The first XP-80 was completed.
The Kelly Johnson design would go into service in 1945, too late for the Second World War, but would see service in Korea, by which time it was already eclipsed by later designs.
YB-29s.
Today in World War II History—September 21, 1942: British and Indian troops launch assault into the Arakan Peninsula in Burma. First test flight of Boeing XB-29 Superfortress heavy bomber, Seattle, WA.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The B-29 was one of the great aircraft of the Second World War and was also, during the war, one that was downright dangerous to fly due to its frequent engine failures and fires. It's loss rate early on in China, from which many were flown, was appalling. Nonetheless, they were an advance that could be regarded as generational.
Forever associated with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the plane became the world's first nuclear bomber, a status it retained for a while post-war. By the Korean War, however, they were beginning to show their vulnerabilities in the new jet and rocket age. The B-36 resulted in them being reclassified as a medium bomber, an odd thought, and the B-29 was retired in 1960, and overall long run for a bomber of that period. A late variant, the B-29D, which was reclassified as the B-50, continued on in limited use until 1963. Ironically, a version copied by the Soviet Union from an example that landed on their territory during the war, the TU-4, remained in active service slightly longer and also saw service with the Red Chinese, meaning that for a time the airplane equipped both sides in the Cold War.
Legendary fighter pilot Robert "Robin" Olds, Jr., son of an Army Air Corps officer of the same name, was born this day in Hawaii.
He became a triple ace, scoring kills in World War Two, Korea and Vietnam, and retired as a Brigadier General in 1973. His father had been a Major General.
Olds was a larger than life character in every way. He was married for many years to starlet Ella Raines, although their marriage eventually ended in divorce and he remarried (he still came in at half the total number of marriages than his father). His penchant for drinking likely kept him from rising higher in the Air Force than he did. He served on the Steamboat Springs Planning Commission in retirement.
He died in 2007 at age 84.
F-86Ds in Japan, mid 1950s.
