Category: Aviation History

Aviation History

Charles Lindbergh – The Lone Eagle during WWII in the Pacific

Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator, was against America going into WWII. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, however, he wanted to do whatever he could for the war effort. President Roosevelt didn’t want a national hero to be involved in any actual combat lest he got hurt or killed. Also, the president held some deep resentment against Mr. Lindbergh because of Lindbergh’s activities before the war.

So, in May 1944 Charles Lindbergh became a Technical Advisor/Consultant to the United Aircraft Company which required him to Field Test the F4U Corsair with the Marine Corps at Guadalcanal. He flew on 14 combat missions. Then in June 1994 he went to the lush tropical island of Emirau (also spelled Emira). This island is in the St. Matthias Group or Islands, also known as the Mussau Islands, in the Bismarck Archipelago that makes up part of Papua New Guinea.  Papua New Guinea is approximately 125 north of Australia.

Lindbergh was stationed with the 475th Fighter Group which was part of the 5th Air Force. This group was known as “Satan’s Angels.”  He would be flying the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. He took part in 50 combat missions and even shot down 1 enemy plane.

As an observer he quickly calculated that the combat radius of the P-38 could be extended by 30%. A standard technique at the time was to cruise at 2200 – 2400 rpms with a fuel/air mixture set to auto-rich with the manifold pressure set to low. Lindbergh called for only 1600 rpm with a fuel/air mixture set to auto-lean and a manifold pressure set to high. This reduced fuel consumption to between 63 and 70 gallons per hour from 90 to 100 gallons per hour. The cruising speed was around 185 mph. The P-38’s used to fly a five-hour mission and come back on fumes, but after taking Lindbergh’s advice, the range of the P-38’s increased as much as 400 miles. The mission’s (bomber escort and loiter) time was increased to nine hours with fuel to spare. I doubt that the pilot’s enjoyed sitting in the cockpit for nine hours!

When Lindbergh first gave his advice for extending the range of the P-38, the pilots and especially the mechanics were against it. The mechanics thought that the engines would be put under too much strain and that parts of the engines would rapidly wear out. But after the P-38’s came back from missions; the mechanics would strip the engines down and find no abnormal wear or tear. Lindbergh was vindicated, but he chose not to lord that over anyone. He let his actions speak for him.

 

 

 

 

 

Henson and Stringfellow

If you recall in the 1965 version of the movie “The Flight of the Phoenix” the character Heinrich Dorfmann says the following: “In 1841 Henson and Stringfellow built a rubber-powered model that flew 600 meters before encountering an obstruction”. So, you ask yourself who are Henson and Stringfellow. Were they aviation pioneers?  Did they do something historic? And if so, what was it?  

Their names were William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow.  Henson was born May 3, 1812, in the town Chard, which is in the county of Somerset, England.  He became a successful businessman like his father in the lace-making industry in Somerset. John Stringfellow was born December 6, 1799, in Attercliffe near Sheffield, England. He was an engineer and in the lace-making industry in Somerset.

Mr. Henson’s aeronautical work was influenced by the world-renowned Sir George Cayley. Henson and Stringfellow designed a steam-driven aircraft which they called an: “aerial steam carriage” which was the first known design for a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft. Mr. Henson submitted a patent (British Patent # 9478) in 1842 for a flying machine called the “Aerial”. When one looks at these drawings the elements of design and construction that were later used in World War I era aircraft can be seen.

And according to the patent it planned “to convey letters, goods and passengers from place to place through the air”. This would have made it the first air mail carrier or airline. In 1843 Henson and Stringfellow formed a company with Frederick Marriott, and D.E. Colombine called: “Aerial Transit Company”.

Frederick Marriott was credited in later years with coining the term “aeroplane”. What Henson and Stringfellow had done was 60 years before the Wright Brother’s first successful flight on December 17, 1903. They also created a very impressive public media campaign with flyers and posters of the aircraft “Aerial” depicting it in flight in exotic locations. These flyers and posters appeared all over the world. And the “Aerial” had never actually flown; it had made a very, very short hop. The reason for this is that it’s power plant which was a steam engine was too heavy and under-powered (it had 30-horsepower). But the engineering of the aircraft design itself was very sound, and it would influence future aeronautical thinking.

Henson was married to Sarah Ann Jones in 1848. In 1849 he and his wife emigrated to the U.S., and they lived in Newark, New Jersey. He would go on to be known as “Mad-man” Henson. He was a broken and humiliated man in his later years. He died in 1888. He was buried in East Orange, New Jersey.

 John Stringfellow was married to Hannah Keetch in 1827. He was awarded a prize of L100 pounds at the aeronautical exhibition at Crystal Palace in June 1868 by the Royal Aeronautical Society for his model steam engine. His steam engine had the highest power-to-weight ratio of the 15 engines on display. He was elected a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society also in 1868. He had a triplane design (see below) and his work laid the foundation for those that followed. Had Stringfellow had a small lightweight internal combustion engine available he would have been able to fly at least 40 years before the Wright Brother’s. John Stringfellow died in 1883 in Chard.

 

 

First to Fly

Who was the first person to fly? Now when I say fly, I
mean sustained, controlled flight in a heavier-than-air
aircraft.
Was it that snappy dresser from Brazil Alberto Santos
Dumont? His countrymen fervently think so. His first flight
was on October 23, 1906. It was recognized by Brazilians
and by the French and other Europeans to truly be the first
controlled flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. It had the
ability to take off from the ground without any catapult
assistance and it was witnessed in public by a large crowd
and the scientific community.
When the Wright Brothers flew in the United States in front
of people in general and in front of the press in particular,
they asked that no photographs be taken. They were very
secretive because they were afraid that others would steal
their designs or technical features of the aircraft. During the
timeframe of 1903 – 1906 they still didn’t have an approved
or accepted Patent which also was a factor in their secrecy.
Their Patent (# 821,393) was granted on May 22,1906 –
three years after they first flew. Then in 1908 they were
awarded a government contract from the U.S. War
Department ($25,000). They went to Paris on May 29, 1908
and finally demonstrated the aircraft in front of a very large
crowd.
Was it Gustave Whitehead in Fairfield, Connecticut on
August 14, 1901? Eyewitnesses have signed depositions
years later attesting to that statement. Modern replicas of
Whitehead’s aircraft have been successfully flown. A
contract was made between the estate of the Wright
Brother’s and the Smithsonian Institution to display the
Wright Flyer’ at the Smithsonian (National Air & Space
Museum in Washington, D.C.) which stated that if it is
proven that anyone else had flown first that the Wright
Flyer would be taken back. Conspiracy theorists say that
this contract was created to keep facts about Whitehead’s
alleged flight from being divulged and published. Does a
photograph exist showing Gustave Whitehead in flight in
1901? Has the existence of this photograph been
suppressed? Controversy to this day still swirls around all
these issues.
Was it Richard Pearse from New Zealand on March 31,
1903? He had eyewitnesses also. But there wasn’t any
photographic evidence of flight. Also Richard Pearse has
never said he was the first to fly and he does not want to
take away that claim from the Wright Brother’s. The New
Zealand Mint struck a silver medal in 1982 to
commemorate the: “80th Anniversary of the World’s 1st
Powered Flight”. The date on the medal is: “31-3-1982”.
This of course would have made the alleged 1st flight in
1902. The Museum of Transport and Technology
(MOTAT) in Auckland which had commissioned the silver
medal states on their website that the 1st flight was in 1903.
So was it 1902 or 1903? The debate still goes on.
Was it Glenn Curtiss? He flew an improved (structurally
modified) version of Samuel P. Langley’s Great
Aerodrome’ in 1914. So, does that mean it could have
flown in 1903 before the Wright Brother’s? The ‘Great
Aerodrome’ fell off a houseboat in the Potomac River in
Washington, D.C. twice in 1903 (October 7th and
December 8th).
Mr. Curtiss and the Wright Brother’s had Patent Litigation
for many years with regards towards “controllable” flight
and whose control system (wing-warping or elevator’s and
ailerons) was the first and therefore legitimate.
Or was it really the Wright Brothers? It has been said that
they didn’t really fly on December 17, 1903. Allegedly
when Wilbur Wright was running alongside the aircraft, he
was supposedly lifting it, but he was actually balancing it
while his brother Orville Wright was flying it. The deep
depressions of Wilbur’s footprints in the sand are supposed
to be proof of that.
Well I was born and raised in Connecticut, but does that
mean I have to automatically state that Gustave Whitehead
was the first to fly? On the contrary, I emphatically state
that I believe that the Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur)
designed, built, tested, and flew the first heavier-than-air
aircraft in sustained and controllable flight. Who knows,
maybe someone someday will prove beyond a shadow-of-a-doubt that someone else was first to fly. But until that day comes, I am sticking with the Wright Brothers.