Said Davidson, “Acceleration anddeceleration were slightly less than in aconventional-type aircraft but there wasno torque trouble, less noise, and speedand altitude were easy to maintain.”

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The Naval Research Lab was activeutilizing the once-feared German V-2rocket for experiments. Marking anincipient stage of space study, miniaturelaboratory type equipment was installedin the nose of the rocket and fired byArmy ordnance technicians at WhiteSands, N.M.

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Flying in 1946 were a pair of new jetfighters, the Vought XF6U-1 and NorthAmerican’s XFJ-1, the latter destined forgreat success in the air. The Naval AirTest Center (NATC), Patuxent River, Md.,was the scene for much of theexperimental work. Key problems withthe new planes involved use of dragdevices to enhance takeoff and landingcharacteristics. There was concern forthe jet engine’s slow response to throttleadjustments compared to its piston-engine counterparts.

Procedures called for the pilot to “takethe cut” aboard the carrier just as inpropeller planes. The engine’s “spool up”time had to be taken into account whenboltering or waving off. Eventually, jetpilots would be taught to fly their aircraftall the way “into the wires” with poweron.

Tricycle landing gear on the jetspresented some carr ier operat ingproblems. The prop types invariablyfeatured conventional tail-sitting wheelarrangements. Deck crews had tor e a d j u s t t h e i r t h i n k i n g . B a r r i e rarrangements had to be revised due tothe tendency of the jets to slam downon the nose wheel after the hook hadengaged the wire. All hands knew,however, that the jets were here to stay.The recips would not disappear but theywere destined to share flight lines andf l ight decks wi th the streaml inednewcomers.

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The first jet-powered patrol plane, theP4M-1 Mercator, flew in September1946. It featured two nacelles, eachhousing a radial and a jet engine. Only 19production models reached the fleet,beginning four years later. The aircraftweighed more than 83,000 pounds andhad a top speed of 410 mph.

The Ryan XFR-4 Fireball had a reciprocating as well as a jet engine.

On October 30, 1946, LieutenantJunior Grade A. J. Furtek became a jet-age hero. Assigned to the Naval AirMaterial Center to test ejection systems,he went aloft over NAS Lakehurst, N.J.,in a JD-1 and was ejected out of the planeby two 600-grain powder charges by wayof the British-designed Martin-Bakerseat. The JD-1's altitude was 5,000 feet;speed, 250 mph. A fastener to the mainchute which was attached to the seatfouled. Furtek fell 23 seconds to 1,500feet but managed to detach himself fromthe seat and pull the rip cord of his ownbackup chute. Furtek was undismayedand the basic concept of the emergencyegress system was considered valid.Ejectable cockpit capsules were alsobeing considered, a technique used todayon the USAF B-1 bomber and in NASA’sspace shuttles. However, ejection seatsproved to be the most reliable andefficient means of escape from high-speed aircraft.

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In a bit of understatement, an aviatorobserver in 1946 noted that “at very highspeeds, the air flow over the wing and tailof an airplane begins to exhibit veryperculiar characteristics.” He wasreferring to the effects of compressabilityand s im i l a r f ac to rs abou t wh ichcomparatively little was known.

In many ways, airplanes were enteringa dimension of the unknown. Much hadto be learned. So, while jets flew in thesubsonic regime, experimental efforts

focused on the transonic and supersonicbarriers. An example of these efforts wasthe D-558 Skystreak. The DouglasCompany’s Ed Heinemann and his designteam combined with a small cadre ofcourageous test p i lo ts and madelandmark achievements operating fromthe desert runways of Muroc (laterEdwards AFB), Calif. A straight-wing,red-colored experimental bird, theSkystreak weighed just under 10,000pounds and flew for the first time in thespring of 1946. It continued a valuableseries of flights that vastly expandedman’s knowledge of high-speed, high-altitude aerodynamics. The aircraft waspowered by a General Electric TG-180turbojet which produced 4,000 pounds ofthrust.

Meanwhile, the Bell Aircraft XS-1,developed for the Army Air Force, wascontributing to the knowledge bank.Interestingly, some of its initial flightswere made by Chalmers H. Goodlin, aformer Navy pilot. The XS-1 was drivenby f ou r 6000 -C4 rocke t mo to rsdeveloped by the Navy and ReactionMotors located at the Naval AmmunitionDepot in Dover, N.J. The engines burnedethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen at a ratewhich, at top speed, would consume fourtons of fuel in two and a half minutes.Total thrust was 6,000 pounds. It wasdropped from a B-29 mothership andachieved speeds of about 550 mph inearly tests.

On November 11, 1946, LieutenantColonel Marion E. Carl, a legendary U.S.

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The A2D Skyshark was a turboprop, attack aircraft. Reduction gear problems plagued theaircraft and, as a result, only seven were built.

Marine Corps pilot, flew a jet-propelled P-80A, making two catapult launches, fourfree takeoffs and five arrested landingsaboard USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. Theseoperations were part of carrier suitabilitytests that had begun in June 1945 withthe delivery of P-80As to NAS PatuxentRiver, Md., s i te of f l ight test andevaluation work.

Carrier catapults were widely usedd u r i n g W W I I f o r p r o p s a n daccommodated the new machines well.Catapults were considered the bestanswer to the s low acce le ra t i onproblems of jet-powered aircraft. Also, inorder for the jets to get aboard properly,landing signal officers were trained toissue the “cut” signal sooner in thegroove because of some jets’ floatingtendency after the cut. Wave-offs had tobe given quicker also to ensure adequateclearance altitude by the time the planereached the ship.

The familiar warning emblazoned onflight deck bulkheads, BEWARE ofPROPELLERS, was accompanied by thecaution, BEWARE OF JET BLAST.

Some radical techniques were offeredto a l l ev ia te f l i gh t deck hand l ingproblems. One system would elevate thehazardous jet blast from the tail sectionover the heads of deck handlers. Itemployed a jointed nose wheel whichcould be “broken” into an elbow after theplane had been removed from thearresting gear. Thus, the aircraft’s nosewould drop into a kneeling position, notunlike a bow to the audience. The tail

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would be raised enabling the plane to useits jet for taxiing without endangeringpersonnel with blast effect. Anothermethod used a deflector on the jet nozzle,forcing the blast upward away fromscrambling deck crews.

The angled deck was years away.Existing barrier arrestment systems weredesigned to “catch” the big nosed props.Engineers developed a changeablesystem, one that could be modified toensnare the main landing wheels of a jetbut which could also be quickly shifted toact upon the engine of a conventionalplane.

Since jets consumed much greateramounts of fuel, faster fueling methodshad to be developed to keep turnaroundtimes to a minimum. The Navy usedregular aviation gasoline for its prop andjet turbines at the time. That would soonchange and jet fuel would eventuallyrequire separate stowage cells aboardthe carrier.

Jets stood lower to the ground, sorearming techniques had to be modified.Also, the limited endurance of jet planesdemanded a more expeditious means ofrecovering and respotting them. Fasterand more efficient tow tractors weren e e d e d t o i m p r o v e f l i g h t d e c kmovements.

Maintenance of jet turbines and pistonengines differed radically. Piston typesrequired periodic checks, constant minorrepair and parts replacement. However,the rec ip roca t i ng eng ine had anadvantage. It would operate for severalhundred hours before it faced completeoverhaul.

Jet power plants are much simpler and

contain far fewer parts, facts whichpleased the mechanics. Overall enginelife at the time, however, was muchshorter than that of the piston engines.Complete overhaul or engine change wasneeded after comparatively short periodsof running time. On the plus side, suchengine changes took much less time thanwith recips.

There were no jet trainers in 1947 butdual-seated types were high on BuAer’sconsideration list. Plans called for pilotsto matriculate in the prop pipeline beforemoving up to jets.

McDonnell’s XF2D-1 Banshee, laterdesignated the F2H, flew for the first timeon January 11, 1947. It resembled itsPhantom predecessor but was poweredby a pair of 24C Westinghouse turbojetengines, which provided 6,000 pounds ofthrust, nearly twice as much as thePhantom.

Successor to the Skystreak was the D-558-II Skyrocket. Painted white for bettervisibility, it was designed to exceed the6 8 0 - m p h s p e e d o f t h e e a r l i e rexperimental plane. The Skyrocket wasalso powered by a Westinghouse 24Cturbojet and a liquid rocket systemmanufactured by Reaction Motors, Inc.Fuel and landing gear were located in thefuselage instead of the wings as in theSkystreak. It featured swept-back wingsand a jettisonable nose as a means ofhigh-speed pilot escape. It had aphotographic apparatus for recordingflight instrument readings on motionpicture film. Air pressure measurementswere recorded automatically at 400points on the wing and tail. Control forcesand stresses in the structure weremeasured by more than 900 strain gagesand oscillographs. The rocket motor hadfour cylinders that could be fired singly ortogether.

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Another landmark fighter was the XFJ-1 Fury, by North American, which hadflown for the first time on November 27,1946. The next year a prototype versionof the Fury reached Mach 0.87, a recordfor U.S. fighters that lasted awhile.

Commander E. P. Aurand, C.O. of VF-5A, set a speed record in an FJ-1 onFebruary 29, 1948, when he raced9,450 miles from NAS Seattle to LosAngeles in one hour and 58 minutes. Heaveraged 550 mph en route, thus

breaking by 16 minutes the previousrecord held by a P-80. VF-5A’s X.0.,Lieutenant Commander R. M. Elder, setanother record by flying from Seattle toMills Field, San Francisco, in one hourand 24 minutes.

Aurand landed his straight-wing Furyaboard the flight deck of USS Boxer onMarch 10, 1948. This was the first timean operational squadron landed a jetaboard a carrier. Elder also participatedand, together, the jet pilots garnered 24landings and takeoffs.

The squadron was also the first jetfighter unit to serve at sea underoperational conditions. Later versions ofthe FJ compiled an eventful history andwere flown by Marine Corps squadronsas well.

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To facilitate interim familiarizationtraining for fighter pilots (until Navy jetsbecame available in quantity) the Navyprocured 60 Lockheed P-80s from theU.S. Air Force and designated them TO-1s. Powered by the Allison J33, the TO-1s were not equipped with arrestinghooks or catapult fittings. The initial

The D-556-lI Skyrocket carried jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) bottles,which were jettisoned from theaircraft after they burned out.

group consisted of single-seaters but theplane, which was later designated the T-33, soon became a tandem-place aircraftideal for training purposes. VF-6Areceived 24 of the Shooting Stars while anumber went to the Marine Corps’ VMF-311.

O n M a r c h 2 3 , 1 9 4 8 , J o h nCunningham of England established analtitude record flying a modified DeHavilland Vampire powered by a Ghostjet engine. He reached 59,492 feetduring the 47-minute flight aided bycabin pressurization that kept himcomfortable.

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Early in the turbine age, the term“afterburner” meant a “fire built in thetail” of a jet. Chance Vought’s F6U-1Pirate had an af terburner systeminstalled that provided a 30 to 50-percentincrease in thrust. The afterburnersystem featured extension of the tailpipeinto which fuel was injected and ignited.Enough unburned oxygen passedthrough the jet turbine and mixed withexhaust gases to permit combustion inthe tailpipe. The burning took placebehind the critical turbine blades wherehigh temperatures existed withoutdamaging moving parts. In the case of thePirate, the afterburner system led to aneight-foot extention to the tailpipe.

An F6U-1 Pirate from NATC Patuxent River,Md., in 1950. The Pirate had an afterburnerwhich enhanced thrust by 30 percent.

In June 1948, the Bureau of Personnelsent dispatches to cognizant commandsconcerning a “return to active duty”program for flyers (and some groundofficers) who left the service at the end ofthe war. As a result, 2,600 Naval AirReserve officers were recalled to activeduty on one-year contracts. Meanwhile,in 1948, the Navy had planned new-pilotoutput of about 1,000, including Navy,Marine Corps, Coast Guard and foreignstudents. For 1949, a training quota of2,300 midshipmen, aviation cadets andUSN pilots was planned, more thandoubling the overall effort to keep apacewith the growing importance of aviationfo r m i l i t a ry pu rposes . Je ts wereincreasing in value and, in a way, so werethe men who flew them.