Airplanes
It's Vintage Airplane Day on GDB!
I'm going to begin with a pair of undated photos, presumably from the 1950s, showing a beautiful Lockheed Constellation on the tarmac as a bunch of military types listen to a fellow at a microphone. A lone woman in a gray suit looks like a movie star, and who knows, maybe she was!
I happened to show these scans to a man (Greg) who is a particular fan of Constellations, and he added some pretty interesting information! Gen. Douglas MacArthur had named his personal aircraft, a Lockheed Constellation VC-121A '8613' transport "Bataan" (cn 2605). However, this isn’t General MacArthur. General Matthew Ridgway replaced General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War. President Harry Truman relieved MacArthur of his commands on April 11, 1951, citing his disagreement with MacArthur's public criticism of administration policies. Ridgway assumed command of UN forces and the Allied occupation of Japan. Note the 4 stars to the left of the passenger door. Pictures I have found of General Ridgeway look like the 4-star General in your pictures.
Greg helpfully attached this portrait of General Ridgeway, and the man with his back to the camera sure looks like him!
Greg also noticed that the two photos would merge together beautifully, and he attached this amazing panorama! Thanks, Greg! He added: I would have to say, this picture was taken in Japan right after General Ridgeway replaced General MacArthur in April of 1951…the same Constellation “8613” remained as a Military transport before being used by NASA in the 1960s.
This aircraft still survives today and has been fully restored as MacArthur’s “Bataan”.
Next is a photo of a sleek military jet on display for the public to admire. Luckily, the sign in the lower left informs us that this is an F-94C "Starfire" jet! Here's some basic info, which I got from Wikipedia:
The Lockheed F-94 Starfire is a first-generation jet powered all-weather day/night interceptor aircraft designed and produced by Lockheed Corporation. It was the first operational United States Air Force (USAF) fighter equipped with an afterburner as well as being the first jet-powered all-weather fighter to enter combat during the Korean War.
The F-94C Starfire was extensively modified from the early F-94 variants. In fact, it was initially designated F-97 before officials decided that it would be treated as a new version of the F-94 instead. To improve performance, a completely new and much thinner wing was designed, along with a swept tail surface.
The F-94C was the only variant to be officially named Starfire. With time, the entire F-94 family has adopted the name. The first production F-94C aircraft were delivered in July 1951, 387 examples being delivered before May 1954.
I hope you have enjoyed todays vintage airplanes!
15 comments:
The "lone woman" is holding a large bouquet of flowers in her arms, presumably presented to her minutes before this photo was taken. She must be somebody important and/or famous!
Does anybody know what that red flag (behind the general) represents? Japan's flag is white with a red sun in the middle, right? This one is mostly red.
These vintage jets made me think of the jet that was used as a piece of playground equipment in one of our local parks back in the 1950s/early '60s. I think it was a "Scorpion" jet. I think it was just sitting on the ground with no landing gear. It was gutted out, and us kids could crawl around inside of it. Some of the cockpit wiring and electronics were still there though.
Thanks, Major.
Is one of the seated men at the top of the boarding stairway taking a photo?
General Ridgeway looks like Werner Klemperer. "HOOOOOOGAN!!!!!!!!"
I don't know anything about airplanes, but these are great little views into aviation history. Thanks, Major!
Today's pics are great! The merged photo is especially interesting. I like these because my dad was in the Air Force and served in the Korean War. He also lived in Tokyo in the 1950's.
Thank you, Greg, for the photos and detailed/informational text. Thanks to you too Major for hosting.
Thanks, Major, for this swell view of the Lockheed Constellation, one of my favorite planes. I always enjoyed seeing it on the Disneyland TV show in the '50s.
Zach
TOKYO : I did follow up to the MOD HATTER / MARK 6 post from yesterday.
I’m not sure when planes stopped being shiny and silver, but it’s too bad. I have USAAF officers on both sides of the family to whom I am grateful, but I never served.
These are great pics Major. Reminders of those early days.
JG (posting from the road)
Wow, gorgeous pictures today, and I even learned something! Thanks to both Greg and the Maj! I loves me a good panoramic stitch. I'm going to pretend that the pretty lady is Ava Gardner. Why not?
555? That's everybody's phone exchange!
Zooming in on the big screen, I think I can see some parts of a couple of other ladies sticking out from behind the man at the microphone. Maybe we're going to have some musical entertainment!
JB, I saw the bouquet of flowers, it really looks like this was some sort of significant historical event - but what was it?? Yeah, no idea about the flag, I tried to figure it out as well. There’s a park in San Jose called “Happy Hollow” that also has (had?) a jet that kids could climb around on, I thought it was pretty cool.
TokyoMagic!, yes, those guys are definitely recording this event for posterity, which is another reason it feels like it must have been somewhat significant. “Hogan’s Heroes” is definitely the greatest TV comedy of all time, I will accept no arguments.
K. Martinez, interesting, I don’t know if you’d said that your dad lived in Tokyo. That must have been fascinating! I’d love to go to Japan, it looks amazing, if a bit overwhelming.
zach, Greg (mentioned in today’s post) is a HUGE fan of Constellations, that’s how we “met”, he asked me if I had any other vintage photos, and I sent him the two that you see today. That’s how I got all that great info and the merged photo!
Anonymous (Mike Cozart?), at some point I drove home late last night and still haven’t caught up with all of yesterday’s comments.
JG, you make a good point, I definitely remember shiny silver jets from a while back, but now it seems that they are all painted. Maybe the paint is just one more layer of protection for the metal?
Melissa, sure, that could be Ava Gardner - or how about Hedy Lamarr! What a beauty she was. 555 is nice and all, but I prefer to dial “KLondike”5-XXXX”!
Melissa, which parts of ladies????
Melissa, sure, that could be Ava Gardner - or how about Hedy Lamarr! What a beauty she was.
Melissa, which parts of ladies????
I have this weird thing with Hedy Lamarr - whenever I see a picture of an absolutely gorgeous brunette from the 1940s but I don't recognize her, it almost always turns out to be Hedy Lamarr! I wonder if there's a diagnosis for Hedy Lamarr-specific face blindness?
I think I see the skirt and two legs of one lady, and one leg and half of a head of another lady, behind the microphone man. But it's shadowy back there, and even on the big screen I'm not the most reliable source.
"TOKYO : I did follow up to the MOD HATTER / MARK 6 post from yesterday."
Anonymous (Mike!), thanks for that follow-up info! So it sounds like it did open in 1967, if I was reading that correctly.
Hey, guys! Sorry I missed yesterday.
Obviously a big event with both AF and Army photographers at the top of the air stairs. I wonder what it was. Note both Army Military Police and AF Air Police (as we called them back then) are pulling security; one of each can be seen on either side of the air stairs.
The red flag at right is probably the personal flag of an Army general officer (the link shows a five-star variant, but every GO is authorized one with the number of stars they wear). Army and Marine GO flags have red backgrounds but different star placement, Navy flag officer flags have a dark blue background with stars placed like the Marines, Air Force GO flags are identical in design to the Army’s with a medium blue background, the Space Force (which obviously wasn’t around back then) uses a black background, and the Coast Guard follows the Navy design but adds the Coast Guard crest.
The thumbnail of the second photo just links to the first photo, so I can’t see enough detail to identify his face, but the tall general standing center left lined up with the national insignia on the Connie’s fuselage looks an awful lot like Doug MacArthur at thumbnail resolution. The bald general without a hat in the center looks a lot like Ridgeway. But I can’t see the high resolution image so I can’t be sure. The four stars on what was MacArthur’s personal plane suggests that this is after MacArthur was relieved (MacArthur was a five-star) and Ridgeway was pretty tall, too.
The particular F-94C in the last photo, 51-5555, crashed on 13 Aug 1953 at New Castle AFB, which was co-located with the Wilmington, Delaware airport. The aircraft was assigned to the 96th Fighter Interceptor Squadron out of New Castle. Both crew members survived the incident but the airframe was written off.
Thanks, Major!
Melissa, *which parts of ladies??”, I was being naughty. I don’t understand how anyone can be face-blind in regards to Hedy Lamarr, but anything is possible!
TokyoMagic!, now I have to go back and read that stuff!!
Chuck, yes, it seems clear that this is a significant event. Are the four guys to the left representatives of all four armed forces? I wish I had a personal flag, but my custom fragrance from Chanel will have to do. As I said in my other comment, I’m not sure the tall fellow under the plane’s insignia is MacArthur, but it would be very cool if it IS him. I’d bet money that the bald fellow with his back to us is Ridgeway. Thank you for the (sad) info on the F-94C, I’m amazed how often an airplane that I feature wound up crashing. It’s all my fault!
Looking at that picture at a larger size, I’m positive that that is NOT MacArthur now. I’m also positive that that IS Ridgeway.
Also noticed a detail I hadn’t picked up on in the thumbnail. Just to our right of the tall guy, standing next to an air police officer (as in commissioned officer, not police officer) with a white band on his hat, is a gentleman in a darker blue uniform. That appears to me to be a Royal Navy uniform, although I suppose it could be a Royal Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand Navy uniformas well as they were also part of the United Nations command along with the United States and 17 other countries.
Interesting thought about you posting a photograph and causing an accident 73 years in the past. Hmmm… Maybe you shouldn’t have posted so many pictures of the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland….
Ok, after additional research, the first two photos are of General Ridgeway’s departure for the US from Haneda Air Base (today’s Tokyo Haneda Airport) after handing his command over to General Mark Clark on 12 May, 1952.
The woman in the grey suit holding the flowers in the first photo and standing to his left in the second photo is his wife, Penny, who was more than 30 years his junior.
Compare today’s photos with this press wire photo taken at the same event. Note he is wearing a flat cap in that picture just as he is while speaking into the microphone in the first photo. Mrs. Ridgeway is also dressed identically in both pictures as they stand next to the four-star VIP plate next to the passenger door of the C-121.
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