Donald S. Lopez
Fighter Pilot's Heaven: Flight Testing the Early Jets
Foreword
During the Gulf War of 1991 the entire world was amazed at the sophisticated weapons used by the American forces. Television captured vivid pictures of bombs literally flying down ventilation shafts, and there were stories of airplanes that were invisible to radar detection. The conflict displayed wonders of technology put to a destructive purpose. The roots of that technology go back many, many years.
America, between the two great wars, was almost backward in the development of military weapons and certainly primitive in the airborne weapons arena. Civilian airliners of the thirties were faster than bombers. The most sophisticated aircraft of the era were often civilian racing planes. World War II changed all of that. That ultimate effort may well have represented the pinnacle of the American civilization. Vast changes were wrought in the tools of air warfare.
Don Lopez has written one book, Into the Teeth of the Tiger, that describes his part in World War II. As a newly commissioned, nineteen-year-old aviator, he fought in China, became an ace, and participated in the early evolution of American air weapons supremacy. Upon his return to the States, before the end of the war, Lope was assigned to Eglin Air Force Base and began a career as a test pilot, proving and improving the aircraft that had done so much to win the war. His days at Eglin were spent in that slow and often dangerous process of test and evaluation. He was one of the first American pilots to fly the Bell P-59, America's first jet aircraft. He participated in every fighter development in the immediate postwar era and, in addition, was selected by the Air Force to attend one of the first classes of the Air Force Test Pilot School at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.
In these pages Colonel Lopez describes the beginning of the modern Air Force as only one who has participated in the process could. We fly with him on missions as varied as shooting down captured V-1 missiles to cold-weather testing the P-80 in Alaska. We meet the unwashed characters who silently flew their missions and did their dangerous jobs, often losing their lives in the process. All of this drama is recorded in Lope's engaging style and dry wit. He is, after all, an unusual fighter pilot, with an advanced degree from Cal Tech, a nondrinker, a devoted family man, and a keen observer of his times.
One can only hope that Fighter Pilot's Heaven represents the second in a series of books and that the sequel will describe his career from Eglin to the present.
FRANK BORMAN
Preface
From June 1945 through September 1950 I was a test pilot in the Fighter Test Squadron of the Proof Test Group at Eglin Field, later Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, part of the Air Proving Ground Command. Its mission was to determine the operational suitability of the aircraft and weapons systems of the Army Air Forces and later the U.S. Air Force. To accomplish this mission the aircraft and weapon combinations were rigorously tested for function and accuracy, using live ammunition in most instances. Also, the tactics and techniques for the most effective use of the weapons were tested and perfected.
It was a challenging period, as the standard propeller-driven fighters were being replaced by jets that posed many new problems for which solutions had to be found. Also, the military was going through the difficult transition from wartime to peacetime operations.
There has been little if anything at all written about the type of testing done at Eglin, and this book is my attempt to tell at least part of that story. Everything related in the book actually took place, but there might be slight chronological discrepancies that have no effect on the story.
I want to express my gratitude to those who contributed to the completion of this memoir: Ian and Betty Ballantine for their support and suggestions in the beginning phases of the book; Dr. Richard Hallion and his staff at the Center for Air Force History for their assistance in locating photographs and research material; Felix Lowe, Director of the Smithsonian Institution Press, for his encouragement; Dr. Von Hardesty, Barney
Turner, Jim Colburn, George Larson, Pat Trenner, and Bill Hardaker for their helpful comments on various sections of the book.
My wife, Glindel, even more than in my earlier memoir, Into the Teeth of the Tiger, played a major role in the composition of this book. In addition to her more mundane roles of spelling specialist, typo tyrant, and grammar guru, she contributed greatly to the content. We were together at Eglin Air Force Base for much of the period covered, and she had firsthand knowledge of the individuals and events described and thus was able to fine-tune my memory. But more than that, her sensitivity and insight in making suggestions in areas I never would have considered made it less an engineering report and more a book.
Prologue
The hot Florida sun beat down on my canopy as I circled over Range 52. Maj. Si Johnson was leading our flight of four in a P-84B with Leonard Koehler, Fred Belue, and me in P-80s. Len was flying Si's wing, and I was leading the second element. We were at 5,000 feet waiting for a flight of six B-29s to arrive over the range at 500 feet so that we could make a simulated attack as the final event of a firepower demonstration.
A voice crackled in my earphones, ''Si, this is range control. The B-twenty-nines are two minutes out, altitude five hundred feet, heading zero-niner-zero. You are cleared for your attack."
Si replied, "Roger. We'll hit them just in front of the stands." He started a slow descending turn to position us. When the bombers crossed the boundary of the range, we nosed down into a steep dive to the north and then swung to the right into a curve of pursuit on the bombers. As we completed the pass, we began a steep climbing turn to the right. I thought that it must have looked great from the stands, because Si had timed it right on the money. It's always a good feeling when a mission goes like clockwork.
The good feeling was short-lived, however. My eyes were glued to Len's P-80 when, suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw Si's P-84 disintegrate. The pieces hurtled into the ground, sending up a tremendous cloud of dust and debris. It happened so fast that I couldn't believe my eyes. My first thought was that he must have collided with another airplane, but we were past the B-29s, and our three P-80s were intact. I yelled into the oxygen-mask mike, "What happened, Len?"
"Beats the hell out of me," he replied. "The plane just broke into pieces. Si didn't have a chance."
Just then range control broke in and tersely ordered all planes to return to Eglin and land. I took the lead, and we proceeded back to the field in stunned silence.
1
Fighter Pilot's Heaven
As I finished my combat tour with the 75th Fighter Squadron of the 23rd Fighter Group in China[1], the group commander, Col. Ed Rector, one of the Flying Tigers of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), told me I should request an assignment as a fighter test pilot at Eglin Field, Florida, when I got back to the States. I agreed enthusiastically, since that was one of my ambitions. Accordingly, he gave me a letter of recommendation to the commander at Eglin.
I was delighted when, after my leave and stay at the Army Air Forces (AAF) processing center at Miami Beach, I was ordered to report to the 611th Proof Test Group at Eglin for assignment as a fighter test pilot. On June 5, 1945, after a long and boring train trip to Crestview, Florida, via Jacksonville, I reported for duty at Eglin.
Eglin Field was the headquarters of the Air Proving Ground Command. All Army Air Force aircraft, weapons, and flight equipment were tested there for operational suitability. At Wright Field in Ohio and Muroc (later Edwards Air Force Base) in California, aircraft were tested as aircraft, to ensure that they met their design specifications. At Eglin, they were tested as weapons to determine their compatibility with various types of armament and the best method of employment. It was a particularly desirable assignment because of the opportunity to fly many different types of aircraft, including the latest models. Equally exciting was the chance to use the experience I had gained in combat to influence the design of the aircraft I was to test.