Before Radar – This Is How It Was Done

We all know that a RADAR is used to detect the position of aircraft using radio waves. The term RADAR was first coined in 1941 and stands for RAdio Detection And Ranging. Before the invention of RADAR there was obviously a need to detect enemy aircraft. So what do you think they did? See pictures below…

So basically they just used these contraptions to make their ears bigger to pick up the sound waves in the air. Makes you wonder if they had any false alarms when a bumble bee flew close by. Gives a whole new meaning to “Put your ears on good buddy”

Duxford – An Aviation Museum within a Museum

The Imperial War Museum at Duxford has its origins in the First World War. It’s apt then, that this site of historical importance still preserves military history today.

In 1917, the British Government decided to establish a national war museum to collect, maintain and exhibit materiel from the Great War. At the same time, in response to an increased aerial threat from German bombers, Duxford Airfield (the future site for the Imperial War Museum) was being constructed as a training depot station for the fledgling Royal Air Force.

On its completion in August 1918, Duxford’s existence as an operational airfield was almost immediately threatened by the end of the war. Fortunately, thanks to its location and close links with the city of Cambridge (and its university); Duxford was quickly earmarked as a flying training school. It was subsequently equipped with a selection of Avro 504, Bristol F.2 fighter and de Havilland DH9 biplanes.

During the inter-war years, Duxford went through a period of significant change. The Royal Air Force established a Fighter Station and equipped its three squadrons with Sopwith Snipe, Armstrong Whitworth Siskin and Gloster Grebe aircraft. Cambridge University then created its ‘Air Squadron’ before the Government authorised the set up of a meteorological flight to enable more reliable weather forecasting.

On 6th July 1935 (the occasion of King George V’s Silver Jubilee), a flypast of some 350 aircraft took place at Duxford; among them, the RAF’s fastest fighter, the Gloster Gauntlet. Its display coincided with the end of biplane operations at Duxford.

In August 1938, with the airfield seemingly set for War Establishment, Duxford’s 19 Squadron received the RAF’s first delivery of Supermarine Spitfires. Two years later, at the height of the Battle of Britain, the Duxford Wing of Fighter Command would end up taking to the air three times in one day to intercept the Luftwaffe attacks.

After Hitler mistakenly turned his attention towards the bombing of London, Duxford became the base for the Air Fighting Development Unit. Under its tutelage, captured German aircraft were examined and new technologies trialled on prototype British aircraft such as the Hawker Typhoon.

By the mid-1940s and with the United States having entered hostilities, Duxford was handed over to the 8th Air Force and its 78th Fighter Group. Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and North American P-51 Mustangs soon arrived to churn up Duxford’s grass strip which the American’s promptly christened ‘Duckpond’.

After supporting the D-Day Landings and Arnhem parachute drops, the Americans left Duxford to be replaced once more by the RAF’s Spitfires. Two years after the end of the war, however, they were replaced by an altogether different type of aircraft; the first British jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor.

The RAF continued operations at Duxford until 1961 when it was finally demobilized as a fighter station. A decade later, the Imperial War Museum saw that the site could easily store and exhibit those items too large for its existing museum in London. And so, in 1971, the Imperial War Museum at Duxford was conceived.

Now exhibiting over 140 static aircraft in six hangars, Duxford is renowned as Europe’s premier aviation museum. Pioneering aircraft such as the prototype British Aircraft Corporation/Aerospatiale Concorde 101 sit beside such types as the ill-fated British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2. The museum isn’t only home to static aircraft, though.

Alongside hundreds of military vehicles and boats, Duxford remains an active civil airfield and regularly holds displays such as the popular ‘Flying Legends’ air show. It has also been the location for films and TV productions, the most notable of which was ‘The Battle of Britain’. This famous movie called for one of the airfield’s hangars to be completely destroyed during a scene recreating a German aerial attack.

Fortunately, such attacks weren’t as destructive during wartime; and almost a century on from its humble beginnings, Duxford remains a site of very special interest.

Image By User Asterion on en.wikipedia (photo by Asterion) [CC-BY-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Dreadnaught No. 1

Aviation was in its infancy when the Great War began in August 1914. Still, many historians point towards the ‘War to End All Wars’ as the single, most important event in the transformation of the aircraft from a novelty to a much sough out commodity. No one will look at aviation the same way after 1914. That’s because the antagonist on this cataclysmic period utilized the airplane as a pure tool of war, rather than for communication or reconnaissance duties as it was customary during the first years of the twentieth century.

By the outbreak of hostilities, all combatants had an air force of some sort. The Germans had the biggest force with about 250 aircraft on inventory. The French, although outnumbered 3 to 2 in airplanes by the Germans, had a much greater understanding of aviation tactics. A base that would serve them well as its country became the main battlefront throughout the four year struggle. Farther behind the Germans and French were the British. The Royal Flying Corps, created in 1912; two years after France had done the same, could only field 60 airframes by July 1914. For the first two years of the war, Great Britain depended heavily on French engines and airframes. However, with its much larger industrial base, the island nation quickly caught and surpassed, both the Germans and French in aircraft output. On the other side of Europe, Russia was in possession of more planes than the British and French combined. They also had a better command structure than the French. But the confusing variety of types made maintenance of their aircraft difficult. Meanwhile, the chief culprit of instigating the war, Austria-Hungary, had only a tiny force by comparison.

In the later part of the nineteen century, in the vast territory controlled by the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungry, many aviation pioneers started developing and testing indigenous flying platforms. In the Czechoslovakia part of the empire, some aircraft inventors like Jan Kaspar began gaining a reputation for excellence in designs and development. Many aspiring pioneers became fixated with Kaspar’s achievements. One of those people who felt in love with Kaspar’s blue prints was Jan Stastik. The life of this remarkable, yet, less know aviation trailblazer is one of the most mysterious ones. The holes and hiatuses in his curriculum vitae are one of history’s greatest travesties.

The bits and pieces of what is known are tantalizing. What is certainly accepted is that his public life started in the spring of 1911, when he applied as a student pilot in Kaspar’s flying school at Pardubitze. After this period, little information is available, but it is safe to assume that Stastik was fulltime alum at the Technical University in Prague. By 1912, he introduced to the public his first aircraft model mockup in front of a jam packed crowd at the Prague Car Exhibition. He called the biplane on display at the exhibition that day Bomber Project Number One or Dreadnought No.1. According to the October 30th, 1914 issue of Flight, a prestigious British aviation magazine, Stastik’s biplane bomber mockup has several similarities in design with that of Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky’s famous Ilya Moroumetz heavy bomber, prompting many to conclude this was a copycat. Little do they know that the entrepreneur has secretly commenced work on his dream plane almost two years before the great Russian inventor.

In 1913, the Stastik began full work on his concept. The hard part of transforming a design mockup to a full size aircraft was a daunting task. One that required time and money. Time he had but money was in short supply. It was at that time that he turned to fellow countrymen Horak and Vonka to sponsor the project. The banking duo, famous for establishing several financing regulations in Imperial Austria, gave Stastik the important amount of 130,000 koruny (crowns). With money in tow, a year later, Stastik was able to present its semi-completed aircraft to an impressed gathering at the Prague Car Exhibition. In May, with the initial funds dwindling, he managed to finish the installation of the wing fittings and power plant. The final pieces needed before the aircraft could take to the air. By early June, and with his beloved bomber completed, Stastik began to plan for the initial flight test phase. At the time of his completion, Dreadnought No.1 was the Danube Monarchy’s first operational-capable bomber.

The Dreadnought was a remarkable flying machine for its time. It was a three strutted biplane design, built from wood coverings and fiber. It was powered by two Gnome rotary engines capable of generating up to 100 horse power per unit. The power plants were placed at the front and rear sections of the fuselage. Each of them drove a two-bladed airscrew, rotating in opposite directions. Originally, the front faced Gnome engine got a cover hood. But it was soon removed due to problems associated with the cooling of the motor. The rear engine was never housed. The upper wing structure of the airplane was fitted with two sets of ailerons for additional control and had a span of 18 meters. The lower wing area was shorter by a couple of meters.

The tailplane was assembled in two frames meeting at the ruder post that carried one rudder and one elevator which was built in a T-configuration. Below the tailplane sat a tailskid. The main undercarriage was completed with another carriage that was mounted under the cockpit and used two metal wheels without rubber tires. These metal wheels had S-shaped spokes that served as additional suspension for the airplane. On the air frame, fitted in a compact cabin, sat the two man crew. Behind the pilot and co-pilot, was an intriguing apparatus for mounting the bomb load. The mechanism looked like a revolver drum. A remarkable close looking system was used by the United State’s B-1A Lancer bomber for the deployment of cruise missiles in the early 1980s. The handling of the system was performed by lever controls and a special indicator that noticed the number of bombs attached to the barrel.

Next to the bomb-barrel were the fuel tanks. The empty weight of this twin-engine plane was 750kg. It soared to 1,200kg when fully fitted. Stastik planned to enhance that capacity two-fold, to around 2,000kg. Top operational speed for the bomber was estimated at 150 to 160 kmh, with a maximum flight endurance time of nearly six hours. By the middle of the summer of 1914, the massive Dreadnought began its flight test phase at Pardubitze. A year and a half later, the biplane finally joined the K.U.K. Fligerarsenal, the technical test center for the fledgling Luftschifferabteilung, the forerunner of the K.U.K Luftfahrtruppen (Austro-Hungarian air force), at Fischamend, downriver from the imperial capital of Vienna. From there, the aircraft will never emerge.

During the initial test flight, the aircraft began to gather speed for the takeoff before the front carriage broke, propelling the plane to a somersault crash. As the pilot emerged from the crash site, he managed to see what remained of the bomber catching fire. The end came quickly as ground crews were ill prepared to extinguish the fire. After the debris was removed, Stastik was contacted to do a follow-up project. But this never made it out of the discussion table. In an unfortunate side bar, the end of Dreadnought No.1 also signaled the end of Stastik’s aviation career, as he and his remarkable plane, faded away in the fog of history.

No longer an Island: Britain and the Wright Brothers, 1902-109, Stanford Press University, 1984
The R.F.C. in the War, Flight Magazine No.6, 1914
Jane’s Fighting Aircraft of World War I, Random House, 2001
Bombers and X-planes, from 1901 to 1915, Carson Palmer, Rodger Press Books 1971

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

HIII

Revolution in the Air: Gallaudet’s D-5, DM-5 and D-7 Models

In the winter of 1917, the Gallaudet Engineering Company finally completed their much anticipated land monoplane that used their patented Gallaudet-Drive Mechanism, a revolutionary engine driving a remote, mid-fuselage mounted propeller. The newly produced aircraft, call signed D-5, were to be the Company’s first true landplane platform after years of experimenting with the famous D-2 biplane.

In early January 1918, the company was submerged in developing the D-4 project, a tactical fighter for which they would receive a construction contract the following month from the United States Navy. But despite the immense work being done on the 4 model, Gallaudet engineers still found time to explore new ideas such as the 5 type. This new design was to use the reliable Liberty engine, first tested years before on American Expeditionary Force’s Farmans. Gallaudet designers use the D-5 project as a test bed for new technology. Chief among them was a cantilever wing structure with a thick airfoil, which have the distinction of being the first such wing design fitted into an American-develop air platform.

On the morning of January 7th, the company officially submitted a proposal to W.F. Durand; chairman of the influential NACA, for transmittal to the Aircraft Board for the building of what Edson Gallaudet called a “200-mph fighting monoplane”. The 5′s general arrangement is dated January 6th, so this proximity to the proposal and the lack of another competing design at this period, makes it almost certain that the D-5 was the 200-mph plane. Attached to the letter Durand received on the 7th were several detailed blueprints and specification sheets, with one of them being the D-5.

The designed D-5 was a mid-winged monoplane powered by a Liberty engine mounted on the nose. It had a 39′ wing span. The fuselage was 30’4″ in length and possessed a height of 7′-9″. The vaunted Liberty drove a mid-frame two blade propeller. The pilot was seated in an open cockpit between the engine and the propeller. The reconnaissance officer or observer as was call at the times, sat behind the propeller. Two fuel tanks were fitted at the front and the rear of the pilot’s seat. Tail surfaces were identically to the D-4, except for the absent of stub fins. The tail skid was an extension of the small rudder post. A cantilevered, thick and tapered wing gave the plane a distinct look.

Another departure from the D-4 was the use of rectangular spars in the fuselage’s cross section. The ailerons had an inverse taper with a wide base at the tips. A tall, fixed landing gear was fastened between the two wing spars near the wing root, which is estimated to be at 12 percent, thicker than usual for the era. The relative small air frame made it a necessity for the Liberty engine’s upper and down sections to be expose to the air stream.

During the early part of the March 1918, Gallaudet surprised the nascent aviation industry with another monoplane design, DM-5. the ‘M’ designation suggest a modified version of another platform, although no official documentation has been found to prove it. At the heart of the new version lay basically an improved D-5. The airframe was extended to 3’6″ wide and by 4′ high in order to fully enclose the Liberty engine. Still, the motor was big enough, in comparison with the mid frame, that the bottom oil sump was not covered. The wing was now a constant chord with a thin airfoil and no longer cantilevered, with a streamlined bracing line on top and bottom to the front and rear spars.

The ‘M’ concept called for two rectangular outlines on the wing’s surfaces near the root, which served as airfoil radiators similar to the ones used on the D-4. The biggest departure from the D-5 model was the incorporation of a retractable landing gear. A single leg per wheel retracted forward into the nose section beside the engine. The front of the airframe was composed on tubular longerons connected with cast bronze fittings braced by thin wires. The engine bearers appeared to have been built-up, sheet metal channel type as used on the D-4. There were three wing spars. All widest at the brazing wires attachment points and tapered from there towards both the tips and fuselage. The spars were rectangular in section and constructed out of metal sheet. The top and bottom parts of the aircraft were channel-shaped of .0625″ of thickness and the webs were .025″. All held together by an eight to a quarter diameter rivets.

Another of Gallaudet’s lesser known designs is the D-7 Mail Carrier. The drawing, which probably was made accordingly to a mid-1918 request by the United States government, was the project less coveted by Edson Gallaudet at that time frame. Unfortunately, little is know about the concept beyond its indented purposes of transporting mail through the air. But the few sketches that had survived pain a picture of a truly remarkable aeroplane. The design looks like a slightly larger, fixed landing gear version of the ‘M’ version. There are no indications of pilot seating or cockpit arrangement. No engine area is visible on the incomplete blue print. Span was to be around fifty feet. Fuselage length was 30’3″ with a total wing area of 337.5 square feet. The wing had two spars which were only indicated by a single dotted line on the paper. The rest of the data is missing or inconclusive.

It’s a testament to his innovating vision that almost a century later, all three models, D-5, DM-5 and D-7, are once again gaining the interest of aviation aficionados the world over.

The Aeroplane as a Long Range Gun, Journal of the Royal Artillery, R.G. Cherry, June 1919
Alpha, Bravo, Delta: Guide to the U.S. Air Force, Walter J. Boyne, editor, Penguin Books 2003
The Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, Robert Jackson, Parragon Publishing, 2002
The Early Aviation History, American Years, Edward Von der Porten, Crowell Company, 1969

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

The Russian Front: A brief look at the Imperial Air Service

The war between the Central Powers, mostly Imperial Germany and Tsarist Russia lasted three hard fought years. It ended abruptly on October 1917 when the Bolshevik seized power in Moscow.

When the Great War started on August 1914, Germany and Russia shared a vast frontier that stretched from the midway between Danzig and Riga near the Baltic coast, running west of Warsaw to south through Galicia, finally ending on the mouth of the Danube in the Black Sea.

The first phase of the air action took place in two main sectors of the border; the northern area and Galicia. Initially, German air assets in the east were limited. Nevertheless, this token force would have been enough to annihilate the disarticulated Russian air force.

In 1914, the strength of infant Imperial Russian Air Service consisted of 244 airplanes, 12 airships and 44 observation balloons. Of the 244, 145 were operational and deployed near the combat theater. Most of them were French designed and built under license by Russian manufactures such as Duks and the Russo-Baltic Wago Works. During the months prior to the war, the Imperial Flying Corps received most of its assets from France. Aircraft such as the Farman MF-IIs, Morane-Saulniers, Nieuport IIs, Nieuport 17s and Spad VIIIs found their way the Corps ranks.

Russian manufactures did built indigenous flying machines as the Anata DS and Lebed. But both were inferior copies of foreign designs, and because of it, they never saw extended action. The only Russian-designed air platform to see action during the first year of the war was the massive Sikorsky four engine bomber. Seventy three of the Ilya Mouromez G-9 heavy bombers were constructed from 1914 until 1917.

The G-9 began offensive operations on February 1915. As was the case in the Western Front, early air combat tactics in the east were primitive and unimaginative. Still, the Russian high command placed much of its war strategy in the Air Service’s ability to disrupt the vaunted German rail road access system near its border. But that was never the case. By 1915, the combined strength of Germany and Austria-Hungary managed to push back large Russian army formations without much harassment from the skies.

As the Russian army retreaded to the Ukraine, its air service began mount for the first time in the conflict, combined offensive operations. From the Lutsk and Kovel regions, young Russian pilots took to the air in an effort to engage German troop columns moving deeper inside their homeland. As their territory was savagedly invaded, more and more Russians joined the armed forces, most of them went into the air force.

One particular airman distinguished itself on the cold Eastern Front, his name was Aleksandr Kazakov. Kazakov was born in the Kherson province. After attending the prestigious Yelizavetgrad Cavalry School in 1908, Kazakov joined the Gatchina military aviation school, completing his training by 1914.

In 1915 Aleksandr was sent to the Ukraine with the purpose of shoring up air operations in the region. It was there that his reputation as a top ace was formed. Flying Morane-Saulnier, Spad – S2, Nieuport 11 and Nieuport 17 planes, the young airman is credited with shooting down 17 Central Power aircraft, top among Russian pilots at the time. There was a rumor that the number is actually 32 but because the Russian only counted aircrafts which crashed on its territory, seventeen is the figure recorded in the history books.

In 1917 he was assigned command of the newly formed No. 1 fighter Group, but the unit was disbanded when the Bolshevik took control in October. In November, Kazakov made his way north to Archangelsk to join in with the British who landed there in 1918. He perished in August 1st, 1919, while practicing aerobatics for the Russian White Army. Overall, 18 medals, including the British Distinguished Service Order and the French Legion d’honneur Order; were awarded to this aviation pioneer.

Another trailblazing Russian pilot was Alexander de Seversky. As with fellow inventor, Igor Sikorsky, Seversky’s path will ultimately lead him to America. But not before he made an invaluable contribution to the Russian war effort. Stationed in the Gulf of Riga, Seversky, a naval aviator with the rudimentary Russian Naval Air Service, performed his first combat sortie, a solo attack against a German destroyer. While diving for his bomb run, he was shot down by anti-aircraft fire only seconds before he was set to drop his bomb. As the plane crashed, the bomb exploded on contact with the sea, killing his spotter and blowing his right leg. After healing, he returned to active duty and was assigned the mission of coordinating all fighter aviation units in the Baltic sector.

Seversky is cited with 13 kills, but, as with many of the records of the era, this fact is disputed. He was in America when the revolution started. Shortly after which he applied for full citizen status. In the spring of 1922 he founded the Seversky Aero Corporation.

The fact the many Russian pilots became World War I aces, despite flying obsolete platforms and applying dreadful tactics, were a tribute to their skill and training. In general, the bulk of the Russian Air Service assets, although lagging almost a year behind in technology, still were good enough to hang in with the experienced German-Austro pilots. The weakling was the command structure. The officer corps was filled with Tsarist-created nobility. As was the case with much of the armed forces, they simply collapsed in the face of attrition.

It was the collapse of discipline all along the front, particularly in the Ukraine, in the aftermath of the Revolution that inspired a counter political and military movement. Despite explicit order from the new Soviet regime, many Russian air force personnel continued to resist the Germans. One of them, Lieutenant Commander Viktor Utgov, of the Black Sea Fleet, flying his Grigorovich M-9 seaplane out of the seaplane tender Imperator Nicolai Pervyi, attacked a German U-boat. After the war, Pervyi joined the large cradle of Russian pilots immigrating to the United States.

Besides the East, Imperial airman found their way to the Western Front where they participated actively with the British Royal Flying Corps. Some British and a great number of French airmen fought with the Russians in the east. In a footnote of history, one of the first women to see combat action was Princess Eugine Shakhovskaya. She flew reconnaissance missions on the Riga region.

Way of the Fighter, Claire Chennault, Putman Books 1949
The First World War, Hew Strachan, Penguin Books 2003
The Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, Robert Jackson, Parragon Publishing Books 2006

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

Aviation Hall of Fame Announces Call for Nominations

Do you know someone past or present in Canadian aerospace who has made an outstanding achievement towards the advancement of aviation in or for Canada? Or perhaps you know of a worthy organization that has done the same? Then consider recognizing their achievements by nominating them for induction into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. Their names will join the ranks of close to two hundred men, women and organizations that have advanced aviation from its fledgling beginnings.

Each year Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame solicits from the general public nominations of individuals and Belt of Orion candidates for induction into the Hall of Fame. The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2009. All nominations received are reviewed by a Nominations Review Committee (NRC), which prepares a list of the top nominations. The NRC’s recommendations are then presented to the National Board of Directors at their fall meeting, at which time the Inductees for the following year are chosen.

If you wish to nominate an individual for membership in Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame or submit a nomination for a group or organization for the Belt of Orion Award for Excellence, full details of the award criteria, eligibility and application guidelines are available by calling Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame at 780.361.1351 x 241 or by visiting our website at www.cahf.ca/nominations.

The Spitfire In Action

The initial order for 310 and the to return to their airfields. There had never been any German aircraft in the area. The fiasco cost the RAF three aircraft destroyed; two Hurricanes shot down by Spitfires of No. 74 Squadron and a Blenheim shot down binate-aircraft fire. One RAF pilot was killed.

Following the action fighter Command launched an official inquiry to determine what had gone wrong and prevent recurrence. One lesson, which has to be re-learned for each war, was the folly of opening fire on aircraft that had not been positively identified as’ hostile’. Another was the looking at the reports from one radar in isolation (stations had reported seeing no aircraft, but the absence of plots had been ignored). A further lesson waste need to fit IFF (identification friend or foe) radar equipment in all RAF fighters, and the programmed to build and install this equipment received top priority.

The Spitfires first encountered German aircraft en mission on 21 May 1940, when rapid advance of the German army into Belgium and France brought the war to within reach of RAF fighters operating from airfields in Kent. During the following weeks, Spitfires and Hurricanes flew large numbers of sorties to cover the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk.