Sikorsky XHSS-2 Sea King, Bu. No. 147137, made its first flight at Stratford, CT. (Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company)
11 March 1959: At Stratford, Connecticut, the prototype Sikorsky XHSS-2 Sea King, U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics serial number (Bu. No.) 147137, company serial number 61001, makes its first flight. Sikorsky’s Assistant Chief Test Pilot Robert Stewart Decker is at the controls.
The Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King was the first of the S-61 series of military and civil helicopters, designated as HSS-2 until 1962. It is a large twin-engine helicopter with a single main rotor/tail rotor configuration. The fuselage is designed to allow landing on water. The helicopter was originally used as an anti-submarine helicopter.
HSS-2 mockup, October 1957. (Sikorsky Historical Archives)
The HSS-2 is 72 feet, 6 inches (22.098 meters) long and 16 feet, 10 inches (5.131 meters) high with all rotors turning. The helicopter’s width, across the sponsons, is 16 feet. The main rotors and tail can be folded for more compact storage aboard aircraft carriers, shortening the aircraft to 46 feet, 6 inches (14.173 meters). The empty weight of the HSS-2 is 10,814 pounds (4,905 kilograms). The overload gross weight is 19,000 pounds (8,618 kilograms).
The main rotor has five blades and a diameter of 62 feet, 0 inches (18.898 meters). Each blade has a chord of 1 foot, 6¼ inches (0.464 meters). The rotor blade airfoil was the NACA 0012, which was common for helicopters of that time. The total blade area is 222.5 square feet (20.671 square meters), and the disc area is 3,019 square feet (280.474 square meters). The tail rotor also has five blades and a diameter of 10 feet, 4 inches (3.150 meters). They each have a chord of 7–11/32 inches (0.187 meters). At 100% NR, the main rotor turns 203 r.p.m. and the tail rotor, 1,244 r.p.m.
The first Sea King, prototype XHSS-2 Bu. No. 147137, demonstrates its capability of landing on water. (Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company)
The HSS-2 was powered by two General Electric T58-GE-6 turboshaft engines, which had a Normal Power rating of 900 horsepower, and Military Power rating of 1,050 horsepower; both ratings at 19,555 r.p.m. at Sea Level. The main transmission was rated for 2,000 horsepower, maximum. (Later models were built with more powerful T58-GE-8 engines. Early aircraft were retrofitted.)
The HSS-2 has a cruise speed of 125 knots (144 miles per hour/232 kilometers per hour) at Sea Level, and a maximum speed of 133 knots (153 miles per hour/246 kilometers per hour) at Sea Level. The service ceiling is 12,100 feet (3,688 meters). The hover ceiling at normal gross weight is 5,200 feet (1,585 meters), out of ground effect (HOGE), and 7,250 feet (2,210 meters), in ground effect (HIGE). The HSS-2 had a combat endurance of 4 hours and a maximum range of 500 nautical miles (575 statute miles/926 kilometers).
The Sea King was primarily an anti-submarine aircraft. It could be armed with up to four MK 43 or MK 44 torpedoes and one MK 101 nuclear-armed depth bomb. Other weapons loads included four MK 14 depth charges and four MK 54 air depth bombs.
In 1962, the HSS-2 was redesignated SH-3A Sea King. Many early production aircraft have remained in service and have been upgraded through SH-3D, SH-3G, etc. In addition to the original ASW role, the Sea Kings have been widely used for Combat Search and Rescue operations. Marine One, the call sign for the helicopters assigned to the President of the United States, are VH-3D Sea Kings.
Sikorsky produced the last S-61 helicopter in 1980, having built 794. Production has been licensed to manufacturers in England, Italy, Canada and Japan. They have produced an additional 679 Sea Kings.
A U.S. Navy Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King (S-61), Bu. No. 149867, near Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, 5 April 1976. (PH2 (AC) Westhusing, U.S. Navy)
The Boeing 367-80, N70700, prototype for the Model 707 airliner and KC-135 air tanker, being prepared for takeoff on the morning of 11 March 1957, Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)Pre-flight inspection at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington. In the background are newly-built Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)Tex Johnston checks that the ramp is clear for engine start. Ready to start number one. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)
11 March 1957: The Boeing jet airliner prototype, the Model 367-80, N70700, made a transcontinental demonstration flight from Seattle’s Boeing Field (BFI) to Friendship National Airport (BWI), Baltimore, Maryland. The aircraft commander was Boeing’s Chief of Flight Test, Alvin Melvin (“Tex”) Johnston. Test pilots James Russell (“Jim”) Gannett and Samuel Lewis (“Lew”) Wallick, Jr., completed the flight crew. The flight covered 2,350 miles (3,782 kilometers) and took 3 hours, 48 minutes.
Cruising at 0.86 Mach. The four Pratt & Whitney JT3C turbojet engines are turning 100% r.p.m. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)The flight deck of the Boeing 367-80 during the transcontinental demonstration flight, 11 March 1957. The flight attendants are (left) Miss Shirlee Mae Adams of American Airlines, and Miss Jo Ann Reeber, Trans World Airways.(Leonard Mccombe/LIFE magazine)Reporters balance a pen and a coin in the Dash 80’s vibration-free cabin. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)A news reporter types his story during the transcontinental flight. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)Boeing test pilot Samuel Lewis (“Lew”) Wallick, Jr., updates the chart with the Dash 80’s present position. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)Flight attendants from three customer airlines made up the cabin crew of the Boeing 367-80. Left to right, they are: Miss Shirlee Mae Adams, American Airlines; Miss Jackee Gibson, Braniff International Airways; and Miss Jo Ann Reeber, Trans World Airways. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)
Jet Airliner Crosses U.S. At Record Clip
Seattle-To-Baltimore Flight Made In 3 Hours, 48 Minutes
WASHINGTON, March 12 (AP) A Boeing 707 jet passenger plane set a new transcontinental speed record for commercial aircraft yesterday, flying the 2,325 miles from Seattle to Baltimore in 3 hours and 48 minutes.
At one point it attained a speed of 698 miles an hour.
A.M. (Tex) Johnston, Boeing chief of flight tests, said he would fly back to Seattle tomorrow with stops at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and at Denver. He planned a series of local flights for congressmen, Pentagon officials and experts.
The big plane averaged 612 miles an hour for its Puget Sound-to-Chesapeake Bay flight, and sliced 10 minutes off the unofficial transport plane record it set between Seattle and Washington, D.C., in 1955.
There were 52 persons aboard, all but 20 of them newsmen.
‘Jet Stream’ Helps
The 707 left Boeing Field at 10:06 a.m., EST. East of Spokane at 31,000 feet, it hit the “jet stream,” a vast windstream with speeds of up to 125 miles an hour.
These winds enabled the plane to attain supersonic speeds in relation to the ground over northwestern Montana and northern Idaho. However, the plane was actually in subsonic flight and did not break the “sound barrier.”
While in the jet stream, the plane’s peak air speed was 596 miles an hour, but at one point the stream boosted this by 102 miles an hour, for a top speed of 698 in relation to the ground.
Fighter Holds Record
The official transcontinental speed record was set by a one-place F-84F jet fighter two years ago—652½ mph for the 2,446 miles from Los Angeles to New York City. [LCOL Robert R. Scott, USAF, 9 March 1955—TDiA]
The fastest unofficial transcontinental crossing listed by the Defense Department: 715 mph for the 2,700 miles from Riverside, Calif., to Boston last Jan. 25, by a Boeing B-47 bomber.
The 707 is to be delivered to its first airline buyers—Pan American and American—late next year and early in 1959.
The plane’s cost varies from 4½ to 5½ million dollars, depending on size and range, Various models will carry from 120 to 162 passengers.
—Toledo Blade, Tuesday, 12 March 1957, Page 2 at Columns 2–4
Boeing’s Chief of Flight Test, Alvin M. “Tex” Johnston, updates a member of the cabin crew, Miss Jackie Gibson of Braniff International Airways, on the progress of the Dash 80’s transcontinental flight. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)Boeing’s Chief of Flight Test Alvin M. “Tex” Johnston guides the Dash 80 to touchdown on Runway 10, Friendship National Airport, 2:02 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, 11 March 1957. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)Tex Johnston with three flight attendants from Boeing’s customers: Miss Jackie Gibson, Braniff International Airways; Miss Shirlee Mae Adams, American Airlines; and Miss Jo Ann Reeber, Trans World Airways. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)Boeing 367-80 N70700 parked at the international terminal, Friendship National Airport, Baltimore, Maryland. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)N70700’s route of flight, 0706–1102, 11 March 1957. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine)
Boeing had risked $16,000,000 in a private venture to build the Dash 80 in order to demonstrate its capabilities to potential civilian and military customers, while rivals Douglas and Lockheed were marketing their own un-built jet airliners. Put into production as the U.S. Air Force KC-135A Stratotanker air refueling tanker and C-135 Stratolifter transport, a civil variant was also produced as the Boeing 707 Stratoliner, the first successful jet airliner. Though they look very similar, the 707 is structurally different than the KC-135 and has a wider fuselage.
The prototype Boeing Model 367-80 was operated by a pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. The airplane’s wing was mounted low on the fuselage and the engine nacelles were mounted on pylons under the wing, as they were on Boeing’s B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress. The wings and tail surfaces were swept to 35° at 25% chord, and had 7° dihedral. The Dash 80 was 127 feet 10 inches (38.964 meters) long with a wingspan of 129 feet, 8 inches (39.522 meters) and overall height of 38 feet (11.582 meters). The tail span is 39 feet, 8 inches (12.090 meters). The empty weight of the 367-80 was 75,630 pounds (34,505 kilograms) and the gross weight, 190,000 pounds (86,183 kilograms).
Cutaway scale model of the Boeing 367-80 showing interior arrangement. (Boeing)
N70700 was powered by four Pratt & Whitney Turbo Wasp JT3C engines. This engine is a civil variant of the military J57 series. It is a two-spool, axial-flow turbojet engine with a 16-stage compressor and 2-stage turbine. The JT3C-6 (used in the first production 707s) was rated at 11,200 pounds of thrust (49.82 kilonewtons), and 13,500 pounds (60.05 kilonewtons) with water/methanol injection). The JT3C is 11 feet, 6.6 inches (3.520 meters) long, 3 feet, 2.9 inches (0.988 meters) in diameter, and weighs 4,235 pounds (1,921 kilograms).
These gave the 367-80 a cruise speed of 550 miles per hour (885 kilometers per hour) and a maximum speed of 0.84 Mach (582 miles per hour, 937 kilometers per hour) at 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). The service ceiling was 43,000 feet (13,106 meters). Its range was 3,530 miles (5,681 kilometers).
Boeing continued to use the 367–80 for testing, finally retiring it 22 January 1970. At that time, its logbook showed 2,346 hours, 46 minutes of flight time (TTAF). It was flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, and placed in storage. In 1990, Boeing returned it to flyable condition and flew it back it to Renton where a total restoration was completed. Many of those who had worked on the Dash 80, including Tex Johnston, were aboard.
The pioneering airplane was presented to the Smithsonian Institution and is on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Steven V. Udvar-Hazy Center. The Boeing 367-80 was designated an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
The Boeing Model 367-80 is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. (Photo by Dane Penland, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)
Highly recommended: Tex Johnston, Jet-Age Test Pilot, by A.M. “Tex” Johnston with Charles Barton, Smithsonian Books, Washington, D.C., 1991
1st Lieutenant Paul Frank Baer, Air Service, United States Army. (Campbell Studios, New York)
11 March 1918: 1st Lieutenant Paul Frank Baer, Air Service, United States Army, assigned to the103rd Aero Squadron, American Expeditionary Forces, flying a SPAD S.VII C-1 chasseur, shot down an enemy Albatros D, near Cerney-les-Reims, France. For this and other actions, Lieutenant Baer was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Air Service) Paul Frank Baer, United States Army Air Service, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 103d Aero Squadron, 3d Pursuit Group, U.S. Army Air Service, A.E.F., on 11 March 1918. First Lieutenant Baer attacked, alone, a group of seven enemy pursuit machines, destroying one, which fell near the French lines northeast of Reims, France. On 16 March 1918, he attacked two enemy two-seaters, one of which fell in flames in approximately the same region.
War Department, General Orders No. 128 (1919)
Lieutenant Baer was the first United States airman to receive the Distinguished Service Cross.
Lieutenant Baer is officially credited by the United States Air Force with 7.75 enemy airplanes shot down between 11 March and 22 May 1918, and he claimed an additional 7. (Credit for two airplanes was shared with four other pilots.) After shooting down his eighth enemy airplane on 22 May 1918, Baer and his SPAD S.XIII C.1 were also shot down. He was seriously injured and was captured by the enemy near Armentières and held as a Prisoner of War. At one point, Baer was able to escape for several days before being recaptured.
For his service in World War I, 1st Lieutenant Paul Frank Baer was awarded the United States’ Distinguished Service Cross with one oak leaf cluster (a second award). He was appointed Chevalier de laLégion d’honneur by Raymond Poincaré, the President of France. He was also awarded the Croix de Guerre with seven palms.
Biplan SPAD de chasse monoplace S.VII (rcgroups.com)
The Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés SPAD S.VII C.1 was a single-place, single-engine, two-bay biplane chasseur (fighter). The airplane was 19 feet, 11 inches (5.842 meters) long, with a wingspan of 25 feet, 7¾ inches (7.817 meters) and overall height of 7 feet, 2 inches (2.184 meters). It had a maximum gross weight of 1,632 pounds (740 kilograms).
Biplan SPAD de chasse monoplace S.VII (rcgroups.com)
The SPAD VII was initially powered by a water-cooled, normally-aspirated, 11.762 liter (717.769 cubic inches) Société Française Hispano-Suiza 8Aa, a single overhead camshaft (SOHC) 90° V-8 engine with a compression ratio of 4.7:1. The 8Aa produced 150 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. By early 1918, the S.VII’s engine was upgraded to the higher-compression 8Ab (5.3:1), rated at 180 horsepower at 2,100 r.p.m. These were right-hand tractor, direct-drive engines which turned a two-bladed fixed-pitch wooden propeller.
The SPAD VII had a maximum speed of 119 miles per hour (192 kilometers per hour). The 8Ab engine increased this to 129 miles per hour (208 kilometers per hour). The service ceiling was 17,500 feet (5,334 meters).
Biplan SPAD de chasse monoplace S.VII (rcgroups.com)
Armament consisted of a single air-cooled Vickers .303-caliber (7.7 × 56 millimeter) machine gun, synchronized to fire forward through the propeller arc.
The SPAD S.VII was produced by nine manufacturers in France and England. The exact number of airplanes built is unknown. Estimates range from 5,600 to 6,500.
The airplane in this photograph is a SPAD S.VII C.1, serial number A.S. 94099, built by Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés, and restored by the 1st Fighter Wing, Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan. It is in the collection of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
SPAD VII C.1, serial number A.S. 94099, on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (U.S. Air Force)
11 March 1959: At Stratford, Connecticut, the prototype Sikorsky XHSS-2 Sea King, U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics serial number (Bu. No.) 147137, company serial number 61001, makes its first flight. Sikorsky’s Assistant Chief Test Pilot Robert Stewart Decker is at the controls.
The HSS-2 was powered by two General Electric T58-GE-6 turboshaft engines, which had a Normal Power rating of 900 horsepower, and Military Power rating of 1,050 horsepower; both ratings at 19,555 r.p.m. at Sea Level. The main transmission was rated for 2,000 horsepower, maximum. (Later models were built with more powerful T58-GE-8 engines. Early aircraft were retrofitted.)
