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History: U.S. air power saw supersonic progress in first 40 years

When Wilbur and Orville Wright began work in 1907 on their Wright Flyer for the Army Signal Corps, the aviation pioneers were building a primitive biplane of wood, fabric and glue, held together by wire bracing and powered by a four-cylinder radial piston engine.

When Dutch Kindelberger and Lee Atwood of North American Aviation Inc. delivered the first XP-86 to the Army Air Forces in 1947, they turned over a silvery, swept-wing, futuristic craft propelled by a turbojet engine. At the same base in Muroc, Calif., airmen were testing a plane driven by a rocket motor, the Bell XS-1.

The Air Force became an independent military service branch (joining the Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy) on Sept. 18, 1947.

On that day, the only surviving Wright Flyer was in a museum. Four decades plus a few weeks had elapsed since the founding of an aeronautical branch of the Army Signal Corps on Aug. 1, 1907. The XP-86 was preparing for its first flight Oct. 1, 1947, and would evolve into the fabled F-86 Sabre air combat fighter of the Korean War. The XS-1 rocket plane would make humankind’s first supersonic flight Oct. 14. Even when not traveling at top speed, the XP-86 and XS-1 were 20 times as fast as their Wright forebear.

At first, U.S. air power evolved into a fleet of pursuit ships, designed to battle an adversary in sky duels that were quickly dubbed dogfights. Forty years later, the primary aircraft in the U.S. arsenal was the bomber, able to carry an atomic bomb on a transpolar mission to the Soviet Union.

From 1907 to 1947, aircraft went from biplanes to monoplanes, from mostly fabric to nearly all metal, from merely challenging the laws of physics to pushing the envelope.

In 1917 and 1918, the pilot of a single-seat biplane fighter had to handle his controls, his gun and his enemy all at once. “Seated in an open cockpit, exposed to a 90-mph wind or more, the Great War aviator had to contend with the elements as well as the enemy,” said Barrett Tillman, an aviation author. “He faced almost constant buffeting by the wind and frequently debilitating cold. His weapons were synchronized, rifle-caliber machine guns, requiring him to close the range almost to pistol distance to be effective.”

By 1947, aerial warfare was less personal. Flying gunnery practice in a P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter that year, retired Lt. Col. William L. Ward said, “The machine guns made a bit of a rattle, but mostly it was a sound like a sewing machine.” The Air Force would not have its first air-to-air missile, nor would its fighters be armed with cannons, until the mid-1950s.

When it all began, a few intrepid souls were mastering the art of flying and, soon afterward, learning to use a weapon aboard an aircraft. The Wright Flyer flew, but was not equipped to fight. But within a few short years, biplanes were carrying guns. The question was no longer whether humans could fly but, rather, how aircraft could be employed in battle. In 1907, airmen were beginning the process of creating a strong fighter force. By 1947, the Air Force was primarily a bomber force.

Col. Bert M. Atkinson was one of the first U.S. military aviators, serving during the “Punitive Expedition” to Mexico in 1916. His greatest achievement took place in France during World War I as the first commander of the outfit that evolved into today’s F-15C/D Eagle- and F-22A Raptor-equipped 1st Fighter Wing. During Atkinson’s era, it was called the 1st Pursuit Group for the simple reason that it was the first American outfit of its kind.

On Jan. 16, 1918, Brig. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois, chief of Air Service, American Expeditionary Force, ordered Atkinson to organize American aviators into an all-U.S. force. Atkinson inherited five aero squadrons: the 94th, 95th, 147th, 185th and the Air Force’s oldest fighter squadron — the 27th. Still part of the Army, still called soldiers, America’s aerial warriors created their own distinct names for their military units: wings, groups, squadrons and flights. Just as they had wings on their planes, pilots soon wore silver wings on their uniforms.

The fighters drew the headlines. In 1921, Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell proved that a bomber could sink a ship — and was later court-martialed, in part because he favored breaking the Air Force away from the Army — but it was the fighter that starred in Hollywood films and inspired legends.

Whether it was a Spad of World War I, a Boeing P-12 pursuit ship of the 1920s or the mostly metal Boeing P-26 Peashooter of the 1930s, the fighter plane was the high performer that inspired young aviation buffs. The twin-engined, twin-tailed Lockheed P-38 Lightning — the aircraft used in the “History in Blue” logo, above this column — made its maiden flight Jan. 27, 1939, and every would-be aviator wanted to sit at its controls. “Unless you lived in the late 1930s, you cannot imagine how much a young man would want to fly the P-38,” said former Capt. James Kunkle, who was a teenager then and flew the Lightning in combat in 1944.

World War II brought other famous fighters like the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang. Thousands of airmen flew attack planes, medium bombers, troop carrier transports and helicopters. But by the end of history’s greatest war, the primary aircraft in the American arsenal was the bomber, and it was able to carry a device that could deliver doomsday.

When the four-engined B-17 first flew July 28, 1935, no other bombing plane offered its size or range. In a stroke of genius, Seattle Times reporter Dick Williams dubbed it the Flying Fortress. Ten-cent pulp magazines of the1930s added parapets and cannons to help the B-17 live up to its name. American industry produced nearly 40,000 four-engined heavy bombers during World War II, almost half of them B-24 Liberators. The Army Air Forces lost 10,000 in combat, each typically with a 10-member crew. There were 3,980 B-29 Superfortresses, including those that razed Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More Americans died in bombers during World War II than in the entire Marine Corps. Because the bomber was so important to warfare, the men behind the bombers, who were captains in the 1920s and generals in the 1940s, took every opportunity to argue that the reach and power of the nation’s air arm demanded that the Air Force enjoy equal status. They had another argument as well: The U.S. was one of the last countries not to have an independent air arm.

So the ultimate weapon on the first day of the independent Air Force wasn’t the sleek XP-86, or the blood-red, bullet-shaped XS-1. It was the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, the six-engined jet bomber that was undergoing ground trials on the day the nation acquired an Air Force. The B-47 first flew Dec. 17, 1947. Within a few years, almost 2,000 B-47s formed the backbone of America’s bomber force. h

Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of “Air Combat,” a history of fighter pilots. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net. Fred L. Borch retired from the Army after 25 years and is the regimental historian for the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He is the author of “The Air Force Cross,” a history of the service’s second highest award for extraordinary heroism. His e-mail address is mailto:borchfj@aol.com.