Blog

May 01, 2023

On this Date

March 25, 1955: The prototype XF8U-1 Crusader, with Chance Vought Aircraft

March 25, 1955: The prototype XF8U-1 Crusader, with Chance Vought Aircraft Corporation experimental test pilot John William Konrad at the controls, made its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The new fighter had been transported from the factory at Dallas, Texas, aboard a Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, on March 3, 1955. It was reassembled and all systems were checked. Taxi tests began on March 14. During the first flight, the Crusader went supersonic in level flight. It was able to maintain supersonic speeds (not only for short periods in a dive) and was the first fighter aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight. The F8U Crusader has a unique variable-incidence wing which can be raised to increase the angle of attack. This created more lift at low speeds for takeoff and landing aboard aircraft carriers but allows the fuselage to remain fairly level for better forward visibility. The test program went so well that the first production airplane, F8U-1 Crusader Bu. No. 140444, made its first flight just over six months after the prototypes.

March 25, 1958: A team at the High Speed Track began testing high-speed windblast effects on the X-15 ejection seat and MC-2 pressure suit.

March 25, 1960: After North American Aviation's Chief Engineering Test Pilot Albert Scott Crossfield had made the first flights in the new X-15 hypersonic research rocket plane (one gliding, eight powered), NASA Chief Test Pilot Joseph Albert Walker made his first familiarization flight. The X-15, 56-6670, the first of three built by North American Aviation, Inc., was carried aloft under the right wing of a Boeing NB-52A Stratofortress, 52-003, flown by John E. Allavie and Fitzhugh L. Fulton.

The rocket plane was dropped from the mothership over Rosamond Dry Lake, and Walker ignited the Reaction Motors XLR-11 rocket engine. The engine burned for 272.0 seconds, accelerating Walker and the X-15 to Mach 2.0 (1,320 mph) and a peak altitude of 48,630 feet. Walker landed on Rogers Dry Lake at EdwardsAir Force Base, Calif., after a flight of nine minutes, 8.0 seconds. Walker made 25 flights in the three X-15 rocket planes. He was killed in a mid-air collision between his Lockheed F-104N Starfighter and a North American Aviation XB-70A Valkyrie near Barstow, Calif., June 1, 1966.

March 25, 2009: A U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin F-22A Block 10 Raptor, 91-4008, Raptor 07, of the 411th Flight Test Squadron, 412th Test Wing, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., crashed in the marshy flat land six miles north of Harper Dry Lake near Edwards, during a weapons integration flight test mission. The aircraft crashed about 10 a.m. and was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles northeast of Edwards. The pilot, David Cooley, 49, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin, the plane's principal contractor in 2003, did not survive. Cooley, of Palmdale, Calif., was pronounced dead at Victor Valley Community Hospital in Victorville, Calif. An Air Force investigation found that the accident occurred after the pilot lost consciousness in a high-gravity maneuver. The reports stated that during the third test of the mission the pilot appeared to have been subjected to increased physiological stress and his lack of awareness delayed a recovery maneuver. At 7,486 feet, the pilot initiated ejection outside of the seat design envelope and immediately sustained fatal injuries.

March 26, 1940: The Curtiss C-46 Commando made its first flight. The Commando was a twin-engine transport aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurized high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III," but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company publicity. It was used as a military transport during World War II by the U.S. Army Air Forces and also the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps, which used the designationR5C. The C-46 served in a similar role to its Douglas-built counterpart, theC-47 Skytrain, but it was not as extensively produced as the latter.

After World War II, a few surplus C-46 aircraft were briefly used in their originally designated role as passenger airliners, but the glut of surplus C-47s dominated the marketplace and the C-46 was soon relegated to primarily cargo duty. The type continued in U.S. Air Force service in a secondary role until 1968. The C-46 continues in operation as a rugged cargo transport for arctic and remote locations with its service life extended into the 21st century.

March 26, 1950: The Douglas A2D Skyshark made its first flight. The Skyshark was an American turboprop-powered attack aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the U.S. Navy. The program was substantially delayed by engine reliability problems and was canceled because more promising jet attack aircraft had entered development, and the smaller escort carriers the A2D was intended to utilize were being phased out.

March 26, 1951: Filming began on the lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for RKO's film Jet Pilot starring John Wayne and Janet Leigh. As shown in this photograph, an XF-92A was painted to simulate a MiG-23. Most of the aerial stunt scenes were anonymously flown by Chuck Yeager. Pictured, from left: Capt. Joseph E. Wolfe, Maj. Jackie L. Ridley, and Maj. Charles "Chuck" Yeager.

March 26, 1958: First launch of the Zero Length Launch (ZEL) program of an F-100D took place from a truck-mounted launcher. North American test pilot Albert W. Blackburn was at the controls. A follow-on to the ZELMAL program, ZEL was designed to launch tactical fighters in case of the loss of their traditional runways.

March 27, 1794: The U.S. Congress passes the Naval Act of 1794, creating the U.S. Navy. The Naval Act ordered the construction and manning of six frigates and, by October 1797, the first three were brought into service: USS United States, USS Constellation, and USS Constitution. Due to his strong posture on having a strong standing Navy during this period, John Adams is often called "the father of the American Navy."

March 27, 1924: British-born 2nd Lt. Oscar Monthan (1885-1924) is killed when his Martin NBS-1 bomber, AS-68448, of the 5th Composite Group, fails to clear a baseball field backstop on take-off from Luke Field, Ford Island, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. Davis-Monthan Landing Field, later Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Ariz., is named in part for him on Nov. 1, 1925. He attended high school in that community.

March 27, 1942: After three weeks of intensive training at Eglin Field, Fla., 22 North American Aviation B-25B Mitchell twin-engine medium bombers of the 34th Bombardment Squadron (Medium), 17th Bombardment Group (Medium), U.S. Army Air Force, completed a two-day, low-level, transcontinental flight. The bombers under the command of Lt. Col. James Harold Doolittle arrived at the Sacramento Air Depot, McClellan Field, Calif., for final modifications, repairs and maintenance before an upcoming secret mission: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.

March 27, 1945: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins. The operation was a naval mining operation conducted in World War II by the U.S. Army Air Forces, in which vital water routes and ports of Japan were mined from the air to disrupt enemy shipping. The mission was initiated at the insistence of Admiral Chester Nimitz who wanted his naval operations augmented by an extensive mining of Japan itself conducted by the air force.

While Gen. Henry H. Arnold felt this was strictly a naval priority, he assigned Gen. Curtis LeMay to carry it out. LeMay assigned one group of about 160 aircraft of the 313th Bombardment Wing to the task, with orders to plant 2,000 mines in April 1945.

The mining runs were made by individual B-29 Superfortresses at night at moderately low altitudes. Eventually most of the major ports and straits of Japan were repeatedly mined, severely disrupting Japanese logistics and troop movements for the remainder of the war with 35 of 47 essential convoy routes having to be abandoned. Twentieth Air Force flew 1,529 sorties and laid 12,135 mines in 26 fields on 46 separate missions. Mining demanded only 5.7 percent of the XXI Bomber Command's total sorties, and only 15 B-29s were lost in the effort. In return, mines sank or damaged 670ships totaling more than 1,250,000 tons.

March 27, 1966: At Edwards Air Force Base in the High Desert of Southern California, Hughes Aircraft Company test pilot Jack Louis Zimmerman flew the third prototype YOH-6A Light Observation Helicopter, 62-4213, to set six Federation Aeronautic Internationale World Record for Altitude and Time-to-Climb. The records were set in two sub-classes, based on the helicopter's take-off weight. Zimmerman took the YOH-6A from the surface to a height of 9,843 feet in four minutes, 1.5 seconds ; and to 19,685 feet in seven minutes, 12 seconds. The helicopter reached an altitude in level flight of 26,447 feet.

March 27, 1968: Yuri Gagarin, 34, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut and the first man to travel into outer space, was killed along with test pilot Vladimir Seryogin, 45, when their MiG-15UTI crashed near Kirzhach. In 2004, declassified Soviet reports showed that a Sukhoi Su-15 jet had been "flying in the area at low altitude" and, while breaking the sound barrier, passed close to Gagarin's plane "causing extensive turbulence" that sent the MiG-15 into a spin.

March 27, 1969: Mariner 7, one of two robotic probes sent to inspect Mars’ atmosphere and ice caps, launches from Launch Complex 36A at Cape Kennedy. Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 were two unmanned NASA robotic spacecraft that completed the first dual mission to Mars in 1969 as part of NASA's wider Mariner program. The two craft flew over the equator and south polar regions, analyzing the atmosphere and the surface with remote sensors, and recording and relaying hundreds of pictures. The mission's goals were to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars during close flybys, to establish the basis for future investigations, particularly those relevant to the search for extraterrestrial life, and to demonstrate and develop technologies required for future Mars missions. Mariner 6 also had the objective of providing experience and data which would be useful in programming the Mariner 7 encounter five days later.

March 27, 1994: The Eurofighter Typhoon, a European twin-engine canard delta wing, multirole fighter, makes its first flight. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems, and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, representing the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain manages the project and is the prime customer.

March 27, 1999: During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, a Yugoslav army unit shot down anF-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft of the U.S. Air Force by firing a S-125 Neva/Pechora surface-to-air missile. The pilot, Lt. Col. Darrell Patrick "Dale" Zelko, ejected safely and was rescued approximately eight hours later by a U.S. Air Force combat search and rescue team flying in a Sikorsky MH-53helicopter. The F-117, which entered service with the U.S Air Force in 1983, was leading-edge equipment as the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology, while the Yugoslav air defenses were considered relatively obsolete.

March 27, 2004: NASA's X-43 pilotless plane breaks world speed record for an atmospheric engine by briefly flying at 4,800mph — or seven times the speed of sound. TheX-432 was an experimental unmanned hypersonic aircraft with multiple planned scale variations meant to test various aspects of hypersonic flight. It was part of the X-plane series and specifically of NASA's Hyper-X program. It set several airspeed records for jet aircraft. The X-43 is the fastest jet-powered aircraft on record at approximately Mach9.6. A winged booster rocket with the X-43 placed on top, called a "stack," was drop launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. After the booster rocket (a modified first stage of the Pegasus rocket) brought the stack to the target speed and altitude, it was discarded, and the X-43 flew free using its own engine, a scramjet.

The first plane in the series, the X-43A, was a single-use vehicle, of which three were built. The first X-43A was destroyed after malfunctioning in flight in 2001. Each of the other two flew successfully in 2004, setting speed records, with the scramjets operating for approximately 10 seconds followed by 10-minute glides and intentional crashes into the ocean. Plans for more planes in the X-43 series have been suspended or cancelled, (and replaced by the U.S. Air Force managed X-51program).

March 28, 1913: Lieutenants Thomas DeWitt Milling and William C. Sherman, Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps, United States Army, set two American cross-country nonstop records for distance and duration by flying a single-engine Burgess Model H Military Tractor (also known as the Burgess-Wright Model H) biplane from Texas City to San Antonio, Texas, a distance of 220 miles, in 4 hours, 22 minutes. The U.S. Army Signal Corps purchased six Model H biplanes for $7,500, each. They were assigned serial numbers S.C. 9 and S.C. 24ñS.C. 28. The Burgess Model H was a two-place, single-engine biplane which could be ordered with either wheeled landing gear or floats. It was built by the Burgess Company and the Curtiss Aeroplane and Engine Company, under license from Wright. During the flight Sherman drew a map of the terrain.

March 28, 1935: Near Roswell, N.M., Robert H. Goddard successfully launched the first gyroscopically stabilized liquid-fueled rocket. In a 20-second flight, the A Series rocket, number A-5, reached an altitude of 4,800 feet and traveled 13,000 feet down range. Its speed was 550 miles per hour. During the flight, the rocket corrected its flight path several times. The A-series rockets were of varying lengths and mass. The representative A-series rocket displayed at the National Air and Space Museum is 15 feet, four inches long with a diameter of nine inches. The span across the fins is one foot, nine inches. It weighs 78.5 pounds. The rocket was fueled with gasoline and liquid oxygen, pressurized with nitrogen. A gyroscope-controlled vanes placed in the engine's exhaust, provided stabilization during powered flight.

March 28, 2013: Two United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bombers make the first nonstop B-2 flight to and from the Korean Peninsula, departing Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., bombing a target range on a South Korean island, and returning in a 37-hour flight. The flight, part of the annual Foal Eagle field training exercise, is intended to signal American support to South Korea in the face of belligerent North Korean rhetoric.

March 29, 1936: The Vought V-141 made its first flight. TheV-141(which was later redesignatedV-143after modification) was a prototype American single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s. It was a development of the unsuccessful Northrop 3-A design, but was itself a failure, being rejected by the U.S. Army Air Corps. The sole prototype was sold to the Japanese Army in 1937, but no production followed, with the type proving to be inferior to existing Japanese fighters.

March 29, 1951: The first successful flight of the U.S. Navy's Vought XSSM-N-8 Regulus I Navy tactical cruise missile took place. The test missile, the FTV-2, took off from Rogers Dry Lakebed at Edwards AFB, Calif., under its internal power and was guided in flight by radio signals from a Lockheed TV-2D director aircraft. After performing various maneuvers, the missile was guided to a safe landing on one of the lakebed runways. The Regulus I was a ship-and-submarine-launched, nuclear-capable turbojet-powered second-generation cruise missile, deployed from 1955 to 1964. Its development was an outgrowth of U.S. Navy tests conducted with the GermanV-1 missile at Naval Air Station Point Mugu in Calif. Its barrel-shaped fuselage resembled that of numerous fighter aircraft designs of the era, but without a cockpit. Test articles of the Regulus were equipped with landing gear and could take off and land like an airplane. When the missiles were deployed, they were launched from a rail launcher, and equipped with a pair of Aerojet JATO bottles on the aft end of the fuselage.

March 29, 1973: The last United States combat troops left South Vietnam, ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.

March 29, 1996: The Lockheed Martin RQ-3 DarkStar made its first flight. The DarkStar was designed as a "high-altitude endurance UAV," and incorporated stealth aircraft technologyto make it difficult to detect, which allowed it to operate within heavily defended airspace, unlike the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, which is unable to operate except under conditions of air supremacy. The DarkStar was fully autonomous: it could take off, fly to its target, operate its sensors, transmit information, return, and land without human intervention. Human operators, however, could change the DarkStar's flight plan and sensor orientation through radio or satellite relay. The RQ-3 carried either an optical sensor or radar and could send digital information to a satellite while still in flight. It used a single airbreathing jet engine of unknown type for propulsion. One source claims it used a Williams-Rolls-Royce FJ44-1Aturbofan engine. On its second flight, on April 22, 1996, the aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff. A modified, more stable design (the RQ-3A) first flew on June 29, 1998 and made a total of five flights before the program was canceled just prior to the sixth and final flight planned for the airworthiness test phase. Two additional RQ-3As were built, but never made any flights before program cancellation. Although the RQ-3 was terminated on Jan. 28, 1999, a July 2003Aviation Week and Space Technology article reported that April 2003 that a derivative of the RQ-3had been used in the2003 invasion of Iraq. There has been no independent confirmation. The "R" is the Department of Defense designation for reconnaissance; "Q" means unmanned aircraft system. The "3" refers to it being the third of a series of purpose-built unmanned reconnaissance aircraft systems.

March 29, 2001: The Boeing X-32B Joint Strike Fighter Concept Demonstration Aircraft, with Boeing JSF lead STOVL test pilot Dennis O’Donoghue at the controls, makes its first flight, flying from Palmdale, Calif., to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The flight lasted 50 minutes. The X-32B achieved STOVL flight in much the same way as theAV-8B Harrier II with thrust vectoring of the jet exhaust. On Oct. 26, 2001, the Department of Defense announced that the Lockheed Martin X-35 won the JSF competition. The X-35 would be developed into the production Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The Boeing X-32B is now on display at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in Maryland.

March 30, 1934: At Bridgeport, Conn., Sikorsky Aircraft Company test pilot Boris Vasilievich Sergievsky made the first flight of the prototype Sikorsky S-42, a large, four-engine flying boat which had been designed for long range passenger and cargo flights. In discussions with Igor Sikorsky, with Charles A. Lindbergh acting as technical adviser to Pan American Airways System, the two aviation icons established the specifications for a new flying boat. The Sikorsky S-42 was a four-engine long-range flying boat built for Pan American Airways by the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Technologies at Stratford, Connecticut. It was 67 feet, 8 inches long with a wingspan of 114 feet, two inches. The S-42 had an empty weight of 18,236 pounds and gross weight of 38,000 pounds. It could carry up to 37 passengers. A total of 10 S-42s were built, and Pan Am was the sole customer. In early 1942, the U.S. Navy acquired one S-42 which it used as a transport in the Caribbean and to South America.

March 30, 1982: At 9:04:46 a.m., MST, Space Shuttle Columbia(OV-102) completed its third space flight (STS-3) by landing at White Sands Space Harbor, the auxiliary space shuttle landing area at the White Sands Test Facility, west of Alamogordo, N.M. Columbia rolled out 13,732 feet, coming to a complete stop after 83 seconds. The duration of the flight was 192 hours, four minutes, 46 seconds.

March 31, 1939: First flight of the Miles Master production aircraft N7408. The Miles M.9 Master was a British two-seat monoplane advanced trainer designed and built by aviation company Miles Aircraft Ltd. It was inducted in large numbers into both the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. The Master can trace its origins back to the earlier M.9 Kestrel demonstrator aircraft.

Following the failure of the rival de Havilland Don as a satisfactory trainer aircraft, the RAF ordered 500M9A Masteradvancer trainers to meet its needs. Once in service, it provided a fast, strong and fully aerobatic aircraft that functioned as an excellent introduction to the high-performance British fighter aircraft of the day: the Spitfire and Hurricane. Throughout its production life, thousands of aircraft and various variants of the Master were produced, the latter being largely influenced by engine availability. Numerous Masters were modified to enable their use as glider tows. The Master also served as the basis for the Miles Martinet, a dedicated target tug adopted by the RAF. Perhaps the most radical use of the aircraft was theM.24 Master Fighter. Armed with six.303 in machine guns, it was intended to function as an emergency fighter during theBattle of Britain; this model did not ultimately see combat. Ordinary trainer models could also be fitted with armaments, including a single .303 inVickers machine gun and eight bombs, albeit intended for training purposes only.

March 31, 1990: The Robinson R44 helicopter makes its first flight. It is a four-seat light helicopter produced by Robinson Helicopter Company since 1992. Based on the company's two-seat Robinson R22, the R44 features hydraulically assisted flight controls. It was first flown on 31 March 1990 and received FAA certification in December 1992, with the first delivery in February 1993. The R44 has been the world's best-selling general aviation helicopter every year since 1999. It is one of the most-produced GA aircraft of the 21st century, with 5,941 deliveries from 2001-2020.

March 31, 1995: The Grob Strato 2C aircraft made its first flight. The Grob Strato 2Cwas a German experimental high-altitude research aircraft. Powered by two turbocharged piston engines and featuring an extremely long span wing of composite construction, one aircraft was built in the 1990s, but was abandoned despite setting a world altitude record for a piston-engine aircraft on its last flight. Costs overran, however, and the prototype, which was intended as a "Proof of Concept" aircraft with off the shelf equipment and a heavier wing structure than planned for the production aircraft, was late and did not deliver the expected performance. Despite setting a world altitude record for manned piston-engine aircraft of 60, 897feet on Aug. 4, 1995, on its 29th and what turned out to be final flight, the program was cancelled by the DLR in 1996.