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.
FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT
By the President:
SUMMER WELLES Acting Secretary of State.
The Boeing XB-15, 35-277, flies past the Wright Brothers Memorial at the Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. (U.S. Air Force)
Мария Ивановна Долина (Colorized by Olga Shirnina: “Color by Klimbim”) Used with permission.
18 August 1945: Guards Captain Mariya Ivanovna Dolina, Deputy Commander, 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment, is named Hero of the Soviet Union. She is also awarded the Order of Lenin and Gold Star medal.
Comrade Mariya was one of the Soviet Union’s “Night Witches,” squadrons of women pilots who flew combat missions against the German invaders during hours of darkness. Captain Dolina flew the Petlyakov Pe-2, a twin-engine light bomber.
Petlyakov Pe-2
Mariya Ivanovna Dolina was born 18 December 1922 ¹ at Sharkova, Poltva, Omsk. She was the oldest of 10 children; the daughter of Red Army soldier who lost a leg during the civil war. The family emigrated from Ukraine to Siberia for work, but returned to the Ukraine in 1934. Mariya attended various schools, at one point having to drop out of high school to find work to help support her family. Eventually, Mariya Ivanovna graduated from high school at Dnepropetrovsk, near the confluence of the Dneiper and Samara rivers in the eastern Ukraine. She attended the Kherson aviation School, then worked as a flight instructor.
In 1941, Comrade Mariya joined the 269th Fighter Regiment, flying 200 missions with the U-2, a biplane trainer used as a light bomber. In 1942 she graduated from Engels military aviation school and transitioned to the Pe-2 with the 587th Dive Bomber Regiment.
Mariya Ivanova was awarded Order of Red Banner, 1 June 1943, and again, 28 July 1944. In January 1945, she was promoted to the rank of Guards Captain, and assigned as deputy commander, 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment. She flew another 72 combat missions.
Captain Dolina married a navigator in her unit, named Mel’nikova. He died in 1972. She then married Litosh Vasily, who had been a mechanic in her regiment. They would have two children.
Guards Captain Dolina transferred to the air force reserve in 1950.
She died 3 March 2010 at the age of 88 years, and was buried at Baikovo.
¹ As she was not old enough to enter the Kherson Aviation School, Mariya Ivanova changed her date of birth to 1920.
The second Sikorsky XR-5, 43-28237 (c/n 34). (Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company)
18 August 1943: At Bridgeport, Connecticut, Sikorsky chief test pilot Charles Lester (“Les”) Morris made the first flight of the Vought-Sikorsky VS-327, c/n 33. Also known as the Sikorsky Model S-48, the U.S. Army Air Corps designated the helicopter XR-5 and assigned the serial number 43-28236.
The XR-5 was a significant improvement over the earlier R-4. Its narrow fuselage was streamlined and the cockpit had excellent visibility. The R-4’s box-like fuselage interfered with the downward flow of air from the main rotor, and this was a consideration in the shape of the new helicopter.
The Sikorsky XR-5 (Model S-48) was a single-engine, two-place helicopter. The cabin was built of aluminum with plexiglas windows. The fuselage was built of plastic-impregnated plywood and the tail boom was wood monocoque construction. The main rotor consisted of three fully-articulated blades built of wood spars and ribs and covered with fabric. The three bladed semi-articulated tail rotor was built of laminated wood. The main rotor turned counter-clockwise as seen from above. (The advancing blade is on the helicopter’s right.) The tail rotor was mounted on the helicopter’s left side in a pusher configuration. It turned clockwise as seen from the helicopter’s left.
There were five XR-5 helicopters, followed by twenty-six YR-5A service test helicopters built between November 1944 and July 1945. There were slight changes from the earlier five XR-5A prototypes. The R-5A went into production in July 1945 and more than 300 had been built by the time production ended in 1951.
The helicopter’s fuselage was 41 feet, 7½ inches (12.687 meters) long. The main rotor had a diameter of 48 feet (14.630 meters) and tail rotor diameter was 8 feet, 5 inches (2.2.565 meters), giving the helicopter an overall length of 57 feet, 1 inch (17.399 meters) with rotors turning. It was 13 feet, 1½ inches (4.001 meters) high. The landing gear tread was 12 feet (3.7 meters). The R-5A had an empty weight of 3,780 pounds (1,714.6 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 4,900 pounds (2,222.6 kilograms). Fuel capacity was 100 gallons (378.5 liters).
Chief Test Pilot Les Morris with Captain Jackson E. Beighle, U.S. Army Air Corps, hovers a Sikorsky YR-5A, 43-46603, at Bridgeport, with ten additional passengers, 29 November 1945. (Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company)
The helicopter was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged, 986.749-cubic-inch-displacement (16.170 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr. T1B4 (R-985 AN-5) direct-drive, nine-cylinder radial engine which was placed vertically in the fuselage behind the crew compartment. This engine was rated at 450 horsepower at 2,300 r.p.m., Standard Day at Sea Level. The R-985 AN-5 was 48.00 inches (1.219 meters) long, 46.25 inches (1.175 meters) in diameter and weighed 684 pounds (310.3 kilograms) with a magnesium crankcase.
The R-5 had a maximum speed (Vne) of 107 knots (123.1 miles per hour/198.2 kilometers per hour). Range was 275 miles (442.6 kilometers). The service ceiling was 14,800 feet (4,511 meters). The absolute hover ceiling was 3,000 feet (914.4 meters).
On 13 September 1943, Dimitry D. (“Jimmy”) Viner was hovering out of ground effect at 75 feet (23 meters) when 43-28236 suffered a tail rotor failure. The helicopter made a hard landing and was dignificantly damaged. Neither Viner nor his passenger were injured.
In 1944, while flying to a war bond rally in Nebraska, XR-5 43-28236 suffered an engine failure and crash landed. The helicopter was damaged beyond repair and was stripped for parts.
Thanks to regular This Day in Aviation reader Mike for suggesting this subject.
Igor Sikorsky in the cockpit of a production R-5 helicopter. (Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company)
The original manuscript of “High Flight,” by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Royal Canadian Air Force, in the collection of the Library of Congress. (Manuscript Division: John Magee Papers 1941–1946). LCCN: mm 79005423
18 August 1941: Many sources give this as the date on which Pilot Officer John Gillespie, Jr., Royal Canadian Air Force, wrote—or began writing—his famous poem, “High Flight.”
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there, I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark nor ever eagle flew— And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Magee mailed the poem to his parents on 3 September 1941.
John Magee was an American serving as a fighter pilot in England before the United States entered World War II. He was killed when his Supermarine Spitfire collided with another airplane in clouds over the village of Roxholm, Lincolnshire, England.
