This Week In AFLCMC History – October 21 - 27, 2024

  • Published
  • By Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office
21 Oct 1999 (Mobility Directorate)
On this day in 1999, Rockwell Collins was awarded a $600 million contract to upgrade the entire KC-135 fleet (544 airplanes), plus 43 other C-135-derived aircraft and 20 flight simulators. The program was to install commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) avionics and components to bring the fleet into compliance with FAA and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) mandates.
 
 22 Oct 1918  (Bombers Directorate)
On 22 Oct 1918, the Glenn L. Martin Airplane Company in Cleveland, Ohio, received an order for fifty of their new MB-1 twin-engine bombers. As shown in the photo here, the aircraft was flown to McCook Field, north of Dayton, Ohio, the previous month. Martin pilot Eric Springer demonstrated it for the Army Air Service pilots, who then took it for a spin and were impressed with the aircraft—the first-ever American-designed and built bomber, notable for being significantly larger than similar planes then being flown over Europe. Unfortunately for the Martin Airplane Co., the war ended a few weeks later, resulting in the cancellation of this order, though it was widely regarded as what would’ve been the greatest American aircraft of the war had the conflict continued another six months. In the end, the Air Service still bought ten of the planes, and the improved version, the MB-2, would be used famously by Brig Gen Billy Mitchell in his 1921-1923 battleship bombing tests, where he demonstrated to a rather annoyed U.S. Navy that airpower could sink their ships.
 
23 Oct 1909 (Aviation History)
Army Lt Benjamin D. Foulois received his first flying lesson from Wilbur Wright in Signal Corps Airplane Number One on 23 October 1909. The flight took place in College Park, Maryland, where Lts Frederic E. Humphreys and Frank P. Lahm also underwent training. Foulois received only about an hour of instruction before he and the plane were sent to Texas, where he had to teach himself—partly through written correspondence with the Wrights—to fly, and for a while was the Army’s sole aviator. He later headed the Materiel Division at Wright Field in 1929-30 and served as Air Corps Chief from 1931-35.
 
24 Oct 1986 (Armament Directorate)
Today in 1986, the 16th AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) test took place at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This marked the beginning of its initial operational test and evaluation program, and was the second consecutive successful trial following a 30 Sep 1986 failed test where the missile was launched, lost control, and slammed into the ground. The AMRAAM today in 1986 was fired from an F-15C, targeting a drone that was trying to evade it with radar-jamming equipment. The purpose of the test was to evaluate the “AMRAAM’s ability to identify and cope with the target drone’s electronic countermeasures, acquire the low-altitude maneuvering target, and intercept it.” A production contract was awarded for the missile in 1987, and it became operational in 1991. Today, the USAF uses it on the F-15, F-16, and F-22.
 
25 Oct 1994 (Hill AFB/Fighters and Advanced Aircraft Directorate)
On 25 October 1994, an F-16C Fighting Falcon with the 388th Fighter Wing crashed into the Bonneville Salt Flats a few miles northeast of Wendover, Utah. Captain Miguel “Mike” Torrealday of the 4th Fighter Squadron was on a training mission when his Viper experienced an engine failure. After attempting three low altitude airstarts to no effect, he fortunately was able to eject from the plane just moments before the crash. He was picked up on the ground by a Tooele County Sheriff’s deputy. The Air Force Aircraft Investigation Board found that the crash was caused by “the failure of [engine] stage one fan blade #19...[which] resulted in extensive engine damage and complete engine failure” from which the engine “could never be restarted.” Fortunately, there were no injuries or property damage on the ground as a result of the accident. Captain Torrealday’s actions were ruled as appropriate, with the report indicating that “with no thrust and insufficient time/airspeed to reach the emergency airfield [his] decision to eject was both timely and procedurally correct,” as, ultimately, the “engine failure and subsequent loss of the aircraft was due to a material defect of a manufactured item.”
 
27 Oct 1954 (Air Force History)
On 27 Oct 1954, 70 years ago today, the U.S. Air Force got its first black general officer when Gen Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., was promoted to Brigadier General (temporary grade). The promotion would be made permanent in 1960, and he would eventually retire from the Air Force as a Lieutenant General. In 1998, President Clinton advanced him to a full (four-star) General. General Davis Jr. broke many barriers and accomplished many “firsts” during his career, such as when he became the first black officer to attend Air War College in 1950 or when he became the first black wing commander of an integrated wing in 1953. He originally earned his pilot’s wings in 1942, and participated in WWII with the Tuskegee Airmen, commanding the 99th Fighter Squadron (and later the 332nd Fighter Group as a whole).

 
50 Years Ago (26 Oct 1974) in AFLCMC History: The Rockwell B-1A Rollout
Since the 1920s, the Air Force has leveraged technology to ensure that the mantra “the bomber will always get through” remained valid. Of course, defenses worked to make any such advantages temporary, resulting in the continuous evolution of offensive platforms for survivability. It was out of one of those inflection points that the B-1 bomber was born.
 
In the 1950s, the Air Force relied on multi-engine jet bombers that could primarily use their speed and altitude to “break the kill chain” of the USSR’s air defenses and avoid the fighters sent to intercept them. However, as Soviet ground-controlled interception systems and both air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles improved, the subsonic, high-flying B-47s and B-52s were suddenly vulnerable. The newer B-58 and XB-70, capable of exceeding Mach 2 and 3 (respectively), proved to be short-lived stopgaps when US intelligence concluded that they could also be shot down. Finding a solution was crucial to the survivability of the manned bomber not just as the lynchpin of the Air Force, but also as a relevant concept, especially in light of new Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).
 
Starting in 1961, the Air Force began studies to address this dilemma, which coalesced into the Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft (AMSA) program in 1965. AMSA focused on developing a bomber that could cruise at high speeds and altitudes to get to enemy territory, then dive to just above the ground while still flying supersonically to penetrate air defenses and reach its target. This approach exploited ground-based radars’ inability to detect low-flying aircraft due to the curvature of the Earth and interference from terrain.
 
Likewise, airborne radars were then incapable of tracking terrain-following targets amidst ground clutter. The Air Force’s F- 111 fighter-bomber recently demonstrated how a “swing-wing” (aka variable-geometry) could provide those capabilities, while systems devised for the XB-70 and the proposed Supersonic Transport (SST) could also be leveraged to hasten the new bomber’s development cycle.
 
North American Rockwell leaned on its experience from those programs to win the B-1 Full Scale Development contract in June 1970. That award included just three airframes for flight testing and was distinct from a production decision. The B-1A made its public debut at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on 26 October 1974, followed by its first flight on 23 December.
 
In December 1976, the Ford administration authorized production of the B-1—but less than two months later, new President Jimmy Carter reduced the order, and then cancelled the program entirely on 30 June 1977. Lingering questions about traditional bomber viability, the introduction of the cruise missile, and the highly-secretive demonstrations of stealth technology all played a role in that decision. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan revived the program as the B-1B, in part to serve in the interim before the Advanced Technology Bomber that became the B-2 would be operational.