This week in AFLCMC history - January 31 - February 4, 2022

  • Published
  • By Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office
In this edition of Heritage Hangar, you'll learn about old and new airplanes and tidbits of what happened this week many years ago. 
 
 31 Jan 1991 (AFLCMC)
 
Three airframe and two engine companies signed the Phase 2D contract for the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) program with the Air Force, managed at Wright-Patt. This inaugurated a novel “NASP National Contractor Team” consortium approach where each company was considered equal, with an overall program manager nominated from among them. The companies were: McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell, General Dynamics, Rocketdyne, and Pratt & Whitney. The NASP was to be a single-stage-to-orbit space plane that could takeoff, land, and operate like an airplane. It was cancelled in 1993, though research efforts continued.  
 
01 Feb 1994 (Bombers Dir.)
 
The B-1B System Program Office, which had moved to WPAFB from Tinker AFB in 1992, became an independent 2-letter organization in the Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC/YD), separating from the Aircraft System Program Office (SPO). Colonel Henry Laakman was Director and Mr. Michael Higgins his deputy. This was part of the 1994 reorganization that eliminated “basket SPOs” (like Aircraft, Subsystems, and Electronic Com-bat) that provided program management and personnel for
multiple programs. The new structure parceled out the former basket SPO programs and functions into independent SPOs, Prod-uct Support Offices (PSOs), and Development Support Offices (DSOs).
 
02 Feb 1974 (Fighters & Adv Aircraft Dir.)
 
The first official flight of the YF-16 lasted 90 minutes. The plane had been delivered to Edwards AFB the previous December. During a high-speed taxi test on 20 January 1974, an uncommanded roll oscillation led General Dynamics test pilot Phil Oestricher to take off in order to avoid damaging the plane. He landed 6 minutes later, completing the first unofficial flight of the aircraft. It required adjustments to the fly-by-wire flight control system (the first ever used in an operational aircraft; developed by the Air Force at WPAFB) and nozzle controls, as well as repairs to the right horizontal stabilizer before the first official flight could be made two weeks later.
 
03 Feb 1960 (Armament Dir./WPAFB/Hill AFB)

 
The DoD approved full-scale development of the GAM-87 Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) program, releasing $33M to Douglas Aircraft to continue R&D. Skybolt was developed in reaction to the improved Soviet air defenses and ICBMs that limited the utility of then-current strategic bombing fleet. With Skybolt, bombers could hit targets over 1000 miles away with a nuclear warhead. The program office was at WPAFB and Hill AFB was assigned Systems Support Management. Flight test failures and guidance issues, along with US ICBM improvements, doomed Skybolt to cancellation in December 1962.
 
04 Feb 1969 (Bombers Dir.)
 
The XB-70A Valkyrie made its last flight. Even though the program was cancelled, the Air Force built two of the iconic Mach 3+ strategic bombers in the early 1960s for research and development purposes. These were turned over to NASA later in the decade for similar work, notably in support of the civilian Super Sonic Transport (SST) program that was eventually cancelled. One XB-70 was destroyed in a mid-air collision at Edwards AFB. NASA test pilots flew the remaining XB-70 from there to WPAFB Area A (pic) for this final flight. It was subsequently modified for transport down State Route 444 to the Air Force Museum, where it is still on display.  
 
05 Feb 1960 (Fighters & Adv. Aircraft Dir.)
 

The Air Force issued System Development Requirement (SDR) No. 17. This replaced General Operational Requirement (GOR) No. 169 from 27 March 1958, which called for a Mach 2+, all-weather, high-altitude, Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing (V/ STOL) fighter to replace several the Century Series fighters. Determining that V/STOL hardware was incompatible with the other requirements, the Air Force cancelled the GOR and replaced it with SDR 17 that kept everything except for V/STOL. After further refinement, this led to the TFX program that became the F-111.
 
06 Feb 1958 (Armament Dir.)
 
First flight of the TM-76 Mace-B. The Mace was a long-range surface-to-surface guided nuclear cruise missile used by the Air Force. The first (A) version used an early form of automatic terrain recognition for guidance, which compared continuous terrain radar scans with 35mm film images stored on board. The improved B model had a longer range but also incorporated an inertial guidance system that used large gyroscopes to detect and compensate for deviations in the planned flight path. Unlike the radar system, the inertial unit couldn’t be jammed.
 
This Week in AFLCMC History Highlight: 6 February 1918
 
US Army Chief Signal Officer Gen George Squier placed Major Jesse G. Vincent “in complete charge of Airplane Engineering Department,” split between downtown Dayton offices and its operational component at McCook Field, just across the Great Miami River.
 
Vincent was born in 1880 on an Arkansas farm and grew up in Illinois and St. Louis. He showed an early aptitude for mechanical engineering, though had no formal education beyond high school. Making his way to Detroit, Vincent rose to be the chief engineer of Hudson Motor Car before joining Packard Motor Cars as its Vice President of Engineering. He specialized in engines, but dabbled with aircraft power plants, and engineered cars for races like the Indianapolis 500.
 
In May 1917 after the US entered World War I, the Signal Corps Aviation Section asked Vincent and Elbert J. Hall to design a standard air-craft engine that could be built quickly by the US auto industry. Over a weekend, they laid out the basics of the Liberty Engine, liberally borrowing features from existing motors. The resulting 30,000+ engines became the singular success of American aircraft production during the War.
 
That September, Vincent accepted a reserve officer commission with the Air Service. He initially headed Engine Design for the Airplane Engineering Dept. (AED), and Maj Virginius Clark, a career officer, led Aircraft Design. Vincent scouted out the Dayton locations for their organization and approved the site for McCook Field, though it was Clark who was given command of the AED. Clark was an outstanding engineer but an in-different leader and officer with a questionable person-al life. Vincent, with his industry and management experience, grew frustrated and elbowed out Clark after just a few months. Clark later returned in a more suitable position as the AED’s Chief Engineer.

Vincent spent the remainder of the War working production is-sues with the DH -4 airplanes, the Liberty engine, managing the acquisition of new aircraft types, and get-ting rated as a military aviator. When the war ended in November 1918, now-Colonel Vincent promptly re-signed. He got caught up in the post-war aircraft production investigations for having failed to completely divest his Packard stock when he joined the Air Service and let the Liberty engine development contract to his former employer. That oversight netted him all of $55, though he had given up his $25,000 (~$500k now) salary at Packard to work for the government. The President pardoned Vincent before he was charged.
 
Vincent rejoined Packard in his old position, turning the company into one of the great American marques during the Interwar Years. He also returned to auto racing, and drove the pace car for the 1919 Indy 500. In WWII, Vincent again lent his services to the Army Air Force by coordinating the conversion of the famous British Rolls Royce Merlin aircraft engine to American production methods at Packard, which powered the equally famous P-51 Mustang.