Chasing the Demon
Page 27
Ken’s P-80 was powered: Ibid. A unique story that I have never seen fully recorded anywhere. Ken remembers the incident clearly and, even then, knew it was historical. He did not think much of Wright’s rudeness and was personally unimpressed with the man himself.
Three P-80s from: Ibid. Another great story from a man who participated in the race itself. To hear him matter-of-factly discuss aviation legends like Robin Olds and Gus Lundquist was amazing and worth a book all by itself.
“Everyone who mattered liked Robin Olds”: Ibid. For further reading on Olds, whom I also regard as a fighter pilot’s fighter pilot, read Christina Olds’s marvelous account of her father in Fighter Pilot. I also included several sections about the man in Lords of the Sky, pp. 346–352 and pp. 459–468.
On December 9, 1946”: Miller, The X-Planes, p. 27.
For certain, Al Boyd was no: Too little has been written about this man. His flying skills were matched by his administrative talents and political instincts. See Chilstrom and Leary, Test Flying at Old Wright Field, p. 257, plus numerous other personal recollections in various accounts. He is also mentioned in Bob Hoover’s Forever Flying, Chuck Yeager’s Yeager, and extensively in Richard Hallion’s Test Pilots.
By late 1946: Read Kenneth Werrell’s excellent Sabres Over MiG Alley, pp. 3–14.
In other words, the United States: And so it began. The combination of military strength and political will on both sides created a five-decade arms race. As the post–Great War generation inherited a mess of economics, vengeance, and artificial borders so have we inherited the detritus from the Cold War.
Though he was a career: Interview with Ken Chilstrom, December 2017.
In a 1989 interview: It is worth restating that either Jack Woolams or Chalmers Goodlin could have taken the X-1 supersonic anytime in 1946 if this had been desired and contracted.
“My own choice”: Fred Ascani, quoted in Yeager and Janos, Yeager, p. 127.
“I didn’t want it”: Interview with Ken Chilstrom, November, 2017.
According to James Young: Meeting the Challenge of Supersonic Flight, p. 46, by James Young. A very instructive read by the head of the Air Force Flight Test Center History Office.
Chapter 9: The Demon
Naked, except for a pair of: Lauren Kessler, The Happy Bottom Riding Club, p. 17. A wonderful book: well researched, entertaining, and informative. I intended to use it only for occasional reference and could not put the book down. Pancho and her ranch were central to the end of this story of chasing the demon because all these men, from their diverse backgrounds, war experiences, and flying careers came together here. They were, pardon the phrase, in orbit around Pancho’s place; it was really their only leisure and social outlet in an otherwise dismal setting. I would surmise that Pancho knew more about what was happening in both the XP-86 and X-1 programs than Al Boyd or Stuart Symington.
He was not a happy man: According to Ken Chilstrom, this is an understatement. According to Yeager, Boyd said, “Chuck, if you let me down and do something stupid out there, I’ll nail you to the cross.”
Bell’s X-1 was finally up: Miller’s X-Planes has an excellent timeline of events, pp. 21–36.
Like the Me 262: This horizontal tail is basically the same used today in modern fighters and represents a synthesis of wartime aerodynamic lessons, wind tunnel data, and validations through flight test.
While ferrying the plane: Blackburn, Aces Wild, pp. 136–137.
They all agreed that if: Ibid., p. 136.
He had a hostess friend: Much of the personal information on George Welch comes from Al Blackburn, who was a contemporary of both Yeager and Welch. Blackburn knew the same people, hung out at the same places, and heard all the stories. I realize this is anecdotal, but it agrees with characteristics of the man himself, and the time in which he lived.
According to the NAA flight test report: North American Aviation merged with Rockwell during the early 1970s and most of the company was acquired by Boeing in 1996. I was able to procure copies of George Welch’s 1947 XP-86 Flight Test Reports, courtesy of Michael Lombardi, Boeing’s Corporate Historian. There are enough odd discrepancies and missing pages, along with credible secondhand accounts of October 1947, to produce very reasonable doubts about the USAF insistence that the X-1 flew supersonic first.
The next few days: See Yeager and Janos, Yeager, pp. 140–162, Miller, X-Planes, p. 28, and the National Air & Space Museum’s synopsis of the program. Ken Chilstrom also provided much insight on the program management aspects of that month, and the difficulties encountered then solved.
By this time, B-29: Official transcript courtesy of Dr. Alex Spencer, National Air & Space Museum. July 2017 interview.
There was then, as now: Yeager admitted this himself. “There should’ve been a bump on the road, something to let you know you had just punched a hole in the sound barrier”: Yeager and Janos, Yeager, p. 165. He was quite correct; I have been supersonic thousands of times in my own career and it is a nonevent. Yeager was also correct in stating, “The real barrier wasn’t in the sky but in our knowledge”: He had, in one sentence, summed up the essence of the demon.
“Slick Goodlin was a much better”: Interview with Ken Chilstrom, December 2017.
Appendix: Aerodynamics 101
For those wishing to delve deeper into this particular field, NASA is an excellent place to begin. The website is easy to navigate and has explanations at various levels that deal with all aspects of aerodynamics and propulsion. Of particular interest to those just beginning in the science is the “Dynamics of Flight” section; all the forces are openly discussed, as are the pertinent laws of motion and control.
In 1738, Swiss mathematician: Bernoulli’s Hydrodynamics, Sir George Cayley’s Aerodynamics by Gibbs-Smith, and Lancaster’s Aerodynamics are all interesting reads for background purposes, though, lacking the benefits of modern wind tunnels, testing, and test pilots, the older texts are often incomplete. Still, through the reading one can gain a sense of the greatest questions and challenges from each era.
In any event, the properties: da Vinci was really the first to understand and quantify lift, as it applies to human flight. Even though the act was observed daily, and always had been, aerodynamic lift and other forces were not truly understood until the Tuscan-born polymath applied his magnificent talents to the issue. Among his writings and journals, the Codex Trivultianus and Codex Atlanticus both discuss aspects of flying and related principles. The eighteen folios of da Vinci’s Codex on the Flight of Birds are extremely interesting, particularly Number 7, which goes into great detail on wingtip control. There is no doubt that later aviation pioneers, especially those advocating wing warping, took their ideas from these early works.
This is still not flying: Any discussion of flight, as we understand it in the modern sense, must include Dr. John Anderson’s A History of Aerodynamics. He has named Part I of this seminal work “The Incubation Phase” and it covers what was known, postulated, and perceived from antiquity through Cayley and the early nineteenth century. Part II is the “Infancy of Aerodynamics” and describes, in great detail, man’s increasing understanding of cambered airfoils, flow, and the differences between theoretical and applied aerodynamics.
Index
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Abadan oil fields, 80, 197
acceleration, 41, 117, 271
ace-in-a-day, 85, 85n, 292n
Aces High (Blackburn), 236, 239
Ackeret, Jakob, 118
Ader, Clément, 22–23, 22n
Ader Éole, 22–23
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (ACA), 51
AEA June Bug, 47–48
AEG Siemensstadt, 132
aerial circumnavigation of the globe, 66–67, 68
Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), 47–49
aerial s
team carriage (the Aeriel), 22
aerial warfare, 40, 134–35
aerodrome, 28n
aerodynamic coefficients, 25
aerodynamics, xiii, 19–22, 28, 30, 32, 111–29, 169, 171–72, 271, 275–86
Aeronautical Annual, 31
Afrika Korps, 87–88
aftermath of World War I, 36–39, 52–55
aftermath of World War II, 167–73
agriculture, 56, 64, 177–78
Aguilera, Diego Marín, 18
Aichi D3A, 81–82
ailerons, 44–45, 271, 287n
Airacobras. See Bell P-39 Airacobras
Airacomets. See Bell P-59 Airacomets
Airbus 320, 22, 22n
Air Corps Air Technical Service Command (ATSC), 200
airflow, 115–19, 185–86
airfoils, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 275–77
Air Force, U.S. (USAF), 207, 228, 235n
Air Ministry, 74–75, 126
air pressure, 202, 237, 276
Air Research and Development Command (ARDC), 258
Air & Space Magazine, 207
air speed records, 199–200, 250–51
Alcock, John, 39–40
Allied Mediterranean Air Command, 94
Allied Powers, defined, 271
Allison J35s, 201, 228, 230, 238, 250
“Allotment Annies,” 176
All Quiet On The Western Front (Remarque), 57
American Automobile Association (AAA), 49
American Civil War, 215–16
American Expeditionary Force, 36
“American look,” 175
Anderson, John D., 20, 32n, 93, 300–301n
angle of attack, 25, 28, 271, 279–80
anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), 104, 145–46, 154–55
anti-Semitism, 70
Appalachian Trail, 37
Apt, Milburn “Mel,” 254
Arab-Israeli War, 259
Arado Ar 234, 161, 168
area rule, defined, 271
Argus Motoren, 133
Armistice of 11 November 1918, 36
Armistice of Cassibile (1943), 105–6
arms race, 198, 255
Armstrong, Louis, 58
Army, U.S., unity of command, 205–7
Army Air Force, U.S. (USAAF), 80, 122, 125, 206–7, 226, 228, 271
aircraft designations, 235n
Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, 128
Army Board of Ordnance and Fortification, U.S., 28
Arnold, Henry “Hap,” 120, 183–84, 188
Ascani, Fred, 169, 208–10
aspect ratio, 271, 280–81
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 9, 163–64, 163n
attack on Pearl Harbor, 72n, 76, 81–83
Automobile Club of America, 49
Avco Lycoming, 259
Axis Powers, defined, 271
Azerbaijan Crisis, 196–97
azimuth, 3
Babel, John, 190n
Bachem Ba 349 Natter (Viper), 2–6, 141, 168
Badoglio, Pietro, 105–6
Baikonur Cosmodrome, 256
Bailey, G. W., 188
Baker, Bob, 263
Baldwyns Park, 23
Ballistic Research Laboratory, 187n
Banking Act of 1933, 67
Bär, Heinrich, 6–8
Barcelona Landing Ground, 106
Barnes, Calvin Rankin, 217
Barnes, Pancho. See Lowe, Florence Leontine “Pancho Barnes”
Barnes, William Emmert, 217–18
Baruch Plan, 203
Battle of Anzio, 143
Battle of Britain, 132–33, 135–36
Battle of Cantigny, 36
Battle of Casablanca, 88–91
Battle of Dunkirk, 132
Battle of Guadalcanal, 84–85, 87, 120
Battle of Midway, 84
Battle of Stalingrad, 87, 87n
Battle of the Bulge, 147–52, 148n, 160, 188
Battle of the Coral Sea, 84
Battle of the Eastern Solomons, 83–84, 85
Baugher, Joe, 249
Beaumont, Roland “Bee,” 250
Bell, Alexander Graham, 49
Bell, Larry, 188, 212, 234, 235
Bell Aircraft, 6, 120, 123, 124–25, 171, 187–91, 226, 234, 251–52
Bell ASM-A-2/B-63, 251
Bell GAM-63 RASCAL, 251–52
Bell P-39 Airacobras, 84–85, 85n, 120, 159, 194
Bell P-59 Airacomets (XP-59), 187–88, 235
design and development, 120–21, 120n
flight testing, 120–21
operational service, 123–24, 125, 183–84, 187–88
Bell P-63 Kingcobras, 120, 182, 194
Bell X-1 (XS-1)
aircraft designation, 188n
design and development, 188–90, 211
Goodlin test flights, 198–99, 207–8, 219–20
test program and flights, 211–13, 219–20
X-1A, Yeager and Mach 2 plus, 253–54
Yeager and Mach 1 flight, 238–39, 241–45, 248, 249–51
Yeager’s selection for test flights, 209–10, 226
Yeager’s test flights, 224–28
Bell X-2 Starbusters, 254
Bendix Trophy, 71
Bennett Trophy, 48
Benz Bz.IIIb, 41
Bergamini, Carlo, 106–7
Bergius process, 43n
Berlepsch, Georg Freiherr von, 110–11n, 294n
Berlin, 162, 183
Bernoulli, Daniel, 276
Berrechid Airfield, 91
bicycles, 30–31
bienenwabe, 1
biplanes, 27, 45, 114, 272
bird flight, 17, 18, 20, 21, 25, 26, 30–31
Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation (Lilienthal), 25
Birdseye, Clarence, 66
birth of modern flight, xi–xiii, 15–33, 40–52
birth rates, post-World War II, 176
Blackburn, Al, 236, 239, 299n
Blériot, Louis, 48, 48n
Blériot XI, 48, 48n
Blitz, the, 135–36n
blitzkrieg, 294n
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, 3, 4, 96, 131, 138, 155–56
Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, 163n, 183, 189, 198, 213, 220, 224, 240–41
Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses, 260
Boggess, Charles, Jr., 152
Boise, USS, 110
Bolshevism, 80
Bonesteel, Charles Hartwell, 198
Bong, Richard, 125n, 169, 183, 191
Bonham-Carter, Helena, 76n
Bonham-Carter, Maurice, 76n
Borelli, Giovanni Alfonso, 18
Borsodi, Fred, 160–61
Boston Tea Party, 19
Boulton, Matthew, 44
Boulton, Matthew Piers Watt, 44, 44n
Boulton Paul Defiant (“Daffy”), 44n
boundary layer, 50, 92–93
Boyd, Albert, 232, 256, 298n
air speed record of, 199–200
background of, 200, 298n
Chief of Flight Test, 191, 200, 208–12
Chilstrom and Sabre XP-86, 209, 210, 249, 250
update on, 258–59
Yeager and X-I, 191, 208–12, 220–21, 225–27, 242–43
Boyne, Walter J., 7
Bradley, Omar, 233
Brahe, Tycho, 18
Brandenberger, Erich, 149
Briggs, Lyman, 117–18
British Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 50
bubble canopies, 136, 169, 170, 201
Burcham, Milo, 125n
Burnelli Aircraft, 259
Burr, Raymond, 68n
Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 37
Busemann, Adolf, 113, 114, 118–19, 126, 172, 200–201
Bushell, Roger, 148n
Byrd, Richard Evelyn, 58
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 185, 211
camber, 93, 201, 272, 276–77
cambered airfoils, 25, 27, 30
Cambridge Universi
ty, 75
Camina, M/S, 218–19
Camp Miami Beach, 158–59
Candide (Voltaire), 57–58
Caniff, Milton, 168n
Capaccio Airfield, 110
capillary waves, 247
capitalism, 9, 179–81
Cardenas, Bob, 213, 224
Carpenter, Scott, 255
Carroll, Frank, 185, 187
Casablanca Conference (1943), 87
Castillo de Coruña del Conde, 18
Castleman, Harry, 104
Cayley, George, 19–20, 24, 170n
center of gravity, 136, 272, 283–84
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 179, 206
Chain Lightning (movie), 264–65
Chanute, Octave, 26–27, 288n
Chanute Air Force Base, 27n
Charter of the United Nations, 174
Chenango, USS, 88, 90–91
Chicago & Alton Railroad, 26
Chilstrom, Emma, 37, 54
Chilstrom, Glen, 265, 265n
Chilstrom, John, 37, 54, 65, 70
Chilstrom, John Scott, 265, 265n
Chilstrom, Kenneth O. “Ken,” xii, 8, 207
birth of, 37
early interest in aviation, 70, 71, 291n
early life of, 53–54, 55, 58, 65, 69, 70
legacy of, 265–66
meeting Orville Wright, 191–92, 298n
P-80 and National Air Races, 193–96
pilot exchange program, 264
update on, 264–65
during World War II, 88, 91–92, 94–112, 124, 158–59
at Wright Field, 158–59, 167–69, 173, 188, 190, 191–92, 193–96, 200–201, 208–9, 225, 243, 264
X-1 program and, 188, 190, 191–92, 208–9, 225, 243
XP-86 Sabre and, 209, 210, 212, 245, 249, 250, 264
Chilton, Bob, 235–36, 240
China, 15, 174
chord line, 93, 272
Churchill, Winston, 95, 181
Chute, Roger, 219
circumnavigation of globe, 66–67, 68
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 67–68, 68n
Clemenceau, Georges, 53
Cochrane, Jackie, 259–60
Cold War, 9, 182, 196–98, 202–4
command structure, xi
communism, 179–80, 181, 197
compressibility, 117, 118, 119, 136, 272
“compressibility burble,” 118, 228
control, 24–25, 30–31, 43, 281–82, 287n
Convair YB-46, 257
Coolidge, Calvin, 38, 63
Cooper, Gordon, 255
Cooper, Marcus, 160
Corum, Clifford and Ralph, 121–22