(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Air Force Museum: The Interwar Years (photo diary) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-28 Mexican Border Patrol According to the Museum: Continued raids by Mexican bandits on American homesteads led to the creation of the United States Army Border Air Patrol in June 1919. Comprised of eight squadrons and a photographic unit at its peak, the Border Air Patrol operated out of a string of rough airfields along the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite the loss of aircraft and aircrews to the harsh conditions in the Southwest, the Border Air Patrol's operations helped put an end to bandit attacks by the summer of 1921. The airplane used by the Army Border Air Patrol was the DeHavilland DH-4. According to the Museum: The DH-4 was an ever-present element of the U.S. Army Air Service during and after World War I. When the United States entered WWI in April 1917, the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps only had 132 aircraft, all obsolete. Modeled from a combat-tested British De Havilland design, the DH-4 was the only U.S. built aircraft to see combat during World War I. With inadequate funding to buy new aircraft, the newly created U.S. Army Air Service continued to use the DH-4 in a number of roles during the lean years following the war. By the time it was finally retired from service in 1932, the DH-4 had been developed into over 60 variants. This aircraft had a crew of two (pilot and observer/gunner), a top speed of 128 mph, a range of 400 miles, and a ceiling of 19,600 feet. The Museum’s plane is a replica. Packard LePere LUSAC 11 According to the Museum: Designed in 1917 by Capt. Georges LePere, a French aeronautical engineer working for the U.S. Army Air Service, the LUSAC 11 was the result of efforts to get an American built fighter into combat as soon as possible. The acronym "LUSAC" stood for LePere United States Army Combat. LePere designed the LUSAC 11 to be a combination fighter, light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that carried a pilot and an observer/gunner. Capt. LePere, along with several other French aviation engineers, worked on the design at the Packard Motor Car Co. of Detroit, Mich. Packard provided design and fabrication space and additional engineers, and the first prototype was completed in April 1918. After the three prototypes received generally favorable reviews from test pilots at Wilbur Wright Field, Ohio, the Bureau of Aircraft Production planned to order as many as 3,525 LUSAC 11s. At war's end in November 1918, however, the Bureau cancelled its contracts, and only 28 production aircraft were built (with only seven of these built before the Armistice, none saw combat). The aircraft continued to fly in the Air Service, and specially modified LUSAC 11 became famous by setting a number of altitude records at Wright Field in the early 1920s. This aircraft has a top speed of 136 mph, a cruising speed of 118 mph, a range of 320 miles, and a ceiling of 20,200 feet. It was armed with two .30 caliber Marlin and two .30 caliber Lewis machine guns. The aircraft on display is the only LUSAC 11 in existence. Consolidated PT-1 Trusty According to the Museum: By 1924 the U.S. Army Air Service needed a new primary training aircraft, and the Army chose the PT-1 designed by Consolidated Aircraft Corp. of Buffalo, N.Y. Deliveries began in 1925, and the PT-1 became the first training airplane purchased by the Army Air Service in substantial quantity following World War I. All totaled, Consolidated delivered 221 PT-1s to the Army Air Service, and aviation cadets in Texas and California flew it extensively during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Developed from the Dayton-Wright TW-3 airplane, the PT-1 featured a welded fuselage framework of chrome-molybdenum steel tubing. A departure from the all-wood structures found in other trainers, the structure proved so sturdy and dependable that the PT-1 earned the nickname "Trusty." Easy to fly, the Trusty made some students overconfident, and they received a shock when they advanced to faster airplanes with more difficult handling characteristics. This aircraft had a top speed of 99 mph, a range of 310 miles, and a ceiling of 13,450 feet. G-3 Target Glider According to the Museum: The McCook Field Engineering Section developed a series of target gliders in the 1920s, including the G-3. In December 1922 J.A. Roche designed the first model, the GL-1, as a target for anti-aircraft gunners of the U.S. Army Coast Artillery. These early targets were the first and only gliders (manned or unmanned) used by the U.S. Army Air Service. Later target gliders, like the G-3, operated as live-fire aerial targets for fighter and attack aircraft into the early 1930s. Because it could be adjusted to fly a straight, circular or random course, the target glider provided a more effective training tool than the traditional towed target sock. For aerial gunnery training, a pilot carried his target glider aloft. After release, the glider took several minutes to reach the ground. During this time, the pilot could make several gunnery passes against it. Schneider Schulgleiter SG 38 According to the Museum: The SG 38 served as the standard glider used by Luftwaffe student pilots for basic flight instruction in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. The SG 38 stands for Schulgleiter or "school glider" and the year it first flew, 1938. After World War I, the Germans faced strict limits on developing or using powered aircraft. Therefore, they turned to gliders for studying aerodynamics and training pilots. In 1933 the Germans formed the DFS (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug or German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight) to centralize all gliding activity in Germany and produce training gliders for both the Hitler Youth Flyers (Hitlerjugend Flieger or HJ-Flieger) and Luftwaffe. In 1935 the Nazis unveiled the existence of their clandestine air force, the Luftwaffe, and began a large-scale rearmament program. The rapid expansion of the Luftwaffe created a need for a simple but safe glider for primary training. The DFS worked with Edmund Schneider, who had opened a glider factory in 1927 and was producing some of the world's best gliders, to design the SG 38. Although simple, the SG 38 included features to compensate for inexperienced student pilots. Generally launched with bungee cords from the hillsides of Mount Wasserkuppe in central Germany, the glider remained airborne for a short time. To keep heavy-handed students from over steering and stalling the glider, the elevator's range of motion was limited. Eventually, 9,000 to 10,000 SG 38s were built. Curtiss P-6E Hawk According to the Museum: Starting in 1925 with the P-1, Curtiss built a long series of fighters carrying the name "Hawk." Of the eight different P-6 models produced, the P-6E remains the best known. Originally designated the Y1P-22, the U.S. Army Air Corps redesignated this aircraft the P-6E because of its similarity to the other P-6s. Curtiss delivered 46 P-6E Hawks, the last biplane fighter built in quantity for the Air Corps. Never used in combat, the P-6E is recognized as one of the most beautiful aircraft of the 1930s. This aircraft has a top speed of 204 mph, a cruising speed of 167 mph, a range of 480 miles, and a ceiling of 24,400 feet. The Museum’s P-6E is the only original in existence. Boeing P-12E According to the Museum: Developed by the Boeing Aircraft Co. at its own expense, the P-12 was became one of the most successful American fighters produced between the World Wars. Flown by both the Army and the Navy (as the F4B), the P-12 series consisted of an initial version and five additional models, B through F. The early versions used fabric-covered fuselages of bolted aluminum tubing, but the P-12E and F fuselages employed an all-metal, semimonocoque (stressed skin) construction. However, the P-12 did not complete the evolution into an all-metal aircraft because all variants had wooden wings with fabric covering. The U.S. Army Air Corps received its first P-12 in February 1929 and the last P-12F in May 1932. The last of the biplane fighters flown by the Army, some P-12s remained in service until 1941. Boeing produced 366 P-12s for the Army, with more P-12Es built (110) than any other series. This aircraft has a top speed of 189 mph, a cruising speed of 160 mph, a range of 570 miles, and a ceiling of 26,300 feet. Douglas O-38F According to the Museum: During World War I, observation aircraft provided ground commanders with vital reconnaissance information, and throughout the interwar years, commanders of U.S. Army ground forces demanded adequate observation support. However, most ground commanders anticipated fighting a static or slow-moving war, and the observation aircraft purchased during the 1920s and early 1930s differed little from those flown over France in 1918. The Douglas O-38F concluded a series of biplane observation aircraft begun in the early 1920s. Between 1931-1934, Douglas built 156 O-38s for the Air Corps, eight of which were O-38Fs. Despite being one of the Army Air Corps' best known and most versatile airplanes during the 1930s, the O-38 has been overshadowed by the more sensational exploits of fighters and bombers. With a cruising speed of only 128 mph, it was obsolete by the end of the 1930s, but some O-38s remained in service at the time of Pearl Harbor in 1941. This aircraft has a top speed of 152 mph, a cruising speed of 128 mph, a range of 700 miles, and a ceiling of 19,750 feet. De Havilland D.W. 82A Tiger Moth According to the Museum: This classic British trainer made its first flight on Oct. 26, 1931. It is one of a number of models of light aircraft named for moths, in recognition of designer Geoffrey de Havilland's interest in moths and butterflies. It became popular with air forces throughout the United Kingdom as well as the civilian aviation market. In Britain, 8,101 were manufactured plus 2,751 more in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. During World War II, most Royal Air Force pilots trained in Tiger Moths, including Americans who flew with the Eagle Squadrons before the United States entered the war. In the United Kingdom, Tiger Moths performed a variety of roles in addition to that of primary trainer, including submarine patrol, air ambulance and even prisoner evacuation. The U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942 ordered 200 from de Havilland of Canada as the PT-24, but these were never delivered and were diverted to the Royal Canadian Air Force instead. Kellett K-2/K-3 Autogiro According to the Museum: Before World War II, aeronautical engineers sought to build an aircraft capable of making short takeoffs and landings. Eventually, their efforts produced the helicopter, but they also pursued a less common design -- the autogiro. Like helicopters, autogiros used a rotary wing to produce lift. However, unlike helicopters, the engine did not power the autogiro's rotor. Instead, aerodynamic forces made the autogiro rotor spin, while the engine propelled the aircraft. In 1931 the Kellett brothers, Wallace and Rod, manufactured 12 K-2 autogiros. Based on existing Cierva and Pitcairn autogiro designs, the K-2 incorporated a much larger blade area, a simplified landing gear and a wider fuselage to accommodate side-by-side seating. Equipped with a 165-hp Continental A-70 engine, the K-2 could carry a useful load of 609 pounds at a top speed of 100 mph, a cruise speed of 80 mph and a stall speed of 24 mph. In 1932 Kellett produced an improved model, the K-3. Powered by a 210-hp Kinner C-5 engine, it had a top speed of 110 mph, a cruise speed of 90 mph and a stall speed of only 15 mph. Kellett produced six of these aircraft, with two of them being modified K-2s. To observe enemy forces and to control artillery fire, the U.S. Army needed an aircraft capable of flying very slowly, and the autogiro seemed to be a perfect solution. Therefore, the U.S. Army Air Corps tested both versions of the Kellett at Wright Field, but these aircraft lacked the performance necessary for military applications. Later versions of the Kellett autogiro proved more successful, and the Army Air Corps purchased a small number of Kellett YG-1s, the first practical rotorcraft procured by the Army Air Corps, at the end of the 1930s. The Kelletts sold two K-3s to the Japanese War Office in 1932, but the most famous Kellett was the K-3 that Admiral Richard E. Byrd used on his Antarctic Expedition of 1933-1934. The aircraft on display, a modified K-2, was the first autogiro tested by the Army Air Corps at Wright Field in 1931. This aircraft carried a crew of two. More A ir Force Museum exhibits Air Force Museum: Interwar years memorabilia (photo diary) Air Force Museum: Interwar years bombers (photo diary) Air Force Museum: World War I airplanes (photo diary) Air Force Museum: World War II German Planes (photo diary) Air Force Museum: World War II Japanese planes (photo diary) Air Force Museum: World War II American fighters (photo diary) Air Force Museum: The Memphis Belle (photo diary) Air Force Museum: North American B-25 B Mitchell (photo diary) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/28/2166055/-Air-Force-Museum-The-Interwar-Years-photo-diary Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/