AVIATION
AVIATION NEWS
Let’s Recover a WWII TBD-1 Torpedo Bomber! The TBD-1 Devastator was the U.S. Navy’s first all-metal, low-wing, carrier-based torpedo bomber. The Devastator went into service in 1937, but it was completely outdated by the time of Pearl Harbor. In spite of its flaws, it was used during the opening months of the Pacific campaign, including operations in the Marshall Islands and major carrier battles in 1942. It had to fly low, slow, and straight to launch its torpedo. Only 129 were ever built. The Devastators they were soon replaced by a more capable aircraft, the TBM Avenger, the aircraft flown by George H.W. Bush later in the War. But not before the ill-fated Torpedo Squadron 8 was annihilated at Midway in June, 1942.
American naval forces were reeling after Pearl Harbor, but the aircraft carriers weren’t in port that day, and were able to conduct raids on Japanese holdings in the mid-Pacific. On February 1, 1942, the carriers Yorktown and Enterprise struck targets in the Marshall Islands. Seventeen SBD Dauntless dive bombers and 12 Devastators (carrying bombs instead of torpedoes since they were after targets on land) from the Yorktown went to Jaluit Atoll. Their attack was thwarted by bad weather, and two of the Devastators became disoriented in the clouds to the point they lacked the fuel necessary for a return to their ship. They elected to ditch in the large Jaluit lagoon. All six crewmen from the two aircraft were captured, and would survive the War and, but only after some very rough treatment there and back in Japan.
The two Jaluit Devastators are still there and one of them is the focus of a new recovery effort, the Devastator Project, made by a “coalition of maritime archaeology, aviation preservation and naval history organizations.” The aircraft selected for recovery was Bureau Number 1515, piloted by “Ensign Herbert R. Hein, Jr., (with) navigator/bombardier Aviation Ordnanceman, Third Class (AOM3c) Joseph D. Strahl, and radioman/gunner Seaman First Class (S1c) Marshal E. “Windy” Windham.” The other, Bureau Number 0298, was manned by “pilot Lt. Harlan T. “Dub” Johnson, navigator Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate (ACMM) Charles E. Fosha, and radioman/gunner Radioman First Class (RM1c) James W. Dalzell.”
[ASIDE: It’s a good thing the two crews eventually made it back home OK. My boss at my first job in Colorado Springs, a fine gentleman and decent golfer, was the son of Charles E. Fosha.]
The wrecks of several other Devastators are known, but none to date have been recovered and restored enough to be put on display anywhere, making this dud of an airplane a rare and important artifact! I wish the Devastator Project team the best of luck in their endeavor!
For more info, see: https://avweb.com/aviation-news/tbd-1-recovery-effort-world-war-ii-navy and https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbirds-news/us-navy-announces-mission-to-recover-a-douglas-tbd-devastator.html.
Air Traffic Management: The one-year anniversary of the worst U.S. commercial air accident in the last 25 years was on January 29. American Flight 5342, on final approach into Washington National Airport (DCA), collided with a Blackhawk helicopter conducting a night training exercise. All 64 people on the Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft and the three on the Blackhawk were killed. News at the time, plus the recently-aired special on the Discovery Channel, “DC Air Disaster: Final Minutes Revealed,” indicate that there were a number of factors involved, as is the usual case with commercial aircraft crashes. Visibility was good that night, but it was dark, and the DCA air space is notoriously crowded.
Near-collisions are common at DCA, and the layout of the helicopter route passes directly below the approach for Runway 33. The separation protocols in the region are also insufficient, according to the NTSB report released recently. The helicopter was flying at almost 300’, 100’ higher than the maximum altitude for the route, and it is likely that the pilot undergoing training was wearing night vision goggles, which would have restricted their vision. The helo was an older model Blackhawk, with dial controls its dashboard instead of easier-to-read versions in later models. Only one flight controller was on duty in the control tower that night; they did not do anything wrong but the tower radar and other equipment is notoriously antiquated. The Air Traffic Management equipment nationwide is also in tough shape. Much of it dates from the 1950s and 60s, and some in the DCA tower could not be turned off, because it was feared that once off, the equipment would fail to re-start.
The present head of the FAA is Bryan Bedford, the former CEO of Republic Airways, spoke at the Changi Aviation Summit meeting in Singapore on February 2. “One of Bedford’s first and top priorities on joining FAA is helping lead an initiative launched by U.S. Transportation Department Secretary Sean Duffy earlier last year to modernize and reset the national ATM system. It is a massive undertaking involving replacing antiquated and analogue equipment with digital and high-tech tools and creating a system that can manage petabytes of data and make the whole system more safe, sequential and efficient.”
Patrol Route 4, which allowed military helicopters to pass only 100’ below commercial airliners on descent to Runway 33, is now closed. The FAA faces a huge task in renovating the system with modern equipment, which would have prevented the accident. Hopefully, no further deaths will occur because of equipment not up to the increasingly-crowded airspaces around the country.
Find out more about Bedford’s remarks here: https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/safety-ops-regulation/faas-bedford-atm-modernization-must-do.
The Senate Commerce Committee is planning to hold a hearing on February 12 with NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy to review the NTSB findings on the crash, including the ROTOR Act, passed by the Senate, that would mandate the use of the latest equipment more broadly (both aircraft in the January 2025 crash were so equipped, but the Blackhawk’s was not turned on). For more on the planned hearing, see: https://avweb.com/flight-safety/accidents-ntsb/senate-committee-to-hold-dca-hearing-ntsb.
Aviation Week Podcast: Unpacking the Pentagon’s New Strategy – Greenland, Golden Dome and Budget Implications can be heard here: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-unpacking-pentagons-new-strategy-greenland-golden-dome-budget-implications.
Aviation Week Webinar: Where Next in the Aviation Sustainability Quest: See it here: https://aviationweek.com/webinars/webinar-where-next-aviation-sustainability-quest.
AVIATION FYI
Hybrid Propulsion: NASA has recently been working with a U.S. electric power company, Magnix, to modify a De Havilland Dash 7 to use hybrid-electric engines. The new power plants have the promise of being much more efficient and less costly to operate than present jets, at least for smaller aircraft. “Magnix says it aims to continue working with NASA on the technology regardless of whether the full-scale hybrid propulsion flight demonstrator it is developing with the agency is axed under budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration. Funding for two Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstrator (EPFD) projects at Magnix and GE Aerospace is currently due to stop at year’s end under NASA’s proposed budget, which cuts spending on aeronautics research to $588.7 million in fiscal 2026 from $935 million in 2025, a reduction of 34%.” For more info and the quote, see: https://aviationweek.com/space/launch-vehicles-propulsion/magnix-aims-continue-nasa-electric-power-push.
NATO’s Role in Newly-contested Space Domain: “NATO is preparing to assume a more active role in space, acknowledging that it must adapt its defensive structure to support operations in the domain above Earth’s atmosphere.” For more info, see: https://aviationweek.com/defense/budget-policy-operations/nato-contemplates-its-role-newly-contested-space-domain.
Pratt & Whitney Unveils Hydrogen/Steam Hybrid Engine Design: “Pratt & Whitney thinks it may have taken the first steps along that path with the Hydrogen Steam-Injected, Intercooled Turbine Engine (HySIITE) concept—a novel hybrid engine configuration that combines the advantages of the fuel’s cryogenic properties with the thermodynamic benefits of steam injection. Pratt & Whitney has unveiled details of the concept, which has been studied under a two-year $3.8 million U.S. Energy Department Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) effort. While Pratt acknowledges the cycle is complex and requires more study, it is encouraged by the results, which show potential for as much as 35% lower energy use compared with current state-of-the-art engines.” For more information on this exciting development, see: https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/emerging-technologies/pratt-whitney-unveils-details-hydrogen-steam-hybrid-engine-cycle! But the picture isn’t all that rosy…
AVIATION LINKS AND OTHER INFORMATION
The XB-70 Valkyrie Revisited: The Valkyrie supersonic aircraft was amazing piece of engineering. Its story, and tragic ending has been touched upon in two past Items of the Week, covering its development and first flight test (here) and the crash of one of the two ever built (here). Alas, it proved to be a technological dead-end. I’ve recently come across some additional information that may be of interest to you. It’s from the archives of the Air Force Material Command, a research facility at Wright-Patterson AFB, a piece called, “A Look Back… NAA B-70 Valkyrie Variants: A Future That Never Was,” edited by Tony R. Landis, a writer/archivist at the HQ AFMC History Office. See it here: https://media.defense.gov/2020/Nov/23/2002540204/-1/-1/1/B-70%20VARIANTS.PDF. Planners were thinking about using the Valkyrie as a reusable high-speed high-altitude launch vehicle for all sorts of lifting bodies, rockets, even manned orbital craft like the Dyna-Soar and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (the subject of a future Item of the Week)!
Related Article: Podcast: Hypersonic Hopes – The Legacy of the X-30 “Orient Express” President Reagan’s 1986 State of the Union Address contained his vision for a Mach 25 (not a typo) airliner, the X-30 National Aero-Space Plane (NASP). Just as the Valkyrie was hoped/hyped as supersonic launch platform for direct LEO spacecraft, so, too, was the X-30. “DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, really talked them into this idea of this Copper Canyon project. This was a way of sort of delivering this hypersonic single stage to orbit type capability to the Air Force. They wouldn't have to worry about rockets and the shuttle. They could do it their own way. And so this Copper Canyon project really was the sort of the genesis of what became, dressed up as a civil project in some ways, the Orient Express.”
Let’s just say that the Oriental Express concept was a tad optimistic, but this was a very interesting discussion, especially since it comes on the 20th anniversary last month of the Mach 9.6 flight of NASA’s X-43. For the full Check 6 podcast, see: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/check-6-revisits-hypersonic-hopes-legacy-x-30-orient-express.
What’s It Like to Fly to Telluride? Telluride, Colorado, located in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, is a spectacular setting, home to celebrities famous, skiers, and festival goers. There are more private jets flying into its small airport, at over 9000’, than just about anywhere. AVWeb just posted a video of what landing there is like, in a propeller-driven plane. Imagine what it would look like flying a jet! Check it out at: https://www.avweb.com/multimedia/featured-video-flying-into-telluride-a-stunning-high-stakes-approach.
And if you think that’s wild, try jeeping into Telluride over the (in)famous Black Bear Pass (if you are not too late; it recently was closed due to damage by a rockfall). For example, see: https://www.cntraveler.com/video/watch/the-road-less-traveled-traversing-black-bear-pass.
Oh, and watch out for falling cars!
Other Information Sources:
Aviation Week: https://aviationweek.com
Commercial Aviation Info, Photos, and News: https://www.airliners.net/aviation-news
AVweb: https://www.avweb.com
General Aviation News: https://generalaviationnews.com
NASA Aeronautic Research: https://www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch/resources
NASA Next Gen STEM: Aeronaut-X: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/nextgenstem/aeronaut-x/index.html
NASA Aeronautics at Home: https://www.nasa.gov/aero-at-home
Aeronautics E-books: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/aeronautics_ebooks_archive_1.html