In Honor of Martin Luther King: Black Pilots in WW II

In honor of the day we celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday, I am sharing a 14 minute video from the Black Journal about Black pilots in WW II, there fight to even be pilots in the military, the birth of the Tuskegee Airmen and the training of Black military pilots, the role of the Tuskegee Airmen, the prejudices they faced, and their important role in the air war in WW II, and their role after WW II in the military and in the civilian population.

Direct link to the video from the Black Journal on YouTube 

79th Anniversary of Lockheed P2 Neptune

Direct link to video from Weapons Detective on YouTube 

Direct link to video from Scorched Sky Productions on YouTube

I lucked out in looking at today's post from Neptune Aviation on  Facebook where they shared that today, May 17th, is the 79th anniversary of the Lockheed P2 Neptune. A great aircraft who did good service during the Cold War and later as an air tanker. I have many posts on the Lockheed P2V tanker that you may find under this tag. I will never forget Neptune Aviations P2V Tankers, I cut my teeth on these Air Tankers when I started this blog in 2009, see this post where I offered my reflections on this Tanker. Neptune Aviation's last P2V Air Tanker was retired in October 2017. 

In honor of Martin Luther King Day: Black Aviators

 In honor of Martin Luther King day I am embedding a video from the Jim Crow Museum on the important role of Black Aviators in aviation. Enjoy.

Direct link to video from the Jim Crow Museum on YouTube

Friday Fun: Raymonde de Laroche

I have been reading a book about women in in the very early days of aviation: Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation by Eileen F. Lebow. While many women were involved in ballooning and dirigibles, including some of the first female airplane pilots, the women that I have read about flew airplanes. The first women to obtain a pilot's license was the Raymonde de LaRoche (from France) on March 10, 1910, earning license # 36 issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. I must note that she was not the first female airplane pilot but she did obtain the first pilot's license issued to a women.

Here is a 24 minute biographical video about Raymonde de Laroche from Forgotten Aviation, a direct link to the video may be found here.

P.S. (added on November 27th) I think but am not certain that Raymonde de Laroche was not born into being a Baroness, at some point someone called her Baroness and it stuck.

Friday Fun: Harriot Quimby

I have been reading about early women aviators. The first women in the United States to get a pilots license was Harriot Quimby on August 1, 1911. Harriot flew in many air shows and she was the first women to fly across the English Channel on April 15, 2012, the same day that the Titanic sunk. Tragically she died at the Boston-Harvard Air Meet on July 1, 2012 when she was thrown from her plane. For more information read Harriot's bio at the Cradle of Aviation

Direct link to video on YouTube from the National Aviation Hall of Fame

Juneteenth: Blacks in Aviation

I wanted to do something aviation related to honor Juneteenth that we are commemorating today in the United States. I went to YouTube and found a four-minute video honoring some (but perhaps not all) Black Aviators from the AOPA in honor of Black History Month in 2017. 

Direct link to video from the AOPA on YouTube

Aviation History: Wright Brothers First Flight on December 17, 1903

A couple of the sites that I follow for reporting on wildfire news are taking a well deserved break until after the New Year and since it seems to be quiet in the world of wildfires, at least in the United States, famous last words. I just jinxed it. LOL. Anyway, I will keep posting during the holidays, but it may or may not be my usual fare. I will try to keep current on any major wildfires here in the U.S. In the meantime, December 17, was the ninety-ninth anniversary of the Wright Brother's First Flight. Enjoy this footage from early fights of the Wright Brothers shared by airailimages on YouTube. 

Direct link to video from Airailimages on YouTube

Mary Barr: first female pilot flying for the US Forest Fire Service

In my wonderings around the internet over the years, I suspect that I had heard of Mary Barr, the first woman who flew for the US Forest Fire Service (USFS). I admit that it was an oversight that I did not make a note about Mary Barr to write about her in my blog. Perhaps there was a reason why this happened as just today I was on social media and noticed that in August of 2022, Mary's daughters -- Molly and Nevada -- were on National Public Radio's Story Corps. Mary, who died in 2010, flew as a contract pilot for the USFS before flying as a lead plane pilot full time in 1974, she also flew smokejumpers for a short time. She was one of the first four women to fly in the Reno Air Races. Wikipedia has a short bio on Mary Barr that may be found here.

Story Corp did provide an embed code and I hoped to be able to embed the actual interview here for easy listening. Unfortunately, the embed code does not work. That happens sometimes. However you can listed to the four minute Story Corp interview at this direct link to the Story Corp interview where Mary and Nevada talk about their Mother, Mary Barr.

I would have enjoyed knowing Mary. I have much respect and appreciation for women like Mary Barr who helped pave the way for other women in aviation. 

RIP Micheal Collins

I am pausing today to remember Michael Collins, NASA astronaut from Gemini 10 and the Command Module Pilot of Apollo 11. Mike died on April 28th from cancer at the age of 90 with his family by his side, (obituary from the Washington Post). May you rest in peace and may you fly in favorable winds.

Direct link to video from NASA

I wish that I had an opportunity to meet and talk to Mike Collins in person, I think that we would have had a fun time. But I did get to know him through his book, Carrying the Fire. I purchased a paperbook copy of the book several years ago. Unfortunately, I can not seem to find it at the moment. I may have lent it to someone. But I did purchase a Kindle version two years ago (2019 edition) and read it from cover to cover. I appreciated what to me was a down to earth writing style. I felt like I got to know Mike through his writing. He took me into the cockpit and aboard Gemini 10 and Apollo 11. I recall that he made some of the more technical terms understandable to this lay person and non-pilot. Thank-you Mike for this book and for writing a children's edition of the book.

NASA posted some statements on the passing of Mike Collins and has a nice page on Mike with links to a biography, pictures and videos.

I found this 10 minute 2019 video of a PBS NewsHour interview with Mike Collins on the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. I share this here because you will hear him speak of some the reflections and experiences that he wrote about in Carrying the Fire.

Direct link to video from PBS NewsHour

RIP General Chuck Yeager

General Chuck Yeager died December 6th in Los Angeles California, here is an obit from the New York Times.

I do not recall exactly when I first learned that General Chuck Yeager was the first to break the sound barrier. However, it does seem like I have always known about General Yeager. I first watched the movie, All the Right Stuff where Sam Shepard portrayed General Yeager sometime in the mid to late 1980s on video tape. Sometime early in my interested in aviation and early one writing this blog on aerial wildland firefighting, I came across General Yeager's autobiography, Yeager, in a now defunct bookstore. I was very eager to read books by or about pilots because it was and still a way that I can fly and learn about flying. So, I bought the book which I enjoyed and have read a couple of times since then. 

I have a tremendous amount of respect for you, General Yeager, and your role in aviation history. Thank-you for all that you did in aviation, for bringing us into the faster than sound era. And you continued in military aviation for years after you broke the sound barrier. May you always fly in favorable winds.

Here are two short videos honoring General Yeager that I think honors him and his role in aviation history.

Direct link to video from that National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Museum

Direct link to video from CBC

Aviation History: footage of 1929, 1931, and 1931 National Air Races

I enjoy reading about aviation history and I was reading about the 1929 National Air Races in Cleveland Ohio in a book by Elinor Smith. Among other things, she got her pilot's license at 16 and flew under all four spans on the East River in New York City when she was 17. Elinor was named women aviator of the year in 1930. Elinor wrote her autobiography, Aviatrix, in 1981 and if you enjoy reading about early aviation history you will enjoy reading her autobiography. Here is short piece from NPR (2010).

Elinor was at the 1929 National Air Race in Cleveland, Ohio. Among other things she dropped parachuters and did some stunt flying. I got interested in seeing if I could find some footage of the 1929 National Air Race and came across this great footage posted by PeriscopeFilm on Youtube. The footage is just under 24 minutes with some very cool old airplanes and some nice footage of stunt flying. As I understand it this footage is compilation of footage from the 1929, 1931, and 1930 air races (in that order, see the information in this Youtube link for more information.



Direct link to Youtube video uploaded by PeriscopeFilms

Aviation History: 555th Parachute Battalion (Smokejumpers)

A couple of days ago, thanks to Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day Newsletters, I learned about the 55th Parachute Battalion aka smokejumpers, that served at the end of World War II. There is a nice write-up with a video on this military.com webpage. The 555th Parachute Battalion aka the "triple nickles" were based in the Pacific Northwest in World War II on a highly classified mission to protect the Pacific Northwest from incendiary Japanese balloon bombs. These balloon bombs were designed to ignite firestorms. I don't exactly know if the Japanese used these balloon bombs, but I believe that the "triple nickle" helped to fight wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and were eventually called smoke jumpers.

I was not able to embed the video about the "triple nickles" that was shared on this military.com webpage. But I was able to find this Facebook post from the US Army.

Aviation history -- a look at airmail circa 1925

I found myself a little depressed today thinking about abandoned airports. Wanting to put a more positive spin on aviation history, I found myself thinking about air mail service in the 1920s. I do not have time today to write on the role that New Jersey air fields played in air mail service in the 1920s and beyond. But I did go to youtube hoping to find something interesting to share with you, which is how I came to share this 61 minute silent movie (in two parts) circa 1925 from the United States Post Office department on the Air Mail Service. I believe that the aircraft that you will see is a Dehavilland DH-4. You will see her (or perhaps a few DeHavilland DH-4 aircraft?) make a cross country flight from New York to San Francisco.

The video that I am sharing, in two parts, is from the archives of the San Diego Air and Space Museum (SDASM). This is a silent movie, however, you might want to mute the sound to avoid a distracting humming sound. You won't miss anything.

Enjoy!


Direct link to part 1 of video from SDASM Archives on Youtube


Direct link to part 2 of video From SDASM Archives on Youtube

From the Smithsonian National Postal Museum: Airmail in America: 1918 to 1926

• Airmail in America: Transcontinental Flights
• Airmail in America: the Airplanes
• Airmail in America: Some Early Pilots

In honor of the Tuskegee Airmen

I can think of no better way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King on the day we in America celebrate his birthday (His actual birthday is January 15th) then to share a video/documentary (45 minutes) from the Military Channel about the Tuskegee Airmen (National Park Service Historic Site), the African American units of the Army AirCorps who did heroic work in World War II.

There is another site, Tuskegee Airmen Inc, however I should warn you that many of the links to documents on their history page appear to be broken. But they do have good videos and images (current and history) pages.


Direct link to video on youtube

December 7, 1941 - A day that will live in infamy

It was a nice day for flying and general aviation pilots were out early on a Sunday morning to get some flying in before the winds kicked in later in the day. The date was December 7, 1941. The place was Oahu Island, Hawaii. The planes were Piper Cubs, and Aeronca aircraft.

Pilots flying aircraft such as Piper Cubs and Aeroncas were among the first to be killed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7th. Two soldiers -- Sgt. Henry J. Blackwell and Cpl. Clyde C Brown, who had recently learned to fly from Robert Tyce had rented two Piper Cubs and with one passenger, Sgt Warren D. Rassmussen, prepared for a sight seeing trip. Blackwell and Brown were a part of the Civilian Civilian Flight Training Program to teach college students how to fly. Brown and Blackwell were hoping that there time in the CFTP would mean that they could be military aviators. Tyce along with his wife Edna, were there to watch Robert's former students take off, they never made it back. Japanese fighters shot down the two Cubs. Meanwhile, Robert Tyce was fatally wounded when he was hit in the head by straffing from a Japanese fighter.

Other pilots of general aviation aircraft that morning were more lucky, they encountered Japanese fighters and survived. As did the pilot, crew, and passengers of a Pan American Clipper. The pilot heard the attack on his radio and diverted to another airport.

So on this, the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I want to pause and remember Blackwell, Brown, and Tyce who died that morning. I want to remember the 68 civilians who died.

All in all, 2,403 Americans died in Pearl Harbor that day. I will always remember.

For more information:

Civilian Pilots Under Fire at Pearl Harbor (AOPA, December 7, 2016), by Jim Moore, accessed on December 7, 2016 from https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2016/december/07/civilian-pilots-under-fire-at-pearl-harbor. Note I am not sure how long this particular link will work.

First Planes Down at Pearl, Aviation History Magazine by Stephen Harding (November 4, 2013), accessed on December 7, 2016 from http://www.historynet.com/first-planes-down-at-pearl.htm?PageSpeed=noscript

Readings on Aviation -- Female pilots during World War II

I don't quite recall exactly when I first learned that women both in the United States and Great Britain flew for the war effort. Perhaps it was from a television show or a chance newspaper article that I read many years ago. But whatever I knew about a special group of female aviatrixes, it was not very much.

I recently shared a video of one of these aviators, a women who flew in Great Britain during World War II (see my October 28th post). In the course of my various readings on aviation over the last few years, I begun to learn a little more. I knew that a group of women pilots, known as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS), a paramilitary organization, transported military planes within the United States during the later part of World War II. Many of these planes were to fly overseas as a part of the war effort. For example, a plane would be built, tested if necessary and ready to fly. A WASP pilot would pick up the plane and fly it to a military base where it was assigned to a squadron for deployment over seas. See this wikipedia article for a little history of WASPs. I have done some reading about some of the women who served as WASPs, which I'll get to a little later. What impressed me is that these were a group of women who loved to fly and wanted to help their country. The service of the WASPs was not long, for those women who were in the first classes, their service was less than two years. The first class graduated in early 1943, WASPs were disbanded in December, 1944. While they freed up men for combat overseas, many were disappointed that they were not allowed to fly in combat missions.

It was during the course of my reading about WASPs that I learned about the group of women pilots in Great Britain, who were a part of the Air Transport Auxiliary (wikipedia), who did similar service. At first they transported military planes within their country, but  towards the end of the war they may have been allowed to transport planes to the European Continent. Women started to fly for the ATA in early 1940. In November 1945, the last women flew as ATA pilots in order to free up jobs for the male pilots returning from combat duty.

As I learned about these wonderful, skilled, and brave women who transported or ferried military planes during World War II, my respect and admiration for them increased. Many died. They were skilled pilots. They too were away from their families during their service. Some continued to fly after the War, and some did not. Women pilots had fewer options then men in those days. Things are better for women pilots these days, including the fact that women can join the military and fly. These early female aviatrixes,  helped to pave the way for a later generation of female aviatrixes.

When I go for one of my scenic airplane rides, there is a mural of a WASP standing next to her plane. I think of them every time I go for an airplane ride. I am not a licensed pilot, and in all likelihood never will be. But when I read about their flying and that of the ATA pilots, they take me with them through their words.

In May of 2016, the United States Congress passed legislation allowing WASPs to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, For more information you might want to check out this Smithsonian Magazine article (May 23, 2016) and a  May 11, 2016 report from National Public Radio. After decades had passed where the WASPs failed to get military recognition for their service, they will receive the military honor of have their cremated remains buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

For more information on the web

• WASP on the Web
• ATA History

Books or Kindle Singles I have read. This just touches the surface of what is available, I include this list for your information. I got Kindle editions of all these books, except where noted they are available in other formats.

• A WASP Among Eagles: A Women Military Test Pilot During World War II by Ann B. Carl
• Spreading My Wings (one of Britain's top women pilots tells her remarkable story from pre-ear flying to ATA service to post-war flying and breaking the sound barrier) by Diana Barnato Walker.
• Bomber Girls In It Together by M.J. Forman (Kindle Single)
• Flying Higher: The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II by Wanda Langley
• My Piece of the Sky (Memories of a WWII Women Airforce Service Pilot) by Anna Flynn Monkiewicz (Kindle edition only)

Female pilot who flew for Britain in WWII flies again

I have done some reading about the women who flew for Great Britain and the United States, mostly transporting planes, during World War II. I ran across this video a few months ago and don't believe that I've shared it here with you. Great aviators doing service for their country.

Memorial Day 2016

I want to pause on this Memorial Day to remember all who have served in the military. Thank-you for your service. I will never forget.

I'd like to share with you this 1944 documentary (color) about the Memphis Belle. She was just one of the many B-17 Flying Fortresses who served in World War II. And there were many other aircrews flying various bombers, fighters, etc. Some came home and some did not. And of course, the troops on the ground. And of course, we had air crews in World War 1, Korea, Vietnam, and in currently in the Middle East. I won't forget.


Direct link to video on Youtube (uploaded by The Best Film Archives)

Douglas A-26 Invader in flight

Edited on October 21, 2016. Unfortunately the nice video that I had originally shared here showing the Douglas A-26 Invader is no longer available. 

Douglas A-26 Invader: First flight of restored A-26

direct link to video

This is a nice video focusing on the first flight of a Douglas A-26 Invader, serial number 44-34104. The restoration is being done by volunteers from the Historical Aircraft Squadron in Lancaster, Ohio. In the video, you will see a short flight of this A-26 followed by some pictures. For more information visit the Historical Aircraft Squadron Webpage

Coming attractions:

March 8: A-26 in flight

March 11: A-26 tankers (still being developed)