AËRIAL ARMADA
From a Mere Handful of Men and Machines in 1940 the U. S. Army Air Forces Grew Into the Greatest Aërial Task Force That the World Has Ever Known. That Air Force Shortened the War by Years and Helped to Bring Us Total Victory in 1945.
As in World War I, we have seen Army aviation reach the brink of war without being fully prepared. Again we have seen our military leaders and aircraft builders roll up their sleeves and go to work. However, we have never seen anything to equal the development of our Army Air Forces.
From a force which numbered hardly more than 100,000 men and a handful of airplanes at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Army Air Forces have grown to be the world’s greatest aërial striking power. On December 7, 1941, Army aviation had 3,000 combat planes, only 1,157 of which were actually fit for first-line duty. In all United States territory we had only 159 four-engined bombers. The Curtiss P-40 was our only fighter in production in any quantity.
Less than three years after Pearl Harbor the Army Air Forces could send out 1,000 four-engined bombers on a single raid. Eight or nine hundred fighters could accompany them as escorts. More than 200,000 warplanes have been built in this country since Pearl Harbor, and the Air Forces can boast of thousands of planes instead of hundreds of them. Army Air Forces’ bases are in operation over the entire globe.
Complete airfields have been carved out of jungle and Arctic wastes. These airfields are equipped to keep our warplanes in perfect repair without the loss of time from combat duty. To build and equip these fields, millions of tons of materials have been transported thousands of miles. More than two million men have been trained to fly our planes and to keep them flying. Our great training system took thousands of green young men from civilian life and trained them in the several hundred skills necessary to keep our planes in safe fighting trim. Air Forces men work in every sort of climate, from the frozen north to the steaming jungles of the South Pacific. The Air Forces experts at Wright Field developed clothing, materials, and equipment to keep our planes in flying and fighting condition regardless of climate or weather. The training, equipping, and development of personnel and matériel for the giant United States Army Air Forces is truly a modern miracle.
Between the years 1943-1945 we saw our air strategy, planned years ago, put into deadly effect under the leadership of the men who originated it. Only General “Billy” Mitchell failed to live to see his ideas at work in defeating the Nazis and the Japs. The United States Army Air Forces today represents American air power, just as he prophesied many years ago.
The very best proof of the splendid development of Army aviation is the box score built up by World War II aviators against our enemies. From December 7, 1941, to January 1, 1945, they destroyed 29,316 enemy aircraft and dropped 1,220,000 tons of bombs on enemy territory. Our losses in this period were but 13,491 planes. This, it should be remembered, was against enemies who had been preparing for years with the purpose of defeating us.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the commercial airlines of the United States were operating 341 transport planes. Almost at once the Army and Navy began to take over transport planes from the airlines for war service. The Army organized the Air Transport Command. This new branch of the Air Forces, under the command of Major General Harold L. George, a former Air Plans officer, started in the Spring of 1942 in a one-room office with a personnel of three men. Since that time the Air Transport Command has grown to be the world’s largest airline. In addition to operating Army transport planes, the Air Transport Command contracted with the country’s major airlines to fly Army men and materials. Thus many of the transport planes which in peacetime flew over our countryside went into war service and began to fly over distant lands. All the major airlines contributed planes and crews to the vital needs of war. DC-3’s, which a few weeks before had been flying between our big cities, began to fly over oceans and mountain ranges in every quarter of the globe. At the start most of the planes used for Air Transport Command cargo were Douglas DC-3’s and DC-2’s and a few Boeing Stratoliners. The new Douglas DC-4’s being built for the airlines when war began went right off the production lines into service for the Army or Navy. The Navy also developed their own air transport service and operated in a manner similar to the ATC. This group was known as the Naval Air Transport Service or NATS. The Army Air Transport Command operated its own weather stations, radio ranges, and airfields in the same manner as the commercial lines did in peacetime. Planes flew vital war cargo and personnel on systematic airline procedure. Millions of miles were flown daily by planes rushing tons of men and materials to the far-flung battlefronts of the world. Practically every bit of matériel taken into China during the first three years of war was flown in over some of the worst flying terrain in the world. The work of the Air Transport Command, the Naval Air Transport Service, and the major airlines has been one of the truly magnificent jobs of the war. Pan American’s first transatlantic competitor, American Export Airlines, started its first service in 1942 flying wartime cargo.
The research and safety devices developed in peacetime by our commercial airlines played a tremendous part in the success of our world-wide wartime transport service. Not only did the airlines furnish planes and crews for the war effort, but they also set up schools and trained hundreds of transport pilots, crews, ground service men, and operations men for the military transport service.
The experience gained in operating such a great global air transport system has not only helped materially to win the war, but will be invaluable in expanding peacetime air transport and cargo service. New methods of handling cargo of all weights during the war will speed the development of postwar air cargo service. The world-wide experience of the transport crews will be valuable in developing postwar air travel to distant lands. Hundreds of new air crews trained for war service will be available for the great expansion of commercial aviation in early postwar days.
Forty-two years after the birth of the airplane, we see aviation on the threshold of a great new era of progress. Fighting planes with a speed of nine miles a minute are an actuality. A giant transport plane, capable of carrying 100 passengers, has flown across the continent in six hours. This means that a passenger may eat lunch in New York and dinner in California. It means that postwar air travelers will become accustomed to flying at the speed of our 1939 fighting planes. Air travelers soon will be crossing the country at a speed of eight miles a minute. Boys and girls reading this book will, a few years from now, marvel that we even got excited over the eight-mile-a-minute airplane.
The year 1944 saw a twelve-and-one-half ton fighter go into action on the war fronts. This plane, the Northrop P-61 Black Widow night-fighter, is one of the most powerful airplanes yet to go into action. Powered with two 2,000-horsepower engines, the P-61 flies at 400 miles per hour. Equipped with radar and powerful guns, it can search out an enemy plane at night and destroy it.
The new Bell P-59 Airacomet is America’s first jet-propelled fighter. Its performance has amazed expert test pilots. It has no propeller (note diagram below), and the pilot hears no engine roar or propeller scream. He feels no vibration. Yet he whizzes along at a tremendous speed which is still a military secret. This lack of vibration reduces pilot fatigue, adding hours to his safe flying time.
POSTWAR AVIATION
In the high-flying, high-speed Stratocruiser and the fast Liberator Liner we see a type of transport that will become familiar in early postwar days. The development of airplanes with great load-carrying ability will have a great effect on the cost of air travel. Transports like the 100-passenger Stratocruiser will soon bring the cost of air travel within the reach of anyone who now can afford regular train fares.
Postwar days will also see a great increase in the use of air cargo planes. Typical of the cargo plane of the future is the Fairchild C-82 Packet, now in use as a military transport. The big, roomy cabin of the Packet is only slightly smaller than a standard railroad boxcar. As an Army transport, the Packet can carry forty-two fully equipped paratroopers or seventy regular troops. As a hospital plane, it has space for thirty-four litter cases and four attendants or seventy-five walking casualties. When used for cargo movement the Packet’s stern door opens to take a load of jeeps, trucks, artillery, munitions, and other military cargo equal in weight to nine tons. It is readily seen how valuable the Packet will be in postwar days. With its range of 3,500 miles, it will speed commercial cargo across the country at reasonable costs. In fact, all the big transports, such as the Stratocruiser or the Liberator Liner, are designed so that they may be converted to all-cargo planes. In the near future perishable foods and other merchandise, which heretofore have taken several days to cross the country, will make the trip overnight.
With the coming of peace, air transport and commercial aviation will grow by leaps and bounds. All the leading airlines and many new ones are planning expanded schedules and looking forward to a great boom in air travel. New transport planes are going into production in the plants of all America’s well-known aircraft manufacturers. The new airliners will not only be much faster, but they will also be equipped with every device that will make the air traveler more comfortable. The new airliners will be so fast that there will be no need for sleeper planes on coast-to-coast trips. Sleeper planes will be used only on long overseas trips. The planes will all carry more passengers during the day and that means that air travel will be almost as economical as surface travel.
The big planes for world travel will be ships like the seventy-ton Martin Mars flying boat and the giant Pan American Consolidated 204-passenger Model 37. Donald Douglas is building two new luxury airliners, the fifty-passenger DC-6 and the 108-passenger DC-7. The 100-passenger Lockheed Constellation will also be in service soon. Smaller planes operating on feeder lines will soon whisk passengers from small towns to the main lines of the transcontinental and world airways.
There has been considerable talk about the widespread use of the helicopter in postwar days. In spite of the great advances made in its development, it will probably be some time before its use becomes widespread. The helicopter itself can fly up, down, backward, frontward, and sidewise, but it is still difficult to fly unless its pilot has had considerable practice.
The helicopter gets its lift and its forward, backward, and sidewise movement from the big rotating blades above the fuselage. These blades have the same effect as those of a propeller. The big blades bite into the air as they turn. The shape of the blade is like the airfoil or wing of a plane. As it bites into the air it creates a lift just as a wing does. By the use of his controls the pilot can change the angle of the blades to increase or diminish their lift. For example, when the lift is reduced on a blade on one side of the plane it banks off in the direction of the reduced lift. The same holds true for any movement of the helicopter. A small rotor in a vertical position at the tail has controllable blades, and the machine is steered by changing the angle of these blades. The pilot of a helicopter of today is a very busy fellow. New developments, however, will probably simplify the operation of the machine.
The year 1945 marks the beginning of the forty-third year of powered flight in America. Before we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk air travel will be the world’s primary means of transportation. No spot on the globe will be more than fifty hours distant from wherever you may live. Truly the shortest distance between any two points on earth will be an airline!
During the last few years we have seen the airplane being developed into the mightiest weapon of war that the world has ever seen. We have witnessed the miracle of the creation of our great Army and Navy aërial task forces. And we have seen our air forces lead the way to victory over the enemies of our civilization. Just as the airplane brought us peace, it must also be retained as a military weapon that will always be a threatening force to restrain any fanatics who may again seek to destroy democracy and peace.
As a commercial transport, the airplane will also serve to keep the peace. Commercial airliners will make the world much smaller, and no nation will be a great distance from another. We shall all be able to travel by air to the most far-distant country in a matter of hours. All nations will be closer neighbors, and we shall all have a better understanding of our neighboring nations. The more we visit and mingle with the people of the entire world the more we can help to spread the doctrine of democracy of America. The airplane will play a great part in eliminating the greed and jealousy that breeds war. The young people of today will govern America tomorrow. The airplane will be the vehicle through which they will learn to know the peoples of the world. Through this better understanding America may always be the symbol of peace and prosperity.
However and wherever you fly, here’s wishing you all “Happy Landings!”
INDEX OF PERSONS
[A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [J], [K], [L], [M], [O], [P], [R], [S], [T], [V], [W].
Allen, Brigadier General James, [22]
Allison, James A., [77]
Arnold, General Henry H., [29], [37], [70]
Bacon, Roger, [6]
Baldwin, F. W., [19], [24]
Baldwin, Captain Tom, [18]
Ballentine, Admiral John J ., [95]
Beachey, Lincoln, [28]
Bell, Dr. Alexander Graham, [18]
Bell, Lawrence, [37], [77]
Bennett, Floyd, [49]
Besnier, [7]
Blakely, Lieutenant Charles A., [26]
Bleriot, Louis, [20], [25]
Boeing Aircraft, [53], [54], [57], [58], [63], [66], [70], [71]
Brereton, General Louis, [37]
Brookins, Walter, [26]
Bruno, Harry, [50]
Byrd, Rear Admiral Richard E., [49]
Cayley, George, [7]
Chambers, Captain Washington Irving, [26], [28], [29], [72], [73]
Chanute, Octave, [9], [10], [12]
Chavalier, Lieutenant Commander G. DeC., [41]
Clark, Rear Admiral Joseph J ., [95]
Curtiss Airplane Company, [40], [44]
Curtiss, Glenn H., [18], [19], [20], [21], [24], [25], [27], [28], [37]
Dædalus, [6]
Da Vinci, Leonardo, [6], [7]
Doolittle, Lieutenant General James, [37], [76], [94]
Douglas, Donald, [24], [37], [42], [54], [55], [58]
Eaker, Lieutenant General Ira, [37], [76]
Earhart, Amelia, [52]
Edgerton, Lieutenant J. C., [38]
Ellyson, Lieutenant Theodore G., [28], [29]
Ely, Eugene, [27], [28], [41]
Fleet, Major Reuben H., [38], [74]
Fokker, Tony, [49], [50], [52]
Ford, Henry, [46]
Franklin, Benjamin, [7]
Frye, Jack, [55]
Gates, Artemus, [37]
George, Major General Harold L., [37]
Gilman, Norman H., [77]
Graham-White, Claude, [25]
Griffin, Commander V. C., [41]
Hall, E. J., [37]
Harris, Harold R., [60]
Hegenberger, Lieutenant A. F., [52]
Icarus, [6]
Johnstone, Ralph, [26]
Jouett, Colonel John, [37]
Kartveli, Alexander, [84]
Kelly, Lieutenant Oakley, [50]
Lahm, Brigadier General Frank P., [23], [37], [81]
Langley, Professor Samuel Pierpont, [10], [44]
Lawrance, Charles L., [44]
Lilienthal, Otto, [7], [8]
Lindbergh, Charles A., [49]
Lovett, Honorable Robert A., [37]
Macready, Lieutenant John, [50]
Maitland, Lieutenant Lester D., [52]
Manley, Charles, [10], [44]
Martin, Glenn L., [25], [30], [31], [37], [40], [42], [61]
McCurdy, J. A. D., [19]
McIntee, William, [24]
Misick, Captain Edwin, [60]
Mitchell, General William (“Billy”), [37], [40], [80]
Mitscher, Admiral Marc A., [72], [95]
Montgolfier Brothers, [7]
Montgomery, John J., [8]
Moss, Dr. Sanford, [65]
O’Hare, Lieutenant Commander Edward (“Butch”), [90]
Pegasus, [6]
Penaud, Alphonse, [8]
Pond, George, [50]
Post, Wiley, [57]
Pride, Rear Admiral John, [95]
Radford, Rear Admiral Arthur W., [95]
Randolph, Captain W. M., [81]
Read, Lieutenant Commander A. C., [35]
Rickenbacker, Captain E. V., [37], [60]
Rogers, Commander John, [29], [74]
Roosevelt, Franklin D., [90]
Roosevelt, Theodore, [22]
Saunders, John Monk, [53]
Selfridge, Lieutenant Tom, [19], [22]
Sherman, Rear Admiral Forrest P., [95]
Spaatz, Lieutenant General Carl, [37], [76]
Sperry, Lawrence, [56]
Stevens, Captain Albert W., [76]
Stout, William Bushnell, [46]
Stringfellow, John, [8]
Stultz, Wilmer, [52]
Thatch, Commander John, [90]
Tomlinson, Tommy, [65]
Towers, Vice Admiral John H., [29], [34], [35], [37], [72], [95]
Trippe, Juan, [50], [60], [62], [63]
Vincent, J. G., [37]
Wenham, F. H., [7]
Willard, Charles, [26], [28]
Wilson, Captain Gill Robb, [37]
Wright, Orville and Wilbur, [9], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [32], [37]
