Brigadier General Charles E. Yeager, USAF, made his final flight as an active duty Air Force officer aboard a McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II at Edwards Air Force Base, California, 25 February 1975. (U.S. Air Force)
25 February 1975: At Edwards Air Force Base, California, Brigadier General Charles Elwood (“Chuck”) Yeager, United States Air Force, made his final flight as an active duty Air Force pilot, flying a McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II 65-0713.¹
Brigadier General Charles E. Yeager made his final flight in the U.S Air Force in the prototype McDonnell YF-4E Phantom II 65-0713.
During his career, General Yeager flew 180 different aircraft types and accumulated 10,131.6 flight hours.
General Yeager retired 1 March 1975 after 12,222 days of military service.
McDonnell YF-4E Phantom II 65-0713 was named Glamorous Glennis for General Yeager’s Final Flight.
¹ 65-0713 was a McDonnell F-45D-28-MC Phantom II which had been modified as the prototype YF-4E, armed with an M61 rotary cannon. Later, 65-0713 was used as a test bed for the F-4G Wild Weasel. The airplane is on display at Edwards Air Force Base.
The first Douglas DC-9, N9DC, ready for takeoff at Long Beach Airport, 25 February 1965. (Douglas Aircraft Company)
25 February 1965: At 11:26 a.m., Pacific Standard Time, the first Douglas DC-9 twin-engine airliner, serial number 45695, with Federal Aviation Administration registration mark N9DC, took off from Long Beach Airport (LGB), on the coast of Southern California, on its first flight. In the cockpit were Chief Engineering Test Pilot George R. Jansen, DC-9 Program Test Pilot Paul H. Patten, and Flight Test Engineer Duncan Walker.
The duration of the first flight was 2 hours, 13 minutes. N9DC landed at Edwards Air Force Base (EDW) where the test program would continue.
Douglas DC-9 N9DC (Douglas Aircraft Corporation)
The Douglas DC-9 is a short-to-medium range twin-engine airliner, operated by a flight crew of two pilots. It was designed to carry up to 109 passengers. The initial production model is retroactively identified as the DC-9-10. This variant is 104 feet, 4¾ inches (31.820 meters) long with a wingspan of 89 feet, 5 inches (27.254 meters) and overall height of 27 feet, 6 inches (8.382 meters). The airliner has an empty weight of 49,020 pounds (22,235 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 90,700 pounds (41,141 kilograms).
Douglas DC-9 N9DC was photographed by Jon Proctor at Los Angeles International Airport, 6 March 1965. (Wikipedia)
The DC-9-10 was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-5 turbofan engines, producing 12,250 pounds of thrust (54.49 kilonewtons), each. The JT8D was a two-spool engine with a 2-stage fan section, 13-stage compressor (6 low- and 7 high-pressure stages), nine combustion chambers and a 4-stage turbine (1 high- and 3 low-pressure stages). The JT8D-5 was 3 feet, 6.5 inches (1.080 meters) in diameter, 10 feet, 3.5 inches (3.137 meters) long, and weighed 3,096 pounds (1,404 kilograms).
The airliner had a cruise speed of 490 knots (564 miles per hour, 907 kilometers per hour) at 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). It has a range of 1,590 nautical miles (1,830 miles, 2,945 kilometers).
Miss Carol Marie Koberlein christens Delta’s first Douglas DC-9, N3304L, Delta Prince. Miss Koberlein served with Delta Air Lines until she retired, 31 May 2000. (Delta Digest)
Delta Airlines was the lead customer for the Douglas DC-9. Delta’s first DC-9, serial number 45699, F.A.A. registration N3304L, was delivered in a ceremony at the Douglas plant at Long Beach Airport, 7 October 1965. Using a bottle containing water from twenty rivers in Delta’s area of operations, Stewardess Carol Marie Koberlein christened the airplane Delta Prince. Later that day it was flown to Atlanta by Delta’s legendary Captain Thomas Prioleau Ball, the airline’s Director of Flight Operations. The duration of the flight was 4 hours, 19 minutes.
The first DC-9, s/n 45695, was leased to Trans Texas Airways in 1966, registered N1301T. (Ed Coates Collection)
After the flight test and certification program was over, 45695 was leased to Trans Texas Airways and re-registered N1301T. It served with Trans Texas from 1966 to 1982, when the airline merged with Continental Airlines. It retained the same N-number but was named City of Denver.
In 1983 49695 was sold to Sunworld International Airlines, a Las Vegas, Nevada charter company. After five years it was sold to another charter airline, Emerald Airlines of Dallas, Texas. In 1990, Emerald sold the DC-9 to Canafrica Transportes Aereos, based in Madrid, Spain. While operating for that company, 45695 was registered EC-622 and EC-FCQ. Returning to the United States in 1991, it was briefly owned by Viscount Air Service, Tucson, Arizona, registered N914LF.
DC-9 45695 in service with Canafrica Transportes Aereos, registered EC-FCQ, circa 1991. (Unattributed)
Now 25 years old, ownership of the first DC-9 returned to the McDonnell Douglas Corporation. It was placed in storage at North Texas Regional Airport (GYI), Sherman, Texas, in 1992 and was used as a source for parts.
The Douglas DC-9 was produced in five civil variants, the DC-9-10 through DC-9-50. 41 were produced for the U.S. military, designated C-9A, C-9B and VC-9C. Production closed in 1982 after 976 aircraft had been built.
Miss Carol Marie Koberlein, with Delta Air Lines’ first Douglas DC-9, N3304L (Ship 204), October 1965. (Atlanta Journal-Consitution)
Ryan airplane factory at the foot of Juniper Street, San Diego, California. (Donald A. Hall Photograph & Document Collection)Charles A. Lindbergh (Harris & Ewing)
25 February 1927: Acting on behalf of a syndicate of St. Louis business men, Charles A. Lindbergh contracts Ryan Airlines Company of San Diego to design and build a single-engine monoplane for a flight from New York to Paris. This would become the Spirit of St. Louis. The cost is $10,580.
Lindbergh wrote:
“The Ryan Airlines factory is in an old, dilapidated building near the waterfront. I feel conspicuous driving up to it in a taxicab. A couple of loafers stare at me as I pay my fare. There’s no flying field, no hangar, no sound of engines warming up; and the unmistakable smell of dead fish from a near-by cannery mixes with the banana odor of dope from drying wings. . .
“I open the door to a small, dusty, paper-strewn office. A slender young man advances to meet me—clear, piercing eyes, intent face. He introduces himself as Donald Hall, chief engineer for Ryan Airlines, Incorporated. . . .”
—The Spirit of St. Louis, by Charles A. Lindbergh, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1953, Chapter III, Page 79.
“I check the wording and hand my telegram to the girl in the office. I’m ready to cast my lot with the Ryan organization. I believe in Hall’s ability; I like Mahoney’s enthusiasm. I have confidence in the character of the workmen I’ve met. This company is a fit partner for our organization in St. Louis. They’re as anxious to build a plane that will fly to Paris as I am to fly it there.”
—The Spirit of St. Louis, by Charles A. Lindbergh, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1953, Chapter III, Page 85.
Donald A. Hall, designer of the Ryan NYP, NX-211, Spirit of St. Louis, at work in his office at the Ryan Airlines, Inc., factory, San Diego, CA, 1927. (Donald A Hall Photograph & Document Collection)
