The first Super Jolly Green Giant, Sikorsky HH-53B 66-14428, now upgraded to an MH-53J Pave Low IIIE Enhanced, assigned to the 551st Special Operations Squadron, 58th Special Operations Wing, in flight near Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, 24 March 2000. (Master Sergeant Dave Dolan, U.S. Air Force)
24 March 2000: In flight near Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, is this Sikorsky MH-53J Pave Low IIIE, a “Super Jolly Green Giant” special operations helicopter assigned to the 551st Special Operations Squadron. This helicopter, serial number 66-14428, was the very first HH-53B built. [A photograph of its first flight is posted on TDiA at “15 March 1967” https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/15-march-1967/ ]
66-14428 was sent to The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, 7 January 2007, after 40 years of service.
Tupolev Tu-114 CCCP-76459, holder of nineteen FAI World Records for Speed. (Уголок неба)
24 March 1960: Over a 1,000-kilometer course at Sternberg Point Observatory,¹ a Tupolev Tu-114 Rossiya four-engine turboprop airliner, serial number 88402, registered CCCP-76459, set eight Fédération Aéronautique Internationale flight records, including a world speed record of 871.38 kilometers per hour (541.45 miles per hour), while carrying a load of 25,000 kilograms (55,115.6 pounds).²
Colonel Ivan Moiseevich Sukhomlin.
The flight crew for these records were Tupolev Design Bureau senior test pilot Colonel Ivan Moiseevich Sukhomlin, Pilot, and Colonel Boris Mikhailovich Timoshok, Co-Pilot, and four others.
On 1 April 1960, Colonel Sukhomline flew the Tu-114 to set another seven speed records over a 2,000 kilometers course, at 857.277 kilometers per hour (532.687 miles per hour), while carrying a 20,000 kilogram payload (44,092 pounds).³
On 9 April, Colonel Sukhomlin and co-pilot Konstantine Sapielkine flew the Tu-114 over a 5,000 kilometer closed circuit, again with a 25,000 kilogram payload, at an average speed of 877.21 kilometers per hour (545.07 miles per hour). Four more FAI records were set.⁴
These are the fastest speed records ever established for any propeller-driven airplane. The records were retired by the FAI due to changes in rules.
The record-setting Tu-114 was the second production airliner.
The Tupolev Tu-114 Rossiya was a four-engine, turboprop-powered airliner developed from the Tu-95 Bear nuclear-capable long-range heavy bomber. It had a flight crew of five, two pilots, a navigator and two flight engineers, and could be configured to carry from 120 to 220 passengers, or 30,000 kilograms of cargo.
Colonel Alexei Petrovich Yakimov.
The Tu-114 made its first flight 15 November 1957 under the command of Colonel Alexei Petrovich Yakimov, and began regular service with Aeroflot 24 April 1961.
The Tu-114 is 54.10 meters (177 feet, 6 inches) long, with a wingspan of 51.10 meters (167 feet, 8 inches) and overall height of 15.50 meters (50 feet, 10 inches). The wings are swept aft to 35° at ¼-chord, and they have significant anhedral. Total wing area is 311.1 square meters (3,348.7 square feet).
The airliner’s empty weight is 93,500 kilograms (206,132 pounds) and maximum takeoff weight is 179,000 kilograms (394,628 pounds).
Tupolev Tu-114 CCCP-76459, World Record holder. (Уголок неба)
The Tu-114 was powered by four Kuznetsov NK-12MV turboprop engines, each driving two contra-rotating four-bladed propellers. The NK-12 was rated at 14,795 shaft horsepower (10.89 megawatts). The NK-12 is a single-shaft axial-flow turboprop engine with a 14-stage compressor section and 5-stage turbine. The engine is 19 feet, 8.2 inches (6.000 meters) long, 3 feet, 11.3 inches (1.151 meters) in diameter, and weighs 5,181 pounds (2,350 kilograms).
The Tu-114 had a cruise speed of 770 kilometers per hour (478 miles per hour) at 9,000 meters (29,528 feet) (0.70 Mach), and a maximum speed of 894 kilometers per hour (556 miles per hour) at 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) (0.80 Mach). The airliner has a practical range of 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) and maximum ferry range of 8,800 kilometers (5,468 miles). The service ceiling as 12,000 meters (39,370 feet).
A Tupolev Tu-114 at Paris-Le Bourget after a flight from Budapest, Hungary, 5 June 1959. (Magyar Hírek Folyóirat/Wikipedia)
The Tupolev Tu-114 was produced from 1958 to 1963, with 32 built. They were in service until 1976.
CCCP-76459, the world-record-setting airliner, was displayed at Novogorod Airport, Veliky Novogorod, Russia, in 1977. It was destroyed by fire in 1990.
The world-record-setting Tupolev Tu-114, CCCP-76459 (s/n 88401), was destroyed by fire at Novogorod in 1990. (Detlev Grass via Авиация, понятная всем )
An interesting 10-minute 1959 color film about the prototype Tu-114 Rossiya can be viewed on YouTube:
¹ The Sternberg Point Observatory, also known as the Sternberg Astronomical Institute (Государственный астрономический институт имени Штернберга), is located in Moscow, Russia.
Sternberg Astronomical Institute
² FAI Record File Numbers 8125, 8126, 8127, 8128, 8129, 8130, 8131 and 8880: 871.38 kilometers per hour (541.45 miles per hour)
³ FAI Record File Numbers 8133, 8134, 8135, 8136, 8137, 8138 and 8139: 857.277 kilometers per hour (532.687 miles per hour)
⁴ FAI Record File Numbers 3663, 3664, 3665 and 3666: 877.21 kilometers per hour (545.07 miles per hour)
Joseph Albert Walker in the cockpit of North American Aviation X-15A 56-6670, after a flight, 1960. (NASA)
24 March 1960: After North American Aviation’s Chief Engineering Test Pilot, Albert Scott Crossfield, had made the first flights in the new X-15 hypersonic research rocketplane (one gliding, eight powered), NASA Chief Research Test Pilot Joseph Albert Walker made his first familiarization flight.
The X-15, 56-6670, the first of three built by North American Aviation, Inc., was carried aloft under the right wing of a Boeing NB-52A Stratofortress, 52-003, flown by John E. Allavie and Fitzhugh L. Fulton.
Fitz Fulton and and Jack Allavie with a Boeing NB-52 drop ship. (Jet Pilot Overseas)
The rocketplane was dropped from the mothership over Rosamond Dry Lake at 15:43:23.0 local time, and Joe Walker ignited the Reaction Motors XLR-11 rocket engine. The engine burned for 272.0 seconds, accelerating Walker and the X-15 to Mach 2.0 (1,320 miles per hour/2,124.3 kilometers per hour) and a peak altitude of 48,630 feet (14,822.4 meters). Walker landed on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base after a flight of 9 minutes, 8.0 seconds.
Joe Walker made 25 flights in the three X-15 rocket planes from 24 March 1960 to 22 August 1963. He achieved a maximum Mach number of 5.92, maximum speed of 4,104 miles per hour (6,605 kilometers per hour) and maximum altitude of 354,200 feet (107,960 meters).
Joe Walker with the Number 2 North American Aviation X-15, 56-6671, on Rogers Dry Lake. (NASA)
Joe Walker was killed in a mid-air collision between his Lockheed F-104N Starfighter and a North American Aviation XB-70A Valkyrie near Barstow, California, 1 June 1966.
The number one ship, 56-6670, made 81 of the 199 flights of the X-15 Program. It was the first to fly, and also the last, 24 October 1968. Today, it is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum.
North American Aviation, Inc. X-15A 56-6670 on Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, California. (NASA)
Stammlager Luft III prison in Province of East Silesia, World War II. (Muzeum Obózow Jenieckich W Żaganiu)
24 March 1944: At about 2230 hours, the first of 76 Allied prisoners of war interred at Stammlager LuftIII (Stalag Luft III) began to escape through a 30-foot-deep (9 meters), 320-foot-long (98 meters) tunnel, code-named “Harry.”
Aerial reconnaissance image of Stalag Luft III, 17 September 1944. (American Air Museum in Britain UPL 36335)
The prison, located just south of Sagan (Żagań) in East Silesia (now a part of Poland) was specially constructed to house captured Royal Air Force and other Allied airmen, and was controlled by the German air force, the Luftwaffe. Prior to this escape, the German captors had discovered at least 98 tunnels at the prison.
Popularly known as “The Great Escape,” this was the subject of a 1950 book, The Great Escape, by Paul Brickhill, who was a POW at the prison. His book was adapted into a very popular motion picture, “The Great Escape,” in 1963.
Squadron Leader Thomas Gresham Kirby-Green, RAF, and Flight Lieutenant Gordon Arthur Kidder, RCAF, were murdered by Gestapo agents near Zlín, Moravia, 29 March 1944. (This photograph may be of a reconstruction by the RAF Special Investigations Branch, circa 1946)
Jackie Cochran with her Beechcraft D17W Staggerwing, NR18562. (FAI)
24 March 1939: During a 2 hour, 26 minute flight over southern California, Jacqueline Cochran established a U.S. National Altitude Record for Women of 9,160 meters (30,052 feet). She flew a Beechcraft D17W “Staggerwing,” serial number 164, registered NR18562.¹
A National Aeronautic Association official, Larry Therkelson, took the recording barograph from the airplane and sent it to the N.A.A. headquarters in Washington, D.C., for certification. The record had previously been held by Ruth Rowland Nichols.²
“Were I to make the simple statement that I climbed to an altitude of thirty-three thousand feet, that statement in and of itself would mean nothing because I have often gone higher than that. But when I add that I did this in 1937 in a fabric-covered biplane without heating, without pressurization and without an oxygen mask, the elements of an accomplishment are added. I nearly froze; the pipestem between my teeth through which I tried to get an oxygen supply from a tank and connecting tube was inadequate for the purpose, and I became so disoriented through lack of oxygen that it took over an hour to get my bearings and make a landing. The difference between the pressure my body was accustomed to on the ground and the atmospheric pressure at 33,000 feet was such that a blood vessel in my sinus ruptured. All this was a part of the cumulative evidence that led up to cabin pressurization and and mandatory use of the oxygen mask above certain altitudes.”
— The Stars at Noon, by Jacqueline Cochran, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1954, Chapter IV at Pages 61–62.
According to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, Jackie Cochran “. . . set more speed and altitude records than any other pilot.”
Beechcraft D17W Staggerwing NR18562, c/n 164, which Jackie Cochran used to set an altitude record, 24 March 1939, at the Beechcraft factory, Wichita, Kansas, 1937. (Beech Aircraft Corporation)
The Beechcraft Staggerwing got its name because its lower wing was placed ahead of the upper wing (negative stagger). It was a fast airplane for its time and set several speed and altitude records. The Beechcraft D17W was a special version of the D17 production model. Only two were built. Jackie Cochran purchased NR18562 from Beechcraft for $20,145.
The “Staggerwing” was a single-engine, four-place biplane with an enclosed cabin and retractable landing gear, flown by a single pilot. The basic structure was a welded tubular steel framework, with wood formers and stringers. The wings and tail surfaces were built of wood spars and ribs. The airplane was covered with doped fabric, except the cabin and engine, which were covered in sheet metal.
Beech Aircraft Corporation Model 17 “Staggerwings” under construction. (Beech B-111/U.S. Air Force)
The D17W was 26 feet, 15/32 inch (8.0677 meters) long with a wingspan of 32 feet, 0 inches (9.754 meters) and overall height of 8 feet, 0 inches (2.438 meters). It had an empty weight of 2,553 pounds (1,158 kilograms) and loaded weight of 4,200 pounds (1,905 kilograms).
While most biplanes had staggered wings, the Staggerwing was unusual in having negative stagger. (The upper wing was “staggered” aft of the lower wing.) This not only increased the pilot’s field of vision, but improved the airplane’s stability in a stall. The leading edge of the Model 17 upper wing was 2 feet, 1–19/32 inches (0.65008 meters) aft of the lower wing. The leading edges had 0° 0′ sweep. Both wings had an angle of incidence of 5° 5′. The upper wing had no dihedral, but the lower wing had +1°. The mean vertical gap between the wings was 5 feet (1.52 meters), and the chord of both wings was 5 feet, 0 inches (1.524 meters). The total wing area was 269.5 square feet (25.04 square meters). The horizontal stabilizer had 0° incidence, while the vertical fin was offset 0° 43′ to the left of the airplane’s centerline.
The Staggerwing was offered with a selection of engines of different displacements and horsepower ratings. The standard Beechcraft D17S was equipped with an air-cooled, supercharged, 986.749-cubic-inch-displacement (16.170 liters) Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr. A, a direct-drive nine-cylinder radial engine producing 300 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m at Sea Level.
The D17W was equipped with an air-cooled, supercharged, 986.749-cubic-inch-displacement (16.170 liters) Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior SC-G, an experimental version of the Wasp C with a compression ratio of 6.7:1. It had 3:2 propeller reduction gearing, and drove a two-blade constant-speed Hamilton Standard propeller. The SC-G produced 525 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. at 9,500 feet (2,896 meters), and 575 horsepower at 2,850 r.p.m. These ratings were achieved using 87-octane gasoline. Using 100-octane aviation gasoline, the SC-G was rated at 600 horsepower at 2,850 r.p.m. for takeoff. The engine was 3 feet, 9.469 inches (1.1549 meters) long, 3 feet, 10.75 inches (1.1875 meters) in diameter, and weighed 864 pounds (391.9 kilograms).
The D17W had a maximum speed of 235 miles per hour (378 kilometers per hour) at 13,500 feet (4,115 meters). Its fuel capacity was 120 gallons (454 liters). It could climb at a maximum rate of 2,500 feet per minute (12.7 meters per second) and had a service ceiling of 30,000 feet (9,144 meters).
Jackie Cochran with her Beechcraft D17W Staggerwing, NR18562, circa 1937. A celebratory garland of flowers has been draped over the airplane’s cowl. Miss Cochran is holding what appears to be a check. (San Diego Air & Space Museum, Cliff Henderson Collection, CF_09-0050)
Jackie Cochran flew this same D17W, NR18562, in the 1937 Bendix Trophy Race, held 3 September 1937. She finished in third place with an elapsed time of 10 hours, 29 minutes, 8 seconds, averaging 194.740 miles per hour (313.404 kilometers per hour). She won a $5,500 prize.
Max Arthur Constant flew Miss Cochran’s Staggerwing in the 1938 Bendix Trophy Race. He finished in fourth place with an elapsed time of 10 hours, 14 minutes, 39 seconds, averaging 199.330 miles per hour (320.791 kilometers per hour).
Beechcraft D17W c/n 164, was impressed into military service at Tarrant Field, Texas, 12 March 1943. Assigned to the United States Army Air Corps, it was given the designation UC-43K Traveler and Air Corps serial number 42-107277. It was turned over to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 22 November 1944, for sale to the civil market. The airplane was now powered by a 971.930-cubic-inch displacement (15.927 liter) Wright R-975-5 Whirlwind nine-cylinder radial and was redesignated Beechcraft D17R. The Staggerwing was sold to the Carver Pump Company, Muscatine, Iowa, and registered NC50958.
The record-setting Beechcraft Staggerwing crashed at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, 15 December 1945.
Jackie Cochran’s Beechcraft D17W, NX18562, c/n 164, carrying the race number “33” circa 1938. (Unattributed)
¹ This is not the same D17W that Jackie Cochran used to set A U.S. National Speed records, 26 and 29 July 1937. Please see TDiA at: https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/26-july-1937/
² FAI Record File Number 12228: 8,761 meters (28,743 feet), 6 March 1931. Please see TDiA at: https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/6-march-1931/
![A drawing showing the proposed route of one of the escape tunnels, by wartime artist Ley Kenyon, a prisoner-of-war in Stalag Luft III at the time of the Great Escape in March 1944 [Picture: from the original drawings of Ley Kenyon 1943] (GOV.UK)](https://static.thisdayinaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/tdia/2016/03/ODD_5948.jpg.webp)
