Daily Archives: April 12, 2024

Medal of Honor, Staff Sergeant Henry Eugene Erwin, United States Army Air Forces

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Private First Class Henry Eugene Erwin, Air Corps, United States Army, circa 1943. (U.S. Air Force)

MEDAL OF HONOR

STAFF SERGEANT HENRY EUGENE ERWIN (Air Mission)

Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 52d Bombardment Squadron, 29th Bombardment Group, 20th Air Force.

Place and date: Koriyama, Japan, 12 April 1945.

Entered service at: Bessemer, Ala.

Born: 8 May 1921, Adamsville, Ala.

G.O. No.: 44, 6 June 1945.

Citation: He was the radio operator of a B-29 airplane leading a group formation to attack Koriyama, Japan. He was charged with the additional duty of dropping phosphoresce smoke bombs to aid in assembling the group when the launching point was reached. Upon entering the assembly area, aircraft fire and enemy fighter opposition was encountered. Among the phosphoresce bombs launched by S/Sergeant. Erwin, 1 proved faulty, exploding in the launching chute, and shot back into the interior of the aircraft, striking him in the face. The burning phosphoresce obliterated his nose and completely blinded him. Smoke filled the plane, obscuring the vision of the pilot. S/Sergeant. Erwin realized that the aircraft and crew would be lost if the burning bomb remained in the plane. Without regard for his own safety, he picked it up and feeling his way, instinctively, crawled around the gun turret and headed for the copilot’s window. He found the navigator’s table obstructing his passage. Grasping the burning bomb between his forearm and body, he unleashed the spring lock and raised the table. Struggling through the narrow passage he stumbled forward into the smoke-filled pilot’s compartment. Groping with his burning hands, he located the window and threw the bomb out. Completely aflame, he fell back upon the floor. The smoke cleared, the pilot, at 300 feet, pulled the plane out of its dive. S/Sergeant. Erwin’s gallantry and heroism above and beyond the call of duty saved the lives of his comrades.

“Red Erwin stands with a painting depicting his act of heroism in the B-29 bomber, City of Los Angeles, on that fateful day.” (U.S. Air Force 170331-F-ZZ999-103))
Crew of the B-29 Superfortress “City of Los Angeles:” Front row, left to right: Vern W. Schiller, flight engineer; Henry E. Erwin, radio operator; Howard Stubstad, CFC gunner. Standing, Pershing Younkin, navigator; Roy Stables, pilot; William Loesch, bombardier; Leo D. Connors, radar bombardier; George A. Simeral, aircraft commander. (Alabama Department of Archives & History Q8799)

XXI Bomber Command’s Mission for 12 April 1945 was an attack against the Hodogaya Chemical Plant (Target ) at Koriyama, a city on the island of Honshu, Japan. The chemical plant produced tetraethyl lead, a critical ingredient in high-octane aviation gasoline. Eighty-five B-29 Superfortress long-range heavy bombers took of from their base at North Field on the island of Guam, the largest and southernmost of the Marianas. Each bomber was loaded with 500-pound (227 kilogram) AN-M64 general purpose demolition bombs. The planned time over the target was 12:35–13:26, with the bombers attacking at altitudes of 7,000 to 9,000 feet (2,134–2,743 meters). The weather report for the target area was clear, with visibility of 15 miles (24 kilometers).

29th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) B-29 Superfortresses at North Field, Guam, 1945. (U.S. Air Force)

Koriyama was 1,506 miles (2,424 kilometers) from North Field. With a round-trip distance of 3,041 miles (4,894 kilometers), this was the longest bombing mission flown up to that time.

Navigation Track Chart, XXI Bomber Command Missions No. 64 and 65. (U.S. Air Force)

City of Los Angeles, a Martin-Omaha B-29-25-MO Superfortress, 42-65302, was the  lead ship of the 52nd Bombardment Squadron, 29th Bombardment Group. The Superfortress was under the command of Captain George Anthony Simeral. The 52nd squadron’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Eugene O. Strouse, was on board as co-pilot.

B-29 Superfortress very long range heavy bombers of the 29th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), 314th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy), XXI Bomber Command. (U.S. Air Force)
Aogashima (Landsat)

The 52nd Squadron’s assembly point was over over Aogashima, a small volcanic island of the Izu archipelago in the Philippine Sea, 222 miles (357 kilometers) south of Tokyo.

It was near this island that City of Los Angeles‘s radio operator, Red Erwin, dropped white phosphorus signal flares to give the squadron a visual reference point.

When the faulty signal flare prematurely ignited, it burned at about 1,300 °F. (704 °C.) and filled the cockpit with dense smoke. The other crew members could not see the difficulty Erwin was having trying to drop the flare overboard.

Erwin was gravely injured. Phosphorus self-ignites in the presence of air. With particles of phosphorus all over, his body was still on fire. The phosphorus could not be extinguished.

A B-29 Superfortress circles Mount Suribachi, a 554-foot (169 meter) volcano at the southwestern end of Iwo Jima, circa 1945.

Captain Simeral aborted the mission and turned City of Los Angeles toward the island of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, where an emergency landing field for the B-29s had been built. Iwo was the closest point where Erwin could receive medical treatment.

Erwin’s injuries were so severe that he was not expected to survive. He was evacuated to Fleet Hospital 103 at Guam.

Fleet Hospital 103, Guam, 1945. (U.S. Navy)

Major General Curtis E. LeMay, commanding XXI Bomber Command, and Brigadier General Lauris Norstad, Chief of Staff, Twentieth Air Force, sent a recommendation for the Medal of Honor to Headquarters, U.S. Army Air Forces in Washington, D.C.

The nearest Medal of Honor was in a display case in Hawaii. Because Erwin was not expected to survive, that medal was obtained and flown to Guam so that it could be presented while he was still alive. In a ceremony held in Orthopedic Wards 3 and 4 of Fleet Hospital 103, Major General LeMay and Major General Willis H. Hale, Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas, and Deputy Commander, Twentieth Air Force, presented the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Henry Eugene Erwin, United States Army Air Forces.

Flight crew of B-29 City of Los Angeles and Staff Sergeant Henry E Erwin at his Medal of Honor presentation, 19 April 1945. Major General Willis H. Hale, Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas, is at right. (U.S. Air Force 170331-F-ZZ999-102)

General LeMay told Sergeant Erwin that, “Your effort to save the lives of your fellow airmen is the most extraordinary kind of heroism I know.”

General of the Army Henry H. Arnold, commanding the U.S. Army Air Forces, wrote to him, “I regard your act as one of the bravest in the records of the war.”

Red Erwin was the only crew member of a B-29 Superfortress to be awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II.

Red Erwin underwent 41 surgical procedures. The phosphorus particles in his body continued smoldering for months. Erwin was hospitalized for 2½ years before he was discharged from the U.S. Army Air Forces as a master sergeant, 8 October 1947.

Major General Willis H. Hale bestows the Medal of Honor on Staff Sergeant Henry E. Erwin at Fleet Hospital 103, Guam, 19 April 1945. (U.S. Navy)
Staff Sergeant Henry E. Erwin. (U.S. Air Force 160613-D-LN615-0038)

Henry Eugene Erwin was born 8 May 1921, at Docena, a small mining village in Jefferson County, Alabama. He was the fourth of nine children of Walter Marshall Erwin, a weighman at a coal mine, and Pearl Landers Ervin.

Gene Erwin spent two years working with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a “New Deal” public work relief program. By 1940, he had found employment as a secretary with the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI RR).

On 27 January 1942, Erwin enlisted in the Army Reserve Corps. He had red hair, brown eyes and a “ruddy” complexion, was 5 feet, 10 inches (1.75 meters) tall and weighed 165 pounds (75 kilograms). He was appointed an aviation cadet, Air Corps, 3 February 1943. Because of “flight deficiencies,” Cadet Erwin did not complete flight training and in June 1943 was reassigned for training as a radio operator and technician.

In April 1944, Erwin was assigned to the 52nd Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), at Dalhart Army Airfield, Texas, for B-29 Superfortress combat crew training.

Sergeant Henry E. Erwin married Miss Martha Elizabeth Starnes, 6 December 1944, at Ensley, Alabama. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Daniel E. Draper. They would have five children.

A B-29 Superfortress of the 29th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), 314th Bombardment Wing, lands at North Field, Guam, in the Marianas. (U.S. Air Force)

The 52nd Squadron deployed to the Pacific in February 1945 as an element of the 29th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), 314th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy), XXI Bomber Command, Twentieth Air Force, based at North Field, Guam.

Mission Number 65 was Erwin’s eleventh combat mission.

Martha Erwin (standing) with Henry Erwin and his mother, Pearl Landers Erwin, circa 1945. (U.S. Air Force via Encyclopedia of Alabama)

Gene Erwin never fully recovered. Although he had been blinded by the phosphorus burns, he eventually regained his sight. His right arm was disabled, and his body was covered in scars.

When he was able to return to work, Erwin was employed the Veterans Administration, and remained there for thirty-seven years before retiring.

Master Sergeant Henry Eugene Erwin, United States Army Air Forces (Retired), died 16 January 2002 at Leeds, Alabama. His body was buried at the Elmwood Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama.

Henry Eugene Erwin

In his honor, the United States Air Force established the Henry E. Erwin Outstanding Enlisted Aircrew Member of the Year Award. The library at the Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, is named the Red Erwin Library.

Mrs. Erwin, with the portrait of her husband, painted by artist John Witt, a long time contributor to the Air Force Art Program.

B-29-25-MO 42-65302 was one of 536 Boeing B-29 Superfortresses built by the Glenn L. Martin–Nebraska Company at Fort Crook, Omaha, Nebraska (now, Offutt Air Force Base). Fifty of those were the Block 25 variant. The new B-29 was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Forces on 11 January 1945.

Once assigned to the 314th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy), the airplane was named City of Los Angeles, in keeping with the wing’s practice of naming the aircraft after cities in the United States. When it arrived at Guam, 42-65302 was identified with a large yellow letter “O” surrounded by a black square, painted on its vertical fin and rudder. The numeral “37” was painted on each side of the fuselage aft of the wings.

29th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), 314th Bombardment Wing (very Heavy), B-29 Superfortresses at North Field, Guam. Note the “Black Square O” identification symbols. (U.S. Air Force)

The B-29 was the most technologically advanced airplane built up to that time, and required an immense effort by American industry to produce.

The B-29 Superfortress was designed by the Boeing Airplane Company as its Model 345. Produced in three major versions, the B-29, B-29A and B-29B, it was built by Boeing at Wichita, Kansas, and Redmond, Washington; by the Bell Aircraft Corporation at Marietta, Georgia; and the Glenn L. Martin–Nebraska Company at Fort Crook (now Offutt Air Force Base), Omaha, Nebraska. A total of 3,943 Superfortresses were built.

B-29s were normally operated by an 11-man crew: Pilot, copilot, navigator, bombardier, radar bombardier, radio operator, flight engineer, a central fire control gunner, and right, left, and tail gunners.

The B-29 Superfortress was 99 feet, 0 inches (30.175 meters) long with a wingspan of 141 feet, 3 inches (43.053 meters) and an overall height of 27 feet, 9 inches (8.458 meters). It had a wing area of 1,736 square feet (167.28 square meters); The standard B-29 had an empty weight of 74,500 pounds (33,793 kilograms) and gross weight of 120,000 pounds (54,431 kilograms).

A newly-completed B-29 Superfortress at the Martin Bomber Plant. (Nebraska State Historical Society RG3715-2-11)

City of Los Angeles had four air-cooled, supercharged, 3,347.662-cubic-inch-displacement (54.858 liter) Wright Aeronautical Division R-3350-41 (Cyclone 18 787C18BA3) two-row 18-cylinder radial engines with direct fuel injection. The R-3350-41 had a compression ratio of 6.85:1 and required 100/130 aviation gasoline. It was rated at 2,000 horsepower at 2,400 r.p.m. at Sea Level, and 2,200 horsepower at 2,800 r.p.m, for take-off. The engines drove four-bladed Curtiss Electric reversible-pitch propellers with a diameter of 16 feet, 7 inches (5.080 meters), through a 0.35:1 gear reduction. The R-3350-41 was 6 feet, 2.26 inches (1.937 meters) long, 4 feet, 7.78 inches (1.417 meters) in diameter and weighed 2,725 pounds (1,236 kilograms).

The B-29 had a cruise speed of 220 miles per hour (354 kilometers per hour) at 20,000 feet (6,096 meters). Its maximum speed was 306 miles per hour (492 kilometers per hour) at Sea Level, and 357 miles per hour (575 kilometers per hour) at 30,000 feet (9,144 meters). The bomber had a service ceiling of 33,600 feet (10,168 meters). The Superfortress had a fuel capacity of 9,438 gallons (35,727 liters), giving it a maximum range of 3,250 miles (5,230 kilometers) at 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) with 5,000 pound (2,268 kilograms) bomb load.

The B-29 could carry a maximum bomb load of 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms). Defensive armament consisted of twelve air-cooled Browning AN-M2 .50-caliber machine guns mounted in four remotely-operated powered turrets, and a tail turret. B-29 variants before Block 25 also had a single M2 20 mm autocannon mounted in the tail.

City of Los Angeles was damaged on a combat mission against Kobe, Japan, in July 1945. Captain Simeral was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

42-65302 survived the war and remained in service with the U.S. Air Force for several more years. It was “reclaimed” at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, 17 November 1953.

This B-29 Superfortress of the 29th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) on fire over Kobe, Japan, 17 July 1945, MIGHT be City of Los Angeles. (U.S. Air Force)

© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes

12 April 1937

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“Whittle’s first experimental jet engine (W.U.) in his Power Jets workshop at Lutterworth.” Painting by Roderick John Lovesey (1944–2002).

12 April 1937: At his laboratory at the British Thompson-Houston Works in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant Frank Whittle prepares the first test of his prototype aircraft engine, the Power Jet W.U. (“Whittle Unit”), which he calls a “supercharger.”

Using an electric motor, Whittle spins the engine up to 1,000 r.p.m. He switches on the pilot jet, which sprays atomized diesel fuel into the engine’s combustion chamber. A hand-cranked magneto supplies electricity to fire a spark plug to ignite the fuel. Whittle continues to spin the engine to 3,000 r.p.m., at which speed the combustion cycle is self-sustaining. The Whittle Unit continues to accelerate uncontrolled to about 8,500 r.p.m.

This was the very first successful test of a turbojet engine.¹

Whittle’s first patent for a turbojet engine, filed 16 January 1930. (frankwhittle.co.uk)

With the exception of the uncontrolled acceleration, the test was successful. It would later be found that the acceleration was caused by liquid fuel pooling in the combustion chamber. The Whittle Unit was based on Whittle’s own patent, No. 347,206, which was filed 16 January 1930. The patent was published in 1931. (Following World War II, copies of these patent documents were found at several laboratories in Germany.) In 1935, Whittle was unable to afford the £5 required to renew his patent, and it entered the public domain.

The Power Jet W.U. was a single-shaft turbojet engine with a single-stage, centrifugal-flow compressor, a single combustion chamber, and a single-stage, axial-flow turbine. The engine had two air intakes, one for each side of the compressor impeller. The impeller was double-sided with a diameter of 19 inches (48.26 centimeters). It had 30 blades and was constructed of Hiduminium R.R. 56, a high strength, high-temperature, aluminum alloy produced by High Duty Alloys, Ltd., at Slough, Berkshire, England. The compressor blade tips had a width of 2 inches (5.08 centimeters). The inner diameter of the compressor scroll was 31 inches (78.74 centimeters). The turbine was 14 inches (35.56 centimeters) in diameter with 66 individual blades. Each blade was 2.4 inches (6.096 centimeters) long, with a chord of 0.8 inches (2.032 centimeters). The turbine was constructed of Firth-Vickers Stayblade, a chrome-nickel stainless steel alloy produced by Firth Brown Steels of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The turbine bearing housing was water-cooled.²

Frank Whittle’s first experimental turbojet engine.

Air entered the compressor where it was heated and pressurized by the spinning impeller to about 4 times normal atmospheric pressure. This caused the air temperature to increase substantially. The pressurized air was passed on to the combustion chamber where the fuel spray was ignited by the spark plug. Burning gas passed through the turbine blades, causing them to spin at very high speeds. The turbine turned a shaft which lead forward to turn the compressor impeller. Exhaust expelled through the tailpipe provides thrust.

Rotor assembly of the first experimental engine. The turbine is at left, and the compressor impeller is at center. (University of Cambridge)

Testing of the Whittle Unit continued until 23 August 1937. For reasons of safety, British Thompson-Houston would not allow Whittle to test the engine above 12,000 r.p.m., and recommended that he move his laboratory to a BTH-owned foundry at the Ladywood Works, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, England.

After analyzing test data, Whittle concluded that the Power Jet W.U. had poor compressor efficiency; that there was excessive preheating of air entering the rear intake because of combustion chamber heat; the combustion of the air/fuel mixture was unsatisfactory; and there was excessive frictional loss in the turbine.

The W.U. eventually reached 17,750 r.p.m and produced approximately 1,390 pounds of thrust (6.18 kilonewtons). Whittle continued testing a series of improved W.U. turbojets until 1941, when he built the Whittle W.1X engine.

Whittle W.1

On 15 May 1941, a Whittle W.1 powered the Gloster E.28/39 prototype jet fighter on its first flight. (In October 1941, General Henry Harley (“Hap”) Arnold, U.S. Army Air Forces, arranged to have the W.1X flown to the United States so that the U.S. could develop its own jet engine, the General Electric Type I.)

The Gloster-Whittle E.28/39 in its original configuration. The horizontal paint stripe was used as an indication of heating by the turbojet engine. (BAE Systems)

* * * * * * *

Air Commodore Frank Whittle, RAF, in his office at Lutterworth, Leicestershire, England, circa 1945, with scale models of the Gloster-Whittle E.28/39, and Whittle Supercharger Type W.1 engine. (Imperial War Museum, TR 3737)
Frank Whittle, age 4.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, O.M., K.B.E., C.B., F.R.S., F.R.Ae.S., Royal Air Force, was born 1 June 1907 at 72 Newcombe Road, Earlsdon, Coventry, England. He was the older of two sons of Moses Whittle, a foreman in a machine tool factory, and Sara Alice Garlick Whittle. He attended Earlsdon Council School, just around the corner from his home. In 1916, the Whittle family moved to 9 Victoria Street, Royal Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire, where he was educated at the Milverton Primary School. After about two years, he earned a scholarship to what would later be called the Leamington College for Boys.

In 1923, Frank Whittle left school to join the Royal Air Force. He was initially turned down because he was just 5 feet tall (1.52 meters) and very underweight. Six months later, he had grown another 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) and increased his weight and strength. Whittle was accepted under an assumed first name (he soon reverted to his real name) to a three-year course as an aircraft mechanic. A superior officer recommended him for officer and pilot pilot training at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, in Lincolnshire.

Prize winners, RAF Cadet College, Cranwell, July 1928. Frank Whittle is standing at the center of the image. (Gale & Polden Ltd., Aldershot via RAF College Cranwell)
Pilot Officer Frank Whittle, RAF.

Frank Whittle graduated from RAF Cranwell and on 21 August 1928 was granted a permanent commission as a Pilot Officer, Royal Air Force, with seniority from 28 July. He was considered to be an exceptional pilot, and had scored second in his class in academics. At his graduation ceremony, Whittle, flying an Armstrong Whitworth Siskin at 1,500 feet (457 meters), performed an aerobatic maneuver called an “English bunt,” the first RAF officer to do so.³

Pilot Officer Whittle served as a pilot and flight instructor, and was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer, 28 January 1930.

Flying Officer Whittle married Miss Dorothy Mary Lee at Coventry, 24 May 1930. Mrs. Whittle was three years his senior. They would have two sons, David and Ian.

David Whittle, Dorothy Mary Lee Whittle, Group Commander Frank Whittle, and Ian Whittle.

In 1931, Whittle was assigned as a test pilot at the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment, Felixstowe, Suffolk. He flew more than 20 aircraft types.

Flying Officer Frank Whittle in a life raft, circa 1932. A Royal Navy Fairey Seal, S1325, is sinking in the background. (frankwhittle.co.uk)

In 1932, he attended the Officers School of Engineering at RAF Henlow, in Bedfordshire. Flying Officer Whittle was promoted to the rank of Flight Lieutenant, 1 February 1934. Whittle had scored so high in his studies at Henlow that the RAF sent him to the RAF E Course at the Peterhouse College of the University of Cambridge. He graduated in 1936 with Bachelor of Arts degree and a First in Mechanical Sciences Tripos.

Photograph of Whittle’s student record card, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
Dorothy and Frank Whittle outside the Senate House after the degree ceremony. (University of Cambridge)

While at Cambridge, Flight Lieutenant Whittle entered into a partnership to form Power Jets Ltd., and began work on his design for the Power Jets W.U. The engine would be built by the British Thompson-Houston Works.

On 1 December 1937, Flight Lieutenant Whittle was promoted to the rank of Squadron Leader. The RAF assigned him to the Special Duty List, allowing him to continue post-graduate work at Cambridge and to work on the turbojet engine.

Squadron Leader Whittle was promoted to Wing Commander (temporary), 1 June 1940.

Wing Commander Whittle developed the Whittle W.2, which powered the Gloster Meteor on its first flight, 5 March 1943. He was promoted to Group Captain (temporary), 1 July 1943.

Fifth of eight F9/40 prototypes, Gloster Meteor DD206/G was the first to fly, 5 March 1943.

Group Captain Whittle was appointed Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), 1 January 1944. He was promoted to Acting Air Commodore.

King George V, on 5 November 1946, granted unrestricted permission to Air Commodore Whittle, CBE, to wear the Legion of Merit in the degree of Officer, a military decoration conferred by the President of the United States for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, CB, photographed 1 July 1947, by Walter Stoneman. (National Portrait Gallery NPG x188861)

In the King’s New Year’s Honours List, 1 January 1947, Air Commodore Whittle, CBE, was appointed a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB). In May 1948, for his work on jet engines, Whittle was awarded £100,000 ⁴ by Royal Commission on Awards. King Edward VIII appointed Air Commodore Whittle an Ordinary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE), 10 June 1948.

Group Captain Sir Frank Whittle, KBE, CB, was retired from the Royal Air Force, 26 August 1948, due to medical unfitness for Air Force service. He retained the rank of Air Commodore.

Sir Frank Whittle, circa 1951. (Baron/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Air Commodore Frank Whittle, RAF. (Edwin Irvine Halliday, 1960)

After retiring from the RAF, Whittle joined the British Overseas Airways Corporation as a technical adviser. He left BOAC in 1952. On 1 January 1953, Frederick Mueller Ltd. published his autobiography, Jet: The Story of a Pioneer. Later that year, he joined Shell, one of the world’s largest petroleum companies, as a Mechanical Engineering Specialist. He invented a turbine-powered oil well drill. In 1957, he went to work for Bristol Aero Engines.

In 1960, the Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim, Norway, awarded Whittle an honorary degree, Doctor Technices honoris causa. In 1967, the University of Bath, in Somerset, England, awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

From 1967 to 1976, Sir Frank and Lady Dorothy resided at Walland Hill, a 4,130 square foot (383.6 square meters) house on 5 acres, built in 1865, and overlooking the Teign Valley and Dartmoor. The house is situated about ¾-mile (1.2 kilometers) from Chagford, Devon.

Walland Hill, near Chagford, Devon, England.

Following his divorce from Dorothy, Lady Whittle, Sir Frank Whittle married the former Mrs. Virgil Lee Hall (née Hazel Ardyce Steenberg) on 5 November 1976, at Fort Leslie J. McNair, at a United States Army base located in Washington, D.C. He emigrated to the United States in 1977 and became a research professor at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.

Whittle was the author of a textbook, Gas Turbine Aero-Thermodynamics With Special Reference to Aircraft Propulsion, published by Pergamon Press, Oxford, in 1981.

On 14 February 1986, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Whittle to the Order of Merit (OM), dated 11 February 1986.

Loughborough University, Leicestershire, awarded Whittle the honorary degree of Doctor of Technology in 1987.

In February 1996, Whittle was diagnosed with lung cancer. 24 days after the death of his first wife, Lady Dorothy, at 10:40 p.m., 8 August 1996,⁵ Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, O.M., K.B.E., C.B., F.R.S., F.R.Ae.S., Royal Air Force (Retired), died at his home at 10001 Windstream Drive, , Columbia, Maryland. He was 89 years old. His remains were cremated, then interred at St. Michael’s and All Angels’ Church, RAF Cranwell.

Sir Frank Whittle, photographed by Elliot & Fry, 30 November 1950. (National Portrait Gallery NPG x99798)

A memorial was held at Westminister Abbey, 15 November 1996. Air Chief Marshall Sir Michael James Graydon, GCB, CBE, FRAeS, said of him, “It is given to few people, and even fewer in their own lifetime, to open up new horizons for their fellow human beings. That is what Frank Whittle did by paving the way for popular air travel on a scale that few people thought possible at the time. This practical realization of a soaring vision is surely the very essence of genius.”

The Daily Telegraph called him “the greatest aero engineer of the century.” Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, “Sir Frank helped to change both the way we live and the world we live in.”

A very interesting documentary about Whittle, including interviews with the Air Commodore, can be seen on YouTube:

¹ Hans-Joachim Pabst von Ohain’s turbojet engine, the Heinkel HeS 1, burning gaseous hydrogen, was first run in September 1937, about six months after Whittle’s Power Jets W.U.

Schematic of von Ohain’s Heinkel HeS 1 turbojet engine.

² “The Whittle Jet Propulsion Gas Turbine,” by Air Commodore Frank Whittle, C.B.E., R.A.F., M.A., Hon. M.I. Mech.E., The Engineer, 12 October 1945, Pages 288–290.

³ The English bunt begins in straight and level flight. The pilot performs an outside half loop, ending in inverted level flight.

⁴ Equivalent to £4,651,934/$5,771,654 in 2023.

⁵ 02:40, 9 August, UTC.

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes

12 April 1933

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Bill Lancaster with his Avro 616 Avian IV, G-ABLK, “Southern Cross Minor.”

12 April 1933: William Newton Lancaster took off from Lympne Aerodrome at 5:38 a.m. He was attempting to fly from England to Australia and to break the record time set several months before by Amy Mollison.

He flew non stop across  the English Channel, France, and the Mediterranean Sea, and landed at Oran, Algeria, at 9:00 p.m. After a delay,  then flew on to Reggane, Adrar Province, Algeria.

Lancaster  departed Reggane on the evening of 12 April, enroute to Gao, French Sudan. His intended route was to follow a road across the desert. The estimated time of arrival at Gao was 0230.

The Daily Telegraph reported:

The aircraft was reported to have made a bad takeoff and to have headed away on the wrong course for Gao. When Capt. Lancaster filed to arrive, search planes and vehicles were sent out from Gao and Reggan. They failed to find any trace of the aircraft.

—The Daily Telegraph, 19 February 1962

After approximately one hour of flight, the airplane crashed in the Tanezrouft region, approximately 170 miles south of Reggane. Lancaster kept a diary until 20 April, when it is believed he died from dehydration and heat exposure.

The body of William Lancaster was discovered 12 February 1962 by a patrol of the Légion étrangère (French Foreign Legion) when they found the crash site. The airplanes was located about 45 miles west of Lancaster’s planned route.

Wreckage of Avro 616 Avian IV, G_ABLK,

The Avro 616 Sports Avian was a two-place, single-engine, single-bay biplane, produced by A.V. Roe from 1926 to 1928. 405 were built. Bill Lancaster’s airplane was a specially constructed variant, the Avro 616 Avian Mk.IV M, serial number 523, which had been ordered by Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith, M.C., A.F.C., and named Southern Cross Minor. It was shipped to Australia and re-registered VH-UQG. Sold to Lancaster’s father, Edward William Lancaster for £700 and sent back to England and re-registered G-ABLK Blue

While previous Avians had been constructed of wood-braced plywood panels, forming a tapered box, the Mk.IV M was built of steel tubing. The sides and bottom were flat and the upper deck arched. The wings were built of two wooden spars with wood ribs, covered in doped fabric. The standard airplane was designed so that the wings could be folded alongside the fuselage.

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s specially built Avro Avian Mk.IV A Gipsy II, G-ABCF. It is  not known whether G-ABLK was built to the same specifications.

The Avian Mk.IV M was 24 feet, 3 inches (7.391 meters) long. Its wing span was 28 feet, 0 inches (8.534 meters). The overall height was 8 feet, 6 inches (2.591 meters). The wings had a total area of 245 square feet (22.76 square meters). The wings are slightly staggered. Both upper and lower wings had a chord of 4 feet, 9 inches (1.448 meters), with a vertical gap of 5 feet, 0 inches (1.524 meters). The standard airplane had an empty weight of 1,005 pounds (456 kilograms) and gross weight of 1,523 pounds (691 kilograms).

The standard Avian Mk.IV M was equipped with a Cirrus Hermes 4-cylinder engine. G-ABLK was built with an air-cooled, normally-aspirated, 349.89-cubic-inch-displacement (5.734 liter) de Havilland Gipsy II inline 4-cylinder direct-drive engine, rated at 112.5 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m., and122.5 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m. The engine turned a two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller with a diameter of 6 feet, 2 inches (1.880 meters). The Gipsy II weighed 295 pounds (134 kilograms).

The standard production Mk.IV M had a cruise speed of 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 105 miles per hour (169 kilometers per hour). Its range was 360 miles (579 kilometers). (Increased fuel capacity in G-ABLK gave it a range of 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers). The service ceiling was 12,500 feet (3,810 meters).

William Newton Lancaster

William Newton Lancaster was born 14 February 1898 at King’s Norton, Birmingham, England. He was the son of Edward William Lancaster and Maud Lucas Lancaster.

Lancaster joined a regiment of the Australian Light Horse in 1914. He served in the Middle East.

He enlisted First Australian Imperial Force, 10 July 1916. Records show that he had a medium complexion, that he was 5 feet, 6 inches (1.68 meters) tall, weighed 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms), and had brown hair and  hazel eyes. He was assigned to a  Field Engineer Company.

The White Star Liner, S.S. Suevic. (State Library of Victoria, Allan C. Green Collection)

Sailing froma Australia, Lancaster embarked aboard S.S. Suevic at Sydney, New South Wales, 11 November 1916, with an initial destination of Cape Town, Union of South Africa. He was taken off the ship and placed in a hospital there, 14 December 1916. (The nature of his illness is not known.)

On12 January 1917, went aboard S.S. Ursova to continue to the war zone.

The Orient Steam Navigation Company liner S.S. Orsova at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. (John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

Lancaster was next transferred to Australian Flying Corps as a mechanic. He volunteered for flight training and was sent to an officers training corps in England.

On 1 November 1917 William Lancaster was commissioned as a second lieutenant, Australian Flying Corps. He was discharged 14 October 1918 for medical reasons, described in his military records as “debility, nervous instability.” Medical officers wrote that he had a “decreasing tendency to frontal headaches—Has a slight nervous hesitation in speech, tremors of hands, resulting from airplane crash. . .”

Following his discharge from the A.F.C., Lancaster was commissioned  a second lieutenant in the Royal Air Force. For his service during World War I. Lieutenant Lancaster was awarded the 1914–195 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.

In April 1919, Lieutenant Lancaster married Mrs. Annie Maud Mervyn-Colomb, a war widow, at Kensington, just west of Central London. They would have two daughters, Patricia Maud Lancaster and Nina Ann Lancaster.

Following the War, Lieutenant Lancaster served with No. 31 Squadron at Peshawar, on the North-West Frontier of British India (now, Pakistan).

Flying Officer William Newton Lancaster, Royal Air Force. Lancaster is wearing the 1914–1915 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Lancaster returned to England and on 21 April 1921 received at short-service commission as a Flying Officer, assigned to No. 25 Squadron at Folkestone, a port city on the English Channel, in southeast England.

On 30 April 1926, Flying Officer Lancaster relinquished his officer’s commission, have completed his term of service. He was transferred to the Reserve, Class A.

Keith-Miller and William Lancaster with the Avro Avian, Red Rose, at Darwin< Northern Territory, Australia, 1928.

In 1927, Lancaster, along with Mrs. Jessie Maude Keith-Miller, flew an Avro Avian, Red Rose, from England to Australia. Keith-Miller had insisted on obtaining the permission of Mrs. Lancaster for her to accompany Lancaster. They would become friends.

In 1928, Lancaster and Keith-Miller emigrated to the United States, leaving Mrs Lancaster and the children in England.

In 1932, Lancaster was accused of murdering Charles Haden Clarke, another lover of his lover, Mrs. Keith-Miller. Mrs. Keith-Miller, another Australian, had previously accompanied Lancaster on a flight from England to Australia in 1927. The flight inspired her to become a pilot herself. Mrs. Keith-Miller became a friend of Mrs. Lancaster. A murder trial was held in Miami, Florida in August 1932. Lancaster was acquitted after jury deliberated for five hours.

Following the trial both Lancaster and Keith-Miller sailed from the United States from England.

The wreckage of the Southern Cross Minor has been in the collection of the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia, since 1980.

Wreckage of the Southern Cross Minor on display at the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. (Queensland Museum)

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes

 

12 April 1918

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Malcolm and Allan Loughead in cockpit of their F-1 flying boat, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

12 April  1918: Allan and Malcolm Loughead, owners of the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Santa Barbara, California, set speed and distance records as they flew their twin-engine, ten-place F-1 flying boat from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The F-1 traveled 211 miles (340 kilometers) in 3 hours, 1 minute.¹

The F-1 took off from the waters off West Beach at Santa Barbara at 9:21 a.m., passed Point Fermin at 10:40 a.m., Oceanside at 11:55 a.m., and arrived at North Island at 12:23 p.m.² The airplane was flown by the two Loughead Brothers and carried two passengers.

The Southern California shorline from Santa Barbara, at the upper left, to San Diego, at the lower right. (Google Maps)

GREAT SEAPLANE MAKES RECORD ON FLIGHT

     SAN DIEGO, April 12.—The big seaplane F-1, piloted by Malcolm Loughead and carrying three passengers, arrived here at 12:23 this afternoon.

     The F-1 left Santa Barbara at 9:21 this morning and the estimated distance of 190 miles between that city and San Diego was therefore covered in exactly three hours and two minutes, a speed of approximately 63 1-3 miles an hour. The big seaplane was first sighted over Point Loma and within a few minutes alighted on the surface of San Diego Bay a short distance from the United States army aviation station at North Island. At 12:23 the seaplane reached the North Island landing and was hauled ashore by army men in waiting. According to Pilot Loughead, the trip was made without incident, although during the latter part of the trip headwinds were met with which retarded the speed of the aircraft.

————

     Three hours and two minutes by air flight to San Diego from Santa Barbara—that’s the record established today by Allan and Malcolm Loughead, in their big hydroplane, F-1, carrying as passengers Alfred Holt and Carl Christopherson, employees of the Loughead Aeroplane Manufacturing Company.

     The distance of 190 miles, by airplane, was made without mishap. The start from Santa Barbara gathered quite a group of citizens, among them being a number of stockholders in the Loughead company, and thousands would have been there to witness the notable start had it been known at what hour the flight would start.

     During the morning the Lougheads received a dispatch from government officials at the aviation headquarters on North Island, San Diego, informing them that air and ocean conditions were perfect all the way south, and asking that the flight be made today.

     The Lougheads were even at that moment getting ready for the departure, and arrangements were hastened. The bay was ruffled by a breeze, and the combers sparkled in the warm sunlight, as the hydroplane motors were started, and the big fans began to whirr. There were hasty farewells, and every man waved his hat and every woman present shook a kerchief, while the cheers broke forth from all as the big plane sped down the ways, and went skidding into the sea.

     At the wheels were Allan and Malcolm Loughead, while Christopherson and Holt occupied places in the passengers’ quarters at the head of the big plane. The machine was guided in a half circle, taking a southwesterly course at first, until beyond the pleasure pier, where it rose from the bosom of the sea, and rapidly ascended to an altitude of about 500 feet, when it took a southeasterly course, and heading down the channel toward Oxnard.

     It was a perfect get-away, and no bird ever took to the air more gracefully than the big plane rose above the sea and soared away, easily, the very hypothesis of graceful motion, and the speed at which it was travelling soon took it out of sight to the south.

     From Ventura and Hueneme the flight was witnessed by a large number of citizens, and at Point Fermin, near San Pedro, the passing of the plane attracted great interest. In fact, all the way south, great crowds watched eagerly and it was a continuous ovation that greeted the airmen from the land.

     At San Diego the fliers were met by a big crowd, and their stay in the southern city is being made one prolonged reception. From many points along the coast today telephone and telegraph messages have flashed, reporting the passing of the machine, whose eventful trip is the biggest sensation of the day in aviation circles.

     It is stated that the flight establishes a long distance record for a passenger-carrying hydroplane. The plane will be tested out by the government aviation officials, and it is expected that within a very few days the announcement will be made of a contract awarded the Loughead Brothers by the government for other machines.

     Experts who have examined the F-1 state that it is perfectly built, and the finest machine of its class afloat.     

—The Santa Barbara Daily News and the Independent, Friday, 12 April 1918, Page 1, Column 6

Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company F-1. (Lockheed Martin).

Designed by friend and employee John Knudson (“Jack”) Northrop, and built in a garage on State Street, the F-1 was launched on a wooden ramp at West Beach.

The airplane was intended for the U.S. Navy, but the end of World War I ended the requirement for new airplanes.

The Loughead F-1 was a twin-engine, three-bay biplane flying boat operated by a crew of 2. It could carry 8–10 passengers. The airplane was 35 feet (10.668 meters) long. The span of the upper wing was 74 feet (22.555 meters) and the lower wing was 47 feet (14.326 meters). The height was 12 feet (3.658 meters). The F-1 had an empty weight of 4,200 pounds (1,905 kilograms) and gross weight of 7,300 pounds (3,311 kilograms).

Loughead F-1 at Santa Barbara, 1918. (San Diego Air and Space Museum)
Loughead F-1 at Santa Barbara, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

The F-1 was powered by two right-hand tractor, water-cooled, normally-aspirated 909.22-cubic-inch-displacement (14.899 liters) Hall-Scott A-5-engines. These were inline six-cylinder single-overhead-camshaft (SOHC) engines with a compression ratio of 4.6:1. It was rated at 150 horsepower and produced 165 horsepower at 1,475 r.p.m. The engines were mounted on steel struts between the upper and lower wings. The engines were direct-drive and turned two-bladed, fixed pitch propellers with a diameter of 8 feet, 8 inches (2.642 meters). The Hall-Scott A-5-a was 5 feet, 2.5 inches (1.588 meters) long, 2 feet, 0 inches (0.610 meters) wide and 3 feet, 7.875 inches (1.114 meters) high. It weighed 595 pounds (270 kilograms).

The F-1 had a cruise speed of 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 84 miles per hour (135 kilometers per hour).

The F-1 was converted to a land plane with tricycle undercarriage and redesignated F-1A. During an attempted transcontinental flight, it twice suffered engine failure and was damaged. Reconfigured as a flying boat, the airplane was used for sight-seeing before being sold. It was abandoned on a beach at Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California, and was eventually destroyed.

Loughead F-1, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

The Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company would go on to become one of the world’s leading aerospace corporations.

¹ The certifying source for this “record” is not known. The distance flown and elapsed time for the flight cited here are from Wikipedia. The Great Circle distance from today’s Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) to NAS North Island (NZY) is 193 statute miles (311 kilometers). However, contemporary news reports suggest that the Loughead brothers flew the F-1 along California’s southern coastline, rather than making a direct flight across the Santa Barbara Channel, Santa Monica Bay, the Catalina Channel, and on to San Diego Bay. At the time of this flight, the governing body for aviation in the United States was the Aero Club of America, while official flight records were certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, which was based in France. The ACA ceased to exist in 1923, replaced by today’s National Aeronautic Association. The FAI online records database list only two world records set in 1918, both altitude records set by Major Rudolph Schroeder, 18 September 1918, at Dayton, Ohio.

² The Los Angeles Times, the Oakland Tribune and the San Bernardino Daily Sun state that the time of the takeoff was 9:23 a.m. The Tribune cites the arrival time as 12:24 p.m., while the Daily Sun reported the time as both 12:32 and 12:24. Various newspapers reported the distance flown by the F-1 as 190 miles (306 kilometers), while The Salt Lake Herald-Republican-Telegram printed that it was 200 miles (322 kilometers).

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes