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AUGUST LUNCHEON
REPORT
Dick Ewers
ended his informative talk by saying, "I'm working myself out
of a
job — and yours, too."
He is employed
by NASA (The aeronautical side of the house) as one of six test
pilots in the Flight Crew Branch at the Dryden Flight Research Center,
located
about 75 miles north of Los Angeles at Edwards, California.
NASA hired him
only if he felt that he could stay qualified on not less than
five airplane types. If you review OP-Plan 8-2004 you'll see why
he was able to
say, "Sure. Ok. Why not. Yes!" There are also four airborne
science pilots in
his branch which includes ten aircraft types within their fleet
of 21 test
article aircraft. Interestingly, his boss stays actively qualified
as a test
pilot on the F-18 at the age of 68. (So much for the FAA's age 60
rule!)
Dick began his slide presentations with an overview of his vast
operating area
and its unique airport which sports an 18,000 foot runway with a
5 mile long
extension into the dry lake as an overrun if you miss landing on
the runway.
Their mission at NASA is to static test and flight test the feasibility
of new
ideas and technologies for future aircraft both manned and unmanned,
military
and civil. They do so in a working cooperation with other nations
on many
occasions.
Some concepts/ideas
might seem far out, such as in place of vertically launching
a space vehicle at an enormous fuel expense, why not tow the vehicle
up to
altitude and then let it continue under its own power. Imagine the
fuel savings.
Dick said they tested the concept using a C-141 towing a F-106.
It worked!
Or, recall the Wright-flyer employed wing warping as a means of
roll control
that until NASA fussed about with the idea it has been forgotten
in the age of
hard-spar filled wings. The adaptive aeroelastic aircraft has in
fact induced a
manageable roll moment by deflecting its extended outboard leading
edge devise
so as to twist/warp the wing. The original old idea using new technology.
It's
doable!
We've heard
a lot about drafting, used in racing bicycles and cars, as an
energy saving concept. Well then, how about looking at the fuel
savings of an
aircraft which flies its outboard 1/3 wing span directly into a
wing tip
vortices of the aircraft ahead of it. There is a 15-40% fuel savings
derived.
Dick didn't mention the resultant ride quality.
Recall the United
Airlines DC-10 loss of all hydraulic muscle rendering the
flight controls inoperative. However, by thrust management of the
two wing
engines, the crew brought the aircraft back to earth. So NASA is
now looking at
alternative means of aircraft control via canard/wing/tail surfaces
together
with the thrust vectoring. They are looking at an engine nozzle
with 350 degrees
of circular movement. Looks like great stuff to add to transport
category
aircraft for both aircraft and passenger safety.
More and more
pilots are becoming obsolete as we move into pilot-less vehicles
that seem to do the job just as well as we did/can. It's the wave
of the future.
Suppose one wished to extend the UAV's range by midair refueling?
Can UAV's do
that? NASA tested that also with today's technology and reported,
"NO, not yet
anyway."
Because the
military can make a strong case for times when airborne vehicles
including UAV's should fly in formation, NASA tested that also.
The vehicles
must each use the same GPS satellite birds to feed the exact positions
of the
aircraft. Doing so allows the aircraft to fly very acceptable formation.
It
works!
Dick manned
one of the aircraft using GPS navigation/formation flying on
autopilot and reported that it works so well that he felt strangely
that he was
"working himself out of a job--and yours, too, as well!"
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About Our
GPS Treasurer:
LCDR Charles
(Andy) Andresen, USNR (Ret) entered St. Joseph's Hospital 15
August 04 with a broken hip. At this writing, visits/phone calls
have not been
announced.. Cards to his home will be forwarded to him, his address
is listed in the OP-Plan.
AUTOMATED BUGLES
MAY REPLACE STEREOS
By Vince Crawley, Navy Times 8/9/04
The Pentagon
wants to banish the boomboxes that play "Taps" at more
than
100,000 veterans' funerals each year. Replacing the CD recording
is a special automated bugle that plays the melancholy tune even
if the person holding it has no musical ability. The bugle was tested
last year in Missouri and earned high marks, though in a few isolated
cases the devices malfunctioned during burial services. In its latest
annual report to Congress, the Pentagon said it provided support
for 118,998 funerals in 2003, up 6.5 percent from the year before.
The U.S. military, busy fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, is
struggling to pay the nation's final respects to hundreds of thousands
of veterans who die each year.
The Department
of Veterans Affairs estimates more than 1,800 veterans pass away
each day, many of them from the World War II and Korean War generations,
for an annual total of 660,000. That is expected to peak in about
four years at 1,850 a day, then begin to decline.
By law, families
that ask for military funeral honors for a deceased veteran are
entitled, at a minimum, to a team of two service members to fold
and present the American flag, as well as the playing of "Taps"
by live bugler or recording. But with current operational strains
on active-duty forces, an increasing
number of reserve personnel, veterans groups and contractors are
taking part in funeral honors.
In 2003, about
64,000 honors were performed by active-duty units, compared to 55,000
by reserve and Guard units. About 42,500 veterans' group members
also took part, as well as 9,000 others — contracted buglers,
ROTC cadets and volunteers not affiliated with a veterans group.
Live buglers are preferred but played at only 16 percent of funerals
last year. Another 6 percent used a contract bugler, and 77 percent
used a recorded version of "Taps" played on a portable
CD player or played on the electronic bugle.
The electronic bugle features a cone-shaped device in its bell and,
when activated. plays "Taps" as recorded by a military
bugler at Arlington National Cemetery Families are told they're
hearing a recording. But defense officials say the electronic bugle
conveys more dignity than a portable CD player. "The continued
use of the stereo or boombox rendition of ‘Taps' at veterans'
funerals will decrease and eventually be eliminated," the Pentagon
report to Congress stated. The Army already has ordered 500 bugles
— at a cost of about $250,000 — and has a need for 5,000
more.
The Defense
Department last year tested 50 prototype electronic bugles in more
than 950 burial ceremonies before making a pick. "The system
is reliable and endorsed by over 96 percent of the families surveyed,"
stated the Defense Department report. Two National Guard units also
tested the device in Panama's extreme heat and humidity, with no
glitches. The report included sample comments from service members
and family members who went to electronic-bugle ceremonies, and
not everyone raved "What is
the matter with you people?" one family member wrote. "My
husband deserved, - every veteran deserves, a real bugler."
But most comments
were positive. "I was very impressed," one wrote. "My
husband would have been proud."
Another wrote: "It sounded so real and beautiful, and I appreciated
it so much."
V-J DAY SEPTEMBER 2 1945
Navy AvCad
George Bush
Stearman N2S-3 #07103
NAS Minneapolis, Minn. 1942
According to
the National Museum of Naval Aviation, on Feb. 2, 1991, Stearman
N2S-3 Navy #07103 N5102N, C/N 75-6707, was officially recognized
as one of the five surviving biplanes flown by George Bush during
his primary training at NAS Minneapolis. It is not easy for those
unfamiliar with this type of archival
research to know that "as was custom during World War II, the
Navy assigned its own serial numbers, the manufacturer assigned
its own numbers and, when a biplane was registered, the FAA assigned
its own number," according to July 1990 Biplane News.
The FAA includes
the manufacturer's serial number upon registration and The Stearman
Restorer's Association historian helped locate the corresponding
Navy number. Therefore, the above mentioned numbers are correct
and the National Museum of Naval Aviation has verified that to be
the case.
According to the President's biography, "Former President Bush's
lifetime of service to America began when he joined the Navy on
his 18th birthday in 1942 as a seaman. He became the youngest pilot
in the Navy at the time when he received his commission and designated
a Naval Aviator before his 19th birthday." It has been an American
legend or folklore that George Bush signed up for the Navy before
his 18th birthday, but regardless he was the youngest pilot at the
time to receive his commission. Submitted: Cliff Nord
THAT'S A WRAP! 4 carrier groups head home after readiness test
By William H. McMichael Navy Times 8/2/04
The Navy closed
the door on much of Summer Pulse ‘04 over a long weekend, with
four of the seven carrier strike groups that got underway for the
readiness test returning to bases on the East and West coasts.
At the same time, the exercise continues, with the Japan-based Kitty
Hawk finally underway in the Western Pacific and making plans for
tandem training with the John C. Stennis.
Meanwhile, the
John F. Kennedy patrols the Persian Gulf; and its Carrier Air Wing
17 pounded enemy positions in support of ground troops in Iraq the
week of July 19. On the East Coast, loved ones and merchants rejoiced
as three carrier groups were due home to Norfolk Naval Station,
Va., in a busy four-day stretch: Enterprise on July 23, Harry S.
Truman on July 25 and George Washington a day
later. And a huge celebration on July 23 in San Diego marked the
arrival of the brand-newcarrier Ronald Reagan, which completed a
long journey west from Virginia to its permanent home by way of
the Straits of Magellan, on South America's southern tip. Meanwhile,
the carriers' respective air wings flew home
a day early. Summer Pulse ‘04 is the Navy's test of its Fleet
Response Plan, a flexible operational construct that calls for getting
six carrier groups underway within 30 days and another two groups
in the succeeding 60 days. The Navy went that first number one better,
although only for a space of five days; the Kitty Hawk
left Yokosuka, Japan, on July 19, less than a week before the Enterprise
came home.
Five carrier
strike groups were simultaneously underway for the major combat
phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Summer Pulse carriers took
part in operations ranging from real-world combat to complex training
exercises with nearly two dozen allied navies. The John C. Stennis
is finishing the huge Rim of the Pacific exercise near Hawaii and
will sail west this week to meet the Kitty Hawk group and ships
from the
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. The George Washington group was
completing a four-month rotation in the Persian Gulf, with missions
ranging from more than 200 maritime interception operation boardings
of merchant vessels to launching 7,592 sorties.
More than 1,500
of those sorties were flown in support of ground troops in Iraq.
The four months of flight operations covered three distinct phases,
according to Capt. Robert Ffield, Carrier Air Wing 7 commander.
After arriving in March, the wing flew a lot of "presence"
missions, sometimes flying low over areas of "high interest"
to make a noisy impression on insurgents battling the U.S. presence,
but also launching occasional precision strikes on mortar pits and
other small targets, said Ffield, interviewed via satellite as the
carrier headed west across the Atlantic. But in April, the situation
in Fallujah, Iraq, exploded, and the wing began
flying close-air support missions for embattled U.S. ground troops
in addition to the presence missions. Once Fallujah died down, Ffield
said, "It settled back down to kind of how it was when we first
got there."
Despite all the combat action, Ffield, an F-14 and F/A-18 pilot,
said his most powerful memory is of flying on June 27, the day Iraq
once again was declared a sovereign nation. "Actually a very
proud moment for a lot of us," Ffield said. "It was pretty
neat flying over a new nation for the first time." The GW was
relieved by the John F. Kennedy, and on July 20, jets from JFK's
air wing bombed mortar positions, marking the wing's first combat
action since arriving in theater, officials said.
Further west,
the Enterprise and Harry S. Truman groups spent their two months
at sea training with allies in a series of exercises. Their activities
culminated with Medshark/Majestic Eagle, a 20-nation exercise hosted
by Morocco.
15 SEPTEMBER
USS WASP SUNK 1942
LANDING AT INCHON 1950
From Your
Membership Officer
Fran Pieri
As always, keeping
current members and bringing new members into The Grampaw Pettibone
Squadron is the responsibility of us all. We must maintain a strong
organization to promote the ideals and objectives of the defense
of our country and The Association of Naval Aviation. Also, we need
to maintain the strength of
the Association to make all the advantages that we have had, available
for the new members we will be welcoming into our squadron.
For those of
you who joined for one year, be sure to keep track of the month
you joined so you can re-up
your membership on time. If you joined Gramps for life, you won't
have to be concerned about the annual renewal. The $200.00 life
fee will pay for itself in five years. That's what I and many of
our members have done. We
have a new member this month. He is: Mr. Warren Ritzer. "Welcome
aboard", Sir. Remember,
The Association of Naval Aviation is a civilian organization and
membership is open to anyone who is interested in promoting the
objectives of the association.
As a reminder,
you can become an "Ace". All you have to do is to sign-up
five or more new members before the end of this year. That will
get you a free membership for one year. Hope to see you all at the
September 9th luncheon.
Keep the blue
side up.
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