U.S. Air Force Museum - World War Two
Curtiss P-36 Hawk. Perhaps best known as the predecessor of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, the P-36 saw little combat with the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was the fighter used most extensively and successfully by the French Air Force during the Battle of France. Following the fall of France and Norway in 1940, several dozen P-36s were seized by Germany and transferred to Finland; these aircraft saw extensive action with the Finnish Air Force against the Soviet Air Forces. The P-36 was also used by Vichy French air forces in several minor conflicts. With around 1,000 aircraft built by Curtiss, the P-36 was a commercial success for the company. It also became the basis of the P-40.
The Hawk on display is in the markings of 2nd Lieutenant Phllip Rasmussen, who during the Pearl Harbor attack and still in his pajamas, managed to get airborne and shoot down a Japanese aircraft.
The funky Douglas B-18 Bolo. An American medium bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force (as the Digby) during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Based on the DC-3, the Bolo was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company and was developed to replace the Martin B-10. 350 were built. By 1940, most USAAC bomber squadrons were equipped with B-18s. But by 1940, it was considered to be underpowered, to have inadequate defensive armament, and to carry too small a bomb load. Most of the overseas B-18s were destroyed during the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines in December 1941. In 1942, the surviving B-18s were relegated to antisubmarine, transport duty, and training. B-17s supplanted B-18s in first-line service in 1942.
The Douglas B-23 Dragon was developed as a successor to (and a refinement of) the B-18 Bolo. I bring this up because I once hiked to a crash site of a B-23 in Idaho. Link. While significantly faster and better armed than the B-18, the B-23 was not comparable to newer medium bombers like the North American B-25 Mitchell and Martin B-26 Marauder. For this reason, the 38 B-23s built were never used in combat overseas.
The famous eighty silver goblets that commemorate the eighty men who flew the Doolittle raid against Tokyo, Japan in April 1942.
The Doolittle Tokyo Raiders held an annual reunion almost every year from the late 1940s to 2013. The high point of each reunion was a solemn, private ceremony in which the surviving Raiders performed a roll call, then toasted their fellow Raiders who had died during the previous year. Specially engraved silver goblets, one for each of the 80 Raiders, were used for this toast; the goblets of those who had died were inverted. Each Raider's name was engraved on his goblet both right side up and upside down. The Raiders drank a toast using a bottle of cognac that accompanied the goblets to each Raider reunion. In 2013, the remaining Raiders decided to hold their last public reunion at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, not far from Eglin Air Force Base, where they trained for the original mission. The bottle and the goblets had been maintained by the United States Air Force Academy on display in Arnold Hall, the cadet social center, until 2006. On 19 April 2006, these memorabilia were transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Here they are, below.
Lt Col. Richard E. Cole, Doolittle's copilot in aircraft No. 1, was the last surviving Doolittle Raider and the only one to live to an older age than Doolittle, who died in 1993 at age 96. Cole died 9 April 2019, at the age of 103.
A diorama of a Bell P-39 Airacobra based in Adak , an island in Alaska's Aleution Islands in late 1942. I've heard of Adak. When I was a little kid, my Dad did two deployments there in his P-3 squadron for a total of 15 months during the 1960s.
The P-39 saw combat in the Soutwest Pacific, Mediterranean and Russia. It didn't have a supercharger so it wasn't good at high altitudes, but it did OK down low, especially in ground attack, with its big 37mm cannon firing through the nose cone. Over 9,000 were built, half of them given to the Soviet Union.
A Bristol Beaufighter. The British Bristol Beaufighter filled the need for an effective night fighter in the U.S. Army Air Forces until an American aircraft could be produced. The Beaufighter had first entered operational service with the Royal Air Force in July 1940. The Beaufighter was used in many roles including night fighter and anti-shipping. Almost 6,000 were built.
This Beaufighter is marked as the USAAF Beaufighter flown by Capt. Harold Augspurger, commander of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, who shot down an He 111 carrying German staff officers in September 1944.
The MC.200 on display was transferred from the Regia Aeronautica's 372nd Squadron in Italy to the 165th Squadron in North Africa during November 1942, just in time to be abandoned at Banghazi airfield following the battle of El Alamein. It appears that, in the press of circumstances, it remained in its 372nd markings. It is displayed in the markings of the 372nd Squadron of the Regia Aeronautica that it carried at the time of its capture.
The Memphis Belle, which had been on loan from the Air Force to the city of Memphis, was relocated to the Museum in 2005, and after years of meticulous restoration, it was placed on public display in May 2018.
I like how they have the Memphis Belle mounted, as if she is in flight.
P-51 Mustangs are a dime a dozen, but you don't often see one of these: a North American A-36A.
Nicknamed the "Apache” or “Invader," the A-36A dive bomber was the first US Army Air Forces version of the Mustang, officially developed for Britain in 1940. The first A-36 flew in September 1942. 500 were built. The A-36 project was a stopgap measure intended to keep North American Aviation (NAA) assembly lines running during the first half of 1942 despite the US having exhausted its funds earmarked for fighter aircraft. When the order came for more P-51s in June 1942, the NAA workforce was thoroughly experienced. Besides dive bombing, the A-36A racked up aerial victories, totaling 84 enemy aircraft downed
The A-36 had the same engine as the P-40 Warhawk: the Allison V-1710, which had limited high-altitude performance. As everyone knows, it wasn't until they put the famous Merlin engine into the airframe that it became the ferocious P-51 Mustang.
This A-36 is marked to represent the A-36A flown by Capt Lawrence Dye, a pilot of the 522nd Fighter-Bomber Squadron, during combat in North Africa and Italy. Notice the rudder is missing for some reason.
The Lightning truly shined in the Pacific theater; seven of the top eight scoring USAAF aces in the Pacific flew the P-38. The P-38 became the standard USAAF fighter in the Pacific theater until the closing months of WWII.
The second primary American fighter was the massive Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to 8 tons, making it one of the heaviest fighters of the war.
Produced in larger numbers than any other U.S. fighter, the Thunderbolt -- affectionately nicknamed the "Jug" -- served as a bomber escort and as a very effective ground attack fighter in both the European and Pacific theaters. The P-47 was designed around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp 18-cylinder radial engine, which also powered two U.S. Navy/U.S. Marine Corps fighters, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and the Vought F4U Corsair. An advanced turbosupercharger system ensured the aircraft's eventual dominance at high altitude, while also influencing its size and design. Over 12,500 P-47Ds were built.
This polished P-47 is the bubble-canopy version.
It is painted as the P-47D-30 Five by Five flown by Col. Joseph Laughlin, commander of the 362nd Fighter Group, 9th Air Force, in early 1945.
A P-47D "Razorback" Thunderbolt, an early version of the "D," nicknamed for the ridge behind the cockpit (later P-47Ds had a bubble canopy).
It is painted to appear as the Thunderbolt Col. Neel Kearby flew on his last mission. Col. Kearby named all of his aircraft Fiery Ginger after his red-headed wife Virginia.
And I have to show a shot of the best American fighter of World War Two, the North American P-51 Mustang. Possessing excellent range and maneuverability, the P-51 operated primarily as a long-range escort fighter and also as a ground attack fighter-bomber. The Mustang served in nearly every combat zone during WWII, and later fought in the Korean War.
The Mustang was introduced in December 1943, just in time to defeat the German Luftwaffe and gain air superiority prior to the D-Day Invasion.
This Mustang is painted as the P-51D flown by Col. C.L. Sluder, commander of the 325th Fighter Group in Italy in 1944.
In the foreground is the powerplant that "made" the Mustang: the Merlin engine. Packard produced an American version of the engine.
And now for a look at the competitors of the Mustang, Thunderbolt and Lightning.
The Messerschmidt Bf-109 was the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter force, serving on all fronts and also in the air forces of its European allies. By war's end, Germany had built more than 30,000 Bf 109s. It remains to this day the most produced fighter in history.
One of the main shortcomings of the 109 was its short legs: only an hour and 20 minutes of fligth time. The Mustang: 8 hours. The Germans, always short of fuel, probably did not have enough gas even if they had a fighter with longer legs.
The Focke Wolfe FW-190 was the other mainstay of the Luftwaffe. It first appeared in action over northwestern France in September 1941.
Most Fw 190s were the "A" series, powered by a BMW radial engine. Late in 1943, however, the more capable "D" series appeared in action against U.S. bombers, powered by the more powerful Jumo 213 inline, liquid-cooled engine. Because the larger engine lengthened its nose, a 20-inch section had to be added to the Fw 190D-9's fuselage just forward of the tail. During its lifetime, more than 20,000 Fw 190s of all types were built.
The Fw 190D-9 on display was assigned to the JG3 "Udet" Geschwader.
The Messerschmidt Me 262 Schwalbe was the world's first operational turbojet aircraft. First flown under jet power on July 18, 1942, it was much faster than conventional airplanes.
German Luftwaffe Fighter General Adolf Galland: On May 23, 1943, I nursed the greatest hope of a sensational technical jump ahead when I flew the first jet fighter, an aircraft which could have given us, at one blow, the necessary technical superiority to offset the numerical strength of the Allies. Later when asked what it felt like, I said: ‘It was as though angels were pushing.’
Galland said that the Me-262 could have been brought into action 18 months earlier than it was, if it weren't for Hitler. Albert Speer said the Me-262 could have been slated for mass production in 1944. Development problems (particularly with the engines and lack of special metals for it) plus Allied bombings also contributed to delays in quantity production. Had the Me-262 been available in quantity in 1944, the Allies quest for air supremecy would have been much more difficult.
On July 25, 1944, an Me 262 became the first jet airplane used in combat when it attacked a British photo-reconnaissance Mosquito flying over Munich. As a fighter, the German jet scored heavily against Allied bomber formations. U.S. Army Air Forces bombers, however, destroyed hundreds of Me 262s on the ground. Of the more than 1,400 Me 262s produced, fewer than 300 saw combat.
A rare Junkers JU-88, Germany's versatile twin-engined bomber and night fighter.
The airplane on display, a Ju 88D-1/Trop (later designated Ju 88D-3), is a long-range photographic reconnaissance version modified for tropical use. Known as the Baksheesh, it was the best known Ju 88 of the 15,000 built. Completed in June 1943, this aircraft was delivered to Romania, an ally of Germany during WWII. In July 1943, a disillusioned Romanian pilot flew the aircraft to Cyprus to defect to British forces there. The British Royal Air Force turned over Baksheesh to the U.S. Army Air Forces. After Wright Field test pilots flew the aircraft extensively, the USAAF stored it in the Arizona desert after the end of WWII. Shipped to the museum in January 1960, Baksheesh is painted in the Romanian Air Force markings it carried in July 1943.
Douglas A-20 Havoc, another twin-engined medium bomber. Also known as the Boston. Flown by the Allies in the Pacific, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Russia. A total of 7,478 aircraft were built, of which more than a third served with Soviet units. The A-20 was the most numerous foreign aircraft in the Soviet bomber inventory. The Soviet Air Force had more A-20s than the USAAF. Attacking with forward-firing .50-cal. machine guns and bombs in the "solid nose", the A-20G lived up to its name by creating havoc and destruction on low-level strafing attacks, especially against Japanese shipping and airfields across the Southwest Pacific.
In 1942, sixty of the production run of A-20s were converted to P-70 night fighters, all delivered by September 1942. The P-70s only saw combat only in the Pacific.
One of the great planes in history, the classic Douglas C-47, which was adapted from the Douglas DC-3 commercial airliner.
This C-47 is painted and marked to represent the C-47A flown by 2nd Lt. Gerald "Bud" C. Berry of the 91st Troop Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group, to recover gliders used in the invasion of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944. "Snatched" from the ground in Normandy, the gliders were towed back to England for reuse.
Speaking of gliders, overhead is a Waco CG-4A Hadrian, the most widely used U.S. troop/cargo glider of World War II. Constructed of fabric-covered wood and metal, the CG-4A was crewed by a pilot and copilot. It could carry 13 troops and their equipment or a jeep, a quarter-ton truck or a 75mm howitzer loaded through the upward-hinged nose section.
Fifteen companies manufactured over 12,000 CG-4As, with 1,074 built by the Waco Aircraft Co. of Troy, Ohio. The glider on display was built by the Gibson Refrigerator Co. in Greenville, Michigan.
Taylorcraft L-2 Grasshopper. Adapted for military use from the commercial, prewar Taylorcraft Tandem Trainer (Model D), the L-2 initially carried the designation O-57. The "L" for "liaison" replaced the "O" designation for "observation." In the summer of 1941, the L-2 Grasshopper performed its service tests during US Army maneuvers in Louisiana and Texas, where it operated in various support roles such as a light transport and courier. The L-2 was not used in combat or sent overseas during World War II, and it was only used for liaison pilot training.
During World War II, Grasshoppers performed a wide variety of functions throughout the world such as artillery fire direction, pilot training, glider pilot instruction, courier service and front-line liaison.
This L-4 is painted and marked to represent an L-4 that flew in support of the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942.
A rare Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai ("George"), one of only three surviving restored examples in the world. Known by the Allies as the "George," this maneuverable, heavily-armed fighter was a formidable opponent in the closing months of the war. Unlike the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the Shiden Kai could compete against the best late-war Allied fighters, such as the F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair, and P-51 Mustang.
However, it was too little, too late. Only 400 were produced before the war ended. The Shiden Kai primarily equipped the 343rd Kokutai, a unit composed of the Japanese Navy's best fighter pilots. The unit entered combat in March 1945 in the defense of the Japanese home islands.
Northrop P-61 Black Widow. The heavily-armed Black Widow was the United States' first aircraft specifically designed as a night-fighter. The P-61 carried radar equipment in its nose that enabled its crew of two or three to locate enemy aircraft in total darkness and fly into proper position to attack. It had awesome firepower: four forward-firing 20 mm autocannon in the lower fuselage, and four .50 in M2 Browning machine guns in a dorsal gun turret. The P-61 flew its first operational intercept mission as a night fighter in Europe on July 3, 1944. In the Pacific, a Black Widow claimed its first "kill" on the night of July 6, 1944.
Approximately 700 P-61s were built. This P-61 is painted and marked as a P-61B assigned to the 550th Night Fighter Squadron serving in the Pacific in 1945.
There are only four P-61s remaining. This one, one in the Udvar Hazy Smithsonean Air & Space Museum, one in the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, and one in China. I've seen three of the four. Probably ain't gonna see the one in China.
