Douglas test pilot Gene May with a D-558-I Skystreak research airplane. (Douglas Aircraft Company)
14 April 1947:¹ Douglas Aircraft Company test pilot Eugene Francis (“Gene”) May took the Number 1 U.S. Navy/NACA/Douglas D-558-I Skystreak high-speed research aircraft, Bu. No. 37970, for its first flight at at Muroc Army Airfield. The aircraft had been transported from the Los Angeles factory to Muroc by truck.
Douglas Aircraft Company test pilot Eugene Francis May. (Photograph courtesy of Neil Corbett, Test and Research Pilots, Flight Test Engineers)
The Skystreak was a joint United States Navy/National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) research aircraft designed to explore flight at high subsonic speed. The Phase I Skystreak was designed by a team led by Douglas Chief Engineer Edward Henry Heinemann. Flight testing was conducted at the NACA High Speed Flight Station at Muroc Army Airfield (later known as Edwards Air Force Base). Three D-558-Is were built, followed by the Phase II, swept-wing Mach 2 D-558-II Skyrocket rocketplane.
The D-558-I carried extensive flight test instrumentation for its time. The wings had 400 orifices for air pressure sensors. During the test series, aircraft stability in the range of 0.82–0.99 Mach was investigated. One of the Skystreaks may have briefly exceeded Mach 1 as it came out of a dive.
Unlike some of the other experimental high speed aircraft of the time, the Skystreak took off from the ground under its own power rather than being carried aloft by a mother ship. While those other aircraft could briefly reach much higher speeds, the D-558-I was able to fly for extended periods in the high-subsonic range, providing scientists and engineers with a tremendous amount of data.
Cutaway illustration of the Douglas D-558-I Skystreak. (U.S. Navy)
The research airplane was a single-place, single-engine, low-wing monoplane with retractable tricycle landing gear. The fuselage of the D-558-I was constructed of an aluminum framework covered with sheet magnesium. It was designed for an ultimate load factor of 18 gs. The wings and tail surfaces were aluminum. The airplane was painted scarlet (not orange, like its contemporary, the Bell X-1) and was known as “the crimson test tube.”
The D-558-I was 35 feet, 1.5 inches (10.706 meters) long with a wingspan of 25 feet, 0 inches (7.620 meters) and overall height of 12 feet, 1.6 inches (3.698 meters). Gross weight 10,105 pounds (4,584 kilograms). It carried 230 gallons (871 liters) of kerosene in its wings.
A Douglas D-558-I Skystreak being inspected by U.S. Navy personnel at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant in Los Angeles, California. [Modelers: Note the GREEN anti-glare panel.] (Getty Images/Bettman)The D-558-I was powered by a single Allison J35-A-11 turbojet engine. The J35 was a single-spool, axial-flow turbojet with an 11-stage compressor section, 8 combustion chambers and single-stage turbine. The J35-A-11 was rated at 5,000 pounds of thrust (22.24 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).
Bu. No. 37970 made 101 of the 228 Phase I flights. It set a world speed record 1,031.178 kilometers per hour (640.744 miles per hour), flown by Commander Turner F. Caldwell Jr., U.S. Navy, 20 August 1947.² (Major Marion E. Carl, U.S. Marine Corps, flew the second Skystreak, Bu. No. 37971, to 1,047.356 kilometers per hour (650.797 miles per hour),³ breaking Caldwell’s record.)
After Douglas completed the contractor’s test series, the Number 1 Skystreak was turned over to the NACA High Speed Flight Station and designated NACA 140. It was not as highly instrumented as the Number 2 and Number 3 Skystreaks and was not flown, but was used as a source for spare parts for the other D-558-Is.
Douglas D-558-I Skystreak Bu. No. 37970 is on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola, Florida.
Douglas D-558-I Skystreak, Bu. No. 37970, at the National Naval Aviation Museum, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. (U.S. Navy)
¹ Determining the actual dates of historic events is sometimes difficult. In the case of the first flight of the Douglas D-558-I Skystreak, NASA sources cite 14 April 1947. The Naval History and Heritage Command National Naval Aviation Museum says it took place 15 April. Dozens of contemporary newspapers articles published on 15 April indicate that “flight testing will begin this week,” suggesting that the first flight had not yet taken place.
NACA pilots Robert Apgar Champine, on left, and Herbert Henry Hoover with the Bell X-1-2, 46-063, 1 September 1949. (NASA E49-0005)
10 March 1948: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) chief test pilot Herbert Henry (“Herb”) Hoover became the first civilian pilot to exceed the Speed of Sound when he flew a Bell X-1 supersonic research rocketplane near Muroc Air Force Base (Edwards AFB after 1949) in the high desert of southern California.
Hoover was flying the second of the three X-1s, serial number 46-063. Dropped from a B-29 “mother ship” on a stability and loads test, Hoover climbed to 42,000 feet (12,802 meters) while using three chambers of the rocketplane’s Reaction Motors XLR11-RM-3 engine. At 0.93 Mach (613.614 miles per hour/987.516 kilometers per hour), he fired the fourth chamber and accelerated to Mach 1.065 (702.687 miles per hour/1,130.865 kilometers per hour).
Hoover glided to a landing on Rogers Dry Lake. The rocketplane’s nose wheel would not extend, so Hoover held the nose up as long as possible before it settled onto the hard sand surface. 46-063 suffered minor damage.
This was the seventy-second flight of the X-1 series.
Bell X-1-2, 46-063, with the Boeing B-29 drop ship, B-29-96-BW Superfortress 45-21800. Originally painted orange, 46-063 was repainted white in 1948. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration E49-0004)
The 4 March 1948 flight Hoover’s eleventh in an X-1. Hoover had been the first NACA pilot to fly an X-1, having made a glide flight 21 October 1947. He made a total of fourteen X-1 flights before moving on to other flight test programs.
For this flight Herbert H. Hoover was awarded the Octave Chanute Award by the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences for “contributions to the application of flight test procedures to basic research in aerodynamics, and the development of methods for scientific study of transonic flight.” The award was presented at the Hotel Ambassador, in Los Angeles, California, 16 July 1948, by John Knudsen (“Jack”) Northrop, founder of the Northrop Corporation. Hoover was the initial recipient Air Force Association’s David C. Schilling Award, then known as the Flight Trophy, also awarded in 1948. In 1949, he was awarded the Air Medal by the United States Air Force, “for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight on March 10, 1948.” The medal was presented by President Harry S. Truman.
NACA Chief Test Pilot Herbert Henry Hoover, with a North American P-51 Mustang, December 1948. (NASA)Herbert H. Hoover, 1929
Herbert Henry Hoover was born 18 May 1912 at Knoxville, Tennessee. He was the son of Benjamin Roscoe Hoover, railway conductor, and Zella Mae Edington Hoover. He attended Central High School in Knoxville, graduating in 1929.
In 1930, Hoover was employed as a civil engineer’s assistant. He then attended the University of Tennessee, graduating from the College of Engineering, 24 August 1934, with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering.
Herbert Henry Hoover
Joining the United States Army Air Corps, Hoover was trained as a pilot at Randolph and Kelly Fields, San Antonio, Texas. Completing training, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve and assigned to Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York.
Released from active duty in 1937 after three years of service, Hoover was employed by the Standard Oil Company as a pilot, flying in South America.
After returning to the United States, on 16 December 1940, Hoover became an experimental test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at the NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Hampton, Virginia.
Ruth Anadda Rhyne
Hoover registered for Selective Service (conscription), 4 April 1942. On his draft registration card, he was described as 5 feet, 7 inches (170 centimeters) tall, 175 pounds (79 kilograms, with blond hair, gray eyes, and a light complexion.
On 29 August 1942, Hoover married Miss Ruth Anadda Rhyne at the Stanley Presbyterian Church, River Bend, North Carolina. The ceremony was presided over by Rev. R.H. Ratchford. They would have two children, Anadda Susan Hoover and Herbert Henry (“Hank”) Hoover, Jr.
Experienced at flying in bad weather, Hoover volunteered to fly the Lockheed XC-35 Supercharged Cabin Transport Airplane, 36-353, the first airplane to be built with a pressurized cabin, through thunderstorms for weather research.
Lockheed XC-35 Supercharged Cabin Transport Airplane 36-353, the first airplane built with a pressurized cabin.
In July 1943, while flying a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver on an instrument calibration flight, Hoover was badly injured when the airplane’s canopy came loose and struck him in the head. He was able to safely return to Langley.
A Curtiss SB2C-1 Helldiver at the NACA Langley Memorial Aeonautical Laboratory, 31 May 1944. (NASA EL-2000-00241)
A 1948 Newport News, Virginia, newspaper article described the incident:
In illustrating the infrequency of mishaps in test flights, Hoover recalls that he was the principal in the first accident involving a NACA test pilot. This incidentally was his only air accident, and occurred in July 1943, while he was calibrating 1,700 pounds[771 kilograms]of instruments to be used in flight instrument investigations of the Navy Helldiver.
The canopy over the cockpit of the Helldiver tore loose and as it fluttered away, an edge of the structure smashed through Hoover’s helmet and goggles. He found his sight blurred by blood streaming from his forehead. Although in pain and almost blinded, Hoover kept his seat in the now open airplane, turned back to Langley and put his ship into a maneuver that would attract attention. The men on the ground instantly understood that something was wrong and cleared the afield of other aircraft, and Hoover brought the Helldiver to a safe landing.
—Daily Press, Vol. LIII, No. 188, 15 July 1948, at Page 8, Columns 1 and 2
On another occasion, while firing a rocket-propelled model during a 0.7 Mach dive, the rocket exploded and seriously damaged Hoover’s North American Aviation P-51 Mustang. The Mustang’s coolant tank was punctured, but he was able to make a successful forced landing.
Hoover was appointed NACA’s chief test pilot. He was assigned to the NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit at Muroc Air Force Base, California, to begin NACA flight testing of the Bell X-1. He made his first flight in the X-1 one week after Captain Charles Elwood (“Chuck”) Yeager broke the “sound barrier” flying the number one Bell X-1, 46-062, 14 October 1947.
Herb Hoover was killed when the North American Aviation B-45A-1-NA Tornado, 47-021, “NACA 121,” suffered a structural failure in flight near Burrowsville, Virginia 14 August 1952. It is believed that he struck the aircraft, or parts of the aircraft, during ejection. His body was found with his parachute unopened, but with his hand on the rip cord’s “D”-ring. The airplane’s copilot, John A. Harper, survived with minor injuries.
NACA 121, a North American Aviation B-45A-1-NA Tornado, 47-021, photographed at the NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Hampton, Virginia, 6 November 1949. NACA test pilot Herb Hoover was killed when this airplane suffered a structural failure of its right wing, 14 August 1952. (NASA EL-2000-00269)
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
PIONEER JET FLYER KILLED IN PARACHUTING
Herbert H. Hoover and Colleague Testing B-45 Bomber When It Catches Fire
BURROWSVILLE, Va., Aug. 15 (AP)—One of the pioneers of faster than sound flight fell to his death yesterday from a crippled B-45 jet bomber.
He was test pilot Herbert H. Hoover, the first man to fly the Bell X-1, and experimental prototype of the present day supersonic aircraft.¹
The heavy four-jet aircraft caught fire over this south-eastern Virginia community and Hoover and a companion, J.A. Harper bailed out.
Harper landed safe, except for a bruised shoulder. Searchers found the crumpled body of Hoover, his hand clutching the ripcord of his unopened parachute.
Both men were employed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Laboratory at Langley Field, Va., for which they were testing aircraft.
Officials of the NACA said the crash was caused by the failure of the outboard panel of the right wing of the bomber. A spokesman, asked about a published report that the plane exploded, said, “there was no explosion.”
Officials who had talked with Harper said an overload was imposed during a maneuver to check research instruments and as a result the panel failed.
They said that there was afire following the wing panel’s collapse, but “it is not believed that the fire had any material effect on the accident.”
Hoover was the first pilot to exceed the speed of sound in an NACA aircraft and the second to break the sound barrier in any plane.
He had made more than a dozen flights in all. He received the Air Force Association award for 1948 for that year’s most notable achievement in flight contributing to the nation’s air defense.
Hoover served in the Army Air Corps from 1934 to 1937. He was a member of the first active long-range reconnaissance unit, the Eighteenth Reconnaissance Squadron, then stationed at Mitchel Field, N.Y.
—St. Louis Post Dispatch, Vol. 104, No. 323, 15 August 1952, Page 39, Column 4
In eighteen years of flying Herbert Henry Hoover had flown more than 100 aircraft types. He was the third NACA test pilot to be killed.² His remains were interred at the Peninsula Memorial Park, Newport News, Virginia.
Bell X-1 46-063 with its B-29 carrier aircraft. (Flight Test Historical Foundation)
The Bell XS-1, later re-designated X-1, was the first of a series of rocket-powered research airplanes which included the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket, the Bell X-2, and the North American Aviation X-15, which were flown by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, NACA and its successor, NASA, at Edwards Air Force Base to explore supersonic and hypersonic flight and at altitudes to and beyond the limits of Earth’s atmosphere.
The X-1 has an ogive nose, similar to the shape of a .50-caliber machine gun bullet, and has straight wings and tail surfaces. It is 30 feet, 10.98 inches (9.423 meters) long with a wing span of 28.00 feet (8.534 meters) and overall height of 10 feet, 10.20 inches (3.307 meters).
46-062 was built with a thin 8% aspect ratio wing, while 46-063 had a 10% thick wing. The wings were tapered, having a root chord of 6 feet, 2.2 inches (1.885 meters) and tip chord of 3 feet, 1.1 inches (0.942 meters), resulting in a total area of 130 square feet (12.1 square meters). The wings have an angle of incidence of 2.5° with -1.0° twist and 0° dihedral. The leading edges are swept aft 5.05°.
The horizontal stabilizer has a span of 11.4 feet (3.475 meters) and an area of 26.0 square feet (2.42 square meters). 062’s stabilizer has an aspect ratio of 6%, and 063’s, 5%.
The fuselage cross section is circular. At its widest point, the diameter of the X-1 fuselage is 4 feet, 7 inches (1.397 meters).
46-062 had an empty weight is 6,784.9 pounds (3,077.6 kilograms), but loaded with propellant, oxidizer and its pilot with his equipment, the weight increased to 13,034 pounds (5,912 kilograms).
The X-1 was designed to withstand an ultimate structural load of 18g.
The X-1 was powered by a four-chamber Reaction Motors, Inc., 6000C4 (XLR11-RM-3 ) rocket engine which produced 6,000 pounds of thrust (26,689 Newtons). This engine burned a 75/25 mixture of ethyl alcohol and water with liquid oxygen. Fuel capacity is 293 gallons (1,109 liters) of water/alcohol and 311 gallons (1,177 liters) of liquid oxygen. The fuel system was pressurized by nitrogen at 1,500 pounds per square inch (103.4 Bar).
The X-1 was usually dropped from the B-29 flying at 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) and 345 miles per hour (555 kilometers per hour). It fell as much as 1,000 feet (305 meters) before beginning to climb under its own power.
The X-1’s performance was limited by its fuel capacity. Flying at 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), it could reach 916 miles per hour (1,474 kilometers per hour), but at 70,000 feet (21,336 meters) the maximum speed that could be reached was 898 miles per hour (1,445 kilometers per hour). During a maximum climb, fuel would be exhausted as the X-1 reached 74,800 feet (2,799 meters). The absolute ceiling is 87,750 feet (26,746 meters).
The X-1 had a minimum landing speed of 135 miles per hour (217 kilometers per hour) using 60% flaps.
There were 157 flights with the three X-1 rocket planes. The number one ship, 46-062, Glamorous Glennis, made 78 flights. On 26 March 1948, with Chuck Yeager again in the cockpit, it reached reached Mach 1.45 (957 miles per hour/1,540 kilometers per hour) at 71,900 feet (21,915 meters).
The second X-1, 46-063, was later modified to the X-1E. It is on display at the NASA Dryden Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Glamorous Glennis is on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, next to Charles A. Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis.
The third X-1, 46-064, made just one glide flight before it was destroyed 9 November 1951 in an accidental explosion.
Bell X-1E 46-063 on Rogers Dry Lake. (NASA)
¹ This is incorrect. The first pilot to fly the Bell X-1 was Bell Aircraft Corporation Senior Experimental Test Pilot Jack Valentine Woolams. Please see This Day in Aviation at https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/19-january-1946/ Herb Hoover had been the first NACA pilot to fly an X-1.
² The first was Howard Clifton (“Tick”) Lilly, when the compressor section of a Douglas D-558-I Skystreak exploded 3 May 1948. Please see TDiA at https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/3-may-1948/
Boeing P-26 32-414 at Barksdale Field, 23 January 1934. (U.S. Air Force)Lieutenant Robert K. Giavannoli
8 March 1936: First Lieutenant Robert Kinnaird Giovannoli, United States Army Air Corps, a test pilot assigned to the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio, was killed when the right wing of his Boeing P-26 pursuit, serial number 32-414, came off in flight over Logan Field, near Baltimore, Maryland.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported:
DAYTON HERO
Air Crash Victim.
Robert Giovannoli Dies At Baltimore Field
When Wing Of Plane Falls Off—Lexington, Ky., Man An Army Lieutenant.
Baltimore, March 8—(AP)—Lieutenant Robert K. Giovannoli, 31 years old of Lexington, Ky., hero of the spectacular bombing plane crash during army tests at Dayton, Ohio, last October, was killed today in the crack-up of his army plane at Logan Field, here.
Giovannoli’s single-seated pursuit plane lost its right wing coming out of a glide and hurtled down in a crazy spin from an altitude of less than 500 feet [152 meters]. It rolled over after hitting the landing field and was demolished.
Lieutenant Giovannoli received a medal for his heroism in rescuing two men from the flaming wreckage of the Boeing “flying fortress” after it crashed in the army bomber tests at Wright Field, Dayton.
The Wright Field hero was taking off for the Middletown, Penn., air station when his plane plunged him to death at Logan Field.
QUIZ TO BE BEGUN.
The flier had arrived here yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel H.C.K. Nuhlenberg, air officer of the Third Corps Area and in command of Logan Field, said an Army Board of Inquiry would be summoned promptly to investigate the fatal crash.
Nuhlenberg, who had just landed at the field himself, said Giovannoli had gotten his craft under way and turned back to fly over the field at a low altitude.
The wing of Giovannoli’s plane wrenched off, Nuhlenberg said, just as the craft was coming out of the glide and starting a zoom to regain altitude.
—The Cincinnati Enquirer, Vol. XCV, No. 334, Monday, 9 March 1936, at Page 7, Column 1
Lt. Robert K. Giovannoli
Lieutenant Giovannoli had been awarded the Soldier’s Medal and the Cheney Award for his heroic rescue of two men from the burning wreck of the Boeing Model 299, which had crashed on takeoff at Wright Field, 30 October 1935. His citation reads:
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Soldier’s Medal to First Lieutenant Robert K. Giovannoli, United States Army Air Corps, for heroism, not involving actual conflict with an enemy, displayed at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, 30 October 1935. When a Boeing experimental bomber crashed and burst into flames, Lieutenant Giovannoli, who was an onlooker, forced his way upon the fuselage and into the front cockpit of the burning plane and extricated one of the passengers. Then upon learning that the pilot was still in the cockpit, Lieutenant Giovannoli, realizing that his own life was in constant peril from fire, smoke, and fuel explosions, rushed back into the flames and after repeated and determined efforts, being badly burned in the attempt, succeeded in extricating the pilot from an entrapped position and assisted him to a place of safety.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 4 (1936)
The wreck of the Boeing Model 299, X13372, burns after the fatal crash at Wright Field, 30 October 1935. (U.S. Air Force)
Robert Kinnaird Giovannoli was born at Washington, D.C., 13 March 1904, the second of two sons of Harry Giovannoli, a newspaper editor, and Carrie Kinnaird Giovanolli. His mother died when he was six years old.
Robert Giovannoli, 1925. (The Kentuckian)
Giovannoli graduated from Lexington High School at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1920 and then attended the University of Kentucky, where, in 1925, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering (B.S.M.E.). He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta (ΦΔΘ) and Tau Beta Phi (ΤΒΦ) fraternities, treasurer of the sophomore class, and president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He was employed by the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York.
Giovannoli enlisted in the United States Army in 1927. After completing the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Brooks Field, and the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, both in San Antonio, Texas, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve, 20 October 1928. Lieutenant Giovannoli was called to active duty 8 May 1930. In 1933, he was assigned to a one year Engineering School at Wright Field. He then was sent to observe naval aircraft operations aboard USS Ranger (CV-4) in the Pacific Ocean. He had returned just a few days prior to the accident.
At the time of his death, Lieutenant Giovannoli had not yet been presented his medals.
First Lieutenant Robert Kinnaird Giovannoli was buried at the Bellevue Cemetery, Danville, Kentucky. In 1985, the Robert Kinnaird Giovannoli Scholarship was established to provide scholarships for students in mechanical engineering at the University of Kentucky College of Engineering.
Boeing XP-936 No. 3 in flight. This airplane would be designated P-26, serial number 32-414. It is the airplane flown by Lieutenant Robert Kinnaird Giovannoli, 8 March 1936. (Boeing)
The P-26, Air Corps serial number 32-414, was the last of three prototype XP-936 pursuits built by Boeing in 1932. Boeing’s chief test pilot, Leslie R. Tower, conducted the first flight of the type on 20 March 1932. Leslie Tower was one of the two men that Lieutenant Giovannoli had pulled from the burning Boeing 299.
The Boeing P-26 was a single-seat, single-engine monoplane. It was the first all-metal U.S. Army pursuit, but retained an open cockpit, fixed landing gear and its wings were braced with wire. The airplane was 23 feet, 7 inches (7.188 meters) long with a wingspan of 28 feet (8.534 meters). The empty weight of the prototype was 2,119 pounds (961.2 kilograms) and gross weight was 2,789 pounds (1,265.1 kilograms).
The first of three Boeing Model 248 prototypes, XP-26 32-412. (Boeing)
The Y1P-26 was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged, 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney R-1340-21 (Wasp S2E), a single-row, nine-cylinder radial engine. The P-26A and P-26C were powered the Pratt & Whitney R-1340-27 (Wasp SE), while the P-26B used a more powerful, fuel-injected R-1340-33 (Wasp D2). Each of these engines were direct drive and had a compression ratio of 6:1. The engine was surrounded by a Townend Ring which reduced aerodynamic drag and improved engine cooling.
The R-1340-21 had a Normal Power rating of 600 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m. at 6,000 feet (1,829 meters); 500 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m. at 11,000 feet (3,353 meters); and 500 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. for takeoff. It required 87-octane gasoline. The –21 had a diameter of 3 feet, 3.44 inches (1.307 meters) and weighed 715 pounds (324 kilograms).
The R-1340-27 had a Normal Power and Takeoff power rating of 570 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m., to 7,500 feet (1,524 meters), using 92-octane gasoline. The –27 was 3 feet, 7.25 inches (1.099 meters) long, 4 feet, 3.50 inches (1.308 meters) in diameter and also weighed 715 pounds (324 kilograms).
The R-1340-33 was rated at 575 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m. to 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), and 600 horsepower at 2,120 r.p.m. for Takeoff, with 87-octane gasoline. It was 3 feet, 10.75 inches (1.187 meters) long, with the same diameter as the –27. It weighed 792 pounds (359 kilograms).
The engines drove a two-bladed, Hamilton Standard adjustable-pitch propeller.
19th Pursuit Squadron commanding officer’s Boeing P-26 in flight over Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, 6 March 1939. (NASM)
The pursuit had a maximum speed of 227 miles per hour (365 kilometers per hour) at 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), and a service ceiling of 28,900 feet (8,809 meters).
As a pursuit, the P-26 was armed with two air-cooled Browning M1919 .30-caliber machine guns, synchronized to fire forward through the propeller arc.
Boeing built 136 production P-26s for the Air Corp and another 12 for export. Nine P-26s remained in service with the Air Corps at the beginning of World War II.
A Boeing P-26, A.C. 33-56, in the Full-Scale Wind Tunnel at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, 1934. This “Peashooter,” while assigned to the 6th pursuit Squadron, ditched north of Kaluku, Oahu, Hawaii, 14 December 1938. (NASA)
James A. Mollison with his de Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth, shortly before his transatlantic flight. (NB Museum Archives X8735)
9 April 1933: Jim Mollison flies solo across the South Atlantic Ocean. He left Dakar, Senegal, at 12:15 a.m., 9 February, and arrived at Port Natal, Brazil, at 03:20 GMT, 10 February. Mollison’s airplane was a de Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth, G-ABXY, which he had named The Heart’s Content.
Jim Mollison’s de Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth, G-ABXY, “The Heart’s Content.”
Port Natal, Brazil (Thursday)
Mr. J. A. Mollison, after a flight of 17½ hours from Dakar, landed here at 3.20 G.M.T. this afternoon. He has completed the flight from Lympne, which he left at 8.12 on Monday, in 82 hours 8 minutes, thus beating the French record by 25 hours 52 minutes. This was the first solo westward flight across the South Atlantic. After he landed Mr. Mollison attended an official reception, at which the Governor of the Province, the Mayor, and a number of military officials were present.
He made a perfect landing in Heart’s Content, and getting out said, “I had good weather most of the way. The South Atlantic is a much simpler task than the North.” Mr. Mollison said his machine averaged 115 miles per hour. He is staying here to-night and flying on to Rio de Janeiro to-morrow.—Reuter
Considerable interest has been taken during the week in the progress of Mr. Jim Mollison (teh husband of Miss Amy Johnson), who left Lympne at 8.12 last Monday morning on an attempt to fly to South America in three and a half days and thus beat the record of 4½ days from France to Brazil, set up by a French monoplane.
At 5.10 on Monday evening he landed at Barcelona. Fog caused him to miss the aerodrome at Barcelona and he went some 40 miles out of his way before finding it. This delayed him about an hour.
If the Spanish Air Force had not put out flares for him it is doubtful whether Mr. Mollison would have been able to land at Barcelona at all.
He left this place at 8.45 the same night and landed at Agadir, Morocco, at 7.20 on Tuesday evening. At 3.15 p.m. on Tuesday he reached Villas Cisneros, and at 8 o’clock on Wednesday morning he was at Thies, Senegal. The distance fro, Lympne to Thies is 2,410 miles, and Mr. Mollison flew there in a few minutes under 48 hours.
At 12.15 a.m. yesterday he left Dakar for Port Natal.
—Devon and Exeter Gazette, Friday, 10 February 1933, Page 20, Column 1
De Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth three-view illustration with dimensions, from NACA Advisory Circular No. 117, THE DE HAVILLAND “MOTH THREE” AIRPLANE (BRITISH)
The de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., DH.80A Puss Moth was a single-engine high-wing monoplane with an enclosed cabin for a pilot and two passengers. It was constructed of a welded tubular steel frame and wood wings covered with doped fabric. The airplane was 25 feet, 0 inches (7.620 meters) long with a wingspan of 36 feet, 9 inches (11.201 meters) and height of 6 feet, 10 inches (2.083 meters). The Puss Moth had an empty weight of 1,150 pounds (522 kilograms) and gross weight of 1,900 pounds (863 kilograms).
G-ABXY was powered by a 373.71-cubic-inch-displacement (6,124 cubic centimeters) air-cooled de Havilland Gipsy Major I inverted, inline 4-cylinder engine with a compression ratio of 5.25:1. It produced 120 horsepower at 2,100 r.p.m and 130 horsepower at 2,350 r.p.m. The engine weighed 306 pounds (138.8 kilograms).
The DH.80A had a cruise speed of 105 miles per hour (169 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 125 miles per hour (201 kilometers per hour). The airplane had a service ceiling of 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). The standard DH.80A had a range of 440 miles (708 kilometers) (with optional tanks, the range was extended to 570 miles or 700 miles).¹
De Havilland built 284 DH.80A Puss Moths between 1929 and 1933. Only eight are known to exist.
G-ABXY was first registered in July 1932. Its Certificate of Registration was number 3816. Flown by Harold Leslie Brook, it was destroyed in a crash near Génolhac, Gard, France, when Brook encountered freezing fog, 28 March 1934. Losing altitude, the airplane crashed on the slope of a mountain. Brook was injured.
¹ Specifications and performance from National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Advisory Circular No. 117, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19930090394
Frank Hawks with the red and silver Lockheed Air Express, NR7955. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
4–5 February 1929: At 5:37:30 p.m., Pacific Time, Monday, Frank Monroe Hawks took off from Metropolitan Field, Los Angeles, California, (now known as Van Nuys Airport, VNY) in a new Lockheed Model 3 Air Express transport, NR7955, serial number EX-2. Also on board was Oscar Edwin Grubb, the final assembly superintendent for Lockheed. The pair flew non-stop to Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York, arriving there at 2:59:29 p.m., Eastern Time, on Tuesday. The duration of the flight was 18 hours, 21 minutes, 59 seconds.
Oscar Edwin Grubb and Frank Monroe Hawks, shortly before departing for New York, 4 February 1929. (Getty Images)
The only previous non-stop West-to-East flight had been flown during August 1928 by Arthur C. Goebel, Jr., and Harry Tucker with their Lockheed Vega, Yankee Doodle, NX4769. Hawks cut 36 minutes off of Goebel’s time.
Lockheed Model 3 Air Express NR7955, photographed 1 February 1929. The Air Express was the first production airplane to use the new NACA cowling design. (Crane/NACA)
Hawks was a technical adviser to The Texas Company (“Texaco”), a manufacturer and distributor of petroleum products which sponsored the flight. On his recommendation, the company purchased the Air Express from Lockheed for use as a company transport.
On 17 January 1930,
“Pilot Frank Hawks attempted a takeoff from a soggy field in West Palm Beach, Florida, destroying the aircraft christened ‘Texaco Five’ in a spectacular crash that catapulted it into a row of three parked aircraft. All three occupants were unhurt while the aircraft was destroyed.”
—Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives
NC7955’s Department of Commerce registration was cancelled 31 January 1930.
The Lockheed Model 3 Air Express was a single-engine parasol-wing monoplane transport, flown by a single pilot in an open aft cockpit, and capable of carrying 4 to 6 passengers in its enclosed cabin. The airplane was designed by Gerard Freebairn Vultee and John Knudsen Northrop. It used the Lockheed Vega’s molded plywood monocoque fuselage.
The Model 3 received Approved Type Certificate No. 102 from the Aeronautic Branch, U. S. Department of Commerce.
The Lockheed Air Express was the first production airplane to use the “NACA Cowl,” an engine cowling for radial engines which had been designed by a team led by Fred Ernest Weick of the the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. The new cowling design tightly enclosed the engine and used baffles to control air flow around the hottest parts of the engines. The exit slots were designed to allow the air to exit the cowling at a higher speed than it had entered the intake. The new cowling design provided better engine cooling and caused significantly less aerodynamic drag. The addition of the NACA cowling increased the Air Express’s maximum speed from 157 to 177 miles per hour (253 to 285 kilometers per hour).
The day following Hawks’ transcontinental flight, Vultee sent a telegram to NACA:
COOLING CAREFULLY CHECKED AND OK. RECORD IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT NEW COWLING. ALL CREDIT DUE TO NACA FOR PAINSTAKING AND ACCURATE RESEARCH. GERRY VULTEE, LOCKHEED AIRCRAFT CO.
The Lockheed Model 3 Air Express was 27 feet, 6 inches (8.382 meters) long with a wing span of 42 feet, 6 inches (12.954 meters) and height of 8 feet, 4½ inches (2.553 meters). The wing area was 288 square feet (26.756 square meters). The wing had no dihedral. The airplane had an empty weight of 2,533 pounds (1,149 kilograms) and gross weight of 4,375 pounds (1,984 kilograms).
The Model 3 was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp C nine cylinder, direct-drive radial engine. The Wasp C was rated at 420 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. at Sea Level. It was 3 feet, 6.63 inches (1.083 meters) long, 4 feet, 3.44 inches (1.307 meters) in diameter, and weighed 745 pounds (338 kilograms).
The Air Express had a cruising speed of 135 miles per hour (217 kilometers per hour), and maximum speed of 177 miles per hour (285 kilometers per hour). It’s service ceiling was 17,250 feet (5,258 meters).
Frank Hawks, 1930. (San Diego air and Space Museum Archives)
Francis Monroe Hawks was born at Marshalltown, Iowa, 28 March 1897. He was the son of Charles Monroe Hawks, a barber, and Ida Mae Woodruff Hawks. He attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, Long Beach, California, graduating in 1916. He then studied at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles.
Frank Hawks was an Air Service, United States Army, pilot who served during World War I. He rose to the rank of Captain, and at the time of his record-breaking transcontinental flight, he held a commission as a reserve officer in the Army Air Corps. Hawks transferred to the U.S. Naval Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. His date of rank 27 May 1932.
His flying had made him a popular public figure and he starred in a series of Hollywood movies as “The Mysterious Pilot.”
Poster advertising Episode 5 of the movie serial, “The Mysterious Pilot.” (Columbia Pictures)Amelia Earhart and Frank Hawks. (World History Project)
On 28 December 1920, Miss Amelia Earhart took her first ride in an airplane at Long Beach Airport in California. The ten-minute flight began her life-long involvement in aviation. The airplane’s pilot was Frank Monroe Hawks.
Francis M. Hawks married Miss Newell Lane at Lewiston, Montana, 7 August 1918. They had a daughter, Dolly. They later divorced. He next married Mrs. Edith Bowie Fouts at St. John’s Church, Houston, Texas, 26 October 1926.
Frank Hawks was killed in an aircraft accident at East Aurora, New York, 23 August 1938. He was buried at Redding Ridge Cemetery, Redding, Connecticut.
The Skystreak was a joint United States Navy/National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) research aircraft designed to explore flight at high subsonic speed. The Phase I Skystreak was designed by a team led by Douglas Chief Engineer Edward Henry Heinemann. Flight testing was conducted at the NACA High Speed Flight Station at Muroc Army Airfield (later known as Edwards Air Force Base). Three D-558-Is were built, followed by the Phase II, swept-wing Mach 2 D-558-II Skyrocket rocketplane.
