Author: thejivebombers

An Army Air Service Photo Album

DH-4s of the 22nd Observation Squadron.
Different DH-4, same squadron.
Close-up of previous photo shows the pilot stripped down to his underwear.
Martin NBS-1 (MB-2) of Langley Field’s 96th Bomb Squadron.
This (I believe) is a Martin torpedo bomber, the MBT.
No aviation photo album from the 1920s is complete without the wreck of a JN-4
“The hapless pilot stands helplessly by as mechanics…” – this was the standard photo caption for such events as seen here.
This was a mystery plane…
…assumed it was a bomber, but couldn’t find a match…
…that’s because it’s a TC class airship. Probably taken at Langley Field.
Our photographer gets in the act (he’s on the left).

Taken a century ago, these photos came from a “soldier of the air” stationed at Langley Field and Maxwell Field in the early/mid-1920s.  Aircraft seen in these photos include the DH-4, NBS-1, JN-4, and a couple others. Enjoy!

KB’s

A thirsty FJ Fury of VMF 214 nuzzles up to a friendly KB-50.
“Miss Bea” (49-355), a KB-50J of the 622nd AREFS, England AFB.
48-0063, a J-model of the 431st AREFS pulls a pair of FJs and an F8U.
Another shot of “Miss Bea”.
“Pogo” a K-model of the 427th AREFS, Langley AFB.

The term “One of the unsung aircraft…” is often misapplied, but it sticks like glue to the B-50 and its variants. Developed and produced by Boeing at a time when they would rather have been developing and producing jet bombers, the B-50 – basically a well-improved B-29 – was easily overshadowed by more sleek and futuristic designs such as the B-47. And, of course, it would always be comingled/confused with its more famous older brother, the aforesaid B-29. This was aided by the fact the B-50 never even got its own nickname; it too was the “Superfortress”. Apparently, Boeing and the USAF were not interested enough to even come up with a moniker for their new bomber.

Nearly 400 B-50s were built, the majority of which were converted into tankers. Their operations mostly confined to supporting fighter aircraft, the KB-50 became the mainstay of many an Air Refueling Squadron (AREFS) in the 1950s . They soldiered on until 1965, afterwards, they were soon forgotten.  Alas, only five B-50s have survived. 

Note: Back in the early 1980s, we had an old-timer (at age 40, he seemed ancient) in our USAF maintenance squadron who had worked on KB-50s late in their careers. Patiently puffing (always) on his cigarette, he explained to the youthful ignoramuses in his charge just what a KB-50 was. “Really not much different looking than a B-29” said he. In fact, he recalled that many of the parts were interchangeable.

As previously stated, truly an unsung (and ignored) aircraft (even by those who worked on them).

TWA Back in the Day

“StarStream” is a great name for an airliner. N750TW served with TWA for many years.
N778TW on the Boeing flightline at Renton. The first 727 lurks in the background.
N738TW in Feb. 1961. A company Connie in the foreground looks on with a decided lack of enthusiasm.

One of the many versions of the 707, namely the 707-131, is seen here. Once a familiar sight at airports around the globe, the 707-131 is, alas, no more. However, even in retirement it still had an important job to do: After faithfully serving TWA (and other airlines), the -131 became a useful source of parts for the USAF in the 1980s. Namely, the Air Force wanted the -131’s Pratt & Whitney TF-33 engines for the purpose of upgrading the KC-135A. Once re-engined, the “A” model became the KC-135E. Thus the retired 707-131s were given a lease on life to serve as suppliers of engines and parts.

For many years, the retired 707s were a familiar sight at the Davis-Monthan AFB boneyard as they were slowly picked to pieces for useful KC-135E parts (The E-model was retired in 2009). No doubt, more than a few boneyard visitors in the early 21st Century wondered why the USAF was storing a fleet of somewhat dilapidated civilian 707s.

Wheelus Air Base, Libya.

C-130A, 55-0007, ended up in Bolivia where it rests today.
F-100s on the Wheelus flightline.
F-102A of the 497th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.
F-101C of the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing.
An F-105 visitor from the 36th TFW at Bitburg Air Base, Germany.
Another 105, this time from the 49th TFW, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany.
C-47 that was assigned to Wheelus for various odd-jobs.
C-54 undergoes engine work.

Here are a few photos taken around 1961-ish. Our photographer was plagued by either a poor camera, or bad picture-taking skills, but he did bless us with a variety of aircraft.

So, about Wheelus Air Base.

European weather is typically not the type one would choose when wanting to fly. The situation was, of course, the same in the 1950s and 60s. Enter Wheelus Air Base. Located right next to Tripoli, Libya, on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean. Salubrious climate aside, Wheelus was an extremely important facility for two other reasons: 1. South of its location stretched an endless desert tailormade for a bombing range. 2. The open skies of the region were well-suited for engaging in air-to-air practice (dogfights). 

Given that neither of those aforementioned two factors was readily found in the topography (or skies) of central Europe, the fighter squadrons of the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) regularly rotated through Wheelus in order to maintain their qualifications in the air-to-ground and air-to-air missions. According to those who took part in such deployments, a few weeks in Libya was a pretty sweet deal. Plenty to do on the base, nice beaches, and booze was cheap. Also, it wasn’t foggy or snowing. 

 

 

Curtiss’s CT-1 Torpedo Bomber: One Of Many One Of A Kinds Of The 1920s

A chilly day in January, 1922, finds the CT-1 ready for flight. The pilot looks like a bankrobber driving a getaway car.
The CT-1 carried an impressive load including a gun turret behind the pilot.

Like other aircraft of that period, the Curtiss CT-1 of the early 1920s had a short life (1921-23) and an even shorter production run (one example built). That single aircraft is seen here in 1922 while undergoing tests for the US Navy. 

Aloha To “Hawaii Mars”

“Hawaii Mars” takes a break.
It only took three round-trip flights, Alameda – Honolulu, to rack up 80+ hours of flying time.

Yesterday, August 12th, one of the world’s great flying boats, the Martin JRM-1 Mars, was taken on its final ride to its new home in Victoria, British Columbia. This particular Mars, 76823, will always be known by its nickname that was bestowed a lifetime ago, “Hawaii Mars”. As the logbook depicted here shows, that island location was a frequent destination for Martin’s big seaplane. 

The duration of yesterday’s last flight was about 3 hours. As seen by the logbook entries, a trip to the aircraft’s namesake islands required about ten additional hours.

Noorduyn’s Multitalented Norseman

Aircraft designer Robert Noorduijn/Noorduyn was born in the Netherlands, came to Canada, and didn’t design too many airplanes, but the ones he did cook up were pretty good birds, including his magnum opus, the Norseman. An aircraft that was in production for decades and can still be seen buzzing around to this day, the Norseman also made its way into the air forces inventories of many nations, including the United States, as seen here in World War II when it was known as the C-64.

The Beloved/Behated Helldiver

Helldivers of USS Yorktown’s VB-2 go to work.
The tongue-twister XSB2C-2 was a one-off float version.
Canadian-built Helldiver.
Well, that was stupid. The truck is marked “Electric Service Co. Ann Arbor Michigan. Willow Run Airport perhaps.

Despite being saddled with innumerable issues at the onset of its career, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver did manage to eventually become a highly effective attack aircraft. Unfortunately for its reputation, though, it was trying to fill the shoes of a legend, a dive-bomber who was a very tough act to follow, the SBD Dauntless. Those who were involved with the Helldiver either loved the big “Beast” (as they called it), while at the same time, there were those who held it in contempt ( the SB2C as “Son of Bitch 2nd Class” was their sobriquet of choice).

Either way one looks at it, the Helldiver sank a lot of ships.

Yoon-kers

Junkers W34 of Luft hansa.
G.24 of Ελληνική Εταιρία Εναερίων Συγκοινωνιών Α.Ε. (E.E.E.Σ.) – Or, Hellenic Air Transport Co.
F13 of Union Airways.
W33
Happy folks pose with their Junker in Seattle.
Luft Hansa G.31 at Croydon Airport. Note the exhaust stack running down the fuselage.

Back in the 1920s, Junkers was way ahead of the competition when it came to modern design and function (looking at the company’s F13, it’s hard to believe it is over a century old). In a time when aircraft manufacturers were still quite content to swaddle their products in heaps of fabric, Junkers was already wrapping their birds in metal. It is little wonder then that Junkers, in the 1920s and 30s, was a force to be reckoned with. 

Enroute To Arizona, Via Arizona

Middle of Nowhere, 1931. The BuNos for these planes are 8826 & 8827.
With a couple thousand miles of open cockpit flying behind them, the Arizona’s aviators have good reason to grin (or frown).
Davis-Monthan Field registry.

When these Vought O3U-1s of the battleship USS Arizona arrived at the “Fly Field” airport in 1931, there was good reason to take their photo. Namely, the place then called Fly Field (now known as Marine Corps Air Station Yuma) is located in the state of Arizona. The reason for the visit was that these aircraft were factory-fresh from Vought’s plant in Connecticut and were flying cross-country to join the USS Arizona at its homeport in California. Looking at the pilots, one can see by their weather-beaten faces that they have indeed been doing their share of open cockpit aviating. Once the planes complete their journey, their wheels will be replaced by floats, and markings will be applied to the fuselages denoting these planes were now officially part of Arizona’s observation squadron.

Naturally, no local photographer could resist taking a picture of a plane that bore his state’s name and this was especially true in Arizona, where the state’s 1931 population was about 1/19th of what it is today. In other words, seeing the name “Arizona” on anything was a big deal back in the day.

The logbook entry is from another Arizona airport, Davis-Monthan Field. The depicted page shows that these same airplanes had arrived at Davis-Monthan a few days earlier. The page is from a book that can be viewed online at dmairfield.org.

Fact: “Fly Field” was not just an appropriate name for an airport, it was an eponymous one as well – Colonel Benjamin Franklin Fly.

Shaw Field, Postwar AAF

C-45 plays postwar recruiter.
P-61 of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron.
Like most bases back when, Shaw had a variety of planes – B-25s included.
And A-26s.
Shaw Field flightline with Mustangs in the distance..
A naval visitor – the Lockheed XR60-1 “Constitution”.
Another flying recruiting tool, the Constitution sports the logo “Your Navy – Air And Sea”.

As seen in these photos, mid-to-late 1940s Shaw Field (soon to be Shaw AFB) was a base sporting an impressive array of aircraft such as those seen here: P-61, AT-6, A-26, B-25, P-51, etc. A bonus is the visiting (and shortlived) Lockheed XR60-1 Constitution, one of only two built. Cause of demise: underpowered, overly expensive to operate. That said, the XR-60 Constitution is always good to remember when making a bet at your local bar. Just slap your dollar down, and then ask anyone to name the largest landplane ever flown by the US Navy. 

Post-War Mustangs at Shaw Field

44-74547 of the 20th FG. This plane crashed in July 1947.
44-74624 sports an early “buzz number” on its nose.
The group commander’s P-51, 44-84750.
Same aircraft. Later transferred to the South African Air Force, it was shot down in Korea.
The commander’s bird.

Here are a few photos from an airman who was stationed at Shaw Field (now Shaw AFB) in South Carolina, and, judging by the markings on these Mustangs, the pics were taken not terribly long after the war. Most of the birds are from the 20th Fighter Group, which arrived at Shaw in October 1946, so it is safe to date these photos to early-mid 1947.

Naval Air Station San Diego

NAS San Diego was home to USS Ranger (R) and USS Langley (L) in the mid/late ’30s. Photo taken from a Martin PM-1.
Same two vessels, different day. A PBY cruises above, a P2Y peeks from behind Ranger.

As seen in these two photos, the area around Naval Air Station (NAS) San Diego in the 1930s was a busy place where ships, boats, and airplanes all vied for position on the harbor waters of the base’s namesake city. The navy, of course, later changed the name of their San Diego air base to its present title, NAS North Island. Even though the base’s land was not an island, that designation came about. At one time, it had been an island, but that enclave no longer existed, having been connected to the rest of California in the 1940s by ample loads of sand and gravel.

Nevertheless, what has not changed is that NAS San Diego/North “Island” is still a bustling locale; its nearby waters remain a swirl of ships, boats, and, though fewer in numbers from the seaplane-rich era of the 1930s, aircraft.

1969: Boeing Gets a B-47

Still sporting its USAF markings, 51-7066 is seen soon after its arrival in 1969.
Joined by other Boeing products new and old: a Model 247, and a 747 (5th one built for TWA).

As the B-47 fleet was retired in the mid-1960s, it occurred to Boeing that despite having built over 2,000 Stratojets for everyone else, they didn’t have one to call their own. This issue was happily resolved when the USAF handed its last operational B-47 (by then converted to a WB-47) to Boeing in 1969. That bird, 51-7066, is, of course, still at Boeing Field today, where it is proudly parked in front of the Museum of Flight.

AI Knows Everything…

“All hail our benevolent master…we are not worthy”
“Just me, kids. Oh, and watch that prop blade”

When asked to generate two images of the “ugliest 1930s airplane“, Artificial Intelligence really had all the answers. So…Where to start… First of all, instead of creating the “ugliest” airplane of the 1930s, AI came up with what is actually a rather pleasing design. Then there are the children. In photo #1, they appear to be prostrating themselves and hailing the arrival of the not-at-all-ugly plane as if it is the mothership bringing their overlord from Planet Varzon-7 or some such place. In pic #2, the kids have stopped with the hosannas and now seem somewhat disappointed and subdued. No doubt they have seen the pilot who, rather than being an exotic space creature from a distant galaxy, looks like anybody’s grandpa. Of course, the children might also be somewhat alarmed that the aircraft has just thrown a prop blade, and it is headed their way.

Apparently, AI has never heard of birdstrikes.
AI also thinks airplanes live like geese on a pond. And…AI’s version of a 3-bladed prop needs work.

Conversely, when AI was asked to come up with a couple of images for the “prettiest 1930s airplane“, the results are seen here. The planes are not bad-looking, but it is tough to make an accurate judgment, as AI is obviously incapable of discerning beauty from not. (See results for: “ugliest 1930s airplane”) Now, AI has generated quite a lovely landscape, which is so pretty that the airplanes are ruining the view. Moreover, like the “ugliest” planes of the 1930s, the “prettiest” ones also have their share of AI-created major mechanical malfunctions.

And don’t forget…every day, there is an increasing number of people who require the services of AI to help them spell…AI.