This week in AFLCMC history - January 10 - 15, 2022 Published Jan. 13, 2022 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. 10 Jan 1986 (Robins AFB/Digital Directorate) The Robins AFB PAVE PAWS radar facility began its first “into the atmosphere” testing. This $90 million facility was part of a continental defense radar system developed under the auspices of the Electronic Systems Division at Hanscom. The AN/FPS-115 phased array radar was placed in near-coastal areas to detect submarine launched ballistic missiles. The massive building at Robins was the tallest structure in Houston County. The PAVE PAWS network was descoped after the Cold War, with the Robins site being shut down in 1995. 11 Jan 1991 (Mobility & Training Aircraft Dir.) The last of six Hawker C-29A Combat Flight Inspection (CFIN) aircraft was accepted by the Air Force. These were modifications of the British Aerospace 125 business jet. The C-29s were the latest in a line of planes intended to evaluate and inspect worldwide air traffic control systems and procedures, such as instrument departures, approaches, and arrivals to verify safe operations under all flight conditions. This mission dated back to McCook Field and its experimental “Model Airways,” though it was the Air Mail system that did this nationally. The C-29s were used for this purpose in the Gulf War. The mission was transferred to the FAA in 1991. 12 Jan 1939/1940 (Hill AFB) On 12 January 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress, mentioning the need for an $8 million Ogden Air Depot, giving it both a priority and a name. Exactly one year later, Utah Governor Henry Blood, members of the Ogden Chamber of Congress, the Army Air Corps, and the Works Progress Administration broke ground for what became the current Hill AFB. Excavation for the first two buildings, the Quartermasters Warehouse/Commissary and the Garage/Shops began immediately afterward. 13 Jan 1969 (ISR & SOF Dir.—Big Safari) Just after midnight, the RC-135S dubbed RIVET BALL by Big Safari landed on an icy runway at Shemya AFB, Alaska, and began to skid. Pilot Maj John Achor steered the plane away from equipment at the end of the runway, veering into a side ditch. Though the aircraft broke its back, all 18 crewmembers escaped uninjured. Rivet Ball was the latest in a series of aircraft modified by Big Safari to monitor foreign ballistic missile tests from international air space. It operated from Dec 1967 until the crash. Its equipment was salvaged for subsequent programs and the plane was scrapped. 14 Jan 1993 (Mobility & Training Aircraft Dir.—C-17) The Department of Defense Inspector General released a highly critical report on the then-troubled C-17 program. The report called out the former Program Executive Officer, program manager, SAF/AQ, and others, for improperly shifting and advancing funds to contractor McDonnell Douglas in order to offset overruns that threatened the company’s viability. The Air Force denied any impropriety. Significant delays, cost overruns, and technical issues (primarily with the wing structure), led to a temporary cut back and restructuring that put the program back on track by late 1995. 15 Jan 1964 (Digital Dir.—Hanscom) The third and final site of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) became operational at Fylingdales Moor, Yorkshire, England. The sites contained multiple large radars, computer processing equipment and networked communications equipment to relay data to the centralized command post. The Electronic Systems Division managed Weapons System 474L from its program office at Hanscom. That office closed the next month and many of its personnel transferred to the Space Track System Program Office. 16 Jan 1975 (Fighters & Adv. Aircraft Dir.—F-15) USAF test pilots (R-L) Majs Willard MacFarlane, Roger Smith, & David Peterson from the F-15 Joint Test Force at Edwards AFB set five world records for time-to-altitude in a single day. They flew a stripped-down, un-painted, early production F-15A-6-MC dubbed Streak Eagle. Their records were from brake release to 3000 meters (27.57 secs), 6000m (39.34s), 9000m (48.86s), 12,000m (59.38s), and 15,000m (77.04s). The plane is now part of the collection of the National Museum of the USAF. This Week in AFLCMC History: 15 January 1950 Retired 5-star General of the Air Force Henry Harley “Hap” Arnold died at his home in California, having suffered from repeated heart attacks over the last decade of his life. Few members of the US Air Force and its predecessors can lay claim to as much of a role in the service’s history as Arnold. Hap’s service career began inauspiciously at the US Military Academy at West Point, where he was a member of the class of 1907. His classmates, including future McCook Field Engineering Division commander Thurman Bane, knew him then as “Pewt” and as one noted more for his swearing and delinquency than military acumen. He graduated just into the bottom half of his class (well below Bane), earning an assignment to infantry. His general disaffection there turned him to the Signal Corps and the nascent and dangerous field of aeronautics. He took flying lessons from the Wright Brothers on Huffman Prairie (WPAFB Area A) and became just the second person in the Army to earn his pilots license. A series of crashes halted his flying temporarily and turned his attention to staff work. During World War I, Arnold was an assistant to the chief of the Division of Military Aeronautics, the predecessor for AFLCMC that coordinated the operational Army’s aircraft-related acquisition needs with the civilian-oriented Bureau of Aircraft Production. He learned many lessons about wartime acquisition that influenced his decisions in World War II. Between the wars, Arnold served a variety of functions, supported Billy Mitchell’s calls for an independent air force, and improved his military education. He was assigned to Dayton for two years (1929-1931) as head of the Fairfield Air Depot and then Materiel Division Field Service Section chief. His former residence is named the Arnold House in his memory. Arnold rose through the ranks until becoming Chief of the Army Air Corps in 1938. There, he oversaw the massive pre-war expansion of the USAAC. He used his WWI acquisition experience to begin the build-up of both the staffs and facilities to support production. Arnold also supported increased investment in research and development and bolstered links between the military and civilian scientific worlds. After some initial hesitation, Arnold was responsible for approving the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program. He attended the graduation of the final class of WASPs in 1944 and personally pinned the wings on the daughter of his good friend (now deceased) Thurman Bane. Arnold oversaw the US Army Air Force for the entirety of WWII and its transition to peacetime. He was responsible for the focus on strategic bombing, the acquisition of major aircraft like the B-29, and the push for independent operations for the Air Force. Health problems sidelined him at the end of his career, but he lived to see the creation of the independent US Air Force.