Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2025 i Flight Journal

THE FIRES THAT RAVAGED COMMUNITIES around Los Angeles earlier this year captivated the country and commanded all the news channels 24/7 with endless footage of burned-out homes, walls of flames, fleeing families, smoke-blackened first responders, and “hotshots” who were battling the conflagration on the ground. Acts of courage by these warriors were being chronicled daily. But just above the burning treetops, distant from the news crews, an aerial war was being waged against the fire with dozens of aircraft, including twin-engine Turbo Commander 690s, OV-10 Broncos, Beech King Air 200s, Boeing CH-47s, Grumman S-2T air tankers, Bell UH-1H Super Huey helis and even McDonnell Douglas DC-10s! In our story “Big Juicy,” Jan Tegler takes you in 10 Tanker’s DC-10 fire bomber cockpit with Albuquerque-based Captain R.K. Smithley, one of the…

“When you’re in a holding pattern flying over a thousand houses that are now just foundations, it kind of slaps you in the mouth,” Capt. R.K. Smithley says, describing his emotions and the view from the cockpit of the DC-10-30 as he was flying for 10 Tanker Air Carrier just above the fires that devastated Los Angeles in January. “But when it’s your turn to go in and drop, it’s all business for the three of us flight crew,” Smithley adds. “We’re putting retardant right where they want it to try to save a hundred or a thousand houses. And you’re down low in Mandeville Canyon with big high-tension power lines off the right wing and terrain off to the left, so all three of us crew are focused. And…

It was late late—or maybe early early—and Robin Olds was holding forth as only he could. After the bar had closed, Robin was still talking fighters, specifically the F-4 versus the MiG-21. He pounded a fist on the table. Then, in that deceptively soft voice with Yosemite Sam overtones, he said, “The best flying job in the world was a MiG-21 pilot at Phuc Yen. Hell, the way we fought that (bleep)ing war, if I had been one of them, I’d have got 50 of us!” In a war where the MiG-17, -19 and -21 were code-named Red, White and Blue, two of Robin’s four victories were “Blue Bandits.” The MiG-21 (NATO “Fishbed”) has been touted as the most successful fighter jet, but nobody has defined “successful.” If it’s numbers…

Most iconic air transport of all time? The Concorde, Boeing 747, and DeHavilland Comet are all candidates, but the hands-down winner has to be the Douglas DC-3. Briefly: more built than any other air transport (16,079), longevity (80 years since first flight in 1935 and still flying), design innovation (combination of engines and airframe) and, probably more important than anything else, its public perception and appeal. Because of the DC-3, air transport was suddenly acceptable to the masses and became what it is today. A COMPLICATED GENEALOGY is to be expected with such a huge production, including construction in Russia and Japan, with its adoption as a military transport during World War II as the C-47, the main reason for the production number. Then there were the names, mainly adopted during…

“I would still assess the Wildcat as the outstanding naval fighter of the early years of World War II … I can vouch as a matter of personal experience that this Grumman fighter was one of the finest shipboard aeroplanes ever created.”—British Royal Navy Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC First Wildcats (“Martlets”) At the onset of World War II, the British Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm (FAA) had only 232 frontline aircraft on its strength. By 1940, the FAA was in desperate need of a modern carrier-capable fighter to replace and supplement the largely obsolete aircraft in service. Fortunately, the U.S. company Grumman was willing and able to step up to provide their rugged and pugnacious F4F Wildcat to the British. This was the start of a long…

WHEN THE NAME STEARMAN IS MENTIONED in aviation circles, the first thought that comes to mind is of the popular World War II PT-13, PT-17 and N2S biplane military primary training planes that introduced thousands of military pilots to flying. However, for the most part, those airplanes were actually Boeing Model 75 Kaydets. The Stearman Aircraft Company was founded by Lloyd Stearman at Venice, California, in 1927 and then re-organized a year later in Wichita, Kansas. However, in 1934, the Stearman Aircraft Company became a subsidiary of the Boeing Airplane Company, and in 1939 it became known as the Wichita Division of the Boeing Airplane Company. Thus, the Stearman Model 75 which first flew in 1936, eventually became the Boeing PT-13/PT-17/N2S Kaydet. With over 10,000 being manufactured, the Kaydet was probably…

ON APRIL 16, 1972, four F-4Ds of the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing engaged four MiG-21s southwest of Hanoi. The two lead MiGs were bare metal, trailed by two camouflaged fighters. With the Phantoms in between, a sandwich play developed. Though both MiG wingmen exited the fight, the ensuing combat lasted four minutes—one of the longest of the war. Basco Flight’s leader was Capt. Fred Olmsted, who had bagged a MiG two weeks before. His element leader was Maj. Dan Cherry with Capt Jeff Feinstein as his WSO. They pitched up to engage the trailing MiG, whose wingman declined to engage. Cherry was an experienced fighter pilot with some 2,000 hours total time including a tour in F-105s. He had logged some 270 missions and estimates he had about 250 hours…

Vietnam veterans still hang their speech on the frame work of “in-country” terms: boonies, Charlie, C-rats, DMZ, Huey. And Spooky. Early in the conflict, the Air Force used C-47s and -123s as illumination aircraft, dropping flares to deny Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops the cover of darkness. A logical progression led to arming C-47s with 7.62mm miniguns, each capable of firing more than 3,000 rounds per minute. A two-plane test team arrived in South Vietnam in December 1964, and immediately proved successful. With three miniguns mounted on the left side of the fuselage, a pylon turn at 3,000 ft. could sustain massive firepower on area targets. The unit’s radio call sign, “Puff,” became generic to AC-47 (attack cargo) gunships, but subsequently a frequent call sign was “Spooky,” which stuck.…

This beautifully restored Boeing P-12E (serial number 31-559) is on permanent display within the Early Years Gallery of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. It is adorned in the markings of the U.S. Army Air Corps 6th Pursuit Squadron based on Wheeler Field in Hawaii in the 1930s; it was retired from service in 1940. It was later discovered abandoned in a Midwestern barn, its nose protruding out from it. The barn had begun to collapse, with one of the barn doors resting atop the airplane that was actually helping to hold that part of the barn up. It was subsequently donated to the museum in 1973 by Marcellus Foose and Glen Courtwright of Oaklawn, Illinois. Its restoration by museum specialists was completed in 1983.…

THE SEEMINGLY ENDLESS AIR WAR over Europe did not stop when the sun went down. The skies over England came alive almost every night as British Bomber Command sent wave after wave of medium and heavy bombers to selected targets all over the Nazi-controlled continent. These bomber crews had to deal with an onslaught of blinding searchlights, deadly flak and the ruthless night hunters of the Luftwaffe. The Germans had perfected the use of aerial electronic equipment in their single- and twin-engine fighters to assist them in locating the British bomber stream. To counter the Luftwaffe’s nightly terror reign over the incoming bombers, twin-engine deHavilland Mosquito fighter-bombers were sent out to seek and destroy the Luftwaffe night fighters. Here is the story of one such pilot who became an ace…

FIRST FLOWN AS A TEST AIRCRAFT in 1955, the MiG-21 proved to be an excellent interceptor for short-range ground-controlled intercept missions. With an extremely high climb rate (up to 46,000 feet per minute), it could be launched near an area in need of defense to meet attackers rapidly. This is good, as endurance is not the MiG-21’s strong suit. Armed with four air-to-air missiles and a variety of 23mm and 30mm cannon depending on the model, it was well armed for a fighter of its period. Used with success against the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy fighters and bombers in Vietnam, the aircraft proved that a slashing attack coordinated by GCI could work against U.S. aircraft. Turning in a dogfight was not its strong suit, however. The small delta…

The Curtiss P-40 was undoubtedly the most widely used Allied fighter of WW II. As the Army Air Force’s primary fighter in 1941, it was still active at the end of the War, serving in 14 other nations as diverse as China, Russia, and Egypt. The P-40 came early and stayed late: from Pearl Harbor onward. The U.S. Army called all models “Warhawks,” while the British dubbed the P-40B and C versions “Tomahawks” and D through N “Kittyhawks.” Most models used the Allison V1710 liquid-cooled engine, and later variants had the Packard Merlin. For a high-performance aircraft, the P-40 was remarkably free of vices, but it could be a handful on landing, and smart Warhawk pilots avoided turning with Japanese opponents. Few fighters were so prolific as ace makers, and…