Prototype Northrop XF-89, 46-678, parked on the dry lake bed at Muroc Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force)
16 August 1948: The prototype Northrop XF-89 all-weather interceptor, 46-678, made its first flight at Muroc Air Force Base (later, Edwards Air Force Base). Company test pilot Fred Charles Bretcher, Jr., was at the controls.
The Northrop XF-89 was a two-place, twin-engine, mid-wing monoplane with retractable tricycle landing gear, designed as an all-weather interceptor. The pilot and radar intercept officer sat in tandem in the pressurized cockpit. Similar to Northrop’s World War II-era P-61 Black Widow night fighter, the XF-89 was painted gloss black.
Northrop XF-89 prototype, 46-678, near Edwards Air Force Base, California. (U.S. Air Force)
The XF-89 was 50 feet, 6 inches (15.392 meters) long, with a wingspan of 52 feet, 0 inches (15.847 meters). The wing had a 1.5° angle of incident, and1° dihedral. The total wing area was 606.2 square feet (56.32 square meters). The prototype had an empty weight of 23,010 pounds (10,437 kilograms), gross weight of 31,000 pounds (14,061 kilograms), and maximum takeoff weight of 43,000 pounds (19,505 kilograms).
The XF-89 was powered by two Allison J35-A-9 single-spool, axial-flow turbojet engines. The J35 had an 11-stage compressor section and single-stage turbine. The J35-A-9 was rated at 3,750 pounds of thrust (16.68 kilonewtons). The engine was 12 feet, 1.0 inches (3.683 meters) long, 3 feet, 4.0 inches (1.016 meters) in diameter, and weighed 2,455 pounds (1,114 kilograms).
Northrop XF-89 46-678. (U.S. Air Force)
The prototype crashed during a demonstration flight, its 102nd, at Hawthorne Airport, 22 February 1950. Vibrations caused by the engines’ exhaust caused the tail to separate. The pilot, Charles Tucker, escaped, but flight test engineer Arthur Turton was killed.
The F-89 went into production as the F-89A Scorpion. 1,050 were produced in eight variants. The final series, F-89J, remained in service with the Air National Guard until 1969.
Northrop F-89J Scorpion 53-2509 (converted from F-89D-55-NO) at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The interceptor is carrying two AIR-2 Genie rockets on its underwing pylons. (U.S. Air Force)
Fred Charles Bretcher, Jr., was born 22 September 1920, at Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the son of Fred Charles Bretcher, a pharmacist, and Frieda Juliana Emma Poggenbeck Bretcher. His father, Sergeant Bretcher (or Bretscher), had served in an ambulance company at Ypres and the Meuse-Argonne during World War I, and had been honorably discharged, 18 April 1919.
The younger Bretcher attended Western Hills High School in Cincinnati. He played with the golf team and worked on the school newspaper. Bretcher graduated in 1938. He then worked as a sales clerk while attending college.
Bretcher enlisted as an aviation cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, 29 May 1941. He was sent to the Southeast Air Corps Training Center, Maxwell Field, Alabama, as a member of Class 42A. He graduated 8 January 1942, and was released from his enlistment to accept a commission as a second lieutenant, effective 9 January 1942. Lieutenant Bretcher was then assigned to Wright Field, Ohio, as a trainee test pilot. While at Wright, he flew every aircraft in the Air Corps inventory.
Lieutenant Bretcher flew combat missions in the European Theater in the Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and North American P-51 Mustang. Temporarily assigned to the Royal Air Force, he flew the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Tempest fighters and the Avro Lancaster long-range heavy bomber. While serving in Europe, Bretcher was promoted to the rank of captain.
Captain Bretcher returned to Wright Field in May 1944. Promoted to major, he was assigned as the Chief of the Bomber Test Section, working on the Boeing B-29 Superfortress and Consolidated B-32 Dominator heavy bomber projects.
Major Bretcher also flew at Muroc Army Airfield in California, testing the Bell YP-59 Airacomet, Lockheed YP-80A Shooting Star, and the experimental Northrop N-9M flying wing proof-of-concept airplane. Major Bretcher was released from active duty, 13 January 1946.
Fred Charles Bretcher, Jr.
Fred Bretcher went to work for the Northrop Corporation, Hawthorne, California, as a civilian test pilot. He flew as co-pilot to Chief Test Pilot Max R. Stanley on the first flight of the Northrop YB-35, 15 May 1948.
In 1950, Bretcher was assigned to the flight test program of Northrop’s N-25 Snark cruise missile (which would be developed into the SM-62 Snark) at Holloman Air Force Base, near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Bretcher married Miss Jean Taylor at Albuquerque, New Mexico, 18 December 1951. He retired from the Northrop Corporation in 1952.
Fred Charles Bretcher, Jr., died at Sedona, Arizona, 2 June 2004. He was 83 years old.
The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery : —
Flight Lieutenant James Brindley NICOLSON (39329) — No. 249 Squadron.
During an engagement with the enemy near Southampton on 16th August, 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson’s aircraft was hit by four cannon shells, two of which wounded him whilst another set fire to the gravity tank. When about to abandon his aircraft owing to flames in the cockpit he sighted an enemy fighter. This he attacked and shot down, although as a result of staying in his burning aircraft he sustained serious burns to his hands, face, neck and legs.
Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order. By continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire, he displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life.
—The London Gazette, Number 34993, Friday, 15 November 1940, at Page 6569, Column 1
Wing Commander Nicolson’s medals at the RAF Museum, Hendon, London. (greentool2002)
Peter Townsend wrote about Nick Nicolson’s battle in his history of the Battle of Britain, Duel of Eagles:
Flight Lieutenant Eric J.B. Nicolson, VC, RAF (Detail from photograph by Stanley Devon, Royal Air Force official photographer. Imperial War Museum CH 1700 4700-16)
“Flight Lieutenant J.B. Nicolson of 249 Squadron was patrolling in his Hurricane west of Tangmere at seventeen thousand feet. He dived on some Ju. 88s when suddenly his Hurricane staggered. From somewhere behind bullets and cannon shells ripped through the hood, hit him in the foot and pierced his centre-tank. A searing mass of flame filled the cockpit. As he whipped into a steep turn he saw the offender, a Me. 110, slide below, diving hard. A wild resolve, stronger than reason, seized Nicolson. The cockpit a furnace, his dashboard ‘dripping like treacle’ and his hands fused by heat onto throttle and stick, he yelled, ‘I’ll get you, you Hun.’ And he went firing until the Me. 110 fell, until the frightful agony of his burns had passed the threshold of feeling. Then he struggled out of the cockpit and still wreathed in flames fell until the rush of cold air extinguished them. Only then did his mutilated hand fumble for the ripcord and somehow find strength to pull it. As if his sufferings were not already enough, some imbecile of a Home Guard fired at Nicolson and hit him fifty feet above the village of Millbrook in Hampshire.
“The gallant Nicolson was awarded the Victoria Cross. Of three thousand fighter pilots who fought in the battle ‘to defend the cause of civilization’ Nicolson alone among the defenders received the supreme award for valour. It was enough. The twenty-three-year-old pilot was typical of his young comrades. Alone in their tiny cockpits miles above the earth, there courage was of a peculiar kind which no medal, no material standard, could ever properly measure.”
— Duel of Eagles, Group Captain Peter Wooldridge Townsend, CVO, DSO, DFC and Bar, RAF. Cassell Publishers Limited, London, Chapter 23 at Pages 328–329.
Nick Nicolson’s fighter was a Hawker Hurricane Mk.I, P3576, with squadron markings GN A. It was in the third production block of 544 Hurricanes built by Hawker Aircraft Limited, Brooklands, between February and July 1940.
The Hurricane Mk.I was ordered into production in the summer of 1936. The first production airplane flew on 12 October 1937. The early production Hurricane Mk. I retained the wooden fixed-pitch propeller and fabric-covered wings of the prototype, though this would change with subsequent models. It was 31 feet, 4 inches (9.550 meters) long with a wingspan of 40 feet (12.192 meters) and overall height of 13 feet, 3 inches (4.039 meters). Its empty weight was 4,982 pounds (2,260 kilograms) and gross weight was 6,750 pounds (3,062 kilograms).
The Mk.I’s engine was a liquid-cooled, supercharged, 27.01 liter (1,648.96 cubic inches) Rolls-Royce R.M.1.S. Merlin Mk.III single-overhead-cam 60° V-12, rated at 990 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m. at 12,250 feet (3,734 meters), and 1,030 horsepower at 3,000 r.p.m., at 10,250 feet (3,124 meters), using 87 octane aviation gasoline. The Merlin III drove the propeller through a 0.477:1 gear reduction ratio. It weighed 1,375 pounds (624 kilograms).
The fixed-pitch propeller was soon replaced with a three-bladed, two-pitch propeller, and then a three-bladed constant-speed propeller. Speed trials of a Mk.I equipped with a 10 foot, 9 inch (3.277 meters) diameter Rotol constant-speed propeller achieved a maximum True Air Speed in level flight of 316 miles per hour (509 kilometers per hour) at 17,750 feet (5,410 meters) at 3,000 r.p.m. The service ceiling was 33,750 feet (10,287 meters). The Mk.I’s range was 600 miles (966 kilometers) at 175 miles per hour (282 kilometers per hour).
The fighter was armed with eight Browning .303-caliber Mark II machine guns mounted in the wings.
At the beginning of World War II, 497 Hurricanes had been delivered to the Royal Air Force, enough to equip 18 squadrons. During the Battle of Britain, the Hurricane accounted for 55% of the enemy aircraft destroyed. Continuously upgraded throughout the war, it remained in production until 1944. A total of 14,503 were built by Hawker, Gloster and the Canadian Car and Foundry Company.
Eric James Brindley Nicolson was born 29 April 1917 at Hampstead, London, England. His parents were Leslie Gibson Nicolson and Dorothea Hilda Ellen Brindley. He was educated at the Tonbridge School in Kent, a private school which was founded in 1553. Nicolson was employed as an experimental engineer at Sir Henry Ricardo’s Engine Patents, Ltd., Shoreham, West Sussex, until joining the Royal Air Force in October 1936. On 21 December 1936, he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer. After flight training, P/O Nicolson served with No. 72 Squadron at RAF Church Fenton, North Yorkshire, August 1937–May 1940. He was promoted to Flying Officer, 12 May 1939.
On 29 July 1939, Eric Nicolson was married to Miss Muriel Caroline Kendall of Kirby Wharfe, Yorkshire.
Flying Officer Nicolson was assigned to No. 249 Squadron at RAF Leconfield, East Riding of Yorkshire, 15 May 1940, as an acting flight commander, and then promoted to Flight Lieutenant, 3 September 1940.
Following the action of 16 August, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson was hospitalized at the burn unit of Princess Mary’s Hospital, RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire, and then sent to a convalescent facility at Torquay, Devon. On 12 January 1941, he was promoted to Squadron Leader.
Nicolson returned to duty 24 February 1941, with 54 Operational Training Unit. From 21 September 1941 to 16 March 1942, he commanded No. 1459 Flight at RAF Hibaldstow, Lincolnshire. This was a night fighter unit, flying the Douglas Boston (P-70 Havoc). He was next assigned as a staff officer at Headquarters, 293 Wing, Royal Air Force, Alipore, West Bengal, India. After another staff assignment, Squadron Leader Nicolson was given command of 27 Squadron, a de Havilland Mosquito squadron at Agartala, in northeast India.
Nick Nicolson was promoted to Wing Commander 11 August 1944 and assigned to 3rd Tactical Air Force Headquarters in the Comilla Cantonment, East Bengal.
Wing Commander Eric James Brindley Nicolson, V.C., D.F.C., died 2 May 1945, while flying as an observer aboard a No. 355 Squadron Consolidated Liberator B Mk.VI, KH210, “R” (B-24J-85-CF 44-44071). At approximately 0250 hours, two engines caught fire. The bomber, piloted by Squadron Leader G.A. De Souza, RAF, and Flight Sergeant Michael Henry Pullen, Royal Australian Air Force, ditched in the Bay of Bengal, approximately 130 miles (209 kilometers) south of Calcutta. Of the eleven on board, only Pullen and one of the gunners survived.
Nicolson was the only RAF Fighter Command pilot awarded the Victoria Cross during World War II.
This Liberator Mk.VI KH166 (B-24J-80-CF 44-10731) is the same type as the bomber on which Wing Commander Nicolson was killed, 2 May 1945.
The start of the Dole Air Race at Oakland Field, California, 16 August 1927. In starting position is Oklahoma. Waiting, left to right, are Aloha, Dallas Spirit, Miss Doran, Woolaroc, El Encanto, Golden Eagle, Air King and PABCO Pacific Flyer. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
16 August 1927: Not long after Charles A. Lindbergh had flown solo across the Atlantic Ocean, James D. Dole, founder of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (HAPCO, now the Dole Foods Company, Inc., Westlake Village, California) offered a prize of $25,000 to the first pilots to fly from Oakland Field, Oakland, California, to Wheeler Field, Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, a Great Circle distance of 2,406.05 miles (3,872.16 kilometers). A $10,000 prize was offered for a second-place finisher.
James Drummond Dole, 28 June 1927. (Library of Congress)
There were 33 entrants and 14 of these were selected for starting positions. After accidents and inspections by the race committee, the final list of starters was down to eight.
Accidents began to claim the lives of entrants before the race even began. A Pacific Aircraft Company J-30 (also known as the Tremaine Hummingbird) flown by Lieutenants George Walter Daniel Covell and Richard Stokely Waggener, U.S. Navy, named The Spirit of John Rodgers, took off from North Island Naval Air Station, San Diego, California, on Wednesday, 10 August, en route to Oakland Field. They had drawn starting position 13. 15 minutes later, in heavy fog, they crashed into the cliffs of Point Loma. Both naval officers were killed.
British aviator Arthur Vickers Rogers was killed in his Bryant Monoplane, Angel of Los Angeles, when it crashed just after takeoff from Montebello, California, 11 August.
One airplane, Miss Doran, made an emergency landing in a farm field, and a fourth, Pride of Los Angeles, flown by movie star Hoot Gibson (Edmund Richard Gibson), crashed into San Francisco Bay while on approach to Oakland. The occupants of those two airplanes were unhurt.
Wreckage of the Pacific Aircraft J-30, The Spirit of John Rodgers, at Point Loma, 10 August 1927. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)Hoot Gibson’s Pride of Los Angeles, an International Aircraft Corporation F-10 triplane, crashed on approach to Oakland Field. The crew were not hurt. I.A.C. advertised its products as “Airplanes That Fly Themselves.” (San Diego Air & Space Museum)The first airplane to take off from Oakland for the Dole Air Race was Oklahoma, a Travel Air 5000, NX911. The crowd of spectators was estimated to number 50,000–100,000 people. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
By the morning of 16 August, there were eight entrants remaining. Their starting positions had been selected by a random draw. A little before 11:00 a.m., the first airplane, a Travel Air 5000, registered NX911 and named Oklahoma, took off, but soon aborted the flight because of engine trouble. El Encanto, a Goddard Special, NX5074, crashed on takeoff. A Breese-Wilde Monoplane, PABCO Pacific Flyer, NX646, crashed on takeoff. The crews of these three airplanes were not hurt.
The Goddard Special, NX5074, El Encanto, which had been favored to win the race, crashed on takeoff. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)Lockheed Vega 1, NX913, Golden Eagle, lifts off from Oakland, 16 August 1927. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
The next airplane to take off was Golden Eagle, the prototype Lockheed Vega. Registered NX913, it was flown by Jack Frost with Gordon Scott as the navigator. It soon disappeared to the west.
The Lockheed was followed by the Buhl CA-5 Air Sedan, NX2915, named Miss Doran. Repairs from its unscheduled landing in the farmer’s field had been accomplished. It was flown by John “Auggy” Pedlar with Lieutenant Vilas Raymond Knope, U.S. Navy, as navigator.
Also aboard was a passenger, Miss Mildred Alice Doran, the airplane’s namesake. She was a 22-year-old fifth-grade school teacher from Flint, Michigan. She knew William Malloska, owner of the Lincoln Petroleum Company (later, CITGO), who had sponsored her education at the University of Michigan. Miss Doran convinced him to enter an airplane in the Dole Air Race and allow her to fly along. Two local air circus pilots reportedly flipped a coin for the chance to fly the airplane in the Dole Air Race. John August (“Auggy”) Pedlar won the toss. Just ten minutes after takeoff from Oakland Field, Miss Doran returned with engine problems.
Next off was Dallas Spirit, a Swallow Special, NX941, with William Portwood Erwin, pilot, and Alvin Hanford Eichwaldt, navigator. It also quickly returned to Oakland.
The Travel Air 5000 NX896, Woolaroc, being prepared for the Trans-Pacific flight at Oakland, California, 16 August 1927. The airplane has been placed in flight attitude for calibration of its navigation instruments. The airplane is painted “Travel Air Blue” with orange wings. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
The last two entrants, a Breese-Wilde 5 Monoplane, NX914, Aloha, with Martin Jensen, pilot, and Captain Paul Henry Schlüter, a master mariner, as navigator; and Woolaroc, a Travel Air 5000, NX869, took off without difficulty.
Miss Doran made a second attempt and took off successfully. PABCO Pacific Flyer also tried again, crashing a second time.
Miss Doran, a Buhl CA-5 Air Sedan, NX2915, takes off from Oakland, California, 16 August 1927. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)Woolaroc, the Travel Air 5000, NX869, arrives at Wheeler Field, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, 17 August 1927. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
Woolaroc, with Arthur Cornelius Goebel as pilot and Lieutenant (j.g.) William Virginius Davis, Jr., U.S. Navy, as navigator, flew across the Pacific and arrived at Honolulu after 26 hours, 17 minutes, to win the race. Aloha arrived after 28 hours, 16 minutes of flight. Lieutenant Davis (later, Vice Admiral Davis) was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Arthur C. Goebel won the Dole Air Race. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
Golden Eagle and Miss Doran never arrived. A search by more than forty ships of the United States Navy was unsuccessful. Dallas Spirit was repaired and Erwin and Eichwaldt took off to join the search for their competitors. They, too, were never seen again.
Lieutenant (j.g) George W. D. Covell, U.S. Navy, and Lieutenant Richard S. Waggener, U.S. Navy, were killed when their airplane crashed in fog, 10 August 1927, while flying to Oakland to join the Dole Air Race. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)British aviator Arthur Vickers Rogers was killed 11 August 1927, shortly after taking off on a test flight for his Dole Air Race entry, Pride of Los Angeles, a twin-engine Bryant monoplane, NX705. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)The crew of Miss Doran, left to right, John August “Auggy” Pedlar, Mildred Alice Doran and Lieutenant Vilas R. Knope, United States Navy. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)Miss Mildred Alice Doran: “Life is nothing but a chance.” (San Diego Air & Space Museum)John William “Jack” Frost and Gordon Macalister Scott, crew of Golden Eagle. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)Alvin Hanford Eichwaldt, navigator, and William Portwood Erwin, pilot, took their repaired Dallas Spirit to join the search for Golden Eagle and Miss Moran. They, too, disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)Alvin H. Eichwaldt, navigator, and William P. Erwin, pilot, took their repaired Dallas Spirit to join the search for Golden Eagle and Miss Moran. They, too, disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)Swallow Special NX914, Dallas Spirit. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
Woolaroc, the race-winning Travelair 5000, is at the Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve, 12 miles southwest of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
The Travel Air 5000, Woolaroc, NX869, in the collection of the Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve. (Tyler Thompson/Wikipedia)
Joe Claiborne DeBona in the cockpit of Thunderbird, the record-setting North American Aviation P-51C Mustang, NX5528N. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archive, Catalog #: 00069383)
Joe Claiborne DeBona was born 16 August 1912 at Eagle Pass, Texas. He was the second son of Giuseppe (“Joseph”) DeBona, a merchandise broker and an immigrant from Italy, and Adline (“Addie”) May Claiborne Debona.
Main Avenue High School, San Antonio, Texas, circa 1922. (San Antonio Express-News)
Joe DeBona attended Main Avenue High School in San Antonio, Texas, where, in 1928, he was on the track team. He then studied at the University of Texas. He was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) fraternity, and played quarterback on the football team.
(On 27 May 1935, Joe C. DeBona, an instructor, married Miss Georgia C. Wiley in Los Angeles County, California.) ¹
On 29 August 1940 Joe Claiborne De Bona married Miss Evelyn Lewis, a graduate of the University of Southern California and an interior decorator. The 4:40 p.m. ceremony in the home of the bride’s family in Beverly Hills, California, was officiated by Reverend Murray McNeil. They would have a daughter, Eve. Contemporary newspaper articles reported that DeBona was a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps.
DeBona registered for Selective Service (conscription) 16 October 1940. He was described as 5 feet, 10½ inches (179 centimeters) tall, 175 pounds (79 kilograms) with black hair and hazel eyes. He had a dark complexion and a birthmark between his shoulder blades. At that time, he was employed by the National Cash Register Company in Los Angeles, California, as a salesman.
Joe Claiborne DeBona enlisted in the United States Army 21 July 1942.
During World War II, he served with the 1st Ferrying Squadron, 6th Ferrying Group, Air Transport Command, United States Army Air Forces, under the command of Colonel Ralph E. Spake, based at Long Beach Army Air Field, California.
While flying a Lockheed F-5A-10-LO Lightning photographic reconnaissance fighter, serial number 42-13113, 19 February 1943, First Lieutenant DeBona made a forced landing at Marajó Island, Pará, Brazil. The Lightning was written off.
Lockheed F-5A-10-LO Lightning 42-13289. This photographic reconnaissance airplane is from the same production block as the F-5A flown by 1st Lieutenant Joe C. DeBona over Brazil, 19 February 1943. (U.S. Air Force 080306-F-3927A-050)
The Binghampton Press, Binghampton, New York, reported:
Flier Rescued After 14 Days Alone in Jungle
DeBona, Forced Down in Brazil, Suffered Most From Loneliness
By A. T. STEELE
SPECIAL CABLE
To The Binghampton Press and the Chicago Daily News, Inc.
Somewhere in Brazil, March 10—(Delayed)—Forced down in the Depths of the Brazilian jungle an American pilot has been rescued from a nightmare experience of 20 days. He is Lieut. Joe De Bona who is today speeding back to his home in Beverly Hills, Cal., for reunion with his waiting wife.
I met Mr. De Bona at a Brazilian air base shortly after he arrived, bearded and weary from his forest trek. He said he had lost more than 25 pounds and admitted that his long stay in the jungle, fighting the mosquitoes and fever, and worst of all the black solitude had badly shaken his nerves. Mr. De Bona is by no means the first flyer to crash in the Amazon forest but he is one of the very few to come back alive. Mr. De Bona was ferrying a two-motored plane across Brazil when one of his motors suddenly conked out. Twenty-five minutes later the second engine quit and the plane headed steeply for the dense forest below.
Miraculously Mr. De Bona found a hole in the jungle mass and managed to make a belly landing in the bog. As the radio was still working he ticked out his approximate position to an air base 165 miles away. Then he sat down for a long wait. Three days later an American search plane found him and dropped him iron rations. Mr. De Bona had hoped he might be rescued within a few days but it was not until 14 days after his crash that a small party of natives succeeded in beating their way through the forest to the place where the pilot and his plane waited.
“I have been to Guadalcanal and I have been through some mighty unpleasant experiences in my life but I’ve never suffered anything like the torture of the fortnight in the jungle,” Mr. De Bona went on.
“I didn’t dare go far from the plane for I would have been lost in 10 minutes if I tried to penetrate the thick forest which surrounded me. One I started to climb a tree to look over the countryside but I came down in a hurry when I met a snake gazing at me through the branches. The days were blazing hot with occasional squalls of drenching rain. I could do but sit them out under what little shelter my plane could give me. A 6 o’clock night came down with equatorial suddenness. The swamp mosquitoes came on duty, buzzing about me until dawn. I slept or tried to sleep in the tail of my ship, using my rubber raft as a mattress and my parachute as a mosquito net.”
Mr. De Bona exhibited a leg flecked with spots—ant bites. Unlike the mosquitoes, jungle ants worked 24 hours daily.
Mr. De Bona said much of his suffering was psychological. The loneliness, the black nights, the long hours of waiting with nothing to read and nothing to think about except his own difficulties, had a cumulative effect as the days passed. Then there were the jungle noises which mounted in crescendo after the sun went down. Sitting in his lonely swamp he saw monkeys, buffaloes, brilliant plumaged birds and snakes. The creatures he liked least were the black scavenger birds which soared continuously over the forest looking for dead meat.
Mr. De Bona developed a fever a few days before his rescue and was soon “hearing imaginary voices” and talking to himself/ When on the 14th day a Brazilian rescue party of four men driving saddled oxen broke into the clearing, De Bona wept with relief.
“I never believed anything like this possible outside Hollywood,” Mr. De Bona said. “But now I know Hollywood sometimes is right.”
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, reported:
Ferry Pilots Learn World Hardest Way
Get Aquainted With Geography At First Hand
By JOHN FRYE
Cincinnatti, June 26 (AP)—The cables said 300 United States planes poured bombs on Italy, another 150 were over Germany, General MacArthur’s Lightnings shot down a hatful of Zeroes over New Guinea.—
First Lieut. Joe C. DeBona of Beverly Hills, Calif., learning geography the hard way, licked the jungle dew off the cockpit canopy because he was thirsty.—
Lieutenant DeBona’s connection with the ships that are making American air power felt over the world is this: He is one of the thousands of Army pilots, most of them anonymous, who take the planes from the factories to the battle. Gen H. H. Arnold, chief of the Air Forces, told West Point graduates the other day that 1,800 planes were taken out in May alone.
Engines Died Over Jungle.
One of the incredibly few who have accidents, Lieutenant DeBona didn’t get there on this particular trip. Both his engines quit over the jungle. He got back alive two weeks later to add the the data that is making the Ferrying Division of the Air Transport Command one of the world’s greatest repositories of geographical information.
The Ferrying Division’s headquarters told Lieutenant DeBona’s story as an incident in its operations, which are greater than those of all commercial airline put together.
DeBona had to drop out of a formation of six pursuit ships. He landed in country he described as “jungle, marsh, and swamp, all combined. Because it is combined, you have the jungle with marsh and swamp beneath it, then you have marsh and swamp out in the open, thick groves of tall trees resembling our oaks, much bamboo and tall grass resembling our Johnson grass and alfalfa, growing in water from six inches to a foot deep. Water ranged throughout the land except in dry spots, anywhere from six inches deep to over my head.
Water, Water Everywhere.
“This was brackish water which I did not touch, being informed in the pilot’s briefing that this water, even though boiled, is sometimes dangerous, unfit to drink.
“The ants worked twenty-four hours a day. They never quit, those guys. The ground was covered with ants and ticks. The ticks resemble snails. They pierce the skin with both the head and the tail of the body, then suck the blood.
“During the night the animal noises were constant. I could hear all kinds of animals being killed or killing. And I, in my own thinking, adopted the saying that jungle life is kill to live. I noticed too that all the animals were terrifically alert all the time, constantly on the lookout.
“I had only the turbo canvas covers to catch the rain and I did. I guess I salvaged a quart of water, rain water. Whenever it rained, I was up, even if it was the middle of the night.
“Every morning I would lick the dew off the canopy over the cockpit. I didn’t lick it off the ship because I was afraid it would poison me. But I was tempted on many occasions to lick it off the plane. When one is thirsty—it’s hard for me to explain here—your reasoning is poor, your fears are exaggerated.”
A Home On the Ice.
First Lieut. Harry E. Spencer, Jr., of Dallas, Texas, and his crew crashed somewhere in the Arctic, learned another branch of geography, which he later reported personally to President Roosevelt in the White House.
“I learned to keep my fingers away from the fire as much as possible to get them used to the cold. I learned that clothes will dry in the wind, freezing stiff, and the ice evaporating.
“I found the main thing to keep warm was to keep the wind out and my clothes dry. I learned to keep the heat off the snow house, for the heat would melt the snow on the ceiling and drip on the sleeping bags and wet them.
“Our snow house—the idea of a hole in the snow is to dig down to solid ice. In the fall this would be only a couple of feet as there would be no soft snow on top. As new comes, the ice level is further beneath the surface. Our first house was little more than three feet below the surface, with just enough room to barely crawl around. Later, when more snow fell, we dug out the ceiling to make more room.”
Lieutenant DeBona and Lieutenant Spencer both started out from an airplane factory or modification center. One went south and one went north. On the next trip, they might swap directions. Or they might swap types of ships.
There are few specialists in the Ferrying Division’s great bases scattered over the country. Many pilots may fly anything from a Grasshopper liaison plane to a Flying Fortress or Liberator. The destination may be England or China.
Like the more familiar cargohaulers of the Air Transport Command, the Ferrying Division pilots are making routine out of trips over vast wastelands, some never before seen by men.
All but a small fraction of the pilots starting on a delivery complete it.
Lieutenant Spencer and Lieutenant DeBona had their troubles and came back. Some haven’t. But none is forgotten when he fails to report on time.
47 days later, 6 April 1943, DeBona was involved in another accident while taxiing a Boeing B-17F-70-BO Flying Fortress, 42-29810, at Morrison Army Air Field (now, Palm Beach International Airport, FAA location identifier PBI). The accident was a result of a mechanical failure. The B-17 was repaired and returned to service. Flown across the Atlantic Ocean to England, it was assigned to Mediterranean Theater of Operations. 42-29810 was salvaged in Italy, 16 June 1944.
On 14 December 1943, Captain Joe C. DeBona, O-483618, arrived at Washington, D.C., aboard a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, 41-20140, from Prestwick, Scotland, via Borinquen, Puerto Rico.
Douglas C-54 Skymaster, circa 1943. (Library of Congress digital ID fsa.8b08002)
By 1945, Captain DeBona was flying the Douglas C-54 Skymaster on transpacific flights, transporting wounded soldiers back to the United States.
Joe Clairborn DeBona was discharged from the Army Air Forces 6 December 1945.
On 7 April 1948, the Joe De Bona Racing Co., 133 N. Robertson Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California, purchased a North American Aviation P-51C Mustang, N5528N, serial number 2925, from Leland Cameron. (The company was a partnership between De Bona and Academy Award-winning actor and World War II B-24 bomber pilot James Maitland (“Jimmy”) Stewart.)
North American Aviation P-51C Mustang. (North American Aviation, Inc.)
Over the next several months, N5528N, now named Thunderbird, was prepared for the upcoming 1948 Bendix Trophy Race. Unnecessary equipment such as the self-sealing fuel cells, the fuselage fuel tank, etc., were removed to save weight. The airframe seams were filled with putty and sanded smooth. Many coats of primer were applied followed by the the high-gloss “cobalt blue” paint. Gold decorative trim was applied. Thunderbird‘s airworthiness category, EXPERIMENTAL, was painted under the canopy rail on each side. Sponsors’ logos and crew member’s names were painted on the left side of the fuselage beneath the canopy. (The significance of the anvil logo with the numbers “1853” is not known.) The rudder was painted in a checkerboard pattern and the race number 90 applied to both sides of the fuselage. The registration was painted vertically on the fin, the top of the right wing and the bottom of the left wing.
Joe DeBona and Jimmy Stewart with Thunderbird, their P-51C Mustang racer. Placed on the ramp in front of the airplane is equipment that has been removed or replaced. Note the four “cuffed” Hamilton Standard propeller blades along the right side of the photograph. (LIFE Magazine)
The start of the 1948 Bendix Trophy Race took place on 4 September at Van Nuys, California. Joe De Bona was entered with Thunderbird, but was unable to complete the race. Reportedly low on fuel, he landed at Norwalk, Ohio.
On 29 March 1949, Thunderbird, with De Bona in the cockpit, took off from the Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California, at 6:20:50 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (13:20:50 UTC) and flew across the North American continent to land at LaGuardia Airport in New York City at 2:20:50 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (18:20:55 UTC). This flight was observed by the National Aeronautic Association and timed at 5 hours, 0 minutes, 5 seconds. The official distance flown was 2,453.085 statute miles (3,947.858 kilometers), with an average speed of 490.625 miles per hour (789.584 kilometers per hour). This established a new U.S. national speed record.
Jackie Cochran’s North American Aviation P-51B-5-NA Mustang N5528N. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives, Catalog #: 00069379)
Joe DeBona had made two prior unsuccessful transcontinental record attempts with Thunderbird. On March 6, he was forced to land at Smoky Hill Air Force Base, Salina, Kansas. (Some contemporary news reports said that the problem was a fuel pump, while others said it was an oil pump.) On 24 March, Thunderbird‘s propeller governor failed near Pueblo, Colorado. DeBona aborted the attempt and returned to Burbank, California.
1949 ace winner Joe De Bona with the Bendix Trophy. De Bona flew Thunderbird in the 1948 and 1949 air races. (Unattributed)
The start of the 1949 Bendix Trophy Race was relocated from Metropolitan Airport at Van Nuys to Rosamond Dry Lake, 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) north of Muroc Air Force Base (renamed Edwards AFB just two months later). This year, Joe De Bona was successful. He won the 2,008 mile (3,231.6 kilometers) race to Cleveland, Ohio in an elapsed time of 4:16:17.5, averaging 470.1 miles per hour (756.6 kilometers per hour).
On 31 March 1954, DeBona took off from Los Angeles International Airport, on the shoreline of southern California, in a North American Aviation P-51C Mustang, N5528N. Departing at At 7:18:08 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (14:18:08 UTC), he flew across the North American continent non-stop, and arrived overhead New York International Airport at 2:42:25 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (18:42:25 UTC). The total elapsed time for the flight was 4 hours, 24 minutes, 17 seconds. DeBona’s average speed was 560.74 miles per hour (902.424 kilometers per hour).
Jimmy Stewart crouches on Mr. Alex’s wing, while Joe De Bona occupies the cockpit, 16 March 1954, prior to a non-stop transcontinental speed record attempt. Stewart is not wearing shoes so as to avoid scuffing the smooth surface of the wing. (Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961/Doheny Memorial Library, University of Southern California)
This was a new U.S. national speed record, certified by the National Aeronautic Association.
A major event of 1953 was the Coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June. American television networks CBS and NBC had arranged to have films of the ceremonies flown across the Atlantic to Newfoundland. From there the film would be flown on to the United States by Jimmy Stewart’s P-51 and another owned by Paul Mantz, NX1204, flown by Stanley Reaver.
Televised coronation of Eliuzabeth II. (The Royal Household)
Joe De Bona was once again in the cockpit of N5528N. He arrived at Boston 24 minutes before his rival, Stan Reaver, but a third network, ABC, was actually the first to broadcast the films of the Coronation.
Mr. Alex, Jimmy Stewart’s North American Aviation P-51C Mustang, N5528N. (Unattributed)
Attempting to set another transcontinental speed record, De Bona took off from Los Angeles International Airport at 7:18:08 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (14:18:08 UTC), 31 March 1954, and flew to Idlewild Airport in New York City. He landed there at 2:42:25 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (18:42:25 UTC). With an official elapsed time of 4 hours, 24 minutes, 17 seconds, the National Aeronautic Association credited him with a U.S. national record speed of 560.74 miles per hour (902.42 kilometers per hour).
Joe C. DeBona died at Newport Beach, California, 23 January 1975. He was 62 years of age.
¹ This Day in Aviation has been unable to determine if this was the same Joe C. DeBona.
An American Airlines Boeing 707-023B Astrojet (720B) at Los Angeles International Airport, 26 December 1962. (Photograph used with the permission of Jon Proctor)
15 August 1962: American Airlines’ Captain Eugene M. (“Gene”) Kruse set two National Aeronautic Association Class C-1 records for Speed Over a Commercial Air Route, East to West Transcontinental, when he flew a Boeing 720B Astrojet from New York to Los Angeles, 2,474 miles (3,981.5 kilometers), in 4 hours, 19 minutes, 15 seconds, at an average speed of 572.57 miles per hour (921.46 kilometers per hour). 61 years later, these records still stand.
The National Aeronautic Association has placed Captain Kruse’s records on its “Most Wanted” list: long-standing flight records that it would like to see challenged. Rules require that a new record exceed the old by at least a 1% margin. The performance needed to establish a new record would be 578.30 miles per hour (930.68 kilometers per hour).
The Boeing 720 was a variant of the Model 707, intended for short to medium range flights. It had 100 inches (2.54 meters) removed from the fuselage length and improvements to the wing, decreasing aerodynamic drag.
The Boeing 720 was operated by a flight crew of four and could carry up to 149 passengers. It was 136 feet, 2 inches (41.25 meters) long with a wingspan of 130 feet, 10 inches (39.90 meters) and overall height of 41 feet, 7 inches (12.65 meters). The airplane had an empty weight of 103,145 pounds (46,785 kilograms) and Maximum Takeoff Weight of 220,000 pounds (100,800 kilograms).
The Boeing 720 was powered by four Pratt & Whitney Turbo Wasp JT3C-7 turbojet engines, a civil variant of the military J57 series. The 720B was equipped with the more efficient P&W JT3D-1 turbofan engines. The JT3C-7 was a “two-spool” axial-flow engine with a 16-stage compressor (9 low- and 7 high-pressure stages), 8 combustion tubes, and a 3-stage turbine (1 high- and 2 low-pressure stages). It was rated at 12,030 pounds of thrust (53.512 kilonewtons) for takeoff. The JT3D-1 was a dual axial-flow turbofan engine, with a 2-stage fan section 13-stage compressor (6 low- and 7 high pressure stages), 8 combustion chambers and a 4-stage turbine (1 high- and 3 low-pressure stages). This engine was rated at 14,500 pounds of static thrust (64.499 kilonewtons) at Sea Level, and 17,000 pounds (75.620 kilonewtons), with water injection, for takeoff (2½ minute limit). Almost half of the engine’s thrust was produced by the fans. Maximum engine speed was 6,800 r.p.m. (N1) and 10,200 r.p.m. (N2). It was 11 feet, 4.64 inches (3.471 meters) long, 4 feet, 5.00 inches (1.346 meters) wide and 4 feet, 10.00 inches (1.422 meters) high. It weighed 4,165 pounds (1,889 kilograms). The JT3C could be converted to the JT3D configuration during overhaul.
The maximum cruise speed was 611 miles per hour (983 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed was 620 miles per hour (1,009 kilometers per hour). Range at at maximum payload was 4,370 miles (7,033 kilometers).
Boeing built 154 720 and 720B airliners from 1959 to 1967.
The last flight of a Boeing 720 was on 9 May 2012, when a 720B aircraft used by Pratt and Whitney Canada as a test aircraft was placed in the National Air Force Museum of Canada at Trenton, Ontario.
