THE AIRPLANE THAT TRIED TO DO IT ALL

After their first two flights, the Wright brothers modified their airplane somewhat 

to obtain better performance and control …

…and in the years that followed, designers and builders made countless modifications 

in order to come up with spectacular airplanes like this.

But there was a unique airplane that began as a "plain Jane" flying machine and was modified many times to accomplish the missions it was called upon to perform. The airplane in question 

served well throughout its lifetime but came to a sorry end.

WE NEED TO FLY!

On 23 January 1968 the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence ship, was sailing off the east coast of North Korea when she was accosted by several armed North Korean vessels. Following a failed attempt to get away and with no usable firepower, the captain had little choice but to comply; the ship was captured and towed into port at Wonsan, on Korea's east coast. 

The USS Pueblo

The U.S. State Department tried to gain release of the ship and its complement but the North Koreans were having none of that; the crew was taken to POW camps in North Korea where they were imprisoned and maltreated for the next eleven months. 

Shortly after the incident President Lyndon Johnson activated 15,000 reservists, including the Ohio Air National Guard fighter squadron at Lockbourne Air Force Base in Columbus, a unit I had joined 18 months earlier. We were called to active duty on 25 January and at 8 a.m. roll call the next day 98 percent of our troops were present and ready to go. But where? Or when? Or even why? We had no idea.

THE AIRPLANES THAT FLEW, AND FLEW, AND FLEW.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s airplane manufacturers were springing up all over the country and building flying machines that pushed the boundaries of conventional designs. One of these unusual airplanes was built with hardware-store materials (except for a motorcycle engine) and acquired the nickname "Flying Bathtub." Awkward and fragile though it seemed, the Bathtub flew fast enough to win the Dayton Daily News Light Airplane Race in 1924…and one of its descendants won another air race that was quite different.

"Flying Bathtub"

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GEE BEES

America fell in love with aviation in the 1930s and the dangerous nature of air races drew large crowds to airports such as Cleveland Municipal Airport, shown as it appeared under construction on a race day in the photo below. A half-mile of grandstands adjacent to the home stretch of the race course accommodated 50,000 spectators and thousands more in standing room only. The large field on the right speaks for itself…each black dot is an automobile in the airport parking lots.

 Some of the contests were relatively ho-hum endurance flights but the closed-course races—with pilots flying at high speeds and very low altitudes—were extremely hazardous; crashes were common, some were fatal. 

WHIRLING WINGS

"The idea of a vehicle that could lift itself vertically from the ground
and hover motionless in the air

was probably born at the same time that man first dreamed of flying."

 

                                                                       Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer.

Leonardo da Vinci (born in Italy in 1452) was blessed with an encyclopedic knowledge of invention, science, music, engineering and many other areas, including human-powered flight. Also an accomplished artist (Mona Lisa comes to mind), da Vinci drew sketches of human-powered flying machines, one of which was an "aerial screw" operated by four men running on a turntable.

 

Long before Sir Isaac Newton propounded his laws of motion, Leonardo's intellect may have led him to conclude that the surfaces of his spiral flyer would produce the reactive force that was eventually labeled "lift." Considering the very low density of the atmosphere, there was no way those four athletes could move enough air to lift men and machine off the ground; nevertheless, da Vinci's aerial screw was a logical, if not practical, step in the right direction.