Tabla de contenidos para May/June 2023 en Flight Journal

D-DAY’S OPERATION OVERLORD is one of the most pivotal events of WW II and can be characterized as the greatest raid in modern history. The buildup to that day was staggering: as more than 150,000 Allied soldiers prepared to storm the beaches on June 6, 1944, thousands of airmen flying bombers and fighters had been busy hammering away at ground targets and clearing the skies of bandits during the weeks before that fateful day. Out of the 11,000 aircraft flown, 4,000 were fighters and many of those were the formidable P-51 Mustang, which performed many of the dangerous low-level strafing and ground attacks. In our feature story “Mustangs Over Normandy,” James Busha takes you in the cockpit with several D-Day P-51 pilots who reported that danger still lurked everywhere, even…

Eighty years ago this May, Operation Chastise, more commonly known as the “Dams Raid,” took its place in military history. Flying at ultra-low-level, at night, a few RAF Lancaster crews successfully breached two major dams, the Möhne and the Eder, in the heart of Germany. The incredible story of the raid, executed by a newly formed RAF squadron flying specially modified Avro Lancaster bombers, is well-known to those with an interest in military aviation, and the extraordinary feat of arms carried out by the “Dambusters” has become legendary. To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the raid, this is the story of just one of those who did not return, with the details related in the words of one of his crew members who miraculously survived. The “Dams Raid” On May…

Spring 1944: Allied heavy bombers and their airborne “little friends” had been hammering away at Fortress Europe since early in the year. Around-the-clock strategic bombardment missions, in concert with low-level “Chattanooga Choo Choo” strafing missions by Allied fighters, helped soften up intended targets. As fliers, our objectives were railways, airfields, and German emplacements, and to knock the Luftwaffe out of the sky. A newcomer, the North American P-51B/C Mustang, had recently joined the battle-tested P-38 Lightnings and P-47 Thunderbolts of the U.S. Army Air Corps. With its “long legs,” the Mustang could stay with the bombers all the way to the target. Once the bombers released their loads, the Mustangs were set free to roam and search out and destroy targets of opportunity. As the fighting intensified on two fronts,…

IT WAS MAY 10, 1972, when four Air Force F-4D Phantoms, using their AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, initiated a head-on engagement with a four-ship formation of MiG-21s. The MiGs had no weapons capable of engaging from a fontal aspect. Oyster Flight was part of a 28-ship F-4D prestrike MiGCAP configured to intercept any Vietnamese People’s Air Force (VPAF) MiGs that might attack the 92-plane strike force that followed. The target was the Paul Doumer Bridge, part of the highway network from China into Hanoi. Disco, an EC-12 1 radar aircraft, had warned of MiG-21 “Fishbeds” departing the VNAF’s Kep Air Base near Hanoi. In addition, Red Crown, which provided radar coverage from the USS Chicago, manned by Radioman Larry Nowell, reported four separate MiG elements just getting airborne. After repeatedly feinting…

This wartime photograph, still with its “Secret” marking visible, shows an Upkeep bomb or mine mounted on 617 Squadron Lancaster Type 464 ED932 AJ-G. This was the aircraft flown by 617 Squadron’s CO Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC DSO and Bar DFC and Bar on Operation Chastise—the “Dams Raid”—on May 16-17, 1943. He led the operation and was awarded the Victoria Cross. This ingenious and remarkable weapon that made the Dams Raid possible weighed 9,250 pounds and contained 6,600 pounds of Torpex high explosive. It was spun backward at 500 rpm before release and had to be dropped 475 yards from the dam at exactly 232 mph and at 60 feet! It skipped across the water until hitting the dam wall. It then sunk with its spinning motion keeping it…

ALTHOUGH THE WRIGHT BROTHERS may have flown first, there are few who would argue that Glenn Curtiss was actually the driving force that developed the flying machine from a curiosity into an airplane and made it both a practical and controllable entity. Few of the Wrights’ design innovations survived into even the ’20s, but Curtiss gave us many basics, including the rudder/aileron/elevator control system that is common to all modern aircraft as well as tricycle landing gear. As part of their mission to ensure that Curtiss’s place in history remains visible, the Glenn Curtiss Museum (glennhcurtissmuseum.org) in Hammondsport, New York, Curtiss’s old hometown, has been fabricating faithful flying reproductions of early Curtiss designs for some years. One of their more ambitious efforts was the twin-engine flying boat, America. At Flight…

OVER 200 SPEAKING PROGRAMS A YEAR! That was part of being an Air Force recruiter as well as running my own business. Seldom do the masters of ceremonies at these functions skip over the phrases, “…the Air Force’s only Viet Nam pilot ace… only MiG-21 ace… last American ace…” And yes, I’m proud of those words. But, at the same time, it’s important to think about what they mean. I can’t help but interpret them differently, now that it’s been a half century since the incidents that put these phrases into such widespread circulation. Back then, we all thought we had learned a lot prior to the challenges of Southeast Asia. In the 50 years since, part of what I’ve determined is that the same basics which prepared us for…

Neither aircraft has any hydraulics, or even any mechanical advantage in the operation of its control surfaces, which makes them very heavy and stiff to operate. Curtiss Museum has improved on this by using an optional arrangement from the old days: running the rudder control cable (normally on the circumference of the steering wheel) onto an attached half-diameter wheel, giving a 2:1 mechanical advantage. “America” is also helped by rudder and elevator trim tabs, not present on the original. For safety’s sake, museum reproductions (including the 1913 Model E flying boat, flown in 1998 and 1999) use modern flame-retardant fabrics and adhesives. Except where safety is concerned, volunteers work as much as possible with original materials and techniques, such as copper rivets and slot-head brass screws. In no case are…

DURING WW II, the Allies utilized a handful of different liaison aircraft in a “jack of all trades” role. By far the biggest and ugliest “Grasshopper” was the behemoth Stinson L-1 Vigilant. You do not have to look very far to see that the L-1 was heavily influenced by the German Fiesler Storch. From its full-span wing slats to the drooping ailerons and flaps and 295 hp Lycoming engine, the L-1 reeked of STOL (short takeoff and landing) capabilities. With its over 50-foot wingspan and 3,400 pound gross weight limit, the L-1 could still manage a jaw-dropping 1,100 foot-a-minute climb out. With 342 built, L-1s were flown on all fronts, with a few of them even strapping on a pair of Edo floats for air/sea rescue missions. The U.S. Army…

Fifteen minutes after take-off from Santa Paula Airport northwest of Los Angeles, California, Matthew Taylor heard a loud whining sound coming from the Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial mounted just beyond the firewall of his 1943 Howard DGA. It was May 2008 and Taylor, his wife Candi, and their two-year-old daughter Josie were leaving the Howard Fly-In at Santa Paula, bound for Henderson Field, Las Vegas. Passing through 7,000 feet, the nine cylinder engine began losing rpm, dropping from 2,000 to 1,500 in less than five seconds. Just then the engine emitted an audible “pop” and the revs bounced back to 2,000 rpm. With the 450 hp motor running rough and the smell of burning oil, Taylor pulled his throttle from 30 inches of manifold pressure back to 22 inches.…