Around the World: Operation Power Flite

[Music] foreign [Music] a U.S Boeing b-50 strategic bomber named lucky lady 2 became the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe non-stop trip took 94 hours one minute and less than eight years later lucky lady three would cut that time by more than half the first non-stop circumnavigation of the globe at the equator by a jet aircraft sealed the reputation of one of the most iconic aircraft designs in history operation power strike took off January 18th 1957. 66 years ago today it is history that deserves to be remembered the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe was done by Crews of the United States Army Air Service the fee to become something of an international competition after a failed British attempt in 1922 and with several other countries announcing plans the Air Wing of the U.S military decided to make an attempt there being no suitable planes in service with them at the time they looked to the Douglas corporation which modified their dt2 and aircraft designed as a bomber that was able to accommodate both wheeled and pontoon landing gear Douglas called the new plane modified to carry extra fuel tanks the world Cruiser the attempt had its dangers the airplane's head open cockpits lacked radios or really avionics of any sort navigation was by dead reckoning four planes named Seattle Chicago New Orleans and Boston each with two crew left Seattle on April 26 1924. the dangers of the attempt were made clear when the Seattle crashed into a mountain in Alaska the crew survived but the plane was destroyed the Boston was later lost when it was forced to land in the Atlantic and capsized while being towed but Chicago and New Orleans made it back to Seattle on September 28th beating rival attempts by the British Portuguese Italians French and argentines the success bolstered not just the reputation of the United States whose success had much to do with Logistics planning but the Douglas corporation which adopted the motto first around the world first around the world the first aerial circumnavigation covering more than 26 000 miles showed the potential of military aircraft to operate anywhere in the world and perhaps presaged the future of air travel but the limits were clear not only had the effort required significant military resources but the 175-day trip took more than a hundred days more than it had taken journalist Nelly Bly to circumnavigate the globe using conventional transportation in 1889 Aviation had come a long way just 24 years later in 1948 when three Boeing b-29a bombers of the U.S 43rd Bomb Group made their own Around the World trip the four engine B-29 had been introduced in 1944 played a significant role in the second world war in the Pacific dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but as the war ended and the United States had a monopoly on atomic bombs the Strategic deterrence they assumed those weapons would offer required a delivery system the delivery would be responsibility of the newly constituted United States Air Force Air delivery of atomic bombs is one of the main responsibilities of the Air Force the flight leaving July 22nd was the first circumnavigation attempt using the most capable long-range bomber of the second World War the Lindsay California Gazette explained in August 1948 that the first post-war flight of b-29s was taken on orders of the Strategic Air Command the mission was billed as one to familiarize the crews with facilities and weather conditions around the world that around the world flight was still dangerous became clear when one of the three planes crashed in a sandstorm on the Arabian Peninsula killing all but one of the crew but the two other planes nicknamed the gas gobbler and the lucky lady returned to their base in Arizona the trip was supposed to have taken 14 days but they had had to spend another day after the crash of the third plane and so returned 15 days later The Gazette reports tired and weary the crews climbed out of the planes and with Good Humor went through a 30-minute round of radio interviews and picture taking before retiring for much needed rest while U.S newspapers reported the achievement light-heartedly especially compared to the drama of the war the message to the rest of the world was clear the bomber that had dropped the A-bomb on Japan could reach anywhere in the world but a more ambitious attempt was already in the works using bases for refueling limited bombers potential in several ways the Air Force wanted to prove the concept of aerial refueling it was not a New Concept several endurance and distant records had been set using aerial refueling in the 1920s in 1948 the U.S used a modified system developed by the British company flight refueling limited and converted b-29s as tankers capable of aerial refueling the modified plane was the kb-29 the original system used what was called the looped hose system and new Boeing b-50s modified versions of the v29 were equipped to use the system less than a year after the lucky lady had made the Around the World trip a b-50 named lucky lady 2 took off from Carswell Air Force Base Texas February 26 1959 the Federation International aeronautique explains the flight was conducted in secret even the families of the crew were unaware of the danger that their loved ones were facing attempting a circumnavigation with a total of eight in-flight refuels at four locations but the success was not kept secret at all the Boston Globe reported lucky lady 2 a United States Air Force b-50 bomber completed the first non-stop around the world flight in history today 94 hours and one minute after she took off from Carswell Air Force Base here last Saturday the great for engine bomber came home again out of a haze hanging in the West contrary to the reports of exhausted Crews the previous August the crew Commander Captain James Gallagher of Melrose Minnesota said I don't think that any of us is real tired and I wouldn't mind doing it again after a little rest well lucky lady too had lived up to its name the effort was not without its problems lucky lady 2 was actually the second b-50 to make the attempt another bomber the global Queen had taken off the day before but had been forced to abort after an engine fire after traveling several thousand miles the globe notes that the Air Force build this as a training Mission but its obvious pride in the flight was reflected by the presence of all the top brass as the plane landed the United States Air Force historical Support Division explains that for this outstanding flight the lucky lady 2 crew received numerous Awards and decorations foremost among these recognitions were the award of the McKay trophy given annually by the national aeronautic Association for the outstanding Flight of the year and the air age trophy an Air Force Association award given each year in recognition of significant contributions to the public understanding of the air age but there was another Point behind the celebration the Federation International aeronautique notes the mission to find non-stop around the earth demonstrated that a U.S bomber could reach anywhere in the world the timing was not coincidental in one of the most significant crises of the Cold War the Soviet Union had severed land and water connections to the non-soviet sections of divided Berlin Western allies responded by supplying West Berlin by air over the course of 15 months planes the United States Air Force and Royal Air Force applied West Berlin with food and fuel the Berlin airlift delivered more than 2.3 million tons of supplies If the message of lucky lady 2's trip was to put potential enemies on notice that the U.S could deliver atomic bombs anywhere in the world it's not difficult to Divine to which nation that message was intended but the flight of lucky lady 2 still belied a fundamental weakness the b-50 was a 1996 edition of the Smithsonian Magazine explains a colossal Bluff referring to bombers moved to Europe during the Berlin blockade Smithsonian rights in all of Sac only 27 superforts had the Silver Plate modifications needed to carry an atomic bomb and those were all assigned to the 509th Bomb Group which stayed home as for bombs the U.S stockpile contained exactly 13 controlled by the atomic energy commission and president Terry Truman refused to say if he'd ever released them to the military and even if he had given the order to launch an attack the 509th would have needed five days to pack up fly to an aec Depot load the nukes and move overseas the U.S still lacked a realistic way to make good on the Strategic threat of nuclear weapons the initial solution was the massive convair B-36 initially can see before the second world war the bomber had been prioritized behind more proven designs but as the war of the Pacific went on the massive bomber became more desirable having the range to attack Targets in Japan from bases in Hawaii Smithsonian writes big is the B-29 superfort was it could nearly fit beneath One Wing of a B-36 the first B-36 was delivered in June of 1948. that is even before it made its around the world flight b-50s like the lucky lady 2 were already being replaced but so was the B-36 Alex Hollings an expert in defense technology analysis wrote on the website of the military platform sandbox last September in July of 1948 Boeing received a contract from the still new United States Air Force to design and build a new heavy bomber while Boeing originally proposed a conventional turboprop design as Hollings explains turbojet engines were still in their infancy at the time while powerful enough to propel the p80 fighter to nearly 600 miles per hour and altitudes of nearly 47 000 feet these fuel hungry engines were yet considered feasible for long-range bomber applications but the Air Force's chief of bomber development Colonel Pete Warden told the Boeing team that many of the top decision makers at the Air Force believed that swept Wing jet bombers were the future hollingswright said Boeing's chief of aerodynamics George sharer happened to be carrying some work he'd already done on the possibility of a jet-powered bomber in his briefcase giving him just enough of a foundation to think a redesign might be possible Boeing gathered a group of designers in a hotel room in Dayton Ohio Hollings writes it was up to these six men and their wits to design an entirely new bomber and they had just 48 hours to do it this aircraft haulings continues carried a massive 185-foot wingspan swept back from the fuselage at a 35 degree angle adorning these massive Wings in the place of the four turboprop engines originally intended were eight new turbo Jets the next morning Hollings writes sharer left the stuffy hotel room to visit a local hobby shop picked up some balsa wood glue carving tools and silver paint by Monday morning they arrived back in warden's office with not only a fully realized 33-page proposal but a silver handcrafted 14-inch model of the bomber itself Hollings writes that Warden liked it now we have an airplane he said this is the B-52 the first B-52s were delivered in 1955 it would seem almost certain that the B-52 would replace the B-36 despite the latter having four turbojet engines added in later models Smithsonian notes Boeing's bombers had the advantage of having been designed for jet power from the start but as surprising as this may seem today the B-52 very nearly failed to get off the ground the website engineering 360 rides built at the then sizeable cost of 8 million US Dollars the Boeing B-52 strato Fortress soon captured the attention of critics even before the first B-52s became operational in March of 1956 as straddle forces had exploded in mid-air killing five crew members called before Congress Strategic Air Command Commander General Curtis LeMay testified that a serious component failure with an alternator flywheel had caused the crash and led the Air Force reject 31 of the first 78 B-52s at Boeing built several months later a second B-52 exploded in flight this time because of a problem with the aircraft's electrical system when the United States Air Force grounded its entire fleet of B-52s an Air Force spokesman admitted that he had no idea how long the grounding would stay in effect in 1981 the Strategic Air Command history office wrote sac's newest strategic bomber the B-52 had come under Fire as the result of several crashes earlier in 1956. it was known that a reporter P.D Eldred had interviewed several people at Castle Air Force Base California about the crashes and most supposed he planned to criticize the B-52 fearing public backlash the Air Force devised the demonstration of the plane's durability the sac history office rights the result was nicknamed quick kick an endurance flight involving eight B-52s refueled by kc-97 tankers on 24 and 25 November 1956 the eight straddle fortresses circled the entire North American continent non-stop engineering 360 rights the first widely publicized Mission operation quick kick proved that a fleet of B-52s supported by tankers could fly non-stop around the perimeter of North America operation quick kick was designed to do more than educate new Airmen however in demonstrating the prowess of the Strategic Air Command the operational establishment of the United States Air Force that was responsible for America's bomber-based nuclear Arsenal operation quick kit reminded the Soviet Union about its cold war Rivals military capabilities the overall commander of the mission was Lieutenant Colonel J Harrell Morris who had been co-pilot of the lucky lady 2 on its Around the World trip but the sac history office rights quick kick received white publicity and for a Time calm concerns about the B-52 but that calm lasted for just five days until 30 November when yet another B-52 crashed a castle killing all 10 men with the B-52 program again in trouble sac's leadership began planning another power projection flight that they dubbed operation power flight engineering 360 explains when General Lemay learned that Eldred was interviewing air Crews and maintenance Personnel at Castle Air Force Base the sac Commander planned power flight a multi-operation mission that was designed to counter the B-52's bad publicity once again the Air Force wanted to demonstrate its capability by flying its bombers non-stop around the world the sac history office continues just before Christmas 1956 operations officers from the 93rd bomb Wing met with Major General Archie old Jr commander of the 15th Air Force together they planned a round the world mission using B-52s from Castle Air Force Base General old would serve as the mission commander and Lieutenant Colonel Morris would be the aircraft commander of the lead B-52 appropriately named the lucky lady 3. on January 16th with all aircraft systems carefully checked and the air Crews fully prepared five B-52s Thunder Down Castle's Runway in 2016 Morris told the Abilene Texas reporter it had never been done before By Any Nation they'd never gone around the world non-stop around the Equator so naturally a person would want to do that again the mission was not without difficulty two of the aircraft had to divert during the flight due to mechanical issues but the sac history office concludes on the morning of 18 January all three B-52s landed at March Air Force Base California their flight time 45 hours 19 minutes less than half required by the lucky lady two just eight years before as the 27 crew members stepped out from The B-52s General Curtis E Lemay sack commander-in-chief greeted the group and then presented each of the Airmen with a distinguished flying cross the New York Times reported this was the first Globe girdling flight by jet planes the average speed was about 525 miles per hour the sac history office described operation power flight AS saving the B-52 the three power flight bomber Crews received tremendous public attention the crew of lucky lady 3 wrote a float in President Eisenhower's inaugural parade just two days after the mission and appeared on several Nationwide television programs the aircraft commander of aircraft number 398 which comedian George Global had christened Lonesome George prior to the mission was interviewed on Global's Primetime television show to say the least if PD Eldred ever published his article about the inadequacies of the B-52 it went unnoticed in the excitement and of course the New York Times also noted that operation power flight was a demonstration that the Air Force had the capability to drop a hydrogen bomb anywhere in the world Morris put it simply there's no such thing as getting far enough away that you can't be hit and so this Atomic cloud is a symbol of Air Force capability in 2017 Smithsonian Magazine noted the mission is described by the Air Force as by far the most colorful and perhaps the most important of all peacetime operations ever undertaken by the United States Air Force the B-52 would go on to set many records including in 1994 when two b-52hs completed another Around the World trip this time dropping bombs on a practice range in Kuwait the first non-stop around the world flight to include a bombing mission the lead bummer was appropriately named lucky lady four but the message was really the same the pilot Captain Warren Ward was quoted after the mission Khalid saber rattling or whatever you want but the United States is the only country in the world that can really Reach Out And Touch someone literally within a day given its long history it's not surprising that few people remember that the B-52 was nearly canceled in its first year of operation and only saved by an around the world flight the airplane that is today affectionately called the buff for big ugly fat fella is in its astounding 70th year of service and expected to remain in operation until 2050. J harlemorris United States Air Force Colonel retired the only man in history to have circumnavigated the globe non-stop at the equator twice passed away July 6 2017 at the age of 100 I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide check out our community on the historyguyguild.mocals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on Cameo and if you'd like more episodes of Forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 103,437

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: 5rxcyQYaa7k

Length: 18min 47sec (1127 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 18 2023