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FUTURISTIC DESIGNS FROM THE 1930S
A DAY IN THE LIFEMUSTANG PILOT Lindy flew
bare-metalLightningsfrom NewGuinea in1944
BIG FLYING BOAT UP A CREEK IN AFRICAHistoryNet.com
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LINDBERGH’S SECRET WARHow he talked
his way into thecockpits of P-38s
and Corsairs for 50missions against
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MARCH 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 3
22 The Lone Eagle’s WarBy Richard P. HallionFew who flew in World War II made a greatercontribution to Allied aerial victory thanCharles Lindbergh.
30 Recycling the VisionariesBy Walter J. BoyneUnsung pioneers Vincent Burnelli andMaurice Hurel shared a vision of thefuture that was well ahead of their time.
36 P-51 Pilot: A Day in the LifeBy William LyonsA Mustang jockey recounts one of his mostmemorable missions—from start to finish.
44 Flight of the River PhoenixBy Stephan WilkinsonA comedy of errors ensued after anImperial Airways flying boat made arocky landing on a river in the Congo.
48 Front-Row Seat to HistoryBy Sarah Byrn RickmanU.S. Army Captain Victoria Calhounwas among a handful of women to flyChinooks in the First Gulf War.
54 Fox Two!By Don HollwayDeveloped during the Cold War,the heat-seeking Sidewindermissile completely revolutionizedair warfare.
FEATURES
6 Mailbag
8 Briefing
14 Extremes By Robert GuttmanA podiatrist patterned his bizarrelifting bodies after a heel lift.
16 Restored By Dick SmithA Stinson L-5E Sentinel gets a new lease onlife in Arizona.
18 Aviators By Barrett TillmanFuture “half-ass-tronaut” Wally Schirrainvented his own rules of war in Korea.
21 Letter From Aviation History
62 Reviews
65 Flight Test By Jon Guttman
66 Aero Poster
DEPARTMENTS
Cover: Jeff Harris pilots JackCroul’s Lockheed P-38L nearSacramento, Calif., in September2010. Croul’s Lightning, part of theAllied Fighters collection, is similarto those flown by Charles Lindberghin the Pacific War (story, P. 22).
Cover: Paul Bowen Photography; inset:Warren M. Bodie CollectionAbove: Guy Aceto
This F-16CJ carries a fullarsenal, including an AIM-9Sidewinder (above, middlerail), the first successful heat-seeking missile (story, P. 54).
ONTHEWEB
YOU’LL FIND MUCH MOREabout Aviation History on the Web’s
leading history resource:
www.HistoryNet.com
Top-Scoring Mustang AceGeorge Preddy was undefeated until he raninto friendly fire on Christmas Day in 1944.
Mystery Man Behind Spirit of St. LouisB.F. Mahony, owner of Ryan Airlines, workedclosely with Charles Lindbergh to build hisNYP monoplane.
Birth of the Flying FuselageVincent J. Burnelli’s unorthodox designspioneered the wide-body cabin and lifting-fuselage concept.
MARCH 2013
Go to www.HistoryNet.com/magazines/aviation_historyfor these great exclusives:
Discussion: Charles Lindbergh earned inter-national adulation as the first to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic, but by the outbreakof World War II he was roundly criticized forhis isolationist views (story. P. 22). Was thatcriticism justified, and did it damage his his-torical legacy?
EDITOR IN CHIEF Stephen L. PetranekDavid Grogan Executive Editor
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EDITOR Carl von WodtkeNan Siegel Associate Editor
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Preddy claimed six kills on August 6, 1944.
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A Notice from the Editor�Dear Subscriber, Some of you have recently reported sus-picious phone calls or offers in the mailto renew your subscription to AviationHistory magazine. Your uneasiness maybe justified. While still rare, fraudulentmailings and phone calls are increasing.We have confirmed that criminalorganizations are attempting to repre-sent themselves as the Weider HistoryGroup, asking for a check or credit cardnumber to renew your subscription.They take your money but cannot deliverthe subscription.
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A stirring salute to the Mighty 8th Air Force in WWII. John Shaw’s masterpiece depicts triple Ace, Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson, in OldCrow (his famous P51D) defending B17s of the 100th Bomb Group. The P51, the greatest Allied fighter produced in WWII, significantlyincreased the survivability of the Bomber Force crews and had a profound effect on the Allies ability to turn the tide of the war over Europe.
Aces Edition: 650 Price $295.00 Print Size 36” X 25 1/2”
"Ramrod - Outward Bound""Ramrod - Outward Bound"Latest Release by John Shaw
Signatures Include:Signatures Include:• Col. Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson: 16.25 Victories • Col. William H. Allen: 5 Victories • Col. Clinton D. Burdick: 6 Victories
• Col. Art Fiedler: 8 Victories • Col. Joe A. Peterburs: 1 Victory (one of the very few pilots to down an Me262) • Col. Steve Pisanos: 10 Victories • Col. Larry H. Powell: 5.5 Victories • Cpt. Clint White
Mighty HerculesAs a veteran of more than 5,000 hours in theC-130A and E, I thoroughly enjoyed StephanWilkinson’s article in the January issue. Thevenerable old “Herc” has to be the mostunderappreciated of the great planes, andrarely gets the recognition it richly deserves.Having said that, I have a couple of nits thatneed picking about the piece.
The first concerns the Aeroproducts propthat replaced the Curtiss Electric prop onthe prototype and all subsequent A models.It was not controlled by engine oil pressureas stated in the article; rather, it had its ownsupply of prop oil, was serviced independentof the engine and was pressurized using itsown internal mechanical and electric pumps.It was a lot more reliable than the Curtiss,but I still spent a lot of time on three enginescourtesy of Aeroproducts.
My second concern is with the combat-offload technique allegedly invented in Viet-nam by loadmasters. The published “speed”or “combat offload” procedure called forunlocking and unloading cargo pallets oneat a time while the aircraft was stopped, taxi-ing slowly as they were offloaded. In haz-ardous places like Khe Sanh, we modified theprocedure: The pallets were unlocked andunloaded simultaneously while the aircrafttaxied at moderate speed on the cargo ramp,not on the runway while accelerating towardtakeoff speed, as stated in the article. Wecould unload 30,000 pounds within aboutthree minutes, from touchdown to wheels up.
Thanks again for a great article. As a long-time subscriber, I look forward to receivingyour magazine every other month.
Jack WolfeCabot, Ark.
More BeautiesAs you predicted, I’m sure you’ve been del-uged with requests from aviation buffs toadd their favorite to your list of “TheWorld’s Most Beautiful Airplanes” in theNovember 2012 issue. I have flown morethan 30 different types, but the most beauti-ful one of all was the Grumman F11F Tigerjet, which I flew in advanced flight trainingas an introduction to high-altitude air-to-airgunnery. This beautiful single-seat after-
burning fighter was a delight to fly. The F11was rock stable, and student naval aviatorswith only 250 flight hours had no problemflying tight formations, landing and takingoff. It was so beautiful that the Navy’s BlueAngels chose it over several other planes fortheir flight demonstration team.
Alan PetersonCommander, U.S. Navy Reserve (ret.)
I fully agree that the early-model Spitfiresare the most beautiful powered aircraft ofall. However, I think that if unpoweredheavier-than-air aircraft (gliders/sailplanes)were included, the Bowlus-DuPont SeniorAlbatross [shown above at the Udvar-HazyCenter] could give it a good run for itsmoney. Thanks very much for a good article!
Leslie C. Taylor, DocentUdvar-Hazy Center
National Air and Space Museum
I once saw a photo of a formation of NorthAmerican beauties flying together—P-51,F-86 and F-100, all in polished aluminum.The icing on the cake would have been theRA-5C Vigilante [above], certainly the mostbeautiful carrier-capable aircraft ever.
Robert R. “Boom” PowellVirginia Beach, Va.
How could you have left out the HawkerHunter in all its single-pilot marks? The
Lockheed P-80A finished in gloss light graywith the original tip tanks is also a beauty.
Art BeckerVia e-mail
Great article, but how you could omit theLockheed P-38 is beyond understanding.
Dick ErlinSanta Cruz, Calif.
“Magic-Carpet” RideI enjoyed “E-volo Takes Lindbergh Prize” inNovember’s “Briefing,” but have an adden-dum that will help place e-volo’s achieve-ment in historical context. Doing so, I takeissue with the quote from James Chiles’engaging book The God Machine, “No heli-copter has flown with so many rotors,” andthe follow-up comment,“Until now.”
Developed in the late 1950s and flown in1961 to 20 feet, Igor Bensen’s B-12 Sky-Way(or Sky-Mat) was a VTOL aircraft strongly
resembling a horizontal garden trellis with10 10-hp West-Bend engines initially power-ing 10 rotors [above]. A later refinementreduced the number of engines to eight,powering 16 rotors. Bensen described thismultiengine aluminum framework as a“magic-carpet,” with engine redundancyensuring the safe operation of a small, per-sonal rotorcraft that he envisioned for avariety of uses, ranging from low-level cropspraying to military heavy-lifts. Only onewas constructed, but it was truly a “multi-copter” a half-century prior to e-volo’s.
Bruce H. CharnovHofstra University
Hempstead, N.Y.
Send letters to Aviation History Editor,Weider History Group, 19300 PromenadeDrive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500, or e-mail [email protected].
MAILBAG
6 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY MARCH 2013
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WAR STORIESWAR STORIESWORLD WAR II FIRSTHAND
Complete and mail the attached card or call: 1-800-358-6327 (mention code AVX033)
Or order online: HistoryNetShop.comAdditional volumes in the WAR STORIES collection are available online.
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Grumman F3Fs would have been iconic fighters if only
because of the vivid colors that graced every one—
bands, chevrons, cowlings and panels of red, blue, green,
white and yellow. Most definitely yellow. The colors were
the U.S. Navy’s 1930s code to denote squadron, carrier affiliation,
pilot rank, even an airplane’s appointed flying position in its section.
But the F3F had more than just a full palette going for it. It was the
Navy’s ultimate biplane fighter, the end of one era and the beginning
of another, since the F4F Wildcat was the F3F’s direct descendant.
The F4F was hardly a monoplane F3F, however, as is frequently
claimed. All the two airplanes have in common is the clunky, hand-
cranked retractable landing gear and some of the fuselage.
Grumman built only 164 F3Fs, and they almost certainly would have
been ineffective combat planes—poor cockpit visibility; minimal
two-gun, rifle-caliber armament; and lousy gun platforms because
of longitudinal instability. But their aggressive, bumblebee look and
the fact that they were the very last biplane fighters in the U.S. inven-
tory have made them classics. (They weren’t the last Navy biplanes,
though: The Curtiss SBC Helldiver followed them by two years.)
The first restored “F3F” to fly during the warbird era was owned
by Doug Champlin, and operated during the early 1970s. It was in
fact a Grumman G-32A, one of two civilian two-seat versions that
Grumman built for company use. (A third
civil single-seater was built as the Gulfhawk
II, for Gulf Oil airshow pilot Al Williams.)
The Champlin G-32A was wrecked after an
in-flight fire and then reconstructed by
Texas restorer Herb Tischler. At the same
time, Tischler built from the ground up three
F3F-2s incorporating parts and data plates
from several burnt-out hulks salvaged in
Hawaii. The plan was to sell the new F3F-2s
to finance the restoration of the two-seater, and the three -2s indeed
were sold and eventually dispersed to a variety of owners.
One of them is today with Kermit Weeks in Florida. Another is
owned by James Slattery and is usually on display at the Chino,
Calif., warbird roost Planes of Fame. And the third F3F-2 is now in
the hands of Chris Prevost, proprietor and chief pilot of the Vintage
Aircraft Company (vintageaircraft.com), a restoration shop and
biplane-rides site in Sonoma, Calif.
Prevost has just returned to the air the airplane you see here,
which made its first post-restoration flight last September. It was pre-
viously displayed at the Lone Star Flight Museum. In September 2008,
Hurricane Ike put many of the museum’s
aircraft, including the F3F-2, under water,
so Prevost’s work consisted largely of cor-
recting corrosion damage and converting
the aircraft from display-only to flight status.
Looks like Prevost did his work well. And
who knows? Perhaps a good saltwater bath
reminded the old Grumman of its original
carrier-borne mission.
Stephan Wilkinson
BRIEFING
F3F Biplane Barrels Back
Air Quotes
“I believe the risks I take arejustified by the sheer love of
the life I lead.”
–Charles A. Lindbergh
8 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY MARCH 2013
Chris Prevost’s newly refurbished F3F-2, formerly displayed at the
Lone Star Flight Museum, bears the colorful markings of VMF-2.
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The U.S. had its Brewster Buffalo, and the Brits werestuck with the Boulton Paul Defiant—two off-brand,single-engine World War II aircraft that have longbeen mythologized as failures. Yet the Finns man-
aged to use lightened Buffalos successfully against stiffSoviet opposition, and the Defiant’s sorry record againstMe-109 fighters was the result of a mission never intendedfor it. The Defiant also had a worthy second career as anight fighter during the 1940 London Blitz. Largely forgotten
is that one squad-ron of Defiants wasamong the world’sfirst effective elec-tronic countermea-sures units, carryingradar-jamming andspoofing equipmentin support of RAFcross-Channel raidsin 1942-43.
Only one intact, al -beit not flyable, De -fiant remains. Since
1971, it had been a shabby part of the Royal Air Force Mu -seum’s collection in Hendon, northwest of London. A com-plete three-year renovation of the Defiant by the all-volunteerMedway Aircraft Preservation Society has returned it toexhibit-worthy condition through the repair of some landing-gear and battle damage; much detail work; a completerebuild of its formerly in operative four-gun power turret, a potent unit that was un fortunately the airplane’s onlyarmament; and accurate re painting in the exact black of its
original night-fighting opera tor, the Polish No. 307 “City ofLwow” Squadron.
The Defiant was initially intended to attack Luftwaffebombers over England, which would have been beyond therange of fighter escorts operating from German bases. Hadthis been the case (nobody planned on French airstripsbeing available to Messerschmitts just across the Channel),Defiants would probably have done well, their pilots able tomaneuver their gunners into position for broadsides fromfour .303-caliber Brownings, despite the considerable weightand limited traverse of the turret.
Defiants had some initial successes over Dunkirk duringthe BEF’s famous evacuation, but the Luftwaffe figured outliterally overnight that they could attack them utterly unop-posed from directly astern and below, and the Defiant’scareer as a so-called “turret fighter” was over.
Stephan Wilkinson
MYSTERY SHIP
Can you identify this postwar floatplane? Turn to page 12 for the answer.
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MARCH 2013 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY 9
The Defiant’s rear-mounted four-gun
turret proved to be its Achilles’ heel.
The Rolls-Royce
Merlin III on the
RAF Museum’s
newly restored
Boulton Paul
Defiant Mk. I.
Defiant RestorationP
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O n November 12 the
Seattle Museum of
Flight premiered the
new high-definition
production of the PBS documen-
tary Pioneers in Aviation: The Raceto the Moon with an event featur-
ing writer/director William Win -
ship and Boeing scion William
Boeing Jr. The three-hour, three-
part series has been re-created in
HD, re-edited with new archival
footage and will be broadcast on
PBS stations from 2013 to 2016.
The event assembled Boeing cor-
porate leaders, descendants of the
“first families” featured in the film
and aviation enthusiasts for a cel -
ebration of Boeing Jr.’s 90th birth-
day and a discussion of the genesis of Ameri -
can aviation in the early 20th century.
Winship garnered an Emmy nomination
in 2002 for the original production. He and
Boeing corporate historian Mike Lombardi
scoured the Boeing, Douglas and North
American Aviation archives for original film
footage. Their efforts uncovered some gems,
such as never-before-seen footage of the
Doolittle Raiders preparing to take off from
the deck of USS Hornet, as well as early film
of the notoriously media-reticent William
Boeing at the “Red Barn,” Boeing’s first air-
plane factory. Winship strove to present the
early leaders of aviation—particularly Boe -
ing, Donald Douglas and James “Dutch”
Kindelberger—in a human light.
“The stories in the film are not about air-
planes but people, young men coming of
age at a time of great potential and creating
an industry through their imagination, crea -
tivity and state-of-the-art technical know-
how,” Winship said at the event. “Their crea -
tive instincts fueled their competitive drive,
enabling Boeing to inaugurate the first mod -
ern airliner with the Model 247 and Douglas
to trump the market with the DC-3, in a
rivalry that would play out over decades.
Kindelberger spurred development of some
of the greatest American warplanes, such as
the P-51 Mustang and B-25 Mitchell.”
Orville and Wilbur Wright’s great-grand-
niece Amanda Wright Lane echoed the
film’s take on her forbears. “The Wright
brothers came from an ordinary Midwest
background, but there was a real genius at
work there,” she re marked. “They
were raised in a family that en -
couraged learning and reading…
and they were entre preneurs from
an early age.”
The film opens with Orville
Wright demonstrating the Wright
Flyer at the 1908 Fort Myer trials.
As President William H. Taft
watches, Wright launches the Flyer
and banks over the crowd in a
tightly controlled turn. The scene
sets the tone for a comprehensive
look at American ascendancy in
aviation, culminating in the Apol -
lo moon landing. For more on the
documentary and showtimes, visit
pioneersinaviation.com.
Stephen Mauro
BRIEFING
Boeing Celebrates Aviation Pioneers
10 AV I AT I O N H I S T O RY MARCH 2013
Left: William Boeing Sr. after his 1919 international airmail flight from Vancouver to Seattle. Center:
Donald Douglas with a DC-7. Right: P-51 Mustang designer “Dutch” Kindelberger and his creation.
X-47B Drone Meets the Fleet
Above: The U.S. Navy makes its first-ever
land-based catapult launch of the X-47B
unmanned combat air system on November
29, 2012. Left: An X-47B is hoisted aboard
the carrier USS Harry S. Truman, where it
underwent a three-week period of test
launches and recoveries late in 2012.
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