C-17 T-1 from Start to Finish

A MD corporate 8x10 print showing the freshly painted T-1. These prints are
slightly "well worn".

As I've written before, when you're in the hunt for old photos, it pays to ask! That works at yard sales, too. I came across one that had on old framed space shuttle litho for a buck (and which was essentially worthless), but I took the time to ask the gal who was selling the stuff for her invalid dad if she had any actual photographs, and sure enough, she went inside to dig some out. What she came up with was a bonanza...three 8x10s of the very first C-17, serial 87-0025 and known as "T-1", one of which showed the planes landing at Edwards at the conclusion of her maiden flight. And the photo had even been signed by the crew! Also included were two crew patches, a first flight coin and a small American flag that had been carried onboard the for that first flight (first flight flags is something of a tradition in the flight test world). All for $15!

T-1 on her 2-hour maiden flight, heading northwest over Torrance Airport.

So, in a nod to a bit of history that's just been made with the retirement of T-1, I'm going to break the 30-year rule (the definition of "vintage" in the antiques world) and feature these photos for this blog post.

The C-17 had its genesis in a program intended to develop a replacement for the C-130 Hercules (before, of course, the powers-that-be realized that the Herc is destined for immortality). At the time, Boeing proposed their YC-14 and McDonnell Douglas entered their YC-15. The competition was cancelled when the Air Force came to their senses and realized that the best C-130 replacement was a newer C-130.

Signing this 8x10 of the first landing were Boeing Chief Test Pilot Bill Casey,
USAF pilot George London and Boeing Chief Loadmaster Ted Venturini. Also
onboard was Boeing Flight Test Engineer Henry Van De Graaf, who didn't sign.

Then the Pentagon planners needed to start dealing with the aging of their strategic airlifter fleet, and the C-X competition was launched. Lockheed proposed either a stretched, improved version of the C-141 (after all, that strategy had worked for the C-130) or a new plane based on the giant C-5. Boeing offered a three-engined version of the YC-14, and MD put up an enlarged version of their YC-15 design. MD won.

The program was plagued with technical and political problems from the start. The prototype for the newly designated C-17A was essentially a hand-built plane, and was intended to be a dedicated flight test aircraft - hence the air vehicle designation of T-1 - with an expected lifespan of just five years.

At the 20th anniversary event, from top left, Bill
Casey, Ted Venturini, George London and Henry
Van De Graaf. (Rebecca Amber/Aerotech News)

First flight swag

T-1 made her maiden flight, from Long Beach to Edwards, on September 15, 1991. Troubles continued to plague the program, though, which required a longer developmental and systems flight test program, and so T-1 was refurbished several times, and kept working away out at Edwards. In fact, at one point the demand for testbed aircraft was so high that the YC-15 demonstrator aircraft was resurrected, as well (it has since been retired to the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum and sits on public display outside the base's west gate).

On September 15, 2011, T-1 celebrated her 20th anniversary by flying from Edwards to Long Beach for a low pass, then re-creating the route of her original flight, landing at Edwards where a party was held and the original flight crew reunited. It was announced that the old gal would finally be retiring.

T-1 lifts off from Edwards' Rwy 22L for the last time (Tony Landis/NASA)

Then, a week ago Monday, April 23rd, T-1 lifted off one last time from Edwards. She made a low pass over her Long Beach birthplace before heading east for her new home at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio to, in the words of Winging It Online's Antelope Valley aerospace news blog, "be preserved as yet another valuable contribution that the Antelope Valley has made to the aerospace world and the security of this nation."

Low approach over Long Beach, April 23, 2012 (Courtesy of Kevin Helm)

Where it all started (Courtesy of Kevin Helm)

Celebrating 50 Years of Blackbirds

This week, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the first of the Blackbird family of aircraft, Lockheed A-12 serial 60-6924. Because it was designed as a spy plane for the CIA, the A-12 stayed secret - as did its first flight - for many years. As far as the public knew back then, it was the YF-12A interceptor version that was the new and exciting program, and so the first media photos of a Blackbird were of the fighter. The Archive owns four original AP wire photos, shown here.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif, Sept. 30 - NEW INTERCEPTOR PUTS ON
SHOW - The Air Force's speedy new interceptor, the YF12A, flashes across
Edwards Air Force base, Calif., today in a low-level pass during the first public
demonstration of the plane. The plane was flown at low speeds, in contrast to its
better than 2000-miles-per-hour capability.

The impetus for the A-12 program, the “parent” project for the later YF-12A and SR-71 programs, came from the inability to make the Lockheed U-2 a more stealthy aircraft. Lockheed instead started a series of design proposals for the CIA that would result in a reconnaissance aircraft that would fly higher, farther, faster and, most importantly, more invisible. As the U-2 had carried the internal code name “Angel”, the successor program was known as “Archangel”, and iterations of the design were then numbered A-1, A-2, through A-11. The design was in competition with one proposed by Convair known as Kingfish (or simply Fish), which showed a smaller radar cross section. In response, Lockheed’s Kelly Johnson tweaked the design one more time, resulting in the A-12, and the designation was carried over to use by the customer, who gave the project the codename Oxcart.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif, Sept 30 - SLEEK NEW INTERCEPTOR
UNVEILED - Air Force technicians prepare the 2000-mile-an-hour YF12A
interceptor for a flight today during the top secret plane's first public
appearance. Officers, without revealing the maximum speed and range, said
the plane is many times superior to current interceptors such as the F106.

The first A-12, 60-6924, was trucked from Burbank to Groom Lake and had three different maiden flights. The first, on April 24, 1962, occurred during a high speed taxi test when pilot Lou Schalk inadvertently became airborne for a few seconds. The "real" first flight took place two days later, April 26th, when the aircraft was flown for about 33 minutes; because of the unproven nature of the design, speeds were kept under 300 knots. This was followed by a 59-minute flight on April 30th which was witnessed by a delegation of CIA and USAF officials, and became known as the plane's first "official" flight.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif, Sept 30 - AIR FORCE SHOWS OFF
SECRET INTERCEPTOR - The top secret YF12A interceptor, capable of
flying three times the speed of sound (over 2000 m.p.h.), stands on a ramp
at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., today in its first public appearance. The
plane was called the A-11 when President Johnson first disclosed its
existence last Feb. 29.

With the cancellation of the XF-108 program in 1950, Lockheed convinced the USAF that a fighter variant of the A-12 would be an economical alternative for a high-speed bomber interceptor, since the majority of the design and development work was already paid for by the CIA. The Air Force bit, and the 7th, 8th and 9th A-12 production slots were converted to the new version, then called the AF-12 (and code named Kedlock), and later YF-12A. The first YF-12A flight took place on August 7, 1963. Only three were built.

On February 29, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the existence of the program to the world, but it was done with a certain amount of subterfuge. He said, "The United States has successfully developed an advanced experimental jet aircraft, the A-11, which has been tested in sustained flight at more than 2,000 miles per hour and at altitudes in excess of 70,000 feet. The performance of the A-11 far exceeds that of any other aircraft in the world today. The development of this aircraft has been made possible by major advances in aircraft technology of great significance for both military and commercial applications. Several A-11 aircraft are now being flight tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The existence of this program is being disclosed today to permit the orderly exploitation of this advanced technology in our military and commercial program." Later in his remarks, Johnson said, "the A-11 aircraft now at Edwards Air Force Base are undergoing extensive tests to determine their capabilities as long- range interceptors."

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif, Oct. 1 - FIGHTER WITH ATOMIC
PUNCH - Newsmen are dwarfed by by [sic] the Air Force's new YF12A
interceptor, a javelin-like bomber killer designed to speed at more than
2,000 miles an hour, as it was unveiled at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.,
yesterday. The plane had been announced by President Johnson last
February - it was then known as the A-11. It carries a 12-foot rocket that
can be armed with conventional or nuclear warhead.

Notice that he called it an "A-11"! There are two schools of thought as to why Johnson said this. The first claims that the use of the earlier Lockheed development model number was deliberate, in order to preserve the secrecy of the A-12 designation. The second says that the written text of the speech used the acronym AMI (for Advanced Manned Interceptor), and that Johnson mis-read it as A11, just as he later accidentally said SR-71 when the text said RS-71.

While Oxcart would continue in secrecy, the YF-12A test program would be done with a certain amount of media openness, which brought the benefit that if someone happen to spot an A-12, it could just be attributed to the YF-12A program. Also, at the time of Johnson's announcement, there actually were no YF-12As at Edwards, and the timing of the announcement actually caught the program folks a bit off guard. Two aircraft were then hastily flown to EDW, and according to local lore, the aircraft were shoved into the hangar so quickly after landing that the residual radiant heat set off the hangar's fire protection sprinklers.

Then five months later, on September 30, 1964, the media was invited out to Edwards to watch a YF-12A fly as well as to see one up close, and the four AP shots were taken on this visit. While the wirephoto of the low pass isn't clear enough to distinguish the tail number, the display aircraft was the last YF-12A built, 60-6936; this plane was lost on June 24, 1971 due to an inflight fire. Both crewmen ejected safely near Edwards.

If you want further information on the history of the Blackbird program, check out this amazingly detailed timeline PDF.

Real Men Don't Fly Pink Airplanes

A slightly haggard-looking William "Pete" Knight walks away from X-15A-2
on October 3, 1967, after setting a world record speed of 4,534 mph. 

The visual image that most folks have of the pioneering and record-setting North American X-15 is of a black airplane, mainly for the reason that the skin was largely made of Inconel, which has a natural black color. There were three X-15s built, and were designated A-1 through A-3. The middle ship, A-2, made 53 powered flights, two of which (in addition to four captive-carry flights) were flown with a distinctive white coating, rather the regular bare black skin. Today's featured image is an Associated Press wirephoto dated October 3, 1967, which shows A-2 after one of those historic flights.

The official caption which accompanies the image reads: "EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Oct. 3 -- END OF A RECORD FLIGHT -- Air Force Maj. William J. Knight, left, walks away from the X15 at Edwards Air Force Base in California today after flying the plane at a record speed of 4,534 miles per hour. The new mark for wingee [sic] craft, almost seven times the speed of sound, was 284 miles per hour faster than the 4,250 Knight reached in the X15 last Nov. 18. (AP Wirephoto) (see AP wire story)."

Even though the X-15's Inconel skin is, by nature, quite heat tolerant, the aerodynamic heating that was expected at the speeds that the record flights were to be flown far exceeded even this exotic metal. To deal with this, the engineers decided to cover the rocket plane's skin with an ablative, or heat-resistant coating.

This rubbery, pencil eraser-like material had the unfortunate property of also being bright pink.

An official photo of A-2 from the NASA Dryden website.

Officially, the NASA explanation for the white coating, which was applied over the pink, was that the actual ablative material was not fuel resistant, and thus needed additonal protection against damage that could be caused by fuel spills.

The urban legend, told in the hallways at Dryden, however, is that Pete Knight walked into the coatings hangar after the ablative had been applied, and said, "Like hell, I'm gonna fly a pink airplane!" And shortly thereafter, the white coating was added.

Lockheed's Sluggard XF-90

The first XF-90 sits on the ramp at Edwards AFB.

This is the story of one plane that just didn't have what it takes. In response to a 1945 Air Corps request for a high-performance, long-range bomber-escort fighter, Lockheed adapted some of the design elements of the P-80 Shooting Star into a new, swept-wing design. Initially designated the XP-90, and then XF-90 after the reordering of things as a part of the Air Force's independence, the aircraft competed against McDonnell's XF-88 Voodoo, the forerunner of the F-101. Two XF-90s were built, and the aircraft pictured today, tail number 46-687, was the first of them.

When famed Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier coaxed the XF-90 into the air for the first time on June 3, 1949, it became readily apparent that Lockheed had missed the mark. Though the plane was built rugged, it was also built heavy. Adding to that, the pair of Westinghouse J34 engines produced a total of only 6,200 pounds of thrust, hardly enough to push the large plane, which tipped the scales at 27,200 pounds when loaded. Underpowered was an understatement. Unless the plane carried only a minimal amount of fuel, it couldn't even take off without JATO rocket assist. For the second aircraft, Lockheed added afterburners, but that only boosted the power to 8,200 pounds of total thrust. The Voodoo easily won the production contract in September, 1950, before the program was cancelled. McDonnell resubmitted a slightly larger design for a subsequent fighter competition, which won to become the F-101.

Unneeded, 46-687 was sent to NACA's Cleveland labs in 1953 were it was subjected to structural testing, in the classic test-to-destruct mode. What was left was scrapped. The second airframe, -688, was used in nuclear weapons testing, and subjected to three different blasts. It survived, in a manner of speaking, and the battered remnants are planned to be displayed at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton to show the effects of a nuclear blast.

Another photo taken the same day as ours can be seen in the National Museum's on-line archive, here.

Celebrating Voyager's Voyage 25 Years Later

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Rutan Voyager's remarkable round-the-world flight piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. This past Saturday, a big celebration of the event was held at the Mojave Air & Space Port as part of the Mojave Transportation Museum's series of open houses dubbed "Plane Crazy Saturday".

During the open house, Burt Rutan gave a 2-hour talk on the building of the Voyager, and that evening, Burt and Dick, together with Mike Melvill, talked for another 2 1/2 hours, telling stories of the remarkable flight. (The museum is hoping to eventually make available a DVD of the evening.) My favorite line, though, was Doug Shane's rendition of Dick's takeoff call: "Eddy Tower, Voyager 1 requests Edwards to Edwards the hard way."

To keep the celebration going, I went looking for a previously unpublished photo of Voyager, and MTM Director Cathy Hansen lent me this one that she took on December 23, 1986, as Voyager circled over Edwards with a photo chase Cessna just before landing. Cathy was one of 55,000 people on hand at Edwards for the historic landing.

It took five years to build the Voyager, since it was done mostly by volunteer labor. The non-stop, unrefueled flight took nine days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds, and covered a distance of 26,366 statute miles.

(Ok, technically this isn't a "vintage" photo, since purists define that as an image that's at least 30 years old, but it's my blog and I'm bending the rules...)

The Bantam X-Plane

For the next few weeks, the Tuesday mid-week updates will feature old-style PR photos that were released to newspapers. In the years before the digital revolution, newspapers primarily received their black and white photos via wireservices. Wirephotos long pre-dated fax machines, but used the same concept, line-by-line scans transmitted over telephone lines (a fascinating 1937 article in Popular Mechanics on how wirephotos work can be found here). Newspapers typically then filed away 8x10 prints for possible future use. With the arrival of the digital age, some of these have been filtering out into the collector's world, and the MojaveWest archive has been able acquire some.

One of the "forgotten" X-planes from the late 1940s was the Northrop X-4 Bantam, of which two airframes were built. Our photo shows the second aircraft, 46-677, on its maiden flight at Edwards. The photo still has the "ditto" caption taped to the back (for the younger generations who read this, "dittos" were a pre-photo copy means of reproduction...and the smell of ditto fluid is one of those staples from when I attended elementary school). The caption read:

"First Flight of the Northrop X-4, star performer in one of the Air Force's secret projects at Edwards Air Force Base, shows the small Flying Wing-type research airplane streaking over the California desert on a test flight. Northrop pilot Charles Tucker has flown the X-4 repeatedly during the past several months in a test program intended to explore flight characteristics of the high sub-sonic zone. The fourth in a series of 'X' ships ordered by the Air Force, the X-4 will continue research pioneered by the Bell X-1, the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound. One of the smallest airplanes ever built for the Air Force, the X-4 measures approximately 25 feet from wing tip to wing tip. The X-4 is patterned after the big Northrop Flying Wing bombers. A single pod houses the pilot and elaborate instrumentation. The unusual tail consists only of a vertical stabilizer and rudder. There is no horizontal stabilizer or elevator assembly. 'Elevons', developed by Northrop for use on the Flying Wings, serve as both elevators and ailerons."

The first X-4, 46-676, took its maiden flight on December 15, 1948, but had a really troubled flight test program, being plagued by seemingly unending technical problems. The second aircraft, 46-677 took to the air in mid-1949 (the photo and caption are undated). When Northrop had completed the initial handling qualities testing and turned the aircraft over to the Air Force in February 1950, the first aircraft was permanently grounded, and was cannibalized for parts to support the second one.

The goal of the program was to evaluate the characteristics of a flying wing's reaction to transonic speeds, and above all else, the X-4 program proved that a flying wing with analog flight controls did not have ideal handling qualities. The Bantam experienced continual pitch oscillations (porpoising) as it approached the speed of sound, and there was nothing the pilot could do to dampen it. In fact, engineers would not be able to overcome these issues until the advent of digital fly-by-wire control, which would allow a computer to fly the plane, leading to the current rash of flying wing designs, including the B-2 Spirit and the X-47B N-UCAS.

Both X-4s survived their era, however. 677 resides at the Air Force museum in Dayton Ohio, and 676 is currently being restored at the Air Force Flight Test museum at Edwards AFB.