A rare Grumman F6F Hellcat, flown by Steve Hinton, Jr., arrived at the Museum for a one-night stay on Saturday, March 27. Hinton was on his way from Chino, California, where the Hellcat was restored by Fighter Rebuilders LLC, to Granite Falls, Minnesota, home of Fagen Fighters, where the plane will be kept.

Departing Colorado Springs at about noon on Sunday, March 28, Hinton made a stop at the airport in Beatrice, Nebraska, to honor 99-year-old Donald McPherson, a World War II ace and former Hellcat pilot who lives in nearby Adams, Nebraska.

"That [engine] sounds familiar," McPherson said as the Hellcat rolled to a stop before a crowd and a row of American flags.

McPherson shot down three Japanese kamikaze planes that were threatening American destroyers near Okinawa on May 4, 1945. Those three, added to the two Japanese planes he shot down the month before, made the 23-year-old McPherson an ace. At the time it didn’t seem like a big deal to McPherson, according to a 2015 story in the Omaha World Herald newspaper. It said there were nearly 60 aces aboard his ship, the USS Essex, and 11 in his squadron, VF-83. Two of the other three Hellcat pilots in his division, called “Wonder 5,” also earned the distinction, the story said.

"This is a once in a lifetime experience," Hinton told McPherson at Beatrice. Hinton spent two years restoring the Hellcat at Chino. His father, Steve Hinton, owns Fighter Rebuilders LLC.

The idea all along, Hinton Jr. said in a video shot at Beatrice, was to show the Hellcat "to this man, who deserves so much credit, [so] he can take it in and experience it again." Without McPherson, Hinton said, "this airplane wouldn't be here."

At the Museum in Colorado Springs earlier that day, Hinton said the restored Hellcat, a late-model F6F-5, has "spring-tab ailerons which help keep them light," making rolls much easier. The pitch is also light, he said. "It's really well-balanced...a well-harmonized airplane.” It also "flies well fast, and it flies well slow. Grumman did an incredible job in designing" the Hellcat.

Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. began work on a successor to its F4F Wildcat in 1938, and signed a Navy contract for the prototype XF6F-1 in June 1941. Grumman wanted a 300-hour pilot to feel comfortable in the F6F.

"That was exactly the philosophy," Hinton said. "The airplane lands at 90 knots and you can fly it slow at 100-110 knots and it's not a problem." At the same time, "the technical redline" for top speed "is up there."

The Hellcat is painted in the markings of McPherson's squadron. It bears the name "Death 'n Destruction" and a skull and cross bones emblem. The original plane was flown by several pilots.

"In the Navy, you didn't have your own airplane," McPherson told News Channel Nebraska at Beatrice. "You had to fly what was spotted forward because of [carrier] space. But we did get one or two airplanes that had nose art like the Air Force, which was strong for that. I flew, and two other pilots I knew of flew this plane that had the skull and crossbones painted on it...called death and destruction. This plane...is painted with that. And also, what we called the diamond glass markings on the tail and wings are our air group's markings."

The Hellcat also features markings showing that pilots of the plane shot down a total of nine Japanese planes.

Grumman delivered this Hellcat to the Navy in March 1945. The plane -- Navy BuNo 78645 and FAA registration N9265A -- apparently served two tours with Fighter Squadron 14 (VF-14) aboard the USS Casablanca; VF-80 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida; and NAS Squantum, Massachusetts.

After World War II it reportedly was used as a radio-controlled drone for the last portion of its naval career. It was eventually restored and displayed at Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California. Its markings at that time were those of VF-27.

Grumman built more than 12,000 Hellcats. This is one of only a few that are still airworthy.

Rich Tuttle

Docent

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in World War II was one of those unique battles in which the results are out of all proportion to the size of the forces involved, said Museum Curator and Historian Gene Pfeffer.

Speaking at a Museum event on March 20, he said that while this battle has been largely forgotten, it was nevertheless just as significant as some other, more famous, battles, including the Battle of Britain and the Dieppe Raid.

In the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940, 2,500 pilots of the Royal Air Force turned back Germany's Luftwaffe, Pfeffer told an audience of about 50 at the Kaija Raven Shook Pavilion. If Germany had achieved their aim of air superiority over Southern England, he said, it might have opened the way to an invasion of England. If England had been conquered it would have meant no Normandy invasion and "the whole course of the war would have been different."

The Dieppe Raid, in August of 1942, was a failed Allied attempt to land troops and tanks at the German-occupied French port of Dieppe. The idea was to boost Allied morale, show Britain's commitment to defeat of Germany on the Western Front, and support the Soviet Union. It was a disaster, but the Allies learned what they could, and could not, do in the Normandy invasion nearly two years later, Pfeffer said.

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea, March 2-4, 1943, in which American and Australian planes sank a convoy of Japanese troop ships, had similar long-range effects. Pfeffer said it led to the closing of Japan's door to New Guinea and opened the Allies' way to the Philippines in 1944. With Allied victory in the Philippines, Japan couldn't use the sea lanes between Japan and South Asia and the East Indies. And with no oil from the East Indies, major parts of Japan's economy and military were shuttered. This meant months of needless suffering by the Japanese people, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and two atomic bombs to end it all.

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea isn't well known. "You've probably never heard of it unless you're a World War II history buff," Pfeffer said. This is because most of the focus at the time was on the war in Europe. The Bismarck Sea in any case is a remote spot in the Southwest Pacific -- northeast of New Guinea and south of Bismarck Archipelago.

But in World War II, it was of strategic importance to both sides. Pfeffer said Japan had abandoned Guadalcanal in February of 1943 and desperately wanted to reinforce its troops in New Guinea from its stronghold of Rabaul on the island of New Britain, the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago. Australia and the U.S. were just as determined to keep reinforcements out, fearing the loss of New Guinea would lead to the loss of vital sea lanes between Australia and the U.S.

The stage was set for fighting in the Bismarck Sea.

First action took place January 6-9, 1943, when Allied planes struck a Japanese convoy of five warships and four transports headed to New Guinea. Pfeffer said two transports were sunk, but not before they delivered troops and supplies. Allied fighters claimed fifty Japanese planes shot down for the loss of ten. Small but sharp attacks on Rabaul were continued by the U.S. Army Air Forces' Fifth Air Force.

On February 28, eight Japanese transports protected by eight destroyers and 100 land-based planes, and hiding behind a weather front moving from the north, departed Rabaul.

On March 1, Allied planes sighted the 16 Japanese ships. Royal Australian Air Force Catalinas kept them under surveillance. The Fifth Air Force committed 268 aircraft to the fight. On March 2, harassing attacks were conducted by American bombers by day and RAAF Catalinas by night.

On the morning of March 3, as the convoy approached New Guinea, 91 Allied planes struck. Low-level attacks of 50 feet were carried out by RAAF Beauforts and Beaufighters; American B-25s and A-20s struck from 500 feet; B-17s attacked from 8,000 feet. P-40s escorted at about 10,000 feet, and P-38s flew high cover.

Four of the eight Japanese destroyers were sunk, as were all eight troop ships. Japanese troop losses were high -- 3,000 out of 7,000. Survivors returned to Rabaul. Only 900 reached New Guinea. Many later died there from disease and malnutrition.

Allied pilots claimed 20 aircraft shot down on March 3 for the loss of four -- three P-38s and one B-17. Two others crash-landed at their bases. Thirteen men were killed and twelve were wounded.

Pfeffer traced the story of the P-38s and the B-17. The P-38s were from the 35^th Fighter Group’s 39^th Fighter Squadron, based at Schwimmer Airfield, also called 14 Mile Drome, at Port Moresby, New Guinea. The Museum’s rare P-38F, White 33, may have been one of them but there’s not enough information to tell, Pfeffer said.

The three P-38s went to the aid of the B-17, which had dropped out of formation after being crippled by enemy fire and was being swarmed by Japanese fighters, according to one account.

Capt. Robert L. Faurot, an aggressive and competent pilot pictured to the right, led two other experienced pilots – Lt. Hoyt Eason and Lt. Fred Shifflett – into the fight. P-38s generally dove into enemy fighters, fired, then climbed away to dive again. This time they engaged the enemy fighters in a low-level dogfight.

But they could not out-turn the more maneuverable enemy planes, and were lost.

All aboard the B-17, from the 63^rd Bombardment Squadron of the 43^rd Bombardment Group, were also lost.

Stan Andrews was a P-38 pilot on the mission that day. He apparently didn’t see the B-17 or the three other P-38s. He was quickly engaged himself, as he said in the following reminiscence, which Pfeffer read:

“…On the 3^rd of March it was quite a gaggle. It was a beautiful clear day as you would frequently see in that area, you could see the coast of New Britain to the north and off to the west you could see the area of New Guinea around the tip of land near Finschaven. The convoy of (Japanese) ships was spread out ahead and below us making white wakes in the deep blue sea. We the 39^th P-38s, along with other fighter outfits, were flying top cover for just about anything that would drop a bomb. We were at 20,000 feet. As I recall, we were flying high and to the rear. The bombers that were down on the deck skip bombing were first since they could sneak in while the high planes to the rear were to cause any low flying Japanese to start climbing to intercept us. Well, they didn’t have to climb much, it looked like a swarm of bees coming at us from probably 10,000 feet.

About this time, the first skip bombers were hitting and the explosions on the surface started up. Fires, splashes, black smoke and then we were into it with the Japanese. I lost most interest in the sea situation and concentrated on the air situation. The ones that I didn’t see riddled my plane but didn’t hit the coolant systems or engines. In fact, I didn’t know that I had been sieved until I landed…93 holes. Both tires on the main gear were shot out. …I didn’t roll very far. The plane was salvaged as I recall.”

Andrews downed a Japanese Oscar fighter that day for his fourth victory, Pfeffer said. The mission is recorded in his log book, which is on display at the Museum.

Rich Tuttle

Docent

This unique presentation will cover the amazing and incredible bravery of the crews of the Doolittle Tokyo Raid on Japan. At a time, early in World War II when America had suffered set back after discouraging set back, the incredibly brilliant Jimmy Doolittle pulled together a volunteer team of 24 B-25 crews, to train for what appeared to be a suicidal one way mission to bomb Japan.

After the presentation you will be able to witness a preflight, startup, and takeoff of the museum B-25J, "In The Mood", so plan on a full morning of activities. For the record “In the Mood” has honored the Doolittle Raiders in numerous ceremonies, including recreating that historic launch off five different US aircraft carriers over the years. She is also a movie star with appearances in the movie “Pearl Harbor.”

The purpose of a bomber aircraft and its crew is to deliver their bomb load on the target. Today, advanced technology in both aircraft and bomb-guidance technology allows bombing accuracies in terms of a few to tens of feet.

During World War II, optical sights and “dumb” bombs were the standard tools of bomber crews. The bombardier had to compensate for factors such as wind, altitude, ground speed, and bomb characteristics. From the first bombing attempts in World War I, it was clear that the crew would need help to compensate for all the factors affecting a bomb drop.

The first operational bombsights appeared during WWI. These were simple affairs constructed of wood. The bombardier determined the airplane’s speed over the ground using a watch. Then, using that speed, along with aircraft altitude and bomb type, he would adjust the bombsight to compensate for those factors. When the target below lined up in the sight, he would release his bombs. To eliminate sideways drift, the pilot would try to fly into the wind, but this tactic exposed the bomber to ground fire for longer periods. The pitching and rolling of the aircraft, as well as inaccuracies in release time and altitude meant that bombing was rarely accurate.

After WWI the U.S. Navy took note of the potential for bombing ships at sea. The Navy contracted with Carl Norden, a Dutch engineer who came to the United States in 1904, to design an improved bombsight for use on U.S. naval aircraft. One major source of error in bombing was levelling the aircraft enough so the bombsight pointed straight down. Even small errors in levelling could produce dramatic errors in bombing, so Norden designed a gyroscopically stabilized platform for the sight. A gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotation (spin axis) is free to assume any orientation by itself. When rotating, the orientation of this axis is unaffected by tilting or rotation of the mounting, according to the conservation of angular momentum. Previous bombsights did not help the pilot actually fly in the proper direction. Pictured above is the Norden bombsight displayed at our museum.

As aircraft grew larger it became common for the pilot and bomb-aimer to be separated so they would have difficulty seeing each other. This led Norden to introduce the idea of an automatic pilot direction indicator driven by the bombsight that told the pilot how to steer the aircraft to keep it on the proper heading indicated by the bombsight. Next, Norden included a mechanical device for calculating when to drop the bombs. A mechanism was included to establish where a small telescope in the bombsight should be pointed to correctly account for the fall time of the bombs.

The first of the Norden sights was delivered to the Navy in 1924. The system proved disappointing. But Norden worked tirelessly on improving the design, and by 1928 the accuracy had improved significantly, enough for the Navy to place a contract for many of the devices.

The U.S. Army heard of the system in 1929 and was eventually able to buy an example in 1931. Their testing mirrored the Navy's experience.

With the improved design, the bombardier would view the target through a telescope with crosshairs made of spider's webbing. Once set up, the Norden bombsight determined with precision the exact moment bombs were to be released to reach their target. At its heart, the sight was a mechanical analog computer that worked with gears much like the first mechanical adding machines. Once the mechanical computer was programmed by the bombardier, the sight compensated for such factors as altitude, speed, type of bomb, wind, etc.

The Carl L. Norden Company was incorporated in 1931. It began supplying sights to the Navy under a special contract. In effect, the company was owned by the Navy. The Army Air Corps at this time was committed to a doctrine of strategic bombing of a potential enemy’s transportation and war production capabilities. It commenced looking for a bomber that could fill that role. The B-17 Flying Fortress emerged as the aircraft the Army selected for that role. The Army needed an accurate bombsight to join with the B-17. In 1934 it selected the Norden for their bombers as well. Once automatic pilots were introduced to aircraft, the bombsight was coupled with the “autopilot” to fly the bomber to the target, at which point it activated the release of the bombs.

Because of Norden production problems and delivery delays, in 1937 the Army also contracted with Sperry Gyroscope for an automatic bombsight similar to the Norden design, but with improvements. By the beginning of WWII, the Army was getting bombsights from both sources, but eventually decided that an improved Norden sight was the best solution. Norden became the sole provider of bomb sights to the Army. The Navy had stayed with Norden as its provider throughout.  Nearly a hundred thousand Norden bombsights were to be delivered by the end of the forthcoming war.

In 1940 the average score for an Air Corps bombardier was an error of 400 feet from an altitude of 15,000 feet. Under combat conditions of enemy fire or when clouds or smoke from exploding bombs partially obstructed the view of the target, accuracy was worse. The U.S. Army Air Forces defined the target area as being a circle with a radius of 1,000 feet around the target point. For the majority of attacks, only about 20 percent of the bombs struck in this area. Because of this level of inaccuracy and because Navy’s enemy ship targets were generally small, the Navy de-emphasized high-level attacks in favor of dive bombing.

Gene Pfeffer

Historian & Curator

Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp.’s initial suggestion in 1943 for the name of its big, new twin-engine fighter, the F7F -- of which the Museum has two rare examples -- was rejected by the U.S. Navy. Former Grumman test pilot Corwin H. ("Corky") Meyer tells the story:

"The flight-test group [at Grumman] had informally bestowed the name Tomcat to the XF7F-1 early in its flight-test program. The name seemed to fit a night-fighter, so Grumman proffered the name to the Navy Fighter Desk in Washington and was surprised when the name Tomcat was denied. The Navy letter stated, 'The name Tomcat is unacceptable. It denotes feline promiscuity.' Period, that was the end of the message. They did accept our second-choice name of Tigercat as being socially and politically acceptable. In a completely different cultural climate 25 years later, the F-14's Tomcat name went through the hurdles without a hitch. It may have been because the three top admirals in Naval Air at the time were all named Tom: Moorer, Connolly, and Walker.”

Adm. Thomas H. Moorer was Chief of Naval Operations from 1967 to 1970, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1970 to 1974.

Adm. Thomas F. Connolly Jr. was named Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air Warfare in 1966. He remained in that position until his retirement in 1971, and was in effect the F-14 project manager.

Adm. Thomas J. Walker commanded Naval Air Systems Command from 1969 to 1971 and retired from the Navy in 1973 after serving as Commander of Naval Air of the Pacific Fleet.

The passage above is from Corky Meyer's 2006 book, "Flight Journal: A Test Pilot's Tales of Dodging Disasters -- Just in Time" (Specialty Press, 254 pages).

Meyer flight-tested Grumman planes from 1943 to 1967, when he was named vice president. He was elected to the board of directors of Grumman Aerospace Corp. in 1968, and became senior vice president in 1972. He was named president of Grumman American Aviation Corp. in 1974. Meyer retired from Grumman in 1978. He died in 2011 at the age of 91.

The National Museum of World War II Aviation invites you to showcase your business or organization or honor a loved one through the purchase of a unique commemorative hardwood and steel bench, hand-crafted in the museum’s workshop and placed inside the Kaija Raven Shook Aeronautical Pavilion. Visit our website to learn more: https://www.worldwariiaviation.org/support/donate/