newsletter 0901-1.pub - War Eagles Air Museum

Transcription

First Quarter (Jan - Mar) 2009
Volume 22, Number 1
The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Editorial
W
e’re continuing to experiment
with the content and focus of
Plane Talk to try to keep it
fresh, useful and enlightening to you, our
readers. Our first tweak was in the Second Quarter 2008 issue, which featured
an aircraft that not only is not in the War
Eagles Air Museum collection, but that
does not exist anywhere in the world—
the Martin XB-51.
In this issue, we’re trying something
else new and different. Rather than leading off with a “Featured Aircraft” article
covering a single airplane in considerable
detail, we present a piece that we hope
you’ll find equally interesting—a survey
of great aviation films that offer real historic aircraft in real aerial action. We’re
very pleased to welcome well-known El
Paso film historian and movie expert Jay
Duncan as the guest author of “The Airplane as Cinema Star.” Be sure to read
the “About the Author” profile of him on
Page 3. Jay was involved in presenting
the Classic Aviation Film Series that we
sponsored at the International Museum of
Art in 2003 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first successful controlled powered flight. Jay’s
knowledge of film is truly encyclopedic,
and we hope you enjoy his article.
Speaking of cinematic aircraft and
aerial action, the first of three volumes of
the complete 1958-59 Steve Canyon television series on DVD, containing 12 episodes, has been released. You’ll find the
whole story of this exciting series in the
Third Quarter 2008 Plane Talk.
The Airplane
as Cinema Star
by Jay Duncan
S
eeing historic aircraft on static display at a museum is a real treat for
enthusiasts. But it is quite another
experience to actually see these magnificent machines in flight. Other than at airshows, the opportunities for aviation fans
to see and hear real flying warbirds are
limited. But there are ways for “buffs” to
gain such experiences—on the screens of
their home television sets.
S Robert Shaw (l.) and Richard Todd (r.)
star as pilots of a Royal Air Force Lancaster
bomber on a mission to destroy dams in the
German Ruhr River valley using special
“bouncing bombs” in the 1954 British film
The Dam Busters. Shaw later became well
known to American audiences as Quint in
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster Jaws.
Contents
Editorial......................................1
The Airplane as Cinema Star.....1
From the Director.......................2
Guy Dority’s 90th Birthday ..........5
Membership Application ............7
Cinema Star (Continued on Page 2)
1
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
From the Director
W
e hosted the 5th Annual Land
of Enchantment RV Fly-In in
October, as always geared for
builders of the popular series of small
home-built aircraft. Every time we’ve
held this event, the weather has been bad,
with rainstorms and high winds, and this
year was no exception. Attendance was
down 30 per cent, but even so we still attracted over 80 aircraft and more than
150 visitors from around the country. Although this year’s event was marred by
the fatal crash of a Maule (not an RV) at
the airport, we look forward to hosting
the premier RV gathering again in 2009.
We’d like to welcome new Museum
employee Chuck Faison, who works in
From the Director (Continued on page 8)
Cinema Star (Continued from page 1)
Historic aircraft fans need only pop a
video tape or DVD into their player and
they can vicariously place themselves into the cockpits of fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft—even rocket planes—as they
battle the enemy on nerve-rattling combat missions, explore the boundaries of
flight in dangerous experimental aircraft
or test the limits of man and machine in a
howling storm many miles from the nearest landing strip. Aviation films can show
viewers what “it” was really like, and the
films that best provide this experience
have a common trait—they’re old. Really
old. So old, in fact, that they were filmed
when the aircraft that they feature were
still in use. In short, we’re talking about
classic films here. Let’s get started…
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Many critics consider Thirty Seconds
Over Tokyo, released in November 1944,
to be the finest World War II film ever
made. The screenplay, by Dalton Trumbo
(who, ironically, was convicted and imprisoned in 1950 for contempt of Congress after refusing to testify about communist influence in Hollywood) was
based on a 1943 book by Ted W. Lawson. Lawson was the pilot of Ruptured
Duck, the seventh of 16 B-25s that took
off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet
on April 18, 1942, on the “Doolittle
Raid,” a mission to bomb military installations around Tokyo. Although technically a failure, the strike, just four
months after Pearl Harbor, was a strong
S New Museum employee Chuck Faison
shows off two of his super-detailed Japanese
model aircraft, a KI–84 and an A6M2-N.
Plane Talk
Published quarterly by:
War Eagles Air Museum
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008
(575) 589-2000
Author/Editor:
Chief Nitpicker:
Final Proofreader:
Terry Sunday
Frank Harrison
Kathy Sunday
[email protected]
First Quarter 2009
morale booster for an America stunned
by Japan’s seemingly endless string of
Pacific conquests.
Featuring Van Johnson as Captain
Lawson, Robert Mitchum as Lieutenant
Bob Gray and Spencer Tracy as Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo accurately portrays the
raid. Director Mervyn LeRoy shot the
training footage at Eglin Field, near Pensacola, Florida, which was the real base
used for training the crews. The aircraft
were U.S. Army Air Force North American B-25C and D Mitchell bombers, very
similar to the B-25Bs used in the raid. No
aircraft carriers were available to the film
makers, but a combination of good studio
sets and original newsreel footage recreated the USS Hornet scenes faithfully.
Some critics saw the film as bordering on propaganda (as did, in fact, most
other wartime films), but their near-unanimous verdict was summed up in the New
York Times: “Our first sensational raid on
Japan...is told with magnificent integrity
and dramatic eloquence...” The Raiders
themselves reportedly considered Thirty
Seconds Over Tokyo a worthy tribute.
Twelve O’Clock High
Widely considered one of the best, if
not the best, aviation films ever made,
Twelve O’Clock High premiered in Los
Angeles on December 21, 1949. While
not actually made during the War, it nevertheless portrays, with superb accuracy
and stunning cinematography, the story
of U.S. 8th Air Force bomber crews who
flew daylight raids against targets in Germany and occupied France from their bases in England. Directed by Henry King
and starring Gregory Peck as Brigadier
General Frank Savage, Gary Merrill as
Colonel Keith Davenport and Dean Jagger in an Oscar-winning performance as
Major Harvey Stovall, Twelve O’Clock
High had the full cooperation of the Air
Force. The aerial battle scenes used actuCinema Star (Continued on page 3)
S In this archive photo, General James B.
Doolittle starts his takeoff run from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on April 18, 1942,
leading the way on a mission to bomb Japan.
2
Editor’s Note: All images are the properties of their respective copyright holders,
and are used without permission.
First Quarter 2009
The Dam Busters
About the Author
Jay Duncan is an internationally recognized film historian, archivist and collector. Holding a BA degree in Mass Communications, he has taught accredited film history courses at the
University of Texas at El Paso, and was instrumental in saving the city’s magnificent 1930s-era Plaza Theater from demolition in 1974. He was Film Program Chair, guest speaker
and panelist at many science fiction conventions, and he
founded, co-edited and published SPFX Magazine, devoted
to special effects in movies, in 1977. In the days before cable,
when local television stations aired local programs, he was Program Director, announcer and writer-producer-host of “Jay’s Pix,” a popular weekly show in which he
provided on-screen commentary and historical backgrounds to classic films. In
2004, Jay originated El Paso’s IT! Came From the ‘50s science fiction film festival.
them hazardous to operate. There are no
reports of unusual deaths among the crew
and cast. As a side note, this was not true
al combat footage (including some from
for Howard Hughes’ epic The ConquerGerman sources). The film shows how
or, which was filmed in Utah in 1953 and
hard-nosed General Savage takes over
starred John Wayne as Genghis Khan.
the Archbury bomber base with orders to
The location was 140 miles downwind of
turn around the (fictional) 918th Bomb
the Nevada Test Site, where the U.S. detGroup, which was suffering from high
onated nuclear weapons above ground.
combat losses and low morale. Savage
Of the 220 people at the location, 91 desucceeds in his task, but at a great cost,
veloped cancer by 1981 (30 would have
as he himself becomes a psychological
been expected statistically) and 46 died,
casualty of the war.
including Wayne (who, ironically, had
Many of the aircraft used in Twelve
been offered the role of General Savage
O’Clock High were ex-drone B-17Gs, rebut turned it down). There is little doubt
fitted with turrets and repainted as 8th Air
that the deaths were caused by fallout.
Force B-17Fs, on loan from the Air Force
Principal filming took place at Duke
after being used in atomic tests. PresumaField in Florida and Ozark Field in Alably their use in nuclear tests did not make
bama. In a scene sure
to break the heart of
any warbird fan, the
crash landing of the
B-17 early in Twelve
O’Clock High is real—
it’s not a special effect.
Hollywood stunt pilot
Paul Mantz, flying the
big bomber solo, got
$4,500 for destroying
what would today be an
invaluable historical artifact. Mantz himself
was killed in 1965 in
the crash of the Phoenix, an unusual aircraft
S Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress Piccadilly Lily taxies in after returning from a mission to bomb targets in Germany in the classic that he had built especifilm Twelve O’Clock High. According to the Turner Classic Mov- ally for the James
ies website, many bomber crewmen regard this film as Hollywood’s Stewart film The Flight
of the Phoenix.
only accurate depiction of their life during the war.
3
The Dam Busters tells the story of
the development and use of the legendary
“bouncing bomb” in World War II. The
brainchild of British inventor Dr. Barnes
Wallis (played by Michael Redgrave in
the film), this clever bomb was intended
to destroy dams, ships and other hard-toattack targets. The way it worked against
dams was truly ingenious. Carried under
a specially modified Avro Lancaster, the
cylindrical, 9,250-pound bomb was spun
up to 500 RPM by a hydraulic motor and
belt drive. Release conditions were critical—the aircraft had to be almost exactly
60 feet above the water of the dam’s reservoir at an airspeed of between 240 and
250 miles per hour. On release, the bomb
bounced across the water, struck the dam
and, due to its spin, climbed down the inside face of the dam, where it exploded
upon reaching a pre-set depth. The water
pressure helped direct the explosive force
against the dam’s structure and increased
the resulting damage.
Most of The Dam Busters covers the
two years that Wallis spent developing
and testing his invention and training aircrews to use it properly. Operational use
quickly followed the first test in December 1942. The well-known “Dambusters
Raid” (officially Operation Chastise)
took place on the night of May 16, 1943,
when 19 Royal Air Force (RAF) Lancasters of 617 Squadron attacked the Mohne
and Eder dams on Germany’s Ruhr River. The raid destroyed two of the six target dams and damaged four, but at a high
cost—German anti-aircraft fire downed
seven Lancasters, a loss rate that caused
the RAF to discontinue the project.
The Dam Busters film was based on
two books—Guy Gibson’s Enemy Coast
Ahead (Gibson was a pilot in the raid)
and Paul Brickhill’s The Dam Busters—
and was Great Britain’s biggest box-office success on its release in 1955. The
RAF supplied four late-production Avro
Lancaster B.VIIs, which had to be taken
out of storage and specially modified.
Flying expenses were £130 per hour per
aircraft, and accounted for one-tenth of
the film’s budget!
Cinema Star (Continued on page 4)
Director Michael Anderson used the
Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire,
England (the place where Wallis tested
his actual bomb) as a double for the Ruhr
Valley. The airfield used for the ground
shots was RAF Hemswell, just north of
RAF Scampton, which had been an operational base during the war but was not
active when filming took place.
Island in the Sky
A true classic aviation film, Island in
the Sky debuted on September 5, 1953. It
stars John Wayne as Dooley, an ex-airline pilot flying cargo for the U.S. Air
Transport Command during World War
II. On a routine flight over Canada, his
venerable Douglas C-47 Skytrain ices up,
and he is forced to make an emergency
landing in uncharted wilderness near the
Quebec-Labrador border. All five crewmen survive the landing, but their problems have just begun. They are surrounded by thousands of square miles of snowcovered pine forests and frozen lakes.
There are no landmarks to aid search
crews in finding them. Their provisions
are limited, and temperatures dip down to
more than 40 degrees below zero (F).
The script is based on a true story by
Ernest K. Gann about a mission he flew
on February 3, 1943, as a search pilot out
of Presque Isle Airfield, Maine, looking
for a downed aircraft. Island in the Sky
accurately shows the challenges rescuers
face in locating Dooley’s plane. This was
long before the time of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), satellite maps—at
the time, areas such as that in which
Dooley landed really would have been
“uncharted”—and worldwide communications. The only way the crew can contact rescuers is with an SCR-578 handcranked emergency radio transmitter, affectionately called a “Gibson Girl,” after
artist Charles Dana Gibson’s iconic
drawings of tightly corseted American
women at the turn of the 20th century.
The SCR-578’s “wasp-waisted” shape allowed the user to hold it between the legs
while cranking it. It had to spin at 80
RPM to produce enough power to be
usable, and it was very hard to crank.
The story of how the Air Transport
Command, which had received Dooley’s
final radio transmission that he was “going down,” sends other pilots aloft on a
round-the-clock effort to locate his aircraft before the crew perishes, is a suspenseful tale of the highest order. The
details of how search operations are conducted to find a tiny object in a trackless
wilderness are especially well-done.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Coming so soon after World War II,
the Korean War inspired few Hollywood
films. Director Mark Robson made two
of them: I Want You in
1951 and The Bridges
at Toko-Ri in 1954.
Based on the novel by
popular, prolific author James A. Michener,
The Bridges at TokoRi combines aspects of
actual U.S. Navy missions to bomb North
Korean bridges at Majon-Ni and ChangnimNi in the winter of
1951–52. Michener
was a correspondent
aboard the aircraft carriers
Essex and Valley
S Island in the Sky dramatically showcases Douglas C-47 cargo
aircraft in breathtaking black-and-white aerial photography. For Forge, so he was able
much of the filming, Donner Lake, in the Sierra Nevada mountains to tell a very accurate
near Truckee, California, stood in for the fictional Labrador emer- story. Interestingly, fugency landing site of the aircraft piloted by John Wayne.
4
First Quarter 2009
S William Holden, as U.S. Navy Lieutenant
Harry Brubaker, prepares for takeoff in a
Grumman F9F Panther of Fighter Squadron VF-192 in The Bridges at Toko-Ri. The
aircraft carrier USS Oriskany stood in for
the fictional USS Savo Island.
ture astronaut Neil Armstrong, who in
1969 was the first man to set foot on the
moon, was a pilot aboard the Essex. It is
not known whether Michener based any
of his characters on Armstrong.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri offers all the
suspense of a good air war movie, yet it
is decidedly anti-war, with a story modest in scale but large in impact. William
Holden stars as Navy Lieutenant Harry
Brubaker, a former World War II pilot
called back to active duty to fly and fight
again in Korea. His reluctance to do so
symbolizes Americans’ war-weariness.
Grace Kelly plays his wife and Mickey
Rooney is chopper pilot Mike Forney. A
taut, honed and highly charged socio-political drama as well as an adventure tale,
The Bridges at Toko-Ri won a Special
Visual Effects Oscar and a well-deserved
place among the finest combat movies.
The shipboard operation scenes were
shot aboard the USS Oriskany (CV-34),
an Essex-class carrier launched in 1945
but later modernized to handle the new
jet aircraft entering service. The Grumman F9F-2 Panthers, Douglas AD-1 Skyraiders and the Sikorsky S-51 Dragonfly
helicopter are treats to see in beautifully
photographed aerial action as The Bridges at Toko-Ri powers relentlessly toward its controversial conclusion.
Strategic Air Command
The working title of this film was
Air Command. Popular and respected actor James Stewart, like the lead character
First Quarter 2009
Guy Dority Celebrates
his 90th Birthday
O
by Cassandra Rodriguez
n September 27, 2008, War Eagles Air Museum hosted a very
special birthday celebration for
our dear friend Guy Dority. A World
War II veteran airman with hundreds of
missions to his credit, and the very first
Museum volunteer, Guy turned 90 years
old on that day. His family and a few
close friends gathered in the Museum
hangar on a pleasant Saturday afternoon
for a little camaraderie, some “war stories,” and cake and ice cream.
Guy’s daughter Mary, in from Houston for the occasion, decorated the party
area with yellow daisies and a display of
mementos of Guy’s wartime career and
accomplishments. The attendees started
to arrive at about 2:00 in the afternoon,
and soon the guest of honor himself
walked in. As always, he was dressed
impeccably, this time in a light blue suit
and a crisp Navy blue tie. I greeted him
with a hug. With his marvelous, self-deprecating sense of humor and a twinkle in
his eye, he said “I’m here for that old
man Guy Dority’s birthday. Boy, we never thought he would live this long, but I
know he is happy and very thankful.” I
laughed with him and adjusted his tie, although it didn’t really need it.
After the group sang “Happy Birthday” and enjoyed the cake and ice cream,
Museum Director Skip Trammell presented Guy with a beautiful oil painting
by Colorado artist Hal Bergdahl, showing
Guy as an airman in World War II. It is
the perfect companion piece to Mr. Bergdahl’s earlier painting of Guy’s Boeing
B-17E Flying Fortress “Jarrin’ Jenny,”
which had the distinction of being the
first American-manned bomber to arrive
in Europe in July 1942. Guy was the radio operator/gunner on the crew.
The new painting now hangs in the
Museum’s gift shop near Guy’s other
memorabilia. On Sundays, when he
comes in to volunteer and tell his stories
to visitors, Guy looks at his painting and
says, “I still can’t believe that’s me. Do
you really think it looks like me?”
“Dutch” Holland who he played in the
film, had been a bomber pilot in World
War II, and he remained active in the Air
Force Reserve. He achieved the rank of
Brigadier General in 1959, and retired in
1968 after 27 years of service. In the early 1950s, he persuaded Paramount Studios to make a picture about the Strategic
Air Command (SAC), arguing convincingly that it would be a patriotic gesture
and a financially sound investment. He
also convinced the studio to appoint Anthony Mann, with whom he had worked
several times, as director.
Strategic Air Command, Stewart’s
vision of a film praising the people and
mission of SAC, turned out to be a real
boon for fans of Cold War aircraft in the
cinema. Filming locations were MacDill
Air Force Base in Tampa, Lowry AFB in
Denver and Carswell AFB in Fort Worth.
Paramount’s advertising claimed the film
showed “previously secret installations
for the first time”—a bit of hype that appealed to the less-sophisticated moviegoers of the time. It was Paramount’s second wide-screen VistaVision release, and
there’s still something very potent in its
stunning images of graceful aircraft of a
lost-but-not-forgotten age taking flight in
the “wide” blue yonder.
Two things keep Strategic Air Command aloft for today’s audiences. First is
the conviction and authenticity that Stewart brings to a role he not only believed
in passionately, but actually lived. Second is the spectacular aerial photography,
seldom if ever equaled for its sheer lyrical beauty. Ubiquitous stunt pilot Paul
Mantz did so much of the flying that he
thought he deserved to share star billing
with Stewart. He didn’t get his wish. Nor
did aerial photographer Thomas TutwilCinema Star (Continued on page 6)
Plane Talk on the Web
S World War II veteran and long-time volunteer Guy Dority, celebrating his 90th birthday at
War Eagles Air Museum, displays the painting of him in World War II aircrew attire created by
Colorado artist Hal Bergdahl. With him are (from left) his daughter Mary, his granddaughter
Sarah and his great-granddaughter Emilia, all visiting from Houston. Photo by Chuck Crepas.
5
A
rchives of Plane Talk from
the current issue back to the
first quarter of 2003 are now
available in full color on our website.
First Quarter 2009
was nearing the end of
forces himself to take in order to prove to
its service life and
General Banner that he is mentally fit
about to be replaced by
enough to fly the supersonic rocket
the new Boeing B-47
planes then being tested at Edwards is an
Stratojet, which also
interesting and absorbing tale, if a bit
plays a prominent role
drawn-out dramatically.
in the film.
But the aircraft are the real stars of
Many government
the show, and Toward the Unknown has
and military dignitarthem in abundance. For example, this is
ies, including General
the only place to see actual footage of the
Thomas White, the Air
Martin XB-51 bomber (see Plane Talk,
Force Vice Chief of
second quarter 2008, for the full story of
Staff, attended Stratethe XB-51), under cover as the fictional
gic Air Command’s
“Gilbert XF-120.” You’ll also enjoy seeNew York premier on
ing Convair’s XF-92, which was groundApril 20, 1955. The
ed (and thus used in a crash rescue scene)
Air Force Association
at the time the film was made but which
awarded Paramount its
had, in earlier tests, been unable to exS Although not taken from the film Strategic Air Command, this annual Citation of
ceed the speed of sound despite calculadramatic 1951 photo by famed Life Magazine photographer MarHonor for “distinguishtions predicting that it should. The “area
garet Bourke-White conveys the same sense of power and majesty
ed
public
service”
in
rule,” developed by National Advisory
as the film’s scenes of Convair B-36 Peacemakers.
producing the film, and
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) enalso recognized Stewgineer Richard T. Whitcomb, pointed the
art for “distinguished public service and
way to better performance. Using WhitCinema Star (Continued from page 5)
outstanding artistic achievement.” The
comb’s innovation, the XF-92’s succesfilm was the seventh most profitable resors, the F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106
er, who had a unique way of charging
lease of 1955.
Delta Dart, easily exceeded Mach 1.
static scenes with dramatic visual impact
Another historic aircraft in Toward
by placing his camera on a wing, or atop
Toward the Unknown
the Unknown is the rocket-powered Bell
the landing gear or low in the cockpit
Another great showcase of Cold War
X-2. Carried aloft by a Boeing B-50 Stralooking up. His work is even more arrestaircraft is Toward the Unknown, released
tofortress, the X-2 was designed to invesing today, now that the airplanes that he
on October 20, 1956. It starred William
so lovingly filmed carry a cargo of nosHolden as Air Force Major Lincoln Bond
talgia rather than nuclear bombs.
and Lloyd Nolan as
The American National Board of ReGeneral Bill Banner.
view awarded Strategic Air Command a
An exciting story of
Special Citation in recognition of its extest pilots “pushing the
cellence. It is the film to see if you want
envelope” at Edwards
to experience the sights and sounds of
Air Force Base, CaliConvair’s massive B-36D Peacemaker
fornia, in the 1950s, it
intercontinental bomber in action. The
features a reasonably
largest airplane ever in Air Force service,
good plot and outstandand the only one that could carry the hying aerial photography
drogen bombs of the day, the B-36D had
of aircraft that you will
a wingspan of 230 feet. Its powerplants
not see anywhere else.
were six 28-cylinder, 3,500-horsepower
In the story by Beirne
Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major raLay, Jr., Bond is an exdial piston engines and four 5,200fighter pilot who had
pound-thrust General Electric J47 turbobeen shot down over
jets. In addition to filming real B-36s in
Korea and carries the
the air, Paramount built a very accurate
stigma of having bromockup, based on official Air Force
ken under the pressure
sources and using many actual componof communist brainents, of parts of the fuselage to use for inS Actors Lloyd Nolan (l.) and William Holden (r.), on location at
washing while he was a Edwards Air Force Base, pose in front of Martin’s radical XB-51,
terior shots. In 1954, when Strategic Air
POW. The steps that he re-designated “Gilbert XF-120” for the film Toward the Unknown.
Command was filmed, the Peacemaker
6
First Quarter 2009
Membership Application
War Eagles Air Museum memberships are available in six categories. All memberships include the following privileges:
Free admission to the Museum and all exhibits.
Free admission to all special events.
10% general admission discounts for all guests of a current Member.
10% discount on all Member purchases in the Gift Shop.
To become a Member of the War Eagles Air Museum, please fill in the information requested below and note the category of membership you desire. Mail this form, along with a check payable to “War Eagles Air Museum” for the annual fee shown, to:
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, NM 88008
Membership Categories
Individual
$15
Family
$25
STREET ____________________________________________________________
Participating
$50
CITY ______________________________ STATE _____ ZIP _________—______
Supporting
$100
TELEPHONE (Optional) _____—_____—____________
Benefactor
$1,000
E-MAIL ADDRESS (Optional) ___________________________________________
Life
$5,000
NAME (Please print)___________________________________________________
Will be kept private and used only for War Eagles Air Museum mailings.
tigate flight at speeds and altitudes far
beyond those of the X-1, in which Captain Charles “Chuck” Yeager first “broke
the sound barrier” on October 14, 1947.
Designed to reach Mach 3 (over 2,200
miles per hour), the X-2 had an advanced
but temperamental Curtiss-Wright rocket
engine. Bell built two X-2s. The first was
destroyed in an explosion during a captive flight over Lake Ontario on May 12,
1953. The second flew under power for
the first time at Edwards on November
18, 1955. Over the next 10 months, it had
reached Mach 2.87 and over 126,000 feet
in altitude. On September 27, 1956, Air
Force Captain Mel Apt took the X-2 to a
new world speed record of Mach 3.2. But
on turning back to return to Edwards, he
experienced an aerodynamic phenomenon called “inertial coupling,” which
caused the X-2 to tumble wildly out of
control. Apt successfully released his
“escape pod,” but was knocked unconscious and never opened his parachute.
The War of the Worlds
The War of The Worlds (the original
version, not the odoriferous 2005 remake
with Tom Cruise) was released in October 1953 by Paramount Pictures. Most
fans of this outstanding film fully appreciate the magnitude of Producer George
Pal’s monumental cinematic effort in relocating (from England) and modernizing
author H.G. Wells’ 1898 literary science
fiction classic. Countless articles and en-
S Northrop’s incredible, futuristic YB-49
flying wing bomber put on a brief but impressive performance in the classic 1953 science fiction film War of the Worlds.
7
tire book chapters have been dedicated to
this groundbreaking, Academy-Awardwinning (for Best Special Visual Effects)
Technicolor motion picture. Indeed, in
1977, I was the co-editor and publisher of
a 32-page magazine devoted to the making of The War of the Worlds. Its publication coincided with the 25th Anniversary of the beginning of filming at the
Paramount Studios.
With all of its state-of-the-art technical wizardry, however, one sequence did
not rely on any type of special effect or
visual trickery whatsoever. George Pal
had decided to have Northrop’s YB-49
“Flying Wing” drop an atomic bomb on
the Martian war machines in a last-ditch
effort to destroy the interplanetary invaders as they lay waste to southern California. Mr. Pal told us: “We did use a few
stock shots from the Northrop and North
American Aviation Companies which
had to be submitted to the Department of
Defense, but it was minor.”
Doña Ana County Airport at Santa Teresa
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008
(575) 589-2000
Still, as minor as it was in the whole
production, the visual impact of the shots
of the “Flying Wing” taxiing, taking off
and gracefully maneuvering in flight on
the big theater screen thrilled 1953 audiences. Even today, with viewers more sophisticated and far more jaded than back
in the day, the footage of the YB-49 remains powerful and evocative. The “Flying Wing” even resembles the Martian
war machines, which have been gliding
over the countryside spewing deadly heat
rays and disintegration beams and are unaffected by the atomic blast.
The YB-49 had a host of technical
problems, including poor aerodynamic
stability, and its bomb bay could not accommodate the primitive, large, heavy
nuclear weapons of the time (which, of
course, makes the nuking of the Martians
by a YB-49 a case of “artistic license”).
Some of these problems could have been
fixed with further development. However, it also suffered from insurmountable
political problems, far beyond the scope
of this article, that caused the Government to cancel Northrop’s innovative design in favor of its competitor, the moreconventional Convair B-36.
The original War of the Worlds gave
mass audiences a rare glimpse of American aeronautical ingenuity at its best, and
an appreciation for an aircraft design that
was far ahead of its time but that would
(temporarily, at least) soon fade into aviation oblivion. John K. “Jack” Northrop’s vision of a highly efficient aircraft
without a fuselage, a true “flying wing,”
is a reality today in the B-2 Spirit “stealth
bomber,” which, interestingly, has exactly the same wingspan—172 feet—as the
YB-49. High-speed computers and digital fly-by-wire controls eliminate the instabilities inherent in an all-wing aircraft,
and make the B-2 a capable and stable
bomber, and the most recognizable aircraft in the world. Even if you never see
one in person, you can get some sense of
the power of this awesome aeronautical
triumph from The War of the Worlds.
8
From the Director (Continued from page 2)
the Gift Shop most weekdays and pitches
in on any other projects that need a hand.
Chuck was in the Air Force from 1959
through 1963 as a Crash Rescue Specialist at James Connelly Air Force Base, in
Waco, Texas, Headquarters of the 5th Air
Force and a training base for navigators
and Radar Intercept Officers. While he
was there, he managed to log some jet
time in a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star
and also got a ride in a Northrop F-89
Scorpion—one of the most fascinating,
and today rarest, aircraft of all time. He
worked at a manufacturing plant in El
Paso for 10 years, transferring to San
Diego in 1996. After he retired in 2001,
he eventually returned to El Paso, by way
of Rapid City, South Dakota, in 2008. He
has been building 1/48-scale model airplanes for 40 years, specializing in superdetailing World War II Japanese types.
Welcome aboard, Chuck!
Skip Trammell

newsletter 0901-1.pub - War Eagles Air Museum

Transcription

Similar documents

Wherever you are. Whenever you need it.

1994 - 2000 - . . 1846 . . . Location: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll

Baby Shower Packages - Children`s Museum of Phoenix

TAC Update 2/19/16

PIONEERS AND DRIFTERS, COWBOYS AND INDIANS

RAF Brize Norton, Oxford

aircraft specifications airbus 320-232 4l-ajf

Airvan8 Brochure

Loftleidir-Icelandic

McDonnell Douglas (Boeing) F-15C Eagle s/n 80-014