The plan for fiscal year 2013, which starts Oct. 1, constitutes recognition of the nation’s fiscal crisis and makes a start toward cutting $487 billion in defense costs over the next dozen years. The plan calls for a leaner, more specialized military force with fewer people and smaller amounts of hardware. The proposal will no doubt face opposition from lawmakers seeking to protect industry in their home districts as well as from economists who argue that it doesn’t go far enough to address the nation’s deficit and debt ills.

Spending Cutbacks

The 2013 base budget, which totals $525 billion when costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are not included, is $6 billion less than the one approved by Congress for the current fiscal year.

The plan’s proposed savings “will impact all 50 states and many … congressional districts across America,” Panetta said. He said that so-called spending cuts are really only reductions in projected growth, not reductions in actual spending. Still, Panetta said, the budget plan “obviously will cause some pain.”

Among changes:

• The Army and Marine Corps will lose a combined total of 92,000 troops, reducing the number of U.S. ground combatants to its lowest point since the late 1930s. However, special operations forces will be bolstered. The United States will increase its capability for small, focused commando operations like the one on Jan. 23, in which U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two kidnapping hostages in Somalia. Although it is not part of the 2013 budget plan, the landing ship dock USS Ponce (LPD 15) is being converted to serve as a “mother ship” to provide support for increased special operations.
• Production of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter will slow down, with the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy receiving 179 fewer airframes through the end of 2017. This puts a halt to a longstanding scheme to conduct tests while carrying out initial operations. Vice Adm. David Venlet, the Pentagon’s program manager for the F-35, said the F-35 still has a “surprising” number of technical problems that need to be fixed. Testing and developmental work will now come chronologically ahead of operational service, although the long-term plan to acquire 2,443 aircraft will remain unchanged.
• The Air Force’s RQ-4B Block 30 Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft will be cancelled. The RQ-4B was slated to replace the U-2 “Dragon Lady” manned reconnaissance aircraft as long ago as 2009, but problems in integrating surveillance sensors have never been resolved. The service life of the U-2, whose initial design dates to 1955, will be extended. The Air Force has 33 U-2s (28 single-seat U-2S and five two-seat U-2ST models), all of which were modernized and re-engined in the late 1980s.
• The Defense Department will “divest” itself of 21 C-27J Spartan twin-engined tactical airlifters and kill plans to buy 17 more. Although the C-27J inventory is modest, the aircraft equip half a dozen Air National Guard units, where hometown and state-capital support is strong. It has not been announced what aircraft will fill in behind Guard C-27Js if they are retired.

Panetta also wants to retire about 10 percent of the Air Force’s fighter force, scale back procurement of the Navy’s littoral combat ship and ease spending on regional ballistic missile defense.

Consideration had been given to retiring one of the Navy’s eleven aircraft carriers, possibly the USS George Washington (CVN 73), which is due to have its nuclear fuel replenished in 2015. It now appears all carriers will be retained. The Air Force will continue to develop a new bomber.

Warfighting Plan

The defense secretary and his advisors say the United States is not abandoning its longtime policy of being able to handle two major regional contingencies – two wars – at once. One Pentagon officer said the United States will still be able to blunt an attack by North Korea while also assuring the flow of oil-carrying tankers through the Straits of Hormuz. Some observers say the nation has never really had a capability to handle two major conflicts simultaneously and point to the near exhaustion of the armed forces and the need for a reboot after a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Officials say U.S. military operations will be characterized by focus and precision, not by brute force. Supporters of the budget proposal point out that the armed forces will still be at about their size on Sept. 11, 2001, while detractors notice that the nation will have fewer troops than at the time of Pearl Harbor.

The plan makes no changes in one of the biggest chunks of the defense budget – military entitlements, including pay and benefits and especially the rapidly increasing cost of military pensions, known in military language as retired pay. Currently, military members can retire after 20 years of honorable service, an arrangement some critics say the nation can no longer afford.

A vigorous debate is likely in Congress this spring and summer.

Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Jerome Hudner, Jr. was flying as wingman for section leader Ensign Jesse L. Brown. In the newly integrated U.S. armed forces, Brown was the first African-American to complete naval aviator training. Although of lower rank, Brown had more air hours and experience than Hudner. That didn’t help Brown when North Korean gunfire ripped into his Corsair.

Ensign Jesse L. Brown, U.S. Navy, in the cockpit of an F4U-4 Corsair fighter, circa 1950. He was the first African-American to be trained by the Navy as a naval aviator, and as such, became the first African-American naval aviator to see combat. Brown flew with Fighter Squadron 32 (VF-32) from USS Leyte (CV 32). U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command photo

Badly out of control and coughing gouts of smoke, Brown’s Corsair made a belly landing on snow and ice. While Brown was going down, Hudner and division leader Lt. Cmdr. Richard Cevoli heard Brown say things like, “I think I’m getting it,” meaning Brown felt he was still in control. That was before Brown’s Corsair made a violent belly landing in the snow. Once on the ground, Brown fell silent inside his wrecked F4U-4, even as the plane sputtered and smoked.

Lt. (j.g.) William Koenig, Cevoli’s wingman, climbed to make a Mayday radio call. The members of the Corsair flight learned, discouragingly, that a helicopter was at least 30 minutes away. Cevoli, Koenig and Hudner feared that flames might consume Brown while he was trapped inside his wrecked aircraft.

Hudner made a difficult decision. He called Cevoli and announced his intention to make a belly landing to assist Brown. There was no discussion. Cevoli simply said, “Good luck, Tom.”

Hudner got rid of his napalm bombs and belly tank, fired off his rockets, and put his Corsair into a tight, carrier-style approach. Every account of what followed, including the official version, says that Hudner made a wheels-up belly landing, but Hudner said in an interview that he lowered his landing gear. He touched down at 6,000 feet of elevation alongside a snow-strewn slope.

Hudner sprinted from his plane to Brown’s. “Jesse had barely survived the crash,” said Hudner. “But his aircraft had been crumpled in the landing and he was pinned in his cockpit.” Brown was near death, his badly mangled leg caught in the twisted fuselage.

Said Hudner, “The canopy of his aircraft was open but he was gravely injured and wedged inside, unable to move.”

Lt. j.g. Thomas J. Hudner is congratulated by Mrs. Daisy P. Brown, widow of Ensign Jesse L. Brown, after he received the Medal of Honor from President Truman at the White House, April 13, 1951. Lt j.g. Hudner was awarded the medal for attempting to rescue Ensign Brown, who had been shot down by enemy fire near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea, on Dec. 4, 1950. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command photo

The heat was tremendous. Struggling to suppress the fire in Brown’s burning Corsair, Hudner began packing snow around its smoking cowling. He had to use one hand to balance himself, so had only one hand to attempt to snuff the blaze and attempt a rescue. “There was no way to get traction to pull.” Although enemy troops were nearby, the helicopter arrived and, without hesitation, HO3S-1 pilot Marine 1st Lt. Charles Ward made a risky landing at the scene. Ward brought an ax, but it proved useless in extricating Brown.

“We were running out of daylight, Jesse was obviously dying, and we could find no way to get him free,” Hudner recalled. Because the HO3S-1 could not navigate at night, Hudner knew that if he and Ward did not leave, there would be three bodies in the Korean snow instead of one.

“We had no choice but to leave him. I was crushed. But there was absolutely nothing we could do.” Brown and Hudner had met when serving at Naval Air Station Quonset Point. Rhode Island. The two men did not socialize, but they knew each other well and enjoyed great mutual respect.

Brown died quietly. Hudner and Ward escaped in the helicopter with night closing in. Because the crash site was far behind Chinese lines and there was no hope of retrieving the slain pilot’s remains, VF-32 returned to the site a few days later and torched it with napalm.

Jesse LeRoy Brown was born in 1926 in Hattiesburg, Miss., enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1946, and became a naval aviator in October 1948. He flew the F9F Panther jet fighter before transitioning to the prop-driven Corsair. He wrote daily letters to his wife Daisy and year-old daughter, Pamela. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his Korean War combat service. The destroyer escort USS Jesse L. Brown (DE 1089), later classified as a frigate (FFT 1089), was named for the slain Corsair pilot. The ship was decommissioned and transferred to Egypt in 1994, a move that Hudner lamented because, said Hudner, “We need to honor Jesse’s memory.”

Medal of Honor recipient retired Capt.Thomas J. Hudner, Jr. addresses friends, Midshipmen, and several honored guests during his "Visions of Valor" portrait unveiling in Bancroft Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy on Dec. 15, 2008. Hudner and 139 other military Medal of Honor recipients are celebrated in the "Visions of Valor" portrait collection. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kevin S. O'Brien

Thomas Jerome Hudner, Jr., was born in 1924 in Fall River, Mass., where his father ran Hudner’s Markets, a chain of grocery stores. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1943 and the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946.

Hudner served as a communications officer aboard the cruiser USS Helena (CA 75), and became a naval aviator in August 1949. For his unsuccessful effort to save his section leader, Hudner was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S Truman on April 13, 1951, the first Navy member to receive the award during the Korean War. The citation for the award refers to Hudner’s “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”

Hudner retired as a captain in 1973, and served as Massachusetts’ commissioner for veterans’ affairs. He believes recognition should go to helicopter pilot Ward, who came to the scene “at great peril.”

Over the years, Hudner has maintained an aw-shucks attitude about the nation’s highest award for valor. “I once tried to clean it with Brasso but that didn’t work very well,” he said. In 1998, Hudner misplaced the medal during an appearance in Boston. “That’s what happens when you carry it around in your pocket a lot,” Hudner said. A local resident found it and returned it to him.

Editors note: Jesse Brown was “the first African-American to complete naval aviator training.” He was not the first African American naval aviator. Quotes from Hudner are from an interview in June 2001.

“We need to make sure we are on the cutting edge,” Panetta said. He added that the JSF is “absolutely vital to maintaining our air superiority,” but insisted that it’s important “to get this right.”

Panetta’s announcement means the JSF program, which has been plagued by cost increases and technical delays, will move ahead. The decision is a boost for advocates of the jet fighter, who say that its stealth qualities and versatility are needed to wage modern war. But skeptics were quick to point out that the decision by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates to give the F-35B two years to improve, and Panetta’s announcement that it had done so was mostly an inside-the-Washington-Beltway ploy. In DOD Buzz, Philip Ewing wrote that Gates “wrote a big check he knew he’d never have to cash, saying that the jet had two years to get its act together or he’d support its cancellation.

“Only Gates knew he wouldn’t be SecDef when that bill came due and that Lockheed, [the] Marine Corps and program officials were already knuckling down to tackle the B’s problems,” wrote Ewing.

Panetta praised the Patuxent community for demonstrating “real progress” in testing the STOVL aircraft during 2011.

The decision was hailed by partner nations in the JSF program. Julian Fantino, Canada’s Associate Minister of National Defense, called the move “welcome news for Canada and our allies’ participation in the multinational Joint Strike Fighter development program.”

The Marine Corps and Italy are presently the only users of the STOVL version of the JSF.

Kaman K-225, the world's first helicopter with a turbine engine. Test pilot William R. Murray is at the controls, 1949. Photo courtesy of the Naval Helicopter Historical Society (NHHS)

Charlie Kaman, one of the last great aviation pioneers of the twentieth century, died on Jan. 31, 2011 in Bloomfield, Conn. at age ninety-one. The Marines’ remotely piloted cargo helicopter assessment is only the latest of hundreds of innovations bearing the Kaman name. Even those who pilot his helicopters may not know that Charlie Kaman was an accomplished musician, guitar maker and service dog breeder.

Kaman was a 26-year-old engineer in 1945 when he founded Kaman Aircraft Company in the garage of his mother’s West Hartford, Conn. home with $2,000 invested by two friends.

When Kaman piloted his company’s first helicopter, the K-125, in the nocturnal hours of Jan. 15, 1947, “it was pitch dark, sleeting ice, and the conditions couldn’t have been worse, but we got six feet off the ground and hovered successfully,” Kaman said in an interview years later.

Today, the K-MAX being evaluated by the Marines – and used in the civilian world – is simply Kaman’s latest aircraft.

U.S. Air Force fire protection specialists fight a fire as an HH-43B Huskie helicopter hovers overhead to create a continuous downward air current, assisting the crew members. The crew was assigned to Detachment 8, 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, Vietnam. U.S. Air Force photo

For his first helicopter, Charlie Kaman carved the rotor blades in the basement of his mother’s house. He used parts of a 1933 Pontiac to design a test rig. Kaman’s early K-225 helicopters, inspired in part by the work of Germany’s Otto Flettner, who became a friend in postwar years, are now an obscure part of history, although three examples remain in museums today.

Kaman’s trademark is the use of twin intermeshing, or “synchro-fit,” rotors employed with every Kaman helicopter except the SH-2 Seasprite.

Kaman’s best-known design, the H-43 Huskie, with its Navy and Marine HTK and HOK versions, incorporated his intermeshing rotor principle. A few of these 1950s-vintage helicopters are still being used in Arizona for agricultural work and in Oregon for logging.

Kaman experimented with almost everything in the field of vertical flight, including compound helicopters, converta-planes, jet driven rotors, rotor chutes, drones, and many others. A list of achievements by this innovator includes:

• the first servo-controlled rotor
• the first gas-turbine powered helicopter
• the first twin-turbine powered helicopter
• the first production all-composite rotor blade
• the first remotely controlled helicopter
• the first remotely controlled helicopter to deploy at sea
• the first helicopter (the Huskie) to go through its service life with no accident or loss of life attributable to the aircraft design.

A close-up view of an SH-2F Seasprite light airborne multi-purpose system (LAMPS) helicopter as the pilot prepares to land it aboard the destroyer USS Thorn (DD 988) during Operation Unitas XXV, June 1, 1984. DoD photo by PHC Terry Mitchell

The Huskie resulted from a 1956 competition by the U.S. Air Force for a Local Crash Rescue Mission (LCRM) craft. The LCRM helicopter was intended to maintain “ready alert” to proceed to a crash site with rescue personnel and equipment to suppress a fire and achieve a rescue. Eventually, half a dozen versions were built, culminating in the HH-43F, which carried out more rescues in Vietnam than any other helicopter type.

Kaman pioneered the concept of the unmanned helicopter. In 1950, he flew a remotely-controlled HTK-1 and was quoted as saying it would be useful in a nuclear emergency. In the early 1960s, seeking to develop a system to communicate with U.S. strategic missile submarines, Kaman tested his Shipboard Very Low Frequency System) aboard two QH-43G Huskie drones which were taken to sea on the cruiser USS Wright(CG 2). Though the Navy eventually chose a different system that uses an antenna trailing behind a fixed-wing E-6B Mercury, not a single mishap occurred during extended Huskie sea trials; the system proved to be operationally feasible.

During Operation Desert Storm, the Kaman name was found on the Navy’s LAMPS Mk. 1 (SH-2F Seasprite) helicopter. Seasprites detected floating mines and helped EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) teams to neutralize the mine threat. The SH-2G model, or LAMPS Mk. 2, served until 2001. LAMPS was the Navy’s acronym for Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System.

The HU2K-1 Seasprite prototype flew on July 2, 1959. Following a change in designation, the first UH-2A entered Navy service on Dec. 18, 1962.

The Seasprite was the mount of the only Navy helicopter pilot to be awarded the Medal of Honor, Lt. Clyde E. Lassen, who flew a UH-2 to rescue two downed Navy F-4 Phantom crewmembers in North Vietnam.

A detachment of Marines from Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 in Afghanistan completed their first unmanned aerial system cargo delivery in a combat zone, Dec. 17, 2011. The unmanned helicopter moved about 3,500 pounds of food and supplies from Camp Dwyer to troops at Combat Outpost Payne. The helicopter, an unmanned variant of the K-MAX, completed the delivery in about an hour and a half. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Justin M. Boling

The prototype K-MAX made its initial flight on Dec. 23, 1991 at Bloomfield, flown by Kaman test pilot Al Ashley and powered by a 380-hp Lycoming 17A gas turbine engine. The K-MAX has a high aspect ratio tail fin with a movable rudder surface tied directly to rudder pedals. The pilot’s compartment is designed to be removed so that the aircraft can be flown as a drone. In a press briefing in 1992, Charlie Kaman called K-MAX “the start of a family of hardware designed to show off hi-tech.” He said he preferred the intermeshing rotor configuration and expected pilotless versions of K-MAX to be used in fisheries law enforcement and anti-drug efforts as well as military uses. Kaman said the K-MAX could loiter at 10,000 feet for “close to half a day at a time” and that it has “near infinite life” on its transmission and rotor blades. Often called “Leonardo da Vinci in a business suit,” Charlie Kaman was a good enough guitar player to perform with Tommy Dorsey and to supply guitars of his design to Carly Simon. In his spare time, Kaman and his wife bred German Shepherds and created the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, specializing in service dogs for the blind.

Kaman’s inventions and innovations will be with us for a long time to come – testimony to the brilliance of a pioneer whose name deserves mention alongside Sikorsky, Piasecki and Hiller. Said Hal Salem, a former Huskie pilot: “We would not have today’s helicopter industry without Charlie Kaman.”

With future U.S. purchases of the similar AT-6 in the Light Air Support (LAS) program now in doubt, the Mexican purchase is good news for the planemaker.

The T-6C+ uses a 1,600-horsepower PT6-A-68 turboprop engine and is equipped to carry practice weapons for training purposes. There is no indication yet that the planes will be armed or used for other than training purposes.

The first two of the six will be delivered to an advanced training base, not otherwise identified, in Mexico’s northern region early this year. The Texan IIs will replace the military’s aging Pilatus PC-7 fleet. At one time, Mexico operated 65 PC-7s.

“We see this sale of six aircraft as just the beginning of a long and productive relationship with the FAM [Fuerza Aerea Mexicana, or Mexican air force],” said Jim Maslowski, president of Hawker Beechcraft’s defense business, in a statement.

The motto of the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC) is ad inexplorata, usually rendered as “toward the unknown.”

Dealing with the unexplored is part of flight-testing at AFFTC, a component of Air Force Materiel Command, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. That doesn’t mean people in the command don’t know what they’re doing. “When you strap into the cockpit, you have a clear understanding of what will happen when the wheels leave the runway,” said retired Col. Ken Chilstrom, a test pilot at the center in the 1940s.

It has always been more than just a motto, said Brig. Gen. Robert C. Nolan II, AFFTC commander. “It conveys the spirit of our most important resource: smart, dedicated men and women who have made American air power what it is today who will ensure its preeminence into the future.”

Location, Location

The site for the test center was chosen because, at the time, it seemed almost as far away as the moon. In 1942, searching for a place to test the secret XP-59A Airacomet, America’s first jet aircraft, Col. Benjamin W. Chidlaw and Lt. Col. Ralph P. Swofford chose Muroc in southern California (named in reverse for the Corum brothers who settled the area). They found isolation and a natural runway at Rogers Dry Lake, the largest such lake in America. Today, the former Muroc Army Airfield is called Edwards Air Force Base, and the location seems less remote than it once did.

Before the Air Force Flight Test Center got its name (in 1951), it was already the test site where America's first jet aircraft, the Bell XP-59A Airacomet, was put through its paces. U.S. Air Force via Robert F. Dorr

What hasn’t changed is AFFTC’s mission, spelled out in an official document – to conduct “developmental and follow-on testing and evaluation of manned and unmanned aircraft and related avionics, flight-control, and weapon systems.” AFFTC also operates the Air Force’s Test Pilot School, which trains test pilots, flight-test engineers, and flight-test navigators.

Muroc became the test center for some of the most hush-hush American aircraft, including the XP-80 Shooting Star jet fighter; the XP-86 prototype for the F-86 Sabre; the Bell XS-1 rocket plane in which Capt. Charles E. Yeager flew faster than sound on Oct. 14, 1947; and a series of Northrop flying wings. On June 5, 1948, the exotic YB-49 flying wing crashed on a test flight and co-pilot Capt. Glen Edwards was killed. The following year, on Dec. 8, the Muroc installation was renamed Edwards Air Force Base.

By the time the Air Force Flight Test Center was established on June 25, 1951, it had already existed in everything but name for nearly a decade; fully 40 types of aircraft had already made their first flights at Edwards. Many more have followed.

AFFTC and its neighbor and partner, the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, have led the way in advancing aerospace technology. Lakebed Runway 18 became the landing facility for the X-15, a hypersonic research vehicle that flew for nearly a decade at Edwards. The base also supported flights by the NASA space shuttle orbiter. Shuttles often utilized Lakebed Runway 23 as a landing strip.

The YB-49 Flying Wing bomber prototype in flight. Northrop test pilot Max Stanley completed the first flight of an all-jet powered version of the YB-49 on Oct. 21, 1947. Capt. Glen Edwards, for whom Edwards Air Force Base was named, was killed in a crash of a YB-49. U.S. Air Force Photo courtesy of the AFFTC History Office

Key figures who tested aircraft at Edwards have gone on to fame in the U.S. human spaceflight program. They include test pilot-astronauts Donald “Deke” Slayton, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Joseph Engle. Rogers Dry Lake made possible the development and testing of generations of American aircraft, leading to the space shuttle.

During decades of scientific and technological progress, the AFFTC tested and supported nearly every aircraft system to enter the Air Force inventory. Some of the best known aircraft in the Air Force today, like the F-22 Raptor, B-2 Spirit, and C-17 Globemaster III, were first put through their paces by test pilots and engineers at the center.

Referring to the center’s overall tradition of stepping up to the plate, center commander Nolan said, “Each of these developments has imposed seemingly insurmountable challenges that have been overcome through a combination of technical skill, ingenuity and resourceful leadership.”

Added Nolan, as quoted in an Air Force news release: “It [the center] has been on the cutting edge of every major development that has transformed the field of flight – the turbojet engine; supersonic and hypersonic flight; gliding return from space; the development of integrated electronic systems; fly-by wire flight controls; digital flight controls; electronic warfare; aircraft survivability; and the development of stealth technology.”

AFFTC operates the Edwards Flight Test Range, which includes 20,000 square miles of airspace, including three supersonic corridors and four aircraft spin areas. Besides flight test capabilities, Edwards has an array of ground test facilities. Officials don’t comment on speculation that AFFTC also oversees the Air Force’s secret test base at Groom Lake, Nevada – popularly dubbed Area 51.

Adjacent to the center is the AFFTC Museum, which preserves and displays the material history of the center and of Air Force flight-testing. The museum boasts 80 aircraft, with 32 on display (29 at Edwards and three at the AFFTC-managed SR-71 Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale, Calif.). Other artifacts include aircraft propulsion systems, missiles, technical drawings, test reports, personal memorabilia, photographs, and wind tunnel models.

Air Test Anniversary

Brig. Gen. Robert C. Nolan II, AFFTC commander, and retired Brig. Gen. Charles E. Yeager celebrated the anniversary of the flight test center by flying supersonic in an F-16D Fighting Falcon. U.S. Air Force via Robert F. Dorr

The Air Force Flight Test Center had its 60th anniversary on June 25, 2011, and celebrated the milestone on Oct. 14, 2011 – the month and day of Yeager’s famous supersonic flight. AFFTC commander Nolan and Yeager strapped into an F-16D Fighting Falcon and flew faster than sound – again – while hundreds participated in festivities at the center.

During the ceremony Yeager was presented the Federal Aviation Administration’s “Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award,” for his longevity and leadership in the safety of aviation.

The anniversary event also included booths manned by base personnel and stationary aircraft displays of the T-38C Talon, F-16, F-22, B-1B Lancer and the F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. The AFFTC is currently home to six F-35s.

Singing the praises of the test center is nothing new. Toward the Unknown was a 1956 movie about test pilots starring William Holden and Lloyd Bridges. The Right Stuff was a book by Tom Wolfe and a 1983 movie in which Sam Shepard played supersonic pioneer Yeager.

Air Force officials say the “stop work” order is prompted by a lawsuit filed by Hawker Beechcraft Corporation, the manufacturer of the rival AT-6B Texan II.

However, the lawsuit was filed weeks ago. Observers believe the decision to suspend the contract is a response to reactions by lawmakers to the handling of the LAS competition.

On Dec. 22, the Air Force made the award without an announcement to prime contractor Sierra Nevada Corp., which was to work with Brazilian planemaker Embraer. Almost a month earlier, on Nov. 25, the service dropped the AT-6B Texan aircraft from consideration in the LAS competition, again without an announcement. It was that action, not the source selection, that promoted Hawker first to protest to the Government Accountability Office and then take legal action.

Despite its name, the Texan II is manufactured in Wichita. When it was dropped, the move puzzled and angered the plane’s maker and the Kansas congressional delegation. Typical was Sen. Pat Roberts (D-Kan) who said Hawker Beechcraft deserves more answers as to why it was excluded from the competition. “On every turn, the Air Force has denied the company and the congressional delegation the opportunity to understand why it made the decision,” Roberts said in a statement.

Even though they made no announcement about dropping the AT-6B or about choosing the Super Tucano, Air Force officials insist there has been “transparency” in the LAS process. “The Air Force is confident in the merits of the contract award decision and we expect the litigation will be quickly resolved,” Lt. Col. Wesley P. Miller told the Associated Press on Jan. 5. “We are trying to do everything we can to do this right and make sure that it is done because the thing to keep in mind is that this contract is a wartime support contract for a partner in conflict – and so involves a sense of urgency and mission accomplishment.”

The lawsuit, now in U.S. District Court, requests a temporary restraining order that would block the Super Tucano purchase. Miller said the Air Force decided put its own stop work order in place before the court ruled.

But the F-107 became a “might-have-been,” a solid performer that didn’t quite make the grade – described by one observer as “the best Air Force fighter never to go into production.” On the web site Suite 101, author Ivan Castro wrote that the Air Force’s “rejection of the F-107 … is considered one of the greatest military blunders of all time.”

Atomic Bomber

The number two F-107 fighter at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Note the semi-recessed carriage of the fuel tank beneath the fuselage, which was designed to carry a nuclear free-fall bomb. U. S. Air Force photo

The F-107 was conceived as a nuclear-capable, fighter-bomber version of the F-100 Super Sabre, with a recessed weapons bay under the fuselage. One requirement was to carry the 1,680-pound Mark 7 tactical nuclear gravity bomb as well as smaller nuclear bombs that were expected in the near future. When the centerline recess was not used for ordnance, an additional fuel tank could be carried.

The Air Force gave the go-ahead for 33 aircraft, at the time called F-100B models, on June 11, 1954. The designation was changed to F-107A on July 8, 1954, mostly to reflect changes from the Super Sabre design, including a longer fuselage, an all-moving vertical fin, an automated flight control system, and a system (a variable area inlet duct) that automatically controlled the amount of air fed to its 24,504-pound thrust Pratt & Whitney YJ75-P-9 turbojet engine.

One of NASA's two F-107As on the dry lake bed at Edwards AFB. This photo shows the spoilers atop the wing and absence of ailerons, the strong family resemblance to the F-100 Super Sabre in wing and tail surfaces, and the all-moving slab elevators and vertical stabilizer. NASA photo

The second and third F-107s made their initial flights on Nov. 28 and Dec. 10, 1956. The third plane introduced the fully automatic variable area inlet duct, the one feature of the F-107 that retained “bugs” throughout tests. Pilots reported an annoying “buzz” in the variable-geometry duct at high altitude.

In flight trials, the F-107 performed well. It achieved Mach 2.0 on Nov. 3, 1956. Pilots praised the aircraft and, contrary to its appearance, were not worried about being swallowed up by its engine: Because of the unusual location of the air intake, it was necessary for the canopy to open straight up rather than in clamshell fashion. But the F-107 was not “ejection unfriendly.” In an emergency, the pilot could eject right through the canopy without having to jettison it first.

Rather than ailerons, the aircraft used spoilers, which enabled it to roll with ease at supersonic speeds.

The F-107 was armed with four, single-barrel Pontiac M39E 20 mm. cannons (not installed on the No. 1 aircraft) and had six under-wing ordnance points in addition to its fuselage center station. This recessed weapons point was semi-conformal, meaning it was partly external, and it became what the Air Force considered the most important difference between the F-107 and its competitor, the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, which had a fully internal weapons bay.

In aviation literature today, the F-107 is often called the Ultra Sabre. Observers who recall the aircraft during the 1950s don’t remember this name ever being coined or used. North American flirted with the idea of calling the F-107 the Super Super Sabre, but this did not catch on.

Turning Heads

The arrival of the first F-107A at NACA (later NASA) in November 1957. Note the unusual configuration of the open canopy. NASA received the first and third F-107As for flight testing. Among other things, an F-107A tested a sidestick controller, forerunner of those used in the F-16, F-22 and F-35 today. NASA photo

While the sleek F-107 turned heads and thrilled aviation enthusiasts, the less glamorous and more trouble-prone F-105 Thunderchief was being developed by Republic. The planemaker needed the business. Its F-84 series of fighters was at the end of its production run. Many observers believed the Air Force would purchase the F-107 but would arrange for hungry Republic, rather than busy North American, to manufacture the latter company’s aircraft. Besides, North American was expected to win a handsome contract with a separate project, its XF-108 Rapier long-range interceptor.

Henry Crescibene, a Republic test pilot who performed early work on the F-105, remembers being told to prepare for the F-107.
“Our perception was that the Air Force liked North American and liked North American’s design better than ours,” Crescibene said in a telephone interview.

In March 1957, in an announcement that astonished many, the Air Force chose the F-105 in preference to the F-107. Although prototypes had been flying since Oct. 22, 1955, the first two F-105 variants had lacked the intended J75 engine and both made crash landings in March 1956, with their pilots unhurt but the aircraft mortally damaged. Although a J75-equipped version flew on May 26, 1956, the Thunderchief had a wide range of teething troubles. A direct fly-off competition with the F-107 had to be cancelled because the F-105 was not ready.

Once it became clear the F-107 would not be produced, the first and third airframes were transferred on Dec. 1, 1957, to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). With the Soviet Union’s first satellite already placed into orbit, the space age was arriving and NACA became NASA seven months layer.

Test pilot Scott Crossfield severely damaged the No. 3 F-107 in a crash landing and it was later scrapped.

The Air Force order for 33 planes was reduced to three. The No. 1 aircraft in the series is now an artifact at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz. The No. 2 F-107 is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. As for the F-105, the “Thud” achieved fame in missions over North Vietnam, where its all-important internal weapons bay never carried anything more lethal than a 365-gallon fuel tank.

Under the Light Air Support (LAS) program, the Brazilian planemaker will provide 20 of its EMB-314 Super Tucano, or A-29B, turboprop two-seaters for counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan.

The program will be overseen by officials of the U.S. Air Force, which dropped the AT-6B Texan II aircraft from the LAS competition more than a month before selecting the only other aircraft in contention. Hawker Beechcraft manufactures the AT-6B in Wichita and the aircraft is popular with the Kansas congressional delegation, whose lawmakers, like Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan), dismiss the Super Tucano as “foreign.”

Hawker says it has never been told why its AT-6B was excluded. Pompeo said, “I am deeply disappointed by this announcement.”

In fact, there was no announcement – not from Washington, at least. According to a Hawker press release, under federal regulations, agencies are required to make a public award announcement by 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on the day of the award.

Four-Year History

The LAS effort is descended from a study of light armed warplanes that dates to 2007. The Air Force once intended to acquire 100 counterinsurgency aircraft and to place some of them into service in U.S. colors.

The LAS program is for an initial 20 aircraft for the Afghan air force for delivery beginning later this year, funded by the U.S.-provided Afghan Security Forces Fund. The program comes under a firm-fixed price delivery order contract in the amount of $355 million for the initial 20 aircraft and associated support. However, the planemaker could rake in $1 billion or more if the LAS order, as expected, lays a foundation for additional overseas purchases for a total of 55 to 60 aircraft.

Embraer is teamed with U.S.-based Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) as the prime contractor and says it will assemble the Super Tucanos at a new facility to be built in Jacksonville, Fla. – a move hailed by the city’s mayor, Alvin Brown, a democrat, who made his own public announcement on Dec. 30. Earlier promises by other aerospace firms for a new assembly plant in Jacksonville, most recently by the Italian planemaker Alenia, which builds the C-27J Spartan airlifter, have failed to materialize – along with promised U.S. jobs – and planes like the C-27J have ended up being built abroad. Embraer and SNC officials are keeping expectations modest, saying the new plant may create 30 to 50 jobs.

In addition to airframes, Embraer and SNC will supply the ground training devices – simulators and planning stations – and spare parts. Training operations will be provided in Clovis, N.M. SNC will provide in-field logistic support and pilot and maintenance training. More than 70 U.S. suppliers in 21 states will supply parts or services for this contract.

The 150 Super Tucanos in service with five air forces today have logged more than 130,000 flight hours, including 18,000 combat hours, according to Luiz Carlos Aguiar, CEO of Embraer Defense and Security.

Legal Action

Before the Air Force’s selection but after having its concerns dismissed for procedural reasons by the Government Accountability Office, Hawker Beechcraft filed a lawsuit at the Court of Federal Claims over its exclusion from the bidding process. The court’s ruling for a temporary restraining order is expected in mid-January.  Said Hawker CEO Bill Boisture, “We don’t understand the basis for the exclusion, and frankly, we think we’ve got the [better] airplane.” Hawker points out that because trainer versions of the Texan II are widely used in the U.S. military, maintenance and training systems and a parts supply chain are already in place. “Hawker deserves answers” was the title of a Jan. 2 Wichita Eagle editorial.

Analysts point out that the AT-6B is a converted trainer that carries all armament beneath its wings and fuselage while the Super Tucano was designed from the outset as a combat aircraft and has internal guns. Both aircraft use the 1,600-shaft horsepower Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68C turboprop engine – an upgrade for the AT-6B and standard for the Super Tucano. The Super Tucano has a wingspan of 36 feet 78 inches, a maximum takeoff weight of 11,905 pounds and a maximum speed of 367 miles per hour. The AT-6B has a wingspan of 33 feet 5 inches, a maximum takeoff weight of 8,424 pounds, and a maximum speed of 364 miles per hour.

Good News For Some

The LAS decision was “good news for some, bad news for others,” said one source. “This is great economic news for Jacksonville,” said Brown. “The award reaffirms that Jacksonville is the most military and business-friendly city in the United States.”

Said Aguiar: “We are committed to pursuing our U.S. investment strategy and to delivering the A-29 Super Tucano on schedule and within the budget.”

The LAS decision appears not to have been affected by a Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena of Embraer relating to possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The SEC’s intentions have not been made public, but the issue apparently relates to commercial airliners manufactured by Embraer and not military aircraft. Nor does the decision appear to be related to the fact that an entirely different U.S. planemaker, Boeing – with its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet – is a contender in a contest to build a fighter aircraft for the Brazilian air force.

Quite apart from the question of which aircraft should be chosen, the LAS program and its predecessors have detractors on Capitol Hill, who shot down a similar program for U.S. Central Command a few months ago. It may not yet be certain that the program will proceed in any form, let alone as currently planned.

It was designed, developed and subsidized in the mid-1950s when defense dollars abounded, but it was never built or flown. Had it rolled out of Republic Aviation’s factory doors in Farmingdale, Long Island, N.Y. and taken to the air, the XF-103 would have been one of the most advanced flying machines in the sky.

So long as its ungainly tricycle landing gear was retracted, the XF-103 would also have been one of the best looking of warplanes.

Too, it would have marked a giant leap in metallurgy. From the start of design efforts, Republic intended the XF-103 to be constructed entirely of titanium.

Fighter Requirement

In 1949, the USAF issued a request for an advanced supersonic fighter for its Air Defense Command. The new aircraft and its associated systems were designated Weapon System WS-201A and its electronic system fell under Project MX-1554 Interceptor Fighter Airplane. This was too much of a mouthful for most airmen and the proposed craft was commonly dubbed the “1954 Interceptor,” after the year it was optimistically expected to enter service. The aircraft chosen would have the pivotal mission of defending North America from oncoming Soviet nuclear bombers. In manufacturer’s terminology, Republic’s entry was the AP-57.

No record seems to exist of how Air Force officers reacted when they toured the Farmingdale factory in June 1954, long after entry-into-service had been pushed to the right on the calendar. They were visiting to look at a mock-up of the Republic candidate.

In an era before compartmentalized security clearances, the full-sized replica of the XF-103 was a secret, kept in a location where the very few who scrutinized it were often astounded at its size, sleekness, and futuristic shape.

It was a fighter that had no visible canopy for its pilot. Engineers were so intent on providing the best possible aerodynamic shape they enclosed the pilot inside the fuselage with only a periscope to view the world in front of the plane. Two side windows were so small a wag called them “day or night indicators.”

Republic was competing with planemakers Consolidated Vultee (or Convair) and Lockheed.

An artist's conception of the XF-103. U. S. Air Force image

The XF-103 was the biggest and most advanced of the three designs being considered as the”1954 interceptor.” It was expected to be almost 80 feet in length. As design work on the plane progressed, engineers devised a unique, dual propulsion system.

The aircraft would take off and climb using a Wright J67-W-1/3 turbojet engine, a derivative of the Bristol Olympus. With 22,000 pounds of thrust, the J67 was twice as powerful as other turbojets then in use.

Once at high speed, the XF-103 would augment the turbojet with a J55 ram jet engine, increasing total thrust to 37,000 pounds. A large scoop mounted under the fuselage fed both engines.

Joshua Stoff, author of The Thunder Factory, a history of Republic, said in an interview, “Even today, the XF-103 would be considered an exceptional aircraft.”

It would have been heavily armed. A document from the period said that “six MX-904 missiles and 36 2.75 in. FFA [folding fin aircraft] rockets internally stowed are proposed. The missile launching system is complex, with six individual tracks and actuating cylinders. Accessibility of all launchers for loading is adequate.” One drawback, the document noted: “Rockets and especially missiles are poorly located in the immediate area of the engine air scoop.”

The term MX-904 referred to the Hughes Falcon missile, which went through numerous name changes. When conceived in 1951, the missile was designated F-98, making it a “fighter” under Air Force terminology. (The F-99 was the Bomarc missile, which used up the last number before the F-100 Super Sabre and the “century series” of fighters). The Falcon was redesignated GAR-1 (for guided aircraft rocket) in 1955 and AIM-4 (for air intercept missile) in 1962. It became a family of missiles that included radar-guided and heat-seeking versions.

The XF-103 would have no gun. In the 1950s, everyone knew that a fighter no longer needed a gun. (The Falcon would later suffer reliability problems in Vietnam). Nor was the XF-103 to have armor or self-sealing fuel tanks. The position of the main wheels in the rear fuselage might have made it awkward to taxi. It did, however, offer an escape system, the design of which was never finalized, that would enable the pilot to eject at supersonic speeds.

Long Range Interceptor

The Republic XF-103's full-scale mock-up. Note the narrow track of the landing gear and the mock-up for the escape capsule sitting on the floor beyond the cockpit area of the aircraft. U.S. Air Force photo

According to Stoff, the XF-103 would carry enough fuel to loiter 250 miles from its base to intercept enemy bombers crossing the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line, a network of radar stations, over Canada. Other sources credit the planned, production-model F-103 with a maximum speed of three times the speed of sound and an extraordinary rate-of-climb of 66,000 feet per minute – an important capability for an interceptor. Engineers reportedly assigned a limiting Mach number of 3.0 due to their estimate of excessive turbine inlet air temperature.

“The prototype was well on its way toward completion when the Air Force canceled the project because of its high cost,” Stoff said.

The Air Force did acquire a “1954 interceptor,” the Convair F-102A Delta Dagger, which actually entered service in 1956. Convair eventually manufactured 1,000 F-102s, and they were supplemented by 340 of the more advanced F-106 Delta Darts.

Republic, which was an industry powerhouse in the 1950s, went on to manufacture the F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber of the Vietnam era. Although Republic produced a series of warplanes with the term “Thunder-” in their names, published reports that the XF-103 was to be named the Thunderwarrior are incorrect.

At one time, Republic held a contract to built three prototypes. The USAF canceled the XF-103 development contract on Aug. 21, 1957.

We can only imagine what might have been had the XF-103 overcome technical obstacles with its titanium construction and J67 engine.

Although a full-scale mock-up was in existence for several years and an actual aircraft was nearly completed, neither is in existence today, and the XF-103 survives only in the form of drawings and models, and a few videos on YouTube.