Aboard which aircraft type did the new Queen Elizabeth II return to the UK from Kenya on 6 February 1952, following her father’s death?

How many pilots of Chinook ZA718 ‘Bravo November’ were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for their actions while flying that particular helicopter?

How old was Berlin Airlift ‘Candy Bomber’ Gail Halvorsen when he died on 16 February?

A wreck of which British post-war amphibian has been located by a diver in the Mediterranean, north of Cyprus?

Which country’s air force was the first European air arm to operate the Lockheed C-130 Hercules?

The name of which Victoria Cross recipient is carried on the nose of BAe 146 CC2 ZE700, which made its final flight on delivery to the South Wales Aviation Museum? Eight examples of the Foster Wikner Wicko were impressed into RAF service during World War Two, but what name was given to them?

Which car manufacturer built a factory on a large part of the former Hooton Park airfield on the Wirral?

What was the codename of the US herbicide defoliant spraying operation over South Vietnam and Laos during the Vietnam War?

On 5 May 1953, a flying machine took off from the Buckingham Palace grounds for the first time. What type was it?

The Amiot AAC1 was a French licence-built version of which German aircraft?

To which destination did BOAC operate its first scheduled Comet 1 flight on 2 May 1952?

What was the full name of the Belgian target-towing firm that operated six Spitfire IXs in the 1950s and ’60s?

NORMAN PEALING

Which Old Warden-based company is currently building reproductions of an Airco DH2 and Maurice Farman Longhorn?

In which year did the last annual edition of the Farnborough airshow take place, before it became biennial?

How many Royal Navy Sea Harriers were lost during 1982’s Falklands

War?

Where did the Light Aircraft Association stage its Grass Roots Fly-in during early September?

In which 1930 Howard Hawks movie did the Nieuport 28 now owned by the Collings Foundation participate?

Who became the first AfricanAmerican to reach four-star general rank in the US Air Force?

15 16 17

Test pilots Darrell Cornell and Dave Barnes were both killed in separate accidents involving which American jet fighter? Who was the Secretary of State for Defence who fell asleep during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Review of the RAF at Finningley in 1977?

Warbird pilot and lawyer Jim Beasley Jr represented which singer in a breach of contract case regarding the sale of an aircraft?

112 www.Key.Aero

Project ‘Emily’ saw the basing in Britain of which American-built type of missile? After which Bavarian politician was the new Munich airport named in 1992?

In March 1983, which twin-turboprop transport became the first British aeroplane to be procured for the US Air Force since the English Electric Canberra?

The HDM105 twin-engined transport was a collaboration between Britain’s Miles Aircraft and which French manufacturer?

What’s the name of the Republic of Korea Air Force aerobatic team which became the first overseas jet team ever to appear at a Shuttleworth Collection display last July?

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

Now it’s time for the recognition test. Shown in the truncated pictures are 20 aircraft types — but what are these mystery machines?

To enter visit

Key.Aero/aeroplane/competitions

Closing date 10 March 2023. Winners notified by 17 March 2023. The winner will be the highest-scoring entrant received by the competition closing date; in the event of a tie, a winner will be drawn at random from all entries with that score. For full terms and conditions, visit the website. No purchase necessary. There is no cash prize and the editor’s decision is final. The competition is not open to employees of Key Publishing or their families.

AEROPLANE JANUARY 2023

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IS UK SU FEB o E R T Co n 1 goe UA he nte 2 s R nts JA on Y 2 su NU sa 02 bje A le 3 ct RY in to ch 20 the an 2 ge 3

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Articles inside

CHRISTMAS PRIZE QUIZ

REVIEWS

DATABASE SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL & SEAFANG

AEROPLANE MEETS DOUG ROZENDAAL

RNZAF AVRO 626

FOKKER S11 AT 75

FIGHTERS IN THE ETO

OPERATION ‘PEGASUS’

TROOP CARRIER GROUPS

8th AF BOMBING TACTICS

PRESERVATION REVIEW OF 2022

HANGAR TALK

NEWS

SKYWRITERS

FLIGHT LINE

Q&A

FROM THE EDITOR