Dynamite is my Co-pilot

The harsh necessities of bush flying often have led pilots to do things on a routine, daily basis that would have been unthinkable in the regular aviation world. Like flying around with boxes of dynamite on the seat next to you in a Bell 47D.

When there are no roads, and you've got some blasting to do in the far north of Canada, this is the guy to call!

Over 5,600 Bell 47s were built over the years, and they did just about every kind of helo work imaginable. Introduced in 1949, the D-model had the fully molded canopy, but didn't have the larger side-saddle fuel tanks of the more famous G-model.

Helldiver Oops

Occasionally, the Archive has the opportunity to acquire not just images, but materials that help tell the stories of the photographs they accompany. Such is the case with this week's offering of Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver photos, three of which show the result of a mechanical failure in the landing gear system. They come from the estate of Navy pilot Lt. (jg) Herman E. Olds

The SB2C Helldiver, which replaced the legendary Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber, failed in many ways, and was generally unpopular with pilots. When it was produced, it was plagued with problems which led to a scathing by the Truman Committee, and ultimately the problems started the slide into oblivion for Curtiss. These included handling qualities issues, electrical problems, a terribly complicated and hard-to-maintain hydraulic system (which could very well have led to this gear-up incident), and problems with the aircraft's weight and range (more specifically, lack thereof). Some of these problems were solved in later models of the Helldiver; the one pictured here was the more mature -5 version.

One of the unique things about this set of photos is that we also have the pilot's logbooks, which include the entry for the incident, which occurred on July 1, 1946 at NAS Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Florida. (The back of the photos are dated July 2, so either they were taken the day following the incident, or printed the following day, or the lab simply got the date wrong.) NAS Cecil Field was a principle dive bombing training base during and immediately after WWII.

Starting in March, 1947, Lt. Olds flew with attack squadron VA-1A

Not sure the point of this particular formation...please comment if you know.

This 8x10 is presumably a training photo. Though stamped on the back, there is
no explanatory text.

Gooney Bird in the Dust

Early this week, we featured two official images of Douglas C-47s, and today we have an unofficial image snapped of C-47s hard at work rather than posing for an official portrait. As photos go, this crooked snapshot wouldn't win any awards, but as a glimpse at ordinary life in the field, it is priceless.

Skytrains in Train

Serial 316101, ship 20, in the lead, is a C-47A.

The crews of these two C-47 Skytrains, along with whatever chase plane the photographer was in, clearly were having fun on this day, switching out positions for the photog.

The back of the photo on the left is marked "Photographic Section, Sedalia Army Air Field, Warrensburg Missouri" (the back of the second print isn't marked at all). Sedalia was established in November 1942 as a training base for WACO glider pilots, so these two C-47s likely were primarily used as glider tow planes. During the early months of 1945, the base's C-47s were replaced by Curtiss C-46 Commandos, so that plus the tail numbers of these planes place the date the photos were shot somewhere between late 1943 and early 1945.

Ship 26 is either serial 316140 or 316149, the image just isn't clear enough to be
certain, either way, it is a C-47B.

Sedalia is known today as Whiteman AFB, home of the nation's B-2 fleet, named after Lt. George Allison Whiteman, who was shot down during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, becoming the first U.S. casualty in aerial combat during World War II.

Vintage Air featured on radio show

I was recently featured on Aerotech NewsRadio's weekly aerospace show a few weeks ago talking about Vintage Air. If you're interested in hearing the show, the podcast is available at this link. The 20 minute interview starts about 10 minutes into the show.

Lackland's Guardians

B-17G 44-83512 was initially put on display in 1956. Note post-1947 wing markings

Lackland Air Force Base, just to the west of San Antonio, Texas, is known as the "Gateway to the Air Force", since it serves as a training base that just about all new USAF personnel have to transit through. Lackland has, for years, cultivated a large collection of display aircraft which have been located at different places around the base, and most of which today line the perimeter of the base's parade grounds (see the overhead photo at the bottom of this post). It's thus no real surprise that when one of the new arrivals wanted to send a photo back home to his parents or buddies, the old planes were a natural backdrop, and a few of these photos have found there way into our Archive.

This photo is unmarked and unrelated to the three below (which are dated June
1951). Since the grounds have not been prepared, it would be my guess that this
photo was taken earlier than the others.

Three of the Lackland aircraft are featured this week, the B-17G above, a Republic P-47N Thunderbolt and a very rare North American P-82E Twin Mustang.

B-17G 44-83512 was initially put on display in 1956, and for a time, it was painted to represent the B-17 Princess Pat, (at least one source says that it was also displayed as Sentimental Journey for a time) but has since been repainted as Heaven's Above (I've tried to determine if this actually was Heaven's Above, or only wears the colors...results of my research are inconclusive...and I welcome reader's input!). A 1959 color shot of it can be seen here (note the lack of the upper turret). A fairly current view can be seen here.

Though it isn't entirely clear when P-47N 44-89348 was put on display, The photo on the left indicates that it has been at least 61 years as of next week. what is known is that it is still there, exactly 61 years (as of tomorrow) later, although not looking at all like it did in 1951 (it's painted in the colors of a P-47D; a modern photo of it can be seen here, and one that's a bit older can be seen here). At least six N-model Thunderbolts have survived, three (includeing 348) are on display, two are airworthy, and one more is being restored.

The back of the photo has some extensive notes hand-written in blue ink which read:

"Saturday, June 23, 1951, Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas
This is a picture of the F-47 Thunderbolt. It's said to go over 500 mph. In 1945, this fighter was the only plane of its type to exceed 500 mph. It's a long-range fighter-bomber. It was used in European Theater + Pacific. Armament consist of 8 - 50 cal. machine guns, 10 rockets + 2 - 2000# bombs. Gross Wt. with auxiliary belly tank is approx 16,000 pounds."

Possibly the rarest of the aircraft on display at Lackland is P-82E 46-262, which was once one of two such aircraft on display at Lackland. The other, 44-65162 was restored to flying condition by the CAF and flew at airshows until it suffered a gear-up landing. After much legal wrangling, the Air Force took it back, and it sits, only partially complete, in storage at Dayton. Out of the five surviving P-82s, there are only two complete airframes, 46-262 and P-82A 44-65186, which resides at the Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton.

The back of the photo above reads: "Taken Saturday June 23, 1951 Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio Texas. This is a picture of me next to a twin Mustang. It's said that this plane goes very fast."

Some current photos detailing the aircraft's condition can be seen here. Note, in comparison, that in 1951 the canopy was still clear, and the hard-points can still be seen under the wings.







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The Lackland AFB parade grounds as seen in Google Earth. The P-82 is in the lower right corner, and the P-47 is just one
aircraft up from it. The B-17 is in the upper left corner.

Spirit Testbed

This aircraft, 60-0377, started out as a standard C-135A Stratofreighter. It was converted to the NC-135A configuration when it was adapted to be the B-2 avionics testbed, on which the radar and navigation systems were tested and validated, with over 300 sorties, before the B-2 took to the air. (In some sources, it's referred to as an NC-135A and a C-135E, but there's no indication that these are correct). After the B-2 program came to an end, the aircraft was retired and put into storage at Edwards AFB for eventual restoration and inclusion in the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum.

The C-135A started out as a stop-gap logistical transport that the Air Force bought to use until the C-141 Starlifters came on line. After an initial three were converted from KC-135s by having their refueling booms removed, the Air Force bought fifteen production Boeing 717-157s which they designated as C-135A (yes, Boeing has indeed re-cycled the 717 designation). A 1966 view of 60-0377 can be seen here.

In this undated photo, 377 flies over the U.S. Borax Mine that sits just north of Edwards and Rogers Dry Lake. The mine, which opened in 1957, is the largest open-pit mine in California and the largest borax mine in the world.