2–4 February 1982: Over a three-day period, several flight crews set a series of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) payload-to-altitude world records at Podmoskovnoe. They flew an OKB Mil Design Bureau Mi-26 heavy lift helicopter.
On 3 February 1982, flown by Ге́рман Вита́льевич Алфёров (Herman Vitalievich Alferov) and L.A. Indeev, the Mi-26 with an all-up weight of 56,768.8 kilograms (125,153.8 pounds) flew to a height of 2,000 meters (6,562 feet).¹ Later, they flew to a height of 4,100 meters (13,451 feet) with a payload of 25,000 kilograms (55,115.6 pounds).²
The Mil Mi-26 (NATO code name: Halo) first flew on 25 October 1977. It is a twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter, normally operated by a flight crew of five, and can carry up to 90 passengers.
The Mi-26 is 40.025 meters (131 feet, 3¾ inches) long, with all rotors turning, and has a height of 8.145 meters (26 feet, 8¾ inches). The eight-bladed main rotor has a diameter of 32.00 meters (105 feet) and turns clockwise, as seen from above. (The advancing blade is on the left.) A five-bladed tail rotor is mounted on a pylon, to the right side of the aircraft, in a tractor configuration. It turns clockwise, as seen from the helicopter’s left.
The helicopter has an empty weight of 28,200 kilograms (62,170 pounds), gross weight of 49,600 kilograms (109,350 pounds) and maximum weight of 56,000 kilograms (123,450 pounds). The fuel capacity is 12,000 liters (3,200 gallons).
The Mi-26 is powered by two Lotarev D-136 turboshaft engines which are rated at 8,500 kW (11,299 shaft horsepower), each. It’s cruise speed is 255 kilometers per hour (158 miles per hour) and the maximum speed is 296 kilometers per hour (183 miles per hour). Range is 620 kilometers (385 miles). The service ceiling is 4,500 meters (14,765 feet).
320 Mil Mi-26 helicopters have been built.
Г. В. Алфёров
Herman Vitalievich Alferov (Ге́рман Вита́льевич Алфёров) was born at Moscow, U.S.S.R., 11 April 1934. He learned to fly at the Moscow Flying Club at the age of 16. He was a flight instructor at the Russian National Aeroclub Chkalov, the oldest flying club in Russia, from 1952 to 1954. He graduated from the DOSAAF flight/technical school at Saransk in 1954.
Alferov was a test pilot at OKB Mil Design Bureau from 1954 until 1982. He made the first flights of many Mil helicopters, including the Mi-1 KX light helicopter in 1957, the first Soviet production turboshaft-powered helicopter, the heavy-lift Mi-6 (he was co-pilot), the twin-turboshaft Mi-2, Mi-10K flying crane, and the Mi-24 “Hind” attack helicopter (co-pilot). He was the lead test pilot for the Mi-24 at the Arsenyev aviation plant at Aresenev, Primorski Krai, in the Russian Far East from 1970, and for the Mi-26 beginning in 1978.
Herman Vitalievich Alferov died at Moscow, Russia, 9 January 2012, at the age of 77 years. During his aviation career, he had been awarded the Order of the October Revolution, Order of the Red Banner of Labor (two awards), Order of the Red Star (two awards), Order of the Badge of Honor, and was named an Honored Test Pilot of the Soviet Union. He had participated in setting five FAI world records for helicopters.
3 February 1959: In the late 1950s, “rock and roll” music was becoming increasingly popular in America. Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley) was among the most famous rock and roll singers.
While on a concert tour, Holly, formerly of the band The Crickets, chartered a small airplane from Dwyer Flying Service to fly himself and two other performers to Fargo, North Dakota, for the following night’s event.
After the performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, ended, Holly, Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela) and “The Big Bopper,” (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.) were driven to the nearby Mason City Municipal Airport (MCW), arriving at 12:40 a.m., Central Standard Time (0640 UTC). They were met by their assigned pilot, Roger Arthur Peterson, and boarded the chartered airplane. They took off at 12:55 a.m. CST (0655 UTC).
Richard Steven Valenzuela. (Unattributed)
During the previous eight hours, Roger Peterson had telephoned the Air Traffic Communications Service three times for the weather forecast along his planned route. He was informed that weather was VFR, with ceilings of 4,200 feet (1,280 meters) or higher and visibility 10 miles (16 kilometers) or more.
ATCS did NOT inform Peterson of a “Flash Advisory” of a 100-mile-wide (160 kilometers) band of snow moving into the area at 25 knots (13 meters per second). Moderate to heavy icing conditions were present along with winds of 30 to 50 knots (15 to 26 feet per second).
“The Big Bopper,” Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. (Unattributed)
While taxiing to the runway, the pilot once again radioed ATCS for the weather. It was now reported as: ceiling 3,000 feet (914 meters), sky obscured, visibility 6 miles (10 kilometers) in light snow, and wind gusting 20 to 30 knots (10 to 15 meters per second).
After a normal takeoff, the airplane climbed to approximately 800 feet (244 meters) and made a left 180° turn. It passed the airport heading northwest.
The charter service’s owner, Hubert Dwyer, watched the departure from the airport’s tower. He was able to see the airplane’s navigation lights until it was about five miles (8 kilometers) away, then it slowly descended out of sight.
When Peterson activated his flight plan by radio after taking off, as was expected, Dwyer asked the ATCS to try to contact him. No contact was established. The airplane and its passengers never arrived at the destination.
After sunrise, Dwyer began an air search for the missing airplane. At 09:35 a.m., he located the crashed airplane in a farm field approximately 5 miles northwest of the airport. The airplane was destroyed and all four occupants were dead. There was about 4 inches (10 centimeters) of snow on the ground.
Roger Arthur Peterson
The pilot, Roger A. Peterson, was 21 years old and had been issued a commercial pilot’s certificate with an airplane–single-engine land rating, in April 1958. He was also a certified flight instructor. He had flown 711 flight hours during the nearly five years he had been flying. He had worked for Dwyer for a year.
Peterson had acquired 52 hours of instrument flight training and had passed the written test for the rating, but had failed an instrument flight check the previous year. He had 128 hours in the airplane type, but none of his instrument flight training had been in this aircraft.
Peterson was born at Alta, Iowa, 24 May 1937. He was the first of four children of Arthur Erland Peterson, a farmer, and Pearl I. Kraemer Peterson. He attended Fairview Consolidated School and graduated in 1954. Peterson married Miss DeAnn Lenz, a former classmate, at the Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Alta, 14 September 1958.
Roger Arthur Peterson is buried at the Buena Vista Memorial Cemetery, Storm Lake, Iowa.
N3794N was well-equipped for instrument flight. The attitude indicator, a Sperry Gyroscope Company, Inc., F-3 Attitude Gyro, however, displayed pitch attitude in a way that was different than the indicators used in the airplanes in which Peterson had taken instrument flight instruction.
This contemporary magazine advertisement depicts the Sperry F-3 Attitude Gyro. (Vintage Ad Service)
The Civil Aeronautics Board (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) investigated the accident. There was no indication of an engine malfunction or of structural failure of the aircraft.
Investigators concluded that as Peterson flew away from the airport he entered an area of total darkness, unable to see anything which would give him a visual cue of the airplane’s flight attitude. The unfamiliar attitude indicator may have confused him. He quickly became spatially disoriented and lost control of the Bonanza.
N3794N impacted the ground in a 90° right bank with a nose down pitch angle, on a heading of 315°. The right wing broke off and parts of the airplane were scattered as far as 540 feet (165 meters). The three passengers were thrown from the wreckage.
The airspeed indicator needle was stuck between 165 and 170 knots (190–196 miles per hour/306–315 kilometers per hour) and the rate of climb indicator was stuck showing a 3,000 foot-per-minute (15 meters per second) rate of descent. The tachometer was stuck at 2,200 r.p.m.
This 1947 Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza, serial number D-1089, N3851N, is the same type aircraft in which Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed, 3 February 1959. (Unattributed)
The airplane was a 1947 Beechcraft 35 Bonanza, civil registration N3794N, serial number D-1019. It was a single-engine, four-place, all-metal light airplane with retractable landing gear. The Model 35 had the distinctive V-tail which combined the functions of a conventional vertical fin and rudder, and horizontal tail plane and elevators.
N3794N was completed at Wichita, Kansas, 17 October 1947 and it had accumulated 2,154 flight hours over the previous twelve years. The airplane’s engine had been overhauled 40 hours before the accident.
The Model 35 was 25 feet, 2 inches (7.671 meters) long with a wingspan of 32 feet, 10 inches (10.008 meters) and height of 6 feet, 7 inches (2.007 meters). It had an empty weight of 1,458 pounds (661 kilograms) and gross weight of 2,550 pounds (1,157 kilograms).
N3794N was powered by an air-cooled, normally-aspirated, 471.24-cubic-inch-displacement (7.72 liter) Continental Motors, Inc., E185-8 horizontally-opposed 6-cylinder engine with a compression ratio of 7:1. This was a direct-drive engine which turned a two-bladed, electrically-controlled, Beechcraft R-203-100 variable-pitch propeller with a diameter of 7 feet, 4 inches (2.235 meters), constructed of laminated birch. The engine had a maximum continuous power rating of 185 horsepower at 2,300 r.p.m., at Sea Level, and 205 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m. (five minute limit) for takeoff. It required 80/87-octane aviation gasoline and had an expected overhaul interval of 1,500 hours. The E-185-8 had a dry weight of 344 pounds (156 kilograms).
The “V-tail Bonanza” had a maximum speed of 184 miles per hour (296 kilometers per hour) at Sea Level, and a cruise speed of 175 miles per hour ( 282 kilometers per hour)at 10,000 feet (3,048 meters). Its service ceiling was 18,000 feet (5,486 meters).
With full fuel, 40 gallons (151.4 liters), the airplane had a range of 750 miles (1,207 kilometers).¹
The Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza was in production from 1947 to 1982. More than 17,000 Model 35s and the similar Model 36 were built.
The Civil Aeronautics Board concluded:
Probable Cause
The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the pilot’s unwise decision to embark on a flight which would necessitate flying solely by instruments when he was not properly certificated or qualified to do so. Contributing factors were serious deficiencies in the weather briefing, and the pilot’s unfamiliarity with the instrument which determines the attitude of the aircraft.¹
Wreck of Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza N3794N, 3 February 1959.
Pan American World Airways’ first Lockheed L-049 Constellation, NC88836, serial number 2036, photographed at Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California in December 1945. It is temporarily marked NX88836. (Lockheed Martin photograph via R.A. Scholefield Collection)
3 February 1946: Pan American World Airways inaugurated the commercial operation of its new Lockheed L-049-46-21 Constellation, Clipper Mayflower, NC88836, with scheduled flights from New York to Bermuda. The Constellation flew the southbound route in 2 hours, 22 minutes.
On the same day, at 4:17 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, another Pan Am Constellation, under the command of Captain Robert D. Fordyce, departed LaGuardia Airport, New York, for London, England, with 30 passengers and a ton of cargo. The Lockheed made refueling stops at Gander, Newfoundland, and Shannon, Ireland, before finally arriving at Hurn Airport, Bournemouth, (approximately 100 miles southwest of London) at 7:50 a.m., EST, (12:50 GMT), 4 February, 1946. The total elapsed time was 15 hours, 32 minutes, with 12 hours, 49 minutes of actual flight.
According to Logbook Magazine, NC88836, Lockheed serial number 2036, was delivered to Pan Am on 5 January 1946. While with the airline it also carried the name Clipper Yankee Ranger. 2036 was transferred to Cubana de Aviación (owned by Pan Am since 1932) in 1953, and re-registered CU-T-547. It served with several other airlines over the next 15 years, including El Al Israel Airlines, registered 4X-AKE. The Constellation was taken out of service in 1968 and placed in storage at Tel Aviv. It was scrapped later that year.
The Lockheed Constellation first flew in 1942, and was produced for the U.S. Army Air Corps as the C-69. With the end of World War II, commercial airlines needed new airliners for the post-war boom. The Constellation had transoceanic range and a pressurized cabin for passenger comfort.
Pan American World Airway’s’ Lockheed L-049 Constellation NC88836, Clipper Mayflower, at Floyd Bennett Airport, 1946. (Royal Air Force Museum)
The Lockheed L-049 Constellation was operated by a flight crew of four and could carry up to 81 passengers. The airplane was 95 feet, 1 3⁄16 inches (28.986 meters) long with a wingspan of 123 feet, 0 inches (37.490 meters), and overall height of 23 feet, 7⅞ inches (7.210 meters). It had an empty weight of 49,392 pounds (22,403.8 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 86,250 pounds (39,122.3 kilograms).
The L-049 was powered by four air-cooled, supercharged and fuel-injected, 3,347.662-cubic-inch-displacement (54.858 liter) Wright Aeronautical Division Cyclone 18 ¹ 745C18BA3 two-row 18-cylinder radial engines with a compression ratio of 6.5:1. The -BA3 was rated at 2,000 horsepower at 2,400 r.p.m., or 2,200 horsepower at 2,800 r.p.m., for takeoff, (five minute limit). The engines drove 15 foot, 2 inch (4.623 meter) diameter, three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic constant-speed propellers through a 0.4375:1 gear reduction. The 745C18BA3 was 6 feet, 4.13 inches (1.934 meters) long, 4 feet, 7.78 inches (1.417 meters) in diameter and weighed 2,842 pounds (1,289.11 kilograms).
The L-049 had a cruise speed of 313 miles per hour (503.72 kilometers per hour) and a range of 3,995 miles (6,429.3 kilometers). Its service ceiling was 25,300 feet (7,711 meters).
22 C-69s and 856 Constellations of all types were built. Designed by the famous Kelly Johnson, the Lockheed Constellation was in production from 1943–1958 in both civilian airliner and military transport versions. It is the classic propeller-driven transcontinental and transoceanic airliner.
Crew members of Pan American World Airways’ Clipper America, a Lockheed L-749 Constellation, N86527. Clipper America and her crew, under Captain Hugh H. Gordon, with twenty passengers, circled the world 17–29 June 1947, in 92 hours, 43 minutes flight time. (Pan American World Airways photograph via everythingPanAm.com)
¹ The Cyclone 18 series was also known as the Duplex Cyclone.
A Transcontinental and Western Airlines Lockheed L-049 Constellation. (TWA)
3 February 1946: Transcontinental and Western Airlines (“The Trans World Airline”) inaugurated non-stop passenger service from Los Angeles to New York with it’s Lockheed L-049A Constellation, Navajo Skychief, NC86503.
Captain William John (“Jack”) Frye, president of the airline, and his co-pilot, Captain Lee Flanagin, T&WA’s Western Region Operations Manager, were at the controls with Captain Paul S. Frederickson and Captain A.O. Lundin aboard as relief pilots. Flight Engineers Paul Henry and E.T. Greene completed the flight crew. In the passenger cabin were flight attendants Dorraine Strole and Rita P. Crooks. The 44 passengers were primarily news reporters.
Flight crew of Transcontinental and Western Airlines’ Lockheed L-049 Constellation, Navajo Chieftain, at LaGuardia Airport, New York, 3 February 1946. Front row, left to right, Paul Henry, Flight Engineer; Captain William John (“Jack”) Frye, Pilot; E.T. Greene, Flight Engineer. Second row, Captain Paul S. Frederickson, Relief Pilot; and First Officer Lee Flanigin, Co-Pilot. Top, Stewardess Dorraine Strole, and Stewardess Rita P. Crooks (Unattributed. This internet image appears to have been cropped from a larger photograph at https://www.sedonalegendhelenfrye.com/1946.html)
Navajo Skychief departed Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California, at 12:59:12 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (3:59:12 a.m., E.S.T.), and flew across the North American continent at an altitude of 15,000–17,000 feet (4,572–5,182 meters), taking advantage of tailwinds throughout the flight. The Constellation crossed over LaGuardia Airport, New York, at 1,500 feet (457.2 meters) at 11:27 a.m., Eastern Standard Time.
Route of Navajo Skychief, 3 February 1946. (Daily News, Vol. 27, No. 192, Monday, 4 February 1946, Page 3, Columns 7 and 8)
The 2,474-mile (3,954.2 kilometer) Great Circle flight took 7 hours, 27 minutes, 48 seconds, averaging 329 miles per hour (529.5 kilometers per hour), setting a National Aeronautic Association transcontinental speed record for transport aircraft.
With 52 persons aboard, this was the largest number carried in commercial passenger service up to that time.
TWA Lockheed L-049 Constellation NC86511, Star of Paris, sister ship of Navajo Skychief. (Sedona legend Helen Frye)
The four Duplex-Cyclone engines burned 450 gallons (1,703.4 liters) of gasoline per hour. On landing, 610 gallons (2,309.1 liters) of fuel remained.
A TWA stewardess. (LIFE Magazine)
Navajo Skychief (serial number 2024), a Lockheed Model L-049-46 Constellation, had been built at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s Burbank, California, plant and delivered to Transcontinental and Western on 20 December 1945. The airliner remained in service with TWA until March 1962. During that time it was also named Star of the Nile and Star of California. The Constellation was scrapped in May 1964.
The Lockheed Constellation first flew in 1942, and was produced for the U.S. Army Air Corps as the C-69. With the end of World War II, commercial airlines needed new airliners for the post-war boom. The Constellation had transoceanic range and a pressurized cabin for passenger comfort.
Transcontinental and Western Airlines’ Lockheed L-049A Constellation, NC 86503, Navajo Skychief. (Unattributed)
The Lockheed L-049 Constellation was operated by a flight crew of four and could carry up to 81 passengers. The airplane was 95 feet, 1 3⁄16 inches (28.986 meters) long with a wingspan of 123 feet, 0 inches (37.490 meters), and overall height of 23 feet, 7⅞ inches (7.210 meters). It had an empty weight of 49,392 pounds (22,403.8 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 86,250 pounds (39,122.3 kilograms).
Navajo Skychief, Transcontinental and Western Airlines’ Lockheed L-049A Constellation, NC 86503. (Ed Coates Collection)
The L-049 was powered by four air-cooled, supercharged and fuel-injected, 3,347.662-cubic-inch-displacement (54.858 liter) Wright Aeronautical Division Cyclone 18 ¹ 745C18BA3 two-row 18-cylinder radial engines with a compression ratio of 6.5:1. The -BA3 was rated at 2,000 horsepower at 2,400 r.p.m., or 2,200 horsepower at 2,800 r.p.m., for takeoff, (five minute limit). The engines drove 15 foot, 2 inch (4.623 meter) diameter, three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic constant-speed propellers through a 0.4375:1 gear reduction. The 745C18BA3 was 6 feet, 4.13 inches (1.934 meters) long, 4 feet, 7.78 inches (1.417 meters) in diameter and weighed 2,842 pounds (1,289.11 kilograms).
The L-049 had a cruise speed of 313 miles per hour (503.72 kilometers per hour) and a range of 3,995 miles (6,429.3 kilometers). Its service ceiling was 25,300 feet (7,711 meters).
22 C-69s and 856 Constellations of all types were built. Designed by the famous Kelly Johnson, the Lockheed Constellation was in production from 1943–1958 in both civilian airliner and military transport versions. It is the classic propeller-driven transcontinental and transoceanic airliner.
TWA Lockheed Constellation.
Jack Frye had founded the Aero Corporation of California, which would later become Transcontinental and Western, on 3 February 1926. He died at Tucson, Arizona, on 3 February 1959 at the age of 55 years.
¹ The Cyclone 18 series was also known as the Duplex Cyclone.
1st Lieutenant Robert Murray Hanson, USMCR. (USMC History Division)
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor was presented to Lieutenant Hanson’s mother by Major General Lewis G. Merritt at a ceremony on Boston Common, Boston, Massachusetts, 19 August 1944. (His father, Rev. Dr. Harry A. Hanson, was at the time in India as president of the Lucknow Christian College.)
Robert Murray Hanson was born 4 February 1920 at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, the second of four children of Rev. Dr. Harry Albert Hanson and Alice Jean Dorchester Hanson. His parents were Methodist missionaries; his father a teacher at the Lucknow Christian College. He had an older brother, Mark, younger brothers Stanley and Earl Dorchester Hanson, and sister Edith Hazel Hanson.
The family returned to the United States, arriving at New York (via Liverpool and Rotterdam) aboard Cunard passenger liner S.S. Ausonia, 19 February 1924.
RMS Ausonia, photographed in 1947. (Royal Navy)Robert Murray Hanson. (Hamline University Liner 1942)
Hanson attended school in the United States, then returned to India. He again returned to the United States in 1938, having taken time to bicycle through Europe. He attended Hamline University at St. Paul, Minnesota, a member of the Class of 1942. Hanson majored in economics, and was a member of the Kappa Gamma Chi (ΚΓΧ ) fraternity and the H Club. He played on the football, tennis, track and wrestling teams. He was an All State athlete.
When Hanson registered for the draft (conscription), 1 July 1941, he was described as having a light complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes. He was 5’10¾” tall (182.3 centimeters) and weighed 195 pounds (88.5 kilograms).
Kappa House, circa 1942. (Hamline University Liner)
Bob Hanson left the university and enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve as Seaman 2nd Class (V-5 Aviation Cadet Training Program), at the Naval Aviation Base, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 26 February 1942. (Service Number 411 88 11)
Lieutenant Robert M. Hanson, USMCR (U.S. Navy)
Hanson completed flight training and was commissioned a second lieutenant, United States Marine Corps Reserve (Service Number O-019154), at Corpus Christi, Texas, 19 February 1943. Assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station at Kearney Mesa, San Diego, California, he was then transferred to the First Marine Aircraft Wing for deployment to the South Pacific.
When he arrived in the Solomon Islands, Lieutenant Hanson served with Marine Fighting Squadron 214 (VMF-214), known as the “Swashbucklers” (previously known as “The Black Sheep” under the command of Major “Pappy” Boyington). He was transferred to VMF-215, “The Fighting Corsairs,” at Vella Lavella Island, under the command of Major (later, Major General) Robert Gordon Owens, Jr., in October 1943.
On 1 November 1943, while flying F4U-1 Corsair Bu. No. 17472, Hanson was shot down near Bouganville by the rear gunner of a Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 (“Kate”). After six hours in a raft, he was rescued by the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Sigourney (DD-643).
1st Lieutenant Hanson was awarded the Air Medal at Vella Lavella, 20 November 1943.
Lieutenant Hanson is pictured at Vella Lavella, fifth from right. Original caption: “Decoration of Marine Flyers in South Pacific is often as informal as pictured here. These fighter pilots, at the end of a day’s flights against the enemy, line up by a revetment to be decorated by their skipper. In the background is a Corsair fighter plane. “Photo shows, left to right: 1st Lt. Robert E. Clark reading citations, Major Robert G. Owens Jr., Major James L. Neefus, Lt Col. Herbert H. Williamson, 1st Lt. Lincoln F. Deetz, (Gold Star), 1st Lt. Bennie P. O’Dell (Air Medal), 1st Lt. David R. Moak (Air Medal), Capt. Don Aldrich (Purple Heart), 1st Lt. Drury E. McCall (Air Medal), 1st Lt. Robert M. Hanson (Air Medal), 1st Lt. Thomas M. Tomlinson (Air Medal), 1st Lt. Otto K. Williams (Air Medal), and 1st Lt. Grafton S. Stidger (Purple Heart). “Date 20 November 1943.” (Source USMC Military History Division: Defense Department Photo (Marines): 68310)
Between 4 August 1943 and 30 January 1944, Hanson shot down 25 enemy aircraft:
4 August 1943: 1 Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien Type 3 (“Tony”)
26 August 1943: 1 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0 (“Zero”)
1 November 1943: 2 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0, 1 Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 (“Kate)
14 January 1944: 5 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0
20 January 1944: 1 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0
22 January 1944: 2 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0, 1 Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien Type 3
24 January 1944: 4 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0, (1 Ki-61 probable)
26 January 1944: 3 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0, (1 A6M2 probable)
30 January 1944: 2 Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0, 2 Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki (“Tojo”)
On 3 February 1944, the day before his 24th birthday, while flying a Chance Vought F4U-1 Corsair, Bu. No. 56039, 1st Lieutenant Hanson was part of an 8 Corsair escort for 18 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers in an attack on the Tobera Airfield (Rabaul No. 4) near Keravat, New Britain. While returning, Hanson descended to attack a light house at Cape St. George. His fighter was hit by anti-aircraft gunfire. His commanding officer, Major Owens, reported,
“Bob was coming back from a flight covering bombers to Rabaul on February 3rd when he apparently decided to strafe a lighthouse at Cape St. George, at the southern tip of New Ireland. He made a strafing run, and then his right wing was seen to hit the water twice. The plane pulled up and the wing either exploded or caught fire. After a moment when it seemed he would make a normal landing, the plane twisted and rolled over and disappeared.”
His wingman, Lieutenant Harold Leman Spears, searched and found only floating debris.
The Boston Daily Globe reported:
The Story of Newton’s Heroic Ace
BOB HANSON OF THE MARINES
Off to Pacific and a Brilliant Record
By Frances Burns
“LT ROBERT MURRAY HANSON inspects the wing of his plane damaged by Jap 20-mm. shells during a fight with a Zero which he downed. The was the last photo received here of the ace who was reported missing in action Feb. 3.” (USMC from Acme via The Boston Globe)
2d Lt Robert Murray Hanson was almost ready for his meteoric career as a fighting pilot in the South Pacific when he rang the doorbell at 31 Brooks av., last Good Friday morning.
Bob Hanson had seen his parents, Rev. and Mrs. Harry Hanson, six hours in the five years since he left Lohdipur. He had won his wings two months before in Miami the month before he had his first challenge as a flyer, when to avoid a collision he flipped his plane, somersaulted and crawled out intact.
* * *
Now he was like other boys who came home for the last time before going out SOMEWHERE to fight in this war. He didn’t want to do much visiting. He didn’t want to be entertained. He wanted to play with his young counterpart, flaxen haired, blue eyed bouncing sister Edith; talk about their hikes in the fields of India with his father; discuss birds with his youngest brother Earl; and open his heart over the dishpan to his mother. He wanted to be left alone to go off in a corner to read when he felt like it.
He spent most of three days of his six at home making himself a knife like a Roman sword, a knife that he was probably to use in the incredible months ahead.
“We thought, his father and I, that if Bob ever had a chance when he cracked the other day he would have been able to cut his way out of the wreckage with that knife,” his mother said last week. “It helps us keep hoping.”
Hanson went on to see his brothers Mark and Stanley in Chicago at the end of his leave, to San Diego for a brief commando training and then overseas.
The flyer’s first two letters home never were received and except for a government card announcing his safe arrival in July his family had no word from May to September, except indirectly.
* * *
There have been a few brief letters since but most of their son’s breathtaking saga Mr. and Mrs. Hanson have read in dispatches from the South Seas. . . .
. . . . Lt Robert M. Hanson in his first encounter early in August against the enemy shot down a Zero with the guns on his left wing after Japanese cannon had ripped through his right wing. . . .
. . . . Second Zero in September on a bomber escort mission. . . .
. . . . reported missing in action Nov. 1 after he had shot down three more planes to become an ace, 2d Lt Robert Hanson was picked up by a destroyer after his engine conked out and he had to take to a rubber boat. (He wrote his parents Nov. 5 of his rescue and not to give up hope if he were reported lost—”there were so many islands out there.”). . . .
. . . . 1st Lt Robert M. Hanson, ace, today (Jan. 5 delayed) was decorated with the Air Medal and cited by Adm Halsey, South Pacific commander. . . .
. . . . Big blond Bob Hanson, currently the hottest fighter pilot in the Allied South Pacific front, today (Jan. 22 delayed) shot three more Japanese fighting planes out of the sky over New Britain to run his score to 14, with an average of one a day this week. . . .
. . . . Lt Hanson became the ace of Marine Corps flyers Jan 24 when he ran the total of Japanese planes to his credit to 18. . . picked off four Zeros today. . . .
. . . . Feb. 2 Lt Robert M. Hanson shot down four Japanese planes, including two new models to boost is total to 25 and made him the leading South Pacific ace in action. . . .
And Feb. 3, a fellow pilot saw a Corsair make a strafing run at St. George Cape, New Ireland, but it pulled out too late. A wing caught the water and she somersaulted. “I went down low but saw only wreckage.” . . . Marine Lt Robert M. Hanson with 20 planes in 17 days was within one short of the record held by Capt Eddie Rickenbacker of World War I, Maj Joe Foss and Gregory Boyington. . . on the day before his 24th birthday Lt Robert M.Hanson is missing in action.
—The Boston Daily Globe, Vol. CXLV, No. 50, 19 February 1944, Page 4, Columns 3–5
In addition to the Medal of Honor, 1st Lieutenant Robert Murray Hanson, USMCR, was awarded the Navy Cross,² the Purple Heart with gold star, the Air Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two bronze stars, and the World War II Victory Medal.
The Gearing-class destroyer USS Hanson (DD-832) was named in his honor. Built at the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, the 3,460 long ton ship was commissioned 11 May 1945, under the command of Commander John C. Parham, USN. Hanson served during the Korean War. She was re-classified as to a radar picket destroyer (DDR) in 1949. In 1973, Hanson was transferred to the Republic of China Navy and renamed Liao Chiang (DDG-932). The ship was sunk as a target in July 2006.
Gearing-class destroyer USS Hanson (DD-832) underway in San Francisco Bay, circa 1957. (Nav Source)
Hanson’s name appears on a Trani limestone pier at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Phillipines. There is also a cenotaph at the Newton Cemetery, Newton, Massachusetts.
Cenotaph (Polar Bear Mom via Find-a-Grave)
VMF-214 and VMF-215 flew the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division F4U-1 Corsair.¹ The Corsair was designed by Rex Buren Beisel, and is best known for its distinctive inverted “gull wing,” which allowed sufficient ground clearance for its 13 foot, 4 inch (4.064 meter) diameter propeller, without using excessively long landing gear struts. The prototype XF4U-1, Bu. No. 1443, had first flown 29 May 1940, with test pilot Lyman A. Bullard in the cockpit.
Vought F4U-1 Corsair of VMF-214, Torokina, 1942. (U.S. Navy)
The F4U-1 was 33 feet, 4.125 inches (10.163 meters) long with a wingspan of 40 feet, 11.726 inches (12.490 meters) and overall height (to top of propeller arc) of 15 feet, 0.21 inches (4.577 meters). The wings’ angle of incidence was 2°. The outer wing had 8.5° dihedral and the leading edges were swept back 4°10′. With its wings folded, the width of the F4U-1 was reduced to 17 feet, 0.61 inches (5.197 meters), and increased the overall height to 16 feet, 2.3 inches (4.935 meters). When parked, the Corsair’s 13 foot, 4 inch (4.064 meter) propeller had 2 feet, 1.93 inches (65.862 centimeters) ground clearance, but with the fighter’s thrust line level, this decreased to just 9.1 inches (23.1 centimeters). The F4U-1 had an empty weight of 8,982 pounds (4,074.2 kilograms) and gross weight of 12,162 pounds (5,516.6 kilograms).
A Vought-Sikorsky F4U-1 Corsair at the NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, circa 1942. (NASA)
The F4U-1 variant of the Corsair was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged, 2,804.4-cubic-inch-displacement (45.956 liter) Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp SSB2-G (R-2800-8) two-row, 18-cylinder radial engine, with a compression ratio of 6.65:1. The R-2800-8 had a normal power rating of 1,675 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m. and 44.0 inches of manifold pressure (1.490 bar) at 5,500 feet (1,676 meters); 1,550 horsepower at 21,500 feet (6,553 meters); and 2,000 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. with 54.0 inches of manifold pressure (1.829 bar) for takeoff. The engine turned a three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic constant-speed propeller with a diameter of 13 feet, 4 inches (4.064 meters) through a 2:1 gear reduction. The R-2800-8 was 7 feet, 4.47 inches (2.247 meters) long, 4 feet, 4.50 inches (1.334 meters) in diameter and weighed 2,480 pounds (1,125 kilograms).
The F4U-1 had a cruise speed of 186 miles per hour (299 kilometers per hour) at Sea Level. Its maximum speed at Sea Level was 365 miles per hour (587 kilometers per hour). During flight testing, an F4U-1 reached 431 miles per hour (694 kilometers per hour) at 20,300 feet (6,187 meters) with War Emergency Power. The service ceiling was 38,200 feet (11,643 meters) and its maximum range was 1,510 miles (2,430 kilometers) with full main and outer wing tanks.
Three Browning .50-caliber machine guns and belted ammunition installed in the left wing of a Vought-Sikorsky F4U-1 Corsair, 11 August 1942.
The Corsair was armed with six air-cooled Browning AN-M2 .50-caliber machine guns, three in each wing, with 400 rounds of ammunition per gun.
A total of 12,571 Corsairs were manufactured by the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division (F4U-1), Goodyear Aircraft Corporation (FG-1D) and Brewster Aeronautical Corporation (F3A-1). The Corsair served the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in World War II and the Korean War. Corsairs also served in other countries’ armed forces. Its last known use in combat was in Central America in 1969.
¹ Hanson’s Corsair is usually identified as a “F4U-1A.” F4U-1A is not an official U.S. Navy designation, but is commonly used to distinguish late production F4U-1 Corsairs with their blown plexiglas canopies and other improvements from the earlier “bird cage” Corsairs.
² Citation for the Navy Cross:
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to First Lieutenant Robert Murray Hanson (MCSN: 0-19154), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Pilot of a Fighter Plane attached to Marine Fighting Squadron TWO HUNDRED FIFTEEN (VMF-215), Marine Air Group FOURTEEN (MAG-14), FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing, in aerial combat against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands Area from 5 January 1944 to 3 February 1944. Intercepted by a superior number of Japanese fighters while covering a flight of our bombers in a strike against enemy shipping in Simpson harbor on 14 January, First Lieutenant Hanson boldly engaged the hostile planes in fierce combat, pressing home repeated attacks with devastating force. Separated from his squadron during the intense action, he valiantly continued the engagement alone, successfully destroying five enemy Zeros before being forced by lack of ammunition and gasoline to return to his base. First Lieutenant Hanson’s superb airmanship, brilliant initiative and dauntless fighting spirit enabled our bombers to deliver a crushing blow to the Japanese in that sector and return safe to their base and his conduct throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
