This Date in Aviation History: November 21 - November 24
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(UK Government)
November 22, 1916 – The first flight of the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5. The airplane became an integral instrument of war during the First World War, and the exploits of daring men in their flying machines captured the attention of a public fascinated by aviation. Aircraft such as the Sopwith Camel and Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker became iconic symbols of the war in the air and, as two of the top performing fighters of the war, they remain fixed in our memories and have even found a place in popular culture (Snoopy “flies” his Sopwith Camel doghouse against the Red Baron flying a Dreidecker). However, just as the svelte Supermarine Spitfire overshadowed the more workmanlike Hawker Hurricane in WWII, the Camel overshadowed its stablemate, the Royal Aircraft S.E.5 (Scout Experimental 5), though both aircraft worked together to gain air supremacy over the Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte (German Air Force).
A Royal Flying Corps S.E.5a during WWI. A wartime censor has obscured aircraft serial numbers in the photo. (UK Government)
Unlike the Camel, which was powered by a heavy rotary engine spinning at the front of the fighter, the S.E.5, developed by Henry Folland, John Kenworthy, and Major Frank Goodden, was designed around the new 150 hp Hispano-Suiza 8 water-cooled V8 turning a geared propeller. As opposed to the rotating engine of the Camel, the stationary V8 meant that the S.E.5 didn’t have the weight and torque of an entire engine spinning at the front of the plane, and this helped to make the S.E.5 a very stable aircraft to fly, particularly in the hands of inexperienced pilots. That stability also made it a superb platform for gunnery. But despite its stability, the S.E.5 was still a solid dogfighter and, while it couldn’t quite match the Camel in a tight scrap, the S.E.5 outperformed it at high altitude and was more effective against the Fokker D.VII when the German fighter arrived over the battlefield in 1918. The Royal Aircraft Factory built three prototypes at their Farnborough factory, but two were lost to crashes, one of which claimed the life of Royal Aircraft’s chief test pilot and designer Frank Goodden. The cause of the crashes was traced to problems with the wing construction, so the S.E.5 was redesigned to strengthen the wing, resulting in one of the most rugged aircraft of the war, and giving the S.E.5 particularly good strength in a high-speed dive.
The officers of No. 85 Squadron, including Major Edward Mannock, gather in front of their Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a scouts at St Omer aerodrome in France in 1918 (Imperial War Museum)
The S.E.5 entered service in March 1917 and was flown by some of the Allied Powers’ greatest and most decorated pilots, such as top Canadian ace Billy Bishop and leading South African ace Andrew Beauchamp-Proctor. Three out of England’s four top aces, Edward Mannock, James McCudden, and Albert Ball all spent time in the S.E.5. After the production of 77 aircraft, the original Hispano-Suiza 8 engine was replaced with a slightly more powerful Hispano-Suiza 8b that provided a welcome boost of 50 hp over the original powerplant. This engine was subsequently replaced by a 200 hp Wolseley Viper, a high-compression version of the Hispano-Suiza 8 which also did away with the problematic gear drive of the earlier engine. This became the standard engine for what was now known as the S.E.5a. Over 5,000 S.E.5s were produced during the war, and most were retired soon after the war’s end. A handful continued into civilian life, and two original S.E.5s remain airworthy, along with a number of original aircraft on static display. Reproductions have also been built for private use and filmmaking.
A US Navy Grumman F9F-2 Panther of fighter squadron VF-71 flies over Task Force 77 in 1952 during the Korean War (US Navy)
November 24, 1947 – The first flight of the Grumman F9F Panther. The turbojet engine first appeared over the battlefield of WWII powering the Messerschmitt Me 262, and the British soon followed with their first jet-powered fighter, the Gloster Meteor. America’s first operational jet fighter, the rather disappointing Bell P-59 Airacomet, took its maiden flight in 1942, but never made it into battle. The jet engine was clearly the future of aviation, and the US Navy fielded its first jet fighter with the Vought F6U Pirate, an abysmally underpowered and underperforming fighter that turned out to be an unqualified failure. Grumman, which had provided some of the best naval aircraft of the war, set their sights on a jet-powered carrier plane with a four-engine night fighter, the G-75, but ultimately lost out to the Douglas F3D Skynight. So, Grumman abandoned their early attempts and focused instead on an entirely new, single-engine day fighter that received the internal designation G-79.
Two Grumman F9F Panther prototypes in flight in 1948. In the foreground is the XF9F-3 with an Allison J33-A-8 engine, while the rear aircraft is a XF9F-2, powered by a Pratt & Whitney J42-P-6 engine, a license-built Rolls-Royce Nene. Note the lack of wingtip fuel tanks. (US Navy)
The new fighter, now designated XF9F by the Navy and given the nickname Panther following Grumman’s custom of naming its fighters after cats, had straight wings like other early jets of its era, and the engine was fed by air intakes in the wing roots. Since early attempts at jet engine manufacturing in the US were not producing sufficiently powerful engines, the Panther was equipped with a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet built under license in the US by Pratt & Whitney and given the US designation J42. In a nod to the short range of the early, thirsty jet engines, permanent wingtip fuel tanks were added to the prototype to increase fuel capacity. This addition also had the serendipitous benefit of increasing the Panther’s roll rate. Though still under development, the Panther was cleared for carrier operations on September 1949, and the decision was made to replace the original J42 with a more powerful Pratt & Whitney J48, another license-built Rolls-Royce engine based on the RB.44 Tay.
F9F-2 Panthers fighters of fighter squadron VF-93 “Blue Blazers” launch for a mission over Korea from the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) during the Korean War (US Navy)
Armed with four 20mm cannons and hardpoints for 2,000 pounds of bombs or rockets, the Panther entered service with the US Navy and Marine Corps during the Korean War and became the most widely used Navy fighter and ground attack aircraft of the war. Over the course of the conflict, Panthers flew more than 78,000 sorties and scored the Navy’s first air-to-air victory of the war when a Panther downed a North Korean Yakovlev Yak-9 piston-engined fighter. But the straight winged Panther proved no match for the swept-wing Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter, so Grumman developed a swept-wing variant of the Panther which was known as the Cougar, though it shared the F9F (later F-9) designation. From 1949-1955, the F9F served as the first jet aircraft to be flown by the US Navy Blue Angels demonstration squadron, and nearly 1,400 Panthers were produced for the Navy and US Marine Corps, as well as an export version that was sold to the Argentine Navy. The US Panthers were retired in 1958, but the Argentine fighters served until 1969.
F9F-5 Panthers flown by the US Navy Blue Angels demonstration squadron. The Panther was the first jet flown by the Blue Angels, serving from 1951-1954. (US Navy)
Arpingstone
November 21, 1952 – The first flight of the Percival Pembroke, a twin-engine, light transport aircraft that was developed from the earlier Percival Prince. Introduced in 1953, the Pembroke replaced the Avro Anson with the RAF for transport duties, where it was known as the Percival C.1, and it followed standard RAF practice of having the passenger seats face rearward for safety. In addition to its transport duties, the Percival served as a reconnaissance aircraft with both the RAF and the Finnish Air Force, and production ended in 1958 after 128 aircraft were built. The Percival served the RAF until 1988.
November 21, 1783 – Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes perform the first untethered free flight in a balloon. Eighteenth-century France was a hotbed for early ballooning, and it was the Montgolfier Brothers who made and flew the first tethered balloon on October 15, 1783 following tests with animal occupants. One month later, French aviation pioneers François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes took of in a Montgolfier balloon from the outskirts of Paris, rose to an altitude of 3,000 feet, and spent about 25 minutes in the air during a flight that covered a distance of 5.5 miles. De Rozier carried out more balloon flights before his death, along with balloonist Pierre Romain, while attempting a flight across the English Channel in 1785. D’Arlandes died in 1784, possibly from suicide, after his dismissal from the army on charges of cowardice.
(Author unknown)
November 22, 2003 – A DHL cargo plane is struck by a missile near Baghdad. The Airbus A300 cargo craft was performing a rapid climbout from Baghdad airport when Iraqi Fedayeen fighters struck the aircraft’s left wing with a shoulder-launched 9K34 Strela air defense missile. The missile strike caused the aircraft to lose complete hydaulic control, but the flight crew was able to return to the airport using only engine thrust for steering, and made a high-speed landing in which the A300 departed the runway before coming to a stop. For their exceptional piloting skills, the crew was awarded the Hugh Gordon-Burge Memorial Award and the Flight Safety Foundation Professionalism Award in Flight Safety.
(National Library of Australia, RuthAS)
November 22, 1982 – The death of Jean Batten. Batten was born in New Zealand on September 15, 1909, and became one of the most famous aviatrixes of her time. She chose to become a pilot after a flight with famed Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith, and took her first solo flight in 1930. In 1934, piloting a de Havilland DH.60 Gipsy Moth biplane, Batten beat the record for solo flight from England to Australia by completing the trip in just under 15 days, shaving four days off the old record. The following year, Batten set a record for flight from England to Brazil, and then another record in 1936 flying from England to New Zealand. For her exploits, Batten was awarded the Harmon Trophy three times, and was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1936. Her career ended with the start of WWII, when her Percival Gull (pictured) was pressed into military service and she was not permitted to fly it. Batten became a recluse, living in various places around the world, and finally succumbed to an infection from a dog bite at age 73 while living in Spain.
(Bill Larkins)
November 22, 1946– The first flight of the Martin 2-0-2, a twin-engined passenger airliner that Martin hoped would challenge the postwar dominance of the Douglas DC-3. Like the DC-3, the 2-0-2 was not pressurized, and production delays caused many airlines to cancel orders for the 2-0-2 and purchase newer pressurized airliners instead, such as the Convair 240. The 2-0-2 entered service with Pennsylvania Central Airlines in 1945, but the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 421, which killed 33 passengers and crew, revealed a serious deficiency in the design of the wing spar. The aircraft was redesigned and re-engined, resulting in the 2-0-2a, but sales were hampered by delays and lack of pressurization and only forty-seven 2-0-2s were built. The 2-0-2 was subsequently developed into the pressurized Martin 4-0-4, which proved to be somewhat more successful. A single 2-0-2 survives today, unrestored, at the Aviation Hall of Fame Museum in New Jersey.
(Deutsches Bundesarchiv)
November 22, 1941 – The death of Werner Mölders, a German Luftwaffe pilot and the leading fighter ace in the Spanish Civil War. When combined with his victories in WWII, Mölders was the first pilot in history to claim 100 victories in aerial combat, surpassing WWI ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron. Mölders was a leading figure in the development of aerial combat tactics, and is credited with creating the finger-four formation. For propaganda reasons, Mölders was removed from combat in 1941, in much the same way American aces were brought back to the United States to sell war bonds, but he died at the age of 28 as a passenger in a Heinkel He 111 which crashed while attempting to land.
(Jon Proctor)
November 23, 1959 – The first flight of the Boeing 720, a short- to medium-range airliner developed from the successful Boeing 707. Launched in 1960 with United Airlines, the 720 was smaller than its predecessor and carried fewer passengers, but was developed to operate from shorter runways at airports that were inaccessible to the larger 707. The 720 became a popular charter aircraft, famously for the British band Led Zeppelin, who named their 720 The Starship. A follow-on variant of the 720, the 720B, replaced the original Pratt & Whitney JT3C turbojet engines with Pratt & Whitney JT3D turbofan engines, and the 720 was eventually superseded by the Boeing 727 and 737.
(US Navy)
November 23, 1942 – The first flight of the Vought V-173. Nicknamed the “Flying Pancake” for obvious reasons, the V-173 was a developmental proof of concept aircraft to create a new fighter for the US Navy that would take advantage of the unorthodox aircraft’s low aspect ratio wing and provide lower take off and landing speeds while preserving maneuverability at high speeds. The V-173 was eventually developed into the all-metal XF5U and, while the design promised excellent performance, the XF5U came at a time when the Navy was transitioning to jet aircraft (it shares a maiden flight date with the Grumman F9F Panther) and the program was canceled by 1947.
(Author unknown)
November 23, 1910 – The death of Octave Chanute. Chanute was born in Paris on February 18, 1832 and emigrated to the US when he was six years old. He became a civil engineer and did the majority of his work building railroad bridges in the Midwest. After retiring from civil engineering, Chanute turned his interests to aviation and began compiling all the information he could find about flight attempts from all around the world. He began to work with early pioneers of glider flight, and eventually came in contact with the Wright brothers in 1900, where his work heavily influenced the brothers in their quest to build a flying machine. Chanute shared his findings freely, but chafed at the Wrights’ refusal to share any of their discoveries with the world. However, he continued to give them advice and helped publicize their achievements. Despite the failure of his own flying machines, Chanute’s work to promote aviation has led some to consider him the father of heavier-than-air flight. The former Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois was named in his honor.
(FBI Sketch, Clipperarctic)
November 24, 1971 – The hijacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a regularly scheduled flight between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. The suspected hijacker, Dan Cooper, who has since come to be known as D.B. Cooper, claimed to have a bomb and demanded that $200,000 and four parachutes be given to him when the flight reached Seattle. After the Boeing 727 (N467US) landed, the passengers were released and officials met Cooper’s demands. The refueled airliner took off and Cooper ordered the crew to fly to Mexico City. Once in the air, Cooper opened the rear stairway of the aircraft, parachuted out, and was never seen again. Authorities believe Cooper perished in the jump, but neither his body nor the money was ever found. The case remains the only unsolved act of air piracy in American aviation history.
(US Air Force)
November 24, 1959 – The first flight of the Hiller X-18, a vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) aircraft and the first to be designed with a tilting wing. The Hiller Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1942 and worked primarily with helicopters before taking on the V/STOL X-18. In an effort to shorten development time, the X-18 was built from parts scavenged from other aircraft, with the fuselage coming from the unsuccessful Chase YC-122C Avitruc transport and the turboprop engines from the Lockheed XFV and Convair XFY. For takeoff, the wing tilted upward, and ducted engine exhaust at the tail controlled pitch. Test pilots carried out a total of 20 test flights, but problems with control plagued the aircraft. However, useful information from the program, particularly the need to cross-link the engines should one fail in hover, was used in the development of the LTV XC-142 tiltwing.
(Richard Vandervord)
November 24, 1955 – The first flight of the Fairchild F-27, a turboprop airliner developed from the Fokker F27 Friendship. The program began in Holland with the Fokker P275, and was eventually built in the US by Fairchild as the F-27. With capacity for up to 40 passengers, the first F-27s entered service with West Coast Airlines in 1958, and the airliner was soon flying for a host of American carriers along with airlines of eight other countries. The upgraded F-27B received more powerful engines, and Fairchild developed a stretched version, known as the FH-228, which increased seating capacity to 56 passengers and added a cargo compartment between the cockpit and passenger cabin. A total of 128 F-27s were produced, along with 78 FH-227s. As of 2010, only one remained in active service with the Myanmar Air Force.
(US Air Force)
November 24, 1947 – The first flight of the Convair XC-99, a double-deck transport aircraft built for the US Air Force and the largest piston-powered land-based aircraft ever built. Developed from the Convair B-36 Peacemaker, the XC-99 was designed to carry 100,000 pounds of cargo or 400 fully equipped troops over 8,000 miles. A civilian airliner version, the Model 37, was planned but never developed. Introduced in 1949, only one XC-99 was built, and it was retired in 1957 after eight years of service. Today, the aircraft is part of the collection of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, where it awaits restoration.
(San Diego Air and Space Museum)
November 24, 1939 – British Overseas Airways Corporation is formed. State-owned British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was created by an Act of Parliament in 1939 with the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. The new company started operations on April 1, 1940 and provided vital transport and logistical support to the far flung British Colonies during WWII. After the war, BOAC continued to operate flying boats until 1950, and was the first airline to introduce jet aircraft in May 1952 with the de Havilland Comet. BOAC was eventually merged with British European Airways (BEA) in 1974, and ceased to be an independent organization when it was merged with British Airways on March 31, 1974. Had the final merger not taken place, BOAC would have been one of the airlines operating the Concorde supersonic transport.
If you enjoy This Date in Aviation History, please let me know in the comments.
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@ttyymmnn I really hope they get to restore the XC-99 at some point; I can only imagine seeing it displayed next to their B-36...
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@skyfire77 said in This Date in Aviation History: November 21 - November 24:
@ttyymmnn I really hope they get to restore the XC-99 at some point; I can only imagine seeing it displayed next to their B-36...
What a massive undertaking, though. But yeah, I'd love to see it.
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Man that is a lot of spark plugs.....
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@racinbob said in This Date in Aviation History: November 21 - November 24:
Man that is a lot of spark plugs.....
For those of you wondering about the spark plug reference:
- The propellers were reversible for braking on landing, but sometimes they reversed in flight or while the airplane was straining to take off--at least once with fatal consequences. The stainless steel firewalls enclosing the engines cracked. The cylinders overheated. Lead in the gasoline fouled the spark plugs at cruising speed. Each airplane had 336 spark plugs, and after a flight lasting a day and a half, a mechanic would have to haul a bucket of replacement plugs to the airplane to service all six engines. The engines leaked oil, and sometimes a flight engineer had to shut one down because it had exhausted its allotment of 150 gallons. (Air & Space Magazine)
So there are 672 spark plugs in that photo of the XC-99 and the B-36.
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@ttyymmnn And thus why the "six turning, four burning" of later B-36s, retrofitted with pods on either wing containing two J-47 jets, turned into "two turning, two burning, two smoking, two choking and two more unaccounted for" by the end of a mission.
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I think that was where we reached the max piston limit of aviation. The jet engine and turboprop came along just in time before we really hurt ourselves.
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Oddly, I have fond memories of the F-27. It was the first plane I was ever on. I grew up in central Illinois and it's what Ozark Airlines flew for their feeder service into St. Louis.
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@roadkilled I am 54 years old, and have done a bit of traveling by air in my life, nothing like a businessman or anything like that. But in all those years, I have flown on a turboprop just once, an American ATR. I don't even remember the route. And I've flown on a DC-10 once, and that flight had to return to the airport for a gear issue, and I have never flown on a 747. And I probably never will.
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@ttyymmnn I lived in Ithaca New York for almost 15 years so there were a lot of turboprops in my life. When I first moved there the airport was mostly serviced by DC-9s and F100s, but those dwindled in the early 2000s (especially after USAir abandoned its Pittsburgh hub). After that it was mostly Dash-8s and Beach 1900s, with just the occasional CRJ. I also had the privilege of flying an Air Berlin Dash-8, which was weird because it had six-bladed props while the USAir/Continental/United ones I flew in the US were all four-bladed.
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@skyfire77 I wonder if they'd consider restoring just the fuselage and putting it on display next to the B-36. I'd love to see it fully restored, but I can't imagine how they could find room to have both of them on display.
Every once in awhile on a warm day I'll drive past one of the restoration/storage hangers that the museum has on base when they have the doors open. They have lots of interesting planes waiting their turn for restoration.
My work actually stored a piece of equipment in one of their hangers last winter, but since I don't work in maintenance I never got to go in and look around. -
to think they fixed that DHL plane, tried to sell it but no takers for it and then decide to scrap it.
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“useful information from the program, particularly the need to cross-link the engines should one fail in hover,”
That sounds like a snippet of knowledge with an exciting few moments behind it...
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@distraxi Yeah, let's hope they didn't find that out the hard way.
