High Desert Warrior is a monthly digital publication serving the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, CA. Published by Aerotech News since 1994.
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On This Date, May 20, 2003: SpaceShipOne made its first, unmanned, captive flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The Burt Rutan-designed spacecraft features a unique “feathering” atmospheric reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folds 70 degrees upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increases drag while retaining stability.
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The door of a Nebraska Air National Guard KC-135R Stratotanker opens and a tall, slender man smiles as crew members depart the aircraft to greet him with a handshake April 25, 2023, for a special “welcome home.”
The door of a Nebraska Air National Guard KC-135R Stratotanker opens and a tall, slender man smiles as crew members depart the aircraft to greet him with a hand
On This Date, May 20, 1941: The North American Aviation XP-51, with company test pilot Robert Creed Chilton at the controls, made its first flight at Mines Field, Calif. The XP-51 was the fourth production Mustang Mk.I built for the Royal Air Force. The Mustang was reassigned to the U.S. Army Air Force, designated as XP-51 and sent to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, for evaluation.
Later, the XP-51 was extensively tested by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Langley Field in Virginia. The XP-51 would be developed into the legendary P-51 Mustang. In production from 1941 to 1945, a total of 16,766 Mustangs of all variants were built.
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Air Force Capt. Samuel “RaZZ” Larson, F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team commander, flies at high airspeeds during an air show at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., May 7, 2023.
Joseph Rochefort was born in 1900 in Dayton, Ohio. However, hoping to gain eligibility for admission to the Navy’s Steam Engineering School, he listed his date of birth as 1898. After succeeding and then graduating, he served on USS Cuyama for five years...
In preparation for possible conflict in the Pacific, Rochefort traveled to Tokyo, Japan, in 1929 to study Japanese.
Joseph Rochefort was born in 1900 in Dayton, Ohio. However, hoping to gain eligibility for admission to the Navy’s Steam Engineering School, he listed his d
On This Date, May 19, 1952: The Grumman XF10F Jaguar made its first flight. The Jaguar was a prototype swing-wing fighter aircraft offered to the U.S. Navy in the early 1950s. Although it never entered service, its research pointed the way toward the later General Dynamics F-111 and Grumman's own F-14 Tomcat. Originally conceived as a swept-wing version of the earlier F9F Panther, in February–March 1948, the design was reconfigured with a T-tail and ultimately a variable-geometry wing. It featured a T-tail, with the horizontal stabilator, a small pivoting center body with a delta servo control at the nose and a larger rear delta main wing, mounted atop the vertical fin. The single turbojet engine was fed by cheek intakes. The high, shoulder-mounted wing could be moved to two positions: a 13.5-degree sweep for takeoff and landing, and a 42.5-degree sweep for high-speed flight. The Jaguar's configuration presented many of the same handling problems as the earlier Bell X-5 experimental aircraft, with some vicious spin characteristics. The prototype was used for some 32 test flights throughout 1952, but in April 1953, the Navy canceled the program, and with it, the 112 production aircraft that had been ordered.
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On this date, May 19, 1949: The U.S. Navy’s Martin JRM-3 Mars, Marshall Mars, flew from Naval Air Station Alameda, Calif., to San Diego Bay, a distance of approximately 450 miles. On board, in addition to the flight crew of seven, were 301 passengers. Prior to this flight, it had never carried more than 269 passengers before.
The 1:52 p.m. takeoff, from the naval air station at Alameda, across the bay, was uneventful.
The Martin JRM Mars was a large four-engine flying boat transport built by the Glenn L. Martin Company for the U. S. Navy. Only five were built, four designated JRM-1, with the last one being a JRM-2. Each airplane was given an individual name derived from the names of island chains in the Pacific Ocean: Marianas Mars, Hawaii Mars, Philippine Mars, Marshall Mars and Caroline Mars. These airplanes were used to transport personnel and cargo between the West Coast of the United States and the Hawaiian Islands. All were upgraded to JRM-3.
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“There is a plethora of signals from a platform and an integrated system; if you are using a digital twin, you can vary those signals at myriad different rates and see the resultant behaviors in real-time…”
Naval Air Systems Command’s Airborne Electronic Attack Systems Program Office is turning to digital technology to improve readiness, explore new capabilities
“Outfitting the FA-50 with the PhantomStrike radar upgrades the capability of a critical aircraft, providing unparalleled performance in a compact, affordable package…” “All while keeping these jets fast, agile and easy to maintain.”
Raytheon Technologies will outfit Korea Aerospace Industries' FA-50 Light Combat Aircraft with the new PhantomStrike radar. PhantomStrike is a fully air-coo
On This Date, May 19, 1943: The first Northrop N-9M-1, a one-third scale flying testbed for the Northrop XB-35 flying wing design, crashed approximately 12 miles west of Muroc Army Air Base, Calif., killing pilot Max Constant. First flown Dec. 27, 1942, the airframe had only logged 22.5 hours, and little data was accumulated before the loss. Post-crash investigation suggested that: "... while Constant was conducting stalls and aft centre of gravity stability tests, aerodynamic forces developed full aft, which were too strong for Constant to overcome, trapping him in the cockpit. To prevent this happening on future flights, a one-shot hydraulic boost device was installed to push the controls forward in an emergency."
When Northrop's Flying Wing bomber program was canceled, all remaining N-9M flight test aircraft, except for the final N-9MB, were scrapped. For more than three decades, it slowly deteriorated until the Chino, California Planes of Fame Air Museum acquired the aircraft in 1982 and began the labor-intensive restoration process. For the next two decades, former Northrop employees and other volunteers restored the N-9MB to its final flight configuration. Since 1993, the yellow-and-blue Flying Wing was exhibited, with flight demonstrations at several air shows every year. On April 22, 2019, the N-9MB was destroyed shortly after takeoff, when it crashed into a prison yard in Norco, Calif. The pilot and sole aircraft occupant was killed but no ground casualties were reported. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to the "pilot's loss of control for undetermined reasons", stating that "given the significant fragmentation of the wreckage, the reason for the loss of control could not be determined."
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The USS Indiana is moored to the side of the USS Cole during Fleet Week Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., April 30, 2023.
“We have tanks in our wire!” sounded the company radio as tracer rounds and mortar blasts illuminated the night sky on Feb. 6, 1968. A North Vietnamese Army (NVA) force of two sapper companies, three infantry battalions and 14 PT-76 tanks surrounded the Lang Vei Special Forces Camp.
Among the 24 Green Berets defending the camp stood demolitions expert Spec. 5th Class Daniel R. Phillips. Known as the “new guy,” Phillips had only been in Vietnam for three weeks when the fight began…
“We have tanks in our wire!” sounded the company radio as tracer rounds and mortar blasts illuminated the night sky on Feb. 6, 1968. A North Vietnamese Ar
On This Date, May 18, 1969: Apollo 10 lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a full dress rehearsal for the landing on the Moon that would follow with Apollo 11, two months later. On board were Air Force Col. Thomas P. Stafford, Mission Commander, on his third space flight; Navy Cmdr. John W. Young, Command Module Pilot, also on his third mission; and Navy Cmdr. Eugene A. Cernan, Lunar Module Pilot, on his second space flight. This was the first Apollo mission in which all three flight crew members had previous space flight experience. During the Apollo 10 mission, everything except an actual landing was done. The Lunar Module separated from the Command Service Module in lunar orbit and descended to within 47,400 feet of the surface. The CSM and LM were in lunar orbit for 2 days, 13 hours, 37 minutes, 23 seconds before returning to Earth. The Apollo capsule and the three astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 400 miles east of American Samoa. The duration of the mission was 8 days, 3 minutes, 23 seconds.
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On This Date, May 18, 1953: The Douglas DC-7 made its first flight. The DC-7 was an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earliest jet airliner — the de Havilland Comet — entered service and only a few years before the jet-powered Douglas DC-8 first flew. Unlike other aircraft in Douglas's line of propeller-driven aircraft, no examples remain in service in the present day, as compared to the far more successful DC-3 and DC-6.
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“As we’ve discussed previously, this extensive training program for Ukrainian crews and maintainers is intended to prepare them for their critical roles ahead and effectively operating the M1 tank and defending Ukrainian people…”
The Defense Department has announced the arrival of 31 M1 Abrams training tanks to Grafenwoehr, Germany, in preparation for U.S.-led training of Ukrainian tank
“In the future, investing in our people is a cornerstone to ensure SOF is ready to take on our nation’s toughest challenges because it is not a question of if, but when, the call will come…”
Special operations forces are carefully, but quickly, adjusting their mission sets to account for the world of strategic competition, said Christopher Maier, as
On This Date, May 18, 1953: Jacqueline Cochran flew the 100th Canadair Sabre — a Sabre Mk.3, serial number 19200 — over a 100 kilometer closed circuit and set two Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Speed Records at 652.55 miles per hour. The flight was at Edwards AFB, Calif. In her autobiography, she said about the flight, “In those days you were clocked around pylons, with a judge and a timer at each pylon to clock you with special electronic devices and to make sure you stayed just outside the black smoke markers that rose into the sky. We’d throw a couple of tires on top of each other and then, when all was ready, start a smoky fire in the middle. Twelve towers of smoke marked the 100th kilometer, for instance.
“The 100 kilometer course would take in about 63 miles. I’d have to fly only 300 feet off the ground in order for the photographic equipment to catch and record me. But there were hills to one side so I’d be skimming a little up and over them. I’d get two chances—just two—to set my record because that’s all the fuel the plane could carry. If all went well, I’d have a margin of two minutes of fuel after two complete passes. But could I hold that plane in a banked position of 30 degrees for a 63-mile circular flight and beat Ascani’s mark of 635 mph Edwards pilots weren’t so sure. Opinions varied. “And what about taking the ‘G’s I’d be experiencing in those sharp turns” One ‘G’ is the force of gravity, and the turns would offer me more than one.
“None of those record runs entail easy flying -- 100 kilometer, 15, or 3. They’re possible when you’ve been taught by the best.”
Part of the speed run was in excess of Mach 1. Jackie Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier. Over the next two weeks, she would set three more world speed records and an altitude record with the Canadair Sabre Mk.3. She was awarded the Harmon Trophy for 1953, her fourth. The Canadair Sabre Mk.3 was a one-of-a-kind CL-13 Sabre (an F-86E Sabre manufactured by Canadair Ltd. under license from North American Aviation, Inc.) built to test the prototype Avro Canada Gas Turbine Division Orenda 3 engine. Modifications to the F-86 airframe were required to install the new, larger engine.
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An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker during a Bomber Task Force mission over the Philippine Sea, April 26, 2023.
A decorated artilleryman, King made the moral choice to risk his career and reputation by refusing to sacrifice his men for no military gain. His men had fought for four months with antiquated weapons, dwindling resources and no hope of rescue. The approximately 75,000 troops (63,000 Filipinos and 12,000 Americans) were the largest contingent of U.S. soldiers ever to surrender to the enemy. According to one source, King emphasized to his men that he surrendered them—they did not surrender, for they “had no alternative but to obey [his] order.”
April 9 is National Former Prisoner of War (POW) Recognition Day. The man most associated with this remembrance is Maj. Gen. Edward Postell King Jr. (July 4, 18
On This Date, May 17, 1998: A 411th Flight Test Squadron pilot, Lt. Col. Steven M. Rainey, became the first U.S. Air Force pilot to fly the F-22 Raptor during a mission to evaluate flying qualities, speed brake handling and formation flying. The eighty-minute mission in Raptor 01 was considered the start of formal flight test for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase of the program.
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On This Date, May 17, 1997: The McDonnell Douglas X-36 tailless fighter technology demonstrator made its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The X-36 was built to 28 percent scale of a possible fighter aircraft, and was controlled by a pilot in a ground-based virtual cockpit with a view provided by a video camera mounted in the canopy of the aircraft. For control, a canard forward of the wing was used as well as split ailerons and an advanced thrust vectoring nozzle for directional control. The X-36 was unstable in both pitch and yaw axes, so an advanced digital fly-by-wire control system was used to provide stability. The X-36 made 31 successful research flights. It handled very well, and the program is reported to have met or exceeded all project goals. McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in August 1997 while the test program was in progress; the aircraft is sometimes referred to as the Boeing X-36.
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On This Date, May 17, 1946: The Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster made its first flight. The Jetmaster was an American 1940s jet-powered prototype bomber. The XB-43 was a development of the XB-42, replacing the piston engines of the XB-42 with two General Electric J35 engines of 4,000 lbf thrust each. Despite being the first American jet bomber to fly, it suffered stability issues and the design did not enter production. Douglas Aircraft was keen to mass-produce the new bomber and the U.S. Army Air Force considered ordering 50. The company was poised to roll out as many as 200 B-43s per month in two versions: a bomber equipped with a clear plastic nose for the bombardier, and an attack aircraft without the clear nose and bombing station but carrying 16 forward-firing .50 inch machine guns and 36 5 inch rockets. Nothing came of these plans. The Army Air Force was already moving ahead with a new bomber, the XB-45 Tornado, designed from the outset for turbojet power and promising major improvement in every category of performance.
For more military and aviation milestones, visit https://bit.ly/on-this-date-160
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