Table of contents for May - June 2021 in Flight Journal

It’s easy to view the Avro Lancaster, which turns 80 this year, as just another large, mechanized, and cumbersome war machine that successfully contributed to the Allied bombing campaign between 1941-45. But if you look at each plane individually, there is so much more when you consider the pilots, air and ground crews, and missions. The driving force was the human element—not just the weapons, rivets, and sheet metal. It would start on takeoff when the pilot heaved his plane off the runway and into the air. In our feature story “Legendary Heavy Hitter,” Squadron Leader Clive Rowley MBE RAF (Ret.), a former pilot and officer commanding the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, tells the story behind the latest markings for the Flight’s Lancaster Bomber. Its unique…

Behind the scenes of the “Lancaster” feature documentary At Coningsby, the “Lanc” dwarfs the Spitfires and Hurricanes in the hangar, and its black-painted undersides and pugnacious looks give it an aggressive stance, in contrast to the fragile beauty of the Spits. We knew it would make a great subject for a film and an even more powerful story. But just like “Spitfire,” our film is not just about the airplane, despite the gorgeous aerial cinematography of John Dibbs. At the heart of both films are the veterans’ experiences. In “Spitfire,” we interviewed 16 veterans. For “Lancaster,” we have interviewed 38—the youngest 95 years old, the oldest 100. The big difference is that instead of flying alone, these “Bomber Boys” flew as crews of seven. It’s how they lived and died,…

Since using flashers resulted in shot-up airplanes, the RA-5C Vigilante had three sensors which could be used at night: Infrared Mapping (IR), Passive Electronic Counter Measures (PECM), and Side-Looking Radar (SLR). Although these systems could be run while jinking, the best results came from steady, wings-level flying. Side-Looking Radar was installed in all RC-5Cs, (the rear two-thirds of the belly canoe was antennas, power supplies and recorders for the SLR). In addition to providing intelligence—boats, ships and trains showed up especially well—SLR gave the A-6 Intruder and, later, the A-7 Corsair crews a current radar picture to use in their planning for attacks in bad weather or at night. The installation of the Infrared (IR) Mapping sensor (designated AAS-21) was a major improvement in the Vigilante’s night capability. No longer…

When VMF-323 Marine Fighter Squadron first trained at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina in August of 1943, three lieutenants killed a huge, six-foot rattlesnake. It quickly became the squadron’s namesake, and from then on, they were known as the “Death Rattlers.” The name is still used for the squadron today! The newly commissioned squadron started flying the Vought F4U-1 Corsair in North Carolina and then shipped out to the West Coast, to El Centro, California where they prepared to go to the Pacific theater. In August 1944, they moved to Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago. They had no kills at this location, so they moved to Espiritu Santo in March 1945 (still no kills), and then to harm’s way in Okinawa in March 1945. Throughout the war, their commanding…

Monday September 6, 1943, 19:48 hours GMT (21:48 Double British Summer [local] time). A green Aldis lamp shone from the runway controller’s caravan beside the runway threshold at RAF Binbrook, on the Lincolnshire Wolds, signaling clearance to take off. The concrete was damp from a recent shower of rain as, with its four Packard Merlin engines roaring under the strain of full power, a Lancaster surged down the runway and its pilot, Australian Flight Sergeant “Jerry” Bateman, heaved his heavily laden charge off the runway and into the air. The sun had just set as Lancaster B III, W5005, AR-L, climbed slowly and thundered off into the gathering darkness. This was the aircraft’s 30th operation (op) over enemy territory and the crew’s 10th op flying it. Nicknamed “Leader,” this bomber…

Flight Lieutenant Tim Dunlop flew the RAF BBMF Lancaster PA474 as a captain for eight display seasons, and he provides this insight: “The Lancaster has all the prestige and is such an important aircraft in the history of the Royal Air Force. Flying such a rare aircraft, with everything she represents, is something that isn’t lost on any of us and brings with it a certain amount of self-induced pressure. Damaging the Lancaster beyond repair is not something that can be contemplated. “Landing always concentrates the mind; the Lancaster doesn’t always behave how you think she is going to, especially in a crosswind. My top piece of advice to new BBMF Lancaster pilots is don’t ever think you have mastered the Lancaster. If you relax for a moment, she will…

The focus of “Spitfire” and its follow up, “Lancaster,” is the specially shot and deeply engaging interviews with the veterans about their experiences during WW II. Also unique to both these films is the air-to-air material that helps to illustrate the veterans’ experiences with preserved examples of the machines they flew. It was a bold choice by the directors and producers of “Spitfire” to shoot air-to-air, but public response to all aspects of the film endorsed their vision, so Lancaster follows the same path. The aerial unit answers the brief of David and Ant, the film’s directors, and takes its cues from the interviews. With 30 years of experience photographing and filming aircraft in the air, I was asked to undertake the same role as I had in “Spitfire.” I…

The 163rd Attack Wing, known as the “Grizzlies,” are located at March Air Reserve Base, California, and have a long and distinguished history of flying. The Wing was commissioned on November 9, 1946 as the 196th Fighter Squadron flying the L-5G Sentinel Liaison, T-6 Texan Trainer, P-51D Mustang, C-47 Dakota, and B-26 Invader aircraft. A red-letter date in the Grizzlies’ history was on June 25, 1948 when the unit received the F-80C Shooting Star fighter aircraft, which it would deploy on October 10, 1950 to support the United Nations during the Korean Conflict. Upon returning to the U.S., the Grizzlies moved their flying operations to Ontario Airport, where they continued their proud military heritage flying F-86 and F-102 “Delta Dagger” fighter aircraft. On March 8, 1975, the Grizzlies were reassigned…

COL. HUBERT ZEMKE, CO of the 56th FG, had seen his Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pilots mature from the first group trained on that type aircraft to a group that was ready to fight when it arrived in England in April l943. And he had commanded them through their initial combat problems, such as the fight for droppable fuel tanks to extend their range to paddle-bladed propellers to improve their rate of climb. As these improvements were made, the 56th became one of the stellar fighter units in the 8th Air Force. By the spring of 1944, they were the top air to air scorers in the force and their escort missions for the bombers had become some of the most successful provided by fighters. There was a problem, however, of…

In the past several decades, the demand for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has exploded. Compared to manned aircraft, UAVs are low cost, have a long endurance, can work independently from other assets, and are a great bang for the buck in achieving combatant commander’s intent—not to mention the plethora of other roles they can perform. The MQ-1 Predator was truly the pioneer of the in-theater Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA) continuous presence. The demand resulted in the more capable MQ-9A Reaper being developed. Compared to the now-retired Predator, the MQ-9 is faster, larger, can carry a much greater payload, and has superior sensors. It is an all-around vast improvement over the MQ-1. The California Air National Guard (ANG) Grizzlies previously flew the MQ-1B and were the first ANG organization to transition…

The Vigilante was doing 650 knots near the North Vietnamese port of Hon Gai when there was a huge explosion behind the tail from either heavy caliber antiaircraft fire or an SA-2 missile. On fire and with the flight controls failed, the crew, Lt. Cdr. James Bell, pilot, and Lt. Cdr. “Duffy” Hutton, RAN, ejected and landed in the small islands off the coast. They both climbed into their survival rafts, but were picked up by fishermen in sampans and became POWs. (After repatriation in 1973, Bell told of being tied to the sampan’s mast, which struck him as ironic as the night before he had watched the 1946 movie Two Years Before the Mast.) By October of 1965, the air war was hot. The first SAMs had been launched…

THE LATE 1920S, aviation was working its way out of the carefree barnstorming era into a period where its future as transportation would be guaranteed. In the shadow cast by Lindbergh’s epic adventure, the public view of aircraft was changing rapidly, and many companies were established to begin building aircraft that would serve a useful function—the Curtiss Robin was one of those. Its original 90hp OX-5 watercooled V8, best known as being the powerplant in the Curtiss Jenny of WW I, was rapidly supplanted by a series of more powerful radial engines, including the Challengers ranging between 170 and 185hp. A smaller number were powered by the 165hp Wright J-6. The most famous of the Wright-powered Robins was that of “Wrong Way” Corrigan, who in July 1938, flew one from…

The Avro Lancaster in this haunting photo is L7583, which in 1942 was serving with 207 Squadron based at RAF Langar in Nottinghamshire, England, wearing the code letters EM-A. Th is aircraft was one of 94 Lancaster bombers that flew on Operation Robinson, a daring long-range, low-level, daylight bombing raid against the Schneider factory at Le Creusot, 300 miles inside France, on October 17, 1942. L7583 was flown and captained by 22-year-old Sergeant Pilot Ron Wilson with his all-NCO crew. One of the aircraft’s four engines failed before reaching the target, and the crew was forced to turn back alone, flying on three engines. Over the sea near to the French coast, while flying 40 feet above the water, the Lancaster was attacked by three German Arado seaplanes (probably Arado…