CARRIER-BASED FIGHTERS. IT WAS DESIGNED AND BUILT TO MEET THE NEED FOR A
FAST, POWERFUL SHIPBOARD FIGHTER THAT COULD BLAST THE JAPS OUT OF THE
SKY OVER THE PACIFIC. IN TWO YEARS IT PRACTICALLY WIPED OUT JAP FIGHTER
OPPOSITION.]
[Illustration]
The _Hellcat_ has plenty of protective armor for its pilot. It has
rubber gasoline tanks encased in canvas hammocks giving them great
flexibility in resisting the penetration of bullets and shell fragments.
The _Hellcat_ handles beautifully at all altitudes. At high altitudes it
could more than outfight any plane that the Japs sent up. It is also a
deadly weapon when used in low-altitude strafing attacks against
airfields and shipping. The _Hellcat_ has now replaced the _Wildcat_ as
the standard fighter based on our aircraft carriers. Much of our success
in driving the Japs out of the air over the Pacific is due to the
_Hellcat_. These powerful fighters, based on the carriers of Admiral
Halsey’s famous Task Force 58, carried their devastating attacks to the
Japs’ homeland.
Although dive-bombing was originated by Navy airmen it was a number of
years before an airplane was built that was rugged enough to stand up
under the shock of repeated dives. The first airplane built specifically
for dive-bombing was a Curtiss F8C _Helldiver_, built in 1929. This
original dive-bomber was a biplane. The series continued until 1935 when
Curtiss introduced the SBC type of dive-bomber. This was also a biplane
with wire bracing. The streamlining in the SBC was much improved and it
was equipped with a retractable landing gear. The SBC was also called
the _Helldiver_. While the SBC series marked advance in dive-bomber
performance, the biplane wings and wire bracing created a drag which
held down its diving speed. In 1939 the Curtiss Company began to work on
a new dive-bomber design.
In the meantime Douglas had brought out the all-metal, low-wing SBD
_Dauntless_ dive-bomber. This was a fast, clean airplane equipped with
flaps for diving. The flaps, attached to the trailing edge of the wing,
could be dropped down to act as brakes. The flaps created a resistance
which cut the speed of the plane at the will of the pilot. Powered with
a 1,000-horsepower radial engine, the SBD had a speed of about 200 miles
per hour. It carried a 1,000-pound bomb under its fuselage which, when
released by the pilot, was swung clear of the plane by a yokelike gear.
The SBD usually started its dive at an altitude of 10,000 feet. From
that height the plane could pick up a speed of from 450 to 500 miles per
hour. The best speed for dive-bombing is about 275 miles per hour, and
the flaps on the SBD enabled the pilot to control his speed as he dived
on his target.
At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the SBD was the
standard dive-bomber based on our carriers. From the very start it was a
star performer in our war in the Pacific. In the first years of the
struggle SBD’s destroyed more enemy planes, ships, and property than did
all our other air and surface weapons combined. SBD’s were in the
forefront in our war in the Pacific. But a giant new dive-bomber
suddenly appeared over Rabaul, New Guinea, in the fall of 1944, the
deadliest bomber which had yet dived on the Japs. Another _Helldiver_
was in action.
[Illustration: 1943-1945
WINGSPAN 49 FEET
LENGTH 36 FEET
THE CURTISS SB2C _HELLDIVER_ IS THE FASTEST AND MOST POWERFUL
DIVE-BOMBER IN ACTION IN THE WORLD IN 1945.
POWER
ONE 14-CYLINDER 1,700-HP. RADIAL ENGINE
THE 1,700-HP. WRIGHT _CYCLONE FOURTEEN_ HAS THE SAME 55-INCH FRONTAL
AREA AS THE 200-HORSEPOWER WRIGHT 9-CYLINDER RADIAL INTRODUCED EIGHTEEN
YEARS AGO, IN 1927.
SPEED
ONE HOUR
300+ MILES
RANGE
1,200+ MILES
CEILING
20,000+ FEET
PAYLOAD
PILOT AND GUNNER,
MACHINE GUNS OR
CANNON, BOMBS AND ROCKETS.
THE POWERFUL RADIAL ENGINE WHIRLS A PROPELLER WITH FOUR 6-FOOT BLADES.
WITH ITS SPEED OF OVER 300 MILES PER HOUR, THE _HELLDIVER_ IS ALMOST 100
MILES PER HOUR FASTER THAN THE DEADLY NAZI _STUKA_. IT IS MUCH FASTER
AND HAS HEAVIER ARMOR AND FIREPOWER THAN ITS PREDECESSOR WITH THE FLEET,
THE DOUGLAS SBD-1. IT CARRIES MORE THAN A TON OF BOMBS. IT MOUNTS EITHER
.50-CALIBER MACHINE GUNS OR 20-MILLIMETER CANNON. IT IS ALSO EQUIPPED
FOR FIRING ROCKETS.
IN THE SB2C WE SEE THE MOST FORMIDABLE OF THE LONG LINE OF NAVY
_HELLDIVERS_ BUILT BY THE CURTISS COMPANY SINCE 1928. THE SB2C
_HELLDIVER_ HAS GREATER RANGE, GREATER FIREPOWER, AND CARRIES A GREATER
BOMB LOAD THAN ANY OTHER PLANE OF ITS TYPE IN THE WORLD. IT IS NOW USING
ITS POWER WITH DEADLY EFFECT IN THE PACIFIC.]
[Illustration] DIVE-BOMBER
This big dive-bomber was the one begun by Curtiss in 1939. Few planes in
history had been so long in the development stage, but when the SB2C
_Helldiver_ did appear it was the biggest and fastest dive-bomber to go
into service with the United States Navy. Powered with a
1,700-horsepower, 14-cylinder, Wright Cyclone radial engine, its top
speed is in excess of 300 miles per hour. Carrying more than a ton of
bombs, it has a range of over 1,200 miles. It is armed with either
.50-caliber machine guns or 20-millimeter cannon. It is also equipped to
carry rockets under its wings.
[Illustration]
OUR FLYING NAVY
_From Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, and Midway to Tokyo Bay Our
Gallant Navy Men, Carriers, and Planes Led the Way to Victory and
Have Added Many Heroic Chapters to the Glorious History of the
United States Navy._
When the Japs struck at Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning December 7, 1941,
United States naval aviation had just passed its thirtieth birthday. At
no time in its history had the U. S. Navy been confronted with a greater
task. Many of our great warships lay in the mud at Pearl Harbor. Many of
our Navy planes had been destroyed, and Japan controlled the greater
part of the western Pacific.
Though the future looked black, our Navy possessed one great asset,
invisible to most of us. It was that small group of Navy airmen who had
lived and breathed flying since our first carriers were launched. So
thorough had been the schooling and the thinking of our pioneer flat-top
men that, when war did come, they were ready. These naval aviators who
had created and tested every form of air tactics were ready to put them
into action. They also were able to pass on their lessons to the large
group of young men who were to man the thousands of warplanes being
built for the Navy.
As the new planes were rolling off the production lines and the new
naval aviators were in training, the old-timers went to work on the Japs
in the Pacific. That they did their job well is testified by the fact
that the Japs did not get back to Pearl Harbor or attack our west coast.
With only a few carriers to cover the vast Pacific area, and a pitifully
small number of airplanes, our naval aviators carried the fight all the
way down to the Solomons. They helped take and hold Guadalcanal. They
stopped the great Japanese fleet at Midway and drove them out of the
Aleutians. Navy flat-tops took “Jimmy” Doolittle and his Tokyo raiders
almost to Japan’s front door. Wherever our naval aviators met the enemy
they knocked him out of the air at the rate of five to one.
In spite of our favorable ratio of victories over the Japs in the air,
they still outnumbered us ten to one in the Pacific. During 1942 many
new Navy airplanes were delivered. Thousands of young naval aviators
were trained at our naval air stations. A great naval air transport
service was created to fly men and materials to distant Pacific
islands. With only one carrier, the _Enterprise_, left in the Pacific, a
great new carrier fleet was rushed into service.
By the Fall of 1943 a tremendous change was wrought in the Pacific. In
September the first three new carriers, the _Essex_, the _Yorktown_, and
the _Independence_, were battle-tested in the raid on Marcus Island.
_Avengers_ and _Hellcats_ began to appear in great numbers to take the
place of _Wildcats_ on the decks of our big carriers. Raid followed
raid. The Gilbert Island chain, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Truk, Palau, Saipan,
and other islands fell before the blows of our new carrier-based air
power.
More big new carriers continued to appear in the Pacific and a new type
of sea power came into being, the carrier task force. Here we saw air
power based on a great fleet of large and small carriers forming the
spearhead of a naval offensive. The flat-top had truly become the “Queen
of the Fleet.”
Now we see come into being the ideas born in the minds of a group of
pioneer naval aviators twenty years ago. The airplane has not only gone
to sea with the fleet but, as the striking power of the Navy, it is
leading the fleet to victory.
It was the work of the fighting planes based on Admiral Marc A.
Mitscher’s carrier Task Force 58 that hammered a path to the very front
door of Japan.
Since Pearl Harbor, naval aviators have shot down over ten thousand
Japanese aircraft with the loss of less than two thousand of our own
planes. This gives our Navy pilots a score of better than five to one.
These figures include the dark days of the first year of war when our
Navy boys were outnumbered ten to one.
From a force of a few carriers and a handful of moderately fast
warplanes, naval aviation grew, in three years, to the world’s greatest
sea-borne air force. The speed of our fighters increased by more than a
hundred miles an hour. Our dive-bombers and torpedo planes, the world’s
finest, tripled their bomb and torpedo loads. Our big patrol bombers and
transports fly the Pacific unarmed.
Jack Towers, who in 1911 was one of the Navy’s first three aviators, is
now Vice Admiral Towers, Air Chief of the Pacific. John Pride, one of
the first aviators to fly from the deck of the _Langley_, is now a rear
admiral with our Pacific aërial task forces. Pioneers of naval aviation
such as Admirals Ballentine, Sherman, Clark, Radford, and others are all
in the Pacific. These men, none of them much over fifty years old, are
practical flying officers. Many of the other men, who for the past
twenty years or more have devoted themselves to the development of naval
aviation, are also rear admirals. That is fitting, for it was they who
kept naval aviation alive in the days of peace.
[Illustration]
[Illustration] 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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: NORTHROP P-61 _BLACK WIDOW_ NIGHT FIGHTER]
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.
[Illustration: AIR DRAWN INTO THE ENGINE IS COMPRESSED, MIXED WITH FUEL
AND THEN BURNED. GASES RUSHING THROUGH THE DISCHARGE NOZZLE PUSH THE
PLANE AHEAD. THE SPEED OF THE PLANE IS REGULATED BY ADJUSTING THE SIZE
OF THE OPENING IN THE DISCHARGE NOZZLE.
DISCHARGE NOZZLE
FUEL INJECTOR
GAS TURBINE
COMBUSTION CHAMBER
COMPRESSOR MECHANISM
AIR INTAKE]
[Illustration: BELL P-59 _AIRACOMET_ JET-POWERED FIGHTER]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: BOEING 377 _STRATOCRUISER_
CONTROL CABIN
GALLEY
MEN’S LOUNGE
MEN’S DRESSING ROOMS
MAIN CABIN
WOMEN’S DRESSING ROOMS
FRONT CARGO HOLD
CARGO DOOR
CREW’S QUARTERS
WING SECTION
CIRCULAR STAIRCASE
DINING ROOM AND LOUNGE
CARGO DOOR
REAR CARGO HOLD
THE CROSS-SECTION AT THE LEFT SHOWS HOW THE TWO DECKS OF THE
_STRATOCRUISER_ ARE ACHIEVED. ONE FUSELAGE IS BUILT ON TOP OF ANOTHER
AND STREAMLINED TOGETHER. THE UPPER SECTION HAS A WIDTH OF MORE THAN
ELEVEN FEET.
THE CROSS-SECTION ABOVE SHOWS THE LAYOUT OF THE SLEEPER VERSION OF THE
_STRATOCRUISER_. IT HAS SEATS FOR 72 DAY PASSENGERS. SEATS CAN BE MADE
UP INTO 36 BERTHS. ANOTHER VERSION HAS SEATS FOR 100 DAY PASSENGERS AND
AMPLE SPACE FOR BAGGAGE AND CARGO.]
[Illustration: SIKORSKY HELICOPTER]
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.
[Illustration: CONSOLIDATED _LIBERATOR LINER_]
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.
[Illustration: FAIRCHILD _PACKET_]
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!