Aug. 12, 1908: With Thomas Baldwin as pilot and Glenn Curtiss as flight engineer, test flights began for Signal Corps Dirigible No. 1 at Fort Myers, Va. On its maiden flight, the dirigible demonstrated the required endurance of two hours, averaging 14 mph, but the speed was short of the published requirement. Despite the speed deficit, the Army bought it from Baldwin for $5,737.59.
Sources at the time say the airship’s dimensions were 96-feet long with a maximum diameter of 19 feet, 6 inches. The envelope was made of two layers of silk fabric separated by a layer of vulcanized rubber and supported by 30 wooden frames.
Buoyancy was provided by hydrogen gas. The envelope’s volume was approximately 20,000 cubic feet. The first all-Army flight was on Aug. 26 with Lieutenants Benjamin D. Fulois, Thomas Etholen Selfridge and Frank P. Lahm on board.
Signal Corps Dirigible No. 1 was assigned to the Signal Corps Post at Fort Omaha, Neb., where the Army had a balloon factory. It was operated there until 1912. However, the airships’ envelope needed to be replaced, The Army was unwilling to spend the money and the airship was sold.
Aug. 12, 1960: Maj. Robert M. White flew the North American X-15 to an altitude of 136,500 feet, exceeding the previous unofficial record of 126,200 feet set by the late Capt. Iven C. Kincheloe, Jr., with the Bell X-2 on Sept. 7, 1956.
Kincheloe had been assigned as the Air Force’s project pilot for the X-15. When he was killed on a routine flight, Bob White was designated to replace him. This was White’s fourth flight in an X-15, and the 19th flight of the X-15 Program. The Number 1 rocketplane, serial number 56-6670, was carried aloft under the right wing of the “mothership,” Boeing NB-52A Stratofortress 52-003.
At 08:48:43.0 a.m., PDT, 56-6670 was dropped over Silver Lake, near the Nevada-California border. White fired the two Reaction Motors XLR11-RM-13 rocket engines and they burned for 256.2 seconds. The X-15 accelerated to Mach 2.52, 1,773 miles per hour while climbing at nearly a 70-degree angle and reached a peak altitude of 136,500 feet.
After engine shutdown, White glided to a landing on Rogers Dry Lake and touched down. The duration of the flight was 11 minutes, 39.1 seconds. Neither Kincheloe’s or White’s altitudes are recognized as records by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Over the next few years, the X-15 would reach to nearly three times higher.
Aug. 12, 1972: The F-15A successfully passed its first flight performance milestone six weeks ahead of schedule. This milestone consisted of Mach 2 flight, and altitude and g-load targets.
Aug. 12, 1977: With Gordon Fullerton and Fred Haise at the controls, Rockwell’s OV-101 Space Shuttle Enterprise was released from a specially configured Boeing 747 Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and made its first unpowered free flight to the Rogers Dry Lake bed.
The Enterprise was a prototype, non-orbiting model of the spacecraft, built for Approach and Landing Tests. The crew of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft were Fitz Fulton and Tom McMurty, and Vic Horton and Skip Guidry were on board as flight engineers.
With approximately 65,000 people at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to watch the test, at 8 a.m., Fulton began the takeoff roll down Runway 22. For the next 38 minutes the spacecraft/aircraft combination climbed together into the desert sky. After reaching an altitude of 24,100 feet, Fulton put the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft into a shallow dive.
At 8:48 a.m., Haise fired the seven explosive bolts holding the two craft together. The 747 entered a descending left turn while Haise banked Enterprise away to the right. As Enterprise made its gliding descent, Haise and Fullerton experimented with the prototype’s flight characteristics and handling. The Shuttle Orbiter touched down on Rogers Dry Lake at 185 miles per hour, and rolled for two miles before coming to a complete stop. The first free flight of Enterprise lasted five minutes, 21 seconds.
Aug. 13, 1965: An AFFTC test team conducted the first Air Force handling qualities evaluation flight of the Army’s XV-5A. The XV-5A was an experimental V/STOL flight research vehicle, a mid-wing airplane powered by two J85-GE-5B non-afterburning turbo jet engines.
Aug. 14, 1960: Cayuga Production Company began shooting an episode of The Twilight Zone on Rogers Dry Lake. The segment was titled “King Nine Will Not Return.” Lakebed temperatures reached well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit as the crew filmed scenes of a B-25 supposedly wrecked in the North African desert.
Aug. 14, 1964: A Helio Aircraft Corp. U-10B liaison and light cargo aircraft began a series of high altitude takeoff and landing performance tests as part of the Fast Coin program. The tests were conducted at Edwards Air Force Base, at the Air Force Flight Test Center’s High Altitude Test Site near Bishop, Calif., and Leadville, Colo.
In 1958, Brig. Gen. Harry Clay “Heinie” Aderholt, a prominent figure in Air Force special operations, heard of a short takeoff and landing aircraft developed by Otto Koppen and Lynn L. Bollinger, who’d formed the Helio Aircraft Corp. Aderholt arranged for a demonstration at Friendship International Airport, Md. — today known as Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport — and test-flew the high-winged, fixed-gear Helio.
Beginning in 1962, CIA operatives Aderholt and Larry Ropka introduced the Courier to Laos, where the U.S. was increasing its military involvement. Aderholt’s biographer Warren A. Trest wrote that the Courier could operate from crude airstrips where the De Havilland L-20 Beaver (redesignated U-6 that year) and Westland Lysander could not.
Aderholt demonstrated that the Courier could land and take off in a village that had no runway or road of any kind. Soon, a handful of CIA Couriers belonging to the agency’s airline, Air America, were carrying out clandestine missions in the Laotian hinterlands.
Aug. 15, 1944: During World War II, Allied forces landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon.
Aug. 15, 1945: In a pre-recorded radio address, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced that his country had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II.
Aug. 15, 1951: Just eight days after he set an unofficial world speed record of Mach 1.88 Douglas Aircraft Company test pilot William Barton “Bill” Bridgeman flew the rocket-powered United States Navy/National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket to a world record altitude at Edwards Air Force Base in the High Desert of Southern California.
The Skyrocket was airdropped at 34,000 feet from a highly modified U.S. Navy P2B-1S Superfortress. The mother ship was a U.S. Air Force Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress, transferred to the Navy and flown by another Douglas test pilot, George R. Jansen.
The flight plan was for Bridgeman to fire the rocket engine and allow the Skyrocket to accelerate to 0.85 Mach while climbing.
The Skyrocket was powered by a Reaction Motors LR8-RM-6 engine, which produced 6,000 pounds of thrust. As the rocketplane continued to accelerate to Mach 1.12, the test pilot was to pull up, increasing the angle of climb while holding an acceleration rate of 1.2 Gs. This would result in a constantly increasing angle of climb. When it reached 50 degrees, Bridgeman was to maintain that, climbing and accelerating, until the rocket engine ran out of fuel.
Initially, the plan was to continue climbing after engine shutdown until the D-558-II was approaching stall at the highest altitude it could reach while on a ballistic trajectory. There were differing expert opinions as to how it would behave in the ever thinner atmosphere. On the morning of the flight, Douglas’ Chief Engineer, Ed Heinemann, ordered that Bridgeman push over immediately when the engine stopped.
Bill Bridgeman stuck to the engineers’ flight plan. As the Skyrocket accelerated through 63,000 feet, it started to roll to the left. He countered with aileron input, but control was diminishing in the thin air. The next time it began there was no response to the ailerons.
Bridgeman found that he had to lower the Skyrocket’s nose until it responded, then he was able to increase the pitch angle again. At 70,000 feet, travelling Mach 1.4, he decided he had to decrease the pitch angle or lose control.
Finally at 76,000 feet, the engine stopped. Following Heinemann’s order, Bridgeman pushed the nose down and the D-558-II went over the top of its arc at just 0.5 G.
The D-558-II Skyrocket was Phase II of a planned three phase experimental flight program. It was designed to investigate flight in the transonic and supersonic range. It was 46 feet, 9 inches long with a 25-foot wingspan.
The wings were swept back to a 35-degree angle. The Skyrocket was powered by a Westinghouse J34-WE-40 11-stage axial-flow turbojet engine, producing 3,000 pounds of thrust, and a Reaction Motors LR8-RM-6 four-chamber rocket engine, which produced 6,000 pounds of thrust. The rocket engine burned alcohol and liquid oxygen.
There were three D-558-2 Skyrockets. Between Feb. 4, 1948, and Aug. 28, 1956, they made a total of 313 flights.
In this photograph, a Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket glides back toward Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards, while a North American Aviation F-86E-1-NA Sabre flies chase. Lt. Col. Frank K. “Pete” Everest and Maj. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager frequently flew as chase pilots for both Bridgeman and Scott Crossfield.
Aug. 16, 1948: The prototype Northrop XF-89 all-weather interceptor made its first flight at Muroc Air Force Base (later, Edwards Air Force Base), Calif., with company test pilot Fred Charles Bretcher, Jr. at the controls. The Northrop XF-89 was a two-place, twin-engine, mid-wing monoplane with retractable tricycle landing gear, designed as an all-weather interceptor.
The pilot and radar intercept officer sat in tandem in the pressurized cockpit. Similar to Northrop’s World War II-era P-61 Black Widow night fighter, the XF-89 was painted gloss black. The fighter was selected by the Air Force after a fly-off with the XF-87 and the Navy’s Douglas XF3D-1 Skynight because of its potential for development. The F-89 went into production as the F-89A Scorpion, and 1,050 were produced in eight variants. The final series, F-89J, remained in service with the Air National Guard until 1969.
Aug. 16, 1969: Civilian racing pilot Darryl G. Greenamyer established an absolute world air speed record for piston engine aircraft of 483.041 mph. He flew a modified Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat over the three-kilometer course, breaking the previous record established by Germany in 1939.
Aug. 16, 1970: A Lockheed C-5A completed an unrefueled flight of 20 hours and 29 minutes. The lengthy flight, which began and ended at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., covered much of the perimeter of the continental United States.
Aug. 17, 1918: The Martin MB-1 made its first flight. The MB-1 was an American large biplane bomber designed and built by the Glenn L. Martin Company for the U.S. Army Air Service. It was the first purpose-built bomber produced by the United States. In 1921 Martin produced its KG.1 variant of the MB-1, with 10 purchased by the Navy as torpedo bombers under the designation MBT. After two were purchased, the designation was changed to Martin MT.
Aug. 17, 1946: U.S. Army Air Forces First Sergeant Lawrence Lambert became the first person to eject from an aircraft in flight in the United States. Lambert was assigned to the Air Material Command Parachute Branch, Personal Equipment Laboratory. He was an 11-year veteran of the Air Corps. During World War II, he served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater.
Previous to this test, Lambert had made 58 parachute jumps. The test aircraft was a modified Northrop P-61B-5-NO Black Widow night fighter, redesignated XP-61B. The airplane was flown by Capt. John W.McGyrt and named Jack in the Box.
The ejection seat was placed in the gunner’s position, just behind and above the Black Widow’s pilot. A 37 mm cartridge fired within a 38-inch long gun barrel launched the seat from the airplane at approximately 60 feet per second. Lambert experienced 12–14 Gs acceleration.
Flying over Patterson Field at more than 300 miles per hour at 6,000 feet, Lambert fired the ejection seat. He and the seat were propelled approximately 40 feet (12 meters) above the airplane. After 3 seconds, he separated from the seat, and after another 3 seconds of free fall, his parachute opened automatically. Automatic timers fired smaller cartridges to release Lambert from the seat, and to open the parachute.
“I lived a thousand years in that minute, before the pilot, pulled the release …,” said Lambert.
Aug. 17, 1951: In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the United States Air Force’s new day fighter, Col. Fred J. Ascani, vice commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., had been assigned to take two new North American Aviation F-86E Sabres from the production line at El Segundo, Calif., to the National Air Races at Detroit, Mich.
He was to attempt a new world speed record. Ascani selected F-86E-10-NA 51-2721 and 51-2724. They received bright orange paint to the forward fuselage and the top of the vertical fin. Bold numbers two and four were painted on their sides. Flying Number 2, F-86E 51-2721, Ascani flew a 100-kilometer closed circuit at an average speed of 635.69 miles per hour and set a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Record for Speed Over a Closed Circuit of 100 Kilometers.
For his accomplishment, Ascani was awarded both the Thompson Trophy and the MacKay Trophy. The North American Aviation F-86 was a single-seat, single-engine day fighter designed by Edgar Schmued and the same team at North American that designed the World War II P-51 Mustang fighter.
The Sabre was the first fighter to incorporate swept wings, which improved flight at high subsonic speed by reducing aerodynamic drag and delaying the onset of compressibility effects. The leading edges of the wings and tail surfaces were swept 35-degrees based on captured German technical data and extensive wind tunnel testing.
Aug. 17, 1974: Teledyne Ryan’s YQM-98A Compass Cope R-Tern remotely piloted vehicle made its first flight. It was an unmanned vehicle with a single jet engine mounted on a dorsal pod that was capable of long-range photographic reconnaissance and electronic surveillance missions at high altitudes.
Aug. 18, 1929: Nineteen pilots took off from Santa Monica, Calif., (heading to Cleveland, Ohio) for the Women’s Air Derby, the first official women-only air race in the United States. The Air Derby took place during the 1929 National Air Races.
To qualify, pilots had to have at least 100 hours of solo flight, which included a minimum 25 hours of cross-country flying (these were the same rules that applied to men competing in the National Air Races).
The 20 competitors, 18 of whom were from the United States, included Florence “Pancho” Barnes, and Amelia Earhart. Stops en route to Cleveland included San Bernardino, Calif.; Yuma, Ariz.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Douglas, Ariz.; El Paso, Texas; Pecos, Texas; Midland, Texas; Abilene, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; St. Louis, Mo.; and Cincinnati, Ohio. At each stop, the pilots often overnighted for refueling, repairs, media attention and dinner banquets.
One of the pilots, Marvel Crosson, crashed in the Gila River Valley and was killed, apparently the victim of carbon monoxide poisoning.
There was a public outcry demanding the race be canceled, but the pilots got together and decided the most fitting tribute would be to finish the derby. Blanche Noyes had to put out a fire that erupted in mid-air over Pecos, but continued on. Margaret Perry caught typhoid fever.
Pancho Barnes crashed into a car that drove onto the runway as she was trying to land, wrecking her airplane. Ruth Nichols also crashed. Claire Fahy’s wing wires were eaten through, possibly sabotaged with acid, and she withdrew from the race.
Louise Thaden finished the race first and won the heavy class in a time of 20 hours, 19 minutes and 4 seconds. Phoebe Omlie won the light class in 25 hours, 12 minutes and 47.5 seconds.
Despite Barnes’ crash, she returned in 1930 under the sponsorship of the Union Oil Company to win the race.
Barnes lived a colorful early life that included a brief marriage, a stint living in Mexico, and convincing her cousin’s flight instructor to teach her to fly in the late 1920s, Barnes ran an ad-hoc barnstorming show and competed in air races.
After her contract with Union Oil expired, Barnes moved to Hollywood to work as a stunt pilot for movies. In 1931, she started the Associated Motion Picture Pilots, a union of film industry stunt fliers which promoted flying safety and standardized pay for aerial stunt work.
She flew in several air-adventure movies of the 1930s, including Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels. In March 1935 she bought 180 acres of land in the Mojave Desert, near the Rogers dry lake bed and the nascent Muroc Field (then called March Field because it was an adjunct property of March Army Air Base at that time). There, she established the legendary Happy Bottom Riding Club — a dude ranch, restaurant, and hotel whose clientele included legends of the golden age of flight test.
Aug. 18, 1951: The 1951 Bendix Transcontinental Trophy Race was launched from the main ramp. This was the first all-jet bomber and fighter air race in aviation history. Three B-45s, three F-84s and two F-86s took off for a 1,900 mile nonstop flight to the finish line in Detroit, Mich. Col. Keith Compton won the trophy in an F-86 Sabrejet.
The Bendix Trophy is a U.S. aeronautical racing trophy. The transcontinental, point-to-point race, sponsored by industrialist Vincent Bendix founder of Bendix Corporation, began in 1931 as part of the National Air Races. Initial prize money for the winners was $15,000.
The last Bendix Trophy Race was flown in 1962. The trophy was brought back in 1998 by AlliedSignal, the then-owner of the Bendix brand name (which later merged with Honeywell), to “recognize contributions to aerospace safety by individuals or institutions through innovation in advanced safety equipment and equipment utilization.” The current awards’ of the Honeywell Bendix Trophy for Aviation Safety includes a scale reproduction of the original Bendix Trophy design and a citation.
Aug. 18, 1955: Static rocket motor Test Stand 1-4 was activated at the Experimental Rocket Engine Test Station, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. This made three stands with a total of five test positions for use, all operated from one control station.
