This Date in Aviation History: November 28 - December 1

[ttyymmnn]

An F/A-18F Super Hornet of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 2 “Bounty Hunters” prepares to make an arrested landing on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) during the 2018 Rim of the Pacific Exercise. (US Navy)

November 29, 1999 – The first flight of the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. When the US Navy introduced the F/A-18 Hornet as its new multi-role fighter in 1984, they knew they had a winner on their hands, and the Hornet quickly became the Navy’s primary fighter and attack aircraft. But as the Navy began phasing out the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, and when the high-tech stealth McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II flying wing attack plane never made it off the drawing board, the Navy realized that it needed a larger aircraft, similar in size to the Tomcat or the Air Force’s McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, to fill the roles of both fleet defense fighter and ground attack. Back in the early 1980s, McDonnell Douglas pitched the idea of an enlarged Hornet to the Navy, originally calling it the Hornet 2000. They suggested that a larger aircraft derived from the F/A-18 could carry more weapons, more fuel, and have more powerful engines than its predecessor, and the program to enlarge and enhance the Hornet was officially announced in 1988. But while the Super Hornet bears a strong resemblance to the original F/A-18, it is, in fact, an entirely new aircraft, not just a scaled-up variant.

Size comparison between the original F/A-18 and the Super Hornet (Author unknown)

The Super Hornet is roughly 20 percent larger than the Hornet and 7,000 pounds heavier. It carries 33-percent more fuel, which increases the range by 41-percent over the Hornet. The Super Hornet is also equipped with a “buddy store” refueling system that allows it to act as an airborne tanker, taking over the aerial refueling mission of two other retired Navy aircraft, the Grumman KA-6D Intruder and the Lockheed S-3B Viking. But despite its larger size, the Super Hornet actually contains 42-percent fewer structural parts than the Hornet. The General Electric F414 afterburning turbofans used on the Super Hornet are a more powerful derivative of the F404 engines found on the Hornet, and the same engine that would have powered the canceled Avenger. The F414 engines give the Super Hornet a 35-percent boost in thrust and provide a top speed of Mach 1.8. The engines are fed by distinctive, box-shaped intake ramps similar to those seen on the F-15.

An F/A-18F two-seat Super Hornet refuels an F/A-18E Super Hornet over the Bay of Bengal in 2007 (US Navy)

The Super Hornet, nicknamed Rhino by its crews to avoid confusion with the Hornet, reached initial operating capability in September 2001 and quickly became a vital part of the Navy’s strike capabilities. Super Hornets flew their first combat missions over Iraq during Operation Southern Watch (1992-2003), and have since become regular participants in the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. While the Super Hornet has become a stalwart of the US Navy, the US Marine Corps has staunchly opposed adopting the F/A-18E/F, fearing that doing so will compete with their ability to procure the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II, the STOVL variant of the newer Joint Strike Fighter.

A two-seat Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet of the Royal Australian Air Force (Bidgee)

The only other nation currently operating the Super Hornet is Australia, which purchased 24 F/A-18Es to replace its fleet of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-111_Aardvark, though in November of 2016 the Canadian government announced a plan to purchase 18 Super Hornets while they reconsider their decision to purchase the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II as a replacement for their aging fleet of CF-18 Hornets. However, a trade dispute between Boeing and Canadian manufacturer Bombardier caused Canada to cancel their order. Boeing has built over 500 Super Hornets, and the aircraft remains in production. As older Super Hornets begin to show their age, the Navy is seeking to buy more F/A-18Es to fill the gap until the the F-35C is delivered in large quantities.

B-29 Superfortresses from 500th Bombardment Group drop incendiary bombs over Japan in 1945 (US Air Force)

November 29, 1944 – The US Army Air Forces carry out the first incendiary raids against Tokyo. In the closing stages of WWII, the island hopping campaign brought the Allies closer and closer to the Japanese homeland, and American forces steadily increased the number and size of bombing raids against Japan’s manufacturing assets. However, unlike most Western countries, where manufacturing was generally concentrated in large factories and industrial centers, Japan’s war materiel was produced in smaller dispersed factories, and also in homes as a cottage industry. This rendered traditional “precision” strategic bombing, which was carried out in daylight and from high altitude, largely ineffective. So General Curtis LeMay, head of all strategic air operations against Japan, made the decision to switch to fire raids against Japanese cities, missions in which the bombers flew at altitudes of 5,000-8,000 feet, and at night, since accuracy was not required.

The conventional bombing of Tokyo, using high explosives, had commenced on November 24, 1944 when 111 Boeing B-29 Superfortresses struck an aircraft factory on the outskirts of the city. This was followed by another conventional bombing mission on the 27th. The first incendiary raid was carried out on the night of November 29-30, which destroyed 2,773 structures. The B-29s were armed with M-69 incendiary bombs and, though a single M-69 munition weighed only six pounds, it was dropped inside a canister that held 38 munitions each. Normally, each B-29 carried 37 bombs, totaling 1,400 individual fire-starting munitions per plane. After it was dropped, the canister opened automatically and dispersed the smaller munitions, which ignited on contact with the ground and spread a highly flammable jellied gasoline compound.

Aerial photograph of Tokyo after the war, showing the extent of the destruction of the city (US Air Force)

Though conventional bombing missions continued, the fire raids against Tokyo rose to a horrifying crescendo with Operation Meetinghouse on March 9-10, 1945. In a mission that has gained notoriety as the single most destructive bombing raid in history, 346 B-29s left Guam and headed for the Japanese capital. Arriving over the city at 2:00 am on March 10 (Guam time), the bombers dropped almost 1,700 tons of incendiaries on a city built almost entirely of wood. The resulting firestorm destroyed 16 square miles of buildings, or seven percent of the city’s urban area. The fires burned so fiercely that many of those killed were suffocated as the fires consumed all the oxygen. Following the raid, Tokyo police estimated that nearly 84,000 people had been killed, 41,000 injured and 1,000,000 left homeless. Postwar estimates are as high as 100,000 killed. The USAAF lost 14 aircraft, below the 5-percent loss rate that was considered acceptable.

The charred remains of Japanese civilians after the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945 (Ishikawa Kōyō)

The firebombing raids continued in the belief that the attacks would cause Japanese leaders to capitulate. They did not. According to one estimate, the incendiary campaign resulted in the destruction of 180 square miles in 67 cities, and killed more than 300,000 people, a number that exceeds the death toll in both atomic bombings combined. At the time, the US had few moral qualms about destroying such large areas of cities along with their civilian populations. Military planners believed that these raids would shorten the war and save American lives by preventing a costly invasion of the Japanese home island. It wasn’t until the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 that the war finally ended. But there were still two more firebombing raids after Nagasaki before Japan’s formal surrender.

December 1, 2001 – The final flight by Trans World Airlines. The 76-year history one of America’s best-known airlines began in 1925, when the US Government awarded a contract to fly mail from Salt Lake City, Utah to Los Angeles, California to a fledgling company called Western Air Express. About a month later, the company carried their first passengers in a Douglas M-1 biplane, though the flight was anything but luxurious. Modern travelers are quick to complain about getting a tiny bag of peanuts in coach, but those first two passengers spent the eight-hour flight sitting on sacks of US Mail. In 1929, another startup company, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), began offering cross-country trips that combined air and rail travel, carrying passengers from New York to California in 51 hours. TAT founder Clement Melville Keys hired famed aviator Charles Lindbergh to help develop the transcontinental network, and opened new airports across the country. Then, in 1930, TAT joined with Western Air Express at the urging of the US Postmaster, who wanted to expand air mail routes. The merger brought Lindbergh together with Jack Frye, another early pioneer of aviation who would lead T&WA, “The Airline Run by Flyers,” through its meteoric rise from 1934-1947.

The first—and only—Douglas DC-1 is handed over to Transcontinental & Western Air in 1933. The DC-1 was later developed into the DC-2 and remarkable DC-3. (San Diego Air and Space Museum)

But a promising future almost ended at birth when T&WA suffered the crash of a wooden-framed Fokker F.10 that claimed the life eight passengers, including famed Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, and T&WA struggled to overcome the negative press associated with the crash. In order to reassure a public that was already skittish about flying, T&WA needed new, modern aircraft. However, they could not purchase the Boeing Model 247 because Boeing had an exclusive contract to sell the airliner to United Airlines, a subsidiary of Boeing. So Frye turned to the Douglas Aircraft Company, which delivered the DC-1, DC-2, and eventually DC-3 airliners, which far surpassed the Model 247 in capacity and reliability, and many of which still fly to this day. By 1934, T&WA was offering transcontinental flights in their new Douglas airliners—with three stops along the way for fuel—for $160, which is nearly $3,000 in today’s money. In 1941, eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes purchased a controlling stake in the company, and oversaw the purchase of the larger and more modern Lockheed Constellation, a four-engine airliner which cut transcontinental flight times to about nine hours.

A TWA Lockheed L-749A Constellation at London Heathrow Airport in 1954 (RuthAS)

During WWII, T&WA prospered under the leadership of Hughes and Frye, flying millions of miles for the US Army and providing supplies to far flung corners of the globe. Following the war, the company became a truly global passenger airline, with Lockheed Constellations and Douglas DC-4s flying to Cairo, Bombay, Ceylon, and Manila. But Hughes accused Frye of overextending the airline, and stock prices fell. Frye resigned in 1947, and thus began a revolving door of corporate leadership that continued until the company’s demise. In 1950, the airline officially became known as Trans World Airlines in a nod to its global destinations, and Hughes finally brought the company into the jet age with the purchase of 63 Convair 880 airliners. But the delay in adopting the modern jet airliners meant that TWA had lost its competitive edge, and Hughes was removed from the helm of the company.

TWA Convair 880 at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in 1971 (RuthAS)

TWA achieved a few significant firsts, becoming the first airline to hire an African-American flight attendant, and the first to show in-flight movies. In 1969, TWA carried more transatlantic passengers than any other carrier, and it had grown to become the third largest airline in the world by 1972. However, by the 1980s, TWA had become more of a business interest for investors than a pilot-centered aviation service, though the airline did make perhaps its greatest achievement by carrying more than 50 percent of all transatlantic passengers in 1988.

The final TWA flight was flown by an MD-83 in special Wings of Pride livery (American Airlines)

By 1995, though, TWA had entered bankruptcy and, despite an attempt to reinvent itself as a smaller domestic airline, TWA was purchased by American Airlines in 2001. TWA’s final, ceremonial final Flight 220 from Kansas City to St. Louis was flown by TWA CEO William Compton at the controls of a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (N948TW). The story of one of the world’s greatest global airlines had come to an end with a flight of just 240 miles.

(Shimin Gu)

November 28, 2008 – The first flight of the Comac ARJ21, a narrow-body, twin-engine regional airliner built by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) as part of China’s effort to reduce its reliance on foreign aircraft manufacturers. The ARJ21 bears a significant resemblance to the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, but Comac says that they did not copy the American airliner, though they did reuse tooling provided by McDonnell Douglas for the construction of license-built MD-80s in China. The ARJ21 also features a new supercritical wing that was designed with the help of Russian engineers. The Comac ARJ21 entered service in June 2016, and the company currently has over 300 orders for the regional jet. As of October 2020, there are 35 aircraft in service with seven Chinese airlines, the majority flown by Chengdu Airlines.

(Eduard Marmet, Hannes Grobe)

November 28, 1979 – The crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901, a flight that operated from Auckland, New Zealand on sightseeing trips over Antarctica. On the fourteenth flight on the route, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 (ZK-NZP) crashed into Mt. Erebus, the second highest volcano in Antarctica, killing all 257 passengers and crew. Initially, Air New Zealand blamed the crash on pilot error, but a Royal Commission of Inquiry found that the course the pilots usually flew on the return leg had been altered in the flight computer before the plane took off, and the pilots hadn’t been informed. Instead of flying over McMurdo Sound as planned, the plane flew into the volcano. The crash remains New Zealand’s deadliest peacetime disaster.

(NASA)

November 28, 1964 – The launch of Mariner 4, the fourth in a series of spacecraft designed for fly-by planetary exploration. On July 14-15, 1965, Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to perform a fly-by of Mars and sent the first pictures of the planet’s surface back to Earth. With nothing visible but rocks and craters, the photographs changed many scientific opinions on the possibility of life on Mars. After two years without contact from the probe, NASA re-established communications in 1967, and recorded numerous micrometeoroid strikes on the spacecraft, leading NASA to suspect that Mariner 4 had flown through the remnants of a destroyed comet. In December 1967, NASA terminated communications with Mariner 4, and the derelict probe remains in a heliocentric orbit.

(Jeremy Jacobs, Martin Lee)

November 29, 1975 – Two-time Formula 1 World Champion driver Graham Hill is killed in the crash of his private plane. Hill was at the controls of his twin-engine Piper PA-23 Aztec while on a return flight to England after a test session at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France. On board with Hill were driver Tony Brise in his first season of Formula 1, mechanics Terry Richards and Tony Alcock, designer Andy Stallman, and manager Ray Brimble, all members of Hill’s Embassy Hill racing team. While approaching Elstree Airfield at night and in heavy fog, Hill’s Piper crashed onto a golf course north of London, killing all on board. While investigators could find no direct cause for the crash, they did learn that Hill’s aircraft registration had lapsed, as had his instrument flight rating. Investigators gave pilot error as the most likely cause.

(Biggerben)

November 30, 1986 – The first flight of the Fokker F100, a medium-sized twin-engine airliner and the largest jet airliner built by Fokker before the company entered bankruptcy in 1997. Developed to replace the smaller Fokker F28 Fellowship, the 100-seat F100 arrived at a time when there were few competitors for airliners of that size. Initial sales were strong, but competitors soon caught up and sales slowed. In spite of the slump, it was ultimately financial mismanagement that doomed the storied aircraft builder, leading its parent company, Daimler Benz Aerospace, to shut down the company in 1996. Fokker built 283 F100s before the company folded, and they remain in service with more than 30 operators and have logged more than 10 million flight hours.

(Author unknown)

November 30, 1934 – The death of Hélène Boucher. Boucher was born on May 23, 1908, and purchased her first airplane, a de Havilland DH.60 Gipsy Moth, in 1931 and learned navigation and aerobatics. She made a name for herself competing in air races and set several world records in 1933 and 1934, including one for altitude for a woman pilot and several speed records for flight over a distance of 1,000 km while flying a Caudron C.460 race plane. Boucher died while flying a Caudron C.430 Rafale when the aircraft crashed into a forest, and Boucher was posthumously made a knight of the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest honor. She was also the first woman given the honor of lying in state at the Hôtel national des Invalides.

(State Library of South Australia)

November 30, 1917 – The first flight of the Vickers Vimy, a twin-engine heavy bomber developed for the Royal Air Force late in WWI. By the end of the war, only three had been delivered to the RAF and they did not take part in the conflict. However, the size and long range of the Vimy made it an excellent platform for long-distance record setters, and a Vimy flown by John Alcock and Arthur Brown holds the distinction of being the first aircraft to complete a non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919. Others undertook notable long-distance flights from England to Australia and England to South Africa. With modifications to enlarge the fuselage, the Vimy was developed into the Vimy Commercial with accommodations for 10 passengers. The type was finally retired in 1933.

(US Air Force)

December 1, 1977 – The first flight of Have Blue, the code name for Lockheed’s proof of concept aircraft that demonstrated the capabilities of stealth aircraft design and developed manufacturing techniques and design elements that would be used on the production Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. Unlike all previous aircraft that had been designed by aeronautical engineers, primary design of Have Blue was performed by electrical engineers who helped created the faceted shape that deflected radar signals and reduced the aircraft’s radar cross-section. Two test aircraft were built, and both were lost to non-fatal crashes. Despite the mishaps, Have Blue was deemed a success, and led to the follow on program code named Senior Trend that resulted in the F-117.

(US Air Force)

December 1, 1941 – The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is activated. Originally envisioned in the 1930s as a civilian complement to America’s military flying branches, the CAP was officially activated by Administrative Order 9 when it was signed by New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Director of the Office of Civilian Defense. During WWII, CAP pilots flew surveillance missions to spot German U-boats off the American coast, and eventually located 173 enemy submarines and sank two. After the war, the CAP became the civilian auxiliary of the US Air Force, though it lost its offensive capabilities. Today, CAP pilots provide search and rescue services, disaster and humanitarian relief, and assist the US government with border patrols and drug interdiction. They are also instrumental in the education of new pilots, and help experienced pilots obtain Federal Aviation Administration ratings.

(San Diego ir and Space Museum)

December 1, 1932 – The first flight of the Heinkel He 70 Blitz (Lightning), a high-speed mail and passenger aircraft designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter of the Heinkel Flugzeugwerke as a replacement for the slower Lockheed Vega and Lockheed Orion. Powered by a single BMW VI water-cooled V-12 engine, the Blitz captured a total of eight world speed records for its day, and Deutsche Luft Hansa operated the He 70 as a mail and passenger plane from 1934-1937 with accommodations for four passengers. During the Spanish Civil War, the He 70 was pressed into service as a fast reconnaissance bomber, but its lack of self-sealing fuel tanks and magnesium construction made it dangerously susceptible to fire. While the He 70 was not suited for duty in WWII, its elliptical wing and other design features found their way into the Heinkel He 111 twin-engine medium bomber.

If you enjoy This Date in Aviation History, please let me know in the comments.

[Huzer]

Now I've got the "You're gonna like us....TWA" jingle in my head.

[ttyymmnn]

@huzer said in This Date in Aviation History: November 28 - December 1:

Now I've got the "You're gonna like us....TWA" jingle in my head.

Better than this Continental jingle from the 70s.

[Huzer]

@ttyymmnn Oh my, I thankfully don't recall that one!

The Hornet story led me down a F-15 rabbit hole...

[ttyymmnn]

@huzer It may have been here, or over on DT, I don't remember, but there was a discussion about the longevity of certain aircraft. The F-15 has been in production, in one form or another, since 1972. That's 48 years, and with the development of the F-15EX, it will easily be 50 years of production. That's like buying a brand new P-51 Mustang in 1989.

[Huzer]

@ttyymmnn I was stationed at Langley in the '90s, so they hold a special place for me. All aircraft of the era, for that matter. We'd go out to the Mile Long building and watch them come in.

[ttyymmnn]

@huzer I grew up in Norfolk, and all the Tomcats and Hawkeyes and everything else I saw from NAS Oceana and NAS Norfolk helped kindle my fascination with airplanes. Didn't get out to the Peninsula much, though. I still remember being out on the beach at Sandbridge and hearing the sonic booms rolling in from offshore. I also remember when the first F/A-18s started showing up. Yeah, I'm that old.

[Skyfire77]

@ttyymmnn There was a pic came across my tumblr feed a couple days back of F-16s covered in Spraylat out at the Boneyard:

These aircraft were built after I was born, and they're being retired and recycled. Between that and the Legacy Hornets showing up, it's painful how old that makes me feel.

[ttyymmnn]

@skyfire77 When I was first becoming fascinated with all things aviation, my buddy and I argued which was better, the Eagle or the Tomcat. I was in Camp Eagle. Well, which one is still flying today? The first flight of the Eagle was 1972. I was six. Still one of my faves.

[ranwhenparked]

@ttyymmnn And they both probably beat Hughes AirWest

[ttyymmnn]

@ranwhenparked Kill me now.

That's Dance of the Hours from La Giaconda, btw.

[ranwhenparked]

@ttyymmnn Not anymore, not with those lyrics

[ttyymmnn]

@ranwhenparked said in This Date in Aviation History: November 28 - December 1:

@ttyymmnn Not anymore, not with those lyrics

Well, it never had lyrics in the first place, so I guess we'll have to consider it a derivative work.

[onlytwowheels]

@ttyymmnn I loved the Rhapsody in Blue United Airline commercials so much I had to go out and buy a Gershwin CD.

[ttyymmnn]

@onlytwowheels It's a great piece, but I've performed it enough times that I'm kind of tired of it now. Interesting story about the piece, and I don't know if it's true, but it makes sense. Gershwin was hired to premiere a jazz piano concerto with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, but he completely forgot about it. He was looking in the paper one day and saw an ad for the premier, and basically said "Oh shit, I've got to write something!" So he wrote out the orchestral interludes, gave them to the band, and said that he would just improvise the parts between. Then, presumably, he went back later and wrote it out. If anything, the story explains the very episodic and somewhat improvisatory nature of the piano part.

[onlytwowheels]

@ttyymmnn That's a great story, and I'm going to accept it as highly probable. Sometimes creativity is hampered by over thinking. Some of my best work has been done on the fly.

[ttyymmnn]

@onlytwowheels I would have heard it most likely from a conductor or college professor, so there is probably at least a shred of truth to it.

[pip bip]

@ttyymmnn those Comac planes in service outside China?

[ttyymmnn]

@pip-bip said in This Date in Aviation History: November 28 - December 1:

@ttyymmnn those Comac planes in service outside China?

I don't think so, but I do need to update that information. Without scheduled posts, I'm having a tough time keeping up.

[ttyymmnn]

@pip-bip said in This Date in Aviation History: November 28 - December 1:

@ttyymmnn those Comac planes in service outside China?

Updated:

November 28, 2008 – The first flight of the Comac ARJ21, a narrow-body, twin-engine regional airliner built by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) as part of China’s effort to reduce its reliance on foreign aircraft manufacturers. The ARJ21 bears a significant resemblance to the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, but Comac says that they did not copy the American airliner, though they did reuse tooling provided by McDonnell Douglas for the construction of license-built MD-80s in China. The ARJ21 also features a new supercritical wing that was designed with the help of Russian engineers. The Comac ARJ21 entered service in June 2016, and the company currently has over 300 orders for the regional jet. As of October 2020, there are 35 aircraft in service with seven Chinese airlines, the majority flown by Chengdu Airlines.