The 707 Mini
Seen in the brief period it served as a test plane, N-93134 was the prototype 138 “B” model.
Photos are dated June 8, 1961.
It is easy to look at photos of a 707 and say to oneself, “Look, it is a 707”. However, any aficionado of Boeing’s first jet airliner knows there are more than a dozen 707 variants, and one of those derivatives was the 707-138B. Shorter by ten feet compared to the standard 707-120, the 138B was used exclusively by Qantas Empire Airways, which favored the abbreviated version due to its increased range.
The aircraft seen here, N-93134, is the first 138B built and was initially used for testing by Boeing. That project completed, in July of 1961, the bird was off to Australia as VH-EBH, “City of Darwin”.
One of the interesting details in these photos is that even though Boeing was using the plane for testing, it already bears most of the red and white livery of its ultimate customer: Qantas.
Randolph Field, 1930s
A BT-8 with its distinctive “hunchback” design.
PT-13 is ready for the next flying cadet.
This PT-13 is no doubt already well-aquainted with the budding birdmen of Randolph.
A BT-9 taxis along while airmen gaze at the distant A-12s and A-17s of the visiting 3rd Attack Group.
A-17s taxiing out. In the foreground is part of Randolph’s airfield lighting. Some of these lights are still at the base today.
A visiting C-33.
A Texas National Guard O-43.
A-17s of the 13th Attack Squadron.
More A-17s. These birds belong to the 90th Attack Squadron.
A-12 Shrike of the 13th Attack Squadron.
Another visitor: B-18 of the 32nd Bombardment Squadron.
No 1930s collection of Air Corps aircraft would be complete without a P-26 (or two). These are probably from the 20th Pursuit Group.
And of course, a visiting B-10 of the 30th Bombardment Squadron.
A small collection of photos from a flying cadet at Randolph Field in the mid-1930s.
It’s a Grumman Mallard
Already an exceptionally nice-looking plane, this Grumman G-73 was made even more handsome after Wien and their paint shop got through with it. Nicknamed the “Katmai Queen,” this Mallard (N1208) was caught on camera at Boeing Field sometime in the 1970s.
In photo #1, a DC-7 of the “Stardusters Air Travel Club” is visible.
Boeing 314 #1
It’s 1938, and Boeing’s new baby, the 314, makes its appearance in Seattle.
The first Model 314 sticks its tail over the Duwamish River. Note that the cockpit has yet to be completed.
Seen afloat on Seattle’s Elliot Bay, the first 314, now numbered NX18601, is ready to begin testing.
NX18601 was initially built with a single vertical stabilizer.
The single tail did not provide adequete directional control…
…and a fix was devised in the form of a double tail.
The short-lived double tail/no center stabilizer.
Even two tails were not doing the trick and thus the three-tailed 314 was born.
In the spotlight.
These photographs feature the first Model 314 produced by Boeing (later registered as NX18601). As with most prototypes, the first 314 model encountered some challenges during its development. One of the primary issues was related to lateral control. Although the aircraft was built with a standard single centerline vertical fin, early test flights revealed a need for more lateral control. To address this problem, a growing number of vertical stabilizers were installed on the aircraft. Initially, the solo center tail was removed and replaced with a pair of endplates. However, this dual arrangement proved insufficient, and a centerline fin was once again added to the aircraft, which proved to be effective in providing the necessary lateral stability. once again the 314 was provided with a centerline fin (Hey, good thing they didn’t throw that item away when they did the initial redesign of the tail)
Here’s a Pair of Oddball Amphibs…
Looking like some great beast took a bite out of its fuselage, the Great Lakes XSG-1 never went beyond this single prototype.
The Columbia XJL-1 was another also-ran in the world of US Navy seaplanes. This example (BuNo 31399) survives today at the Yanks Air Museum in California.
Goodyear’s Ducks
The first Duck – a GA-1.
Displaying one of its duck-like qualities, the GA-1 quietly floats on Lake Wingfoot, Ohio. Then and now, a hangar on said lake is home to the Goodyear Blimp.
A later version of the Duck: the GA-2. This aircraft, N5505M, was used by Goodyear for various purposes. Date of photo is June, 1960.
First flown in 1944, Goodyear’s GA Duck was a very handsome and well-performing aircraft, but (alas) it never went into major production. Of the less than two dozen GAs built (in various configurations), one, a four-seat “Drake”, survives today.
Update: Three months ago, a man in Kalamazoo, Michigan, wrote to me after reading this post on the GA Duck. In his email, he informed me that he had, since the death of his grandfather, come into possession of four Goodyear GA Ducks, all sitting in sheds and barns, and he was wondering if I had any ideas on what to do with them.
One often hears of old planes sitting in barns, but these are always tales too good to be true. Despite thinking this was one of those scenarios, I did, with some skepticism, ask for a few photos. Here is one of those pictures, and it pretty much says it all.
Still in their original paint, the Goodyear Ducks had been gathering dust for decades.
The man who bought the aircraft way back when never got around to restoring them for flight or display. They remained secreted away in two locations, unknown to the public until just a few months ago.
When the gentleman contacted me, hoping to find a home for these planes, he was talking to the right guy because, by chance, I just happen to be affiliated with an aircraft museum. Did we need such aircraft in our collection? Not really. Such aircraft as the Ducks are outside our museum’s focus. It was therefore decided to allow another museum to have a chance. That facility is the Military Aviation Preservation Society (MAPS) museum in Ohio, home to Goodyear, and where the GA Ducks were built. They are also home to what was previously the lone example of a Goodyear GA, the “Drake”. That bird will be in great company, a whole flock of Ducks.
PS. When I called MAPS to inform them of the find, they must of thought Christmas had arrived in March.
Sea Ranger on the Step
On a sunny day in Seattle, Boeing’s one and only XPBB-1 “Sea Ranger” races over the waters of Lake Washington as it heads for the skies.
It is worth noting that the orderly ripples on the otherwise smooth lake surface are likely manmade.
Story follows:
Per my late Dad (a WWII PBY pilot), ultra-smooth water can make for a problematic takeoff. Reason: the aircraft could have trouble breaking free from the water’s adhesive properties. Therefore, said Dad, a boat would be dispatched to speed about and ripple up the water on a smooth, non-windy day. Lacking a boat, the aircraft could engage in some downwind high-speed taxiing, then do a quick 180-degree turn and takeoff courtesy of the undulating ripplets now creasing the water.
The B-50 SuperDuperFortress
43rd Bomb Wing B-50s. In the background are RB-36s of the 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing.
RB-50F zooms skyward at Boeing Field. Note the fancy paint job on the external fuel tanks.
The one and only EB-50B. Used by Boeing for a number of schemes, notably, as seen here, testing “caterpillar track” landing gear.
The EB-50. One has to wonder what it felt like to operate with such landing gear.
Here are a few PVs of VPB-146…
PV crew during training at NAS Whidbey Island in the summer of 1943.
VPB-146 on Morotal in the Netherlands East Indies. This Ventura, 34874, was shot up during a Japanese air raid in ’44.
Veterans of many a mission, this VPB-146 crew poses by a PV sporting a “kill” marking for having sunk a Japanese ship.
Pair of P-51s
The first photo shows Bob standing on a wing. Bob (Chilton) has a great job: he is North American’s test pilot and, therefore, gets to fly brand-new Mustangs for his daily bread. The second photo shows one of the birds that may have been given the O-K back at the factory by Mr. Chilton himself (a P-51B, 42-106829 of the 362nd Fighter Squadron).
79th Air Rescue Squadron
An SH-19A Chickasaw displays its abilities before an appreciative B-36 of the 6th Bomb Wing while the latter is on a deployment to Andersen AFB, Guam. The bomber was far from its home at Walker AFB in New Mexico – about 7,000 miles – but that really wasn’t a very big deal for a B-36.
The Last Thing Seen by Many a Bug or Caterpillar
And…For the sake of the photographer’s health, one hopes he got all he needed with a single pass by the chemical-spewing Stearman. The good news for him is that by the time this picture was taken in the 1950s, the crop dusters were no longer using what had proven highly effective in the past: a liquid mixture of lead and arsenic. Seems like a bad idea now, but it didn’t at the time. We humans are like that – we only learn by experience (when does the city put up a stop sign at an unmarked intersection, before a bad car wreck, or after?).
The location is Washington state, the target, apple trees, and the critters and caterpillars that love them.
Corsairs & Seagulls
SOC alongside its mothership, USS Houston.
SOC aboard seaplane tender USS Currituck in 1947. The plane is being readied for dropping in the water.
Same aircraft seen in previous photo shows the rearseat man stowing the bridle used when hauling the aircraft in or out of the sea.
A pair of USS California SOCs as seen from the rear cockpit of another.
Another view of SOCs of the battleboat USS California.
SOCs and a variant, the SON-1 from Scouting 9 of the USS Honolulu.
O2Us aboard USS Chester. She and USS Indianapolis (R) are seen refueling from the tanker USS Salinas while enroute to South America in 1936.
USS Indianapolis arriving in Rio de Janeiro with a special passenger: President Roosevelt.
Chester and her O2Us depart Montevideo.
SOCs, USS Tuscaloosa.
Battleship USS New York is a sea of cranes and seaplanes.
USS Idaho. It took some guts to climb out on those guns.
Battleship USS Tennessee and her SOCs.
Here are two aircraft that had ridiculously long service lives by the standards of their time: Vought’s many variations of the O2U Corsair and the Curtiss SOC Seagull. In an era when an aircraft was here and gone in only a few years, the Corsair and Seagull served the US Navy for 19 and 14 years, respectively (and approximately).
O2U-2, VS-14M, CV-3, 1930
USMC Skyhawk
Based at MCAS Yuma, Arizona, this A-4M (159487) of VMAT-102 was no stranger to sunny days like the one seen here at NAS Whidbey Island in 1981.
The Inconspicuous Banshee
The term “one of the unsung aircraft of WWII” is a sobriquet that, in my opinion, is often overused. Namely, most of the planes tagged as unsung/neglected/overlooked were aircraft either built in very few numbers, were ineffective (see: built in very few numbers), or worse, lousy at their job. For such machines, being labeled “unsung” would imply they had done things worth singing about but were somehow overlooked by ill-informed or biased critics.
Then we have the A-24 Banshee, an airplane that did plenty to sing about but is indeed as non-sung of a WWII aircraft as they come.
Based on the A-24’s record as a frontline combat aircraft, it should be very well known then and now: They were in service throughout America’s involvement in the war and every theater of operations. They were rugged, reliable, and effective. Lastly, they were built in sufficient quantities (almost 1,000) to make a difference.
Nevertheless, the A-24 is little known outside the world of WWII airplane aficionados/geeks. The reasons are simple: Mustangs, Lightnings, Thunderbolts, and other pursuit ships also made excellent multi-role fighter bombers and eventually took away much of Banshee’s reason for being. Furthermore, when discussing WWII light bombers, the Marauders, Havocs, and Mitchells will always come first to mind. Moreover, all of these planes – fighters and bombers – were built in the tens of thousands. Yes, almost 1,000 Banshees were built, but that number pales compared to the volume of better-known aircraft manufactured during WWII. The A-24 – despite its effectiveness – was simply not going to be as famous as many other aircraft.
Unfortunately, the A-24 Banshee has never received the attention it deserves. Not only has it long been overshadowed by the other fighters and bombers of the Army Air Forces, it also had the misfortune to have a far more famous look-alike cousin, the preeminent ship-killing aircraft of WWII, the SBD Dauntless.
Torpedo 2, 1939
Pretty sepia-toned photo from the collection of a sailor who served aboard USS Lexington, 1937-39.
Jane Adams: 1940s Actress, Glamour Girl, and (obviously) Jet Test Pilot
If avid fans of outrageously inexpensive films were to go back in time to the late 40s & early 50s, one actress they would instantly seek out would be Jane Adams, queen of the B-film screen. Whatever picture genre one fancied – westerns, horror, sci-fi, or romance, to name but a few – Jane Adams was your gal.
Alas, her career in more mainstream pictures never materialized, but that’s okay; she was easy to look at and made movies that, with a ready supply of cocktails, still make great late-night entertainment. (Hard to go wrong with features such as House of Dracula, Rustler’s Round-Up, and Tarzan’s Magic Fountain)
As seen in this publicity photo, Adams (real name Betty Bierce) was another of the charming women that aircraft manufacturers considered vital in selling flying machines.
Jane Adams as “Nina, The Hunchbacked Nurse” in House of Dracula (1945).
The Brave B-47
Baseball history fans will undoubtedly know what occasion caused these men in the autumn of 1957 to decorate one of their planes and then throw their hats in the air. For those who don’t know the significance of the situation, here’s a hint: the Milwaukee Braves had just won the World Series. The photo was taken at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona, where, as seen in the picture, the men of the 303rd Bomb Wing’s 358th Bomb Squadron included more than a few Milwaukee fans.
Classy Bird
In the late 1940s, the USAF made a wise purchase when they ordered a militarized version of the Cessna Model 195 – the LC-126A. Outfitted with floats for service as a rescue bird in Alaska, the USAF never bought the plane in great numbers (only a dozen or so). Still, what it lacked in numbers, it made up for in style because the Cessna 195/LC-126, in this man’s opinion, is one of the most handsome aircraft ever built.
In the photo, 49-1949 of the 10th Rescue Squadron, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, undergoes riverside maintenance out in the bush. It’s summer, but that only means hordes of mosquitoes – all of whom have a million children – are swarming unseen in the picture. This particular plane was saved for posterity by the Air Force and now resides in the USAF Museum, painted as seen here 75 years ago.
The Mighty Duck
The year is 1941, and the place is the brand-new Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco. The occasion for the photo was the arrival of the base’s first aircraft, this JF-2.
B-3A in the P.I.
The Jive Bomber 