The 20 years between the two world wars was a time of intense growth in aviation. Technologically, the airplane matured from the frail wood-and-fabric biplanes of 1919 to the sleek, all-metal modern airliners of 1939. Within a single generation, the industry evolved from unreliable rotary engines to the threshold of the development of the jet engine. In the United States, the industry itself expanded and matured under the watchful eye of the federal government, which created a coherent set of rules and regulations that established the infrastructure necessary to encourage rational growth and, most important, large capital investment. It would surprise many to know that the one person most responsible for this was Herbert Hoover, first as secretary of commerce and later as president. Although his administration was not successful, his aviation policies were. The proof is the creation of America’s largest and strongest aviation enterprises, such as Boeing, Lockheed, and Pratt & Whitney. Responding to government initiatives, the airline industry was created through Post Office incentives and subsidies while the aviation industry developed the modern airplane, which was in regular, daily service by the end of the 1930s.
Through the Army, the Navy, and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the federal government was responsible for pushing the limits of technology, sponsoring airframe, power plant, and aerodynamic inventions and innovations that rapidly advanced aeronautical science. The Army was to lead the world in creating large, advanced, long-range air-craft. The Navy was largely responsible for pushing the development of the reliable air-cooled engine, while the NACA blazed new trails in creating its famous cowl and other devices that increased aircraft performance.
The Boeing FB-5 was one of the first carrier-based fighters in the U.S. Navy.
General aviation also came of age as the small private airplane carved a niche in the American market. Even more significant, the business aircraft, the precursor to the modern business jet, first gained wide acceptance during this time. In addition, the racing airplane, which most vividly symbolized the Golden Age, reached its zenith of popularity. Many of the aircraft at NASM’s Udvar-Hazy Center incorporate these breakthrough technologies. Some are the actual aircraft with which the technology was perfected. Others are representative of the significant changes that were implemented during this most productive of times. All are wonderful examples from the Golden Age of Flight.
During the mid-1920s, several technological breakthroughs revolutionized aircraft design. Designers were keenly aware of the advantages of all-metal, semi-monocoque, shell-like fuselage construction and low-drag, internally braced, cantilevered wings, but engine technology had not progressed far enough to provide the power and reliability necessary to permit the use of this superior, though heavier, construction. Water-cooled inline engines were providing up to 700 horsepower, but they were very heavy and susceptible to leaks and other plumbing problems. Before the advent of ethylene glycol as a coolant, better known by the trade name Prestone, water-cooled engines also were hampered by their large, drag-inducing radiators. Air-cooled engines, though unencumbered by radiators, were almost exclusively rotary designs that produced too much torque at higher horsepower, so much so that it made the aircraft very difficult to fly. These engines also had more frontal drag than did inline engines.
At this time, the U.S. Navy was anxious to find a reliable, high-performance engine for use on its first generation of fighters, bombers, and scouts to be deployed from its new aircraft carriers, the USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, due to enter service in 1927. The answer was found in a small engine design of the tiny Lawrance Aero-Engine Corporation of New York City. The Lawrance J series of engines seemed ideal for the task, as they had no troublesome and heavy radiators, water pumps, or vulnerable cooling lines. And, as in a radial design, the engine spun only the propeller, not the entire engine block like a rotary, and this reduced the torque substantially.
Wishing to find a large company with enough resources to produce and develop this engine, the Navy threatened and cajoled Fred Rentschler, then president of the Wright Aeronautical Company, into purchasing the Lawrance Corporation in 1923. By 1924, the Wright J-3 and J-4 engines, better known as the Whirlwind engines, were in service. Incorporating Englishman Samuel D. Heron’s revolutionary sodium-cooled valves, which virtually eliminated the chronic problem of burned exhaust valves, the improved J-5 series was the first to offer substantial power without sacrificing dependability. This power plant, the world’s first truly reliable aero-engine, made possible Charles Lindbergh’s nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours with no problems. With such proof of its technical experience, Wright began producing vast numbers of Whirlwinds for the Navy and civilian interests.
In 1924, frustrated by banker-dominated management, Rentschler left Wright after a dispute over the future development of the air-cooled engine, disagreeing with the director, who, he felt, did not appreciate the engineering problems of aircraft engine production. Rentschler took with him two of his colleagues, Chief Designer George Mead and Assistant Engineer in Charge of Design A.V.D. Willgoos. After securing the necessary financial backing of the National City Bank, through the good offices of Rentschler’s brother George, they formed the Pratt & Whitney Company in 1925, assuming the name of an idle tool factory in Hartford, Connecticut.
The trio immediately gathered information and began to develop a new, higher-powered engine. Incorporating numerous changes, their new Wasp engine could generate 400 horsepower from nine cylinders at 1,900 revolutions per minute, a vast improvement over the latest engines from Wright. By May 1925, the Wasp was undergoing flight tests. The Navy was so enthusiastic about the results that 200 engines were soon ordered for its new series of combat aircraft. These air-cooled engines powered the revolution in aircraft design.
With engines that were lightweight, reliable, and powerful, airframe designers were now free to be more innovative with structural development. By 1927, the discovery of anodizing, as well as the Alclad process of aluminum coating, allowed lightweight yet strong aluminum alloys to be used in airframe construction without the previous corrosion concerns. Ground-breaking research by the NACA produced the award-winning NACA cowling that lowered drag around radials and at the same time improved the cooling airflow. Other NACA discoveries also resulted in more efficient engine placement and greatly improved aerodynamics. With these innovations, the modern airplane was born.
The change did not come overnight. Most aircraft of the interwar period were hybrids of old and new ideas, none more so than those of the U.S. Navy. For most of this time, Navy aircraft were equipped with the advanced air-cooled radial engines. The aircraft were usually of all-metal construction but the designs, until the last years of the 1930s, were conservative. Preferred biplane configurations provided a large wing area that would in turn permit the low landing speeds necessary for making difficult carrier landings.
Beginning in the 1920s, Boeing, Vought, and particularly Curtiss produced a series of important carrier-based fighter aircraft. The Boeing FB-5 was the first Navy fighter built by the Seattle manufacturer and was a forerunner of a series of classic biplanes. It differed from its progeny in that it was fitted with a water-cooled Packard engine before a suitable radial was available for subsequent Boeing models. The Museum’s FB-5 was on loan to the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia, for many years but was recently returned.
Two significant Curtiss fighters are currently displayed at the Udvar-Hazy Center. The first, the F6C-4, gained notoriety after it entered service in 1927 as the first Navy “Hawk” fighter to be powered by a Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engine. Though fitted with a powerful engine, F6C-4s were less advanced than competing types from Boeing and saw service only on the USS Langley before they were assigned to the Marine Corps. The F6C-4 Hawk was virtually identical to its U.S. Army counterpart, the P-3, and had a top speed of 170 miles per hour. It was of mixed construction with a wood-and-steel frame covered in cotton fabric. Not until later in the decade did all-metal designs reached the fleet.
Our Hawk has a unique pedigree. Curtiss built many aircraft for customers other than the U.S. military. In addition to foreign armed forces, private individuals, particularly exhibition pilots, could purchase civilian versions of contemporary military aircraft. Alford J. Williams was one of America’s premier racing and test pilots when he left the Navy in 1930 to join the Gulf Oil Corporation. He had already won the 1923 Pulitzer Trophy Race flying a Curtiss R2C-1 for the Navy and was credited with being the first person to reach 300 miles per hour while flying a Curtiss R3C-1 in 1925. A direct outgrowth of this racing research was in fact the F6C-4.
Williams was particularly fond of the F6C-4 for its excellent control balance and rapid rate of climb. As a flight test engineer and demonstration pilot, he flew one in numerous public displays, revealing his particular skill for prolonged inverted flight and negative-g (gravity) maneuvers. He also astonished crowds with the accuracy of dive bombing, a technique pioneered by the Navy and Marine Corps during this time. For these efforts he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1929.
The tiny Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk was designed to be launched and retrieved from an airship while in flight.
Al Williams certainly knew how to fly when he accepted delivery of a specially-built Hawk 1A in August 1930. This aircraft, the same one that is in the collection, was originally built in 1929 with a water-cooled Curtiss Conqueror engine and extra fuel tanks for long-distance flight. After an accident, Curtiss rebuilt it with a more powerful 575-horsepower Wright Cyclone radial engine. After it was sold to Williams, the aircraft was painted in the orange-and-blue corporate colors of Gulf Oil and renamed the Gulfhawk. With this aircraft, Williams toured the country promoting Gulf aviation products and performing astonishing aerial displays that captivated an entire generation of young enthusiasts. His dive-bombing expertise was witnessed by top surviving World War I German ace Ernst Udet during the National Air Races. So impressed was he with Williams and the accuracy of this new technique that Udet purchased two Hawks and shipped them home. With these aircraft Udet later taught the German Luftwaffe how to dive bomb—a lesson it put to devastating use during the subsequent world war.
During its career, the Gulfhawk was re-engined several times, first with a 575-horsepower Bliss Jupiter radial and later with a much larger 710-horsepower Wright R-1820 radial. When the Wright was installed, the long-range tanks were removed and the aircraft rebuilt with an all-metal fuselage. Eventually, when Williams moved on to more modern aircraft, the Gulfhawk was sold to a New York aviation trade school. It was later purchased by noted movie stunt pilot Frank Tallman, who rescued it from certain destruction and flew it for many years after an extensive restoration to its current configuration. The Gulfhawk was donated to the Museum in 1969.
A contemporary of the Hawk series of fighters was the other Curtiss fighter in our collection, the unique F9C-2 Sparrowhawk. This diminutive biplane was originally designed to compete for a Navy requirement for a lightweight fighter. Although the Navy changed the requirement, a special role was found for the Sparrowhawk. During the 1920s and early 1930s, the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, Rear Adm. William A. Moffett, the “father” of naval aviation, had become fascinated with the possible potential use of airships. He envisioned a fleet of dirigibles that would act as aerial cruisers scouting well ahead of the battle fleet. To fulfill his dream, the Navy had already flown several airships and was preparing to launch two new huge dirigibles, the USS Akron and USS Macon. Earlier tests on the USS Los Angeles had demonstrated the practicality of operating fixed-wing aircraft from an airship aloft.
To increase the scouting range of the new airships and to provide for their aerial defense, the Navy purchased eight Sparrowhawks, the first of which was delivered in June 1932. Each aircraft was fitted with a well-braced hook above the top wing, which was designed to latch on to a trapeze mechanism lowered from within the airship. After it was successfully captured, the Sparrowhawk could be hoisted up into an internal hangar bay on the airship. When the F9C-2 Sparrowhawks flew missions during which they were not intended to land, they were operated from the Macon without landing gear to lighten the weight and lower the drag. Each Sparrowhawk was built with an all-metal monocoque fuselage with metal-framed wings covered in fabric. A 438-horsepower Wright R-975 provided the power. After the loss of the Akron in 1933 and the Macon in 1935 with four aircraft on board, the remaining four Sparrowhawks were stripped of their hooks and relegated to utility duties. The Smithsonian acquired the only one that survived the cutter’s torch in 1939. Restored in 1975 and displayed for many years, it was on loan to the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida, but has now returned to NASM.
Al Williams later flew the highly modified Grumman G-22 Gulfhawk II in air shows around the country.
By the mid-1930s, the U.S. Navy was introducing more improved fighter designs as well as dive-bombers and torpedo planes. During this time, the newly formed Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation produced the first in a long line of distinguished naval aircraft—the FF-1, an all-metal two-seat biplane fighter with fabric-covered wings. When the “Fifi” first flew in December 1931, it was the first naval fighter ever to exceed 200 miles per hour and the first ever to be equipped with a retractable landing gear. The success of the two-seat FF series invariably led to a request from the Navy for a single-seat version. Consequently, in October 1933 the first F2F flew and, despite a tendency to spin, proved to be a fast and highly capable fighter. Fifty-six of these aircraft were built until they too were replaced by a more powerful sibling, the F3F, which would be the last biplane fighter to serve in the fleet. Like all Grumman fighters, it was exceptionally strong, designed to withstand even the stresses of 9-g maneuvers. This would be an impressive achievement for a modern fighter today, and was an astounding achievement for a 1930s design.
The F3F’s remarkable strength, coupled with the design’s high maneuverability, made it an ideal choice for demonstration pilots. As before, with the Gulfhawk, Gulf Oil purchased a special version of this airplane for Al Williams. Flying under the Grumman company designation of G-22, the Gulfhawk II combined an F3F fuselage and 940-horsepower Wright R-1820 engine with the smaller wings of the F2F. The aircraft was stressed for even more stringent maneuvers and was equipped for up to 30 minutes of inverted flight. This combination permitted truly formidable aerobatics, which Al Williams enjoyed with great panache between 1936 and 1948. Having rejoined the service as a Marine Corps reserve officer, Major Williams astonished crowds around the world. In 1938, he traveled with the Gulfhawk II to Europe where he performed at air shows in Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Germany. While in Germany, he met up with his old acquaintance Ernst Udet, by now a general in the Luftwaffe. Udet flew the airplane, the only pilot other than Williams to do so. In return, Udet allowed Williams to fly the vaunted new Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter—a rare privilege.
Once back home, the Gulfhawk II continued on the air show circuit but also performed many useful tests in the development of new aviation fuels and lubricants as well as communication devices. At the request of Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, the chief of the Army Air Forces, Williams also performed before enthralled classes of air cadets to demonstrate precision aerobatics. After a distinguished career, the Gulfhawk II was retired to the National Air Museum in 1948 when, after performing one last time, Williams landed at Washington’s National Airport, removed the stick, and presented the aircraft to the Smithsonian.
For Army aviation, the Golden Age of Flight was a time dominated by two themes, the fight for independence and the search for a long-range strategic bomber. These two objectives were complementary and formed the basis for Army air policy up to and through the Second World War. First as the Army Air Service and later as the Army Air Corps, the Army’s aviation branch sought to highlight the potential of aircraft through a series of well-publicized flights. In 1923, an Army Fokker T-2 transport, which is now on display in the Pioneers of Flight Gallery in the National Mall building, made the first nonstop flight across the United States. The next year, the historic around-the-world flight of the Douglas World Cruisers, one of which is on display next to the T-2, showed clearly that international long-distance flight was not only possible but was also practical, and that nations would soon be linked by air.
The Loening OA-1A amphibian San Francisco participated in the 1926–1927 Pan American Goodwill Flight to Latin America.
The cockpit of the San Francisco.
To further encourage friendship between countries and also highlight the Air Corps’s flying capabilities, Capt. Ira C. Eaker, future commander of the Eighth Air Force, and Lt. Muir Fairchild set out as part of a 10-man, 5-aircraft excursion in their Loening OA-1A amphibians for a flight to Latin America. Under the command of Maj. Herbert A. Dargue, the Pan American Goodwill Flight took off from Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, on December 21, 1926, returning to Washington, DC, 22,000 miles later on May 2, 1927. In their sturdy Liberty-powered amphibian biplanes, the crews touched down in almost every country in Latin American and the Caribbean. Despite the loss of one crew, the fliers were given a hero’s welcome upon their return. Their flight, which helped pioneer the future air routes for Pan American Airways, improved diplomatic relations between the United States and its southern neighbors. Only three weeks later, the achievement was overshadowed by Charles Lindbergh’s nonstop solo conquest of the Atlantic; unfazed, the Smithsonian accepted Eaker’s ship, the San Francisco, in December 1927.
The Boeing P-26, known as the “Peashooter,” was the first all-metal monoplane flown in service by the U.S. Army Air Corps.
These and other less well-known flights were conducted by the Air Corps to keep military aviation in the public eye at a time when dwindling defense budgets threatened severe cutbacks in equipment and manpower throughout all the services. In the NASM collection are five interwar Army aircraft that well demonstrate the various roles of air power and how the Air Corps sought to fill them. Specifically, these aircraft were designed to fulfill the roles of fighter, observation, and heavy bombardment.
The fighter or pursuit role is well represented by the Boeing P-26, popularly known as the “Peashooter,” which first flew in 1932. It is a transitional design, both modern and traditional at the same time. The P-26 was built to replace the Boeing P-12 and Curtiss series of biplane pursuit aircraft, and was the last Boeing fighter in service before the merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. It featured a modern all-metal monocoque fuselage, a cowled radial engine, and a monoplane wing, which was not cantilevered, however. The pilot sat in an open cockpit and the landing gear was fixed, producing unnecessary drag. The Peashooter was, in effect, an evolutionary fighter and served in combat units until the late 1930s when it was replaced by modern P-35 and P-36 aircraft. It was lightweight and highly maneuverable with a top speed of 234 miles per hour, produced from its 9-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1340-27 Wasp engine. It carried either two .30-caliber machine guns or one .30- and one .50-caliber heavy machinegun, and up to 200 pounds of bombs. A total of 136 aircraft were built, of which only two remain.
By the end of the 1930s, when P-35s and P-36s dominated the inventory, most of the P-26s were sold overseas. Eleven were sold to China and one was purchased by Spain. More were transferred to The Philippines where they gallantly fought the invading Japanese in 1941 and 1942 until the island nation was overwhelmed. Our P-26A was sold to Panama in 1937 and resold to Guatemala in 1943. It flew in the Guatemalan air force until its retirement in 1954. Four years later, the Guatemalan government graciously donated it to the Smithsonian and it was restored by the U.S. Air Force in the colors of the 34th Attack Squadron. It is a fitting reminder of the last days of open-cockpit military aviation.
Although the personnel of the Air Corps were often loath to admit it, they were part of the Army. Their primary role was to support the ground troops and win control over the battlefield. The roles of pursuit, tactical bombing, and reconnaissance were all directed toward the direct reinforcement of the Army. For the reconnaissance role, this meant observing the battlefield. Consequently, the Air Corps had developed an entire line of specialized observation aircraft.
The Verville/Sperry Messenger had sparse controls and a tiny three-cylinder engine.
The Messenger was designed as a flying motorcycle to deliver messages between battlefield commanders.
One of the first aircraft specially designed for Army ground operations was the diminutive Verville/Sperry Messenger. The smallest aircraft ever to serve the U.S. military, the Messenger was designed by Alfred Verville of the Engineering Division at McCook Field and built by the Sperry Corporation to deliver messages between commanders on the battlefield. Small, cheap, and rugged, it was intended to be an aerial dispatch motorcycle. In this role, the Messenger did not prove successful. Because of its simplicity, it was used extensively as a flying test bed for numerous new airfoils and weapons. Eight were modified as radio-controlled aerial torpedoes; one had a jettisonable landing gear while another was modified to hook on to an Army airship. Our Messenger was donated in 1957 by Eddie Rickenbacker, former World War I ace and president of Eastern Air Lines.
The North American O-47A was a pre-World War II photo-reconnaissance and battlefield-observation aircraft. It was first type of aircraft built by North American Aviation.
The last Army observation aircraft, the O-47 was also the first aircraft ever produced by the North American Aviation Company. Originally designed in 1934 by General Aviation, a descendant of the American Fokker Aircraft Company, the O-47 was a large mid-wing monoplane of modern all-metal construction. It was designed to carry a crew of three, including a photographer who took pictures from a special position in the belly of the aircraft under the wing. After the prototype had been completed, North American moved its headquarters and plant from Dundalk, Maryland, to a new factory in Inglewood, California, where all of the 238 O-47As and Bs were made. Although in service from 1937 until the outbreak of the Second World War, the O-47 was not used in combat. By that time, fighters and bombers had assumed the long-range photo-reconnaissance missions, while small, light planes such as militarized Piper Cubs had assumed the short-range duties. In its design and construction, however, the portly O-47 more typically defines the state of the aeronautical art of the mid-1930s.
The most critical role for the Air Corps during this time was strategic bombing. As part of the long campaign to win its independence from the Army, the Air Corps longed for a unique and significant mission of its own. Toward the end of the First World War, the British created the Royal Air Force to pursue military aviation independently of the other traditional services. Impressed by the effects of the German bombing of London by dirigibles and heavy bombers, and Britain’s reply with the Independent Air Force of long-range bombers, American Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell sought to emulate the British example and form an independent U.S. Air Force around the strategic bomber. Spurred by Mitchell’s outspoken and often misguided advocacy of long-range bombing, the Air Corps worked to develop a bomber suitable to the task.
This proved difficult. Early attempts to develop a long-range bomber capable of carrying a one-ton bombload deep behind enemy lines to attack the sources of production and damage civilian morale often resulted in laughable contraptions such as the infamous Barling Bomber that could not even fly over the Appalachian Mountains. Subsequent and more practical designs still lacked the range, speed, or payload to justify a separate mission.
In the late 1920s, following the technological developments in design and materials, new possibilities unfolded. In the early 1930s, the Army acquired two all-metal medium bombers that held great promise for the future, the Boeing B-9 and the Martin B-10. Fast for their time and capable of carrying a large payload, these two modern all-metal monoplane bombers nevertheless still lacked the range necessary to fly deep behind the battle lines.
In 1934, all this was to change. In that year, the Air Corps advised the manufacturers that the next bomber competition was about to open and that all multi-engine designs were welcomed. Hitherto, requests had specified two engines. Of all the manufacturers, only Boeing understood what this meant. Since 1933 the company had been working on “Project A,” a secret experimental long-range bomber of immense proportions for its time. Later known as the XB-15, Project A gave Boeing the experience it needed to build large four-engined bombers. Most important, it showed Boeing the direction the Air Corps was willing to go in future aircraft design. The result was the Boeing Model 299 that flew in the summer of 1935. After one survived a fatal accident during the last days of Air Corps testing, the Army agreed to purchase a limited amount of these new long-range four-engined bombers, now known as B-17s.
For the next three years, the Air Corps used every opportunity to demonstrate the superiority of the new bomber despite opposition from the Army and the Navy, which feared the upstart Air Corps might assume some of their responsibilities and funding. Eventually, both the aircraft and its mission survived when, after the Munich Crisis of September 1938, President Roosevelt called for a massive expansion of all America’s military strength including the B-17. The decision proved wise, as the famous “Flying Fortress” led America’s strategic bombing offensive against the Axis powers. Though often controversial, the strategic bombing campaign played a significant role in the Allied victory and helped to pave the way for the creation of the independent U.S. Air Force in 1947. For this the B-17 is largely responsible.
The Museum is fortunate to have owned the only surviving early model of this famous bomber, a B-17D. The initial versions of this aircraft were sleek, streamlined designs. Well armed by 1930s standards—a veritable “flying fortress” (a phrase coined by a Seattle reporter in 1935)—they were woefully unprotected when the war broke out. Despite their high speed of 300 miles per hour, the early B-17s lacked power turrets and were especially deficient in protecting the tail of the aircraft. These shortcomings were remedied in the B-17E and subsequent designs, but at the cost of the original aircraft’s style and flowing grace.
Our rare B-17D has a special history. It was present on Clark Field in The Philippines when the Japanese attacked on December 8, 1941. As part of the 19th Bombardment Group, this B-17 and the other 19 B-17Ds at the field were heavily damaged by Japanese air attacks. A few were salvaged from parts cannibalized from the others and, together with 16 B-17s from Mindanao, carried on a desperate and ultimately futile defense. By the late spring of 1942, the Japanese had conquered The Philippines, forcing the remaining B-17s to withdraw to Australia. There, our B-17D was taken by Lt. Gen. George Brett as his personal aircraft and named The Swoose after the popular song “Alexander the Swoose.” According to the song, Alexander was “half swan and half goose” just as this aircraft was made up of parts from other B-17s.
Though the aircraft was of great historical significance, a unique opportunity arose that forced the Museum to make the difficult decision to let it leave our collection. Because of the size of the B-17, the amount of time required to restore the aircraft would prevent or delay the restoration of many other equally significant aircraft. In 2007, the National Museum of the United States Air Force offered to provide NASM with a fully restored B-17G, a veteran of combat with the Mighty Eighth Air Force against Nazi Germany in World War II. At the time, the Air Force Museum was restoring the famous B-17E Memphis Belle and, to make room for that historic aircraft, offered NASM their beautiful B-17G Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby. With the tools and jigs in place for the Memphis Belle restoration together with a team of restoration technicians with a vast knowledge of B-17 restoration, they requested that The Swoose be transferred to the Air Force Museum where it could be restored and displayed sooner for the public to see. After much soul-searching and lively debate, it was decided that it would be in the best interest of The Swoose to give it to the Air Force.
As successful as the B-17 would prove to be, the Air Corps was constantly looking for ways to improve the performance of its aircraft. During the 1930s, the service turned its attention to developing aircraft that could take advantage of flying at high altitudes where the thinner, less-turbulent air permitted higher speeds and better performance. The problem was that aircrew cannot survive long in the oxygen-poor air at altitudes above 15,000 feet. The intense cold and high winds also cut through every opening in the aircraft’s fuselage. The crew members could survive only if they wore oxygen masks and donned heavy, restrictive clothing. This greatly encumbered the aircrew and limited their ability to fly and fight at high altitude. The best solution was to develop an aircraft with a pressurized and heated fuselage where the crew could work unencumbered. This was a most difficult technological task and the Air Corps was the first to solve it.
Developed by the U.S. Army Air Corps, the Lockheed XC-35 was the first successful aircraft with a pressurized fuselage, thus setting the stage for high-altitude military and commercial flight.
The Air Corps’s Materiel Division at Wright Field contracted with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for an experimental high-altitude research aircraft. Designated the XC-35, this was a heavily modified Lockheed 10 Electra commercial airliner. To seal the gaps and bulkheads installed to isolate the pressure cabin, Lockheed designed a new, greatly reinforced fuselage with special neoprene tape developed by E.I. du Pont de Nemours. Twin supercharged, 550-horsepower Pratt & Whitney XR-1340-43 radials supplied power and pressurization. A complex system of valves regulated the pressure and ensured a constant interior temperature and humidity. The structure was designed to expand and contract with changes in temperature and still maintain pressure. The large passenger windows were replaced with much smaller ones to withstand the pressurization better. The fuselage was designed to maintain a pressure altitude of 12,000 feet, sufficient to sustain life while flying at 25,000 feet. Today’s airliners are designed for a pressure altitude of 8,000 feet.
After a year of design and construction, the revolutionary XC-35 flew for the first time on May 7, 1937, from Lockheed’s factory field at Burbank, California. Three months later, the Air Corps accepted delivery and began an intensive testing program that validated the concept of a pressurized aircraft. Although the technology was new, the XC-35 performed well. On one flight the four-man crew, while flying in their shirtsleeves, traveled from Chicago to Washington, DC, with the help of a high-altitude tailwind at 20,000 feet. It averaged a phenomenal 350 miles per hour, 150 miles an hour faster than the aircraft could normally fly. So impressive was the work that the Air Corps received the 1937 Collier Trophy, the nation’s highest award for aeronautical achievement.
Only partially restored, the XC-35 resides today in storage. Most people walk past it thinking it a three-quarter-scale B-17 and oblivious to its pioneering role in aviation. Every pressurized aircraft from the B-29 to the latest airliner can trace its heritage back to this remarkable aircraft.
Not long after the XC-35 began its tests, Boeing incorporated the lessons learned from it and began work on a revolutionary airliner. However, by the late 1930s, Boeing was in trouble. Since the forced break-up in 1934 of the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC), of which Boeing was a part, the company had been struggling to regain its position of prominence. Cut off from the ready access to capital needed to build large and more expensive aircraft, Boeing decided to gamble on building a new aircraft with money in hand. The company had risked most of its cash on the B-17, only to have the prototype crash in October 1935, taking the company’s fortunes with it. Fortunately, a small order for 13 Y1B-17s rescued the bomber and Boeing as well.
In the commercial field, Boeing had led the world with the creation of the Model 247, which dominated aviation in 1933 but was soon supplanted by a better, more efficient design from Douglas. Both the Boeing 247 and the usurping Douglas DC-3 reside in the Hall of Air Transportation at the National Mall Building. After the dissolution of UATC that followed the 1934 Air Mail Crisis, and a new law that forbade aviation holding companies to operate both manufacturing and operating subsidiaries, Boeing hoped to regain the lead through technology. And lessons from the XC-35 clearly showed the way.
Abandoning plans for a conventional twin-engined airliner, Boeing gambled again, this time in the hope of leap-frogging over the Douglas designs with a large, pressurized, four-engined transport based on the airframe of a B-17C. An airliner capable of cruising at 17,000 feet, it would be faster and far more comfortable than conventional aircraft because it would fly above most adverse weather. Passengers would no longer be jostled about as they flew through storms; the new airliner, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, could fly over the clouds. The design was completed by December 1935 and construction began in 1937 after orders for 10 aircraft were placed by Pan American Airways and Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA).
When completed late in 1938, Boeing had produced a stunning design. The 307 was equipped with a wide, comfortable fuselage that could accommodate 33 passengers in unprecedented comfort, including collapsible beds, and boasted a maximum range of 2,400 miles and a top speed of 246 miles per hour. After the loss of the prototype during testing, Boeing redesigned the tail fin and rudder and installed them on all the subsequent 307s. Incidentally, this distinctive tail and rudder modification was later incorporated into the B-17E.
The Stratoliner entered service with TWA on July 8, 1940. It would have had a long and successful career had not the Second World War intervened. In December 1941, most of the nation’s airliners were transferred to the armed forces. By the time the war ended, better designs, particularly the graceful Lockheed Constellation, had superseded it. The nine remaining 307s soldiered on for many years and eventually did good work during the Vietnam War.
Our Stratoliner started life as Pan American’s Clipper Flying Cloud, plying the air routes to South America before it was drafted into transatlantic service. After the war it was discovered derelict at Tucson, Arizona, where it languished until Boeing volunteered to restore the aircraft for NASM. The dedicated crew prepared it and flew it back to its birthplace in Seattle in 1994.
For the next seven years, Boeing employees and volunteers lovingly restored this beautiful aircraft to its original glory. In June 2001, it once again took to the sky resplendent in its highly polished aluminum and blue Pan American livery. The following month it was the star attraction at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where hundreds of thousands of spectators were thrilled by its impressive daily flights and its magnificent restoration. Unfortunately, during a routine test flight, this beautiful aircraft ran out of fuel and was ditched in Elliot Bay near Seattle. Fortunately, the aircraft, while damaged, was quickly recovered from the salt water, drained, and returned to its hangar in Building 2 where its second restoration immediately began. After much dedicated work from hundreds of current and former Boeing employees, the 307 was returned to its glory and flown to its new home in the new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in the summer of 2003.
Golden Age commercial aviation was not always about advanced technology; it was also about practicality. In the early 1930s, when the United States was developing new streamlined all-metal aircraft with stressed-skin, monocoque construction, other manufacturers were relying on older but well-tested methods to create reliable transports. In Germany, the most successful of these efforts was the Junkers Ju 52/3m. Using proven corrugated duralumin metal and a welded tube structure, Junkers had built a long line of successful military and commercial aircraft from as far back as the First World War. The Junkers-F 13 and -W series of single-engined transports won worldwide acceptance. So successful was the Junkers corrugated duralumin that the Ford Company combined it with the high-winged tri-motor layout of the Dutch Fokker transport to create the popular Ford Tri-Motor. Furthermore, Hugo Junkers was the acknowledged inventor of the cantilevered wing, for which he received a patent in 1910.
The awkward appearance of the Ju 52/3m belied its reliable performance and was the most successful Junkers transport design. Basically an enlarged three-engined version of his monoplane transports, the Ju 52/3m first flew in April 1932 and could cruise at a surprising 150 miles per hour. It could carry 17 passengers or three tons of cargo and its unique “double wing” ailerons and flaps gave it excellent short-field performance. Because of its versatility, it quickly became Germany’s most important military transport after the outbreak of the Second World War. A total of 4,835 were built.
The all-aluminum Boeing 307 Stratoliner shines like a mirror.
NASM’s Boeing 307 makes its final landing after crossing the country for inclusion into the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
A heavy lead weight helped to deploy the Boeing 307’s radio antenna.
The first 307 was unstable, so Boeing designed a much wider fin and rudder for the production version. This fin and rudder design was later used on the famous Boeing B-17E and subsequent versions of the Flying Fortress.
Sky and clouds are reflected in the highly polished aluminum of the Boeing 307 Stratoliner.
The main passenger compartments were converted to sleeping berths during flight at night.
A beautifully finished, coral-colored powder room opened to the commode.
The Junkers Ju 52/3m (shown at bottom left) was the primary transport of Deutsche Lufthansa before World War II.
During and after the war, Ateliers Aéronautiques de Colombes of France and Construcciones Aeronáuticas (CASA) of Spain continued to build Ju 52s. In the 1980s, Lufthansa, the national airline of Germany, flew a CASA-built version for publicity purposes. In 1987, the airline generously donated it to the Museum at a ceremony at Dulles Airport and it is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center.
In the United States during the 1930s, research and exploration became primary goals of aircraft design. New technologies were constantly being discovered and new parts of the globe were being surveyed by air. Public fascination with flight grew enthusiastically and, despite the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression, new markets for private and business aircraft were created. Air racers stimulated public interest by competing in aircraft that applied existing engine technology to privately-built airframes, often of questionable design, in the thrilling quest for speed.
In 1926, a brilliant young designer, John K. “Jack” Northrop, left the Douglas Company to join the newly-formed Lockheed Aircraft Company. He brought with him his nearly unlimited talent, which he applied to create superior aircraft. He was instrumental in introducing monocoque construction and later all-metal stressed-skin design to the United States. In 1927, Northrop produced one of the most significant aircraft of his time, the Lockheed 5C Vega. A sleek, four-place cabin monoplane, made with a formed-plywood monocoque fuselage and a cantilevered wooden wing, the Vega quickly gained wide acceptance as an all-purpose aircraft because of its excellent performance. It was the first aircraft ever to be fitted with the revolutionary NACA cowling that greatly reduced drag while increasing cooling to radial engines. This gave the Vega a 20 percent improvement in top speed. As a result, and within a few years, the Vega became the preferred choice for such noted aviators as Amelia Earhart, Sir Hubert Wilkins, Ruth Nichols, and Wiley Post.
Wiley Post flew his Lockheed 5C Vega Winnie Mae aircraft around the world in both 1931 and 1933.
Post’s Vega is perhaps the most famous. Born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma, Wiley Post worked at many jobs while barnstorming in the Southwest. During a stint as an oil field roughneck, he lost an eye in an accident. Undeterred, he trained his good eye to perceive depth and returned to aviation as the personal pilot of Oklahoma oilman F.C. Hall. Hall purchased two Vegas, both named after his daughter, Winnie Mae. With the active encouragement of Hall, Wiley Post flew the second Vega on a series of epic flights that captured the world’s imagination, confirmed the new technology, and broadened our knowledge of our natural world.
In the early summer of 1931, Wiley Post and noted navigator Harold Gatty embarked on a daring around-the-world flight. Leaving New York on June 23, the pair flew to Newfoundland, across the Atlantic to England, then to Germany, across the Soviet Union, over the Bering Strait to Alaska, across Canada to Cleveland, and arrived back in New York in a record-setting 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes. So pleased was F.C. Hall after the headline-grabbing flight that he gave the aircraft to Post. Grateful, Post toured the country and prepared both the Winnie Mae and himself for an even more adventurous undertaking.
Using the latest instrument technology available, Post installed a prototype radio compass and one of the first Sperry autopilots ever used. So equipped, he once again took off around the world, this time alone with the help of “Mechanical Mike,” his autopilot, leaving New York on July 15, 1933. Following essentially his earlier course with three fewer stops, Post and the Winnie Mae shattered their old mark, returning to New York in only 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes, having flown 15,596 miles. This dramatic flight, the first solo around-the-world flight, vividly demonstrated the possibilities of faster and safer flight, thanks to the new generation of instruments then coming into service.
While most men would have rested on their laurels, the energetic Post could not. He wanted to fly higher and faster than anyone before him. Combining the courage of a barnstormer with the practicality of an engineer, Post understood that higher speed was possible at higher altitude. The problem was to keep the pilot not simply alert but alive and breathing when flying at such heights. While the Air Corps solved the problem with the complex XC-35, Post found a simpler but equally effective solution—the pressure suit. Working closely with Russell F. Colley of the B.F. Goodrich Company, he developed the world’s first practical pressure suit, the prototype of all future spacesuits that would protect pilots from exposure to the extreme cold and near-vacuum of high-altitude flight.
Post further modified the Winnie Mae by installing an engine supercharger and a special landing gear. Designed by Clarence “Kelly” Johnson of Lockheed, the gear could be jettisoned on takeoff to reduce drag. The keel of the Vega was reinforced and the propeller modified so that Post could safely land the Winnie Mae on its belly while positioning the propeller blades horizontally during a “dead stick” landing to prevent any damage.
As modified, Post took off from Burbank, California, for Cleveland on March 15, 1935. Flying in the stratosphere, Post was able to use the hitherto little-known jetstream phenomenon as a tailwind to propel him across the country in a record-setting 7 hours and 19 minutes. His speed was an astounding 340 miles per hour.
Post’s untimely death later that year in Alaska, while flying with the famous humorist Will Rogers, abruptly ended his brilliant career, but his aircraft and pressure suit remain as prized NASM possessions. Paul Garber persuaded Congress to purchase the Winnie Mae for the Museum as a way to help Post’s destitute widow. This was the only time that the Museum has ever made a major purchase of an aircraft—but the money was well spent.
Jack Northrop remained with Lockheed for only a few years. His brilliance soon took him in other directions, and he left Lockheed in 1929 to form the Avion Corporation to pursue his dream of creating a flying wing. His early design was not a true flying wing and his lack of capital led him to return to more conventional designs, at least temporarily. American aviation is fortunate that he did. For a time, his Northrop Company was part of the giant Boeing combine UTAC, for which he developed his innovative all-metal, high-speed Alpha mailplane and transport, one of which is on display in the Hall of Air Transportation. He soon left UATC when the combine merged his company into Stearman. Not wishing to battle winter weather in Wichita, Kansas, Northrop formed another company in warm southern California, where his work in developing his groundbreaking multi-cellular wing was eventually incorporated into the legendary Douglas DC-1,-2, and -3 transports.
For this work, Douglas had provided much of Jack Northrop’s capital. Now pursuing his flying-wing dream once more, Northrop sold the rest of his company, which became the El Segundo division of Douglas, and created a new Northrop Aircraft Corporation in 1939.
Northrop assembled a talented team including Dr. Theodore von Karman, the director of the California Institute of Technology’s Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, Dr. William Sears as chief aerodynamicist, and Walter J. Cearny as assistant design chief and the project supervisor. After much research and wind-tunnel testing, the Northrop N-1M flying wing was rolled out. This revolutionary design was built of wood and tubular steel and powered by two air-cooled, 65-horsepower Lycoming O-145 engines. Flight control was provided by an innovative system of trailing-edge “elevons,” which combined the functions of elevators and ailerons, and spoilers on the wingtips that acted as rudders. Many of these original controls were later incorporated into other Northrop designs, specifically the P-61 night fighter of World War II.
Flight tests began on July 3, 1940. Because of the unique design, numerous aerodynamic problems were encountered but were quickly overcome. The most serious problem was easily solved; the N-1M needed much more power and so two air-cooled, 120-horsepower Franklin 6AC264F2 engines were installed. Despite many difficulties, Northrop’s team demonstrated the efficiency of the flying-wing theory, which maximizes lift and minimizes drag when compared to conventional aircraft. The revolutionary design principles of aircraft led to the development of the larger experimental N-9M, the XB-35, and YB-49 heavy-bomber prototypes, and ultimately to the B-2 stealth bomber currently in service with the U S. Air Force. Given to the Air Force in 1946, the N-1M was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1949 and restored in 1983. It is now at the Udvar-Hazy Center.
Northrop demonstrated the efficiency of the flying-wing design with the N-1M, which maximized lift and minimized drag when compared to conventional aircraft.
Perhaps the most exciting and visible category of aviation during the Golden Age was air racing. The exploits of racing pilots were widely reported and many of their names became household words. In many ways, Jimmy Doolittle, Roscoe Turner, Matty Laird, Lowell Bailes, and many others were as well known then as star athletes are today. The famous Pulitzer Trophy Races, and especially the Schneider Trophy Races of the 1920s between military services and nations, generated much new research and technological innovation, particularly in high-performance engine design, cooling systems, and fuels.
By the 1930s, after government sponsorship ceased because of the Depression, private individuals assumed the role of competitive sponsorship. The great National Air Races held annually in Cleveland, and once in Los Angeles, brought together the finest piloting talent in the nation. The privately designed and built aircraft were essentially over-powered homebuilts that brought much idiosyncratic originality to aircraft design. They were not, however, technologically advanced. Most, if not all, were conventional wood-and-fabric aircraft, often with steel-tube fuselages. They were compact designs designed intuitively for speed. The power was purchased, not developed. The engines were military or commercial designs from the major mainstream manufacturers that were tweaked for more power but not built specifically for racing. Nevertheless, the racing was fun, highly competitive, and excited the imagination of the public by providing a new generation of heroes, even if the industry learned little from it.
Two such aircraft reside at NASM. In 1931, Matty Laird and his chief designer Raoul Hoffman created a compact biplane, the Super Solution, to recapture the Thompson Trophy Race they had won the year before. On September 4, 1931, with famous former Army pilot Jimmy Doolittle at the controls, the new Laird Super Solution seized the headlines when it crossed the finish line first in the Bendix Trophy cross-country race between Burbank and Cleveland. Inspired, Doolittle kept going and set a new transcontinental mark of 217 miles per hour when he finally stopped at Newark, New Jersey. He thereupon returned to Cleveland to compete in the closed-course Thompson Trophy Race. Unfortunately, problems with his Pratt & Whitney R-985 engine forced him to retire after 7 of the 10 laps were completed. This was the last race for the Super Solution. Doolittle later flew the aircraft from Ottawa, to Wichita, and then to Washington, DC, before the aircraft was sold. Doolittle joined forces later with the Granville brothers to fly their famous Gee Bee R series racers. The Super Solution was dismantled; in 1948, the Museum received the fuselage while the wings went to the Connecticut Aeronautical Historical Association.
The most famous racer in our collection belonged to the Golden Age’s most flamboyant pilot, Roscoe Turner. In 1934, Roscoe was already famous for his flashy military-style uniforms and pet lion Gilmore with whom he briefly flew. He was concerned that, despite his victory in the Thompson Trophy event, his trusty Wedell-Williams racer was falling behind the competition. With little money, Turner approached the Lawrence W. Brown Company of California to build an aircraft of his own design. Working with professors Howard Barlow and John D. Akerman of the University of Minnesota, Turner and the Brown Company completed the new racer in the summer of 1936. Interestingly, Dr. Akerman had also designed a unique tailless aircraft the previous year, though this flying wing flew only once, briefly.
Roscoe Turner, perhaps the most colorful flyer of the Golden Age, won the Thompson Trophy Race in both 1938 and in 1939 with his RT-14.
Turner and Brown had differing opinions on the racer’s design, however. Brown favored lighter aircraft with small engines, Turner preferred a larger aircraft propelled with as much horsepower as possible. Dissatisfied with the first version of the new aircraft, Turner approached E.M. “Matty” Laird to revamp the aircraft. Laird strengthened the fuselage and fitted a larger wing for better lift and flaps for lower landing speeds.
As completed, the racer, with its powerful 1,000-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engine, was quickly made ready for the 1937 National Air Races. Turner expected to win; in fact, he had to. With little money, he was counting on his prize-winnings to repay Brown and Laird for the aircraft, known alternately as the LTR, RT-14, or a host of other names depending on the sponsor. Unfortunately, while preparing for the Bendix transcontinental event, the racer suffered two fires, one from a leaky fuel line that Turner fortunately blew out with his propeller blast while landing, and the second from a welder’s torch while attempting repairs on the fuel tank. He was disqualified. Turner’s luck did not improve. While leading the Thompson closed-course race, he mistakenly thought he missed a pylon and circled back. He fell from first to third.
Concerned that the straightforward design of the RT-14 with its fixed landing gear and mixed construction was technologically inferior to the military fighters, such as the P-35 as flown by Jacqueline Cochran, he improved the racer’s streamlining and handily won the 1938 Thompson Trophy Race to his great satisfaction. The next year he did the same, becoming the only three-time winner of this prestigious competition. Concerned about his safety at age 43, Turner then promptly retired from racing as had Jimmy Doolittle several years before.
Turner kept his RT-14 on display at his fixed-base operation in Indianapolis and later at his own museum for many years. After his passing in 1970, Roscoe’s estate gave his aircraft, his aviation belongings, and his feline friend Gilmore, whom he had had stuffed after the cat’s death, to NASM.
Though more mundane than the excitement of air racing and less noticeable than the rapid development of military and commercial aviation, general aviation blossomed during the Golden Age, as the small private airplane filled a variety of important new roles. The Museum is fortunate in having a vast collection of general aircraft of all types, from business aircraft to crop dusters and from personal to homebuilt airplanes.
The Farman Sport was an interesting attempt to produce an inexpensive airplane for the American public.
One early product of the general aviation industry came from France. In 1919, Maurice and Henry Farman, noted especially for their large heavy bombers, built a tiny low-cost biplane for the American market. It was backed by C.T. Ludington, who was soon to finance the creation of National Air Transport and later Eastern Air Lines, and Wallace Kellett, who would turn his interest toward autogiros. The little 60-horsepower two-seat Farman Sport was a delight to fly but it found no market in the postwar recession.
The Bellanca CF was the first cabin monoplane for the civilian market in the United States.
The recession failed to deter other hopefuls. In 1922, Giuseppi Bellanca first flew what is widely believed to be the first cabin monoplane in the United States—the CF. Remarkably efficient, the CF featured Bellanca’s patented lifting struts that provided lift as well as support for the wing. This strut was later fitted to many aircraft, including some DH-4s operated by the Post Office, with positive results. The CF could seat four passengers inside while the pilot resided in an open cockpit behind the cabin and offset to the right for a better view. With only 90 horsepower, the CF could fly at a remarkable 108 miles per hour and won numerous awards. However, the $5,000 it cost to acquire a CF or a Farman Sport prevented any from being sold as long as surplus Curtiss Jennys were selling for a tiny fraction of that sum.
In 1926, in Havelock, Nebraska, the Arrow Aircraft and Motors Corporation produced its own light plane called the Sport, with 60-, 90-, or 100-horsepower engines. The biplane Sport series featured two-place, side-by-side seating. The wings were cantilevered and of single-piece construction. Conventional “N” struts connecting the wings could be fitted but were unnecessary. With a price starting at less than $3,000, the Sport was safe to handle with its unusually wide landing gear, had a low 35-miles-per-hour landing speed, and could fly 280 miles while sipping only 4.5 gallons of gasoline each hour. One hundred Sports were sold but Arrow struggled to survive after the onset of the Great Depression in late 1929, eventually closing its doors in 1940.
While many aircraft constructors failed to build a successful light airplane for mass consumption, the Aeronautical Corporation of America—Aeronca—did succeed. Built in Cincinnati, the Aeronca C-2 made it possible for almost anyone who wanted to fly to do so. Looking like a flying bathtub, the C-2 was a small, inexpensive, high-winged monoplane powered by a tiny 26-horspower Aeronca engine. Cheap at $1,485 and consuming only four gallons of gasoline per hour, the C-2 reached the mass market of aviation enthusiasts who could not afford the far more expensive and much larger aircraft then being offered to the wealthy. Designed by Jean A. Roche, the French-born senior aeronautical engineer for the Army Air Service, the single-seat C-2 first flew on October 20, 1929, one week before the “Crash” on Wall Street. Despite the subsequent collapse of the economy, Aeronca survived with this excellent little design, carving out a niche market that it dominated for years. Some 164 were built before a factory fire effectively ended its production in the early 1930s. By that time, Aeronca was producing even more popular designs.
The Curtiss-Wright Company of St. Louis, Missouri, also produced a successful light aircraft. The CW-1 Junior resembled a modern-day ultralight and was intended for the pilot on a tight budget. In 1930, two executives of Curtiss-Wright, Ralph Damon (later to become the president of TWA) and Walter Beech (soon to be the founder of his own line of famous aircraft), bought the rights to the design of Orval H. “Bud” Snyder’s “Buzzard.” Beech, Karl White, and Lloyd Child completely redesigned the diminutive aircraft and installed a three-cylinder 45-horsepower Szekely engine. After test flights in December 1930, the Junior, as the design was now called, was immediately successful despite the Depression. More than 125 were sold within the first six months of production. The price for this open cockpit, two-place, parasol monoplane was almost identical to the Aeronca C-2’s at $1,484. The crisis in the economy eventually did catch up, however. By early 1932, when the crisis reached its nadir, sales stopped. With the departure of Beech and other members of the team, Curtiss-Wright retooled the factory to build Condor airliners.
Huff-Daland, a small New York-based company that had built aircraft for the military as well as for civil use, was presented with a unique opportunity that revolutionized agriculture and air travel. In the early 1920s, Dr. B.R. Coad, a government entomologist, conceived the idea that dusting the cotton industry’s nemesis, the boll weevil, would be more efficient if it could be done from the air rather than from mule-drawn wagons. Initial trials with Curtiss Jenny biplanes convinced him that researchers were on the right track, but also highlighted the need for an aircraft specially designed for crop dusting. In 1925, the Huff-Daland Manufacturing Company received the contract to design and produce the Duster biplane based on their military Petrel 5 design.
The tiny Aeronca C-2 was a light-weight, inexpensive, single-seat private aircraft built during the Great Depression.
In 1923, C.E. Woolman, an agricultural engineer and research assistant with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, joined the Huff-Daland Duster Company, located in Macon, Georgia, a subsidiary of Huff-Daland Manufacturing and the first company devoted to dusting operations. Three years later the company relocated to Monroe, Louisiana. Because of the seasonal nature of the crop dusting business, Woolman began to operate in Peru in 1926 during the North American off-season, dusting more than 50,000 acres in Peruvian valleys in 1927. He expanded their business during 1928 by carrying passengers and freight in a Fairchild FC-2 and other aircraft in association with Peruvian Airways Corporation.
Woolman returned to the United States in 1928 and found the firm in financial difficulty. Huff-Daland Airplanes, then part of Keystone Aircraft, wanted to divest itself of Huff-Daland Duster so Woolman took it over, and, with the help of Monroe investors, founded a new company, Delta Air Service, headquartered in Monroe. Woolman became senior vice president and general manager and planned to carry passengers and freight as well as continuing in the crop dusting business. They inaugurated their passenger and mail service with a route between Dallas, Texas, and Jackson, Mississippi, flying six-passenger Travel Air 6000s. Thus began what eventually was to become Delta Air Lines. Woolman became president of Delta in 1945 and was appointed chairman of the board in 1965. The Huff-Daland Dusters remained in service as dusters until they were replaced by Stearman C3Bs. In 1968, Delta employees restored and donated the Museum’s Duster to honor their founder, C.E. Woolman.
Delta Air Lines owed its creation and success, in fact, to the work of the U.S. Post Office. Between 1918 and 1927, the Post Office blazed the air trails across the country, providing a fast and reliable means of delivering high-priority mail across the country. After the passage of the Air Mail Act of 1925, better known as the Kelly Act, the Post Office turned over the delivery of air mail to private contractors—the airlines, and thus was the U.S. airline industry born. Under the watchful eye of the government, through the Post Office, the industry quickly expanded, soon becoming a vital part of the nation’s transportation network and its economy. One of the first companies to respond to the Post Office’s request for contractors was Western Air Express.
On April 17, 1926, Western Air Service, Inc., commenced operation on Contract Air Mail Route 4 (CAM-4) between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City via Las Vegas. For service over this route, a distance of about 660 miles, Western selected the Douglas M-2 aircraft, a mailplane version of the 0-2 observation plane produced by the Douglas Company to replace the U.S. Army DH-4 aircraft.
The Douglas M-2 flew the mail between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles for Western Air Express, now Delta Airlines.
The M-2 performed remarkably well during the early years on the CAM-4 route. Its load-carrying capability, remarkable stability, and rugged construction contributed to a perfect safety record and profitable operation. Government and airline experiences with the Douglas mailplanes and the 0-2 led to modifications of the basic design. Relatively minor changes in cockpit layout, engine accessories, and airframe construction led to the M-3 mailplane, which differed little in physical appearance from the M-2 version. A subsequent addition of five feet to the wingspan resulted in the final version, the M-4, which realized considerable gain in payload at a negligible loss in performance.
NASM’s M-2 is believed to be the last Douglas mailplane in existence. This machine is actually an M-4 model originally purchased by Western from the Post Office Department in June 1927 and registered as NC 1475, serial number 338. The aircraft saw considerable service on Western’s mail route until 1930, when it crashed and was sold to Continental Air Map Company of Los Angeles. The airplane had a series of corporate and private owners until it was reacquired by Western Air Lines in April 1940 and subsequently registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as M-2 NC15O, Western’s first M-2. The first substantial restoration took place in 1946, and for the next 22 years the M-2 made its home in a corner of Western’s hangar at Los Angeles International Airport. In 1974, an intensive, large-scale restoration effort commenced under the impetus of retired Western Capt. Ted Homan. The aircraft was restored to flying condition and took to the air on June 2, 1976. After a series of test flights, it was recertified airworthy by the FAA and flown from California to Washington for inclusion in NASM’s collection in May 1977.
In the late 1920s, a market developed for larger general-purpose aircraft that could be used for a variety of tasks. Three times more expensive than the Aeronca C-2 and Curtiss-Wright CW-1 Junior, these aircraft were popular with small airlines as well as fixed-base operators. One such design was Hagerstown, Maryland’s Kreider-Reisner C-4C. A large open-cockpit biplane with room for three and powered by a 165-horsepower Wright J-6 radial, the C-4C was later known as the KR-34C Challenger after the company was acquired by Fairchild during the merger mania of early 1929. The Interstate Flying Corporation and, later, North Penn Airways flew our KR-34C. Some were even outfitted as fighters and flown in combat by the Chinese. After 175 had been purchased, the market for this and other similar aircraft evaporated after the “Crash.”
In Troy, Ohio, Elwood Junkin and Clayton Bruckner reorganized the defunct Weaver Aircraft Company (Waco) and in 1925 began production of a popular OX-5-powered biplane for the new Advanced Aircraft Company. Known as the Waco 9, in deference to the memory of the original company, Waco Aircraft, this aircraft became available to barnstormers and other pilots scratching out a living from aviation at a time when the supply of war-surplus Jennys was drying up. Sturdy, maneuverable, and dependable, the Waco 9 sold well and carried mail, dusted crops, and did anything else it was asked to do. Although designed by untrained engineers, the Waco 9 passed the new government certification requirements with flying colors when they were put into effect by the Commerce Department in 1926. When production ended in 1927, 120 Waco 9s had been built.
The Advance Aircraft Company, which now controlled the Waco name, was not finished, however. Because of its well-earned reputation for quality and performance, the Waco name became synonymous with general aviation during the 1930s. Subsequent designs such as the Waco 10 sold well and the company’s cabin biplanes achieved great success in the upper end of the market. Wacos such as the UIC in the collection were successful despite the high price tag, often well over $6,000. When the custom UIC first flew in 1931, it introduced aviation to a new market, the businessman. As with Walter Beech the following year, the Advance Aircraft Company/Waco exploited the need of business to transport its executives rapidly around the country. Though the economy was in tatters, America’s top corporations all survived and needed better communications if they were to find a way out of the financial morass. Waco Taperwings and Beech 17s were an answer to the new requirements of business. So successful was the aircraft that Waco could not make them fast enough, selling 73 UICs alone. The UIC featured a comfortable, nicely appointed four-place cabin and was fitted with a 220-horsepower Continental engine—perfect for the travelling businessman who did not wish to depend on airline and train schedules to make his appointments.
Other general aircraft of the Golden Age found success in the burgeoning business market. Starting in 1930 with its popular high-wing Reliant monoplane, Stinson produced a string of highly successful aircraft that catered to the upscale market. By the late 1930s, the graceful SR-10, with its distinctive gull wing and 450-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior, had supplanted the earlier designs. The one in the National Collection, specially modified for a unique service, is currently on loan to the National Postal Museum.
Based on the innovative concept of Dr. Lytle Adams, a Pennsylvania dentist, our SR-10 was modified for the aerial pick-up of mail. This led to the formation of All American Aviation (a predecessor of Allegheny Airlines and today’s US Airways), whose task was to deliver the mail by air to the remote mountain towns and villages along the Appalachian mountains in Pennsylvania and West Virginia as well as in Ohio and Delaware. Six SR-10Cs were first employed in 1939 for this successful service, which entailed flying under contract to the Post Office along a Star route catching suspended mail bags by a hook hanging from the aircraft. Later experiments conducted with our aircraft included the aerial pick-up of humans during World War II. Some success was achieved in September 1943, but the potential was limited.
As previously mentioned, Walter Beech left Curtiss-Wright to form his own company in November 1932. Based in Wichita, Kansas, the Beech Aircraft Company produced its first aircraft in November 1932 in the old Travel Air factory. The Beech 17 was a stunning cabin biplane with staggered wings, one of which is on display in the Golden Age of Flight gallery. The Model 17, also known as the Staggerwing, was an instant success with businessmen and also with air racers, who compiled an enviable string of victories that highlighted the aircraft’s excellent performance. One variant was capable of flying at 240 miles per hour with just 650 horsepower, a remarkable achievement.
Though Beech was to sell 780 of his Model 17s, he was eager to expand his product line and in 1935 began the design of an all-metal, twin-engined cabin monoplane. The result was the sleek Beech 18. Seating seven passengers, the twin-tailed Model 18 was ideally suited for business and small airlines, with which it found remarkable success. It combined the comfort and safety of the modern airliner with the utility and efficiency of a much smaller aircraft. Between 1937 and 1948, when production ended, well over 1,800 Beech 18s were produced for civilian, commercial, and military customers. Many are still flying today.
In Bethpage, New York, the Grumman Corporation created a sleek amphibian to fly the wealthy residents of Long Island quickly and in luxurious comfort to their offices on Wall Street. The Grumman G-21, popularly known as the “Goose,” proved a successful design and popular with its clients. Soon, the inherent strengths of the G-21 broadened the aircraft’s appeal as hundreds were purchased by the Army and Navy as liaison aircraft, while many more entered the commercial market as airliners serving island and coastal routes around the world.
Combining comfort, safety, and utility, the highly successful Beech 18 remained in production from 1937 until 1948.
The highly versatile Beech 18 was first built as a luxury aircraft for business travelers. It later proved successful as a commuter airliner for many years.
The Beech 18 featured a distinctive twin fin and rudder tail section.
The leather-trimmed interior was quite comfortable.
The fully instrumented cockpit was separated from the cabin by a leather-paneled door.
The Beech 18 is hoisted into position over the Lockheed C-121C Super Constellation.
With the nation slowly recovering from the Depression, other manufacturers hoped to return to the idea of an airplane for Everyman. In the late 1920s, brothers C. Gilbert and Gordon Taylor were attempting to sell a little two-seat high-wing monoplane that they had designed and named the “Chummy.” When Gordon perished in a crash, Gilbert moved their small company to Bradford, Pennsylvania, where the local Chamber of Commerce was willing to provide sufficient capital to start a new enterprise. With this $500,000 invested, Gordon opened a new Taylor company to manufacture his Chummy. Unfortunately, the Depression ended any hope for prosperity and therefore only five were sold. Undaunted, William Piper, a large stockholder in the company, offered to fund the development of a less expensive version, ultimately known as the E-2. The tiny 20-horsepower engine was not strong enough so the company was forced into bankruptcy in 1931. But Piper was a wealthy oilman. He purchased the assets and kept Taylor on as chief engineer. Fortunately, by this time Continental announced the production of its lightweight, 35-horsepower A-40 engine, powerful enough to get the E-2 in the air and keep it there. With this combination, the E-2 proved an immediate success.
In 1936, the E-2 was redesigned with an improved Continental engine and renamed the Taylor J-2, one of which is in the collection. At the same time, Taylor left to form his own company. Following a fire at the Bradford factory, Piper moved to a former silk factory building in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and renamed the company the Piper Aircraft Corporation.
The excellent sales of the J-2 alone—they approached 700 in 1937—prompted William Piper to produce a more powerful version. In 1939, he revealed his classic J-3 Cub, powered by a 40-horsepower engine that was available from several manufacturers. With a sale price of just $1,300, the all-yellow Cub became an instant success. It taught thousands of men and women how to fly, including three-quarters of all the military aviators of the Civilian Pilot Training Program. During the Second World War the Cub, then known as the L-4 “Grasshopper,” served gallantly over the battlefield as a liaison aircraft and spotter. By the time production ended in 1947, 14,125 of the legendary J-3s had been built.
The Golden Age of Flight witnessed the immense growth and maturation of aviation into a powerful economic force and an invaluable weapon of war. How critically important this development was to the nation was soon evident when the United States entered World War II.
The Grumman G-21 “Goose” amphibian started as an executive aircraft for the wealthy but grew into a popular all-purpose utility plane and airliner.