The New Luftwaffe Gets A New Plane

Lockheed test pilots and engineers – standing before one of their employer’s latest products, the F-104 Starfighter – pose alongside their West German counterparts from the newly reformed Luftwaffe. Most notable in this group is World War II German ace Walter Krupinski (197 victories). He flew the F-104, declared it fantastic, and thus began a decades-long relationship with the Luftwaffe and the Starfighter.

The photo is signed by legendary Lockheed test pilot Bob Matye, a man who flew just about anything Lockheed came up with.

The Starfighter in the background is actually a YF-104 early bird 55-2964. It crashed on 2 November, 1959.

Note: Several names are misspelled on the back of the photo, including Krupinkski’s. Also, the name of test pilot James “Jake” Holliman (killed piloting an F-104 in June 1958).

O’Hare International Airport, 1955-56

The flightline of Chicago’s busy O’Hare International hasn’t always been clogged with airliners; there was a time the base was home to interceptor squadrons of the USAF. This photo shows the Air Force side of the field in transition: the 42nd Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) and the 63rd FIS are trading places, but not planes. The 63rd has just arrived, and the 42nd is on its way to Pittsburgh Airport. The planes bear the markings of the 63rd, but they are pretty much all former 42nd birds. The Air Force does things like that. 

Bonus jets include F-89s and a very brand new F-102.

The Filming Of A Classic

Scenes from Warner Bros. 1945 classic, God Is My Copilot, the story of Col. Robert Scott, early-war American ace (13 victories), member of the “Flying Tigers”, and author of a book with the same title as the movie. It was one of countless highly patriotic films shot during the war, a genre that, even with war raging, was getting a bit “overdone” by 1945. However, audiences liked the film, and even though it was released in the last year of the war, its fine inspirational theme and great flying sequences ensured God Is My Copilot met with great box office success.

These shots were from one of the filming locations – Luke Auxiliary Field #1 in the Arizona desert (said airfield is still pretty much intact today).

Pages From The Past

Pages from a scrapbook, the owner unknown, but I suspect it is one of the women seen in these shots. It’s the late 1940s, the war is over, and planes are cheap and plentiful. Lots of classic birds seen: Mooney Mite, Navion, Piper, B-36 & B-50, DC-3, etc. Locations are Idlewild Airport, Flushing Airport, Sunny South Airport, and Teterboro. The last was home to the depicted Marjorie Gray’s Aero Service – an FBO run by “Marj”, one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (W.A.S.P.) of World War II.

William Tell, 1958

“William Tell”, the US Air Force’s great air-to-air competition, has been held since the 1950s at sunny Tyndall AFB, Florida. Our F-86 pilots depicted above have traveled to said base for the 1958 meet and are obviously looking forward to the various aerial events which will unfold in the coming days. Their home base is Ramstein, Germany; they are members of the 526th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and represent the United States Air Forces in Europe. Note the custom ballcaps and snazzy flight suits made for the competition.

Thunderjets, Taegu Air Base, 1952

Flightline at Taegu Air Base in 1952. The F-84G, 51-10368, belongs to the 8th Fighter Bomber Squadron, 49th Fighter Bomber Wing.
F-84s of the 474th Fighter Bomber Wing, also at Taegu Air Base.
The happy day arrives for three pilots of the 8th Fighter Bomber Squadron: They have flown their 100th mission, and will soon be heading home. A slight curiosity: the rearmost plane reads “456” on the fuselage, but the tail says “51-1135”. Wonder what that story is.
Special 100 Mission bomb is readied at the Taegu bomb dump. Besides the Hillbilly paint job, the bomb also reads “A Little Remembrance of West ‘By God’ Virginia”.

John B. Brooks, Aerial Pioneer

Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Army Air Service, Army Air Corps, Army Air Forces.

One of the unsung trailblazers of flight, Major General John Bernard Brooks initially served in the U.S. Cavalry (the kind with horses) along the Mexican border hunting banditos way back in 1915. He went off to pilot training, then returned to the border in 1916 with the Punitive Expedition chasing Pancho Villa & co.

He went on to serve in Hawaii, where he was among the first aviators in the islands, as well as the commander of Luke Field on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. He also spent time in the Philippines and Alaska. In fact, “Johnny” Brooks wore just about every title one could back in the early years of American military aviation. His is a story worth studying.

There’s Always A Story To Tell

43-48414, a C-47B that looks like any other post-war Goony Bird going about its duties in the US Air Force, is actually a plane with a past. A combat veteran, this C-47 flew multiple missions with the 316th Troop Carrier Group during World War II, most notably in the skies over the Netherlands, dropping paratroopers and towing gliders during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.