Indice dei contenuti per March - April 2022 in Flight Journal

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

Unlikely Ace

During the Second World War, there were approximately 1,300 American and 754 British aces. Worldwide, among all the combatants on both sides, there were around 8,000 aces, and that was in a population of hundreds of thousands of pilots. Of that number, only a few dozen pilots and the aircraft they flew are well known to even the most passionate of aviation buffs. The changing battle conditions of that conflict necessitated constant modifications to fighters and tactics so pilots could adapt to these new threats. The result was a new breed of ace flying highly modified aircraft. Pilot Officer Ken Mackenzie DFC of the Royal Air Force (RAF) 47 Night Fighter Squadron was one such pilot. Flying up-gunned, up-powered, and blacked-out Hawker Hurricanes, he and the men he fought with…

2 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

THE AVO’S PERSPECTIVE

While Peabody and Babka handled the VX-23 Super Hornet, Boeing’s Sam Platt oversaw the flight of the MQ-25 on June 4 as the Stingray’s Air Vehicle Operator, or AVO. AVOs are the uncrewed tanker’s operators. They don’t remotely pilot the MQ-25, which flies autonomously. They devise the mission plan that defines how the drone will perform a flight—in this case, the first-ever uncrewed/crewed aerial refueling. Platt, a retired Naval Flight Officer who flew as an F-14 Radar Intercept Officer and as a test Weapons Systems Operator in F/A-18Fs, is Boeing’s chief test pilot for the MQ-25. He directs a team of five AVOs who support the Stingray test and development program while teaching Navy AVOs how to operate the drone and pioneering procedures to fly the MQ-25. “As AVOs we…

2 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

HAWKER HURRICANE

The Hawker Hurricane is one of the classic fighters of all time, designed and built for war. It was at the forefront of Britain’s defense in 1940, and it played a major part in achieving victory during the Second World War. Sir Sydney Camm CBE began the design work for the Hurricane in 1934 and its construction followed that of the earlier Hawker biplane fighters with a fabric-covered fuselage. The prototype Hurricane (K5083) made its maiden flight on November 6, 1935. The Hurricane was the first British eight-gun monoplane fighter, the first RAF aircraft to exceed 300 mph in level flight and the first production fighter with a retractable main undercarriage. Deliveries of Hurricanes to the RAF commenced just before Christmas 1937 to 111 Squadron at Northolt (eight months ahead…

2 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

CHARLES DILLS ON ACCIDENT RATES

And Mr. Dills responds OK, I’ll pick up the gauntlet. Statistics like this are meaningless to me unless they are doing the same thing at the same time and with whatever the “enemies” are. A-36 Stats I’ve seen this statistic for the A-36. But there was no mention that it started flying in Africa, the land of sand. Plus, at least half of the A-36s made were used in training at Harding Field, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Is it fair to include their accidents with ours? More details are needed. How many were ruined in combat and how many in training? Only 500 were made and there were NO replacements, so we had to fly what we had or stay on the ground, and 20+ year olds don’t particularly like staying…

3 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

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1 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

ELECTRIC FLIGHT TAKES OFF

Decades ago, airliners were quite noisy and vibrated significantly in flight from the piston engines that powered them, and with the eventual introduction of jet propulsion and turbofans, flights became much smoother and quieter. It is about to happen again. The transition to electric flight propulsion will practically eliminate powerplant noise and, though propellers will still generate sound, electric power will provide the smoothest, quietest passenger experience yet. The adoption of electric propulsion has begun with many manufacturers delivering certified aircraft and many more airplane manufacturers cued up for certification to open their own production lines in each of the next several years. This roundup is a representative sample of electric-powered general aviation (GENAV) aircraft that are established or soon coming to market. Electric motors are quieter and have a…

9 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

HIGH-TIME HOG DRIVER

TEN THOUSAND FEET ABOVE an area near the city of Ghazni in southeastern Afghanistan, Lt. Col. John Marks—call sign “Karl”—adjusted the zoom for the infrared sensor in the Litening pod on his right wing. Peering at the infrared image on the right-hand multi-function display in his instrument panel, he noticed something different about the groups of people the sensor had picked up. “Mutant-42,” a Joint Terminal Attack Controller, was on the radio with Marks and his wingman, Capt. Jerrod “Marshall” Dillon. Sgt. Houston Thomas, the controller, had called for air support from Marks’ flight to aid an Army unit that had been ambushed by Taliban fighters near a village. Taking fire, the unit retreated to a ditch near the six MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) trucks they’d gone out on…

13 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

NIGHTHAWK

COMBAT REPORT: 01:35 HOURS SEPTEMBER 12, 1941 “I saw an aircraft come out of the thin cloud about 3,000 feet below and to my left. With a height advantage, I closed rapidly at about 320 mph. It was a Heinkel He 111 shadowing the convoy. With a perfect attacking position, I closed to 600 yards and opened fire with my four cannons … and missed. The retarding effect of the cannon blast dropped the nose and my shots went low. The He 111 returned fire immediately, but the gunner’s aim was high. I opened fire again from above and dead astern, firing up the fuselage and across into the starboard engine, this time allowing for the retarding effect of the blast. The He 111 swerved to the right as the…

10 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

Hurricane Mk IIC PZ865

HURRICANE MK IIC PZ865, the last Hurricane ever built from a total of 14,533, was rolled out at Hawker’s Langley assembly plant on July 27, 1944, with the inscription “The Last of the Many” painted beneath the cockpit on both sides. The company immediately purchased PZ865 back from the Air Ministry to preserve it for posterity. Subsequently, PZ865 flew in various capacities under the ownership of Hawker Siddeley and was also flown as an air racer in the early 1950s. By the 1960s, having been returned to its original camouflage color scheme, PZ865 had become part of a collection of historic Hawker aircraft based at the company’s airfield at Dunsfold. The Hurricane made numerous appearances at air displays in the hands of company test pilots and also appeared in films,…

1 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

CAPT. MICHAEL RUSSO: A-36 ACE

During World War II, Michael Russo of the 522d Fighter Squadron, 27th Fighter-Bomber Group became the first U.S. Army Air Forces pilot to achieve ace status while flying a Mustang—and the only ace flying the A-36 fighter-bomber variant. Known as "Killer Russo," he downed quite a range of aircraft, including Fw-190s, a Fieseler Storch, and a Ju-52 transport. He attributed his success with the A-36 to knowing that the aircraft’s Allison engine performed best when close to sea level, which meant that German fighters had a far superior advantage at altitude. Russo’s decorations include the Silver Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster, The Distinguished Flying Cross with one Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Air Medal with fourteen Oak Leaf Clusters.…

1 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

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1 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

AERIAL REFUELING WITH A DRONE

AT 12:46 PM CT ON THE AFTERNOON OF JUNE 4, 2021 pilot Lt. William “Krieger” Peabody and naval flight officer Lt. David “Poon” Babka did something no one else had done. They plugged their VX-23 F/A-18F’s refueling probe into a basket trailing from a prototype version of the U.S. Navy’s ground-breaking uncrewed tanker, the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray. Three hundred twenty pounds of JP-5 flowed from an Aerial Refueling Store (ARS) pod mounted under the prototype, known as “T1” to the Super Hornet, marking the first ever aerial refueling between a crewed aircraft and an uncrewed tanker. MQ-25 is the Navy’s future air wing tanker, intended to relieve F/A-18s of this extra task, saving wear and tear on the Super Hornets acting as “buddy tankers”—a role they’re not particularly well suited…

10 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

Night-fighter tribute

In its all-black night-fighter color scheme of 247 Squadron’s Hurricane BE634 ZY-V, Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) Hurricane Mk IIC PZ865 commemorates all the Hurricane pilots of the night-fighter squadrons who risked their lives in the dark hours, bravely and stoically trying to defend against night bombing raids and then taking the fight to the enemy on night-intruder operations. In particular, it pays tribute to the pilots of 247 Squadron, 16 of whom lost their lives in the 22 months between February 1941 and December 1942.…

1 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

DIVE-BOMBING MUSTANGS

Charles Dills was quick to react to an unfavorable comparison of his second favorite airplane, the A-36, to the P-47. He flew both aircraft in combat and proved to his own satisfaction that the relatively unknown Apache (as it was rarely called) was superior in every respect to the larger, and much more famous Thunderbolt. His favorite airplane was the P-51D, an airplane that might very well never existed had it not been for an earlier, almost offhand, order for 500 of the A-36 as a sort of “gapfiller” in British procurement. Born to be a pilot Dill was born in the town of LaMoure, North Dakota (population 800) on April 20, 1922. Sadly, his father died when he was 8 and his mother when he was 4. His uncle…

14 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

JOIN OUR TEAM!

Do you have aviation in your blood? Crazy about aircraft and flying? Add your unique perspective to our content mix! We’re looking for flightline reporters and contributors to share their expertise and advice in videos and posts. (Original and unpublished content only, please.) If you’re the kind of pilot or aviation enthusiast who likes taking videos and photos while in the hangar or at airshows, getting the inside scoop on civilian planes, jets, warbirds, and the pilots who fly them, we hope you’ll consider joining us. Team members will get featured posts on our premium site and, of course, unlimited bragging rights. Contributors may be published in Flight Journal magazine. CHECK OUT MORE HERE: flightjournal.com/contributors…

1 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

Taylor Aerocar

Designed by Moulton (Molt) Taylor during the 1940s, the Aerocar is truly a remarkable machine, as it requires many items of equipment (such as headlights, brake light indicators, a horn, four wheels, etc.) that most airplanes simply don't have. And, of course, you mustn’t forget the two drive systems! It has to have all the features of a car built into a plane (or is it all the facets of a plane incorporated into a car?). A single Lycoming IO-360 drives the front wheels, using a system of V-belts and pulleys, and the pusher propeller via an intriguing device called a “Flexidyne.” Additional cooling air—required while being driven as a car in traffic—is supplied by a fan propelled via the car’s transmission. The airframe, tail and wings are made predominantly…

3 min

Flight Journal|March - April 2022

An interview with Jimmy Doolittle

Editor’s note: In 1979, Gen. James Harold “Jimmy” Doolittle—then 83 years old—was in Washington, D.C., to attend a reunion of his “boys,” as he referred to the Doolittle Raiders. After the reunion, writer David Walsh was fortunate enough to ride with him to the airport and tape an interview. Doolittle’s comments clearly show the mind of an American hero at work, and they shed light on pivotal moments in history when he was commander of the 8th Air Force. David Walsh: There was controversy about your upping the 8th’s missions. Did any of that come out here, at the reunion? Gen. James Doolittle: I was a little embarrassed because one chap gave me a tremendous plug and then said, “You know, when you increased the missions from twenty-five to thirty, I’d…

6 min