Part 7

they were the fastest ships of their type afloat. The ships--the “Lex” and the “Sara,” as airmen called them--became the twin mothers of carrier fighter tactics and operational techniques.

The U. S. Navy pioneered in the development of aircraft as a military weapon and spared no effort to develop it and fit it into naval organization. The _Lexington_ and the _Saratoga_ were the proving grounds for the ideas of our imaginative leaders of naval aviation. The lessons learned in maneuvers with the _Lexington_ and _Saratoga_ were well embedded in the minds of the men who were someday to command the greatest carrier task force the world has ever seen. The old _Lexington_ and _Saratoga_ were in the thick of the fight in the Pacific from the day after Pearl Harbor. The “Lex” went down in the gallant fight that stopped the Japs in the Coral Sea. Within two years a new and more powerful _Lexington_ was hammering the Japs in the Pacific. The _Saratoga_, damaged severely several times, lived through the heroic struggle to see victory. The “Lex” and the “Sara” will always live in the hearts of the Navy’s veteran airmen.

SHIPBOARD FIGHTERS

The Curtiss TS-1 was the first carrier fighter built to Navy specification. It was followed by the Boeing FB-l. Carrier fighters offered one of aviation’s most difficult problems. A carrier fighter had to have a short takeoff run, necessitated by the carrier’s short deck. Another requirement was a short wingspan to permit the storage of a number of planes in the limited space of the carrier’s hangar deck. As a result, small light biplanes were used on the carriers for many years. The Curtiss BFC-l and BF2C-l were the first carrier-based aircraft to be equipped with retractable landing gear. The Boeing F4B-4, though it did not have a retractable landing gear, was a very fast, all-metal fighter and was popular as a carrier-based fighter. Grumman came into the picture in 1935 with a stubby, fast, two-place fighter, the FF-1. It was highly successful, but was later re-designed as a scout plane, the SF-1. The FF-1 was the fastest fighter yet to appear in service and, after several modifications, it became the F3F-1, a design standardized by the Navy and used throughout by the carriers’ fighter squadrons.

BATTLESHIP OF THE AIR

In line with its strategic policy the Army Air Corps continued to develop aviation around long-range bombardment. Long-range bombers would stop an invader far from our shores and therefore the aim of our Air Corps leaders was to develop a bomber that could be used for that purpose.

The Martin BM-1, the Barling bomber, and the Keystone LB-6, developed in the twenties, were all biplanes made of wood, metal, and fabric. What the Army airmen really wanted was an all-metal, low-wing, multi-engined bomber capable of flying far out to sea, dropping its bombs, and returning to its base on land. Naturally at that time our only thoughts were of weapons for defense and the protection of our coastline from an invader.

The Martin B-10 two-engined bomber seemed to fill the Army requirements. It was a low-wing monoplane capable of carrying a ton of bombs a thousand miles at a speed of nearly 200 miles per hour. It became the Army’s standard bomber in 1934.

In the same year ten Martin B-10’s, under the command of (then) Lieutenant Colonel Henry H. Arnold, made an historic flight to Alaska. This Alaskan trip was climaxed by a nonstop flight from Juneau, Alaska, to Seattle, Washington, 943 miles over water in five hours and forty minutes. Alaska’s nearness became apparent and American airpower was needed to defend it. Army officials and top air strategists went to work. The answer was a call for bigger bombers with greater range, greater bomb capacity, and greater speed.

The Boeing Company, whose B-9 all-metal, low-wing, two-engined bomber had proved sensational in 1932, produced the answer to the Army’s problem of 1935. The answer was the giant four-engined model 299, America’s first four-engined bomber. It was a mid-wing, all-metal monoplane with a wingspan of 104 feet. With a top speed of over 250 miles per hour its performance was more than sensational.

The pioneering of unusual airplanes like the _Monomail_, the B-9, and the 247 transport were steps toward the Boeing 299. It was a courageous step from two-engined to four-engined bombers, but the Boeing Company made it so successfully that almost instantly the United States Army Air Corps won world leadership in long-range, heavy bombardment aviation.

The exceptional speed, range, armament, and bomb capacity of the 299 quickly resulted in the dramatic name _Flying Fortress_. As the B-17 it flew across the country at 232 miles per hour. In 1938, six B-17 _Flying Fortresses_ set unofficial world records for speed and range in a mass flight from Langley Field, Virginia, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and return.

NAVAL AVIATION GETS READY

From 1930 to 1940 the small but efficient air arm of the United States Navy continued to make progress. Since the introduction of the radial engine, the Navy had worked closely with manufacturers of this type of power plant. All types of Navy airplanes were powered with either Wright or Pratt & Whitney air-cooled, radial engines. Many problems peculiar to naval aircraft were worked out through the close co-operation of Navy technicians and manufacturers. Corrosion-resistant metals were developed for cylinders. Stronger engine parts were introduced to withstand the stress of dive-bombing. Continual progress was made in increasing the power of the engine without increasing its weight per horsepower. Thus engine power increased from 200 horsepower in 1925 to 1,000 horsepower in 1940.

Naval aviators, encouraged by pioneer flying officers such as Jack Towers, Marc Mitscher, Reeves, Bellinger, Read, and others, flew continually to improve their flying and tactical techniques. They flight-tested experimental planes, invented and perfected the technique of dive-bombing, and improved their skill in the difficult task of carrier operations. A young lieutenant, Frank D. Wagner, who invented dive-bombing almost twenty years ago, a rear admiral in World War II, had the satisfaction of seeing his invention, at the peak of perfection, operating with deadly effect against our enemies in the Pacific. In fact, many of the young naval aviators who fifteen years before were conducting a continual competition to see whose squadron could excel the rest in flying, dive-bombing, and gunnery, commanded the greatest naval air force in the world.

In addition to the development of carrier-based aircraft operation, the Navy perfected a catapult device which simplified the launching of planes from all types of surface vessels. In 1912 the air-minded Captain Chambers had made a successful experiment with a catapult-launching device. This device, made of material salvaged from a scrap heap, laid the foundation for catapult-launching of aircraft from surface vessels. In Captain Chambers’ device the plane rested on a small car running on the catapult rail. A cylinder filled with compressed air contained a piston. When a valve was opened, the escaping air pushed the piston against the car with a force that sent the car down the catapult rail and the plane into the air.

The basic idea developed by Captain Chambers is still used in Navy catapults. In the modern device, the airplane rests on a car riding on a catapult rail which can be mounted on all types of surface craft. The rail is so constructed that it can be swung in any direction, permitting the plane to be launched into the wind. The power that shoots the catapult car and sends the plane off the rail is furnished by a five-inch shell fired in a mechanism at the rear of the rail. It was this idea of Captain Chambers’ that originally gave the Navy a start on the device enabling our battleships, cruisers, and destroyers to take observation planes to sea with them. This was the idea which furnished the “eyes of the fleet” and gave admirals and captains the power to see what lay beyond the horizon.

The development of naval aviation marched step by step with the development of aircraft. The year 1940 saw the introduction of one of the best carrier-based fighters ever built, the Grumman F4F _Wildcat_. This stubby-winged craft was a radical departure from previous carrier-fighter design and became the first successful monoplane to go to sea on the carriers. Wing-flaps lowered landing speeds and shortened take-off runs. This permitted the use on the carriers of the fast fighter, since the flaps acted as brakes and reduced the plane’s speed for deck landings. The F4F had a wingspan of 38 feet but this was decreased by the folding of its wings to 14 feet 6 inches. This device reduced the space necessary for storage in the carrier’s hangar deck and permitted the use of additional fighters on the ship. The F4F’s landing gear retracted completely into the fuselage, thus aiding in streamlining and increasing the speed of the fighter. It was powered with a 1,200-horsepower Pratt 81 Whitney air-cooled radial engine and had a speed of about 350 miles per hour.

Experiments with the use of aërial torpedoes brought about the development of the Douglas TBD-1 torpedo plane. Though not so fast as a fighter, the three-place TBD-1 _Devastator_ carried a deadly torpedo load. The Douglas SBD _Dauntless_ was designed for dive-bombing and was the first low-wing monoplane to be used as the standard dive-bomber on our carriers.

The Douglas SBD _Dauntless_ was the first Navy dive-bomber to get into action in World War II. In fact it went into action a few minutes after the first Jap shot was fired at Pearl Harbor, on the morning of December 7th, 1941. SBD’s from the carrier Enterprise, steaming toward Hawaii, were the first planes in action on that fateful morning. From that day on our war in the Pacific was one of attack. The dive-bomber is an attack weapon and the sturdy SBD’s led the attack from Pearl Harbor down to Guadalcanal and on up the Pacific to the Philippines and victory.

While other types of planes were under consideration at the beginning of the war, the airplanes just discussed were the ones that bore the brunt of the fighting in the early months following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Their work in the hands of gallant Navy airmen in the heartbreaking first year of our struggle against terrific odds in the Pacific would in itself furnish material for a book many times the size of this one.

THE U. S. NAVY’S FIRST LONG-RANGE FLYING BOATS

In the early twenties the memories of the famous transatlantic flight of the NC flying boats persisted in the minds of naval aviators. Much of the Navy’s interest was centered in the Pacific, and the vision of flying boats that could quickly link Hawaii to the mainland was an enticing one.

On a trial flight from San Francisco, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1925, Commander John Rogers, flying a Navy patrol plane, was forced down after twenty-five hours in the air. He was within four hundred miles of Hawaii when he landed on the sea. After drifting for nine days, Rogers was picked up by a submarine. Although the flight had failed, it had established a seaplane record of over 1,800 miles, and the trail was blazed.

It was the development of the famous Consolidated PBY flying boats that eventually put our West Coast within twenty-four hours’ flying distance of Hawaii. You will remember the Army officer who had charge of our first air mail service back in 1918--Major Reuben H. Fleet. Major Fleet resigned from the service in 1922 and in the year following organized the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. His firm manufactured many types of airplanes, including the Army’s PB-2A fighter and the 0-19 observation plane. In 1928 Consolidated built the XBY-1, a flying boat with a wingspan of 100 feet. This was the first Consolidated flying boat purchased by the United States Navy. Following this came the big thirty-two-place Consolidated _Commodore_ flying boat.

The _Commodore_ led to the development of the P2Y type of flying boat. This was a two-engined plane with a wingspan of 100 feet and a length of 62 feet. This was the plane which was to lead to the world-famous PBY _Catalina_ flying boats. In January, 1934, six P2Y’s in the service of the United States Navy made the first successful mass flight from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a distance of 2,414 miles.

First introduced in 1934, the Consolidated PBY _Catalina_ was one of the world’s first all-metal flying boats. Powered with two 600-horsepower radial engines, the PBY was for six years the fastest airplane of its class. In January, 1937, twelve Navy PBY’s flew in nonstop formation from San Diego, California, to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a distance of 2,553 miles, in 21 hours and 43 minutes. In June of the same year twelve PBY’s flew in nonstop formation from San Diego to Coco Solo, Canal Zone, or 3,087 miles in 27 hours and 21 minutes. In 1937 Sir Hubert Wilkins flew a commercial version of the PBY over 19,000 miles of Arctic wastes.

TECHNICAL PROGRESS IN THE U. S. ARMY AIR CORPS IN THE THIRTIES

Although prevented from any great expansion in the years following World War I, the Army led the way in many phases of aviation. United States Army planes were the first to fly around the world. Army aviation also pioneered night flying and the use of the lighted airfield, refueling in the air, and radio communication between ground and plane. It made great advances in aërial photography. In 1929, Captain Albert W. Stevens photographed Mount Rainier from an airplane 227 miles away, establishing a record of long-distance aërial photography. The same year, Lieutenant “Jimmy” Doolittle, in a demonstration of instrument-flying, accomplished a take-off and a landing solely through the use of instruments. This was the beginning of “blind flying.” The Army Fokker _Question Mark_ under the command of Carl Spaatz and Ira Eaker, generals commanding our heavy bomber forces in Europe in World War II, established an endurance record by staying aloft for 150 hours. Their plane was refueled in the air during the record flight. Army aviators were trained in the use of oxygen at high altitudes and in the use of instruments for “blind flying.”

In 1927 the great Matériel Division of the Air Corps was established in its new home at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, close by the birthplace of Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Air Corps Matériel Division was the testing laboratory for all Army aviation equipment. Here all types of new engines, planes, and instruments were developed and tested. Aircraft manufacturers co-operated closely with Army technicians in developing ideas which would help to further the advancement of military aviation. New types of planes were taken to Wright Field, where Army technicians and test pilots put them through grueling tests before releasing them for Army service. Here the Army research engineers worked with oil companies to develop fuels which would increase the performance of aircraft engines. Clothing and equipment for pilots were tested. High-speed aërial cameras were developed, and it was through the efforts of the men at Wright Field that aërial photography in general was perfected to so high a degree.

Many of the features developed for the Army at Wright Field also were applied to commercial aviation and contributed greatly to the safety of air travel. From the earliest postwar days, Army aviation leaders had been insistent that safety was the most important factor in the development of airplanes and of aviation equipment. The experts at Wright Field have contributed greatly to the high record of safety which consistently has prevailed in Army aviation.

THE ALLISON ENGINE

For several years after World War I, all Army airplanes were powered with water-cooled, in-line engines. In the majority of cases it was the _Liberty_ engine developed during the war, but some water-cooled Wright engines also were used. As late as 1927 the Army still was experimenting with the _Liberty_ engine and trying to increase its horsepower. James A. Allison became interested in this project and, when the job was given up as hopeless, went on to create his own engine. He died before he had completed his engine, but his assistant, Norman H. Gilman, continued its development in conjunction with General Motors. The first successful Allison engine was completed in 1932, and the following year the Navy used it to power the dirigibles _Akron_ and _Macon_.