Kelly: More Than My Share of It All by Clarence L. Johnson

Author:Clarence L. Johnson [Johnson, Clarence L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Technology & Engineering, history, United States, 20th Century, Transportation, Aviation
ISBN: 9781588343604
Google: S51fBgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Published: 2012-01-11T23:43:41.565701+00:00

Congratulating Tony LeVier following a successful test flight during development of the F-80, the nation’s first tactical jet fighter. Below, even by today’s standards the Shooting Star looks sleek and swift in this earlier photo.

The F-80 had proved so easy to handle that it took an effort to interest the Air Force in a training version. We made a piggyback version first—that is, with an enlarged cockpit so an observer could ride behind the pilot. Then we took a plane off the production line—had it disappear from the books temporarily—and converted it to a two-man model for demonstration purposes to convince the military of the need for a two-place version. Once convinced, the Air Force bought thousands of them, as the T-33. The Navy bought a trainer version, too, the TV-1.

Sometimes it’s awfully difficult to convince the customer of what we think he needs, and sometimes we don’t succeed. One such proposal was our Universal Flight Trainer.

In 1954 we suggested equipping the T-33 with “black boxes” to simulate performance of any other kind of aircraft—long before we had such flight simulators in the laboratory. But I could not sell the idea. Airplanes have been used in this manner since—both the JetStar and the F-104 Starfighter have been instrumented to simulate various phases of Space Shuttle performance, for example.

The current “new generation trainer,” I believe, will have some of this capability. Such a “universal trainer” still would be practical and productive in research and development.

The F-80s in the Air Force were able to prove themselves in combat when North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. In history’s first jet battle, an F-80 shot down a Russian-built MiG-15. And that dual fuel pump that resulted from Milo’s death brought a lot of pilots home from combat in the war zone. Jet combat in that theater provided other lessons we would use in aircraft development. We knew we had enough to keep us busy for some time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.