BEHIND THE SCENES ON BILLY WILDER’S THE SPIRIT OF ST.

LOUIS

AVIATION H I S T O R Y

TOP TH E
PLUS
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SECRET OF THE
LEARJET

DOGFIGHT
WHY A NAVY PILOT IN KOREA HAD TO
KEEP SILENT ABOUT HIS VICTORIES
75TH ANNIVERSARY HOWARD HUGHES
FLIES THE SPRUCE GOOSE (JUST ONCE)
CRASH AFTER CRASH THE HARROWING WINTER 2023

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 26
AVIATION H I S T O R Y

WINTER 2023

FEATURES
26 THE LEAR OF LEARJET
Bill Lear liked putting his name on things—
including the quintessential business jet.
BY STEPHAN WILKINSON

36 THE MANY CRASHES

Three later model Learjets bank OF CAL RODGERS
against the rising sun.
Fly across the country in 30 days or less?
Not so easy in 1911.
BY STEVE WARTENBERG

44 FINAL MISSION
Lancaster L7576 had flown 98 sorties.
It would not complete number 99.
BY GAVIN MORTIMER

44 52 THE SECRET DOGFIGHT

Royce Williams did something incredible during
the Korean War—but he couldn’t talk about it.

52
BY DAVE KINDY

60 ONE AND DONE

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: PAUL BOWEN; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; AP PHOTO; NATIONAL ARCHIVES; GARY EASTON/FLIGHT ARTWORKS/ALAMY
Seventy-five years ago, Howard Hughes
took his massive seaplane aloft for
the first and only time.
BY CHRISTOPHER WARNER

DEPARTMENTS
5 MAILBAG

36 6 BRIEFING
10 AVIATORS
14 RESTORED
16 EXTREMES
60 18 PORTFOLIO
24 FROM THE COCKPIT
66 REVIEWS
70 FLIGHT TEST
72 FINAL APPROACH

ON THE COVER: In “One Down, Three to Go,” Jack Fellows

illustrates Royce Williams’ encounter with Soviet MiGs
over the Sea of Japan on November 18, 1952.
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ONE CATCH
To give credit where it is due in author Mark
Carlson’s otherwise excellent article “The
Catch of Catch-22” (Autumn 2022): Paul
Mantz, not Frank Tallman, rescued B-25H,
43-4643 (along with 474 other
MAILBAG surplus aircraft) from Stillwa-
ter, Oklahoma, in the spring of
1946. It was also Mantz who converted it into
the specialized camera ship he nicknamed
“The Smasher,” and it was Mantz and his team
who developed and constructed the “Cin-
Paul Mantz (top) works on “The Smasher”
in February 1953.
erama” nose. Finally, it was Mantz who flew
N1203 through the volcano caldera and shot
all the films credited until he joined forces
with Tallman in 1961.
Craig Thorson
Fort Worth, Texas
In the summer of 1972, I was a 14-year-old boy
traveling with my parents on an airplane trip
from Mexico City to the island of Cozumel.
Along the way, our plane touched down on a
landing strip somewhere in the Mexican jun-
gle. Off to the side of the clearing I saw maybe
six B-25s. I exited our airplane and made my
way to them. They all had American markings.
One belly hatch was open, and I crawled up
and sat in the pilot’s seat and then the bombar-
dier’s seat and then someone was yelling at me
in Spanish. Reluctantly, I exited the bomber
and made my way back to the commuter plane.
Years later, someone told me that the planes
were from Catch-22 and that the studio bought
them from the Guatemalan Air Force, deco-
AVIATION HISTORY COLLECTION/ALAMY
rated them, filmed them and then stored them
somewhere until buyers could be found. I have
been telling that story for the last half-cen-
tury. I will accept your article as being more
accurate than what “someone” told me.
Dave Hood
Del Rio, Texas
MORE FIRSTS
Your correction to Steve Suddaby’s letter (Autumn 2022) regarding
the bombing of Ploesti by Zeppelins during World War I is itself in-
correct. Halverson was not even close to being the first to bomb
Ploesti during World War II—although a couple of his aircraft were
the first Americans to bomb Ploesti during the war. The Soviet air and
naval air forces bombed Ploesti repeatedly during June-August 1941,
a year prior to the HALPRO mission. As Dr. Robert Forczyk points out
in his excellent book Sevastopol 1942, the July 13, 1941, Soviet Naval
Aviation bombing of a Ploesti refinery destroyed nearly 9,000 tons of
oil. The six Soviet medium bombers on this mission caused FAR more
damage than HALPRO, which accomplished nothing other than mov-
ing piles of dirt around.
David H. Klaus
Shenandoah, Virginia
MiG MATTERS
The feature “Foxbat Follies” in the Autumn 2022 issue is a great bit
of aviation history with esoteric details that are generally not re-
ported. However, on page 31, the intake cones of the SR-71’s engines
are incorrectly described as moving forward “to choke off the exces-
sive inflow.” In fact, the cones moved aft to provide the optimum inlet
contraction ratio at Mach 3.2.
Hank Caruso
California, Maryland
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force’s Foxbat (and the only
MiG-25 in the U.S.) is currently in storage awaiting display. It has
been suggested that we not restore it, but rather display it as found in
Iraq. The suggested display would be rather simple: minimum clean-
ing, tow to the Cold War Gallery, bring in a couple of dump trucks with
sand, and display her as we found her… and tell the story.
Frank Alfter
Beavercreek, Ohio
While Stephan Wilkinson’s description of the MiG-25’s shortcomings
is unassailable, it does not obviate the fact that it sported some un-
characteristically advanced features. MiG OKB leapfrogged from its
homely little winged mailing tube fighters to sophisticated equip-
ment perfectly comfortable in 21st-century airspace. One would al-
most think the firm had been, er, inspired by outside influence.
And indeed, it might have been. An old friend of mine (now passed)
was an engineer at the A.V. Roe firm in Canada in the 1950s when they
were designing the AVRO CF-105 Arrow, at the time the most ad-
vanced interceptor (no, the most advanced airplane) on the planet. To
hear him tell the tale, plant security was abysmal. There were so many
Soviet operatives, they had to wear pink carnations to avoid stealing
from each other! The upshot is, similarities between the MiG-25 Ar-
rowski and the AVRO CF-105 are, well, rather striking and might be
more than just coincidental.
Michael McCrath
Seattle, Washington
SEND LETTERS TO: aviationhistory@historynet.com
(Letters may be edited for publication)
@ AVIATIONHISTORY @AVIATIONHISTMAG
WINTER 2023 5
 FOKKER D.XXI REPLICA
TAKES TO THE AIR
A longstanding family dream came to fruition on May 23,
2022, when a perfect replica of a Fokker D.XXI took off from
Hoogeveen Airport in the Netherlands, with Jack van Egmond
Jr. at the controls. He and his father, Jack Sr., and his nephew,
Tom Wilps, had devoted thousands of hours poring over orig-
inal drawings and reconstructing the principal Dutch fighter
from World War II.
BRIEFING There is only a single intact original Fokker
D.XXI left in the world (at the Finnish Air
Force Museum) in spite of the plane’s brief but spirited de-
fense against German invasion in May 1940 and its longer,
more successful career in the Finnish air force half a year ear-
lier. However, the remnants of the engine and cockpit of D.
XXI No. 229, which were discovered in 1993, are now preserved in the Jack van Egmond Sr. (standing third from left) and
CRASH Air War and Resistance Museum ’40-’45 near Amsterdam’s son Jack Jr. (kneeling, center) enjoy the feeling of a
Schiphol Airport. job well done with the rest of their team in front of
their Fokker D.XXI replica, which flew for the first
On the day the Germans invaded the Netherlands, May 10, 1940, Ser- time on May 23, 2022. One original D.XXI remains
geant Frans Looyen of the 2nd Jachtvliegtuigafdeling flew No. 229 today but it is not in flying condition.
against several German aircraft before being attacked by Messerschmitt
Me-109Es. He was driven down east of Rotterdam by Unteroffizier Mat- was getting ready to attack it when he was hit,
thias Massmann of 7th Staffel, Jagdgeschwader 26. D.XXI 229 was evi- either by a third Me-110 or by Dutch anti-aircraft
dently repaired by the next day, however, as it joined four others in fire. Badly wounded, Roos abandoned his plane,
BOTH: EGMOND VINTAGE WINGS

attacks on a Junkers Ju-52/3m, only to be attacked again by 12 Messer-
schmitt Me-110Cs of 1st Staffel, Zerstörergeschwader 1. His plane badly
damaged, 229’s pilot, Sergeant Jacobus Roos, detached his canopy as he
prepared to bail out, only to see it fly back and strike an engine on the
Me-110 that was tailing him, forcing the German to disengage. Flying in
and out of a cloud, Roos found himself on the tail of another Me-110 and
parachuted to earth and was rushed to a hospital
in Leiden.
The Egmond family chose the markings No.
229 for their D.XXI. The original may not be able
to fly again, but an immaculate substitute can
now fly in its place. —Jon Guttman

6 WINTER 2023
 Lake Mead’s B-29

At half past noon on July 21, 1948, a Boeing B-29 descended onto the sur-
Hurricane and
face of Lake Mead, the Nevada reservoir behind Hoover Dam. In a gentle
descent at just above its 220-mph cruise speed, the Superfortress skipped
Pilot Lost
once for about 200 yards, hit again, tore off three of its four engines, and The air classics community suffered a
began its slow descent to the lake bottom. The five-man crew boarded two double loss on August 14, 2022, when a
life rafts and was soon rescued, the sole injury a crewman’s broken arm. Hawker Hurricane Mark IV crashed at the
The Air Force sanitized the crash by concluding that it was caused by an airfield at Cheb, in the Karlovy Vary re-
improperly set altimeter, but since this took place in daylight over a lake gion of the Czech Republic. Owned by the
surrounded by desert bluffs, the pilot was obviously flat-hatting, just an- Aviation Museum at Tocna, the World War
other airman trying to set the absolute record for the lowest flight ever. II fighter-bomber was helping commemo-
These days, Lake Mead is emptying as the American Southwest under- rate “Aviation Days in Cheb” when it sud-
goes an extended drought. The retreating waters have revealed cars, boats denly lost altitude in a low turn and
and even bodies entombed in oil drums, and eventually the B-29 will also crashed into a house behind the airfield.
surface. As of this writing, it rests under 60 feet of water and is expected to The pilot, Petr Pačes (above), died in the
emerge in about a year, if the drought continues. accident, but there were no other serious
What then? The National Park Service is the wreck’s official custodian injuries. Pačes had been flying gliders
and it will have to guard it from looters. It’s doubtful that any private war- since age 14 and airplanes since 17, pilot-
bird salvor/restorer will offer to take on the project. The NPS has nomi- ing MiG-21s until 1992 and subsequently
nated the site as a National Historic Landmark, and if that is approved, the serving as captain in Boeing 737s.
Lake Mead B-29 will become untouchable. Built in 1943 and bearing the civil reg-
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE; G.DENIK.CZ; GRZEGORZ REBACZ-GREGOPLANE; ALAMY

Outspoken underwater-recovery expert Taras Lyssenko, who has ex- istration code 00-HUR at the time of the
humed World War II Navy aircraft from Lake Michigan, is dismayed. “If a crash, the plane at Tocna had been across
historic aircraft is allowed to stay in a water environment, it will deterio- the Atlantic more than once and flown by
rate and crumble to nothing,” he told Aviation History. “The people who several owners before the museum
manage national parks are the wrong people to manage this project if they bought it. In 2021 museum volunteers in-
can’t understand that. That aircraft should be recovered and stabilized and stalled four non-firing 20mm cannons and
put on public display. I wish our government cared more about its history, marked the plane as Hurricane Mark IIc
but they don’t seem to, and I don’t know if there’s anybody else out there BE-150 JX-E of No. 1 Squadron, as flown
who does.” —Stephan Wilkinson by Karel Kuttelwascher, the Czech ace of
aces and highest-scoring night intruder
pilot in the Royal Air Force, with 18 victo-
ries in World War II. —Jon Guttman
AIR QUOTE
“Keep it super-simple.
If something isn’t designed into
an aircraft it can’t go wrong.”
BILL LEAR
 CAREER CHANGE

A True
Hybrid
Gino Lucci is used to getting double
takes when he hits the road in his custom
motorhome. After all, how often do you
see the nose of a Douglas DC-3 driving
down the highway? Lucci, an Air Force
veteran who salvages airplanes and sells
their parts through his company, Round
Engine Aero, says an airplane motor-
home had been a dream of his since he
saw something similar on a TV show as a
kid. The dream began coalescing after
his son, Giacinto Jr., found the DC-3 (actually an R4D, the Navy version of
the Army’s DC-3-derived C-47) in Missouri, where the retired Federal
Aviation Administration airplane had suffered damage from a tornado,
and the elder Lucci spent about a year and a half persuading the owner to
sell it. Sale completed, Lucci and his son got to work in May 2019 to mount
the severed nose section onto a truck chassis so that the slightly twisted
fuselage would be stable on the road. Lucci calls the process “hillbilly sci-
entific.” He says, “Okay, so it’s not on the frame straight, but aerodynami-
cally, she’s about as good as you’re going to get.” It took 14 months of work,
but the Luccis had the hybrid vehicle ready for its “shakedown” cruise in Top: The “Fabulous Flamingo” is what Gino Lucci
calls his hybrid airplane/motorhome. Above: Lucci
2021, when Lucci drove it from Michigan to Texas, back to Michigan and (right) poses with his son Giacinto Jr. in front of the
then all the way to Maine and back. Sometimes dreams do come true. creation. The younger Lucci was the one who found
—Tom Huntington the airplane they salvaged.

AERO ARTIFACT

VIN FIZ STAMPS

During the 1911 contest to become the first to cross the United
States by air (see page 36), Mabel Rodgers, wife of the first pilot
TOP PHOTOS: TOM HUNTINGTON; BOTTOM: KEN LAWRENCE/LINN’S STAMP NEWS
destined to complete the trek, had the foresight to produce and sell
semi-official postage stamps depicting Calbraith Rodgers’ Wright
XE Vin Fiz. They sold for 25 cents each, with customers able to
purchase them at Rodgers’ scheduled stops so the airman could fly
them to his next destination to be posted. The U.S. Post Office did
not object to the presence of the “Rodgers Aerial Post” on letters
and covers...provided they had official USPO stamps as well. on November 1, 1911, and was the only one
Like the more famous stamp with the upside-down misprint of a Curtiss marked as having reached Pasadena, California,
JN-4 Jenny, the Vin Fiz stamps became sought-after rarities. Only 13 are with Rodgers on November 5, and the only
known to exist: most on postcards or pieces of postcards, one cover and one to leave the United States when a C.F.
one apparently unused specimen. At a special auction focusing on “The Threle sent it to his stamp-fancying brother-in-
Pioneers of Flight” held at Shreves Philatelic Galleries Inc. in November law, Otto Hunter, in Cologne, Germany. The
2006, the cover sold for $70,000, while two of the postcards went for card (and stamp) now belongs to the collections
$60,000 and a third for $47,500. The most unique of the postcards (pic- of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal
tured above) was purchased when Rodgers stopped in Willcox, Arizona, Museum. —Jon Guttman

8 WINTER 2023
 MILESTONES
KNOW THY ENEMY
Eighty years ago, on No-
vember 8, 1942, the Allies
launched Operation Torch,
the amphibious invasion of
French North Africa and
the first major U.S. foray
into World War II’s Euro-
pean theater. An American
aircraft carrier, USS Ranger,
and four escort carriers
These U.S-built brought 109 Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat
Curtiss 75 Hawks fighters, 36 Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless dive
flew for Vichy
France against U.S. bombers and 27 Grumman TBF-1 Avenger
pilots and airplanes torpedo bombers to support the Western Task
in North Africa. Force off Morocco. Facing the Americans were
Vichy French forces with 208 aircraft, 84 of
which had been built in the U.S. and delivered to the French before
their 1940 capitulation to Germany. The Vichy air arsenal included
Douglas DB-7 attack bombers, Martin 167 Maryland light bombers
and Curtiss H-75A fighters, export versions of P-36A Hawks.
The action on the invasion’s first day marked the first time in his-
tory that American-built airplanes squared off against each other in
war. An early clash saw Wildcats of Ranger’s VF-41 squadron taking
on French Hawks—several of which were from Groupe de Chasse
II/5, a direct descendant of the renowned “Escadrille Lafayette” of
mostly American volunteer pilots who fought for France before the
U.S. formally entered World War I. Both sides took their lumps
during the air battles, but the French force was unable to mount any
defense by November 10. At 10:00 pm that night, Vichy headquarters
in Casablanca ordered the French to cease hostilities. Those same
Vichy airmen were soon fighting for the Allies as the Free French in
the renewed effort to liberate their country. —Larry Porges
DEVOTION MOVIE OPENS THIS FALL
SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM; SONY PICTURES
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES;
Based on the book by Adam Makos, the movie Devotion is scheduled
for release on November 23, 2022. It tells the story of Jesse Brown
(Jonathan Majors), the U.S. Navy’s first African American pilot. Brown
died after being hit by ground fire over Korea, despite a rescue attempt
by squadron commander Thomas J. Hudner Jr. (Glen Powell).
Museums
Reopen
The National Air and Space Museum on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C., closed
for renovation since March 2022, will par-
tially reopen on October 14, when the west
half the building with eight new exhibition
galleries, plus the planetarium, store and
café, will become available to the public.
The eight galleries will be “America by Air,”
“Destination Moon,” “Early Flight” (pictured
above), “Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the
Planets,” “Nation of Speed,” “One World
Connected,” “Thomas W. Haas We All Fly,”
and “Wright Brothers and the Invention of
the Aerial Age.” New artifacts on display
will include the T-38 that Jackie Cochran
used to become the first woman to fly
faster than sound, Jon Sharp’s Sharp DR
90 Nemesis air racer and a full-size X-Wing
from 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Sky-
walker. Visitors will need timed tickets for
entry. The remainder of the museum’s res-
toration is expected to last until 2025. The
museum’s website about the renovation is
airandspace.si.edu/about-transformation.
In other museum news, the Flying Heri-
tage & Combat Armor Museum at Paine
Field in Everett, Washington, will reopen
sometime in 2023. The museum closed in
May 2020 because of the COVID-19 pan-
demic. Its collection, previously owned by
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who died
in 2018, was purchased this year by the
Wartime History Museum, a nonprofit
started by Steuart Walton, grandson of
Walmart founder Sam Walton. The collec-
tion’s 23 airplanes include a Supermarine
Spitfire and a North American P-51 Mus-
tang. “We hope to share these important
artifacts for generations to come and un-
earth inspiring stories to help fuel innova-
tion, understanding, and exploration,” said
Walton in a statement.
WINTER 2023 9
 THE FINAL
LAYOVER
BURBANK’S PORTAL OF THE FOLDED
WINGS SHRINE TO AVIATION
HONORS PIONEERS OF THE AIR
BY DENNIS K. JOHNSON
All pilots must make that mysterious final flight and leave their
mortal remains behind. Some choose to have their ashes scat-
tered over a favorite airfield, while military pilots might land at
Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. So, how did 14 aviation pio-
neers come to rest beneath a Spanish-style arch in
AVIATORS Burbank, California?
Standing just 500 yards from the threshold of
Runway 33 at Hollywood Burbank Airport is the Portal of the Folded
Wings Shrine to Aviation, a 75-foot-tall Spanish Mission Revival gate
built as an impressive entrance to the Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial
Park cemetery. Erected in 1924 (and added to the National Register of
Historic Places in 1998), the portal is large enough to be considered a
rotunda, a building with a circular ground plan that is sometimes cov-
ered by a dome. This portal has four passages open to the outside, se-
cured by iron gates at night, a colorful tiled mosaic dome and an exterior
decorated with ornate stone castings of plants and allegorical figures.
The dome’s interior is decorated with stars, an appropriate motif in a
memorial to people who loved the sky.
Twenty-nine years after it was built, the portal was dedicated as a
10 WINTER 2023
Located near Hollywood Burbank Airport, the
Pierce Brothers Portal of the Folded Wings
Shrine commemorates 13 aviators and one of
the shrine’s founders. The shrine also includes
memorials to space shuttle astronauts and
others who made aviation history.
resting place and memorial to pilots and other
pioneers of flight. The dedication took place on
December 17, 1953, the 50th anniversary of the
TOP: JS; BOTTOM: BARRY KING/ALAMY
Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk. The
ceremony included the interment of the ashes of
Walter Brookins (1889-1953), the first pilot
trained by the Wright brothers for their exhibi-
tion team and the first to fly above one mile in
altitude. Since then, 13 more aviation pioneers
and the portal’s chaplain have been interred
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 Among the aviators who under the arch. They include an aircraft me-
made their last stop at chanic, dirigible pilot, parachute jumper and
the Portal of the Folded
Wings are (left to right) numerous aircraft designers.
Bertrand Acosta, Matilde The two earliest figures interred at the shrine
Moisant, Warren Eaton, are Charles Taylor (1868-1956) and John
Roy Knabenshue, John Moisant (1868-1910). Taylor may be the shrine’s
Moisant, Charles Taylor
and Mark Campbell.
most famous inhabitant, since he built the en-
gine that powered the Wright’s 1903 Flyer and
worked as their only mechanic during the earli-
est years of flight. (He also served as Calbraith
Rodgers’ mechanic during the first flight across
the United States—see the article on page 36).
Moisant was another pioneering aircraft builder
and in 1910 he became the first pilot to fly a pas-
senger across the English Channel. Moisant’s
sister, Matilde Moisant (1878-1964), an early ex-
hibition pilot and the second woman in the
United States to earn a pilot’s license, rests by
her brother.
THE TWO Another aviation pioneer beneath the dome is
EARLIEST Bertrand Acosta (1895-1951), who copiloted
of Aeronautics and organized the first Women’s
National Air Derby; Carl Squier (1893-1967) was
a World War I pilot and vice president of the
Lockheed Aircraft Company. The most recent in-
ternee, arriving in 1994, was Richard Della-
Vedowa (1917-1994), a Lockheed engineer. (The
ashes of Jimmie Angel, the pilot who discovered
Venezuela’s Angel Falls by airplane in 1933, were
interred at the shrine until his family had them
removed and scattered over the falls that bear his
name in 1960.) One person at the shrine who
wasn’t a famous pilot or aircraft designer is the
Reverend John Carruthers (1889-1960), the first
chaplain of the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine.
He was an amateur aviation historian and one of
the people who proposed the memorial.
The portal also displays plaques memorializ-
ing other American aviators, such as Amelia
Earhart, and the crews of the space shuttles
Challenger and Columbia. The tiny Burbank
Aviation Museum is housed inside one of the

FIGURES Admiral Richard Byrd’s 1927 transatlantic flight. arch’s pillars and exhibits photographs and

LEFT TO RIGHT: GEORGE RINHART/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; U.S. AIR FORCE; JESSIE TARBOX BEALS/THE NEW YORK
Many early pilots were also aircraft designers memorabilia of Burbank’s aviation history.
INTERRED and inventors, including Mark Campbell (1897- So, how did these aviators land in Burbank?
AT THE 1963), a 1920s barnstorming pilot and aircraft Southern California and the Los Angeles area
SHRINE

HISTORICAL SOCIETY/GETTY IMAGES; PHILIPP KESTER/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES; NATIONAL ARCHIVES; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
designer; Warren Eaton (1891-1966), who built have a long history of aircraft manufacturing.
ARE airplanes for Lincoln Beachey and worked for The Lockheed Aircraft Company was founded in

CHARLES Glenn Curtiss; Bert Kinner (1882-1957), founder

of Kinner Airplane & Motor Corporation; and
TAYLOR Roy Knabenshue (1876-1960), a manager of the
(18681956) Wright Brothers’ exhibition team and builder of
AND JOHN the first passenger dirigible. J. Floyd Smith
MOISANT (1884-1956) was a record-setting pilot and in-
(18681910) ventor of the first free-fall, ripcord parachute.
His wife, Hilder Smith (1890-1977), an exhibi-
tion pilot and parachute jumper herself, rests
beside him. Elizabeth McQueen (1878-1958)
founded the Women’s International Association
Hollywood and moved to Burbank in 1928. Its
legendary Skunk Works, where secret spy planes
such as the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird were built,
was located at Burbank Airport. Hughes Aircraft
Company was based in nearby Glendale, and the
Douglas Aircraft Company and Northrop
Corporation were both founded in the Los
Angeles area. It was workers from these aircraft
plants who lobbied for decades to have the cem-
etery portal dedicated to aviation pioneers. They
may be gone, but they are not forgotten.

Visit the Portal of the Folded To visit the shrine, use the Valhalla
Memorial Park address at 3898
Wings Shrine to Aviation Valhalla Drive in Burbank, not the
cemetery’s business address, as the arch stands at the east entrance to the cemetery, not the
main entrance. The portal is about a 20-minute walk from Burbank Airport’s terminal. For comic
relief, walk into the cemetery to visit the graves of Oliver Hardy, the larger half of Laurel and
Hardy, and “Curly Joe” DeRita of the Three Stooges. The Burbank Aviation Museum at the
Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation is open 1-3 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month,
except for holidays or when it’s raining. Admission is free.

12 WINTER 2023
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 Photographed on the deck of the USS
Midway in 1952, this F7U-3 Cutlass bears
the paint scheme that the Midway Museum
will eventually give its restoration.

MIDWAY’S CUTLASS
THE F7U-3 HAD A BAD REPUTATION,
BUT IT WAS AN INTERESTING AIRPLANE
BY ROBERT BERNIER

The Vought F7U Cutlass originated with a 1945 Navy fighter com-
petition for a carrier-based fighter able to fly at 600 mph and
40,000 feet. Vought Aircraft was known for unusual designs, and
the futuristic-looking V-346A proposal
RESTORATION was certainly that. It would be the Na-
vy’s first swept-wing fighter and Ameri-
ca’s first tailless fighter to go into production. The proposal re-
sulted in a contract for three XF7U-1 prototypes.
The prototypes of the bat-like fighter first flew in 1948 and the
initial test flights were encouraging. Powered by two Westing-
house J-34 turbojets, the airplane promised speed and exceptional ma- Phil Lavullis brought his knowledge of sheet
metal and repair techniques to the Midway
neuverability. But a litany of woes soon dogged the program.
Museum for the Cutlass restoration project.
TOP: COURTESY MIDWAY MUSEUM; INSET: ROBERT BERNIER

After nearly a decade of development, in 1954 the Navy began equip-
ping 13 squadrons with the F7U-3 version of the carrier-based jet. But
the “Gutless Cutlass” proved to be accident-prone and plagued by grem-
lins. Even with more powerful Westinghouse J-46 engines the big twin-
jet proved woefully underpowered, especially during demanding carrier
approaches. It acquired a bad reputation and the Navy had withdrawn
it from frontline service by late 1957.
Vought manufactured 307 F7Us, with production ending in 1955.
Fewer than 10 of those airframes remain today and one, serial number
129565, is currently nearing the end of a restoration at San Diego’s USS
Midway Museum. The Navy accepted this particular jet in 1953 and it
Here he works on one of the airplane’s wings.
last served with attack squadron VA-212 aboard
the carrier USS Bon Homme Richard before
being retired in April 1957 with only 273 hours
on the airframe. The Cutlass ended up as a gate
guard at Naval Air Station Olathe, Kansas, for
several years. The Midway Museum retrieved it
from a Vought retiree group in Texas that had
been doing restoration work.
Like many baby boomer kids, I fueled my fas-

14 WINTER 2023
 cination with aviation with model airplanes and
one my favorites was the F7U with its bulbous
canopy and spindly nose gear. So, I made plans to
look in on the Cutlass restoration project.
Entering Midway’s restoration hangar in the
spring of 2021, I was immediately impressed by
the project’s scale. Cutlass parts were scattered
throughout the hangar. The airplane’s large,
broad wings with tall vertical fins were detached
and they and the 40-foot-long fuselage crowded
one side of the hangar. The nine-foot nose gear
strut—one of the Cutlass’s problematic design
features—landing gear doors, dive brakes and
miscellaneous bits and pieces occupied the
other side. The sounds of rivet guns and grinders
echoed through the hangar as restoration volun-
teers worked on the jet.
Midway Air Wing Project Manager Royce
Moke knew he had a big job ahead of him getting
the Cutlass restored for display aboard the air-
craft carrier museum. When asked about the
biggest challenge, Moke didn’t hesitate. “Getting
the wings fitted back onto the fuselage,” he said. The team enlisted the help of four sailors from a tiltrotor squadron and used
To complicate matters, Midway’s restoration a forklift to get the Cutlass’ wings attached. Making the entire project more
difficult was the lack of engineering drawings or even a maintenance manual.
team didn’t take the airplane apart. It arrived in
Once painted, the restored Cutlass will be a rare example of the unusual and
pieces from the previous restoration effort. sometimes problematic carrier-based airplane.
Working without drawings or a maintenance
manual, Moke had to figure out how to hoist the Luckily for the restoration effort, San Diego is a Navy town with many
heavy wings and maneuver them into a position motivated and skilled aircraft technicians. Among them is Phil Lavullis,
to fit the fuselage’s wing-mounting lugs. He was an aircraft sheet metal worker with 30 years’ experience repairing dam-
later able to enlist the help of four sailors from aged aircraft around the world. “I always liked working on things with my
VRM-50, a Navy Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltro- hands and restoring something that’s rare and among the last of its kind is
tor squadron. They volunteered their free time motivating,” he told me. But Lavullis found the Cutlass to be especially
and used a forklift to help the restoration team challenging: “There’s nothing to go on, no blueprints or another Cutlass
get the wings on in less than half a day. nearby that we can take measurements from.”
Then there were unusual elements with which Despite the airplane’s bad reputation, former naval aviator and long-
the restoration crew had to deal. For example, time Midway Museum member Dick Cavicke remains a staunch defender
the team refurbished the wooden skids that the of the jet. As a young Navy ensign in late 1954, he was assigned straight out
Cutlass had on the fin stubs beneath the wings, of naval flight training to fly F7Us with VF-124. “The Cutlass was more
which sometimes hit the carrier’s deck during exotic looking than anything I had ever seen, and I was anxious to fly it,”
landings. The replaceable hardwood skids pre- he recalls. He acquired nearly 400 hours in F7U-3s with two squadrons
vented damage to the aluminum. Needing to based at California’s NAS Miramar, making him one of the airplane’s most
minimize airframe weight, Vought had patented experienced pilots.
a special fabrication process for light but rigid As of this writing, the Cutlass has been reassembled and needs only its
airframe skins called Metalite. A sandwich of livery. “Our Cutlass will be displayed in the silver metal scheme of the
balsa wood with lightweight aluminum skins plane used in the August 1952 carrier qualification tests aboard the USS
glued on each side, Metalite was used around the Midway,” said museum curator David Hanson. And he added, “We want a
cockpit and on the wings. Many of the balsa Cutlass because it’s an interesting aircraft and not many are on public
cores had deteriorated over the years of outdoor display in this part of the U.S.”
storage. Because the airplane would not return The projected completion date for this rare carrier fighter is late 2022.
BOTH: COURTESY DON WILLIAMS

to flight, the team kept the Metalite panels
around the cockpit area (with their compound
curves) in place. For the wing panels, they re-
placed the Metalite with aluminum skins of
roughly the same thickness and used metal spac-
ers to make up for any differences.
“Painted on one side of the cockpit will be the name of former Cutlass
pilot, and the airplane’s sponsor, Bill Montague,” said Hanson. “And on the
other side, Wally Schirra’s name, the friend and mentor who taught Mon-
tague to fly the jet.” Schirra went on to become one of the original Mercury
7 astronauts and he also flew Gemini and Apollo missions, but I think it’s
a safe bet that he never forgot what it was like to fly the Cutlass.

WINTER 2023 15
 The Bartini-Beriev VVA-14 was intended to operate
in ground effect. Below: Its designer, Robert
Ludvigovich Bartini (photographed in 1973), moved
to the Soviet Union in 1923, where he contributed
to several ground-breaking aero designs.

A SOVIET
DRAGON
THE VVA-14 TRIED TO DO TOO
MUCH WITH TOO LITTLE
BY DOUGLAS G. ADLER

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union was greatly

concerned about the United States’ submarine-
launched Polaris missiles. The ballistic weapons carried small, rela-
tively lightweight hydrogen bombs that could hit targets more than
2,000 miles away from their launch sites. Even
EXTREMES more concerning, submarines could launch the
missiles while remaining submerged. The Soviets
were highly motivated to develop the means to identify, attack and de-
stroy those submarines.
Enter Robert Bartini. Born in Austria-Hungary (in what is now Cro-
atia) in 1897, the illegitimate son of a baron, Bartini served in the Aus-
tro-Hungarian army during World War I and spent time as a Russian
prisoner-of-war. After the war, Bartini made his way to Italy and be-
came an aviation engineer and designer. He joined the Italian Commu-
nist Party before the rise of Italian fascism compelled him to leave for
the Soviet Union in 1923. His career in his adopted country was both
impressive and tragic; Bartini played a major role in the design and
manufacture of 60 aircraft and aircraft projects, but he also spent years
in prison, from 1938 until 1946, for his associa-
TOP: FOXBATGRAPHICS IMAGE LIBRARY/BERIEV; BOTTOM: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
tion with Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who
was executed for treason in 1937, and because
Joseph Stalin’s regime accused him, probably
falsely, of spying for Italian dictator Benito Mus-
solini—even though it was the rise of Mussolini
that had prompted Bartini to leave Italy. Even
while in prison, Bartini worked as an aircraft en-
gineer and designer, including contributing to
the development of the Tupolev Tu-2 bomber.
In 1959, the “rehabilitated” Bartini turned his
attention to the problems of identifying and at-
tacking ballistic missile submarines. Aided by
the Beriev Design Bureau, his solution was the
VVA-14, one of the most unconventional aircraft
of the twentieth century. Bartini envisioned the

16 WINTER 2023
 VVA-14 as a massive amphibious aircraft capable
of horizontal or vertical take-off and landing
(VTOL) that could conduct a wide range of
coastal patrol duties and attack surface and sub-
merged vessels from high or low altitudes. The
letters “VVA” are derived from a Soviet acronym
for “vertical take-off amphibious aircraft.”
The Bartini-Beriev VVA-14 was both gargan-
tuan and bizarre looking. The aircraft was nick-
named “Zmei Gorynich” because of its resem-
blance to a mythological multi-headed dragon of
that name. With a wingspan of almost 100 feet
and a length of 85 feet, the craft featured a high,
straight-wing configuration and a long, protrud-
ing cockpit. Atop the wing were two large Solo-
viev D-30M turbofan cruising engines, each of
which could produce 15,000 pounds of thrust.
Starting engines were to be housed on each side
of the nose. Enormous pontoons under the wing
and on each side of the fuselage would facilitate
seaborne operations. The undercarriage housed
a nose gear and a main landing gear for conven-
tional takeoff and landing (using hardware from
Tu-22 bombers). VVA-14 could carry 34,000
pounds of fuel in two giant tanks. The planned
VTOL engines, 12 Rybinsk RD-36-35 lift turbo-
fans generating 9,700 pounds of thrust each,
would occupy a large center space and use a se-
ries of air nozzles distributed across the air-
frame to propel the craft into the air. VVA-14 was
designed to carry and deploy torpedoes, bombs
and mines. Astonishingly, the imposing craft re-
quired only a crew of three—a pilot, navigator
and weapons officer. VVA-14 had a service ceil- short of funding but still managed to limp along Top: Bartini believed the
ing of approximately 30,000 feet. for two more years. The VTOL engines never “Zmei Gorynich” would be
materialized but the VVA-14 made 100 conven- the perfect machine to seek
VVA-14 was designed to be a wing-in-ground
and destroy Polaris
effect (WIG) vehicle. Such aircraft take advan- tional flights. The Soviets had planned to build missile-carrying subma-
tage of the increase in lift that aircraft experi- three aircraft but only one was completed. Even- rines. Above: The surviving
ence when flying close to the surface, especially tually, the government stopped funding the pro- VVA-14 prototype was
when that surface is extremely flat (such as a gram and the aircraft fell into disrepair. Cur- damaged en route to
Russia’s Central Air Force
runway or the sea). Aircraft designers had noted rently, the VVA-14 airframe is on display at the Museum and has since
that straight-wing aircraft often functioned well Central Air Force Museum near Moscow, where suffered the indignities of
as WIG aircraft, hence VVA-14’s straight wings. it sits partially dismantled and minus its wing looting and vandalism.
Bartini’s airplane first flew in 1972. The air- but with pontoons still affixed. Plans to restore
craft was considered a success even though it the airframe never bore fruit.
had serious problems, including severe vibra- In retrospect, VVA-14 seems to have been a
tion from the two large Soloviev cruising en- victim of its own extravagance. The plane was
TOP: COURTESY ANDRI SALINKOV; BOTTOM: ALEX S.

gines, which caused significant buffeting and
even broke the landing gear doors. At first the
VVA-14 had inflatable pontoons (an unorthodox
idea championed by Bartini himself ). While
those pontoons did work, they were ultimately
replaced with rigid metal ones.
Bartini died two years later at the age of 77
(the cause of his death was not made public).
Without his backing, the program found itself
too large, too heavy and was required to fill too
many roles. With so many different, and novel,
technologies crammed into a single design—any
one of which may have needed its own airframe
to fully vet—it’s easy to understand why the proj-
ect was cancelled. VVA-14 is perhaps best re-
membered as a testbed for a plethora of diver-
gent technologies, all welded into a single chi-
mera-like aircraft.

WINTER 2023 17
 BEHIND
THE
SCENES
Designers Charles and Ray Eames are known for the modernistic
chair that bears their names, but the married couple were also
close friends with film director Billy Wilder (whose credits in-
cluded Some Like It Hot and Sunset Boulevard). In 1955 Wilder asked
Charles to join him as a photographic consultant on his latest project.
The film was The Spirit of St. Louis, Wilder’s adapta-
PORTFOLIO tion of Charles Lindbergh’s 1953 book about his life
and his famous solo hop across the Atlantic in 1927.
Eames shot candid photos of the film’s production, images that have
rarely if ever been published until now.
The Jewish Wilder was eager to take on the film, despite Lindbergh’s
troubling isolationist and arguably anti-Semitic politics in the years
leading up to World War II. When Wilder and Lindbergh flew to Wash-
ington to see the original Spirit at the Smithsonian Institution prior to
filming, their flight hit turbulence. The puckish Wilder leaned over to
Lindbergh and said, “Mr. Lindbergh, would it not be embarrassing if we
crashed and the headlines said, ‘Lone Eagle and Jewish Friend in Plane
Crash’?” Even more troubling for Wilder than Lindbergh’s past was the
director’s inability to penetrate the aviator’s character. “There was a
wall there,” he said.
To play the Lone Eagle, Wilder hired James Stewart. It was perfect
18 WINTER 2023
In The Spirit of St. Louis, director Billy Wilder and
screenwriter Wendell Mayes fleshed out the story
of Charles Lindbergh’s New York-to-Paris flight with
flashbacks of Lindbergh’s aviation career. Here the
film crew shoots a barnstorming sequence. Below:
Designer Charles Eames was a friend of Wilder’s
and worked on the production as a photographer.
casting—or it would have been, had Wilder made
the film 20 years earlier. The real Lindbergh was
only 25 when he made his flight; at the start of
the shoot Stewart was more than two decades
older.
The production was troubled and Wilder lost
interest before shooting ended in 1957, with di-
rector John Sturges stepping in for an uncred-
ited role shooting some final scenes. The film
failed at the box office when released later that
year and Wilder himself remained disappointed
by what he once called his worst film. Still, direc-
tor Cameron Crowe, who published a book of his
conversations with Wilder, felt differently.
“Wilder’s much underrated color portrait of
Lindbergh’s famous journey is a sumptuous bi-
opic,” he wrote. Charles Eames’ photographs
provide a fascinating look behind the scenes.
 Above: Wilder was
already an acclaimed
director by the time he
started work on The Spirit
of St. Louis, with films like
Double Indemnity (1944),
The Lost Weekend (1945)
and Stalag 17 (1953) on
his résumé. Here he
seems to be mistaking
an exhaust on one of the
movie’s Spirit of St. Louis
replicas for a camera’s
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ©EAMES OFFICE, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED

viewfinder. Left: The

movie built two flying
versions of the Spirit of
St. Louis as well as this
static model for scenes
on the ground. One of the
flying replicas is now on
display at the Henry Ford
museum in Dearborn,
Michigan, and the other
is at the Missouri History
Museum in St. Louis. The
static model used to hang
in the Minneapolis-St.
Paul Airport and is now
owned by Wings of the
North in Eden Prairie,
Minnesota.

WINTER 2023 19
 Top: Actor James Stewart
was a pilot himself and
flew 20 combat missions
in B-24s during World War
II. He considered the part
of Lindbergh the role of a
lifetime. Here he sits in the
cockpit of a de Havilland
DH-4 that was used for
a flashback airmail
sequence. Above: Stewart
hangs from a parachute in
the studio as he depicts
Lindbergh’s descent from
his airmail plane. When
finishing the scene on
location, the wind caught
Stewart’s parachute and
dragged him 50 feet
across the ground. Right:
The crew shoots another
barnstorming sequence
with a Curtiss Jenny.

20 WINTER 2023
Left: A scene with a Pathé
News crew and their
airplane did not make it
into the final film. Below:
Studio crew prepare to
position some stunt trees
while actor Murray
Hamilton waits for his cue
at the wing of a Jenny.
Hamilton, later known as
the mayor in the movie
Jaws, played Lindbergh’s
real-life friend and fellow
barnstormer, Harlan
“Bud” Gurney. The
character appeared in
only one scene in the
movie, in which he and
Lindbergh talked about
their mutual love of flying.
The real Gurney, who
ended his flying career in
1965 as a pilot for United
Airlines, served as a
technical advisor on the
movie.
 Above: The Warner Bros.
crew applies some
last-minute makeup to
actor Hamilton. While
much of the film was
shot on sets, some of
the movie was filmed
on location, mostly in
California. The scene of
Lindbergh’s arrival at Le
Bourget Airport, though,
was filmed in France,
although at a different
airport near Versailles.
Right: Wilder, seated on
the fence, converses
with some of his crew
between setups. At one
point during the shoot
star James Stewart bet
Wilder he wouldn’t dare
attempt wing walking.
Wilder had himself
strapped to the top
wing of a biplane and
won the bet, donating
his winnings to charity.

22 WINTER 2023
 Left: In the end, the film proved to be a box office disappointment.
By the end of 1957 it had earned back only $2.6 million, after having
cost the studio $6 million. Wilder himself called the experience of
shooting it “horrendous” and said, “I never should have made this
picture.” Screenwriter Wendell Mayes thought the problem was that
no one knew what the title meant and that people thought the movie
RIGHT: EVERETT COLLECTION, INC./ALAMY

“was an old musical.” Above: The Spirit of St. Louis became almost
a character in the movie itself. Lindbergh spent more than 33 hours
alone in the airplane’s cramped cockpit on his transatlantic flight, and
dramatizing that proved challenging when writing the screenplay.
One solution was to have Lindbergh talk to a fly that took refuge in
the airplane. “Mr. Stewart did not object to talking to insects,” said
Wilder. “After all, he had to deal all of his life with agents and
producers.” Below: The scene of Lindbergh’s takeoff from Roosevelt
Field in New York was actually filmed at Santa Maria, California.
 TIME PASSAGES
BY TOM HUNTINGTON
At first glance, there’s nothing extraordinary about this photograph.
It just shows an older man about to climb into an airplane that be-
longs to the United States Army Air Forces.
Once you learn more about the photo, though, it becomes apparent
that it tells us a lot about how rapidly aviation has advanced.
The man in the photo is Orville Wright, who had invented the air-
plane with his older brother, Wilbur. At the time he was photo-
graphed, on April 26, 1944, Orville
FROM THE COCKPIT was 72 years old. Just over 40 years
earlier the brothers had made the
first heavier-than-air, controlled and powered flight of an airplane at
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville is piloting the craft in the iconic
photograph taken on December 17, 1903, with Wilbur standing off to
the side as he watches history being made. The flight captured in that
photograph covered 120 feet and lasted all of 20 seconds.
The elder Wright brother died in 1912, a victim of typhoid fever.
Orville lived on, although he never piloted an airplane again after he
nearly died in a crash in 1908. (His passenger, Army Lieutenant
Thomas Selfridge, was not so fortunate and he became the first air-
plane fatality.)
In the photo here, Orville is climbing up to board a U.S. Army Air
Forces Lockheed C-69, the military version of the Constellation air-
liner. The big airplane was powered by four Wright R-3350-35 Du-
plex-Cyclone engines, each capable of generating 2,200 horsepower.
In comparison, the Wrights’ first engine, designed by mechanic
Charles Taylor, had been capable of 12 horsepower. The Lockheed
had a wingspan of 123 feet—longer than the distance Orville covered
on that first flight in 1903. Wright did sit at the controls of the Lock-
heed for a brief time while in flight. “I guess I ran the whole plane for
a minute but I let the machine take care of itself,” he said afterwards.
“I always said airplanes would fly themselves if you left them alone.”
24 WINTER 2023
Steve Wartenberg’s feature in this issue about
Calbraith Perry Rodgers and the first flight made
across the United States (page 36) should make
you think about how rapidly the airplane evolved.
Rodgers made his epic journey in 1911, just shy of
eight years after the first flights at Kitty Hawk.
The journey was grueling. Rodgers crashed over
and over again, causing serious injuries to him-
self and his Wright Model EX. His flight across
the country took 49 days. Rodgers died in an air-
plane crash only a few months later.
In 1923, pilots of the U.S. Army Air Services
made the first nonstop flight across the United
States. It took them 27 hours. Forty-six years
later, American astronauts were walking on the
moon, and their trip of almost a quarter-million
miles to reach lunar orbit took about three
days—a fraction of the time it took Rodgers just
to fly across the country. That’s an amazing
amount of technological advancement for such
a short amount of time.
Orville died on January 30, 1948, less than
four years after this photograph was taken. By
then the world had seen the development of the
great piston-engine airplanes of World War II,
the breaking of the sound barrier and the rise of
WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY
jets like the Grumman F9F-5 Panther that
Royce Williams was flying when he shot down
four MiG-15s in one encounter (see page 52).
That’s a lot of aviation history packed into a sin-
gle lifetime.
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XXXXXXXXXX
 Frank Sinatra (right) and Dean Martin
epitomize 1960s cool, helped by the
presence of Sinatra’s Learjet. Spear-
headed by quirky genius Bill Lear, the
twin-engine Learjet (originally spelled as
two words) became a symbol of luxury
business travel—even though you
couldn’t stand up in one.
XXXXXXXXXX
 Right: Bill Lear receives congratulations from
President Harry S. Truman in 1949 after winning
the Robert J. Collier Trophy (behind them) for
his work developing an autopilot. Above: Lear
entered the realm of business travel when he
began converting Lockheed Lodestars into
plusher versions he called Learstars.

Y
ou probably use one of William P. Lear’s inven-
tions every day. No, not a Learjet—unless you’re
richer than we reckon—but the practical, af-
fordable, compact car radio.
It all started with Bill Lear’s prototype of an
AM radio receiver small enough to fit into a
1920s automobile, which ultimately led to the development of a
mega-billion-dollar corporation called Motorola. Lear, as was his wont, But Lear’s forte was electronics, not airplane
moved on to more challenging problems while Motorola was still a ga- design. It was once said that the great Lockheed
rage-size shop, and he continued through a lifetime of peaks and valleys to aerodynamicist Kelly Johnson could “see” air,
increase his patent tally—127 of them, some for major inventions, some for and perhaps Lear could see electricity. He de-
pointless trifles—by the time he died in 1978. signed lightweight avionics for general aviation, TOP: SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM; INSET: AP PHOTO/HENRY GRIFFIN

Bill Lear is popularly assumed to have been the designer of the Learjet, and he was the first to make light planes true
but he could no more have designed an airplane than an itinerant aviation traveling machines, able to fly long distances
PREVIOUS SPREAD: JOHN BRYSON/SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES;

writer could knock out a lightweight autopilot. (Such an autopilot was one
of Lear’s greatest achievements.) Lear simply decided that the world
needed a small, light and comparatively inexpensive business jet, and he
hired good engineers to do the heavy lifting. The resulting Learjet became
popular shorthand for any business aircraft. “Saying Learjet is like saying
Kleenex even if the business aircraft on the ramp, like the tissue paper on
the counter, is a different brand,” wrote Walter Boyne and Philip Handle-
man in The 25 Most Influential Aircraft of All Time. Owning a Learjet also
became a winged symbol of success. Frank Sinatra bought one and enjoyed
loaning it to his famous friends; golfer Arnold Palmer had one; Carly
Simon mentioned the Learjet in her hit song “You’re So Vain.”
through bad weather and good, with navigation
radios to help pilots find their way. Until Bill
Lear came along, only airliners and some mili-
tary aircraft carried radios.
Lear may not have been an aeronautical engi-
neer, but he was many other things: an entrepre-
neur and visionary, a salesman who could sell a
stereo to a deaf Inuit, a serial philanderer,
charmer and best friend of everyone he met, par-
ticularly the journalists who watered at his
trough. His formal education ended after eighth

28 WINTER 2023
 grade, but as one engineer friend said, “Bill
didn’t have the limitations of an education. He
didn’t know what couldn’t be done.”
George C. Larson, editor emeritus of Air &
Space/Smithsonian magazine, was one journal-
ist who covered Lear. “Bill’s overwhelming tal-
ent was that he knew how to charm people,” says
Larson. “He never met a stranger. He was totally
gregarious and always assumed that you loved
him. And it stood him in good stead in front of
the press, though one of his problems was that
sometimes he believed his own press.”
Lear also had a colorful personal life. He was
never classically handsome and became increas-
ingly pudgy as he aged, but he often had lots of
money and always had lots of charisma. Both
attracted women. He never lacked for mis-
tresses. His fourth wife, Moya, once made him a
needlepoint adorned with the names of 13 of his
girlfriends—not a complete list, just the ones she
knew about. The marriage worked well because
Moya’s rule was that her husband could have all
the lovers he wanted as long as he didn’t talk
about them.
Moya was the daughter of vaudeville come-
dian John “Ole” Olsen, of the duo Olsen and
Johnson. It has long been assumed that Bill Lear
was the wit who named one of his daughters
Shanda, thus condemning her to a life of being
introduced as Shanda Lear, but the name was in
fact grandpa Ole’s idea.
It couldn’t have been easy to be one of Lear’s
children (and he had seven). Lear’s son John
once crashed a Bücker Jungmann biplane while
he was showing off with aerobatics above his
Swiss prep school. Bill had to pay for the air-
plane. He never forgave John and left him $1 in
his will, “which, incidentally, I never got,” John
Lear recalls. John once asked his father for air-
fare to fly John’s girlfriend from Geneva to Los
TOP: MAYER/RDB/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES; CENTER: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES;

Angeles. In his excellent biography Stormy Ge-

nius, Richard Rashke reports that Bill said that if
he paid for her trip, he and not John would be the
one to sleep with her.
Chicago airport. After selling his interest in Mo- Top: A failed Swiss fighter
torola, in 1931 he bought a fast Monocoupe, called the P-16 served as
the initial inspiration for
which he flew from Chicago to Miami, trying to
Lear’s business jet,
follow the crude Department of Commerce although there has been

W
illiam Powell Lear was born on June
26, 1902, in Hannibal, Missouri, and
later moved to Chicago with his
BOTTOM: NATIONAL AVIATION HALL OF FAME
radio beacon system. He ran into bad weather debate about the extent of
and was fortunate to survive. Chastened, Lear the debt. Center: The
called a friend to pick him up and hired a pilot to Learjet prototype makes

its first flight on October 7,

mother after she divorced. He developed a love fly the Monocoupe back to Chicago. (Lear once 1963. Above: With the
for airplanes, even though his first flight, when said that if you try to fly through no-visibility Learjet behind him, Lear
he was 17, ended in a minor crash. His second weather without knowing how, “You’ll be instru- moved on to other
ride was to be aboard a Goodyear blimp, but he ment flying for the rest of your life…about a min- projects, including
inventing the eight-track
was bumped by a photographer at the last min- ute and a half.”) Lear immediately began work- tape. None of his other
ute. The blimp crashed and the cameraman died. ing on a light, practical radio direction finder aviation ventures, though,
Lear was undeterred. Following a stint in the that could home in on commercial broadcast met with the success of
Navy, he learned how to fly while working at a stations. He marketed it as the Learoscope but the Learjet.

WINTER 2023 29
 Clockwise from above: In was developing for military aircraft. Lear called
the popular imagination, the airplane the Green Weenie but liked it
owning a Learjet became
enough to purchase it for pennies on the dollar.
a sign of success—even
better than owning a He did some drag-reduction work on the air-
Cadillac. “Godfather of frame and created a posh executive interior,
Soul” James Brown (left, ending up with one of the nicest corporate air-
with manager Ben Bart) planes of the time. He sold the Green Weenie for
was just one celebrity
who flaunted his airplane $200,000 and bought two more surplus Lode-
after he bought a Model stars for $70,000. Lear gave them the same ex-
24A in 1968. When the ecutive facelift and realized he had the makings
newly married Elvis and of an airframe business.
Priscilla Presley flew
from Las Vegas to their At the time, however, Lear’s company had a
honeymoon in Palm board of directors, and those directors were in-
Springs, California, in terested in making money, not airplanes. They
1967, they borrowed told their CEO to drop the Lodestar project. In-
Sinatra’s Learjet.
stead, Lear went behind their backs and formed
the Lear Aircraft Engineering Division. Little
did the directors know that Bill was also pri-

couldn’t afford a patent attorney, so his develop-
ment went unprotected from competitors such
as Bendix. But Lear undoubtedly contributed
more to the development of the radio direction
finder than any other inventor.
Above all, Lear loved a challenge. He left the
mundanities of producing and marketing his in-
ventions to others while he chased new opportu-
nities. The greatest of these, in his mind, was the
development of an airplane, and he ultimately
left behind the gadgets, as he called them, to pur-
sue that dream.
In the early 1950s the U.S. Air Force lent Lear
an elderly Lockheed Lodestar transport to use
for testing an autopilot and approach coupler
for automated instrument landings that Lear
TOP LEFT: RICHARD COOKE/ALAMY; TOP RIGHT: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; LEFT: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
vately buying run-out Lodestars and then resell-
ing them to his own airplane subsidiary at a
handsome profit.
Lear was not an airplane designer, and he
knew it. He hired some of the best-known aero-
nautical engineers in the business—Gordon Is-
rael, Ed Swearingen and Benny Howard—to turn
the Lodestar into the Learstar via a redesigned
wing and other modifications. With a cruise
speed of 300 mph and a range of 3,800 miles, the
Learstar briefly was the fastest and lon-
gest-range twin-engine piston airplane in the
world. Finally, Bill had found his true calling—
building airplanes.
In 1955, Bill and Moya moved to Switzerland.
He intended to set up a European subsidiary to
sell his products internationally, but he had also
bought into the legend that Swiss engineers
were superb. Perhaps they could help him build
his next airplane, whatever it might be. His relo-
cation was probably hastened by the fact that his
board of directors had learned about the Aircraft
Engineering Division and were planning to shut

30 WINTER 2023
 it down. It didn’t help that the Learstar was los-
ing money, a fact that Lear never admitted pub-
licly. Nor did Lear’s general aviation compact
avionics ever make much of a dent in a market
dominated by Narco, Collins, Bendix and King.
In Switzerland Lear became intrigued by a
new Swiss fighter-bomber, the Flug-und Fahr-
zeugwerke Altenrhein AG (FFA) P-16, that was
intended to replace the Swiss Air Force’s aging
British de Havilland Vampire first-generation
jets. The P-16, however, never made it past the
prototype stage. Four were built, and two ended
up at the bottom of Lake Constance when their
test pilots ejected after experiencing systems
failures. The Swiss press began referring to the
P-16 as “the Swiss Submarine,” but Lear liked its
thin, fast, multi-spar, low-aspect-ratio wing.
So, Bill hired the P-16’s chief engineer, Hans
Studer, to design a small business jet for the
company Lear had already established in Swit-
zerland and called the Swiss American Aviation
Corporation—SAAC. He named his new airplane
the SAAC-23.
T
here has been a long-running battle be-
tween those who claim the resulting
Lear 23 was directly derived from the
©PAUL BOWEN
FFA P-16 and those who insist that the Learjet
was an entirely new design with just a few fea-
tures inspired by the Swiss jet. As recently as
2007, Lear’s son William P. Lear Jr. was moved to
rebut an article in Aviation International News FOUR P16s
that ran “complete with references to the well- WERE BUILT;
worn tale of the Swiss fighter connection.” Lear
Jr., a former Air Force and Air National Guard
TWO ENDED
fighter pilot, had flown the P-16 to evaluate it at UP AT THE
FFA’s request, and claims that he was the source BOTTOM
of his father’s interest in the design. OF LAKE
His rebuttal is not entirely convincing, for his CONSTANCE
five main points contain three clangers. First,
Lear Jr. said the Lear 23 and the P-16 had “simi-
WHEN THEIR
lar but not the same” airfoils. In fact, the first TEST PILOTS
Learjet did utilize the P-16’s airfoil, although its EJECTED.
leading edge was modified after a test pilot found
that it had some squirrely handling and stall
characteristics.
“The P-16 wing sweep was zero, while the
Learjet’s was 13 degrees,” said Lear Jr. Not true;
both aircraft had identical 13-degree lead-
ing-edge sweeps and straight trailing edges.
He also said, “The P-16 had a cruciform tail
and the Learjet a T tail.” True of the prototype
and production airplanes, but the scale model of The wingtip fuel tanks
were one distinctive char-
the first Lear 23 proposal, as designed by Gordon acteristic of early
Israel, had a cruciform tail like the P-16’s. It was Learjets, like this Model
changed to a T tail when the airplane turned out 25. Later models
to be faster than expected and needed a horizon- dispensed with the tanks
and put winglets in their
tal stabilizer well out of the wing’s turbulent place. The Swiss P-16
wake. (Lear famously called the revised design fighter prototype also
“the best-looking piece of tail I ever saw.”) sported wingtip tanks.
WINTER 2023 31
 One of Lear’s later Whatever the case, engineer Israel, responsi-
projects was an attempt ble for much of the Learjet’s design, did draft an
to create a better steam
entirely new internal structure for the wing,
engine that would use a
thermally efficient fluid though he retained the Swiss multiple-spar con-
called Learium. The cept. Both airplanes also included the distinctive
endeavor failed, with a wingtip fuel tanks.
single steam-powered Israel became involved after Lear summarily
bus the only result. Lear
also worked on a snatched SAAC out of Switzerland, renamed it
steam-powered racing Learjet Inc. and moved it to Wichita, Kansas, in
car, which he planned to 1962. As his son Bill Jr. recalls, “We bailed out of
power with what he Switzerland [because] labor was half the price,
called a Vapordyne
engine. but it took four times as long to get anything
done.” Swiss engineers and technicians turned
out to be better suited to creating wristwatches
than airplanes. Israel was eventually fired, and
the Model 23 design was completed by former
Cessna engineer Henry Waring, who had been
responsible for the Cessna T-37 Air Force pri-
mary trainer known as the Tweet, as well as the
handsome Cessna 310 light twin.
True to his all-or-nothing character, Lear took
a major gamble with the Learjet 23. He didn’t
build a prototype, a hand-built unit that could be
32 WINTER 2023
tested for flaws and modified as necessary, with
the changes then carried to the production line.
Instead, he built his very first airplane using pro-
duction tooling and jigs, and changing any of
them would have been very expensive. (The
wing’s leading edge was reprofiled, but that was
a simple sheet metal modification.) “With this
approach,” he said, “you’re either very right or
very wrong.”
The first Learjet made its initial flight on Oc-
tober 7, 1963. On June 4, 1964, the FAA pilot fly-
ing it during certification testing forgot to re-
tract the landing spoilers during a touch-and-go
takeoff and the airplane ended up on its belly in
a cornfield. There was little damage, but a fuel
line broke and started a fire that reduced the air-
plane to cinders. “We just sold our first Learjet,”
Bill said as he pocketed the insurance check. The
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
FAA was embarrassed enough by the crash that
it smoothed the path to certification as much as
possible, and Lear had his jet approved that July
31, less than two months after the accident. Even
more important, it received certification four
 By mitigating the wingtip
vortices created by the
passage of the wing
through the air, the
winglets on this later
Learjet model reduce drag
that the wing creates as it
generates lift.
©PAUL BOWEN

After Bill Lear died in months ahead of Lear’s biggest competition, the
1978, his widow, Moya, Aero Commander 1121 Jet Commander. The
oversaw his last airplane
Lear 23 project cost Bill the equivalent of $112
project, the Lear Fan.
Constructed with million in today’s dollars. Never before had a sin-
composites and powered gle individual conceived, driven, produced and
by a complex pusher financed an aviation project of such magnitude.
engine, the Lear Fan (During the certification process, Lear got a ride
project could not
overcome myriad in a Lincoln Continental that had been outfitted
technical difficulties. with a Muntz Autostereo four-track tape deck.
The prototype flew on Never one to miss an opportunity, he immedi-
January 1, 1981, and two ately became a Muntz distributor, and within a
more aircraft followed
before the program year Lear had invented the first eight-track ste-
ended. reo deck, after being told it couldn’t be done.)
Soon after the Model 23 and a couple of fol-
low-on versions flew, Lear became bored and
sold his company to the Gates Rubber Company.
(The resulting Gates Learjet Corporation com-
pressed the original Lear Jet name into one
word.) Lear moved on to other projects. None
would ever achieve success in his hands.
His agreement with Gates forbade him from
designing or building aircraft for five years, so
Lear decided to solve the world’s air pollution
problem by designing a steam-powered automo-
bile. However, Lear’s grasp of automotive tech-
nology was mired in the 1940s. He considered
research to be a trip to Harrah’s Las Vegas vin-
tage-car museum and seemed to believe that all
atmospheric contamination was caused by vehi-
cles. “I want to be the man who eradicated air
pollution,” he said. He intended the car’s engine,
a steam turbine, to be powered by a closed-cycle
superheated liquid he called Learium. (Lear
named virtually everything he invented after
himself.) The liquid was supposed to be denser
than water so it would hold more heat, but Lear
finally was forced to use plain distilled water.
34 WINTER 2023
He continued to call it Learium, though every-
body knew it was a joke; he privately referred to
it as Delearium.
The steam-car project failed miserably, ap-
pearing very briefly in prototype form as a
clunky and impractical steam-powered bus, but
Lear shouldered the blame. He reportedly said
that if he had only read a physics textbook, he
would have known that it would never work.
The aging entrepreneur still had a couple of
airplanes up his sleeve, though by the time the
first one flew, it bore virtually none of his DNA.
He called it the Learstar 600, repurposing the
name he’d used for his modified Lodestar. It was
to be a spacious twinjet with a fast, efficient, su-
percritical wing and newly developed turbofan
engines but it never advanced beyond a very pre-
liminary paper concept limned by an outside
consultant. By 1975, Lear had spent most of his
fortune and couldn’t afford to do any more than
dream about Learstar jets, but he managed to
sell the dream to the Canadian company Cana-
dair, which figured that it was buying not so
much an airplane as Lear’s name.
Canadair inflated the already-rotund fuselage
to mini-airliner size—the company called it a
walk-around cabin and Lear referred to it as “Fat
Albert”—and renamed the airplane the Chal-
lenger 600. Challengers are being built to this
day, in three different sizes, as is a line of re-
gional airliners based on the stretched Chal-
lenger and called CRJs. Canadair sidelined Bill
Lear in 1977 and he had no involvement with
either line of airplanes.
Bill Lear’s last airplane, the Lear Fan 2100,
hadn’t flown by the time he died. Only three
were built, and none were sold. They were man-
ufactured almost entirely under the direction of
Moya Lear and were riddled with structural and
powerplant problems.
Yet it could have been one of the most import-
ant airplanes of its time, for the Lear Fan was
made entirely of composites—carbon-rein-
forced plastics. Hard lessons learned during the
prototyping of the Lear Fan are today reflected
in a wide variety of composite-crafted aircraft
from fighters to airliners.
The Lear Fan was also a pusher, with its pro-
peller at the tail end of the fuselage. That config-
uration allows an airplane’s fuselage, and some
of its wing, to fly through undisturbed air, thus
PAUL HARRIS/GETTY IMAGES
decreasing drag and increasing airspeed, range
and efficiency. The Lear Fan’s single prop was
driven by two turboshaft engines, through a
troublesome gearbox that sought to combine
their power.
 An early model Learjet leads three later models into the sunset. Before
selling the company to Gates, Lear produced Models 23, 24 and 25. Gates
Learjet started its line with the Model 35, before circling back with
Models 28, 29 and 31. Bombardier produced Models 60, 45, 40 and 70/75.

The FAA had never certificated an all-compos-
ite aircraft, and some people involved with the
Lear Fan project claim that the government’s de-
mands for increased structural strength were
ABOVE: ©PAUL BOWEN; RIGHT: BOMBARDIER
kemia in May 1978 at the age of 75. He may not have designed the business
jet that bore his name, but he had certainly made an impact on aviation.
Lear’s oft-stated mantra was, “Don’t nibble at a problem, take a big bite
of it,” and he lived by those words. He did his best work well before people

two and three times greater—and heavier—than
necessary. Throughout the process, the Lear
Fan’s weight grew and performance shrank. The
Lear Fan never came close to its initial perfor-
mance predictions, the FAA ultimately refused
to certify it and the Irish company formed to
build it declared bankruptcy.
By then Bill Lear was gone, having died of leu-
like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk made rogue entrepreneurship part of the
mainstream, but they would have understood.
Stephan Wilkinson is Aviation History’s contributing editor. For further
reading he recommends Stormy Genius: The Rags to Riches Life of Bill Lear
by Richard Rashke; They Said It Couldn’t Be Done: The Incredible Story of
Bill Lear by Victor Boesen; and Fly Fast...Sin Boldly: Flying, Spying and Sur-
viving by William P. Lear Jr.

THE LAST LEARJET

On March 28, 2022, Bombardier Aerospace, which had purchased the Learjet Cor-
poration in 1990, delivered the last Learjet, a model 75. “There’s no doubt that
today is an emotional day for many of us as it marks the end of the production era
of Learjet,” said Bombardier’s vice president for Learjet operations, Tonya Sud-
duth. Since the first Learjet 23 flew in 1963, more than 3,000 airplanes with the
name Learjet had been produced; around 2,000 are still flying. The line had gone through many Employees of Bombardier
changes and upgrades over its nearly six decades. Winglets replaced the original wingtip fuel Aerospace surround the final
Learjet in March 2022 before it
tanks, fuselages became stretched and engines received upgrades. With the introduction of the
was delivered to its new owner,
Learjet 45 in 1998, Bombardier essentially parted ways with the original jet and began produc- Northern Jet Management of
ing a wholly new airplane—but kept the iconic name. Bombardier announced plans to introduce Grand Rapids, Michigan. Although
an all-composite Learjet 85 but cancelled the project in 2015, making the Model 75 the end of the jet was far removed from
the line. We will see no more airplanes bearing the name Learjet, but Bill Lear’s vision will re- Lear’s original Model 23, the
concept owed much to his vision.
main the symbol of luxury private air travel for many.

WINTER 2023 35
THE MANY
CRASHES OF
CAL RODGERS
THE FIRST FLIGHT ACROSS THE UNITED STATES
WAS ANYTHING BUT NON-STOP
BY STEVE WARTENBERG
 Calbraith Perry Rodgers lifts off
in the Vin Fiz from a racetrack at
Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn on
September 17, 1911. He was one of
three aviators vying to win a $50,000
prize by flying across the country in
XXXXXXXXXX

30 days or less. In the end, no one

qualified to win the prize money.

WINTER 2023 37
 T
he still-young aviation world began buzzing following an
announcement newspaper publisher William Randolph
Hearst made on October 10, 1910. The media mogul
pledged $50,000 to the first pilot to fly across the United
States in 30 days or less, in either direction, by October
10, 1911. Hearst said he intended the prize to “encourage
the useful development of the aeroplane,” but if he gained publicity for his
newspapers, so much the better.
Such a feat would smash all existing records for long-distance, multi-leg
flights. Wilbur Wright, for one, was skeptical that it was even possible,
feeling that the Wrights’ motor was not up for the task. “I think sixty days
ought to be allowed for this reason,” he said. Aviator Glenn Curtiss was
more optimistic, saying he didn’t have “the slightest doubt that it will be
done.” Louis Blériot, who had become the first person to fly across the
English Channel the previous year, was itching to give it a try. “If I had not
pledged my word to my wife that I would not fly again, I would certainly
compete for this prize and this honor,” he stated.
The list of pilots who said they’d vie for the prize was a who’s who of
aviation pioneers. It included Henri Farman, Roland Garros, Harry At-
wood, Walter Brookins, Thomas Sopwith and John Moisant. In the end,
three pilots, none of them as well-known, made the attempt. They were
Calbraith Rodgers, Robert Fowler and James Ward. The obstacles they
had to overcome included the lack of powerful, reliable engines; unstable,
delicate aircraft easily tossed about by the elements; muddy, rut-filled
fields that made takeoffs and landings dangerous, and the lack of naviga-
38 WINTER 2023
Rodgers received sponsorship from the Armour
meat-packing company, which had just intro-
duced a new soft drink called Vin Fiz. The
company provided a Wright EX airplane and
logistical support (including a train) and paid
Rodgers by the mile. After the flight, Armour
produced this promotional poster touting
Rodgers’ epic and historic journey.
tional instruments. “The man who makes it will
be exceptional, physically and intellectually,”
Wilbur Wright said. “He will need every atom of PREVIOUS SPREAD: ©GRANGER; THIS PAGE: CRADLE OF AVIATION MUSEUM
courage in his make-up.”
Fowler, 27, was the first to start, departing
from San Francisco on September 11, 1911. A na-
tive of San Francisco, Fowler had recently com-
pleted training at the Wright brothers’ school in
Dayton and he flew a Wright biplane. “Fowler
expects to cover not more than 3,200 miles, fol-
lowing the northern route of the Southern Pa-
cific Railway,” wrote the San Francisco Exam-
iner. This was the shortest route, but it crossed
the Sierra Nevada mountains—a formidable
obstacle. On the second day of his attempt,
Fowler crashed near Alta, California. He was
battered and bruised, and his airplane would
 need a major rebuild before he could resume his
journey eastward.
Ward was the next to start. Born in Denmark
in 1886 and raised in Minnesota as Jens Wilson,
Ward had changed his name after he moved to
Chicago and began racking up speeding tickets
while working as a chauffeur. After he graduated
from cars to airplanes, he began flying a Curtiss
biplane; eventually he became an exhibition
pilot for Glenn Curtiss. The Aero Club of Amer-
ica issued him flying license number 52.
Ward took off from New York’s Governors Is-
land on September 13. He was flying a Curtiss
biplane powered by a 50-hp engine. “High gusty
winds brought him to the grass twice in the
course of the day,” reported the New York Sun.
“But he wasn’t hurt.” about 200 pounds, so when he began exhibition Many pioneering aviators
flights he made headlines as the world’s largest expressed interest in
Hearst’s contest, but only

C
albraith Perry Rodgers began his attempt
four days after Ward, with the goal of
reaching Pasadena, outside Los Angeles.
At 32, he was the oldest of the three contenders.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; AP/SHUTTERSTOCK; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
aviator. He was also a man of few words. He radi-
ated calm and confidence and usually had a cigar
clenched between his teeth. At the Chicago In-
ternational Aviation Meet in August 1911 Rodg-
three attempted it. Top left:
Californian Robert Fowler
(seated at right) decided to
try flying from west to east.

Born in Pittsburgh to an affluent family in 1879,
Rodgers contracted scarlet fever at the age of six
and suffered significant hearing loss. This ruled
out a career in the U.S. Navy, a family tradition.
Rodgers later moved to New York and enjoyed
racing cars, motorcycles and yachts. He married
Mabel Avis Graves in 1906, and the couple later
settled in Havre de Grace, Maryland.
In June 1911, Rodgers visited a cousin in Ohio.
Lieutenant John Rodgers was one of the first
Naval aviators and was stationed at the Wrights’
flying school in Dayton. Cal Rodgers immedi-
ately became smitten with flying and signed up
for lessons. He made his first solo flight a week
later, after only 90 minutes of instruction,
bought a Wright Model B and quickly earned
aviator’s license number 49.
Rodgers was 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighed
ers made a name for himself, winning a total of Top right: Standing 6 feet 4
inches tall and with a cigar
$11,285, $6,875 of it for logging the greatest usually clamped between
amount of flying time (27 hours) during the his teeth, Rodgers had
nine-day meet. A few days later, Rodgers took learned to fly only a few
his mother, Maria Rodgers Sweitzer, up in his months before his
cross-country flight. Above:
Model B, most likely the first time a pilot flew his James Ward was born in
mother as a passenger. “If I were young I’d buy Denmark but raised in
myself an aeroplane and sail thru the air,” Minnesota. He had worked
Sweitzer said after landing. as a chauffeur before
switching to airplanes.
Rodgers persuaded Armour & Company to
sponsor his transcontinental attempt. The Chi-
cago-based meat-packing concern had recently
branched out by introducing a new soft drink
called Vin Fiz, a grape soda. The company agreed
to pay Rodgers $5 for every mile he flew east of
the Mississippi and $4 for every mile west of the
river, where the population was less. Armour
provided Rodgers with a Wright EX (for experi-

WINTER 2023 39

Top: Crashes became a
regular occurence for
Rodgers. He listed eight in
his logbook, but that didn’t
count the many times he
had to make forced
landings along the way.
Above: Rodgers and the
Vin Fiz were both battered
by the time they reached
the West Coast. The only
original parts of the
airplane that remained
from the time of takeoff
were a rudder and an
oil-drip pan.
40 WINTER 2023
mental) biplane, a modified Model B that was a
little smaller and faster than the original. Rodg-
ers called it the Vin Fiz and had the underside of
the lower wing emblazoned with the soft drink’s
logo. In addition, Armour provided a three-train
railroad caravan to follow Rodgers across the
country. The train cars were painted white so
Rodgers could spot them from the air, as he
planned to use railroad tracks for his navigation
system. The “hangar” car contained Rodgers’
Model B and $4,000 worth of spare parts, enough
to rebuild the Model EX three times.
The Flyer also carried an automobile so the
crew could reach Rodgers when he landed—or
crashed—away from the tracks. His mother and
wife, who reportedly did not get along, were
aboard the train, along with a crew of mechanics
(including Charles Taylor, who used to work for
the Wrights), a publicity manager and Armour
representatives, along with a rotating crew of
newspaper reporters.
Rodgers took off from the Sheepshead Bay
racetrack in Brooklyn, New York, at 4:24 p.m. on
September 17. He would have departed earlier,
but the crowd of 2,000 pressed too closely—a
scene that would be repeated in town after town.
“It was only after the aviator warned the crowd
that somebody would get killed if a clear path
wasn’t made for the biplane that the crowd
backed away,” reported the New York Sun. Rod-
gers flew 104 miles in 105 minutes, ending the
day in Middletown, New York.
The first crash happened on Rodgers’ second
day of travel. “Owing to the dense crowd which
packed about his machine and refused to move
back, Rodgers was compelled to start in a direc-
tion which sent him crashing into a tall tree,”
reported the Buffalo Enquirer. “He tried to veer
his course but was menaced by telegraph wires
and rather than chance electrocution he risked
a crash into the trunk of a tree.” Rodgers was
knocked unconscious and received a gash on his
right temple. The Vin Fiz broke a propeller and
had large sections of canvas shredded. “I intend
to resume flight just as soon as I can,” Rodgers
said. “That cut in my head is painful, but I don’t
believe it will prove serious.”
Four days after Rodgers’ crash, on September
22, an engine failure forced Ward to make a hard
landing in Addison, New York. Later that day, he
announced he’d had enough. “When my engine
failed and I was forced to [descend] 1,000 feet to
earth here today it was the last straw needed to
break the camel’s back,” he said. “I am through.”
In the meantime, Fowler found himself stuck in
Colfax, California, unable to make it over the Si-
erra Nevada.
Rodgers and the patched-up Vin Fiz began
that day in Hancock, New York. He hoped to
reach Binghamton but followed the wrong rail-
road tracks. He was shocked when he spotted
coal mines below him. “I had studied the route
enough to know that coal mines did not belong
in Binghamton,” he said. He landed and asked
the growing crowd if he was in Binghamton. He
wasn’t; he was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, off by
one state and 60 miles. But the Vin Fiz, the first
airplane to visit Scranton, caused a sensation.
People signed their names on the fabric and
climbed all over the machine. “They liked to
work the levers, sit upon the seat, warp the
planes and finger the engine,” said Rodgers. “I
lost my temper when a man came up with a
BOTH: CRADLE OF AVIATION MUSEUM
chisel to punch his monogram on an upright.”
Rodgers crashed again two days later when he
collided with a barbed-wire fence on takeoff
from a field outside Jamestown, New York.
“Now the repairs I need will delay me three days
and the man whose fence I hit needs a new one,”
he noted.
 On October 1, Rodgers reached Huntington,
Indiana, after a nerve-wracking flight among
thunderstorms. Stuck on the ground by the
winds the next day, Rodgers went for a joyride in
the caravan’s automobile and continued his
streak of bad luck when he hit a ditch and shat-
tered the brake shaft. “That added to the avia-
tor’s gloom, for next to flying, he likes nothing
better than buzzing around in his auto,” re-
ported the Huntington Herald.
When he reached Marshall, Missouri, on Oc-
tober 10, Rodgers had flown 1,398 miles. This
broke the record of 1,256 miles set by Harry At-
wood on a recent St. Louis-to-New York trek.
That was the good news. The bad news was that
October 10 was the cutoff for the Hearst prize
and Rodgers hadn’t even reached his halfway
point. Although he no longer had a shot at
Hearst’s money, Rodgers remained determined
to finish the journey. With the deadline re-
moved, he decided to detour to the south, then
TOP: DONNER SUMMIT HISTORICAL SOCIETY; BOTTOM: SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM
fly across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona into
California. This route added several hundred
miles, but it avoided high mountains.
O
n October 17, Rodgers ran out of fuel
near Pottsboro, Texas, and landed in a
field. “He was in a cotton patch and two
wide-eyed country lasses stood near the ma-
chine gazing in wonder,” reported the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram. The young ladies located
a couple cans of gas so Rodgers could refuel.
“Then the aviator mounted to his seat and the
two girls cranked the propellors as gracefully as
any mechanician ever could.” The next day he
was over Dallas, where a crowd of 4,000 “were
beyond the control of the mounted police and
patrolman,” reported the paper. “They swarmed
over the field, cheering, throwing hats and caps
into the air, and seriously interfering with the
aviator, whose face could be seen as he peered
down and slowly circled the field in spirals.” Departing from San
Rodgers knew what to do. He headed in one Francisco meant that
Fowler would have to face
direction, and the crowd followed. Then he a formidable obstacle: the
quickly changed course, “sailing over the heads Sierra Nevada mountains.
at a height of probably seventy-five feet and then Here his airplane forms the
coming to earth half a block away.” nucleus of an impromptu
picnic as Fowler readies
As this was happening, Fowler was back in Los
himself to get over the
Angeles, having given up his attempt to cross the peaks that lie to the east.
Sierra Nevada mountains. He decided he would When the mountains
follow the same southerly route as Rodgers, but proved impassable, Fowler
in reverse. That meant the two aviators might shifted his starting point to
Los Angeles. Below:
cross paths. Rodgers takes to the sky
On October 19, aviator Eugene Ely—the first someplace in the Midwest.
man to take off from and land on a ship—died in By the time Hearst’s
a crash at an air meet. The news shook Rodgers 30-day deadline had
passed, Rodgers had
and the next day he made a careful inspection of completed less than half
the Vin Fiz and discovered that the wires for the the journey.
elevator and rudder were seriously worn, to the
point that they might have failed before he
reached his goal of San Antonio, 188 miles away.
He made the necessary repairs, but then almost
crashed when his engine failed at 3,500 feet. He
was able to glide— “volplane,” as it was called
back then— for two miles, noting in his log that
he “made a perfect landing in the only pasture
within forty miles.”
He crashed again on October 25 when taking
off from Spofford, Texas. According to his log,

Top left: Rodgers savors “the right propeller struck a little mound of
his triumph and a cigar earth the plane swerved, there was a crash and
as the Vin Fiz meets the
Pacific Ocean on
both propellers were splintered. The skids col-
December 10, 1911. Top lapsed and the machine swung due north, the
right: The previous left warping wing hitting the ground and crum-
month in Pasadena, pling as though it were made of pasteboard.”
20,000 people turned out
He crashed the repaired plane again three days
to greet Rodgers at the
official last stop of his later, when he hit a fence as he took off from
journey. Above: Rodgers Sanderson, Texas. He smashed the skids but
did not have long to enjoy was soon back in the air. He flew 231 miles that
his accomplishment. On day and landed in Sierra Blanca, Texas—his
April 3, 1912, a seagull
became entangled in his longest one-day flight. According to newspaper
airplane’s control reports, Rodgers attended the bullfights in
surfaces and Rodgers nearby Cuidad Juárez, Mexico, and “attracted
plunged to his death in great attention.”
the ocean.
Fowler was getting closer. On October 30, he
was approaching the University of Arizona in
Tucson when a wind gust blew his biplane into
grandstands where hundreds of spectators were
waiting. “For a time there was panic, but it was
soon quelled when the machine was seen to stop,
tangled up in the barb wire fence that surrounds
the stands,” according to newspaper reports.
Nobody was injured, but Fowler had destroyed
the skids of his airplane. He remained in Tucson,
waiting for repairs and for the arrival of Rodgers.
Rodgers reached town on November 1. The
42 WINTER 2023
Tucson Citizen reported, “Hardly had he brought
his aeroplane to a stop when his brother-aviator,
R. G. Fowler, dashed up in an automobile, sprang
out, and grasped his hand with hearty congratu-
lations. ‘Well done, old man; it was a beautiful
flight,’ he said.”
Two days later Rodgers crossed the border
into California, but his troubles were far from
over. Just past Imperial Junction (now Niland),
a cylinder blew, wrecking the motor. “Quickly
shutting off his gas, the aviator began to vol-
plane, and glided back over the four miles to Im-
perial Junction, where he made a successful
landing near the Southern Pacific station at 11
o’clock,” reported the San Francisco Examiner.
Other newspapers wrote that metallic frag-
ments from the blown engine “passed perilously
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; CRADLE OF AVIATION MUSEUM
close to Rodgers’ head.”
Engine repaired, Rodgers hoped to finish his
journey the next day, but it was not to be. Just
past Banning, as Rodgers neared the peaks of the
San Bernardino Mountains, the engine began to
sputter, forcing Rodgers to land. He discovered
that his fuel tank was leaking and he had nearly
run out of fuel.
November 5 found Rodgers only 80 miles
from Pasadena, his designated end point. But
the Vin Fiz was in bad shape, especially the en-
gine, and there was no guarantee it would make
the last leg. Rodgers had to land in Pomona for
engine repairs but was soon back in the air for
the final 30 miles of his flight. In Pasadena, a
crowd of 20,000 was waiting for him. As the Vin
Fiz touched down, “the crowd was transformed
into a maelstrom of aviation-mad people,” re-
ported the Examiner. “Fully 10,000 people
rushed madly for the machine. Men stumbled
and went down and were carelessly trodden on
as the wave of humanity swept on.”
Rodgers had flown 4,231 miles in 49 days, sur-
viving eight crashes (according to his log) and
several near crashes after he was forced to glide
 to earth after his engine quit or ran out of fuel.
He averaged 51.59 miles per hour. By the time he
reached Pasadena, all that was left of the original
Vin Fiz were the rudder and oil-drip plan. And
the battered pilot. “No, I don’t feel tired.… It’s
easy.… But I don’t believe it can be done in thirty
days,” Rodgers said, according to the Los Angeles
Times. The paper noted that the pilot, sipping a
glass of milk, was a man of few words and that his
responses “to the many questions put to him
were almost monosyllabic.”
Although he had reached his destination, Rod-
gers remained determined to fly all the way to
the Pacific at Long Beach. “I must go to the surf,
and I will do this just as soon as I can get my Above: Fowler eventually
completed his west-to-
motor fixed,” he said. He was finally ready on
east journey across the
November 12. About 75,000 people gathered in continent and later
Long Beach, awaiting his arrival. Just past became the first pilot to
Compton, the Vin Fiz’s engine began to sputter. complete a nonstop
The Los Angeles Times reported that James Orr, transcontinental flight
when he flew across
a Compton ranch owner, heard the engine quit. Panama in this seaplane.
“Then he saw Rodgers lean forward and tug Left: Rodgers’ pieced-
frantically at a lever. The engine seemed to stop together Vin Fiz now
dead, the forward end of the planes tilted and an belongs to the collections
of the Smithsonian.
instant later the whole plunged to the ground.”
Orr raced over to untangle the pilot from the
wreckage. Rodgers had suffered a concussion, seagulls. Observers saw him fly through the birds
internal injuries and a broken ankle. “Oh, I’ll fin- and then go into a 45-degree dive. “Rodgers was
ish that flight, all right,” he said the next night seen to pull on his lever control and give a star-
from his bed as he smoked a cigar. tled look backward at his machinery, which evi-
He made good on that pledge on December 10. dently had not responded to his will,” reported
Starting near the field where he’d crashed a the Los Angeles Times. One of the seagulls had
month earlier, Rodgers took off in the repaired become wedged between the rudder and tail,
Vin Fiz after a brief delay due to high wind and making it impossible to control the airplane.
headed toward Long Beach. “A crowd estimated “The next instant the horrified spectators saw “OH, I’LL
at 60,000 persons saw the landing, and as the the biplane continue to drop like a plummet. FINISH
wheels of Rodgers’ machine touched the sands Straight into the first line of breakers it darted,
THAT
TOP: SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM; BOTTOM: SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM

an enthusiastic throng surged on the aviator and

the impact of the rush pushed the machine into
the waves,” reported the Stockton Evening Mail.
Rodgers, still recovering from his injuries,
“limped away on crutches which he had carried
in the frame [of the Vin Fiz],” reported the Los
Angeles Record.
On the other side of the country, Fowler
landed in Moncrief Park in Jacksonville, Florida,
at 4:45 p.m. on February 12, 1912. He had become
the second man to fly across the country and the
first to do it west to east. A year later Fowler ac-
complished another first by flying nonstop
across the Isthmus of Panama—the world’s first
nonstop transcontinental flight.
Cal Rodgers did not have long to savor his tri-
umph. He started performing exhibition flights
from Long Beach in his Model B and he was in
the air on April 3 when he flew into a flock of
plunged its nose into the sand, wavered for a sec-
ond, and then turned over, pinioning Rodgers in
FLIGHT,
the mass of broken wires and framework.” The ALL RIGHT,”
first doctor to arrive at the crash site stated that HE SAID
the pilot had been killed instantly. THE NEXT
The first person to fly across the United States NIGHT
was buried in Pittsburgh. His airplane, the
much-battered Vin Fiz, is on display at the
FROM HIS
Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and BED AS HE
Space Museum in Washington, D.C. SMOKED
A CIGAR.
Steve Wartenberg is a freelance writer based in
Columbus, Ohio. A former newspaper reporter,
Wartenberg has written several books. For fur-
ther reading he recommends Cal Rodgers and
the Vin Fiz: The First Transcontinental Flight
by Eileen Lebow and Higher, Steeper, Faster:
The Daredevils Who Conquered the Skies by
Lawrence Goldstone.

AUTUMN
WINTER 2022
2023 43
FINAL
MISSION
THEIR LANCASTER WAS SUPPOSED
TO BE A LUCKY AIRPLANE.
LUCK CAN RUN OUT
BY GAVIN MORTIMER
In July 1944, a mostly Canadian crew set out
from England on a night bombing mission aboard
Lancaster L7576 of Royal Air Force Bomber
Command. Awaiting them was a nocturnal gantlet
of German radar, anti-aircraft artillery and
specialized night fighters. The fate of some of the
crew remained a mystery for decades. This
Lancaster is Just Jane, from the Lincolnshire
Aviation Heritage Centre in East Kirby, England.
 H
arry Doe started keeping a diary in January 1944. It was
going to be a monumental year and the 21-year-old Cana-
dian wanted a record for posterity.
Harry’s elder brother, Robert, had enlisted in the navy,
but there was only one branch of service for Harry—the
Royal Canadian Air Force. His father had been a pilot in
the First World War, and Doe had grown up obsessed with aircraft. As an
adolescent, he had been a talented model-maker and won several compe-
titions with his creations. He joined the air force in 1941 at the age of 18 as
a mechanic and the following year he was sent to Edmonton, Alberta, for
aircrew training. After completing the technical training school, Doe
started air observer’s school and in August 1943 he was commissioned as
pilot observer and awarded his navigation wings.
Soon afterward, Doe shipped out to Britain for first posting to the Ad-
vanced Flying Unit, Royal Air Force Wigtown, in the southwest of Scot-
land. He arrived at the start of 1944. It was cold and wet, but Doe didn’t
care. He was leading the life he had dreamed about for years. At the front
of his diary Doe penned a brief poem:
If I should die
and you bury me
And send my things
across the sea,
One favor, ere
you let me be
Please burn this
ruddy diary.
46 WINTER 2023
Left to right: Lew Fiddick, Harry Doe and Harold S.
“Al” Peabody relax between missions at No.622
Squadron’s base, RAF Mildenhall, in June 1944.
Doe and Peabody had about a month left to live.
Fiddick would find himself behind enemy lines in
occupied France, spending weeks with French
guerrillas and with British Special Air Services
(SAS) soldiers.
D
oe spent the first fortnight of 1944 fly-
ing, sleeping and drinking. It was a good
life, but one that didn’t leave much time
to commit his innermost thoughts to his diary.
Rather than record his emotions, Doe simply PREVIOUS SPREAD: PETER LANE / ALAMY; ABOVE: COURTESY THE DOE FAMILY
noted his activities. On January 10 he took the
train south to his new station, RAF Chipping
Warden, which was in Oxfordshire, 75 miles
northwest of London. Shortly afterward, at a
mess dinner, Doe hit it off with a fellow Cana-
dian named Harold Sherman Peabody, or Al, as
he preferred.
In fact, Peabody, whom Doe described in his
diary as a “good type,” had been born in 1920 not
in Canada but in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
where his father worked for the Canada Life in-
surance company. He was a baby when the fam-
ily relocated to Quebec. At Bishop’s University
in Quebec, the handsome Peabody had been a
 star athlete on the golf and hockey teams
before he quit his studies to enroll in the
Commonwealth’s flight-training program
in Windsor Mills, Quebec. Sport helped Peabody
bond with Doe as the two young men drank their
beer in the mess. Doe had been a talented foot-
baller and boxer at high school, where he had
won the lightweight title in the Greater Victoria
Schoolboy Boxing Competition.
It ended up being a raucous night. By the end,
the officers were climbing the rafters, yelling
and hollering in drunken ecstasy. “Very stiff,”
Doe noted in his diary the next day.
The following weeks were mundane. Most of
the time was spent in the classroom, but gradu-
ally a crew began to form. “Got a gunner—Buck-
COURTESY THE DOE FAMILY; (WINGS) HISTORYNET ARCHIVES
ley,” wrote Doe in his diary on January 20. Ser-
geant Percy Buckley was a streetwise 18-year-old
from London, a likeable fellow whom Doe and
Peabody invited to be their rear gunner.
By the beginning of February they had a
bomb-aimer, Flying Officer Lew Fiddick. Born
in British Columbia, Fiddick was an outdoors-
man who had been working as a logger in
Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, when war was de-
clared. Fiddick was 27 and had a quiet maturity
that impressed Peabody. Not an educated man in
the academic sense, he nonetheless was sharp Clockwise from left: Harry
and intelligent, the sort of man on whom one Doe started keeping a
could rely. Fiddick, Peabody and Doe shared a diary in January 1944, but
he wanted it destroyed if
hut when they moved into their new base at RAF he died during the war;
Edgehill in mid-February. (left to right) Bob Doe,
They were flying regularly by this point and brother Harry Doe and Al
Doe was mastering the skills particular to his job Peabody enjoy time off in
London in July 1944; Harry
as navigator. He attended lectures about as- sketched this portrait of an
tronavigation, practiced on dead-reckoning in- unknown fellow service-
struments and, most difficult of all, became fa- man; as a RAF navigator,
miliar with Gee, a radio navigation system Harry would have worn
wings like these.
developed in the late 1930s that triangulated
position based on the time delay between two
separate transmitters.
Fortunately for Doe there was plenty of light
relief to be had at RAF Edgehill. “Went to Po-
licemen’s Dance in Banbury with Al and Lew,”
he wrote in his diary on February 23. “Quite
drunk.” The next day he flew despite having a
“splitting headache.”
When his training period at RAF Edgehill
ended on March 25, Doe spent an extended
leave in London, taking in shows and taking out
girls. His leave ended the second week of April
but it wasn’t until the end of May that he was
posted to the Lancaster Finishing School at RAF
Feltwell in Norfolk in the east of England. This
WINTER 2023 47

Top: Doe and his
crewmembers flew
aboard a Lancaster
bomber like this one of
No. 619 Squadron, RAF.
Center: A Messerschmitt
Me-110G-4 of Nachtjagd-
geschwader 6 is similar
to that piloted by
Leutnant Walter Swoboda
on the night of July 28-29,
1944, when he scored his
first and only aerial
victory. Pilots called the
night fighter’s radar
antennas “deer antlers.”
Above: Manning the
upper machine guns on
Lancaster L7576 that
night was 21-year-old
Richard Proulx.
48 WINTER 2023
was the last step before he became op-
erational. That day arrived on an aus-
picious date: June 6. “INVASION,”
wrote Doe in capital letters in his
diary, adding: “Posted to 622 SQN. Bit
of a piss-up.”
No. 622 Squadron had been formed
the previous year and was based at
RAF Mildenhall, also on the eastern
side of England. It had first flown
Stirling Mk III bombers but since
December the crews had been re-
equipped with Lancaster Mk IIIs
and operated as part of No. 3 Group in RAF
Bomber Command’s main force.
Doe flew his first combat missions on June 23,
a daylight attack on a V-2 rocket site near St.-
Omer in northern France. His third mission
took place on June 30 when the RAF launched a
daylight raid on German positions in Villers-Bo-
cage in Normandy. The town, 20 miles inland
from the invasion beaches, had been the scene of
fierce fighting since the British launched Oper-
ation Epsom on June 26 to continue the offen-
sive into France. Doe’s Lancaster was one of
nearly 250 RAF bombers that flattened Vil-
lers-Bocage; it didn’t lead to a decisive British
victory but it helped inflict damage on the Ger-
mans from which they never recovered.
The relief for Doe on returning safely to base
after that mission was particularly acute be-
cause the next morning, July 1, he embarked on
an extended leave, the first five days of which
dovetailed with his brother’s furlough from the
navy. The two Doe brothers spent the time in
London in the company of some delightful Red
Cross girls.
Doe’s leave ended on July 10 and for the next
week he was on standby. On July 17 he was re-
called from a daylight raid shortly before take-
off for a reason that Doe didn’t explain in his
diary. The next day the squadron bombed Caen
in a daylight raid. On July 20 the target was the
town of Homberg, the first time Doe had flown a
mission over Germany. On July 23 he flew a
night raid on Kiel and the following evening the
target was Stuttgart in southwest Germany.
The mission for July 27 was scrubbed, so Doe
and the rest of the crew went to a show instead.
By now they were connected by a strong bond.
Doe, Peabody and Fiddick had become friends as
well as comrades, and Percy Buckley was also a
valued member of the crew. Another Briton in
the crew, 29-year-old Arthur Payton, was a com-
petent wireless operator and the only married
man among them. He had wed in the summer of
1939, shortly before he resigned from his job as a
steelworker to volunteer for the RAF. The upper
gunner was 21-year-old Richard Proulx from
Ontario. Like Payton, he had flown several mis-
sions with Peabody. The flight engineer was Ser-
geant David Cosgrove.
On July 28, Cosgrove was sick, so Lieutenant
George Wishart took his place for a mission to
Stuttgart that night. He was an experienced man
to have as a late substitute. Born in London to
Scottish parents, Wishart had joined the RAF at
the age of 21 in 1935 and had been commissioned
FROM TOP: IWM CH12352; BUNDESARCHIV BILD 101I-659-6436-12, PHOTO, HELMUT GROSSE; COURTESY THE DOE FAMILY
in May 1943.
Like the rest of the crew, Wishart was unfa-
miliar with the aircraft they would fly that night.
The crews were not assigned to specific aircraft;
instead, they flew the airplanes that were avail-
able at the time. None of them had flown in Lan-
caster L7576 before, but it had a legendary status
within the squadron. Having survived 98 mis-
sions, it was considered a lucky “crate.” At 10:00
on the evening of July 28 Lancaster L7576 lifted
off with payload of five 1,000-pound bombs and
two 500-pounders, all of which were to be
dropped over Stuttgart’s railway yards.
There are approximately 500 miles between
RAF Mildenhall and Stuttgart, a route that took
the 500 RAF aircraft south over eastern France.
Sixty-two of the aircraft failed to return. Lan-
caster L7576 was one of them.
A
t approximately 1:25 on the morning of
July 29, Walter Swoboda picked up his
prey on the radar of his Messerschmitt
 Above: Cirey-sur-Vezouze was the French
village where Lew Fiddick found assistance
after being shot down. Right: This map shows
the route taken by L7576 on its 97th mission, a
few days before its final flight. The target both
times was Stuttgart, so this is the same course
the Lancaster would have followed on its 99th
and last assignment.
110G-4, the latest model of the twin-engine fighter-bomber. The Messer-
schmitt was a feared night fighter, equipped with Lichtenstein radar that
enabled it to latch onto enemy aircraft in the darkness. But the 22-year-
old Swoboda was a relatively inexperienced pilot with no victories. The
first burst of cannon fire he shot at his target went wide of its mark. Sur-
prise was no longer on the German’s side. The Canadian pilot put his air-
craft into a “corkscrew,” flipping the bomber onto its side and diving for a
few hundred feet before ascending. Swoboda had been taught about this
defensive maneuver and pumped fire into the Lancaster as it came slowly
out of its dive. “Almost immediately as we levelled off we were hit,” said
Lew Fiddick. “I still remember the bullets hitting the aeroplane—just a
steady stream.”
The fire from the Me-110 ripped through the Lancaster, killing Percy
Buckley in the rear turret, Richard Proulx in the upper turret and wireless
operator Arthur Payton. Bullets also shot away the tail control, crippling
the aircraft. Fiddick squeezed out of the forward turret and met engineer
George Wishart, who had come down from above, in the nose section. Both
knew the aircraft was doomed. Wishart yanked the release handle of the
escape hatch and plunged through the hole into the darkness. Fiddick was
about to follow when he thought of Peabody and Doe in the cockpit. They
were his buddies. He had to see if he could help. He crawled toward the
cockpit, but the Lancaster was in its death throes. He felt a series of violent
shudders and then a massive jolt hurled Fiddick backwards and through
LEFT: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES; RIGHT: COURTESY THE DOE FAMILY
the escape hatch. “The next thing I knew I was falling through the air,” he
remembered.
Fiddick crashed through saplings as he fell to earth beneath his para-
chute. His leg hurt and his senses were still scrambled but he had the
wherewithal to bury his parachute and Mae West. He suspected he had
come down in northeastern France but did not know where. He decided to
limp south. Not long after daylight on July 29 he spotted the village of
Cirey-sur-Vezouze. For two days he hid in the undergrowth, observing the
villagers and wondering whether it would be safe to approach them. Like
all aircrews, he had been briefed that this rugged and thickly forested re-
gion had a particular history. Germany and France had fought over it for
75 years and it had changed hands on several occasions; as a result a mi-
nority of inhabitants had German ties and was
loyal to the Fatherland.
Ultimately, hunger got the better of Fiddick
and he hobbled into Cirey-sur-Vezouze. “I finally
knocked at a house and the people took me in and
fed me,” he said.
The villagers were aware that an aircraft had
come down. One, 17-year-old Pierre Vinot, the
son of a forest ranger, had arrived at the crash
site on the morning of July 29. The Germans had
beaten him to it, however, and were sifting
through the wreckage. “I saw two dead—they
were all in one piece—and another one who was
dismembered,” Vinot remembered. “Dogs were
eating this third man.” The Germans allowed the
locals to remove the dead and bury them in the
churchyard of Petitmont. The Germans then
began scouring the countryside for the remain-
ing crew members.
Fiddick was passed into the care of Leonard
Barassi, a 44-year-old Italian who had lived in
the region for years and was loosely involved
with the resistance effort. He sheltered the Ca-
nadian for a few days until “on the afternoon of
August 4 a member of the Maquis came and took
me to the Maquis camp.”
The Maquis were the guerrillas of the French
Resistance and Fiddick remained with them in
their forest hideout for nearly two weeks. Then,
on August 15, the Maquis handed him over to
Captain Henry Druce, the officer in charge of 13
British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers, an elite
regiment that had been waging a guerrilla cam-
paign against the Germans in Occupied France
since early June. Druce’s section was the advance
WINTER 2023 49
 Natzweiler-Struthof, the weeks behind enemy lines. “Having grown up on
only Nazi concentration Vancouver Island, the forest was an environ-
camp built on French ment in which I felt comfortable,” he told me. “I
soil, probably figured in
the deaths of Harry Doe took to the SAS type of warfare quite quickly and
and Al Peabody. The it was interesting work.”
grounds may appear Fiddick provided the SAS with crucial skills
bucolic today, but the they didn’t possess. During one of their frequent
crematorium hints at the
horrors that took place nighttime resupplies by the RAF, the SAS took
here during the war. Fiddick to the selected drop zone. “He was able
to tell from the sound of the engine whether an
aircraft belonged to the enemy or the Allies,” re-
membered SAS Captain John Hislop. “This was
a help, as several of the planes to pass over the
D.Z. had been German ones. He identified this
THE MAQUIS one as British, and when it was directly overhead
SAID THAT we gave the signal. It was answered correctly

TWO
from the plane, which then wheeled round for
the run-in.”
AIRMEN When Fiddick returned to England in October
HAD BEEN 1944 he told the RAF that, as far as he was aware,
SPOTTED only he and Wishart had bailed out of the Lan-
CLOSE TO party for a larger operation codenamed Loyton, caster. (Wishart had been badly injured on land-

WHERE THE with the mission of harrying the Nazis in con-

junction with the local Maquis as the Germans
ing and was found by the Germans. He spent the
rest of the war as a POW and remained in the
LANCASTER withdrew east ahead of the advancing U.S. Third RAF post-war.) However, Fiddick did relay to
CAME Army. “A Canadian pilot called Fiddick joined the RAF’s Missing Research and Enquiry Service
DOWN. BUT us,” Druce wrote in his operational log. “He had (MRES) what he had been told by the Maquis—
THAT WAS been shot down and had injured his leg, which that two airmen had been spotted close to where
WHERE THE made walking difficult.” For his part, Fiddick
was relieved to be “finally among people I could
the Lancaster came down. But that was where
the trail of Doe and Peabody went cold.
TRAIL OF understand!” An MRES team visited the crash site in 1947
DOE AND but could not determine what had happened to
PEABODY
I
n December 2003 I traveled to Vancouver Is- the two missing airmen. They wrote in their re-
WENT COLD. land to meet Lew Fiddick and Henry Druce port that Doe and Peabody “either drifted over
for a book I was writing about the SAS. Fiddick the then German border during their parachute
BOTH: GAVIN MORTIMER

had been made an honorary member of Druce’s descent and were apprehended there, or were
regiment for his exploits during Operation Loy- still in the aircraft when it exploded and were
ton. He had proven to be a born guerrilla fighter, blown to pieces.”
one of Druce’s most reliable men during the But if the two men had been apprehended by

50 WINTER 2023
 the Germans, why had they disappeared off the face of the earth? The mys-
tery remained unsolved when Fiddick died in 2016 in his 100th year; but
the puzzle was already in the process of being pieced together.
Canadian brothers Jon and Robert Peck provided the impetus for the
investigation of Lancaster L7576. Their late mother had been Al Peabody’s
second cousin and in 2016 they launched the Peabody Project to try and
discover what happened to Al and his buddy Harry Doe. They enlisted the
help of Bishop’s University, where Al Peabody had made such an impres-
sion 75 years earlier. Three undergrad students there threw themselves
into the search for answers. Rick Doe, Harry’s nephew, passed over to the
students what he had in his possession, including Harry’s diary from 1944
and his flight log.
The students’ diligence paid off. Among the piles of documents they
sifted through were files from the British army’s War Crime Investigations
Team. The team had been particularly active in northeastern France be-
cause 29 SAS soldiers of Operation Loyton had, like Doe and Peabody,
vanished there during the war. Major Eric Barkworth, a tenacious and
astute detective who had tracked down dozens of Nazis in the months
after the war, had led the SAS investigation. He determined that the cap-
tured SAS soldiers had all been executed over the course of several weeks,
some individually but most often in small groups. At some point before
being murdered, most of the SAS prisoners had passed through a prisoner
LEFT: COURTESY THE DOE FAMILY; RIGHT: ANNE ACKERMANN
Left: A memorial to the crew of Lancaster L7576
was dedicated in France in 2019. Attending the
ceremony were (standing left to right) Robert
Peck, Jon Peck, Rick Doe and Jon Peck Jr. Richard
Coplen sits in front. His great-uncle was Percy
Buckley, the tail gunner. The Pecks launched the
Peabody Project in 2016 to get to the bottom of
what happened to Al Peabody, their mother’s
second cousin. Rick Doe is Harry Doe’s nephew.
were from L7576. It is now almost certain that
Peabody and Doe were indeed the mystery air-
men, since there were no other unaccounted
Allied aircrew who had bailed out at that time in
the region.
Seventy-five years later a memorial was un-
veiled near the site of the Lancaster’s crash. Mil-
itary and diplomatic dignitaries from France
and Great Britain attended, as did relatives of
the crew who traveled from their homes in Ire-
land, California, Quebec and British Columbia.
Among them was Rick Doe, there to remember
his uncle Harry, who in jest had written three

transit camp called Schirmeck, three miles from Natzweiler-Struthof, the
only Nazi death camp in France.
Barkworth also ascertained that three airmen had been executed at
Natzweiler, one of whom was Sergeant Fredric Habgood, a British mem-
ber of a Lancaster that had been shot down on the same night as L7576.
Habgood was hanged on July 31 and his corpse incinerated in the camp’s
oven. It had not been possible to identity the other two airmen who had
been killed at Natzweiler but a Nazi guard identified Peabody as one from
a photograph. In his report on the deaths of the two airmen, who were
“wearing combination overalls of a lighter shade than battledress khaki,
fitted with zip fasteners on front,” Barkworth said it was “possible” they
quarters of a century earlier that in the event of
his death his “ruddy diary” should be burned.
Thankfully it wasn’t, and today it stands as a tes-
tament to a brave young man whose luck ran out
on the 99th flight of Lancaster 7576.
Gavin Mortimer is a British historian who has
written extensively about World War II special
forces. His latest book is David Stirling: the Pho-
ney Major, which was published in the U.S. in
August 2022.

WHAT The shootdown of Lancaster L7576 was Leutnant Walter Swoboda’s first victory. It was
also his last. Sometime in July 1944 Swoboda, an Austrian, transferred from the 2nd to
HAPPENED the 6th Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 6. On the night December 17-18, 1944, his Me-
110G-4 went missing, apparently after being hit by anti-aircraft fire from the U.S. Army
TO WALTER 204th Field Artillery near Felsberg. The remains of Swoboda and his crewmen,
SWOBODA? Unteroffiziere Ernst Meier and Franz Dinger, were never found. —Jon Guttman

WINTER 2023 51
Jack Fellows’ illustration, “One Down, Three to Go,”
depicts Lieutenant Royce Williams’ encounter with
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s on November 18, 1952,
an action that stretched the limits of the Korean
War. For years, the United States kept the
encounter secret. The Soviet-flown MiGs lack
national markings, reflecting what Williams stated
in his after-action report.

WINTER 2023 53
 D
riving winds blew blinding snow across the deck of the U.S.
Navy aircraft carrier Oriskany on November 18, 1952. In-
side the cockpit of his Grumman F9F-5 Panther, Lt. Royce
Williams watched the blizzard while waiting for the signal
to take off from the Essex-class carrier as it plowed
through the Sea of Japan. Snow was not uncommon at
that time of year along the upper coast of North Korea, not far from the
Soviet Union’s easternmost seaport of Vladivostok.
Williams was preparing to fly a combat air patrol to cover the naval task
force to which the carrier belonged. This mission turned out to be differ-
ent than he expected, though. Instead of flying a routine patrol, Williams
made history by tangling with seven Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s
and, according to his account, downing four of them. However, because of
military secrecy and U.S. concerns over broadening the Korean conflict,
the details of Williams’ combat success remained secret for four decades
and the veteran Navy pilot was not allowed to talk about what he had done.
54 WINTER 2023
Above: A Grumman F9F-2 Panther of fighter
squadron VF-112 lowers its folding wings in
PREVIOUS SPREAD: ©2022 JACK FELLOWS, ASAA; ABOVE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES;
preparation for takeoff from the aircraft carrier
USS Philippine Sea. Below: Williams flew a later
model of the jet, the F9F-5. The Panther was the
B0TTOM (BOTH PAGES) ©ZAUR EYLANBEKOV/FOXBATGRAPHICS
airplane the Navy used the most in the Korean
War, and it was a Panther pilot who scored the
Navy’s first aerial victory in the conflict.
“When I finally told my wife, Camilla said, ‘Oh,
Royce!’” Williams, 97 and a veteran of three
wars, recalled recently. “She was very surprised.”
Williams earned the Silver Star for his bravery
that day, but some believe that wasn’t enough. A
bipartisan effort in Congress is now trying to up-
grade the award to the Medal of Honor. “If I get
a say in the matter, I would recommend an up-
 grade,” said Samuel Cox, a retired admiral and
current director of Naval History and Heritage
Command for the Navy. “I’m convinced that his
account is accurate. But that’s the problem: it’s
his account and you can’t be your own witness at
an upgrade review.”
Royce Williams’ road to naval aviation started
out rather inauspiciously. Born in South Dakota
in 1925, he was a corporal in the Minnesota Na-
tional Guard when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor
TOP LEFT: COURTESY ROYCE WILLIAMS; TOP RIGHT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
in 1941. Hoping for a chance to become a combat
pilot, Williams enlisted in the Navy. During the
war he flew Grumman F6F Hellcats and Vought
F4U Corsairs, primarily on sub-hunting sorties,
though he never saw combat. Williams was still
in the Navy when the conflict in Korea broke
out, and he received jet training and learned how
to fly the F9F-5 Panther.
The Panther was the Navy’s first successful
carrier-based jet fighter. The prototype, pow-
ered by 5,700 pounds of thrust from a Rolls-
Royce Nene engine (licensed in the United
States as the Pratt & Whitney J42 P-8), first flew
on November 24, 1947. The production version, Left: Williams boards his
the F9F-2, entered Navy service in 1949. Wil- jet fighter for another
liams was flying the most-produced version of mission. Above: The
cockpit of an F9F-5
the Panther, the F9F-5. Powered by a more pow- reflects its World War II
erful water-injected Pratt & Whitney J48 (an- lineage, as did the
other Rolls Royce-derived engine) and armed airplane’s straight wings.
with four 20mm cannons, it could also carry Below: Williams’ report
that the MiGs he encoun-
rockets and bombs for ground support and at- tered were devoid of
tacks on fortified positions. While the Panther’s markings may have
role in the Korean conflict has been overshad- reflected the Soviet
owed by the Air Force’s North American F-86 unwillingness to risk
escalating the Korean War.
Sabre, the single-engine, straight-winged air-
craft performed admirably for the Navy in more
than 78,000 combat missions over Korea.
The Panther had one major drawback, how-
ever: its speed. Maxing out at around 600 miles
per hour, the F9F-5 was noticeably slower than
one of its main opponents, the MiG-15. The So-
viet-made jet was about 100 miles per hour
faster and could easily outclimb the Panther.
The swept-wing Soviet aircraft also came armed
with three cannons: two 23mm and a single
37mm. The North Korean air force was outfitted
WINTER 2023 55

Top: An F9F-2 of VF-831 with thousands of MiG-15s for the war (and the
stands ready to launch aircraft reportedly remains in service there
from USS Antietam in
today as a trainer). North Korean pilots flew
November 1951. Above, a
Panther from VF-781 most of them, although a number of aviators
takes off from USS were Chinese—and some were Soviets. “It was a
Oriskany—Williams’ completely unique event in the Cold War,” Cox
carrier—in July 1951. said. “There was nothing else like it. During the
Panthers flew 78,000
combat missions for Korean War, there were Russian pilots flying
the Navy during the Russian aircraft with North Korean markings
Korean conflict, mostly from bases in Chinese Manchuria. It was all a big
for ground attacks. secret, but everyone knew because the pilots
would speak Russian.” The Oriskany’s presence
close to Soviet territory meant that Soviet pilots
in Soviet MiGs were also in the vicinity that day.
S
now was still blowing across the Oriska-
ny’s deck when Williams launched with
three other Navy pilots into the blizzard,
with a ceiling of about 400 feet. Lt. Claire El-
wood was division leader but he and his wing-
man, Lt. ( jg) John Middleton, were forced to
return to the carrier when Elwood’s jet devel-
oped a mechanical problem. That left Williams,
56 WINTER 2023
the section leader, and his wingman, Lt. ( jg)
Dave Rowlands, alone to fly the patrol.
They struggled through the scud to about
12,000 feet, then broke through into blue skies.
The controllers on the carrier alerted them to
“bogies” in the area and Williams noticed the
contrails of seven aircraft at about 26,000 feet.
The two pilots continued their ascent, and then
they saw the suspect aircraft split into two
groups and start a steep descent.
Williams was expecting trouble, but not from
these airplanes. His patrol was providing cover
for the task force, which was anticipating repri-
sals for an earlier attack by U.S. Navy aircraft in
North Korea near the Soviet border. But these
jets weren’t North Korean—they belonged to
the Soviet Union. After Russian radar had
picked up the American Panthers, the MiG-15s
had scrambled from their air base at Vladivo-
stok. “They came diving at us and were coming
in hot,” Williams remembered recently. “They
fired first, so we knew we were in a fight.”
Williams flipped on his gunsight and fired a
test burst; he was ready for combat. The next 35
minutes would find him twisting and turning in
a deadly dance with the seven Soviet jets, using
all his senses and experience to gain the upper
hand on the enemy while trying to stay out of
their gunsights.
The Navy pilot realized he was at a disadvan-
tage. His Panther could easily fall prey to the
swifter MiG-15s if he weren’t careful. Williams
would have to rely on his skills as a pilot and take
advantage of any errors by his adversaries.
“They made mistakes,” he said, “and when they
did, I capitalized on them.”
He got his first chance at the start of the fray.
Four of the MiGs zoomed at him, with one firing
at but missing the Panther. Williams pulled into
a hard climbing turn and came down behind the
formation. “As they went on by, that put me in
position to shoot at their number four guy,” he
recalled. “I was within range and tracking. I
fired a short burst and he started smoking and
going down.”
Wingman Rowlands followed the damaged jet
to the sea. That left Williams alone with the six
remaining MiGs. He began making a series of
PHOTOS THIS SPREAD: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
high-G turns to avoid his pursuers and get be-
hind one of them. The remaining jets quickly
climbed to about 2,000 feet above the Panther,
turned and dove for a head-on attack. Williams
zeroed in on the lead plane and made his move.
“I was able to adjust and track on him,” he said.
“He was firing on me. When he got in range, I
had my gunsight aiming point on him and pulled

the trigger with a short burst. He turned away. I
think I hit him in the fuel tank. I learned he later
crashed and died in the ocean, probably having
run out of fuel.”
At that moment, Williams didn’t have the lux-
ury of wondering what happened to that target.
He now had to focus on the enemy’s wingman,
who was flying directly at him. The Navy pilot
locked on and fired away. “He kept coming at me,
but I’m pretty sure he was dead,” Williams said.
“He stopped firing and he didn’t maneuver at all.
His plane went right under mine and I’m certain
that one went right in the water.”
The perilous battle continued as the combat-
ants soared and swerved above the clouds. The
other three Soviet jets joined the fight and Wil-
liams had to stay sharp as they tried to knock
him out of the air. “One of the jets made a run at
me,” he stated. “He didn’t pull up while he was
still behind me. He passed in front of me and
that set me up for a close-in shot. I hit him good
and pieces of his airplane came off. I had to ma-
neuver to avoid hitting them.”
By that point Rowlands had rejoined the fight,
but he soon ran out of ammunition. Williams
then fired a burst at another jet, which started
smoking. But Williams had also exhausted his
ammunition and couldn’t finish off the MiG. In
addition, he had another MiG on his tail. The So-
viet fighter fired and a single 37mm round struck
the Panther’s left wing and then passed into the
engine area, where it exploded and knocked out
the hydraulics. The Panther began shaking vio-
Landing aboard a flattop in a jet like this
Panther on its final approach to Oriskany
was always a challenge; doing it in an
airplane as badly shot up as Williams’ made
the task extra hair-raising. Williams had to
rely on a little help from the carrier’s
captain to get lined up on his approach.
lently. Williams had lost control of his rudder and flaps and only had par-
tial use of his ailerons, which he had to operate manually. With Rowlands
following, Williams dived toward the clouds at 12,000 feet, porpoising all
the way to avoid getting hit again by his pursuer.
“We lost sight of each other in the clouds,” he said. Rowlands lost track
of the other airplanes, too, and headed through the clouds back to the car-
rier. “Normally, I would have ejected but with the cold-water conditions I
wouldn’t have lasted long,” said Williams. “It would have been sure death.
So I stuck with it and headed back to the task force.” Williams couldn’t
have known it at the time, but his encounter with the MiGs was the first
and last time U.S. fighters and Russian jets from a base in the Soviet Union
would engage in air-to-air combat.
Flying at full throttle, Williams radioed in that his plane was severely
damaged and he was trying to make it back to the carrier, which was now
at general quarters. Unfortunately for him, the gun crews on an escorting
destroyer did not receive word, and they opened up on the approaching
aircraft until another Navy pilot reported that the incoming airplane was
a friendly.
“I told the carrier I’m going to be landing at about 200 miles per hour,
about 95 miles an hour faster than normal,” Williams said. “I’m also having
control problems and can’t line up with the ship. I’m off by about 15 de-
grees. We also had heavy winds and a pitching deck. It was going to be in-
teresting!”
The Oriskany’s captain, Courtney Shands, was aware of the situation and
ordered the ship to alter its course to line up with William’s landing vector.
The crippled craft caught the number-three wire on the landing deck and
lurched to an abrupt stop.
A
fter examining the damage to his Panther, Williams was surprised
that he made it back at all. The flight crew counted 263 holes—
most of them caused by shrapnel created when the 37mm round
exploded in the accessory section of the engine compartment. It appeared
that the airplane was a total loss. In fact, Williams heard the jet was going
WINTER 2023 57

to be dumped into the sea because it
was beyond repair. He believed that for
decades until he learned that his old
airplane had been fixed up and eventu-
ally saw service in Vietnam.
“I am the luckiest guy,” Williams
chuckled. “We always have raffles and
I win about 50 percent of the time.
One Christmas, I went to three differ-
ent parties and won all of the door
prizes. It’s amazing!”
Despite Williams’ combat success, Vice Ad-
Top: Happy to be in one
piece aboard Oriskany, miral Robert P. Briscoe ordered him to keep si-
Williams points to 37mm lent about the air battle. Since the enemy jets
shell damage in his were Soviet, there was concern that announcing
Panther, one of 263 holes the news might draw Russia into the war, in
his crew counted in the
airplane. With or without which the U.S. and United Nations forces were
confirmation of his already battling those of North Korea and China.
victories from November In addition, Briscoe told Williams that a Na-
18, 1952, Williams tional Security Agency intelligence team on one
continued a successful
Navy career, retiring as a
of the ships in the task force had been intercept-
captain in 1980. ing Soviet radio messages. If word got out, the
Russians might start wondering if the task force
had been eavesdropping, imperiling other proj-
ects. “I was instructed by Admiral Briscoe to
never, ever talk about it,” Williams recalled. “We
had people who were tracking and listening to
the Russians and we didn’t want them to know
we had this ability.”
58 WINTER 2023
One person who did hear about Williams’ en-
counter with Soviet MiGs was Dwight D. Eisen-
hower, the former Supreme Commander of the
Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during
World War II and now president-elect of the
United States. During the 1952 campaign, Eisen-
hower promised he would go to Korea if elected.
He made good on that pledge on December 2,
1952, when he landed in Seoul. Williams and two
other Navy pilots from that day—Middleton and
Rowlands—received a summons for a high-level
session with the president-elect. The three men
had been told that Eisenhower wanted to learn
more about the MiG-15 and how it stacked up
against American aircraft, but Williams doubted
that. “I think he just wanted to meet me,” he
said. “That was just an excuse.”
Williams remembers being ushered into a
room where he saw more admirals and five-star
generals than he had ever seen in his life. In ad-
dition to Eisenhower, generals Omar Bradley
and Mark Clark were in attendance. The presi-
dent-elect’s son, Maj. John Eisenhower, served
as bartender. After some initial discussion, Ei-
senhower asked Williams if he wanted a drink.
“We have the world’s greatest scotch here,” the
Navy pilot remembers the general saying. Wil-
liams said he preferred bourbon. Eisenhower
wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept offering
him scotch. “I didn’t want it,” Williams laughed.
“That got the attention of the generals and admi-
rals. They looked at me like, ‘What is this snot-
nosed kid up to?’”
For his heroics that cold day in November,
Williams received credit for one kill and one
probable. Middleton, who had turned back to
help Williams, was also recognized with a kill
while Rowlands earned a probable. Some histo-
rians question those numbers and think a review
is necessary. The secrecy of that mission and
confusing after-battle reports likely led to a
less-than-thorough examination of what hap-
pened that day.
From the beginning, Williams believed he got
four kills, though he never talked about what
happened or protested the Navy’s count. In fact,
there was a great deal of uncertainty as to how
PHOTOS THIS PAGE COURTESY ROYCE WILLIAMS
many Soviet planes went down that day. It
wasn’t until the dissolution of the Soviet Union
in 1991 that the truth came out. Secret files re-
leased by the Russians showed that four MiG-15s
had been downed during the action. All four pi-
lots were killed. The Navy never changed the
record, though, despite growing evidence that it
might be incorrect. With the Russian admission
of four Soviet planes being shot down, Williams
 was finally free to talk about his role in the air
battle that day.
One of those who believes the record should
be updated is Cox, who has extensively studied
the air battle. “As Director of Naval History, I
look at everything I can find,” Admiral Cox said.
“I would give him credit for four. I think Royce’s
account is pretty doggone accurate. There are
discrepancies between all of the reports, but I’m
confident that what he said is what happened.”
Not only should the record be changed, but
some believe Williams’ Silver Star should be up-
graded to the Medal of Honor. U.S. Representa-
tive Darrell Issa has sponsored a bill authorizing
the president to bestow the nation’s highest mil-
itary award to Williams, who lives in the same
congressional district in Southern California as
the congressman. Issa wants to see the medal
presented to Williams as soon as possible.
Though still tough and sharp as ever, the former
flyer is 97 years old, making time an issue. The
House passed the measure in July 2022 and it
advanced to the Senate.
“I’m flabbergasted,” Williams said about the
effort to upgrade his Silver Star. “They’re com-
paring what I did to Maj. George Davis of the U.S.
Air Force, who was credited with shooting down
two MiGs on his final flight when he got shot
down and killed in Korea in 1952. In short order,
they had the Medal of Honor for him.”
One person who will be particularly pleased if
the medal is upgraded is CJ Machado, a film-
CJ MACHADO
maker who chronicled Williams’ story in the
2017 short film Forgotten Hero. Machado be-
lieves the secrecy about what happened that day On the deck of the USS
over the Sea of Japan has prevented Williams Midway, now a museum in
San Diego, California,
from getting the credit he deserves. For Mach-
Williams visits a Panther
ado, the effort to get him the Medal of Honor is painted in the markings his
deeply personal. Over the years, she has become own airplane wore in
close to the retired Navy officer and looks upon November 1952. The addition
of four “kill marks” belatedly
him as a father figure. “Captain Royce Williams
acknowledges his four MiG
is a wonderful and dear soul,” she said. “I’m bi- victories.
ased because I know him so well, but I believe
Royce deserves to be acknowledged for that
amazing feat.”
Williams ended up flying 70 combat missions
in Korea. In Vietnam, he flew 110 missions in the
Vought F-8E Crusader and McDonnell Douglas
F-4B Phantom II. By the time he retired in 1980
as a captain and flag officer he had spent 37 years
in the Navy. In all that time he had no mission
more remarkable than the one he flew on No-
vember 18, 1952.
Massachusetts-based author Dave Kindy
is a frequent contributor to Aviation History
and other HistoryNet publications, as well as
Air & Space Quarterly, the Washington Post
and Smithsonian. For further reading, he rec-
ommends Holding the Line: The Naval Air
Campaign in Korea by Thomas McKelvey
Cleaver, Korean Air War: Sabres, MiGs and
Meteors, 1950-1953 by Michael Napier and
“The story of the Top-Secret Dogfight where
legendary US Korean War F9F Naval Aviator
E. Royce Williams, Jr., shot down 4 Soviet MiG-
15s,” an article written by Dario Leone for
theaviationgeekclub.com.
WINTER 2023 59
 ONE AND DONE
75 YEARS AGO, HOWARD HUGHES FLEW THE
“SPRUCE GOOSE” FOR THE FIRST AND LAST TIME
BY CHRISTOPHER WARNER

60 WINTER 2023
American aviator and millionaire Howard Hughes
(in hat) stands atop his colossal flying boat, the
Hughes H-4 Hercules, at Long Beach, California,
on November 6, 1947. The aircraft had made a
brief flight four days earlier. It never flew again.

H
oward Hughes called it the H-4 Hercules—a fitting name
for the largest and most powerful airplane of its time. The
press, however, dubbed his prized creation the “Spruce
Goose”—a name Hughes despised. But the label stuck, and
the big airplane became another part of Hughes’ enig-
matic legacy—a story of how one man’s uncompromising
ambition propelled his remarkable ascendancy and eventual descent into
madness. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the infamous seaplane’s
maiden (and only) flight.
During the early stages of World War II, German U-boats virtually
feasted on Allied cargo vessels in the Battle of the Atlantic. These heavy
losses prompted the U.S. War Production Board to explore alternative
ways of transporting materiel and troops to Britain. Steel magnate Henry
J. Kaiser, widely regarded as the father of modern American shipbuilding,
proposed creating a fleet of flying cargo ships that could pass over the
menacing Nazi wolf packs. Before he could do that, though, he needed a
partner with aviation expertise. The gregarious businessman approached
several leading aeronautical manufacturers, but they all passed on the
62 WINTER 2023
Seen here as it was being constructed, the H-4
was the largest airplane of its time. Unfortu-
nately for Howard Hughes, the times were
already passing it by, leading to controversy in
Washington. The airplane’s wooden structure
also led to the popular sobriquet of “Spruce
Goose,” a name Hughes hated. In fact, the
airplane was largely made of birch.
scheme. Undaunted, Kaiser turned to Hughes.
The celebrated movie mogul turned record-set-
ting aviator had built his reputation by taking
huge risks and proving naysayers wrong. Build-
ing a 200-ton flying boat should be no different.
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was born on De-
cember 24, 1905, in Harris County, Texas. His
father, a Harvard-educated lawyer, patented a
specialized drill bit that let him pioneer the ex-
ploration of previously unreachable fossil fuel
reserves. The invention led to hefty profits
during the Texas oil boom, wealth his 18-year-
old son later inherited as the sole heir of the fam-
ily’s estate. Not surprisingly, the footloose teen-
ager dropped out of college and headed for the
West Coast with his eyes set on the movies. The
1927 WWI drama Wings (winner of the first
Academy Award for best picture) inspired
Hughes to make his own air combat epic, but one
that was bigger and better. Commencing pro-
duction in 1927, Hughes’ Hell’s Angels endured a
steady barrage of mishaps over the next three
years. The costly setbacks involved no less than
five directors (including Hughes), four fatalities,
several flying accidents (also including Hughes),
the 1929 stock market crash, and the advent of
sound in the movies, which required reshoots
and recasting. Nonetheless, Hell’s Angels tri-
umphed as a remarkable cinematic achievement
(albeit with some clunky acting) upon its release
PREVIOUS SPREAD: KEYSTONE/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; LEFT: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
in 1930.
The lanky Texan leveraged the movie’s suc-
cess when he set out to conquer his next indus-
try: aviation. In 1932 he founded the Hughes
Aircraft Company, a venture spurred by his in-
terest in air racing. As a pilot, Hughes set several
world airspeed records and won numerous
awards, including the Harmon Trophy in 1936
and 1938, the Collier Trophy in 1938 and the Bi-
besco Cup of the Fédération Aéronautique In-
ternationale, also in 1938. That year he com-
pleted an around-the-world flight in just over 91
hours, smashing the previous record by almost
four days. Upon his return, New York City show-
ered him with a ticker-tape parade. More prizes
followed. He received a special Congressional
Gold Medal in 1939 “for advancing the science of
aviation and thus bringing great credit to this
 country throughout the world.” Additionally,
the young entrepreneur recognized the poten-
tial of commercial air travel and gradually be-
came the majority shareholder of Transconti-
nental & Western Air (the predecessor of TWA).
With his money and his aviation expertise,
Hughes seemed like the perfect man for Henry
Kaiser’s project.
Kaiser and Hughes made an odd couple. The
portly industrialist was 23 years older than
Hughes and had an oval, bespectacled face that
gave him the air of a nearsighted bullfrog. Exud-
ing a boisterous affability, he attended church
regularly and preached wholesome family val-
ues. Hughes, a playboy who kept company with
the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers,
Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner,
did not. Kaiser was the son of German immi-
grants and began working at age 13 as an errand
boy at a dry goods store in Utica, New York, hon-
ing a work ethic that would serve him well. In
1914, he founded a paving company that ad-
vanced the use of heavy construction machinery
and later became the primary contractor for the
Hoover, Bonneville, and Grand Coulee dams. He
then revolutionized shipbuilding by mass-pro-
ducing Liberty Ships for the United States gov-
ernment’s war effort.
Kaiser’s joint venture with Hughes secured an
$18 million government contract for designing,
engineering and constructing three flying boat
BOTH: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
prototypes. The project, however, came with a
laundry list of restrictions. The mandate, for ex-
ample, forbade them from using critical materi-
als like steel or aluminum or hiring anyone al-
ready engaged in the war effort. And one more
thing: the prototype had to be completed in 24
months. Kaiser boasted they’d have it done in Left: Two engineers are
less than a year. With marching orders in hand, dwarfed by the four
right-wing Pratt & Whitney
the two disparate tycoons went to work in the
engines of the big boat as it
fall of 1942. is readied for taxi tests in
Los Angeles Harbor on
November 1, 1947. Right:
H
ughes insisted that the airplane, origi-
Hughes’ collaborator,
nally designated HK-1, would have a
shipbuilder Henry J.
gross weight of 400,000 pounds and be Kaiser, poses with a model
capable of shuttling 750 fully equipped troops or of what would eventually
two 30-ton M4 Sherman tanks across the ocean. become an 8-engine
Progress was slow. In addition to his obses- seaplane with a gross
weight of 150-200 tons.
sive-compulsive tendencies, Hughes often dis-
appeared for months at a time, engaging in a
spate of activities that included his production
of The Outlaw (1943), for which he applied his
engineering skills to design a brassiere for star
Jane Russell. The decade also saw Hughes sur- AND ONE
vive two horrific air accidents. In March 1943, MORE
while test-flying a modified amphibian Sikorsky THING: THE
S-43, he crashed into Lake Mead in southern Ne-
vada. Two men died, and Hughes had to be res-
PROTOTYPE
cued by one of the other crew members. Three HAD TO BE
years later, his twin-engine XF-11 reconnais- COMPLETED
sance plane, which the U.S. Army Air Forces had IN 24
commissioned, developed a propeller malfunc- MONTHS.
tion mid-flight. He attempted to land on a golf
KAISER
BOASTED
course but went down in a Beverly Hills neigh-
borhood, destroying three houses. Hughes
barely escaped the burning, mangled wreckage THEY’D
before being rushed to the hospital, where emer- HAVE IT
gency room staff didn’t expect him to live. He DONE IN
spent the next five weeks laid up with a collapsed
LESS THAN
lung, nine fractured ribs, broken vertebrae and
third-degree burns. Miraculously, he managed A YEAR.
to recover (but had to grow a mustache to cover
scars on his upper lip). Hughes also developed a
severe addiction to opiates—a condition that
WINTER 2023 63

Hughes sits inside the
cavernous interior of his
flying boat on November 6,
1947. He had intended to
create an airplane that
could carry 750 soldiers or
two Sherman tanks. In the
end, the aircraft ended up
costing the government
$18 million and Hughes
considerably more than
that, but it never carried
anything except for its
crew and a few passen-
gers on its only flight.
64 WINTER 2023
plagued him for the rest of his life.
By 1944, Kaiser had had enough of Hughes
and dissolved the partnership. The self-made
millionaire promptly returned to building con-
ventional floating transports, eventually leaving
his mark on everything from automobiles (Kai-
ser Motors) to x-rays (Kaiser-Permanente).
Meanwhile, Hughes pressed forward with a
team of handpicked personnel, headed by his
chief designer, Glenn Odekirk. The government
agreed to extend the deadline, but continuous
delays and wasteful spending required Hughes
to pump millions of his own money into what
was now known as the H-4. Exact figures of the
cost vary, owing to Hughes’ notoriously secre-
tive nature and penchant for exaggerating the
truth, but the work continued.
Construction of the hull relied on an elaborate
process using Duramold, a lightweight material
like plywood in which layers of thin veneers
were bonded together with waterproof resins.
Its catchy nickname aside, the plane consisted
mainly of birch and was covered in fabric. The
enormous scale presented unique challenges—
obstacles that Hughes resolved with ingenuity.
The filmmaker set up projectors at his aircraft
facility to display blueprints onto the floor, al-
lowing his engineers to manufacture parts to
size. Hughes’s flair for innovation extended to
pioneering the first hydraulically actuated con-
trol unit, which complemented a 120-volt D.C.
electrical system to manipulate the huge control
surfaces. A series of intercom radio points en-
abled immediate communication with engi-
neers positioned inside the cavernous fuselage.
Most impressively, the wingspan measured 320
feet 11 inches, a record that stood until 2019.
Eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 28-cylinder ra-
dial engines with 17-foot propellers generated a
combined 24,000 horsepower for an intended
range of 3,000 miles at a cruising speed of
around 200 mph. The sheer size of the mam-
moth parts necessitated moving them from
Hughes Airport to a larger facility in Long Beach,
a slow, 28-mile trek in which power lines had
to be lowered on streets along the way. The
winged freighter finally neared completion in
1947, when the war had been over for two years.
Leaders in Washington accused its famous
builder of malfeasance and war profiteering.
On August 6, 1947, Hughes appeared before
the Senate War Investigating Committee to de-
fend himself against accusations that he had
misused government funds. During five days of
intense questioning in the sensationalized hear-
ing, Senator Owen Brewster of Maine led the
attack, declaring, “The Spruce Goose is a flying
lumberyard and will never fly.”
The defiant maverick came out swinging. “I
am by nature a perfectionist, and I seem to have
trouble allowing anything to go through in a
half-perfect condition,” Hughes said. “So if I
made any mistake, it was in working too hard
and in doing too much of it with my own two
hands.” Hughes continued to defend himself vig-
orously in front of a packed live audience. “The
Hercules was a monumental undertaking...It is
over five stories tall with a wingspan longer than
a football field. That’s more than a city block. I
put the sweat of my life into this thing. I have my
reputation rolled up in it, and I have stated that
if it was a failure, I probably will leave this coun-
try and never come back, and I mean it.”
Coincidentally, Brewster had recently spon-
sored a national airline bill that would have
handed Pan-American Airways—TWA’s main
J. R. EYERMAN/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/SHUTTERSTOCK
rival—a monopoly on lucrative government air-
line passenger and mail routes. Hughes seized
the opportunity to counterattack, accusing the
New Englander of blatant corruption and collu-
sion with Pan Am. The committee temporarily
adjourned, having devolved into a media circus
that saw Hughes emerge as the clear winner in
the court of public opinion. He then returned to
California and focused his undivided attention
on completing the H-4. With crews working in
shifts around the clock, the aviator set a date for
a series of taxi trials. Vindication awaited.
 H
ughes was ready to unveil his creation on
November 1, 1947. Sporting his lucky
whiskey-colored fedora, Hughes manned
the controls with the support of a 20-man crew.
The seaplane also carried seven members of the
press and seven other invited guests. But blus-
tery conditions forced him to postpone the
event for a day. On November 2, Hughes guided
the silver-lacquered behemoth into Long Beach
Harbor. A flotilla of small boats joined thou-
sands of spectators lining the shores.
Hughes completed the first taxi at low speed
before re-positioning for another run at 90 mph.
The thunderous roar of eight 28-cylinder P&W
engines filled the air, but persistent winds ap-
peared to scuttle any attempts to get airborne.
As a result, most of the newsmen requested to go
ashore and file their stories. They’d soon come
to regret it. On the third trial, Hughes ordered
his flight engineer to “lower 15 degrees of flap”
as he throttled into a stiff headwind. Suddenly,
the Hercules flexed its muscles, lifting out of the
water for 26 seconds and reaching an altitude of
70 feet before gently touching down.
TOP: AP PHOTO; BOTTOM: GREG VAUGHN/VW PICS/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES
James McNamara, a radio reporter who had
remained on board to record a live broadcast,
excitedly turned to the pilot. “Howard, did you
expect that?”
“I like to make surprises,” Hughes said.
The H-4 never flew again. Hughes insisted
that it had been built for “testing and research
and to provide knowledge which will advance
the art of aviation.” Whether the colossal beast
could have ever become operational is debat-
able. Regardless, Hughes had proved his point:
Brewster and the other critics were forced to eat
their words. Over the years, Hughes made sev-
eral modifications to his airplane, including add-
ing a steel spiral staircase to the flight deck. He
kept the H-4 in pristine condition and housed it
in a specially constructed climate control facil-
ity at the cost of $1 million per year until the in-
creasingly eccentric recluse died in 1976. Top: Hughes flies his
The Aero Club of Southern California later jumbo flying boat outside
Long Beach on November
acquired the Spruce Goose and displayed it in a
2, 1947, reaching an
huge geodesic dome next to the ocean liner altitude of 70 feet for
Queen Mary in Long Beach. But the airplane had about one mile. His
one trip left. In 1993, following a serpentine copilot, David Grant, was
journey by barge, train and truck, the historic a hydraulic engineer who
did not have a pilot’s
aircraft arrived at its current home in McMinn- license. Above: In 1993
ville, Oregon. There, it commands top billing at the Spruce Goose came
the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, at- home to roost at the
tracting visitors worldwide who come to marvel Evergreen Aviation &
Space Museum in
at the jaw-dropping sight—or even sit in the McMinnville, Oregon.
cockpit while wearing Hughes’s iconic hat. Like
its eccentric creator, the Spruce Goose is in a
class by itself.
Christopher Warner is an actor and freelance
writer. He has written extensively about mili-
tary history, including the experiences of his
great-uncle, who flew combat gliders in WWII.
For further reading he recommends Howard
Hughes: His Life and Madness by Donald L.
Bartlett and James B. Steele, and Build ’Em by
the Mile, Cut ’Em off by the Yard: How Henry
J. Kaiser and the Rosies Helped Win World
War II by Steve Gilford.
WINTER 2023 65
 NEVER PANIC EARLY
In Never Panic Early, Fred Haise appears to go
out of his way not to emulate prior astronaut
autobiographies. He briefly details his youth
in Biloxi, Mississippi, before moving on to his
real passion: flying airplanes. In 1952, at the
age of 18, Haise enrolled in the Naval Aviation
Cadet Program, and you can practically taste
his enthusiasm when he writes about military
aviation. The sections about flight training are
the most enjoyable parts of the book.
After the Soviet launch of Sputnik I in 1957,
Haise became a research pilot with the Na-
An Apollo 13 tional Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
Astronaut’s (NACA, the forerunner of NASA) and made his
Journey way to Edwards Air Force Base to work along-
by Fred Haise with Bill
Moore, Smithsonian side Chuck Yeager. Haise mentions his appli-
Books, 2022, $24.95 cation to the space program only briefly, and it
seems that being passed
REVIEWS over would not have upset
him. He even suggests that if
he had had the opportunity to fly the X-15 at
Edwards he might not have applied at all.
Haise’s account of his time at NASA is sur-
prisingly flat. His description of Apollo 13 oc-
cupies only a small portion of the entire man-
uscript, as though Haise has discussed the
66 WINTER 2023
Fred Haise (third from right) stands with his
colleagues in the Space Shuttle Approach and
Landing Test program in front of the space
shuttle prototype Enterprise. From left to right
are Fitz Fulton, Gordon Fullerton, Vic Horton,
Haise, Vincent Alvarez and Tom McMurtry.
mission to the point of exhaustion, so he sees no
need to repeat it. Similarly, he dismisses with a
wave the news that his chance to command
Apollo 19 (and walk on the moon) evaporated
when the mission was cancelled.
The book picks up steam again with Haise’s
description of his time working on the Space
Shuttle Approach and Landing Test (ALT) pro-
gram when he tested the Space Shuttle proto-
type Enterprise. This is stuff of real pilots, Haise
seems to say, and his enthusiasm shines through.
The ALT chapter is among the best in the book.
Overall, this is an unusual volume. Haise is a
tremendously accomplished pilot and had a
firsthand view of some monumental events in
American history, but it seems that he has sim-
ply moved on from those episodes. One gets
the sense he wants to tell other stories from his
life, most of which involve flying airplanes.
NASA
—Douglas G. Adler

AN INTERVIEW
WITH FRED
HAISE
In this excerpt from an
interview with Fred
Haise, Douglas G. Adler
asked the former astro-
naut about his time
working on the Space
Shuttle Approach and
Landing Test (ALT) program. Haise referred to
this period as “the highlight of my career.”
As we went into that program, NASA had to
announce a several years’ slip in the orbital
flight because of the tile problem. We also
faced a new president having come in and it
wasn’t his program. It was Nixon’s program.
And President Carter had come in. And so, we
worried about those aspects. We had no
backup. We had a second Enterprise when we
started the program. But quickly for cost—the
program costs were cut early—we deleted it,
so we had no backup vehicle. You don’t like
that situation in a test program.
Adler asked about the times the Enterprise
was released from the top of a modified Boe-
ing 747, which Haise said was more danger-
ous to the people in the airplane than the as-
tronauts testing the shuttle.
Yeah, we were on top of the 747, and had we
gone out of control at release, had we dam-
aged the 747, that crew could not have gotten
out. They had no escape system, whereas my-
self and Gordo Fullerton, we were sitting in
ejection seats. So, we had a plan B that hope-
fully would have enabled us to survive. But
Fitz Fulton and Tom McMurtry and Vic Horton
and Skip Guidry would have all died had we
seriously damaged that 747.
This transcript has been edited for publication.
To see the entire interview, go to www.history
net.com/haise-interview.
F4U CORSAIR VS A6M ZERO-SEN
Rabaul and the Solomons, 1943-44
Although frequently touted by the U.S. Marines
as the greatest fighter of World War II, the
Vought F4U-1 Corsair had actually been rejected
by the U.S. Navy for use on aircraft carriers. Con-
sequently, the first operational F4Us were de-
ployed to Marine squadrons in the Solomons in
February 1943. By January 1944 no less than 18
land-based F4U squadrons were operational in
the South Pacific.
Contrary to the television series “Black Sheep
Squadron,” Marine F4Us did not shoot down
scores of Zeros for every Corsair lost. In fact, Mi-
chael John Claringbould’s research reveals that
both sides wildly over-claimed their aerial victo-
ries, in the U.S.’s case by a ratio of four-to-one
and on the Japanese side closer to five-to-one.
Although early Corsair units initially suffered
heavy losses against Zeros, that disparity was
clearly attributable more to pilot skill and expe-
rience than to the quality of the aircraft. By early
1944, increased U.S. combat experience and at- F4U CORSAIR VS
trition among irreplaceable veteran Japanese A6M ZERO-SEN
Rabaul and
fighter pilots turned the tables the other way. the Solomons
As an Australian raised in Papua, New Guinea, 1943-44
the author of this addition to Osprey’s “Duel” by Michael John
series has had a long fascination with the Pacific Claringbould, Osprey
War. F4U Corsair vs A6M Zero-Sen delves into Publishing, 2022, $22
both American and Japanese records to present
a balanced and impartial reassessment of two
famous South Pacific antagonists. It should be of
great value to those interested in aviation his-
tory or the Pacific War. —Robert Guttman
DRONE WAR VIETNAM
Drones are now employed by militaries around
the world for myriad missions, including recon-
naissance, precision strike, jamming and decoy-
ing. It was not always the case. In this heavily
illustrated book, defense journalist David Axe
does an excellent job tracing the history of Viet- DRONE WAR
nam War-era drone development and deploy- VIETNAM
ment, pointing out that America’s use of robotic by David Axe, Pen &
Sword Military, 2021,
surveillance aircraft during the 1960s-70s $42.95
started as a response to the shootdown of Fran-
cis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane over the Soviet
Union by a surface-to-air missile on May 1, 1960.
The book’s main focus is on Ryan Aeronauti-
cal, which was already making the jet-powered,
swept-wing Firebee target drone and had seen
the possibilities of a reconnaissance version
even before the Powers incident. The company
modified its baseline drone with the installation
of surveillance gear, starting the Model 147 se-
ries under the name Firefly and later Lightning
Bug. As the Vietnam War spooled up, the logic of
using unmanned recce platforms to supplement
piloted flights resulted in 1,106 Ryan drones fly-
ing 3,435 wartime missions.
Fielding these unmanned air vehicles in an
active combat environment was fraught with
challenges, for if the North Vietnamese SAMs or
MiGs did not blast them out of the sky, they
might lose contact with their mothership con-
trollers and fly off course. Even when things
went well in the air, sometimes the Lightning
WINTER 2023 67
 Bugs would parachute into terrain that made re-
covery problematic. The author provides much
detail on how Ryan engineers overcame opera-
tional hurdles through technological innova-
tions. At war’s end, the Lightning Bug faded into
historical obscurity, but it had paved the way for
the drones that are now indispensable tools in
modern warfare. —Philip Handleman
ECHOES FROM DAWN SKIES
Early Aviators, A Lost Manuscript
ECHOES FROM Rediscovered
DAWN SKIES There are many books about aviation history,
Early Aviators, A
Lost Manuscript but comparatively little has been written about
Rediscovered aviation prior to World War I, and even less from
by Frederick Warren a first-person perspective. So, Echoes from Dawn
Merriam, Air World, Skies stands out as something special. Author
2022, $34.95 Frederick Warren Merriam (1880-1956) was
among the first qualified British pilots and later
in life decided to compile a book of first-person
accounts from Britain’s pioneer days of aviation.
To do so, he contacted many people connected
with early aviation to solicit their anecdotes and
impressions. The result is a fascinating collec-
tion written by and about a veritable “who’s-
who” of early fliers and aircraft designers, in-
cluding Orville Wright, Oswald Short, Geoffrey
de Havilland, Frederick Handley Page, Richard
Fairey, Thomas Sopwith and A.V. Roe.
ROYAL BAVARIAN It seems incredible that Merriam was unable
JAGDSTAFFEL 76 to interest anyone in publishing his book. The
by Bruno Schmäling, manuscript gathered dust for decades and not
Reinhard Kastner and until after Merriam died could his granddaugh-
Jörn Leckscheid,
ter attract the interest of a publisher. Now,
Aeronaut Books, 2022,
$49.99 seemingly resurrected from oblivion, this veri-
table treasure trove of firsthand information has
finally been made available to the reading pub-
lic. For anyone interested in aviation, and espe-
cially those who delighted in the 1965 film clas-
sic, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Ma-
chines, Echoes from Dawn Skies will be an abso-
lute must-read and—belated though it is—an
instant classic. —Robert Guttman
ROYAL BAVARIAN JAGDSTAFFEL 76
After the United States declared war on them on
April 6, 1917, the Germans launched a crash cam-
ZEPPELIN paign to counter the coming arrival of American
INFERNO aircraft to the Western Front. Called the Amer-
The Forgotten
Blitz 1916 ika Programm, it doubled Germany’s fighter
by Ian Castle, squadrons, or Jagdstaffeln, on paper. In prac-
Frontline Books, 2022, tice, it gathered whatever second-rate fighters
$42.95 were available around a cadre of experienced
leaders and newly trained airmen. Conse-
quently, while the famous older Jastas kept
producing numerous aces, the Amerika Pro-
68 WINTER 2023
gramm units struggled just to survive against the
growing Allied might.
Royal Bavarian Jagdstaffel 76 gives a detailed
history of one such Amerika Programm unit—
one of several created specifically for Bavarians.
Authors Bruno Schmäling, Reinhard Kastner
and Jörn Leckscheid are Bavarian themselves
and in the late 1970s they interviewed many sur-
viving members of Jasta 76b, including first
commander and sole ace Walter Böning, who
had preserved the squadron log. These three
dedicated historians have assembled a fascinat-
ing look at a fighter unit whose pilots made the
best of what they had. Besides the human narra-
tive, the book has 174 photos, and 36 profiles of
Albatros, Pfalz and Fokkers, whose colorful
markings are explained by their relation to his-
toric heraldry as well as personal choices. Top-
ping things off are a surprising number of flying
reproductions of Jasta 76b Albatros D.Vas, in-
cluding one restoration based on remains of an
actual airplane of the unit that were found in a
French swamp. From any of several angles, Royal
Bavarian Jagdstaffel 76 is one outstanding unit
history that deserves a place on any WWI avia-
tion enthusiast’s bookshelf. —Jon Guttman
ZEPPELIN INFERNO
The Forgotten Blitz 1916
Ian Castle has become “Mr. Zeppelin” among
World War I historians. His 2018 volume, Zeppe-
lin Onslaught, described German airship opera-
tions over Britain in 1914-1915. Zeppelin Inferno
resumes the narrative with accounts of 1916
German Army and Navy missions as well as Brit-
ish defenses. Inferno details the 22 airship raids
between January and November 1916, totaling
123 sorties. In the same period Germany
launched 14 “aeroplane” raids. Losses among
Kaiser Wilhelm’s dirigibles only increased from
1916, and the German Army disbanded its air-
ship service. Castle explains that due to unsus-
tainable attrition, only nine more U.K. Zeppelin
raids were flown for the rest of the war, with Go-
thas and Giants (Riesen) filling the gap.
While justifiably concentrating on Zeppelin
crews and Britain’s nascent night fighters, Cas-
tle also addresses the gruesome consequences of
urban bombing. The technology of the time se-
verely limited bombing precision, especially in
bad weather. Thus, targets were mostly random,
leaving parents childless; children suddenly or-
phaned; and homes and shops of no military
value destroyed. Castle’s painstaking research
identifies the 300 Britons killed in German air
attacks of 1916—a roster apparently uncom-

pleted by the government. In al-
most every instance Castle cites
the victim’s age and location, an
enormous task.
Extremely well documented
with 23 pages of notes, Inferno
also provides appendices that in-
clude all German airship and air-
craft raids against Britain during
the year. The obvious omission is
a list of the Zeppelins lost on mis-
sions over Britain, as seven fell to
fighters and at least one to AA
guns. Eight maps or illustrations
and more than 40 photos provide
readers with an excellent variety.
The maps of U.K. locations are
particularly helpful to American
readers who may be largely unfa-
miliar with the geography.
Zeppelin Inferno is bound to be-
come a standard reference about
military aviation from more than
a century ago. —Barrett Tillman
TEST PILOT
An Extraordinary Career
Testing Civil Aircraft
by Chris Taylor, Air World, 2022,
$49.95
Test Pilot is the autobiography by
someone who has flown more
than 400 different types of air-
craft. Earning his pilot’s license at
the age of 17, Chris Taylor served
in the Royal Navy, flying helicop-
ters off the flight decks of small
warships. After graduating from
the Empire Test Pilots’ School at
Boscombe Down, Taylor became a
professional test pilot of fixed and
rotary-winged aircraft (and an in-
structor of test pilots). For Taylor,
the focus of flight-testing has al-
ways been all about “making fly-
ing safer,” but he includes enough
vivid descriptions of “the scrapes
I have got out of” to satisfy most
readers. Nevertheless, he says the
real reason he wrote this book was
so his grandchildren could “read
about some of the things I have
got up to” in the course of a 40-
year flying career. The result is a
fascinating and highly readable
book. —Robert Guttman
Wings Over the Channel
“A rousing, detailed RAF thriller that delivers
an effective climax.” - Kirkus Reviews
by Eric B. Forsyth
The continuing adventures of RAF pilot Allan Chadwick, now posted
to the RAF research center at Farnborough. It’s the mid-1930s and
war with Nazi Germany seems imminent. Chadwick is involved
‹ƒˆ”ƒ–‹ ‡ơ‘”––‘„—‹Ž†ƒ‡ơ‡ –‹˜‡”ƒ†ƒ”†‡ˆ‡•‡ƒ†—•‡•ƒ
‡ƒ”Ž›‘†‡Ž’‹–Ƥ”‡ˆ‘”Ž‹ƒ‹•‘™‹–Š‘—–Ž›‹‰•–ƒ–‹‘•ǡƪ›‹‰‹ˆƒ‹”
weather or foul. He falls in love with an older, aristocratic widow
involved with an appeasement clique which has been penetrated by
German spies intent on gathering information about the new radar
system. Kirkus Reviews calls this novel a “page-turner,” and notes
that Forsyth’s “snappy pacing and the sly undercurrent of humor
(including a running gag about Chadwick’s behemoth old Bentley)
keep the whole tale moving along briskly.”
The author was an RAF pilot and is an award-winning global sailor and retired engineer. His book
An Inexplicable Attraction: My Fifty Years of Ocean Sailing was among Kirkus’s 100 Best Memoirs of 2018.
Available in paperback and e-book worldwide wherever books are sold
online, including Amazon.com
Published by Yacht Fiona Books © 2022
A ATION
AVI
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (required by
Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code). 1. Aviation
History 2. (ISSN: 1076-8858) 3. Filing date: 10/1/22. 4. Issue frequency: Quar-
terly. 5. Number of issues published annually: 4. 6. The annual subscription
H I S T O R Y price is $39.95. 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication:
HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203. 8. Complete mail-
ing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203. 9. Full
names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Publisher, Michael A. Reinstein, HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe
Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203, Editor, Tom Huntington, HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203, Editor in Chief,
Dana Shoaf , HistoryNet, 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203. 10. Owner: HistoryNet; 901 N Glebe Rd, 5th Floor, Arlington, VA
22203. 11. Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent of more of total amount of bonds,
mortgages or other securities: None. 12. Tax status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publisher title: Aviation History.
14. Issue date for circulation data below: Autumn 2022. 15. The extent and nature of circulation: A. Total number of copies printed (Net
press run). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 45,034. Actual number of copies of single issue published
nearest to filing date: 44,759. B. Paid circulation. 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during
the preceding 12 months: 22,524. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 21,363. 2. Mailed in-county paid
subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published
nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales. Average number of copies each issue
during the preceding 12 months: 5,908. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 6,000. 4. Paid distribution
through other classes mailed through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number
of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. C. Total paid distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preced-
ing 12 months: 28,432. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date; 27,363. D. Free or nominal rate distribution
(by mail and outside mail). 1. Free or nominal Outside-County. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0.
Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 2. Free or nominal rate in-county copies. Average number of copies
each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Free or nominal rate
copies mailed at other Classes through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies
of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 4. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail. Average number of copies each
issue during preceding 12 months: 605. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 439. E. Total free or nominal rate
distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 605. Actual number of copies of single issue published
nearest to filing date: 439. F. Total free distribution (sum of 15c and 15e). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12
months: 29,037. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 27,802. G. Copies not Distributed. Average
number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 15,997. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date:
16,957. H. Total (sum of 15f and 15g). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 45,034. Actual number of copies
of single issue published nearest to filing: 44,759. I. Percent paid. Average percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 97.9%
Actual percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 98.4% 16. Electronic Copy Circulation: A. Paid Electronic Copies. Average
number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. B.
Total Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months:
28,432. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 27,363. C. Total Print Distribution (Line 15f) + Paid Elec-
tronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 29,037. Actual number of copies of single is-
sue published nearest to filing date: 27,802. D. Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100). Average number
of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 97.9%. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 98.4%.
I certify that 50% of all distributed copies (electronic and print) are paid above nominal price: Yes. Report circulation on PS Form 3526-X
worksheet 17. Publication of statement of ownership will be printed in the Winter 2022 issue of the publication. 18. Signature and title of
editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: Kelly Facer, SVP, Revenue Operations. I certify that all information furnished on this form
is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or in-
formation requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanction and civil actions.
 FLIGHT TEST

MYSTERY SHIP
Can you identify this sleek twin-pusher business turboprop?

GETTING DOWNOR
UPTO BUSINESS
1. Which private plane was famous for combining speed
with luxury in the 1930s?
A. Stinson V.77 Reliant
B. Spartan Executive
C. Miles M.3A Falcon Major
D. de Havilland DH87B Hornet Moth
Saunders-Roe Princess 2. Which successful business jet debut of 1963 was based
on a medium range airliner?
A. Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB-320 Hansa
B. Cessna Citation I
C. Grumman Gulfstream GII
D. Dassault Mystère 20
AQUATIC BIRDS 3. Which business jet of the 1960s stood out for its
Match the seaplane with its specialty. forward-swept wings?
A. Grumman Gulfstream GII
1. Macchi M.5 A. Two-seat floatplane fighter
B. Dassault Mystère 20
2. ShinMaywa US-2 monoplane
C. Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB-320 Hansa
3. Hansa- B. Submarine-launched
D. Cessna Citation I
Brandenburg floatplane bomber
W.29 C. Six-turboprop and all-metal 4 Which of these general aviation designs of 1970-1973
4. Aichi E16A1 Zuiun flying boat airliner was not a success?
5. Saunders-Roe D. Turboprop air-sea rescue A. Dassault Falcon 10
TOP: GORDON ZAMMIT/ALAMY; BOTTOM: ROLF RICHARDSON/ALAMY

Princess amphibious flying boat B. Aérospatiale SN 601Corvette

6. Beriev Be-200 E. Single-seat sesquiplane C. Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante
Altair flying boat fighter D. Rockwell Sabreliner Model 80A
7. Caproni Ca.60 F. Amphibious recon/rescue
Transaereo biplane flying boat 5. Which was the most successful turboprop business plane,
with 3,500 produced over 40 years?
8. Aichi M6A1 G. Transatlantic triple triplane
Seiran flying boat A. Beechcraft B200 Super King Air
9. Saunders-Roe H. Floatplane dive bomber and B. British Aerospace Jetstream 41
SR.A/1 reconnaissance plane C. Pilatus PC-12
10. Supermarine I. Twin-turbofan general D. Mitsubishi MU-2
Walrus purpose amphibian 7.G, 8.B, 9.J, 10.F. GETTING DOWNOR UPTO BUSINESS: 1.B, 2.D, 3.C, 4.B, 5.A.
ANSWERS: MYSTERY SHIP: PIAGGIO P180 AVANTI. AQUATIC BIRDS: 1.E, 2.D, 3.A, 4.H, 5.C, 6.I,
J. Jet fighter flying boat

70 WINTER 2023
HOW DID
BUZZ ALDRIN
FIRST DESCRIBE
THE LUNAR
LANDSCAPE?
A majestic forbidding land,
a very dark desert, magnificent
desolation, or a really groovy place?

For more, visit

HISTORYNET.COM/MAGAZINES/QUIZ

ANSWER: MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION.

BUZZ ALDRIN, THE SECOND MAN TO WALK
THE LUNAR SURFACE, SPOKE THESE WORDS
SHORTLY AFTER NEAL ARMSTRONG SAID
“THAT’S ONE SMALL STEP FOR A MAN, ONE
GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND.”
 REBORN
Built in 1941, the Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk
with the serial number 41-13570 had a brief
but violent career in World War II. Shipped to
the Soviet port of Murmansk as part of Lend-
Lease, the P-40
FINAL APPROACH was assigned to
the 20th GvIAP
(Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment), based at
Murmashi airfield, just south of the city. On
June 1, 1942, Junior Lieutenant A.V. Pshenev
was flying the airplane on a mission to escort
Tupolev SB bombers to attack the German
airfield at Petsamo in Finland when the Rus-
sian pilot was attacked by enemy Messer-
schmitt Me-109Fs and forced to ditch in the
semi-frozen Lake Ozero Kod-Yavr west of
Murmansk. Pshenev made it to shore, cold
and shaken but otherwise unhurt, as the P-40
sank. Credited with the kill was Oberleutnant
Horst Carganico, commander of II Gruppe of
Jagdgeschwader 5.
In 1997 a recovery team used a Kamov
Ka-25 helicopter to raise the remarkably in-
tact airplane and sold it to a British collector.
After going through a succession of owners, it
was eventually restored by Pioneer Aero Ltd.
in Ardmore, New Zealand. Following 11 years
of restoration work, pilot Frank Parker took
the P-40 up for its first flight in nearly 80
years on November 11, 2021.
During another test flight on February 18,
2022, the P-40, with Parker again at the con-
trols, flew alongside a fellow World War II
veteran: a Kittyhawk P-40-N-1, CU number
A29-448, which had crashed while serving
with the Royal Australian Air Force in New
Guinea. Recovered and restored by Pioneer
Aero, it is now owned by New Zealand War-
birds. The pilot on this occasion was Parker’s
wife, Liz Needham, a seasoned pilot in her
own right. —Jon Guttman
AIRCRAFT PHOTOGRAPHY
GAVIN CONROY/CLASSIC

72 WINTER 2023
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