This Week In AFLCMC History - July 31 - August 4, 2023 Published July 31, 2023 By Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office 31 Jul 1979 (Digital Directorate/Hanscom AFB) On this date, Electronic Communications, Inc. (ECI) delivered the first completed Line Printing Unit (LPU) for the “Strategic Automated Command and Control System” (SACCS). The delivery of the LPU (which helped provide a record copy of all messages transmitted or received by the system) took place during a formal acceptance ceremony with Hanscom AFB’s Electronic System’s Division’s Vice Commander, Maj Gen Henry B. Stelling, Jr. The SACCS, still in use today provides the Air Force with secure, real-time nuclear missile command and control capabilities. The decades-old equipment was still using eight-inch floppy disks prior to an upgrade about five years ago; but the seemingly “outdated” technology’s old-school systems help prevent America’s nuclear arsenal from being hacked or co-opted in an increasingly connected electronic world. 2 Aug 1909 (AFLCMC) On Aug 2, 1909, the Wright Brothers successfully delivered to the Army Signal Corps the first military airplane—Signal Corps No. 1. With their plane in Army hands, the Wrights were paid $25,000, plus a $5,000 incentive bonus for exceeding 40 mph, as laid out in their 1908 contract. At only a few pages length, this first-ever U.S. military airplane contract is today notable for its simplicity, as Richard C. Solibakke pointed out in a 1976 article in the Public Contract Law Journal: There was nothing in this first airplane contract to allow for changes; no disputes resolution clauses; no labor, safety, or equipment provisions; no requirements to purchase American-made materials or to avoid certain technologies from other countries. In all, it was a far cry from today’s much more complicated contracting processes! 3 Aug 1973 (Fighters and Advanced Aircraft Directorate) Today, fifty years ago, the Air Force accepted its first F-5E Tiger II at Edwards AFB for Development Test and Evaluation (DT&E). DT&E was the second phase of the development and testing process, with the first phase having been Northrop’s own testing of their aircraft (the F-5E first flew in 1972). The original F-5A Freedom Fighter aircraft were developed in the late 1950s based on the T-38 trainer, while the F-5E was a significantly updated version of the light fighter. In addition to receiving a new name—Tiger II instead of Freedom Fighter—the F-5E had greater maneuverability, speed, payload, and range than earlier models, and could take off from shorter runways. The aircraft was developed primarily for the foreign military sales and mutual assistance programs, but also saw use by the Navy and Air Force. For both services, it was notably used as an aggressor aircraft stand-in for MiG-21s when training for air-to-air combat. 4 Aug 1982 (Propulsion Directorate) On this date, the first U.S. Air Force KC-135R tanker (tail number 61-0293) reengined with new, fuel-efficient CFM-56 turbofan engines made its maiden flight out of Boeing’s Wichita, Kansas, plant. The new engines were about 70 percent quieter than earlier versions, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, would result in lower maintenance costs, and would meet federal emissions standards. They also allowed tankers to carry more fuel further, and early estimates of the engine’s own fuel efficiencies suggested that they could save as much as $715 million in fuel costs over five years. The first reengined KC-135R flight on Aug 4, 1982 lasted three hours, ten minutes, and was jointly crewed by both Boeing and Air Force crews. 5 Aug 1937 (AFLCMC/Wright-Patterson AFB) The XC-35 made its first performance flight at Wright Field. This airplane was notable for being the first successful airplane with a pressurized cabin. It wasn’t the first time military engineers in the Dayton area had experimented with pressurization, but earlier, partly-successful attempts at McCook Field (between 1919 and 1923) were abandoned due to the complexity and expense of making it work safely and well at the time. The idea was revived in 1935 by a multi-disciplinary team at Wright Field that designed the cabin and contracted with Lockheed to convert an Electra Model 10-A into the XC-35. This successful technology demonstration first transitioned to industry and to the forthcoming Boeing B-29, and eventually to nearly all new military and commercial aircraft. 6 Aug 1953 (Armament Directorate) Today, 70 years ago, the N-69A variant of the Snark missile was first flown at the Air Force Missile Test Center (AFMTC), Cape Canaveral, Florida. This version was significantly larger than the older, N-25 variant, nearly doubling its weight to 50,000 pounds and growing from 50 feet to 68 feet in length. The Snark missiles were pilotless nuclear missiles that served as a stepping stone towards what would eventually become modern cruise missiles. Guidance and navigation proved to be the biggest trouble point for these weapons, and it was joked that the Atlantic Ocean off the AFMTC had become “Snark-infested waters” due to repeated mission failures during early testing of the N-69. The Snark missile would eventually go into service and on alert in March 1960 as the Northrop SM-62, but President John F. Kennedy would axe the program the next year, declaring it obsolete. 100 Years Ago This Week in AFLCMC History: DB-1 First Flight (1 Aug 1923) The DB-1B, America’s earliest attempt at an all-metal bomber, made its first flight at McCook Field in Dayton. While wood-and-cloth biplanes were the paradigm for aircraft from the Wright Brothers through the 1920s, partial or all-metal aircraft were experimented with as early as 1912. The Germans pioneered this alternative and also invented what became the standard aircraft aluminum alloy, duralumin. However, metal had many disadvantages: it corroded easily, was difficult to fix, was more expensive, typically weighed more, and made it difficult to access internal areas for inspection and repair. As a result, the long process of moving on from wood/cloth aircraft was replete with failures. The Army Air Service’s Engineering Division at McCook Field (AFLCMC’s predecessor) was one of the few American organizations experimenting with metal aircraft in a systematic fashion after World War I. Its experts in materials and structures conducted both studies and experimental tests on alloys, coatings, structures, and skins. In 1920, they began designing and building their first all-metal monoplane, the CO-1. That same year, the Engineering Division received a proposal to building a new “Type XI Day Bombardment” aircraft, dubbed the DB-1, from a small New England company, Gallaudet Aircraft. They proposed building the plane entirely out of duralumin. It was to be powered by an experimental engine designed in-house at McCook. It had 18 cylinders, arranged in three rows of six that gave it the “W- 1A” designation, and produced 700 horsepower. The first DB- 1 was built in 1921 as a static test article, meaning it would be loaded up with sandbags and tested to the breaking point in the special facilities at McCook. Neither the final product nor the results were promising. It came in more than 50% over weight but still failed spectacularly under load. As a result, the Army cancelled the contract and sent Gallaudet back to the drawing board. With help from the Engineering Division, Gallaudet redesigned the plane as the DB-1B. It was smaller and lighter, mainly through replacing the metal coverings with cloth, while structural members were modified, a lower gun was added, the fuselage squared off, and the engine received a streamlined covering. The new DB-1B was delivered to McCook Field on 26 May 1923. It first took to the skies on 1 August 1923. Because its performance was underwhelming and its handling was dangerous, testing was limited and the aircraft was soon grounded. Two years later it served a useful purpose when McCook’s materials experts thoroughly examined it for “atmospheric corrosion” to help them better understand the long-term durability of duralumin aircraft. The DB-1B was scrapped in 1926. The DB-1 proved to be ahead of its time: aside from its original all-metal, thick-wing monoplane (single set of wings) design, it sported an internal bomb bay that could carry six 100-pound bombs. It would be almost a decade before the Air Corps had a bomber with those features in its operational inventory. Despite its failure, the DB-1 was a valuable learning experience for government and industry.