The Yankee Flyer Journal of the Massachusetts Aviation Historical Society

Transcription

1 The Yankee Flyer Journal of the Massachusetts Aviation Historical Society Number 39 September / October 2008 training at the newly established Naval Aviation Ten Pound Island Air Station Training School, Pensacola, Florida. Gloucester, Massachusetts The establishment of U.S. Coast Guard Aviation On April 1, 1916, two officers, Lt. Elmer and the First Permanent Coast Guard Air StationStone and Lt. Charles Sugden (of Stockbridge,MA) by Paul S. Larcom The U.S. Coast Guard was first introduced to aviation on December 17, 1903 when three surfmen from the Kill Devil Hills life saving station in North Carolina were summoned to help the Wright brothers in launch preparations at Kitty Hawk for their first flight. One of the surfmen took the only photograph of the flight with the Wright s camera. In January of 1915 by an Act of Congress the U.S. Life Saving Service merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard. Also in 1915 Lieutenants Elmer F. Stone and Norman B. Hall based on a Coast Guard cutter at Hampton Roads, Virginia conceived of an aviation unit of the Coast Guard for patrols and rescue of disabled vessels, etc. Encouraged by their Commanding Officer and the manager of the Curtiss Flying School, the two officers were given experimental survey flights at the school at Newport News, Virginia in a Curtiss F flying boat. These flights proved successful despite the aircraft s limitations. As a result Lt s. Stone and Hall and their C.O. then set about selling aviation to the Coast Guard Headquarters, which then took an active interest in the aviation section idea. Legislation was drafted for the creation of such a unit of the Coast Guard. Permission was received from the U.S. Navy to accept two Coast Guard Officers for pilot were assigned for training. Lt. Stone was the first to receive his aviator s wings in April 1917 and Sugden qualified as a naval aviator in May Sixteen additional officers received pilot training later that year.. The legislation previously drafted for creation of the Coast Guard aviation section received Congressional approval and was signed into law by President Wilson in August of It was part of the Navy Deficiency Act, which authorized establishment of ten Coast Guard Air Stations, a Coast Guard aviation school and the Aviation Corps. made up of officers and enlisted men. Congress however did not grant the funds because of the United States entry in World War One. Therefore the provisions of the Navy Deficiency Act were still-born. Upon the U.S. entry into the of World War in April 1917, the U.S. Coast Guard under the control of the Treasury Department during peacetime, was transferred to the U.S. Navy. By then a total of nine Coast Guard Officers had received their wings. They and other Coast Guard personal gave a good account of themselves while serving with the U.S. Navy s aviation section both in the United States and overseas. Lt. Philip B. Eaton, who commanded the Chatham Naval Air Station in Massachusetts, piloted one of two Curtiss HS-1 seaplanes which unsuccessfully bombed and machine gunned a German U-boat off the New England Coast, as both bombs hitting the deck failed to detonate. After the World War One armistice, the U.S. Coast Guard returned to the Treasury Dept. control.

2 2 There continued to be interest in the Coast Guard in forming a separate aviation section for coastal patrol, rescue, and maritime law enforcement. In 1918 as a result of wartime planning, there was a desire to fly the Atlantic to demonstrate the usefulness of long range patrol flying boats. In May 1919 three U.S. Navy Curtiss flying boats took off across the Atlantic to Europe. Only one of the three, NC-4, completed the first transatlantic crossing arriving in Europe via the Azores. Coincidentally the NC-4 was piloted by first Coast Guard aviator Lt. Elmer F. Stone, who was the only U.S.C.G. aviator on the NC flights. This successful crossing of the Atlantic provided a stimulus for and proved the feasibility of over the ocean and coastal flying and navigation for search and rescue duties. As a result, a Coast Guard Commandant, Adm. William Reynolds in 1920 obtained six used Curtiss HS-2L flying boats on loan from the Navy. These were used in forming the Coast Guard s first air station at Morehead City, North Carolina. This was an abandoned WW1 Naval Air Station. Although the flights from this location were a success and demonstrated the need for aerial coastal patrol and rescue duties, no funds were provided to continue the operation. After fifteen months of activity in 1922 this station was closed in spite of the urgings of Admiral Reynolds, and the aircraft were returned to the U.S. Navy. As a result of the passage of Prohibition, the Eighteenth Amendment in January of 1920, the Coast Guard was involved in enforcing the regulation against smuggling of alcohol by sea called rum running. The Coast Guard had set up many Section Bases along all the U.S. coasts having patrol boats to search for rum runners and stop the illegal activity. One of the Section Bases, #7, was located at the Parsons Wharf Coast Guard Station in East Gloucester which was established in The rum running became so extensive that surface craft were unable to stop it all. The rummies most of whom came from Canada and the Bahamas Islands would congregate at the twelve mile limit and transfer the liquor to boaters who would dash back to shore, many eluding the Coast Guard. Lt. Cdr. Carl C. von Paulsen, a Coast Guard aviator who was based at the Morehead City Air Station, commanded the Section Base 7 at Gloucester. He knew the value of aviation in maritime search and initiated action in getting an aircraft to supplement the patrol boats for spotting the runners farther out of sea. They would then direct the patrol boats to intercept them before they congregated at the twelve mile limit. Lt. Cdr. Von Paulsen discussed this idea of the aircraft with the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Frederick Billard and his assistant who both were in favor of the idea. But again no funds were available for this. In spite of this, Adm. Billard and his assistant planned and schemed, all on a shoestring, in borrowing an old surplus two wing, single engine Vought UO-1 two-place float plane in May of 1925 from the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics. It had been stored at the Cape May New Jersey air station, and was on loan for one year. Lt. Cdr. Von Paulsen and veteran aviator Lt. Leonard Melka first operated the aircraft from a corner of a hangar at Squantum, MA Naval Air Station. During this time a new Coast Guard air unit, to be part of the Section Base # 7, Parsons Wharf U.S.C.G. station in Gloucester, Mass. was being established. It was located south of Rocky Neck in East Gloucester on a small island, only about 700 feet long, in Gloucester outer harbor known as Ten Pound Island. It was so named because in the early days it had ten sheep pounds, or enclosures, for quarantining sheep. This island was on loan for temporary use from

3 the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries which had a fish hatchery built in 1889 on the northern end of the island. It was adjacent and to the west of the new Coast Guard air facility. On the southern end of the island was a light house rebuilt in 1881 which with the Eastern Point light at the head of the harbor guided boats into the inner Gloucester harbor. Famous artist Winslow Homer boarded with the light keeper in Personnel from the Coast Guard Air Station at Morehead City were transferred to the new Ten Pound Section Base #7 facility. A surplus 60 ft. by 60 ft. steel framed Army tent hangar purchased for one dollar was erected as well as communication facilities, seaplane apron and ramp, etc. The borrowed Vought UO-1 sea plane was moved to Gloucester from Squantum. With this single aircraft Von Paulsen and Melka alternated in making from one to three flights daily, proved that they could successfully combat the smugglers. They flew many thousand miles on patrol during the summer of 1925 on law enforcement missions locating liquor carrying craft and directing patrol boasts to intercept them. They also performed their usual search and rescue missions. Though the new Ten Pound Island operation was a success, the Vought seaplane was returned to the Navy in April of 1926, according to plan, leaving the Ten Pound Air Station temporarily without any aviation operations. The U.S. Congress impressed by the accomplishments of the Gloucester air facility and with the efforts of Commandant Admiral Billard, voted in March 3, 1926 to appropriate $152,000 to include the acquisition of five observation type seaplanes. They were delivered in October and November of 1926 and commissioned in December. Two of the aircraft, Vought UO-4 seaplanes, and three Loening OL-5 amphibians were constructed under the supervision of the Coast Guard. The Congressional appropriation in 1926 also included the establishment of two Coast Guard air stations. Although the Ten Pound Island operation ended with the returning of the UO-1 sea plane, construction of the facility continued. The second Coast Guard Air Station, designated Section Base 9, was located in Cape May, New Jersey at a former U.S. Navy seaplane base which was compatible for its new use. It would also be for repair of all Coast Guard aircraft. Both air stations were ready in early 1927 for the basing of the five aircraft. The three Loening amphibians were given the first Coast Guard serial numbers: CG1, CG2 & CG3 and the Vought seaplanes numbered CG4 & CG5. Loenings 1 & 3 and Vought number 5 were assigned to the Section Base 7 Air Station in Gloucester while Loening number 2 and Vought number 4 were assigned to the new Section Base 9 Air Station in Cape May, New Jersey. The Loening OL-5 s were the first aircraft constructed specifically for the Coast Guard being heavier built than the U.S. Navy versions. Both the Loenings and the Vought s were considered the first aircraft actually owned by the Coast Guard all previous aircraft used being on loan from the Navy. The Loening OL-5 s were a three place, biplane, amphibian powered by an inverted inline Liberty engine of 400 horse power and had a cruising speed of 75 miles per hour. It was armed with a Lewis machine gun. It had a large center float integral with the fuselage with the landing hear retracting into the float. This facilitated the aircraft s transfer to and from the water and the air station ramp and apron. The station tractor was only used to assist braking of the aircraft upon entering the water. The Vought UO-4 seaplane, a two-place biplane was a higher powered and heavier 3

4 4 version of the loaned UO-1 having a 225 horse powered Wright Whirlwind radial engine and had a cruising speed of 90 miles per hour. It was armed with a Browning machine gun. It also had a center float supported by struts. For water and station ramp and apron transfers, a 4- wheel dolly was attached to the center float and a tractor cabled to the aircraft was used for both transfers. The three new aircraft at the Gloucester Air Station were put to immediate use continuing the duties of the single UO-1, Vought that was returned to the Navy in Instructional flights for training new air crews also took place. The aircraft s range of operations extended from Eastport, Maine to Chatham, Massachusetts and later was increased to include Halifax, Nova Scotia to New London, Connecticut. The two Loening amphibians especially saw extensive use. By September 1928 they flew a total of 660 hours in law enforcement, searching for derelict vessels, schools of fish, and performing aerial photography assignments. From 1927 to 1930 the five new aircraft at Gloucester and Cape May flew over 200,000 miles. The duties of the new aircraft required special two-way radio equipment for use between the aircraft in flight, ship and ground stations. Navy and commercial types of radio equipment were not suitable. Coast Guard Radio Electrician A. G. Descoteaux constructed and installed the customized radio equipment; first in the borrowed Vought sea plane in 1925 and then in the new Loening and Vought aircraft after delivery. The system was battery operated independent of the aircraft s electrical system to assure communication in case of forced landing. It became the basis for later standard Coast Guard aircraft radio equipment. The new radio equipment was put to the test when in June of 1929 Descoteaux broadcasting from the third seat of a Loening amphibian out of Gloucester described the Yellow Bird as it took off from Old Orchard Beach, Maine at the start of the successful flight to Spain. This broadcast picked up by commercial radio networks was heard by thousands of people across America. Before and during the early stages of radio communications Shot Line pick-ups were used for relaying messages between ground stations and the aircraft in flight. The operation consisted of attaching a message to a line strung between two poles about fifty feet apart. The message was picked up by a low flying aircraft trailing a grapnel to latch on to a satchel containing the message. In 1928 a permanent Coast Guard Aviation Section was established at U.S.C.G. Headquarters under Commander Norman B. Hall. It was proposed by Commandant Admiral F. C. Billard, as a result of the successful work performed by the three Loening and two Vought aircraft. This new Aviation Section was required to plan for larger aircraft and new bases to support long range maritime patrols. Large multi mission flying boats and amphibians that were required to permit landings in rough open ocean waters for rescues. The two Loening amphibians based at Ten Pound Island, Gloucester were lost due to operational accidents. On November 10, 1929 CG3 was totally wrecked when its right wing struck the mast of fishing boat Jackie B in Gloucester harbor. Pilot Lt. Melka, mechanic Kenly and radio electrician Descoteaux survived, but were in the hospital suffering from shock. The second Loening to crash was CG1 while on patrol at a yacht race in New London, Conn. on June 21, On take-off in the crowded harbor it struck the yacht Whiz destroying the pilot house. The aircraft sank immediately, but the crew, Pilot Lt. Norman Nelson and passenger Eugene Coffin, freed themselves and surfaced without injury.

5 5 After the demise of the two Loenings, the Ten Pound Island Air Station was left with only the Vought UO-4 sea plane for its many duties during the remainder of 1930 and throughout A new Douglas RD Dolphin numbered CG27 made to Coast Guard specs, was transferred to Gloucester in January It was a flying boat requiring beaching gear for water and ramp transfers. It had a metal flying boat fuselage and its single sixty foot wing was metal framed and plywood covered. The two Wright Whirlwind R790 radial engines were strut mounted to the top of wing. The aircraft had a crew of two and could hold six passengers. This aircraft was very useful for rescues at sea. In cases needing medical assistance, the victims could be taken on board and flown to facilities on the mainland. This single produced Douglas RD was given the special name Procyon, the name of a star. It was joined in August 1932 by another single produced Douglas RD-1 Dolphin with the name Sirius and numbered CG28. This aircraft was very similar but heavier than the RD with a higher horsepower Wright Whirlwind R975 engine, and it had retractable landing gear and thus was an amphibian. Its crew and passenger capacity was the same as in the Douglas RD. During the following year 1933 Douglas RD, CG27, was transferred to Cape May and the RD-1, CG28, moved to the new base at Dinner Key in Miami which opened in In place of these a third single produced Douglas RD-2, CG29, named Adhara was assigned to Gloucester along with the second Vought UO-4, CG4, from Cape May. The new RD-2 was similar to the RD and RD-1 but with more powerful Pratt and Whitney Wasp R1340 engines. Throughout the following year of 1934 the same two Vought UO-4 s and the Douglas RD-2 continued to be based at Gloucester. During President Franklin Roosevelt s first term in 1933, Prohibition, the Eighteenth Amendment, was repealed as the war against the distribution of alcohol could never be a success. The rum running patrols were phased out, but the duties of Coast Guard aircraft were increasingly required for offshore patrol.. Henry M. Morgenthau in 1934 became Secretary of the U.S. Treasury which had jurisdiction over the UPS Coast Guard. He was an aviation enthusiast and obtained funds from the Public Works Administration for expanding Coast Guard Aviation. Two new Air Stations and two patrol detachments were established and new seaplane types were obtained. During the same year construction started on a new and larger Air Station in Salem, Massachusetts to replace the Ten Pound Island facility which had no room for expansion. It was needed as more and larger aircraft would be used in the future. The location in Salem was on Winter Island on the western side of the Salem outer harbor and about twelve miles south of Gloucester. Access to the island was over a short causeway connected to Salem Willows, a section of Salem. Building began in April 1934 first built was large 100 by 100 foot standard Coast Guard design hangar large enough to hold five or six aircraft. Other base facilities soon followed. The Ten Pound Island first Coast Guard Air Station was officially closed on February 15,1935 when the new Salem Air Station was commissioned with two aircraft and thirty-five men. Lt. William L. Foley became the new Commanding Officer. He had previously replaced Lt. Cdr. Carl von Paulsen at the Ten Pound Island Base at Gloucester.

6 Tuning up U.S.C.G. Loening Amphibian CG3 - Ten Pound Island, Gloucester Mass. March 8, 1929 Massachusetts Aviation Historical Society Inc. Post Office Box 457 Wakefield, MA info@massaerohistory.org stamp Officers/Directors: A Massachusetts tax exempt, non profit corporation President: William J. Deane Vice President: Frederick Morin Treasurer: Paul S. Larcom Secretary: Malcolm Partridge Directors: Thomas S. Cuddy, Sherborn, Gene Lang, Winthrop, Ted Russell, Byfield David Carpenter, Danvers Editor: William J. Deane

7 6 The Vought UO-4 at Gloucester, now numbered 405, was transferred to Salem while the Douglas RD-2 was sent to Cape May. A new Grumman JF-2 Duck amphibian was also stationed at Salem. At the end of February a Douglas RD-4 Dolphin amphibian was flown to Salem from California by the new C.O., Lt. William Foley. Thus ended the successful operation of the first permanent Coast Guard Air Station at Ten Pound Island, Gloucester. Many of the older residents of Cape Ann would have remembered the all yellow Loening and blue and yellow Vought seaplanes as they skimmed over Stacy Boulevard in Gloucester on a south-east approach for a landing in the harbor. Many also in East Gloucester were awakened by the early morning run-ups and take-offs into a south westerly wind for a daily coastal patrol. In August 1991 a bronze plaque, mounted on a large boulder, was unveiled on Stacy Boulevard, along Gloucester harbor, honoring the establishment of the first continuously operating Coast Guard Air Station on Ten Pound Island in May It includes a nicely sculptured Loening OL-5 landing to rescue a fisherman clinging to floating debris. Near-by is another plaque directing attention to Ten Pound Island across the harbor in the distance. It gives a short history of its lighthouse, now restored. Both plaques are located north of the well known Fisherman s Monument. The Vought seaplanes and Loening amphibians deserve credit for more than being the Coast Guard s first aircraft. Because of their dependability and their aviator s skills they were the foundation for the development of Coast Guard Aviation first started at Ten Pound Island, Gloucester, Massachusetts December 1926 New England Aviation News By Daniel Rochford The United States Coast Guard have opened their own airplane base at Gloucester, Massachusetts, with three planes in service. At the Boston Airport one of the new Consolidated training planes has been flown this month by the Navy. Due to the return of the Navy s JN from the Airport to Philadelphia, it is now the only navy land plane near Boston. Lieutenant Clarence Shankle, instructor to the 26th Division Air Service, National Guard, went by train to Santa Monica, California, late in November and flew back a Douglas O-2C to become part of the Air Guard aircraft complement at the Boston Airport. Flying operations at Bethany, Connecticut have shut down for the winter season. The planes of Colonial Air Transport, Inc. land at the field en route between Hadley Field and Boston but no flying activity has been carried on during the month. The Connecticut National Guard Air Service kept up a high average of flying from Brainard Field, Hartford. The squadron has named its various ships, for example a DH carries the proud title, Hod Carrier. A Curtiss two-seater observation plane was flown to Boston November 14th and returned to Washington November 16th. Major Carl Spaatz and Major Henry C. Pratt, both of the office of the Chief of the Air Corps, flew in it. College flying clubs were augmented by the formation of one at Tufts College, Medford Hillside, Mass. this month. It was organized through the efforts of Fred S. Ralph of Northeast Harbor, Maine, a senior at Tufts and a graduate of the primary flying course of the naval reserve at Squantum.

8 December 1926 Boston Airport News By G. W. Hamblin, Jr. The Boston Airport Corporation has passed its first milestone, and to celebrate its first anniversary, the first of several hangars being constructed by the Wm. Arthur Co. has been completed. A word of explanation may not be out of place here in regard to the Airport Corporation. Eddie O Toole, vice-president of the present corporation, was active at the port in 1923 when the port was opened. He established a service for visiting flyers, in addition to having a ship or two of his own in operation. In 1925 he organized under the present name, and started to do things on a large scale. The corporation has been assigned as Boston representative for the Travel Air Corporation of Wichita, Kansas, and has sold quite a number of their OX-5 and Whirlwind jobs. There are, at present, five men on the payroll: D.C. Sayre, president; E. T. O Toole, vice-president; B.F. Billings, chief pilot in charge of field operations; E. L. Connerton, asst. pilot, and Ralph Wickford, asst. pilot and mechanic. Twenty-seven students are receiving instruction, eight of whom have been soloed. One of the most promising students is Miss Margaret Peggy Sheehan, of Manchester, N.H., who was one of the four that flew across the continent as guests of Miss Lydia Pinkham Gove. A. F. Sullivan, of Beverly, Mass., has purchased a Travel Air from the Boston Airport Corp., and intends to open a flying school in Portsmouth, N.H., in the spring. He has a contract to carry payrolls for a couple of lumber camps in New Hampshire this winter. About fifty students of Harvard University have formed the Harvard Flying Club, and have purchased a Travel Air. from the Airport Corp. R. H. Jackson, of Detroit, Mich., president of the club, is taking flying instruction. Boston s skyline at night is no longer dark, for a fifty thousand candle-power beacon has been installed on the roof of the Gilchrist Company s building. The light has a twenty-four inch beam, visible for twenty-five miles. On the night of the dedication of the beacon, Boston Airport Corp. Chief Pilot Billings flew a Travel Air, and Lieut. Frank Crowley flew an Army Jenny. A good time was had by all. Al Backstrom has been engaged by the Iver-Johnson Sporting Goods house to fly over Boston at night with their name on the lower wing. Twelve spot-lights furnish the necessary illumination. Eddie Connerton flew down to New York, November 7, with a passenger, and on the trip back, the weather became nasty so he set his ship down in Canton. Capt. Chris Ford landed in Mansfield on the same day, for the same reason. One of the students enrolled in the flying school here is Crocker Snow, younger brother of the late Kick Snow, Crock soloed in less than three hours flying time. Nearly a record hereabouts. Airplane Flys 250 miles an Hour on Water --- Boston newspaper headline. Hooray! Now the question arises: Why have wings on our racing planes when they can go so fast on the water? The Army blimp TC-5 paid us a visit in October, with Lt. Eddie Gray of Everett, Mass., at the controls. The ship stayed over night, returning the next day to Langley. The Air Mail is still carrying on, with 87 per cent of its trips from July 1 to Sept. 30, 1926 completed on time.