All posts by Bryan Swopes

About Bryan Swopes

Bryan R. Swopes grew up in Southern California in the 1950s–60s, near the center of America's aerospace industry. He has had a life-long interest in aviation and space flight. Bryan is a retired commercial helicopter pilot and flight instructor.

Joseph Sadi-Lecointe (11 July 1891–15 July 1944)

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Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, 1924

Joseph Sadi-Lecointe was born 11 July 1891 at Saint-Germain-sur-Bresle, Departement de la Somme, Picardie, France.

Sadi-Lecointe was employed as an aircraft welder. On 30 January 1910, without any instruction, he took off from Issy-les-Moulineaux in a monoplane designed by George and Gendre Zénith. The Aero Club de France awarded him its license number 431 on 10 February 1911.

Adjutant Joseph Sadi-Lecointe with a Morane-Saulnier, circa 1915. (Musée de l’air et de l’espace)

He joined the Service Aéronautique (the original form of the French Air Force) as a mechanic in October 1912, and was designated pilote militaire nº375, 20 September 1913.

Sadi-Lecointe was promoted to sergeant 6 July 1914. He served as a pilot during World War I, flying the Blériot XI-2 with l’escadrille BL 10 from 1 August 1914 to 6 March 1915. After serving five weeks with the RGA, Sergent Sadi-Lecointe was transferred to N 48, flying the Nieuport X. He was promoted to Adjutant, a warrant officer rank, 17 April 1915. On 23 November 1915 became a flight instructor at l’Ecole de Pilotage d’Avord. Sadi-Lacointe was promoted to sous-lieutenant in October 1916. On 17 September 1917 he was assigned as a test pilot at Blériot–Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés, where he worked on the development of the famous SPAD S.XIII C.1 fighter.

Joseph Sadi-Lecointe was a test pilot for the Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés SPAD S.VII C.1 and S.XIII C.1 fighters. (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

After the War, he was a test pilot for Nieuport-Delâge, and participated in numerous races and set a series of speed and altitude records with the company’s airplanes. He won the Coupe Deutsche de la Meurthe, 3 August 1920, and the Gordon Bennett Aviation Trophy Race, 28 September 1920, flying a Nieuport-Delâge Ni-D 29V. He also won the Coupe Beaumont, 23 June 1924, flying the Nieuport-Delâge Type 42. Joseph Sadi-Lecointe was appointed Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 1924.

Joseph Sadi-Lecointe with the Blériot-SPAD S.26 during trials for the Coupe d’Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider races, 1919. (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Joseph Sadi-Lecointe in the cockpit of his Nieuport-Delâge NiD-29 V racer during te eGordon Bennett races. (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Nieuport-Delâge NiD-42 S. (FAI)
Sadi-Lecointe’s record-setting Nieuport-Delâge NiD-40 R. (FAI)

Sadi-Lecointe returned to military service in 1925 and participated in the Second Moroccan War. Then in 1927, he returned to his position as chief test pilot for Nieuport-Delâge. From 1936 to 1940, he served as Inspecteur général de l’aviation civile (Inspector General of Aviation) for the French Air Ministry. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Lieutenant Colonel Sadi-Lecointe was again recalled to military service as Inspector of Flying Schools.

With the Fall of France, Sadi-Lacointe was dismissed by the Vichy government. He joined La Résistance française, and operated with the group, Rafale Andromède. He was arrested 21 March 1944 and held at the Fresnes prison in Paris, where he was interrogated and tortured. He was released to l’hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, and died there, 15 July 1944.

Centre pénitentiaire de Fresnes

Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, Commandeur Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, was awarded the Croix de Guerre in three wars. He was posthumously awarded the Médaille de la Résistance. The Aéro-Club de France awarded him its Grande Médaille d’Or. During his flying career, Sadi-Lecointe set six World Records for Speed,¹ and two World Records for Altitude.²

MORT POUR LA FRANCE

The Cross of Lorraine was the symbol of La Résistance française during World War II. (© Ray Rivera)

¹ FAI Record File Numbers: 15489, Speed over 100 km, 279,50 km/h (173.67 m.p.h.), 25 September 1920; 15494, Speed over 200 km, 274,60 km/h (170.63 m.p.h.), 28 September 1920; 15498, Speed over a straight 1 km course, 296,69 km/h (184.36 m.p.h.), 10 October 1920; 15499, Speed over a straight 1 km course, 302,53 km (187.98 m.p.h.), 20 October 1920; 15279, Speed, 375 km/h (233 m.p.h.), 15 October 1923; and Speed over a given distance of 500 km, 306,70 km/h (190.58 m.p.h.), 23 June 1924.

² FAI Record File Numbers: 8246, 10 741 m (35,240 ft.), 5 September 1923; 11750, 8 980 m (29,462 ft.), 11 March 1924.

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes

10 July 1982

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A Piedmont Airlines Boeing 737-201, N735N, photographed at New York La Guardia Airport, 1 December 1984. (Jon Proctor/Wikimedia Commons)

10 July 1982: The first scheduled jet airliner flown in the United States with an all-female crew was Piedmont Airlines’ Flight 328 from Norfolk, Virginia, to Newark, New Jersey. The airliner was a Boeing 737. Captain Cheryl Faye Peters and First Officer Rebecca Rose Schroeder were on the flight deck. The Flight Attendants were Paula Lanier, Dolly Wenat and Cindy Perry. The duration of the flight was 1 hour, 1 minute.

Cheryl Faye Peters, 1963 (The Colonel)

Cheryl Faye Peters was born in 1945 in Roanoke, Virginia. She is the daughter of Lowell Lewis Peters and Virginia Crumpacker Peters. She attended William Fleming High School, graduating in 1963. A member of the school’s student government, Miss Peters served as secretary-treasurer of the senior class. She was a cheerleader, played basketball and volleyball, and was the school’s 24th Homecoming Queen.

After high school, Miss Peters began taking flying lessons. She also rode motorcycles and learned to skydive.

In 1965, she went to work for Eastern Air Lines as a flight attendant based at Miami, Florida. The following year, Eastern’s machinists’ union went on strike and Miss Peters was furloughed. With time available, she continued her flight training, earning a private, then commercial pilot’s license with ratings in both single-engine and multi-engine airplanes. She also earned a flight instructor’s certificate.

In December 1967, Miss Peters married Mr. James Bowers Ritchie III, a law student, in Roanoke.

Following the airline strike, Ms. Peters (Mrs. Ritchie) returned to work at Eastern, but also worked as a commercial pilot and flight instructor. By 1974 she had flown more than 2,000 hours.

A Piedmont Airlines Nihon Aircraft Manfacturers Corporation (NAMC) YS-11, N162P. (Travel Update)

In 1974, Cheryl Peters Ritchie applied to Piedmont Airlines as a pilot. After passing her employment interview, in which she was required to fly a simulator in a “Hydraulics OFF” mode to evaluate her strength, she became the first woman to be hired as a pilot by Piedmont.

Ms. Peters completed initial flight training with the company on her 29th birthday, and was then assigned as a first officer on the twin-engine Nihon YS-11 turboprop. Later, she transitioned to the twin-jet Boeing 737.

First Officer Cheryl Faye Peters, Piedmont Airlines. (Piedmont Aviation Historical Society)

First Officer Peters upgraded to captain on the company’s Boeing 737s, making her first flight as captain on 10 May 1982.

Captain Peters retired from flying in 1994.

Captain Cheryl Peters, circa 1994. (Collection of Cheryl Peters)

The airliner flown by Captain Peters and First Officer Schroeder was a Boeing 737-201A, serial number 22443, with U.S. registration N786N. It had first flown exactly one year earlier, 10 July 1981, and was delivered to Piedmont Airlines on 29 July 1981. The 737 was christened Roanoke Valley Pacemaker.

The Boeing 737-200 series were short- to medium-range, narrow body, twin-engine civil transports. The -200 first flew 8 August 1967. It had a flight crew of two and could carry a maximum of 136 passengers.

The 737-200 is 100 feet, 2 inches (30.531 meters) long with a wingspan of 93 feet, 0 inches (28.346 meters) and overall height of 36 feet, 10 inches (11.227 meters). Flight 243’s actual takeoff weight was 93,133 pounds (42,224 kilograms). (Its maximum certificated takeoff weight was 100,000 pounds (45,359 kilograms).

The airliner was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A low-bypass turbofan engines producing 14,500 pounds of thrust, each. The 737-200 had a cruise speed of 0.74 Mach (489 miles per hour, 787 kilometers per hour) and a maximum speed of 0.82 Mach (542 miles per hour/872 kilometers per hour). The service ceiling was 35,000 feet (10,668 meters).

1,010 Boeing 737–200s were built. The last one in service with an American airline was retired 21 March 2008.

Piedmont/U.S. Air’s Boeing 737-201A N241US, photographed 31 March 1989 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, Florida. (© Gerhard Plomitzer. Used with permission)

After U.S. Air merged with Piedmont, 5 August 1989, the 737 was painted in the US Air livery and re-registered N241US. The airliner was transferred to MetroJet, 23 November 1999. Its registration was cancelled 23 November 2005. The aircraft was broken up at Mohave Airport (MHV) in the high desert of southern California.

MetroJet Boeing 737 N241US. (Aero Icarus)

Thanks to Captain Kathryn McCullough of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots for providing this information. Captain McCullough is a retired Northwest Boeing 747 pilot and the author of Ups and Downs and To the Edges of the World.

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes

10 July 1962

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Telstar 1 launches aboard a Thor Delta rocket at Launch Complex 17B, 0835 GMT, 10 July 1962. (NASA)
Telstar 1 launches aboard a Delta rocket at Launch Complex 17B, 0835 GMT, 10 July 1962. (NASA)

10 July 1962: At 0835 GMT (4:35 a.m., EDT) the first communications relay satellite, Telstar 1, was launched into Earth orbit from Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The launch vehicle was a three-stage liquid-fueled Delta rocket.

This was the first commercial space flight, sponsored by a consortium of communications companies and government organizations, including AT&T, Bell Labs, the BBC, NASA, and British and French postal services. The satellite was used to relay live television broadcasts across the Atlantic Ocean. This had never previously been possible.

Telstar weighed 171 pounds (77.5 kilograms). Its weight and size were restricted by the availability of launch vehicles. The satellite was placed in an elliptical orbit, varying from 591 miles (952 kilometers) to 3,686 miles (5,933 kilometers), and inclined at about a 45° angle to Earth’s Equator. The orbital period was 2 hours, 37 minutes. The properties of Telstar’s orbit restricted its use to about 20 minutes during each pass.

In addition to its primary role as a communications relay satellite, Telstar also performed scientific experiments to study the Van Allen Belt.

The Delta was a three-stage expendable launch vehicle which was developed from the Douglas Aircraft Company’s SM-75 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Designated Thor DM-19, the first stage was 60.43 feet (18.42 meters) long and 8 feet (2.44 meters) in diameter. Fully fueled, the first stage had a gross weight of 108,770 pounds (49,337 kilograms). It was powered by a Rocketdyne LR-79-7 engine which burned liquid oxygen and RP-1 (a highly-refined kerosene rocket fuel) and produced 170,565 pounds of thrust (758.711 kilonewtons). This stage had a burn time of 2 minutes, 45 seconds.

The second stage was an Aerojet General Corporation-built Delta 104. It was 19 feet, 3 inches (5.88 meters) long with a maximum diameter of 4 feet, 6 inches (1.40 meters). The second stage had a gross weight of 9,859 pounds (4,472 kilograms). It used an Aerojet AJ10-104 rocket engine which burned a hypergolic  mixture of nitric acid and UDMH. The second stage produced 7,890 pounds of thrust (35.096 kilonewtons) and burned for 4 minutes, 38 seconds.

The third stage was an Allegany Ballistics Laboratory Altair 1. It was 6 feet long, 1 foot, 6 inches in diameter and had a gross weight of 524 pounds (238 kilograms). This stage used a solid-fuel Thiokol X-248 rocket engine, producing 2,799 pounds of thrust (12.451 kilonewtons). Its burn time was 4 minutes, 16 seconds.

The three stages of the Delta rocket accelerated the Telstar satellite to 14,688 miles per hour for orbital insertion.

The day prior to launch, the United States detonated a 1.45 megaton thermonuclear warhead at an altitude of 248 miles (400 kilometers), near Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Operation Dominic-Fishbowl Starfish Prime). Between 21 October 1961 and 1 November 1962, the Soviet Union detonated five nuclear warheads in space (Project K), at altitudes ranging from 59 to 300 kilometers (37–186 miles) over a test range in Khazakhstan. High energy electrons from these tests were trapped in the Earth’s radiation belts. This damaged the satellite’s circuitry and it went out of service in December 1962. ¹

Engineers were able to work around the damage and restore service by January 1963, but Telstar 1 failed permanently 21 February 1963.

Telstar is still in Earth orbit.

Telstar 1 communications relay satellite. (Bell Laboratories)

¹ Thanks to regular TDiA reader Steve Johnson for this information.

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes

10 July 1943

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U.S. Paratroopers in North Africa prepare to board an 8th Air Force Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain, 41-18341, for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, 9 July 1943.

10 July 1943: Following the defeat of Germany and Italy by the Allies in North Africa, the next phase of the war plan was the invasion of Sicily. This began with the largest airborne assault ever attempted by U.S. and British paratroopers up to that time.

Shortly after midnight, a Regimental Combat Team (RCT) under command of Colonel James M. Gavin, United States Army, and consisting of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment with the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, dropped out of a moonlit sky around Gela on the southern shore of the island and achieved reasonable success. 226 C-47 Skytrains of the 52d Troop Carrier Wing dropped 3,405 U.S. paratroopers. A second airborne assault by the remaining 1,900 paratroopers of the 504th PIR  was carried into battle by 144 C-47s from the 52d TCW.

The British Army 1st Air Landing Brigade under Brigadier Philip Hicks arrived on gliders to capture landing zones in the interior of the island.

Invasion Plan, Invasion of Sicily, 10 July 1943. The airborne assault target is at map coordinates C–2.  (United States Military Academy)

As the Allied formation of 144 Douglas C-47 Skytrain transports approached the Sicilian shoreline, ships of the invasion force mistook them for enemy aircraft and opened fire. 22 C-47s were shot down and many others damaged. 83 men were killed and 318 wounded.

As a result of the friendly fire incident, the airborne assault was widely scattered, missing assigned drop zones and objectives. However, small groups of airborne troopers acting on their own initiative attacked targets of opportunity and kept the island’s defenders off balance.

Coloenel James M. Gavin, United States Army, commanding officer, 505th Parachute Infantry Regimeent, with his men before Operation Husky, 9 July 1943. (U.S. Army)
Colonel James M. Gavin, United States Army, commanding officer, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, with his men before Operation Husky, 9 July 1943. (U.S. Army)

The British glider assault, Operation Ladbroke, consisted of 8 Airspeed Horsa and 136 American Waco CG-4 transport gliders. Only 12 of these landed at their targets. At least 65 went into the sea with the loss of over 250 British soldiers.

Operation Fustian was the airborne assault by the 1st Parachute Brigade under the command of Brigadier Gerald Lathbury was carried by 105 C-47s, 11 Armstrong Whitworth Ablemarle paratroop transports, 11 Horsa and 8 Waco gliders. Approximately 40 of these were shot down by Allied and Axis anti-aircraft fire and several were lost to mid-air collisions. Many transports were badly damaged and had so many wounded paratroops that they aborted the mission and returned to North Africa.

Despite significant problems, the airborne troops kept the island’s defenders off guard and had a “positive effect” on the outcome of the invasion.

© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes

10 July 1942

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Douglas XA-26 first flight, 10 July 1942. (Boeing Historical Archives/Wikipedia)

10 July 1942: At the Douglas Aircraft Company El Segundo Division, located at the southeast section of Los Angeles Municipal Airport (now, LAX), company engineering test pilot Benjamin Odell Howard took the prototype Douglas XA-26-DE light bomber, serial number 41-19504,¹ for its first flight.

Douglas XA-26 prototype in flight. (Douglas Aircraft Company/SDASM)

The XA-26 was twin-engine mid-wing monoplane with retractable tricycle landing gear. Douglas had proposed the design to the U.S. Army Air Corps as a replacement for three different airplanes: The Douglas A-20, the North American Aviation B-25 Mitchell, and the Martin B-26 Marauder. It was to be operated by a pilot, navigator/bombardier and a gunner.

Douglas XA-26.

The prototype was 51 feet, 2 inches (15.596 meters) long, with a wingspan of 70 feet, 0 inches (21.336 meters) and overall height of 18 feet, 6 inches (5.639 meters). Its empty weight was 21,150 pounds. It was powered by two air-cooled, supercharged, Pratt & Whitney R-2800–27 (Double Wasp 2SB-G), with a normal power rating of 1,600 horsepower at 2,400 r.p.m. to 5,700 feet (1,737 meters) and 1,450 horsepower to 13,000 feet (3,962 meters); and 2,000 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m., for military and takeoff power. The engines drove three-bladed propellers through a 2:1 gear reduction. The R-2800-27 was 6 feet, 3.72 inches (1.923 meters) long, 4 feet, 4.50 inches (1.334 meters) in diameter and weighed 2,300 pounds (1,043 kilograms).

Douglas XA-26 (Douglas Aircraft Company/SDASM)

The XA-26’s maximum speed was 322 knots (370 miles per hour/595 kilometers per hour) at 17,000 feet (5,182meters) and it had a service ceiling of 31,300 feet (9,540 meters).

Douglas XA-26 light bomber prototype, 42-19504. (Douglas Aircraft Company)

A second prototype, designated XA-26A was developed as an night fighter. It carried air-intercept radar in the nose and armament in a pod under the fuselage. The third prototype, the XA-26B, was a ground attack aircraft. Like the XA-26A, it had a solid nose, but was armed with a fixed 75-millimeter cannon in the nose, and forward-firing Browning .50-caliber machine guns. When ordered into production, the XA-26 became the A-26C Invader, while the ground attack design was assigned A-26B.

Douglas XA-26A night fighter prototype, 42-19505, photographed 6 July 1943. Note the weapons pod beneath the fuselage. (Douglas Aircraft Company/SDASM)
Douglas XA-26B ground attack prototype, 42-19588, photographed 14 May 1943. (Douglas Aircraft Company E.S. 31578/Boeing Historical Archives)
Douglas XA-26 42-19504, photographed 29 April 1943. (Douglas Aircraft Company/SDASM)

Benjamin Odell Howard was born 4 February 1904 at Palestine, Texas. He was the third of four children of Sam T. Howard, a real estate agent, and Fanie Howard.

Ben O. Howard, 1924 (The Savitar)

Ben Howard graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1924 with a degree in engineering. While there he was a member of the Kappa Sigma (ΚΣ) fraternity and the Reserve Officers Club.

On 10 Dec 1932, Howard married Miss Olive Maxine Schoen at Independence, Missouri.

In 1933, they lived in Kansas City, Missouri. He was employed as a pilot for United Air Lines Inc.

In 1935, Ben Howard won the Bendix Trophy Race flying Mister Mulligan, a Howard DGA-6. His time was 8 hours, 33 minutes, 16.3 seconds, for an average speed of 238.70 miles per hour.

Mister Mulligan, the Howard DGC-6, NR273Y. (SDASM)

On his 1940 Selective Service (conscription, or draft) card, Howard was described as having a dark complexion, black hair and brown eyes. He was 5 feet, 11 inches (180 centimeters) tall, and weighed 165 pounds (75 kilograms).

After a lengthy illness, Benjamin Odell Howard died at his home in Brentwood, California, 4 December 1970.

¹ Every source checked by TDiA identifies the prototype XA-26 as “41-19504.” Photographs of the XA-26, XA-26A and XA-26B clearly show the 1942 serial numbers 219504, 219505 and 219588 (42-19504, 42-19505 and 42-19588).

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes