One Hundred Years of U.S. Navy Air Power

by Smith, Douglas V.

  The history of U.S. Navy air power has left a proud tradition that has rightfully shaped America’s history of success in wars and in preserving American freedoms, moral imperatives, and interests. This volume is dedicated to all those who have flown against capable adversaries and often tremendous odds in securing them. In the Centennial Year of U.S. Navy air power it is hoped that all Americans pause to salute those patriots who have “carried America’s flag into battle in pursuit of a just cause.” They have shaped American history and will continue to do so in the second century of U.S. Navy air power.

  CONTRIBUTORS

  DR. STANLEY D. M. CARPENTER

  Stanley D. M. Carpenter is a Professor of Strategy and Policy at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and serves as the deputy Strategy and Policy Division Head for the College of Distance Education. He holds degrees from Florida State University (PhD in British Military History), the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) (MLitt in Scottish Military History), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (AB with honors in History). Dr. Carpenter is a retired U.S. Navy Captain, having served for thirty years on active duty and in the Navy Reserve as a Surface Warfare Officer. Professor Carpenter’s publications include Military Leadership in the British Civil Wars, 1642–1651: “The Genius of this Age” (Cass 2005) and editorship of The English Civil War in The International Library of Essays on Military History (Ashgate 2007).

  DR. DONALD CHISHOLM

  Donald Chisholm has been Professor of Joint Military Operations at the Naval War College since 2000. Previously he taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago; University of California, Los Angeles; The Ohio State University; and University of California, San Diego. He earned his AB, MA, and PhD in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research has addressed planning and executing Joint military operations; cognitive and organizational limits on rationality; organizational failure and reliability; and privatization of public activities. He is the author of two books, Coordination Without Hierarchy: Informal Structures in Multi-Organizational Systems (1989), and Waiting for Dead Men’s Shoes: Origins and Development of the U.S. Navy’s Officer Personnel System, 1793–1941 (2001), which received the 2001 Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Distinguished Contribution to Naval Literature. He has published in Joint Force Quarterly, Parameters, Journal of Strategic Studies, and the Naval War College Review.

  CDR. KEVIN J. DELAMER, USN

  Commander Delamer is a career helicopter aviator and a qualified test pilot. He has accumulated over three thousand hours over thirty type model series aircraft including various models of the H-3 and H-60. In addition to operational deployments, he has served in a variety of staff assignments including a tour with NASA, responsibility for political-military affairs for the U.S. Navy in the Middle East, and Executive Assistant to the Commander, Naval Forces, U.S. Central Command. He is currently serving as a military Professor in the Strategy Department at the U.S. Naval War College, where he also serves as a lecturer for the Fleet Seminar Program.

  DR. NORMAN FRIEDMAN

  Dr. Friedman has been concerned throughout his career with the way in which policy and technology intersect, in fields as disparate as national missile defense, nuclear strategy, and mobilization policy. An internationally known strategist and naval historian, he worked more than a decade at a major U.S. think tank, and another decade as consultant to the Secretary of the Navy. He has consulted for many major defense corporations. Dr. Friedman has written more than thirty-five books on naval strategy and technology, including an award-winning account of the U.S. Cold War strategy, histories of U.S. and British aircraft carriers (in the latter case including their aircraft), an account of carrier and naval aircraft technology, and a two-volume history of British (and Commonwealth) destroyers and frigates. He contributes a monthly column on world naval developments to the Naval Institute’s Proceedings magazine and writes articles for journals worldwide. Dr. Friedman holds a PhD from Columbia University, New York. He lectures widely on defense issues in forums such as the National Defence University, the Naval War College, and the Royal United Services Institute. His current focus is on network-centric warfare, about which he has recently published Network Centric Warfare: How Navies Learned to Fight Smarter in Three World Wars. This year he is publishing a book on unmanned combat air vehicles and their possible effect on carrier aviation and also a history of British and Commonwealth cruisers.

  HILL GOODSPEED

  Hill Goodspeed is the author or editor of five books, one of which was named by Naval Institute Proceedings as one of the Notable Naval Books of 2001. Named a George C. Marshall Undergraduate Scholar while attending Washington and Lee University, he is the historian and Artifact Collections Manager at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

  CAPT. JOHN EDWARD JACKSON, USN (RET.)

  John Jackson has been a researcher and historian of lighter-than-air vehicles for over forty years. He has flown five different classes of modern commercial airships, as well as recreational hot-air balloons. He has authored numerous articles on the history and potential future of LTA platforms, and has contributed to a television documentary on the role of airships in the Battle of the North Atlantic. He served in logistics and education assignments over a twenty-seven-year career in the U.S. Navy, holds advanced degrees from Providence College and Salve Regina University, and is a graduate of the Management Development Program at Harvard University. He longs for the days when the phrase “Up Ship!” was exclaimed as Navy aviators took to the skies in buoyant flight.

  TIMOTHY H. JACKSON

  Timothy H. Jackson is a retired Navy officer, and formerly a special adviser to the President of the Naval War College, associate dean of Academic Affairs for Electives and Directed Research, and professor of Strategy and Policy at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He is the former Director of Distance Education and Director of Academic Support, servicing more than 45,000 students from all branches of the military Services as well as students from other federal agencies. He is a published author of military studies and a guest lecturer at colleges and universities around the country. He was a guest speaker at the sixty-fifth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, when his “Two-Ocean Navy Act of 1940” was first presented.

  EDWARD S. MILLER

  Edward S. Miller, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Syracuse University, also attended the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. In his career at a Fortune 500 international mining corporation in New York he rose to Chief Financial Officer. He was later CFO of the U.S. government’s Synthetic Fuels Corporation. From his interests in comparing corporate planning to war plans, and in the roots of the Pacific War, he wrote War Plan Orange: The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan, 1897–1945, published by the Naval Institute Press. The book won five distinguished history prizes. He recently wrote Bankrupting the Enemy: The U.S. Financial Siege of Japan before Pearl Harbor. Mr. Miller lives in the now infamous Watergate in Washington, D.C.

  DR. ALBERT A. NOFI

  Albert A. Nofi, an educator, military historian, defense analyst, and game designer, has written or edited some forty books and wargames, most recently “To Train the Fleet for War”: The U.S. Navy Fleet Problems, 1923–1940, released in 2010 by the Naval War College Press.

  DR. GARY J. OHLS

  Gary J. Ohls currently serves as Associate Professor of Joint Maritime Operations in the Naval War College Program at the Naval Postgraduate School. He received a PhD in History from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, holds three master’s degrees, and is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Prior to his current assignment, Professor Ohls served as a member of the Maritime History Department at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Colonel Ohls served thirty-five years in the United States Marine Corps including duty as an enlisted man, a regular officer, a Reserve officer, and a Reserve officer on active du
ty. Additionally, he has worked in management positions with Northrop Grumman Corporation and the Aerospace Corporation. His professional publications include one book and five articles on various military issues.

  DR. S. MIKE PAVELEC

  Dr. Pavelec currently teaches at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at Maxwell AFB after teaching two years at the U.S. Naval War College and three years at Hawaii Pacific University. He received his PhD in History from The Ohio State University after BA and MA degrees from University of Calgary (Canada). His research focuses on military technology and innovation, and the interconnected nature of the military-industrial complex.

  CAPT. ROBERT C. (BARNEY) RUBEL, USN (RET.)

  Captain Rubel was a career light attack and strike fighter aviator and Landing Signal Officer. He commanded VFA-131 and accumulated over three thousand hours and nine hundred arrested landings in the A-7 and F-18. He is currently Dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the U.S. Naval War College; at this institution he directed the research and gaming effort that resulted in the current U.S. Maritime Strategy.

  DR. DOUGLAS V. SMITH

  Dr. Douglas V. Smith is Professor of Strategy and Policy and Head of the Strategy and Policy Division for the College of Distance Education at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. A career Navy officer and aviator, he earned his BS at the United States Naval Academy, his MAs at the Naval Postgraduate School and the Naval War College, and his PhD in Military History at Florida State University. He is the author of Carrier Battles: Command Decision in Harm’s Way (Naval Institute Press, 2006), and a chapter titled “Gunboat Diplomacy: Presidential Use of Aircraft Carriers and Their Embarked Air Wings,” part of the forthcoming Statesmen and Air Power.

  DR. STEPHEN K. STEIN

  A graduate of The Ohio State University, Dr. Stephen K. Stein teaches at the University of Memphis and also directs its online history program. His recent publications include From Torpedoes to Aviation: Washington Irving Chambers and Technological Innovation in the New Navy, 1877–1913 (2007), and “The Greely Relief Expedition and the New Navy,” International Journal of Naval History 5 (December 2006), which won the Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller Prize in Naval History.

  INDEX

  A

  A-1/AD Skyraider aircraft, 213, 270, 274, 275, 278, 280, 285, 286, 292, 314

  A-3 Skywarrior aircraft, 247, 262, 331, 340, 345n8

  A-4 Skyhawk aircraft, 247–48, 259, 265, 282, 285, 286–87, 290, 292

  A-5 Vigilante bomber, 248, 266

  A-6 Intruder bomber, 248, 256, 266, 267, 282, 285, 292, 336

  A-7 Corsair II aircraft, 248, 249, 253, 255, 256, 259, 266, 267, 285

  Abraham Lincoln, 336

  aeronautics research, 12, 19, 20–22, 27–28

  Air Force, U.S.: accident rate, 241, 265; bombing role of, 311–12; establishment of, 311; jet aircraft, transition to, 241; Korean conflict, 274–75, 277, 313; maintenance practices, 261; rescue operations, 226, 229; roles and missions of, 311–12, 318, 324; safety issues and initiatives, 262–63

  air wings: number of aircraft in, 88, 159, 160, 167–68, 170–71, 193n12, 194n17, 194n19, 340; types of aircraft for, 87, 110, 147–48, 150n21, 173–74, 176, 188–89, 307–8

  aircraft: advances in, 2, 3, 20–21, 35, 209–10, 264; bailing out, 259; control systems for, 20, 24; cost of, 148; crashes and accidents, 19–20, 25, 164, 165, 194n15, 241–42, 244–45, 265; design and development of, 8–10, 13–14, 210–15; early research and development, 6–8; funding for, 147, 303, 307; interwar development of, 199–200; loss of during Pacific campaign, 210; manufacturing of, 24–25, 151n40, 200, 209–10, 303, 307; orders for, 26, 139, 151n29; patent dispute over design of, 9, 14, 26; procurement of, 16, 17, 149n7, 167, 303; quality of, 24–25; range of, 31, 33–35, 37, 101; system of aircraft-type symbols, 156; technology transitions, dangers during, 49; for World War I, 154, 190n3, 200. See also air wings; jet aircraft; seaplanes and flying boats

  aircraft carrier design: angled flight decks, 258, 259, 265, 333, 335, 349n12; armored flight decks, 172–73, 183–86; characteristics proposed by Aviation Division, 156, 190–91n4; construction time and, 145–46; deck equipment for landings, 84, 155–56; deck size and specifications, 167–68, 194n18, 341, 342; elevators, 84, 165–66, 170, 330, 335; flexible decks, 333; guns on flight deck, 160–61; larger carriers, 340–42; nuclear carriers, 335, 336–37; preliminary characteristics, 157–58, 190n2, 192–93nn8–9, 329–31, 344–48nn6–10; ship conversions, 24, 80, 97, 134, 153, 156, 157, 159, 186–88, 192n7, 193n10, 197–98nn29–32; size and specifications, 89; smaller carrier designs, 338–40, 349nn16–17; treaty tonnage limits and, 146; for two-ocean Navy, 177–82, 196–97nn27–28; Washington Naval Treaty and, 167–75, 194n17, 194n19. See also catapults

  aircraft carriers: annual building program, 335, 336; carrier task force, emergence of, 100–110; construction and commissioning of, 138–39, 140, 141–45, 151n35, 156, 179–81, 189, 340; cost of, 141, 143, 191n5; crashes aboard, 164, 165, 194n15, 257, 265; deck park, 88; disarmament conference and treaty and, 159–60; effectiveness of, 53, 215, 343; first American, 6; flexibility of, 325; flight deck hazards, 164, 261; flight-deck operations, 85; independent operations by, 101, 107–8, 115, 116, 122–23; launching and landing procedures, 83–85, 134, 162–66, 193–94nn14–15, 254, 257–59, 330, 334, 342–43, 349n18; logistical demands of operations with, 104; night operations, 182–83; nuclear carriers, 337–38, 342; offensive missions with, 53, 81, 88–89, 97, 99–100, 104, 110, 189–90, 201; optical landing system, 258, 259, 265, 334; refueling of, 112; role in fleet operations, 3, 133, 156–57, 191n5, 306, 322–29, 341, 343–44nn2–5, 351–54; sinking of and damage to, 101, 126n24; specialized air groups, 126–27n33; system of ship-type symbols, 156, 185; tactics and operational methods for, 80–83, 85–87, 89, 134, 182–83; technological advances, 343; vulnerability of, 101, 108, 123, 177

  airships: acquisition of, 44; blimps, 44, 49–50; capabilities and value of, 44, 106, 123; commercial airships, 43; contributions of, 50; development of, 6, 43; dirigibles, 24, 44, 304, 305; interest in, 24, 302; military missions with, 35, 43, 44, 46–50, 155, 194n16; purchase of, 24; range of, 35; requests for, 26; rigid airships, 44–49, 194n16, 208; scouting missions, 208–9; size and specifications, 43, 47, 49, 50; termination of operations with, 50, 305, 319n25; terminology, 44; value of, 110

  Akron, 35, 46–48, 106

  Antietam, 258, 333

  anti-submarine warfare: aircraft and carrier operations for, 331–32, 337, 338–39; Battle of the Atlantic, 309; helicopters and rotary-wing aircraft for, 221, 223, 224, 227, 229–30, 231–32, 235, 236, 337, 339; Navy’s role in, 313–14

  Army/Army Air Force/Army Air Corps, U.S.: Aeronautical Division, 8–9; aircraft development and flight testing, 13–14; aviation program, development of, 5, 6–8, 16–17, 302, 318n6; aviation program, future of, 311; bombing role of, 304, 309, 310; coastal defense operations, 214, 306–7; fleet-based versus land-based aircraft for Navy, 35, 208, 214, 305–7; funding for aviation program, 16–17; helicopter demonstration, 220, 221; Korean conflict, 273–74, 276–79, 313; Navy aviation, cooperation with, 14–15; roles and missions of, 311–12, 324; Wright brothers Military Flyer, 8–9

  AV-8 Harrier, 251, 342

  aviation: beginnings of military aviation, 6–8; Curtiss’ contributions, 9–10; first military aircraft, 8–9; German development of military aviation, 12; government funding for, 8; Wright brothers flight research and testing, 8–9. See also naval aviation

  aviation safety, 262–64

  B

  B-17 bombers, 310

  B-24 Liberator aircraft, 214, 308, 309, 313, 316

  B-25 bombers, 310

  B-26 Invader, 271

  B-29 Superfortress, 271, 282

  B-36 Peacemaker, 243, 273, 312, 324–25

  B-52 Stratofortress, 293

  Badoeng Strait, 274, 276

  balloons, 6, 10, 24, 303, 304

  battleships: anti-aircraft capabilities, 89; capabilities o
f, 83, 319n29; construction and commissioning of, 138, 143; design of, 153; expansion of fleet, 10, 137, 140, 150n20, 151n31; improvements to, 92n26; loss of, 143, 308; naval aviation and future of, 26–28, 123, 124, 132; planes on, 15, 18, 22, 24, 26; treaty tonnage limits, 158–59, 193n11