Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, June 30, 1943. Forgotten battles in th...

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, June 30, 1943. Forgotten battles in th...: 

Wednesday, June 30, 1943. Forgotten battles in the Pacific.

A U.S. Army Air Corps P40 provides air cover at Rendova.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, June 28, 1943. The bombing of Cologne.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, June 28, 1943. The bombing of Cologne.: 

Monday, June 28, 1943. The bombing of Cologne.

Today in World War II History—June 28, 1943: Royal Air Force bombs Cologne, Germany, heavily damaging the cathedral and ending the Battle of the Ruhr—total of 872 British bombers have been lost.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.  Other sources would regard the battle as going on through July 31, which is how I would place it.

On this raid, 608 aircraft, including participated of various types, of which 50 were lost. 4,377 Germans, which of course would have been mostly civilians, were killed, about 10,000 injured.  230,000 people were made homeless. Forty-three industrial, six German Army and about 15,000 other buildings were destroyed.

The Germans, on the same day, began construction of rocket launching complexes along the English Channel.  At the Peenemünde Army Research Center, it successfully launched a V2 rocket as Adolf Hitler watched and unsuccessfully launched one which crashed nearby.

The United States Army Air Force changed its aircraft insignia.  It had been:

This insignia had been adopted on May 15, 1942, in order to omit the red ball in the center of the star, which was a feature of the insignia thath predated it. There were fears the red ball could have been mistaken for the Japanese insignia.  A special variant of this insignia had been modified for Operation Torch, which was:

By NiD.29 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19785085

Research had since shown that shapes, rather than colors, were more important for aircraft identification, so on this date, the following insignia was adopted:

In the Pacific, the red border was omitted by some units.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 28, 1923. Bert Cole, local pioneering aviator, killed.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 28, 1923. Turkey's first election, H...: Bert Cole, famous local pilot, but one already known for a tragic airborne death in Evansville, died in an airplane accident himself.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 25, 1943. Murder in Ukraine, tragedy in Nova Scotia, race riot in UK.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 25, 1943. Murder in Ukraine, tragedy...: 

Friday, June 25, 1943. Murder in Ukraine, tragedy in Nova Scotia, race riot in UK.

The Germans completed the eradication of the Jewish population of Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) in Ukraine.

The "Battle of Bamber Bridge" occurred in the UK when white Military Police intervened in a pub which had stretched out drinking hours for black US troops and then attempted to cite one for improper uniform.  Shots were ultimately fired and one of the soldiers was killed.

The Smith-Connoally Act was passed, which allowed the government to seize industries threated by strikes.  It went into law over President Roosevelt's veto.

 No. 21 Squadron RAF Ventura attacking IJmuiden, February 1943.

A Ventura AJ186 crashed in Summerville, Nova Scotia, killing P/O John C. Loucks, air gunner, Bracebridge, Ont., P/O George W. Cowie, pilot, Wellington, New Zealand., P/O Clifford A. Griffiths, navigator, Auckland, New Zealand., Sgt. Arthur Cornelius Mulcahy, wireless air gunner, Sydney, Australia.

The men were undergoing training.  A memorial service will be held for them today in Summerville.

Classified as a medium bomber, the Ventura is one of the numerous Allied warbirds that are now basically forgotten, in spite of having received widespread use.  It was an adaptation of a civilian airliner.

Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 25, 1943: 80 Years Ago—June 25, 1943: Bob Hope begins his first major USO tour; he will spend 11 weeks touring England, North Africa, and Sicily.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, June 24, 1943. Heroic jump.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, June 24, 1943. Heroic jump.: 

Wednesday, June 24, 1943. Heroic jump.

Col. W. Randolph Lovelace, M.D. bailed out of a B-17 at 40,200 feet in a medical experiment which would lead to flight crews being instructed to delay opening parachutes until they reached a lower altitude, so as to not pass out from the shock of the parachute's opening at high altitude.

Dr. Lovelace at age 52, showing how, really, this generation took on the appearance of aging much more rapidly than current ones do.

Dr. Lovelace and his wife died in a December 1965 private plan crash near Aspen, Colorado.  The pilot, 27 year old Milton Brown, also died of injuries at the site, but not before he placed their bodies next to each other and covered them with a coat.

Blog Mirror: Laramie Regional Airport Digs Out From ‘Unbelievable’ 45 FAA Violations

 

Laramie Regional Airport Digs Out From ‘Unbelievable’ 45 FAA Violations

 

Casper airport to hold first annual 5K fun run/walk

A "rash decision" on pilot retirement age.

The House Committee on Transportation, operating in a Boomer dominated era in which there's a persistent belief that nobody every gets old, voted to extend airline pilot retirement age from 65 to 67.

The Air Line Pilots Association, a commercial pilot's union, opposed the measure, stating:

The rash decision to move an amendment on changing the statutory pilot retirement age, without consulting agencies responsible for safety, or studying potential impacts of such a change as has been done elsewhere, is a politically driven choice that betrays a fundamental understanding of airline industry operations, the pilot profession, and safety.

The measure now goes to the full House. 

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, June 15, 1943. First flight of the Arado AR 234

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, June 15, 1943. Riots in Beaumont.: 

Tuesday, June 15, 1943. Riots in Beaumont.

It was the first flight of the jet engined German bomber, the Arado Ar 234.

The twin engined jet bomber was the first of its kind in the world, and would enter service in the fall of 1944, too late to be of consequence.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, June 10, 1943. Pointblank

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, June 10, 1943. Pointblank:

Thursday, June 10, 1943. Pointblank

The Pointblank Directive was issued by the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff directing the implementation of Operation Pointblank, the round the clock Allied bomber offensive over Europe.  The order prioritized targets for the combined Allied air forces, starting with the German aircraft industry.

The order met with passive resistance from RAF's fighter command, which refused to provide escorts to the U.S. Army Air Force during the daylight, citing the inability to convert fighters for long ranges.  This would lead the US to study the conversion of P-51 Mustangs to that use.  It would also lead to considerable tension between the US and the UK on the topic of daylight escorts.

Sarah Sundin noted Pointblank on her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 10, 1943: US & UK begin Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany; priorities for bombing targets are submarine yards, aircraft & ball bearings factories, and oil targets

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, June 6, 1943. Famous Navy Crewman, A-36

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, June 6, 1943. Radio broadcasts, Triple Cro...:

Paul Newman, having enlisted days before his 18th birthday, was called up for service in the Navy.

Newman wanted to be a pilot, but was taken out of flight school when it was discovered he was color blind.  He went on to be a torpedo bomber crewman.

Sarah Sundin noted Newman's enlistment, but also noted the A36:

Today in World War II History—June 6, 1943: North American A-36 Apache flies first combat mission in a US Twelfth Air Force mission to Pantelleria. Future actor Paul Newman enlists in the US Navy, age 18.

We don't think much of the A-36, the dive bomber version of the P-51.  The odd aircraft only came into existence in the first place as the 1942 appropriations for new fighter aircraft had run out and converting the assembly line to dive bombers kept the P-51 line open.  Only 500 were built, with most used by the U.S. Army Air Force, but some used by the RAF.

A-36 in Italy.

Skywest to receive additional subsidy payment

The City of Casper has voted to approve a $50,000 supplement to the subsidies already provided to local passenger air carriers.  This subsidizes solely the Casper to Salt Lake City flight.  The subsidy will pay for a larger airplane for the flight, through the summer.

If SkyWest, the Delta provider, does not find that this makes the run more popular, it'll likely be cut, and air travel to Salt Lake will end.

NASA Opens Some UFO Files to Public

This was in its first public meeting.

I'm underwhelmed by this story.  In a world in which technology is getting so advanced that our own creation that we should avoid making, AK, will probably end us, these are almost certain many made.