This Week In AFLCMC History – September 9 - 15, 2024
9 Sep 1954 (Tinker AFB/Mobility Directorate)
In 1954, the Air Force purchased the first 29 of its future 700+-strong KC-135 Stratotanker fleet. And on this date in 1954, Tinker AFB sent its representatives to an Air Materiel Command phasing group meeting to discuss the anticipated delivery of its initial KC-135As, which would begin arriving in August 1956. These earliest Stratotankers were sometimes called “steam jets” or “water wagons” on account of their heavy takeoff procedures: injecting demineralized water into their engines’ air inlet and diffuser sections. This technique added about 2,000 pounds of takeoff thrust for each engine by increasing air density, but it was incredibly noisy and produced a signature dark “storm cloud” behind the aircraft.
10 Sep 1944 (Mobility Directorate)
On today’s date, 80 years ago, the C-82 Packet’s prototype made its first flight above the Fairchild plant in Hagerstown, Maryland. Incorporating notable design features that would become the standard for cargo aircraft, such as its tricycle landing gear and high wings and tail (which allowed vehicles to approach it from any angle without fear of a collision), it was the first aircraft designed specifically for cargo transfer during WWII. Indeed, even its name, the “Packet,” harkened to the packet ships that hauled cargo up and down the coasts between seaports. But although it was designed for cargo, it did also see use as a troop transport, and could carry up to 41 paratroopers or 34 medical stretchers.
11 Sep 1953 (Armament Directorate)
Today in 1953, the Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-9A prototype Sidewinder missile had its first successful fire and kill above China Lake, California, at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (today called the Naval Air Weapons Station—about an hour’s drive north of Edwards AFB). The experimental heat-seeking air-to-air missile was fired by Lieutenant Commander Albert S. Yesensky (USN) from an AD-4 (A-1) Skyraider at a radio-controlled F6F-5K Hellcat “drone.” As the location of the testing and the affiliation of the pilot firing it suggests, this missile was originally developed for the Navy; but it was later adapted by the Air Force for fighter aircraft use and entered the Air Force inventory in 1956. It saw heavy use during the Vietnam War—and its latest versions remain in use today as advanced short-range air-to-air missiles.
12 Sep 1947 (Agile Combat Support Directorate)
Today in 1947, an experimental new autopilot (or “mechanical brain,” as it was reported by the press) developed over the past two years at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, was used to fly a C-54 Skymaster from the All-Weather Test Center in Wilmington, Ohio, (an adjunct of Wright Field) to Bangor, Maine, to Miami, Florida, and then back again to Ohio. It was the second of three tests of the autopilot that year, with an earlier test conducted cross-country from Long Beach, California, to Dayton in June. The third test, occurring on 21 September, saw a crew of 11 fliers and observers flying across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to England. That third flight made national headlines, and won its commander—Col James M. Gillespie—the Thurman H. Bane Award (named for the McCook Field commander from 1918-1922) for 1947.
13 Sep 2004 (Tinker AFB/Eglin AFB/Fighters and Advanced Aircraft Directorate)
On today’s date, 20 years ago, the first of 63 Tyndall AFB F-15 Eagles landed at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, as the Florida-based Tyndall AFB prepared for the arrival of Hurricane Ivan. This hurricane—which made three landfalls across the southeastern United States and reached category 5 strength three times—caused significant damage after it arrived in Alabama on 16 September 2004. From 2-25 September, the massive storm killed around 120 people (25 in the U.S.), and caused more than $25 billion in damage (most of it in the U.S.). While Tyndall AFB was the only base to evacuate aircraft to bases with a major AFLCMC presence, a number of other bases in the area also scattered their planes to avoid the storm, including Eglin AFB, which evacuated both people and planes—with its F-16s and F-15s going to Dyess AFB, Texas and Nellis AFB, Nevada. Other bases evacuated included Duke Field, Florida; Fort Rucker, Alabama; Hurlburt Field, Florida; Keesler AFB, Mississippi; Maxwell AFB, Alabama; Moody AFB, Georgia; and Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans.
15 Sep 1994 (Bombers Directorate/Wright-Patterson AFB)
On this date thirty years ago, the Air Force Association presented the Theodore von Karman award to the B-2 Systems Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Named for Hungarian-American aerospace engineer Theodore von Kármán, who headed the first USAF Scientific Advisory Board, this award is given “for the most outstanding contribution to national defense in the field of science and engineering relating to aerospace activity by either an Air Force military member, Department of the Air Force civilian, unit, or group of individuals.” The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber had its first flight in July 1989, but its advanced low-observable technology and its straddling the end of the Cold War-era made it the USAF’s most expensive aircraft to date. The B-2 reached Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in April 1997. While designed as a strategic nuclear bomber, it proved its conventional capabilities in the 1999 Operation Allied Force, where it destroyed 33% of all Serbian targets within the first eight weeks of the campaign.
100 Years Ago in AFLCMC History: 14 Sep 1924 - Around the World in 175 Days
Over the course of nearly 6 months in mid-1924, a handful of US Army Air Service pilots and mechanics completed the greatest aerial feat to date: the first circumnavigation of the globe by airplane, just two decades after the Wright Brothers first flight of 120 feet. The “World Flight” started in Seattle on 6 April 1924 and returned on 28 September, with the last few weeks serving as an impromptu “victory tour” across the US, including a stop at Dayton’s McCook Field on September 14th. The Engineering Division (AFLCMC’s predecessor) there planned the flight and managed the design, testing, and preparation of the aircraft.
The around-the-world flight was two years in the making, having been approved by Congress in 1922. As the Air Service’s center for research, development, experimentation, test, and acquisition, McCook Field was the obvious choice to execute this effort. More than stunts, such feats spurred technology development, provided a real-world proving ground for innovations, garnered significant positive publicity for the cash-strapped Air Service, and one-upped European competitors.
Given the amount of ocean they’d be flying over, planners realized they would need aircraft that could land in the water for refueling by ships or during an emergency. Since the Air Service didn’t use seaplanes, they solicited contractor proposals for aircraft that could be fitted with either wheels or floats. Douglas won the contract with a version of its DT-2 Navy torpedo bomber, as the “Douglas World Cruiser” (D-WC) on 1 August 1923. They received $258,000 for a prototype plus four operational versions with the first one delivered in just 45 days.
The prototype went through its paces at McCook starting in October 1923. They made changes to its electrical and lighting systems, its metal and fabric skins, and especially to its engine—a 410HP V-12 “Liberty” that had been designed during WWI—and incorporated a steel tube fuselage to support the extra weight of its nearly 600-gallon fuel tank. The D-WC showed unimpressive performance during testing: just 105mph and a 10,000-foot ceiling, but the world-circling flight did not hinge on maximum speed or even range—meticulous preparation, reliability, and redundancy were the critical factors. To that end, the logistics experts from McCook and nearby Fairfield Air Depot (WPAFB Area A) prepositioned stores of spruce, canvas, wire, wheels, tires, pontoons, propellers, and over-hauled engines at depots around the globe.
For redundancy, the Army used four planes, each named for a US city and with 2-man crews, on the trip, with the prototype plane and a fifth crew as backup. One D-WC crashed in Alaska and another sunk in the North Atlantic, which prompted the Army to send the test article from Dayton to Nova Scotia as a substitute during the final North American leg. Only two planes, the Chicago and New Orleans, completed the entire 27,000-mile, 175-day mission, to much global fanfare.
For more on the flight itself, see this piece from AFMC/HO.