The first landing of a jet aircraft on an aircraft carrier happened by accident
Historians aviation (and not only aviation), both ours and foreign ones, often dig up something interesting, unknown to the general public. And now someone Thomas Newdick wrote in TheDrive magazine:
Almost 75 years ago (article written in 2020), a US Navy pilot was the first to land a jet-powered aircraft on an aircraft carrier, when this should not have happened. That pilot was Ensign JC "Jake" West, now little known. Also little known is the aircraft he flew, the curious and strange Ryan FR-1 Fireball, which had both a jet and a piston engine.
The Fireball was a real curiosity with its radial piston plus turbojet engine hidden in the rear fuselage. The unusual design was the result of the limitations of the technology at the time. Although the turbojet was trusted for high-speed "acceleration", it was considered insufficiently mature and consumed too much fuel for long cruise flight.
The critical conditions of landings on an aircraft carrier required a reliable engine that could be trusted. In addition, the first jet engines were considered insufficiently responsive for a "bolter" - this is when the plane could not catch on the brake cable and was forced to turn on full throttle and take off again for the next attempt.
So Ensign West on November 6, 1945 had to learn about the importance of this twin-engine insurance policy. At the time, he was assigned to the US Navy's 41st Fighter Squadron (VF-41), the "Firebirds," which only began flying Fireballs last month. The squadron's first mission was to train with the new aircraft aboard the escort aircraft carrier USS Wake Island (CVE 65). Testing began just a day before West's impromptu landing.
On November 6, West was performing a routine landing on an aircraft carrier when his Fireball suffered an engine failure. Moreover, he lost not a turbojet General Electric J31 - it was already turned off, which was standard landing procedure - but a reliable and undoubted piston Wright R1820-72W Cyclone.
When the propeller in front of him became a mill wheel, producing no thrust but only drag, West feathered it to stop it spinning. Now he had to make a quick decision: land the FR-1 on the water, jump out (there was no ejection seat), or try to start the jet engine. He chose the last of these options and began the launch procedure, which took about 30 seconds.
The jet engine roared, West climbed, declared an emergency and managed to carefully adjust the thrust, getting enough power for a successful landing. While he was making sure he was on the correct approach path, the landing crew on deck set up an emergency stop net. The landing hook, however, caught the last cable before the plane crashed into the barrier. Thus, West managed to "land" aboard the USS Wake Island only on jet propulsion.
The fact that the FR-1 was a hybrid aircraft—or so it was supposed to be—means that West's debut landing on a jet-powered aircraft carrier is often forgotten. On top of that, just a month after West's landing, Lieutenant Commander Eric “Winkle' Brown successfully landed a de Havilland Vampire fighter on the deck of the USS Royal fleet HMS Ocean - and this time it was planned.
Eric 'Winkle' Brown 1st Sea Vampire Deck Landing 03 Dec 1945 HMS Ocean
Other accounts of West's landing, including one by naval historian Norman Polmar, suggest that the Wright Cyclone still put out at least some power during the landing, although this would not have been possible with the propeller in the feathered position.
In a blog post, naval aviation historian Matt Willis is also skeptical about whether West returned to the carrier using only the turbine. He points to statements in the de Havilland fighter book, which again refer to Norman Polmar, about "residual piston engine power". The same book states that the Fireball would hardly have landed on deck "with engine stalled, propeller feathered, landing gear extended and flaps extended" on jet power alone.
Willis points out that the J30's 31-second launch procedure is too long for the aircraft to remain airborne after the piston engine has been shut down. However, other sources explicitly state that since West feathered his propeller, this left him no choice but to rely on the jet engine to return to the carrier.
Be that as it may, West's landing was a significant achievement and the result of a cold-blooded assessment of the situation, decision-making and good flying skills.
- Khanin Igor (kig)
- https://www.thedrive.com
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