Nov. 19-20, 1945: A Bell-Atlanta B-29B-60-BA Superfortress named Pacusan Dreamboat, piloted by Col. Clarence Shortridge Irvine and Lt. Col. G.R. Stanley, flew non-cease and unrefueled from Guam, the biggest and southernmost island within the Mariana Islands of the Western Pacific, to Washington, D.C. The 4-engine heavy bomber lined the 8,198 miles in 35 hours, 5 minutes. It set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale report for Distance in a Straight Line: 7,916.01 miles.
Pacusan Dreamboat was modified particularly for a collection of lengthy-distance flights. An ordinary manufacturing B-29B, a lightweight-weight variant of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, it didn’t have the 4 energy gun turrets with their .50-caliber machine weapons. A radar-directed 20 mm cannon and two .50-caliber machine weapons in the tail have been the one defensive weapons. Much of the usual armor plate was additionally deleted. It weighed 69,000 kilos empty and 137,000 kilos totally loaded. Pacusan Dreamboat was additional lightened. The tail weapons have been eliminated and the tail reshaped. It had an empty weight of 66,000 kilos. Its takeoff weight on this flight was 151,000 kilos. Pacusan Dreamboat carried a 12-man crew and 10,000 gallons of gasoline.
Nov. 19, 1952: Air Force Capt. James Slade Nash, a check pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., flew a North American Aviation F-86D-20-NA Sabre, 51-2945, to a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Absolute Speed Record on the Salton Sea, within the Colorado Desert of southeastern California. Operating out of Naval Air Station El Centro, Nash flew 4 passes over a 3-kilometer course at an altitude of 125 ft. The official common pace was 698.508 miles per hour. He was awarded the FAI’s Henry de la Vaulx Medal for reaching the World Absolute Speed Record. The report-setting F-86D, 51-2945, was broken in a floor collision with a Douglas RB-26C Invader, 44-35942, on Oct. 29, 1953, at Okay-14, Kinpo, Korea.
Nov. 19, 1969: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned touchdown on the moon.
Nov. 19, 1975: The first U.S. Air Force Red Flag train began at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Red Flag is a two-week lengthy train held a number of instances a 12 months and goals to supply practical air-fight coaching for army pilots and different flight crew members from the United States and allied nations. The origin of Red Flag was the unacceptable efficiency of U.S. Air Force fighter pilots and weapon techniques officers in air-to-air fight through the Vietnam War compared to earlier wars. The sixty fourth and sixty fifth Aggressor Squadrons flew T-38s after which F-5 Tiger II plane utilizing Soviet techniques and markings to simulate Soviet, Warsaw Pact and Soviet shopper air forces’ techniques and operations. Initially a fighter solely train, right now’s Red Flag integrates the whole spectrum of U.S. Air Force, joint, and coalition plane and area capabilities.
Nov. 20, 1940: North American Aviation’s Chief Test Pilot, Paul Baird Balfour, made his first flight within the NA-73X, the prototype for a Royal Air Force fighter, the Mustang Mk.I. Vance Breese was the free-lance check pilot who made the primary seven flights within the new airplane. Breese claimed to have made a wager with North American executives that Balfour would crash the prototype on his first flight. This flight was scheduled to be a excessive pace check. Edgar Schmued, the designer, provided to indicate Balfour across the airplane plane. “Before this flight, I asked Balfour to get into the airplane and go through the routine of a takeoff and flight. He responded that one airplane is like another and he would not need the routine check out.”
The floor crew began the plane’s 1,150 horsepower Allison V-1710-39 liquid-cooled V-12 engine at 5:40 a.m. and let it heat as much as regular working temperature. When it was restarted simply previous to Paul Balfour’s flight, “it was a little hard to start,” in accordance with Olaf Anderson, the airplane’s mechanic. Balfour took off from Mines Field (now Los Angeles International Airport) at about 7:10 a.m. After about 12 minutes of flight, the Allison stopped working. Balfour was too removed from Mines Field to make it again to the runway. He landed in a plowed discipline west of Lincoln Boulevard. When the tires hit the comfortable floor, the prototype flipped over. Balfour was not damage and was capable of crawl out of the upside-down wreck. The Civil Aeronautics Board report described the harm as “engine housing broken, both wingtips damaged, tail surfaces damaged, top of fuselage damaged, and other miscellaneous damage.” The NA-73X had gathered simply 3 hours, 20 minutes of flight.
Vance Breese received his wager.
According to the C.A.B. investigation, the engine had stopped because of gas hunger when Balfour uncared for to pick one other tank. The prototype was taken again to the manufacturing unit and rebuilt. It would turn into the well-known Mustang, some of the important plane of World War II.
Balfour continued to work for North American Aviation, testing the NA-40 and NA-40B prototypes and the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber. He later served within the U.S. Air Force.
Nov. 20, 1953: Scott Crossfield, a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) check pilot, flew a Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket analysis airplane to Mach 2.01 (1,272 mph) at an altitude of 62,000 ft to determine a brand new unofficial world’s pace report. During takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Crossfield sat behind the flight crew of the Boeing P-2B-1S Superfortress because it carried the D-558-II aloft. As the bomber reached 18,000 ft, Crossfield headed again to the bomb bay, entered the Skyrocket’s cockpit and ready for flight. The D-558-II was Phase II of a U.S. Navy/Douglas Aircraft Company/National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics joint analysis challenge exploring supersonic flight. It was a swept-wing airplane powered by a single Reaction Motors LR8-RM-6 4-chamber rocket engine. The Skyrocket was fueled with alcohol and liquid oxygen. The engine was rated at 6,000 kilos of thrust at Sea Level. Crossfield was the first pilot to fly an plane past Mach 2, twice the pace of sound. During his profession as a check pilot, he flew the Douglas D-558-II, the Bell X-1, Bell X-2 and North American X-15. He made 112 flights in rocket-powered plane, greater than another pilot.
Nov. 20, 2000: The second Bell-Boeing CV-22 Osprey arrived on the Flight Test Center for the beginning of developmental flight testing.
Nov. 21, 1947: The first prototype Grumman XF9F-2 Panther, with check pilot Corwin “Corky” Myeyer, made it first flight. The plane took off from Grumman’s airfield at Bethpage, N.Y., earlier than touchdown at Idlewild Airport (now Kennedy Airport). The XF9F-2 Panther was the primary jet-powered plane to be constructed by Grumman, a serious provider of plane for the U.S. Navy. It was a single-seat, single-engine, day fighter, designed for operation on the U.S. Navy’s plane carriers. It was developed from a proposed 4-engine XF9F-1 evening fighter. The F9F Panther was flown through the Korean War by such famed naval aviators as Ted Williams, and future astronauts John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. Grumman constructed 1,358 F9F-2,-3,-4 and -5 Panthers and one other 1,392 swept wing F9F-6, -7 and -8 Cougars. Panthers remained in service with the United States Navy till 1958, and Cougars till 1974. From 1952 to 1954, Meyer was head of Grumman’s flight operations at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Nov. 21, 1952: The new XB-52 Stratofortress made its first arrival on the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for engine calibration and thrust measurement previous to Phase II analysis. The new intercontinental bomber had made its first flight on April 15, 1952, in Seattle, Wash.
Nov. 21, 1970: Operation Kingpin was a mission to rescue 61 American prisoners of struggle on the S?n Tây Prison Camp, 23 miles west of Hanoi, North Vietnam. There have been greater than 12,000 North Vietnamese troopers stationed inside 5 miles of the jail. The extremely-secret mission was carried out by 56 U.S. Army Special Forces troopers and 98 airmen aboard 28 plane.
Months of intelligence gathering, mission planning and meticulous coaching preceded the mission. Personnel have been chosen from greater than 500 volunteers. Training was performed at Duke Field, an auxiliary discipline at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. A full-measurement reproduction of the jail was constructed and dwell-fireplace coaching was performed. Aircraft formations flew day and evening, following the exact programs and distances that will be flown through the precise mission.
Two Lockheed C-130E(I) Combat Talons (a particular operations variant of the 4-engine Hercules transport), name indicators Cherry 01 and Cherry 02, every led a formation of plane for the raid. The assault group, consisting of a Sikorsky HH-3E Jolly Green Giant, name signal Banana01, and 5 Sikorsky HH-53B/C Super Jolly Green Giant helicopters (Apple 01-05) carried the Special Forces crew. The second formation was a strike group of 5 Douglas A-1E Skyraiders (Peach01–05) for shut air assist. The Combat Talons offered navigation and communications for his or her teams and illumination over the jail.
Because there was inadequate room to land a helicopter inside the jail, it was deliberate to have Banana 01, flown by Maj. Herbert D. Kalen and Lt. Col. Herbert R. Zehnder, and carrying a 14-man assault crew, Blueboy, crash-land contained in the perimeter. The Special Forces troopers have been tasked to find and defend the prisoners and to kill any guards that may intrude. The bigger helicopters first fired on the guard towers with their miniguns after which landed their troopers exterior the jail. The A-1 Skyraiders bombed and strafed close by foot and automobile bridges to cease reinforcements from making their method to the jail.
Once contained in the jail, it was rapidly found that there have been no American POWs there. The assault forces then withdrew. The whole time from the start to the tip of the assault was simply 26 minutes. One American soldier suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. The crew chief of Banana 01 broke an ankle when it was hit by a falling fireplace extinguisher throughout the crash touchdown. As anticipated, Banana 01 was written off. Between 100 and 200 North Vietnamese troopers have been killed.
During the withdrawal from the realm, North Vietnam fired greater than 36 floor-to-air missiles at the plane. None have been hit, although one Republic F-105G Wild Weasel, 62-4436, name signal Firebird 05, was broken by a close to miss. This plane ran out of gas simply wanting its tanker rendezvous and the crew bailed out over Laos. They have been rescued by Super Jolly Green Giants Apple 04 and Apple 05, after they’d been refueled by an HC-130P Combat Shadow, Lime 02.
Although meticulously deliberate and carried out, the mission failed as a result of the POWs had been moved to Camp Faith, one other jail camp nearer to Hanoi. Three days after the raid on S?n Tây, they have been once more moved, this time to the notorious Hanoi Hilton.
Nov. 22, 1944: At Lindbergh Field, San Diego, Calif., a model new Consolidated Vultee PB4Y-2 Privateer took off on its first check flight. An organization crew of six males have been aboard. Shortly after takeoff at 12:20 p.m., the left outboard wing of the airplane separated. The airplane instantly went uncontrolled and crashed close to a residential space in Loma Portal, a brief distance west of the airfield. The wing panel struck the roof of a home at 3121 Kingsley Street. All six crew members have been killed. The home was occupied however there have been no individuals injured inside.
The wing part was recovered and the reason for the separation was rapidly found. 98 of the 102 bolts which secured it to the inside wing part had by no means been put in. Two staff who have been answerable for putting in these lacking bolts, and two inspectors who had signed off the work as having been correctly accomplished, have been fired.
Nov. 22, 1988: The B-2 Spirit bomber was first publicly displayed at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif., the place it was assembled. This viewing was closely restricted, and friends weren’t allowed to see the rear of the B-2. However, Aviation Week editors discovered that there have been no airspace restrictions above the presentation space and took aerial pictures of the plane’s then-secret rear part with suppressed engine exhausts. The B-2’s (s/n 82-1066/AV-1) first public flight was on July 7, 1989, when it flew from Northrop’s Palmdale facility to Edwards Air Force Base.
Nov. 22, 2002: The second Boeing X-45A unmanned fight air automobile efficiently accomplished its first flight, a 30-minute autonomous sortie. After the completion of the flight check program, each X-45As have been despatched to museums, one to the National Air and Space Museum, and the opposite to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the place it was inducted on Nov. 13, 2006
Nov. 22-23, 2010: An RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial automobile achieved a 32-hour flight check powered by the Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene gas together with common JP-8 gas. The 412th Test Wing’s Global Vigilance CTF’s Block 20 Global Hawk lifted off at 4:30 p.m., 22 November, and have become the primary UAV to fly utilizing the Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene gas.
Nov. 23, 1909: Wright Brothers kind million greenback company to fabricate airplanes. The Wright Company was established at the side of a number of distinguished industrialists from New York and Detroit. Company headquarters have been in New York City, and its manufacturing unit was in Dayton, Ohio. In 1929, it merged with the corporate based by Glenn Curtiss, to turn into Curtiss-Wright, a enterprise nonetheless in existence right now.
Nov. 23, 1942: President Roosevelt signed laws authorizing the institution of a ladies’s coast guard auxiliary, known as the SPARS. The group relieved officers and males for responsibility at sea by changing them with ladies in shore institutions.
Nov. 23, 1942: The Vought V-173 “Flying Pancake,” with Vought Chief Test Pilot Boone Guyton because the controls, made its first flight. The V-173 featured an unorthodox “all-wing” design consisting of a flat, considerably disk-formed physique serving because the lifting floor. Two piston engines buried within the physique drove propellers situated on the forefront on the wingtips. The developmental V-173 made its final flight March 31, 1947. In 131.8 hours of flying over 190 flights, designer Charles Zimmerman’s idea of a close to-vertical takeoff- and touchdown-succesful fighter had been confirmed. This challenge can be improved upon together with the addition of potential armament with the Chance Vought XF5U. This challenge would enhance on most of the weaknesses found through the testing of the V-173 prototype.
Nov. 24, 1947: The Convair XC-99 made its maiden flight in San Diego, Calif. The XC-99 was a prototype heavy cargo plane constructed by Convair for the U.S. Air Force. It was the biggest piston-engined land-primarily based transport plane ever constructed, and was developed from the Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber, sharing the wings and another constructions with it. After testing it was delivered to the Air Force on May 26, 1949. The Convair Model 37 was a deliberate civil passenger variant primarily based on the XC-99 however was not constructed. The Air Force decided that it had no want for such a big, lengthy-vary transport at the moment, and no extra have been ordered. The sole XC-99 served till 1957, together with a lot use through the Korean War. It made twice weekly journeys from Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, to the plane depot at McClellan Air Force Base, Calif,, transporting provides and elements for the B-36 bomber whereas returning by the use of different bases or depots making choose-ups and deliveries alongside the way in which. During its operational life, the XC-99 logged over 7,400 hours whole time, and transported greater than 60 million kilos of cargo. The plane made its ultimate flight March 19, 1957.
Nov. 24, 1959: The Hiller X-18 V/STOL (vertical/brief takeoff and touchdown) check automobile made its very first flight (above 14’), a traditional takeoff piloted by George L. Bright and Bruce Jones. The X-18 was a tilt-wing proof-of-idea automobile powered by two Allison VT40-A-14 turboprop engines driving contra-rotating propellers. It was designed to discover V/STOL properties in cargo-sort plane.
For extra on the X-18, go to https://www.aerotechnews.com/blog/2021/07/25/hiller-x-18-tiltwing-transport-aircraft-built-from-scavenged-parts/
Nov. 24, 24 1969: The Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper, carrying astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr., Mission Commander; Richard F. Gordon, Jr., Command Module Pilot; Alan L. Bean, Lunar Module Pilot; landed within the Pacific Ocean roughly 500 miles east of American Samoa.
Nov. 25, 1940: First flight of the de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito, a British twin-engined, shoulder-winged multirole fight plane, occurred. Introduced through the World War II, the plane was uncommon in that its body was constructed largely of wooden, it was nicknamed the “Wooden Wonder.” Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Aircraft Production, nicknamed it “Freeman’s Folly”, alluding to Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfrid Freeman, who defended Geoffrey de Havilland and his design idea in opposition to orders to scrap the challenge. In 1941, it was one of many quickest operational plane on this planet.
Nov. 25, 1940: The B-26 Marauder, with Martin check pilot William Okay. “Ken” Ebel on the controls, made its first flight. The Martin B-26 Marauder was an American twin-engined medium bomber that noticed intensive service throughout World War II. The B-26 was constructed at two areas: Baltimore, Md., and Omaha, Neb., by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used within the Pacific Theater of World War II in early 1942, it was additionally used within the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe.
After getting into service with the United States Army aviation models, the plane rapidly acquired the repute of a “widowmaker” because of the early fashions’ excessive accident charge throughout takeoffs and landings. This was as a result of the Marauder needed to be flown at exact airspeeds, notably on ultimate runway strategy or when one engine was out. The unusually excessive 150 mph pace on brief ultimate runway strategy was intimidating to many pilots who have been used to a lot slower strategy speeds, and at any time when they slowed to speeds beneath these stipulated within the handbook, the plane would typically stall and crash.
The B-26 grew to become a safer plane as soon as crews have been re-skilled, and after aerodynamics modifications (a rise of wingspan and wing angle-of-incidence to provide higher takeoff efficiency, and a bigger vertical stabilizer and rudder). The Marauder ended World War II with the bottom loss charge of any U.S. Army Air Force bomber.
A complete of 5,288 have been produced between February 1941 and March 1945; 522 of those have been flown by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. By the time the United States Air Force was created as an unbiased army service separate from the United States Army in 1947, all Martin B-26s had been retired from U.S. service. After the Marauder was retired the unrelated Douglas A-26 Invader then assumed the “B-26” designation which led to confusion between the 2 plane.
(Official US Navy picture by Photographer’s Mate Airman Rob Gaston)
(Image launched by LT Okay.R. Stephens, PAO CVN 65)
Nov. 25, 1961: The U.S. Navy’s first nuclear powered plane provider, USS Enterprise, is commissioned. Enterprise was constructed by Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va., and was the one ship of her class. Enterprise had a crew of 4,600. She was inactivated on Dec. 1, 2012, sand formally decommissioned on Feb. 3, 2017, after 55 years of service. Left: the USS Enterprise is formally christened on Sept. 24, 1960, sponsored by Mrs. W.B. Franke, spouse of the previous secretary of the Navy. Right: The USS Enterprise underway within the Atlantic Ocean, June 14, 2004.
