|
Posted on 08/27/2003 12:00:44 AM PDT by SAMWolf
|
|
 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
|
|
World War 2 Ace, shot down 11 German planes, including 2 Me-262 jets Chuck Yeager's accomplishments as an ace in WWII have been overshadowed by his achievements as a test pilot, but his fighter pilot experiences were remarkable on their own. An eighteen-year old West Virgina country boy, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1941 and shot down eleven (and a half!) German planes, including two Me-262 jets.  He was also shot down over France, evaded, joined the Maquis, and made his way back to England via Spain. Somehow he persuaded the brass to let him continue flying fighter missions in Europe, contrary to policy. All of this by the age of twenty-two. Born in 1923, son of Albert Hal Yeager (a staunch Republican, so firm in his party loyalties that he once refused to shake President Harry Truman's hand), Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager grew up in Myra, on the Mud River in West Virgina. His dirt-poor youth was filled with hillbilly themes that sound romantic today, but probably weren't much fun at the time: making moonshine, eating cornmeal mush three times a day, shooting squirels for dinner, chasing rats out of the kitchen, going barefoot all summer, butchering hogs, and stealing watermelons. At an early age Chuck could do well at anything requiring manual dexterity or math: ping-pong, shooting, auto mechanics.  Flight Officer Yeager’s P-39 over the Tonapah Bombing and Gunnery Range in April 1943 He enlisted in the Army Air Corps when he graduated from Hamlin High School in 1941, and became an airplane mechanic. He hated flying, after throwing up his first time in the air. But when the chance came to become a "Flying Sergeant," with three stripes and no K.P., he applied, and was accepted. His good cordination, mechanical abilities, and excellent memory enabled him to impress his instructors in flight training.  Assigned to the 363rd Fighter Squadron, of the 357th Fighter Group, he moved up to P-39s with the squadron at Tonopah, Nevada. Unlike many other pilots, he always liked the P-39 (which probably would have been a decent airplane if it had had a turbocharger). Here at Tonopah, he first developed the fighter pilot's detached attitude toward death, even getting angry at those he thought had died needlessly or through lack of skill. During the ruthless weeding-out process at Tonopah, the pilots worked as hard at playing as they did at flying. They frequented the bars and cathouses of Tonopah and nearby Mina, until the sheriff ran them out of the latter establishment. He and his lifelong friend, Bud Anderson, both made it through the process.  A trio of 363rd aces: Maj. C.E. "Bud" Anderson (16.25 victories) and Captains Don Bochkay (13.75 victories) and Chuck Yeager (12.5 victories) at Leiston, England, January 1945. When the squadron went to California to train for escort missions, Yeager drew temporary duty at Wright Field, Ohio, testing new props for the P-39 and also getting a chance to fly the big new P-47s. He took the opportunity to buzz his hometown, less than an hour's flying time away. As Hamlin's only fighter pilot, they knew who it was. He rejoined the squadron out in California, where he met his future wife Glennis, "pretty as a movie star and making more money than I was."  Capt. Chuck Yeager in the cockpit of his P-51D Mustang, late 1944 Next the squadron moved to Casper, Wyoming for more training. It was also great hunting; one time Chuck went up in his P-39 and carefully herded a dozen antelope toward a pre-arranged spot, where his armed ground confederates had a field day. They ate antelope roasts for a month. But he almost "bought the farm" in Wyoming. On October, 23, 1943, during a high speed exercise, his P-39's engine blew up, the plane burst into flames, and Yeager had to bail out. He survived, but was hospitalized with a fractured spine.  P-51 Mustangs of the 363rd Fighter Squadron., 357th FG, piloted by Bud Anderson, Bill Overstreet and Chuck Yeager, in combat with Me109s of JG-3 over Germany. The 357th FG shipped out for Europe in winter of 1943-44, and began operations in February, 1944, the first P-51 equipped unit in the Eighth Air Force. Yeager shot down his first Messerschmitt on his seventh mission (one of the early Mustang missions over Berlin), and the next day, March 5, three FW-190s caught him and shot him down. He bailed out over occupied France, being careful to delay pulling his ripcord until he had fallen far enough to avoid getting strafed by the German fighters.  He had landed about 50 miles east of Bordeaux, injured and bleeding, but armed with a forty-five caliber pistol and determined to make his way over the Pyrenees to Spain. He hid in the woods the first night, ate a stale chocolate bar from his survival kit and huddled under this parachute. The next morning he encountered a French woodcutter. They couldn't communicate very well, but the woodcutter whispered "Boche" and gestured for Yeger to stay put. Uncertain as to the Frenchman's loyalties, but having no better choices, Yeager stayed, but trained his gun on the path when a he heard a couple people returning that night. "American, a friend is here come out."  His new friends led him to a barn where he hid, while the Germans searched for him. An English-speaking woman questioned him, and satisfied that he was not a German 'plant', the local resistance people help him, starting with a local doctor who removed the shrapnel from his leg. They took him to the nearest maquis group, to hide out with them, until the snow had melted enough to permit passage over the Pyrenees. The Maquis group, about 25 men, constantly kept on the move, always being hunted by German Fieseler Storch observation planes. Yeager was an outsider with the Maquis, and sometimes relations were strained, but they accepted him when he was able to help fuse plastic explosives. After exciting and freezing adventures, he made it over the mountains into Spain. On March 30, 1944, he sat in the American consul's office. After he languished in a Spanish hotel for six weeks, the U.S. government negotiated a deal with the Franco government - a straight swap of six evadees for an amount of Texaco gasoline. The other 357th pilots were shocked when Yeager appeared; he was the first downed pilot to have returned.  Yeager, shortly after he returned to combat in August 1944, climbing into the cockpit of his second Mustang, a P-51C he named "Glamorous Glenn II." Well-considered rules forbade the return of evaded pilots to combat; if they were shot down a second time, they would be liable to reveal information about the Resistance network to the German interrogators. But Chuck Yeager would have none of it; he was determined to return to combat. The evadee rule was strict,but Yeager and a bomber pilot named Fred Glover appealed all the way to General Eisenhower, who promised to "do what he could." While the decision was pending, the Group let Yeager fly training missions. Once they were called to cover a downed pilot in the Channel, a Ju-88 appeared and Yeager couldn't restrain himself from going after it, shooting it down at the German coast. He gave the gun camera footage and the credit to another pilot, but still caught Hell. Ike decided to allow Yeager to return to combat in the summer of 1944, which he did with a vengence, now flying a P-51D nicknamed Glamorous Glen, gaudily decorated in the red-and-yellow trim of the 357th. At first, the pickings were slim, as the German fliers seemed to be laying low. He flew in a four plane division with Bud Anderson and Don Bochkay, two other double aces. On September 18, he flew in support of the Market Garden glider drops over Arnhem, but couldn't do much to stop the appalling slaughter of the C-47s. By this time, he had been promoted to Lieutenant, a commissioned officer. Yeager became an 'ace-in-a-day' on October 12, leading a bomber escort over Bremen. As he closed in on one Bf-109, the pilot broke left and collided with his wingman; both bailed out, giving Yeager credit for two victories without firing a shot. In a sharp dogfight, Yeager's vision, flying skills, and gunnery gave him three more quick kills.  Chuck Yeager makes a low pass over his first Me262 jet fighter 'kill' The German Me-262 jets appeared in combat in late 1944, but went right after the bombers, avoiding dogfights with the Mustangs. Whenever they wanted, they could just open it up, and pull away from the P-51s with a 150 MPH speed advantage. One day Yeager caught one on its approach to an airstrip. Flying through dense flak, he downed the jet, and earned a DFC for the feat.  The Last Mission depicts Chuck Yeager's and Bud Anderson's last mission of World War II, in which they soared through the Alps and did a little sight seeing before turning their P-51 Mustangs toward home. He flew his last "combat" mission in January, 14 1945. He and Bud Anderson cooked up a scheme to sign on for the day's missions as "spares," and then do some uninhibited flying. Anderson describes this, and other events in his life-long friendship with Yeager, in his autobiography, To Fly and Fight: We hit the Dutch coast, took a right and flew south, 500 across France into Switzerland. Chuck was the guide. And I was the tourist. We dropped our tanks on Mount Blanc and strafed them, trying to set them afire (it seemed like a good idea at the time), then found Lake Annecy, and the lakeshore hotel where Yeager and DePaolo had met. We buzzed the hotel, fast enough and low enough to tug at the shingles, and then we zoomed over the water, right on the deck, our props throwing up mist.  Yeager and his ground crew in front of his P-51D, "Glamorous Glen III." We'd just shot up a mountain in a neutral country, buzzed half of Europe, and probably could have been court-martialed on any one of a half-dozen charges. It didn't matter. We were aglow. It was over, we had survived, we were finished, and now we would go home together. When we landed at Leiston, my crew chief jumped on my wing, "Group got more than 50 today. Must've been something. How many did you get?" "None," I confessed in a small, strangled voice. I felt sick.  Yeager and his "Glamorous Glennis" were married on 26 February 1945 Chuck and Glennis were married in February, and he reported to Wright Field in July, the start of his even more extraordinary career as a test pilot. He impressed his instructors so much, that despite his non-com background and his West Virginia accent, he was assigned to the XS-1 project at Muroc Field in California.
|
HA HA HA.
Three letters and you still can't get it right!
Good night Snippy.
Beat you to it tonight! Neener Neener! Neener!
(The "e" was supposed to be capitalized too)
Thank you SAM. ;)
You wouldn't be trying to give away anything about our special project would you?
In the aircraft designer's search for better streamlining and higher speeds, some aircraft were designed with the large and heavy engine mounted amidships and the propeller driven by an extension shaft which passed between the pilot's feet. This permitted the nose contours of the fuselage to be shaped to reduce drag. This arrangement also permitted a larger cannon to be mounted within the contours of the fuselage and fired through the propeller shaft. The layout of the P-39 is shown here. It includes an Allison V-1710 engine, the drive shaft, the offset reduction gearbox, and the Aeroproducts propeller. Aft mounted engines were later employed on Bell's follow-on aircraft, the P-63 "King Cobra", and later the larger Fisher P-75.
The V-1710 liquid-cooled engine shown here was first used by the Army Air Corps in 1932 and, with later improvements, powered most Curtiss P-40 "Warhawks," the twin engined Lockheed P-38 "Lightning," the early versions of the North American P-51 "Mustang" and, as late as the 1950's, some F-82 "Twin Mustangs."
X-1 Cockpit
Engine Exhaust Detail
Under Construction Fuselage In Segments
Under Construction Fuselage Joined
Photograph of a bullet in supersonic flight, published by Ernst Mach in 1887.
Chuck Yeager's father refused to shake hands with Harry Truman.
After I shook hands with Philip E. Bayt the Democrat mayor of Indianapolis in 1952, my father instructed me to make a beeline for the head and wash my hands.
But seriously, what a career in taking to the sky to whoop ass without making mistakes.
Regarding breaking the sound barrier, the Commander who headed up my stepson's NJROTC unit recounted how he would take a new pilot up to demonstrate the thermal barrier.
He would take the airplane through vomit-inducing maneuvers while manipulating the heater and air conditioning controls.
On the Frontier
Chapter 4-5
The Götterdammerung of the X-2
No program caused the NACA, especially the engineers of the High-Speed Flight Station, more frustration and disappointment than the X-2. It highlighted the terrible effects of underestimating the technical complexities involved in developing a radical new aircraft. It also highlighted the dangers of succumbing to the pressure to set records in the guise of research. The X-2 program was an unqualified failure, despite achieving both altitude and speed records. It failed to return any of the high-speed aerodynamic heating information anticipated from the program. Two aircraft were built; both were destroyed with three fatalities.
The X-2 was the most exotic and complex of the early rocket-propelled research aircraft. Designed for supersonic tests of the sweptwing shape, the plane had an estimated performance in excess of mach 3. The first plane designed to withstand the rigors of aerodynamic heating, its structure was fabricated from stainless steel and a nickel alloy. To be air-launched and propelled by a two-chamber rocket engine, it would land on retractable landing skids. Bell had hoped to complete the first aircraft in 1948, but construction delays caused by the complex alloy structure and problems with its explosion-prone Curtiss-Wright 67 000- newton (15 000-lb) rocket engine stretched the development program by years.
The ill-fated Bell X-2 rocket research aircraft. As time went on, NACA's interest in the airplane declined markedly. By 1953, much of the sweptwing information that the X-2 could have provided had already been derived from the Skyrocket. Initial glide trials with the first of two X-2s took place in 1952, demonstrating that the plane flew well at low speeds (its engine was still not ready for installation). Then in 1953 the second X-2 was lost over Lake Ontario with two crewmen, delaying the program yet again. Problems with its planned electrical flight control system forced a change to a conventional hydromechanical system patterned on that of the F-86 fighter. The sole surviving X-2 flew again on another series of glide trials in 1954-still lacking its rocket engine-which forced redesign of the landing skids and shock-absorbing strut system. At last, the Curtiss-Wright engine was ready for installation, and the X-2 arrived back at Edwards in the summer of 1955, ready for its powered flight trials. Then the loss of the X-1A and the subsequent accident investigation grounded the X-2 for replacement of its dangerous gaskets.
Management responsibilities for the X-2 lay between the Air Force and Bell. NACA participated in some X-2 support research, primarily Langley wind-tunnel studies and Wallops rocket-model tests, and the RAPP made many recommendations, suggesting unsuccessfully that its trouble-prone Curtiss-Wright engine be replaced. By October 1955 the Air Force had lost patience with the program and issued an ultimatum: if the X-2 did not complete a powered flight before the end of the year, the project would be terminated.[Ref 4-12] NACA still retained a little enthusiasm for the plane, wanting it for aerodynamic and structural heating studies. The X-1B was making similar studies, but the X-2 could go far beyond the X-1B, up to mach 3. Even though the NACA recognized that the X-2 would soon be overshadowed by the X-15 then under development, the agency still believed that the near-term availability of the plane would furnish much information unavailable from other flight testing programs on the heating conditions encountered at mach 3.
The X-2 completed its first powered flight on 18 November 1955. Piloted by Air Force test pilot Pete Everest, it featured brief but not damaging fire in the engine bay. Nevertheless, the Air Force ruled the test a success, giving the program its reprieve. For various reasons, the plane did not fly again until March 1956. During these Air Force trials, the plane remained the property of the Bell Aircraft Corporation, which did not deliver it to the Air Force until 23 August 1956. Walt Williams and his engineering staff, watching patiently from the sidelines, were occasionally asked to furnish technical assistance.
On the advice of the NACA, the Air Force had bought a special computer, the Goodyear Electronic Digital Analyzer, which would predict aircraft behavior by extrapolation of results from test flights. This would give engineers and pilots some indication of what to expect as they flew higher and faster. NACA had designated Richard Day as the HSFS program engineer for the X-2; he helped with the new computer, providing equations and motions data. Day routinely briefed project pilot Pete Everest and, later in 1956, Iven Kincheloe and Mel Apt, Everest's replacements.[Ref 4-13]
The simulations confirmed predictions from NACA wind tunnel tests that the X-2 would have rapidly deteriorating directional and lateral (roll) stability near mach 3. Aileron deflection (to roll the plane) could lead to an aerodynamic condition known as adverse yaw, followed by increasingly rapid rolling until the rolling motions reached a "critical roll velocity," the point where the plane would roll into inertial coupling and tumble. During 1956, as Pete Everest moved up in speed, NACA's Dick Day and Hubert "Jake" Drake anxiously watched the directional stability curves, compared them to flight data, and urged the Air Force to move in smaller increments, not in great leaps of half-a-mach number.[Ref 4-14] In May 1956, Everest achieved mach 2.53, making the X-2 the fastest aircraft in the world. By this time, NACA's patience was running somewhat thin; in early June, at a joint NACA-Air Force-Bell meeting at Edwards, the NACA representatives requested that the X-2 be delivered to NACA sometime between 15 September and 1 October, so that the High-Speed Flight Station could complete a few flights before winter rains flooded the lakebed. The Air Force agreed, stating that the service's program would be "to expand the speed and altitude envelope to at least nominal values"-30 000 meters and mach 3.[Ref 4-15] Everest came close to this on 23 July, when he reached 2.87 (3057 kilometers per hour), his last flight before moving to a staff assignment in Norfolk, Virginia.
Following Everest's final flight, the Air Force momentarily lost interest in mach 3 in favor of attaining the craft's maximum altitude. Test pilot Iven Kincheloe flew the plane to 38 470 meters, the first flight above 30 500 meters. At that altitude, aerodynamic controls were useless. The X-2's behavior in this region of low dynamic pressure ("low q" in engineer's shorthand) pointed to the need for reaction controls. Above 30 000 meters, still in a ballistic arc, the X-2 began a left bank which Kincheloe wisely did not attempt to correct, for fear of tumbling the airplane. He experienced less than 0.05 g for approximately 50 seconds, a foretaste of weightless spaceflight; popular science writers dubbed the pilot the "First of the Spacemen.[Ref 4-16] In late August the Air Force had taken delivery of the X-2 and then extended its program for an additional month (before the plane would be turned over to the NACA), announcing the purpose as "to obtain an incremental value of the high-speed performance of the X-2 airplane."[Ref 4-17] Into the cockpit stepped a new Air Force pilot, Capt. Milburn G. Apt.
Though he had flown chase on many X-2 missions, Mel Apt had never flown a rocket-powered airplane. He was perhaps the most experienced pilot at Edwards on the phenomenon of inertial coupling, having flown many inertial coupling research flights in the F-100 fighter. Apt had received computer-based briefings on 29 July and 24 September, but the briefings had a flaw. The X-2 flights had accumulated useful data only up to mach 2.4. Engineers extrapolated all data beyond that, and the predictions were dubious. One study, at a simulated mach number of 3.2 at 21 300 meters, showed the aircraft "diverging" (going out of control) during lateral (rolling) maneuvers. Being extrapolations, none of these studies could be conclusive. On 27 September 1956 Mel Apt dropped away from the Superfortress mothership in the X-2 at 8:49 a.m. His flight plan called for "the optimum maximum energy flight path," one certain, if successful, to exceed mach 3. In a postflight question-and-answer session, a senior program official said, "Captain Apt was instructed to make no special effort to obtain maximum speed but rather to stay within previous limits and to concentrate on the best flying technique possible."[Ref 4-18] Clearly some confusion existed in the minds of mission planners. And there was the matter of experience; Apt had not even had the benefit of a glide flight in the X-2; his sole time in the cockpit was spent in several ground engine runs and posing for publicity photographs with Kincheloe. He had been cautioned to decelerate rapidly if he encountered stability difficulties and not to make rapid control movements above mach 2.7.
As Apt climbed away after launch, he followed a predetermined schedule matching the airplane's g loading versus altitude, based on code numbers radioed from ground radar tracking. He reached high altitude, nosed over and dived past mach 3, reaching mach 3.2 (3370 kilometers per hour) at 20 000 meters. His rocket engine burned for another 10 seconds, longer than previously. The flight had been flawless, but now victory turned to ashes. Apt began an abrupt turn back for the lake. Perhaps he believed the X-2 was traveling slower than it was. Like all early X-series aircraft, the X-2 had lagging instrumentation. The cockpit camera film showed the machmeter indicating mach 3 for over 10 seconds. As the X-2 turned, it started a series of rapid rolls and the "critical roll velocity," an engineering construct, now became a brutal reality. The X-2 coupled, tossing Mel Apt violently about the cockpit, knocking him unconscious. Apt slowly came to, tried to regain control, then jettisoned the craft's nose section in preparation to bail out. The shock of jettisoning the nose knocked him unconscious again, and before he could recover, the capsule plunged into the desert, killing him instantly. The rest of the X-2 spun into the desert eight kilometers away. Barely three minutes after launch, Mel Apt had become the first pilot to reach mach 3, and then died. Kincheloe's voice continued on the radio, "Mel, can you read me, Mel?"[Ref 4-19]
A valued pilot had died. A research airplane had crashed just as it might have begun justifying its development. A record had been set, but to little purpose. The accident illustrated the acute need for reliable cockpit instrumentation for high-speed flight research, and this eventually helped spawn the special gyro-stabilized inertial guidance system used on the X-15. Some tried to point to "research accomplishments" of the X-2, citing limited heating data acquired from seared samples of temperature-sensitive paint-which rocket models could more easily have acquired. In reality, its research was nil. Groping for significance, the Edwards historian asked one program official, "I imagine the X-2 program contributed greatly to aeronautical knowledge, didn't it?" "More than ever before," answered the official, "we appreciate the requirement of providing the pilot with the information he needs to do his job."[Ref 4-20] Back in Washington, the NACA staff fired off a series of messages to Walt Williams, fearful lest the High-Speed Flight Station had condoned the flight. One, from Dryden's deputy, got right to the point:
WHAT DOES OPTIMUM MAX ENERGY FLT PATH MEAN
PD SGND CROWLEY
The Air Force Flight Test Center issued its accident report in November 1956; it concluded that the fatal turn at peak velocity had led inevitably to coupled motion instability.[Ref 4-21]
The loss of the X-2 once again robbed the NACA of a research tool just at a time when it might have proved worthwhile. Previously, the NACA had lost its planned programs on the X-1-3 and X-1A because of the gasket explosions. The X-2 fiasco removed the last chance to get mach 3 heating data prior to the X-15. The agency had to make do with the X-1B, capable only of approaching mach 2, an unpleasant price to pay for a speed record. It was particularly galling because Apt's flight was to have been the last Air Force flight before the X-2 was turned over to the NACA.
The X-2 program was disaster masquerading as research organization, and subsequent program reviewers could not ignore the facts. The Air Force's program historian argued that Mel Apt had certainly needed at least one low-supersonic familiarization flight in the X-2, questioning why "a pilot with limited experience like Captain Apt [was] shoved into the cockpit of the X-2 on an optimum flight at the last minute."[Ref 4-22] NACA would certainly have agreed with his overall conclusion:
Only one conclusion can be reached and that is that the Air Force in its determination to attain a record speed and altitude with the X-2 which it did achieve assumed a calculated risk of losing the pilot and the aircraft in the process .... Fatigue, miscalculations, and poor judgment entered into the program at a time when unhurried flights were in order and good judgment should have directed and supervised the program.[Ref 4-23]
We were finishing a house for Albert M. Clogston (former head of Bell Labs in New Jersey and Sandia Labs in Albuquerque) in April 1981 when he called us in to watch Columbia land while he chatted about ten-story clean rooms with his guests.
When Columbia burned up in February it was because insulation broke off and damaged the heat shield tiles.
The insulation broke off because it was envirowhacko insulation used to prevent non-existant global warming.
Let us--before killing our astronauts--first test any modifications on envirowhackos fired into space.
The insulation broke off because it was envirowhacko insulation used to prevent non-existant global warming.
Let us--before killing our astronauts--first test any modifications on envirowhackos fired into space.
Here, here Phil!!
Thanks weldgophardline, we hope everyone enjoys it. We are really excited and hope to share something truly special with the Foxhole "family".
Thanks for the info on the X2 Program.
The Bell Aircraft Company X-2 (46-674) drops away from its Boeing B-50 mothership. The X-2 was a swept-wing, rocket-powered research aircraft designed to fly three times faster than the speed of sound. It was flown to investigate the problems of aerodynamic heating, stability, and control effectiveness at high speeds and altitudes. The X-2 was carried to launch altitude by a Boeing B-50, and then released. At the end of each flight, the X-2 made an unpowered landing on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
