Daily Archives: August 19, 2024

19 August 1960

August 19, 2024Aviation, Space Flight51-8037, 6593rd Test Squadron, Bell 8048 (XLR81-BA-5), C-119J-FA, Corona 1, Discoverer XIV, Fairchild, Fairchild C-119J Flying Boxcar, Key Hole, KH-1, Lockheed RM-81 Agena A, Project CORONA, Reconnaissance satellite, Thor DM-19Bryan Swopes

A Fairchild C-119J, 51-8039, recovers a Discovery Satellite Reentry Vehicle. (U.S. Air Force)

19 August 1960: Discoverer XIV was a Keyhole KH-1 reconnaissance satellite of Project CORONA. Mission 9009 was launched by a Thor-Agena A two-stage liquid fueled rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, at 11:55 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, 18 August 1960 (19:55:00 UTC).¹ The Agena A entered a 186 kilometer × 805 kilometer (115.6 miles × 500.2 miles) elliptical orbit, inclined 79.650°, and the satellite took 1 hour, 34 minutes, 33 seconds to complete each orbit.

After 17 orbits, 7 of which crossed over “denied territory,” the Discoverer Satellite Rentry Vehicle (SRV) was ejected from the Agena A and de-orbited. This ejection took place within 5 seconds of the planned time.

On 19 August, a Fairchild C-119J Flying Boxcar, 51-8037, call sign Pelican 9, of the 6593rd Test Squadron, Hickham Air Force Base, Hawaii, was sent to recover the satellite as it descended through the lower atmosphere by parachute. The air crew sighted the parachute at about 8,000 feet (2,438 meters), 360 miles (580 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii. On their third attempt, they were able to snag the satellite and parachute with recovery equipment deployed under the transport, and then pull it inside. This was the first time that film from a satellite had been recovered.

Corona 1 photographic image of Mys Shmidta Air Field, USSR. This image, taken 18 August 1960, has a resolution of 40 feet x 40 feet ( meters). (National Reconnaissance Office) — Corona 1 photographic image of Mys Shmidta Air Field, Chukotka, Russia, USSR, an intercontinental bomber staging base built in 1954. This image, taken 18 August 1960, has a resolution of 40 feet × 40 feet (12.2 meters × 12.2 meters). The runway is 2,450 meters (8,038 feet) long. (National Reconnaissance Office)

Pelican 9’s pilot, Captain Harold Ellis Mitchell (22 June 1925–14 February 2013) was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The other members of the crew received the Air Medal.

Flight Crew of Fairchild C-119J 51-8037, circa 1960. Front row, left to right: Captain Harold Ellis Mitchell, Captain David Torgerson, 1st Lieutenant Robert Counts, Staff Sergeant Arthur Hurst, Airman Second Class Thierry Franc; back row: Technical Sergeant Louis Bannick, Staff Sergeant Algaene Harmon, A2C George Donohou, A2C Lester Beale and A2C Daniel Hill. (U.S. Air Force)

The Agena A remained in orbit until 16 September 1960.

Mission 9009 photographed 1.5 million square miles (3.9 million square kilometers) of Soviet and Eastern Europe countries.

The mission summary reads:

Mission 9009 was accomplished on 18 August 1960. It consists of eight north-south passes over the USSR and includes portions of China, the Satellites and Yugoslavia (see accompanying coverage map).

Approximately 25 percent of the coverage is cloud free, with light-scattered to heavy clouds covering the remainder of the photography. The PI quality of the unobscured coverage ranges from good to very good.

The scale of the photography is estimated to range from 1:300,000 to 1:450,000.

Major items of intelligence significance covered by Mission 9009 incluse the Kapsutin Yar Missile lTest Range (KYMTR), the western portion of the presumed 1,050 nm impact area of the KYMTR, 20 newly identified hexadic SA-2 surface to air missile sites and six possible SA-2 sites under construction, the Sarova Nuclear Weapons Research and Development Center, several new airfields, and numerous urban complexes.

—CORONA: America’s First Satellite Program, Kevin C. Ruffner, Editor, and CIA History Staff. Center of the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C., 1995, at Page 120

The mission report contains a lengthy list of airfields and military installations of intelligence interest to the United States.

Project CORONA had been proposed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and was managed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the United States Air Force. The Discoverer program was publicly explained as an Earth sciences research project, with some carrying live monkeys, but was actually a Central Intelligence Agency program for the reconnaissance of the Soviet Union and China.

Lockheed Missiles and Space Company at Sunnyvale, California, was the prime contractor, while Fairchild Camera and Instrument Co. was responsible for the KH-1 camera system. General Electric built the Satellite Reentry Vehicle (SRV).

Lockheed RM-81 Agena A. (U.S. Air Force via Drew ex Machina)

Internal Arrangement of Corona spacecraft. (Drew ex Machina)

The Discoverer reconnaissance payload was carried into orbit by a Lockheed RM-81 Agena A. This was a liquid-fueled rocket used as a second stage for the Thor first stage booster. The Agena A was 15.51 feet (4.73 meters) long and 4.98 feet (1.52 meters) in diameter. It had an empty weight of 1,951 pounds (885 kilograms) and maximum weight of 8,350 pounds (3,790 kilograms).

Early Agena As were powered by a single Bell 8001 (XLR81-BA-3) rocket engine which had originally been developed as a Rocket Assisted Takeoff (RATO) unit for the Convair B-58A Hustler Mach 3 strategic bomber. This was upgraded to the Bell 8048 (XLR81-BA-5) for most Agena As. This engine weighed 279 pounds (126.6 kilograms). Burning Nitric Acid and UDMH, it produced 15,589 pounds of thrust (69.343 kilonewtons). The engine had a burn time of 120 seconds. The engine nozzle was gimballed for pitch and yaw control.

Bell Model 8048 (XLR81-BA-5) rocket engine in the collection of the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (U.S Air Force)

The Agena A nose cone carried a Fairchild Camera and Instrument Co. KH-1 panoramic camera system. It used 20 pounds (kilograms) of 70 mm film. The camera used an ITEK Corporation HYAK B lens with an f/5.0 aperture and focal length of 61 centimeters. Its ground resolution was 11.7 meters. The camera transferred the film to the reentry vehicle.

Resolution was not as good as could be obtained by a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane, but the Discoverer XIV was able to cover areas that the U-2 never reached.

The Agena A orbiter also had a TOD-4 navigation payload.

Internal arrangement of Discoverer photographic system. (Drew ex Machina)

When it was time to eject the SRV, the Agena A pitched down 60°. The SRV was spin-stabilized by small rockets, and then a retro rocket fired to decelerate it into a descent trajectory.

Fairchild C-119J-FA Flying Boxcar 51-8037 at the National Air and Space Museum, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. (U.S. Air Force)

51-8037 had been built as a C-119F Packet “Flying Boxcar” and delivered to the U.S. Air Force on 2 June 1953. It was converted to a C-119J at the Birmingham Modification Center in Birmingham, Alabama, during October 1956. From September 1958 to November 1959, it was further modified specifically to recover space capsules. The satellite recovery airplane is in the collection of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

The C-119F Flying Boxcar is a large twin-engine transport aircraft with a distinctive twin boom configuration. It has a high wing and retractable tricycle landing gear. It normally carried a flight crew of five, consisting of two pilots, a navigator, radio operator and crew chief. It could carry 42 troops, or a maximum of 62 troops for emergency evacuation. Alternatively, it could transport 35 litter patients and 4 attendants. The airplane is 86.5 feet (26.365 meters) long with a wingspan of 109.3 feet (33.315 meters) and overall height of 26.5 feet (8.077 meters. It has a total wing area of 1,447.2 square feet (134.45 square meters). The C-119F has an empty weight of 40,118 pounds (18,197 kilograms), and takeoff weight of 77,000 pounds (34,927 kilograms). The cargo payload is 20,650 pounds (9,367 kilograms).

The C-119F was powered by two air-cooled, supercharged and fuel injected, 3,347.66 cubic-inch displacement (543.858 liter) Wright 868TC18DB1 Cyclone 18 (R-3350-85) two-row, 18-cylinder radial engines. These engines were also known as the Duplex-Cyclone. They had a compression ratio of 6.7:1 and required 115/145 octane aviation gasoline. The Normal Power rating was 2,650 horsepower at 2,650 r.p.m. (continuous); Takeoff Power rating, 3,500 horsepower at 2,900 horsepower at 2,900 r.p.m. at Sea Level (5 minute limit); and Military Power rating of 3,500 horsepower at 2,900 r.p.m. at 4,500 feet (1,372 meters) with a 30 minute limit. This decreased to 2,550 horsepower at 15,400 feet (4,694 meters), and retained the 30 minute limit. The R-3350-85 had a length of 90.80 inches (2.306 meters), diameter of 56.59 inches (1.437 meters), and weighed 3,472 pounds (1,575 kilograms. It used a 0.4375:1 gear reduction. 2,395 of these engines were produced between September 1951 and 1954.

This airplane had a maximum speed of 265 knots (305 miles per hour/491 kilometers per hour) at 17,900 feet (5,456 meters) at maximum power. Its cruise speed was 248 knots (285 miles per hour/459 kilometers per hour) at 5,000 feet (1,524 meters).

The C-119F could takeoff after a ground run of 3,875 feet (1,181 meters), and had a rate of climb of 795 feet per minute (4.04 meters per second) at Sea Level with Normal Power at its takeoff weight of 77,000 pounds (34,927 kilograms). At a combat weight of 49,360 pounds (22,389 kilograms) and using maximum power, it could climb at 2,320 feet per minute (11.8 meters per second). Its service ceiling was 26,600 feet (8,108 meters) at maximum power.

With a maximum fuel capacity of 2,590 gallons (9,804 liters) and maximum payload, the C-119F had a combat range of 1,462 nautical miles (1,682 statute miles/2,708 kilometers) at 158 knots (182 miles per hour/292 kilometers per hour).

Fairchild produced 1,183 C-119s between 1949 and 1955.

¹ Launch windows were scheduled to avoid the passage of Southern Pacific Railroad passenger trains which ran along the coast at Vandenberg, to prevent the spacecraft being seen by the public. Sometime only a few minutes were available between passing trains.

19 August 1954

August 19, 2024Aviation48-356, FA-356, Lockheed F-94A, Lockheed F-94B, Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star, Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star, Lockheed TP-80C Shooting StarBryan Swopes

19 August 1954: The Valley News reported:

‘Old Hodgepodge’, Lockheed’s Doughty Jet, Retiring to Scientific Service on Ground

Skyworn and airweary, but still full of flight, the grand-daddy of Lockheed jets has dodged the junkman’s grimy grip and flown proudly from California to new York to sit out the rest of its life on the ground, but still in the service of science. A last minute reprieve from the U.S. Air Force spared from destruction Old Hodgepodge, a research plane that flew as four different models of advanced aircraft designs and led to $500,000,000 worth of jets for United States fighting forces.

Many times modified and too often patched in seven years of aerial contortions, the test jet had been relegated to the scrapheap. It was declared no longer safe for combat or further flight experiment.

Busy Every Day

But, USAF officials later decided, it could continue in use at Griffiss Air Force Base, Rome, N.Y., as a nonflying instrument of a secret technical study. It was ferried to Griffiss AFB from Lockheed’s Palmdale jet base by Lt. Frank M. Eichler.

How Old Hodgepodge came to such an unusual end is a tale of home [sic] new and better airplanes are born.

The plane was first built in 1947 as an F-80A Shooting Star, America’s first quantity jet design.

Then it was sliced in half to be expanded into the world’s first jet trainer, the two-seat T-33.

It got new engines—and magic radar—to become the first F-94A interceptor.

Then it donned a new kind of wingtip fuel tank and was the F-94B.

Became Dean Emeritus

It then took on and tested electronic and rocket inventions designed for the F-94C, today’s all-weather and all-rocket interceptor flying invasion watch from USAF bases.

Yesterday the 40-foot-long jet-job was a brawling daredevil of science that withstood ice and lightning and screeching dives and twisting spins. One minute it was being pampered by research engineers and mechanics, the next it was undergoing aerial wringout at the hands of Lockheed’s best test pilots.

The ship spent 546 hours in the air in tests. It made 772 research flights—773 counting the last-mile dash to New York.

After shaping the course of jet pilot training for most of the world, it helped develop today’s super-performance fighters and even engaged in guided missile experiments.

As the T-33 prototype, it became the dean emeritus of jet trainers. U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine pilots learned jet flying in its offspring, as did the pilots of a dozen friendly nations.

Checked Out Rockets

As a flying drawing board it pioneered advanced engines, radar, radomes, deicers, rocket pods, fuel tanks and cockpit canopies.

When fitted with a wooden nose, a model of the first Starfire’s radar nose, it gained the nickname “Pinocchio.”

Then it became the first jet to carry a combination search and rocket fire-control radar system, first jet to have a long clamshell canopy, first to wear a plastic radome nose designed for the Starfire’s radar system.

Scientists rigged pods to hold rockets on its wings, thus doubling the hall-rocket Starfire’s firepower.

They gave the plane an afterburner, leading to improvement of the double-jet type engines used in today’s fastest turbine planes.

It flew on a half-dozen different engines. Its power increased from 3800 pounds of thrust to about 6000 pounds.

Moving from scientific job to scientific job, the airplane became an unrecognizable conglomerate. It contained experimental devices applied to no other airplane in the world.

Even Foiled Lightning

Its first flight as a trainer came March 22, 1948, with Chief Engineering Test Pilot A. W. (Tony) LeVier at the controls. Eight days and three flights later LeVier took up F. E. Gaiser, flight-test engineer, first passenger ever to ride in a production jet trainer.

In Lockheed’s test and experimental program, pilots tried to fly the wings off the plane in stability, spin, speed and dive tests.

They caked ice on the wing, nose and cockpit and then used unusual deicing equipment to “defrost” accumulations up to two inches thickness. “Metal sandwich” wings operating on high voltage were one type; a millionth-inch-thick spray was another.

On one derring-do mission, Pilot Stanley Baltz and Engineer E. L. Joiner Jr., purposely flew the airplane in zero visibility through cloud, cold and night when all other planes were grounded—just to ice up the wings and test foul-weather performance.

That night lightning struck and burned a hole in the wing, but Old Hodgepodge flew on in full control.

Under Own Power

Gradually the laboratory plane’s test role faded because newer concepts and models were coming forward. Old Hodgepodge was assigned less glamorous jobs—radar target ship and missile chase plane.

Eventually it became to fat and sluggish for arduous scientific duties. It was more of a crazy quilt than a magic carpet, no longer fit for any Air Force squadron.

At the end it had to carry 1000 pounds of ballast in its nose to maintain balance in flight. Takeoff weight was up to about nine tons instead of the original seven tons.

Into teh blue she knew so well, the old plane has flown off to anonymity, but—to her everlasting credit—she got there on her own power and her own wings.

—The Valley News, Vol. 34, No. 10, 19 August 1954, Page 9-C, Columns 3–6

Lockheed TP-80C-1-LO 48-356 prototype, with P-80C-1-LO Shooting Star 47-173, at Van Nuys Airport, California. (Lockheed)

Originally a P-80C Shooting Star single-place fighter, 48-356 had been modified at Lockheed Plant B-9 in Van Nuys to become the prototype TP-80C two-place jet trainer (the designation was soon changed to T-33A), which first flew 22 March 1948. It was then modified as the prototype YF-94. 48-356 was later modified as the prototype F-94B. 48-356 was on static display at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for many years. It is in the collection of the Air Force Flight Test Museum, Edwards Air Force Base, and is in storage awaiting restoration.

Prototype Lockheed YF-94 48-356, first flight, 16 April 1949. (U.S. Air Force)

19 August 1940

August 19, 2024Aviation40-2165, Browning Aircraft Machine Gun Caliber .30 M2, Browning Machine Gun Caliber .50 AN-M2, c/n 62-2834, First Flight, Medium Bomber, Mines Field, North American Aviation B-25 Mitchell, North American Aviation Inc., North American Aviation Model NA-62, Roy Ferren, Test Pilot, Vance Breese, Wright Aeronautical Division, Wright Cyclone 14 GR2600B665, Wright R-2600-9Bryan Swopes

North American Aviation NA-62, serial number 62-2834, the first B-25 Mitchell, (U.S. Army Air Corps serial number 40-2165), at Mines Field, Los Angeles California, August 1940. (U.S. Air Force)

19 August 1940: At Mines Field (now known as Los Angeles International Airport), the first North American Aviation B-25 twin-engine medium bomber, serial number 40-2165, took off on its first flight with test pilot Vance Breese at the controls and engineer Roy Ferren in the co-pilot’s position.

The airplane, North American model NA-62, serial number 62-2834, was developed from two earlier designs which had been evaluated by the U.S. Air Corps but rejected, and it was ordered into production without a prototype being built.

The first few B-25s built—sources vary, but 8–10 airplanes—were built with a constant dihedral wing. Testing at Wright Field showed that the airplane had a slight tendency to “Dutch roll” so all B-25s after those were built with a “cranked” wing, with the outer wing panels having very slight dihedral ¹ and giving it the bomber’s characteristic “gull wing” appearance. The two vertical stabilizers were also increased in size.

40-2165 was retained by North American for testing while the next several aircraft were sent to Wright Field.

The B-25 was named Mitchell in honor of early air power advocate Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. A total of 9,984 B-25s, F-10 reconnaissance variants and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps PBJ-1 patrol bombers were built by North American Aviation at Inglewood, California and Kansas City, Kansas. The last one, a TB-25J, remained in service with the U.S. Air Force until 1960.

Twenty-three B-25s were built before the B-25A Mitchell went into production. The B-25 was operated by a crew of five. It was 54 feet, 1 inch (16.485 meters) long with a wingspan of 67 feet, 6.7 inches (20.592 meters) and overall height of 16 feet, 4 inches (4.978 meters). The empty weight was 17,258 pounds (7,828 kilograms) and the maximum gross weight was 28,557 pounds (12,953 kilograms).

Scale model of a North American Aviation B-25 medium bomber being tested in a wind tunnel. (4″ × 5″ Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer)

The B-25 was powered by two air-cooled, supercharged, 2,603.737-cubic-inch-displacement (42.688 liter) Wright Aeronautical Division Cyclone 14 GR260

0B665 (R-2600-9) two-row 14-cylinder radial engines which were rated at 1,500 horsepower at 2,400 r.p.m., and 1,700 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m. for takeoff. These engines (also commonly called “Twin Cyclone”) drove three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic variable-pitch propellers through 16:9 gear reduction. The R-2600-9 was 5 feet, 3.1 inches (1.603 meters) long and 4 feet, 6.26 inches (1.378 meters) in diameter. It weighed 1,980 pounds (898 kilograms).

Workers installing a Wright Cyclone 14 R-2600 engine on a B-25 at the North American Aviation, Inc., plant, Inglewood, California, circa 1942. (Alfred T. Palmer/Library of Congress LC-DIG-fsac-1a35281)

The medium bomber had a maximum speed of 322 miles per hour (518 kilometers per hour) at 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) and a service ceiling of 30,000 feet (9,144 meters). It could carry a 3,000 pound bomb load 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers).

Defensive armament consisted of three air-cooled Browning M2 .30-caliber aircraft machine guns and one Browning AN-M2 .50-caliber machine gun.

After testing was completed, B-25 40-2165 was retained by North American and modified as a company transport. On 8 January 1945, flown by Edgar A. Stewart, the airplane suffered an engine failure and made a forced landing at Mines Field—the location of its first flight. The prototype B-25 was damaged beyond repair.

Front view of the first North American B-25 Mitchell, 40-2165. The constant dihedral wing was used on the first nine airplanes built. (U.S. Air Force) — Front view of the first North American Aviation B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, 40-2165, at Mines Field, August 1940. The constant dihedral wing was used on the first nine airplanes built. (U.S. Air Force)

North American Aviation NA-62, B-25 Mitchell 40-2165, left front. (U.S. Air Force)

North American B-25 Mitchell 40-2165, left rear. (U.S. Air Force) — North American Aviation B-25 Mitchell 40-2165, left rear. (U.S. Air Force)

North American Aviation B-25A Mitchell twin-engine medium bomber in flight near Wright Field, Ohio, 1 May 1941. (Rudy Arnold Photo Collection, Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum XRA-4945)

Compare the “cranked” wing of this North American Aviation B-25J Mitchell medium bomber to the prototype in the images above. (U.S. Air Force)

¹ The wing center section of the B-25H and B-25J has 4° 38′ 23″ dihedral. The outer sections have 0° 21′ 39″. The wing has 2° 29′ 37″ negative twist.

19 August: National Aviation Day

August 19, 2024AviationNational Aviation Day, Orville Wright's BirthdayBryan Swopes

Boeing 314, California Clipper, NC18602, over Oakland, California. Photographed by Clyde Herwood Sunderland, Jr. (1900–1989).

In 1939, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, proclaimed Orville Wright’s birthday, 19 August, as National Aviation Day.

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas the people of the United States may justly claim to have taken a leading part in the development of the science of aeronautics and to enjoy today an outstanding position among the nations of the world in the use of air transport; and

Whereas Public Resolution No. 32, Seventy-fifth Congress, first session, approved May 25, 1937, provides in part:

That the President of the United States is authorized to designate May 28, 1937, as National Aviation Day, and to issue a proclamation calling upon officials of the Government to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on that day, and Inviting the people of the United States to observe the day with appropriate exercises to further and stimulate Interest in aviation in the United States.

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, acting in accord with the purposes of the Congress to stimulate interest in aviation with a view to the further advancement of the science of aeronautics, do hereby call upon the people of the United States to observe May 28, 1937, as National Aviation Day with appropriate exercises, and do direct Government officials to display the flag on all Government buildings on that day.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 26th day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and thirty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-first.

Signature of Franklin D. Roosevelt
FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT