A Capital Idea

Though Capital Airlines has roots dating back to 1926, the Pennsylvania Air Lines and Central Airlines of the 1930s, and later in the decade as Pennsylvania Central Airlines, when this photograph was taken, Capital Airlines was officially just two years old. They received their first Lockheed Constellations (pictured) in 1950. The headquarters were located at Washington National Airport, now Reagan Washington National Airport, where crew training and aircraft overhauls were performed. The airline operated scheduled airline service in the eastern, southern, southeastern, and midwestern United States. 

During their first year, they introduced the "Nighthawk," one of the first coach-class services to compete with the railroads between Chicago and New York City, and with dominant airlines on the route. That same year, they introduced the first television on flights. Capital Airlines was the first U.S. operator of the British-manufactured, four-engine Vickers Viscount turboprop airliner in 1955. Capital was the fifth largest airline behind the "Big Four" of American, United, TWA, and Eastern until its merger with United Airlines in 1961. 

On This Date

Ride On The Peace Ship

In 1915, Henry Ford's peace ship, Oscar II (commonly the Peace Ship) sailed for Europe to get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas.' The peace mission was deemed unsuccessful, producing only inconsequential meetings with less-than-official representatives from several European governments. Nevertheless, Ford asserted that the Peace Ship's expedition was successful because it stimulated discussions about peace. And Oscar II.

I Like It Like That 

In 1961, the New York Museum of Modern Art finally hung Henri Matisse's picture, a paper cut from 1953, "Le Bateau" (The Boat), the right side up. Only one person, stockbroker Genevieve Habert, among the 116,000 visitors to the exhibition, "The Last Works of Henri Matisse,"  noticed that one of Matisse's elegant late-career cutouts (his Rorschach test?) was hanging upside down for the last forty-seven days.  

 
Note: Some may have said they preferred it upside down. Maybe sideways.

Interactive Airports

An engaging 1961 illustration over forty years before outdoor observation decks were off limits after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. No more appreciable sounds of prop-engined airliners mixed with jet airliners, the smell of aviation fuel, or hearing support vehicles jockey around to provide services for the airlines. 

Maybe the artist needed TWA's approval on the fuselage livery of their Boeing 707s. The tail livery is nondescript, however. A livery history at TWA.

Nebraska's Official Soft Drink

Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins (1889-1961) in Hastings, Nebraska in 1927. As a boy working in his family’s general store, Perkins became interested in a new powdered dessert mix named Jell-O and persuaded his father to carry it in the store. Kool-Aid's predecessor was called Fruit Smack, a bottled soft drink concentrate in six flavors. All of Perkin's experiments took place in his mother's kitchen. To reduce shipping costs, Perkins discovered a way to remove the liquid from Fruit Smack, leaving only a powder. Perkins moved his production to Chicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold to General Foods in 1953. A yearly summer festival in Hastings celebrates with Kool-Aid Days on the second weekend in August in honor of their city's claim to fame. It is Nebraska's official soft drink.

Additional Kool-Aid details can be found here.

To Infinity and Beyond Mach 4

 

On this date in 1961, test pilot Major Robert M. White, USAF, flew the number two North American Aviation X-15 hypersonic research rocketplane to Mach 4.43 (2,905 mph) to 77,450 feet, becoming the first pilot to exceed Mach 4. The total duration of the flight, from the airdrop from the Boeing NB-52B Stratofortress to touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base, was 8 minutes, 34.1 seconds.

Hustler for The Win

 

On this day in 1961, Major Henry J. Deutschendorf, United States Air Force, 43rd Bomb Wing, Strategic Air Command, flew from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, to Edwards Air Force Base, California, with a Convair B-58A-10-CF Hustler, serial number 59-2442, named Untouchable (above). He flew two laps of a 1,000 kilometer circuit between Edwards and Yuma, establishing six new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) speed records at an average of 1,061.81 miles per hour. Major Deutschendorf and his crew, Captain Raymond R. Wagener, Defensive Systems Officer, and Captain William L. Polhemus, Radar Navigator/Bombardier, were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

The delta-winged plane did not have a stellar safety record with takeoffs and landings being particularly dangerous. Whether due to political preferences, advancements in radar detection, or a combination of both, all were withdrawn from active service by 1970. Untouchable was sent to The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona, in 1969. It was scrapped in 1977. Convair built 116 Hustlers. 

Last Jet Airliner From Convair

 

The Convair 990A is an American narrow-body four-engined jet airliner produced by the Convair division of General Dynamics in response to a request from American Airlines. The 990 began flight testing at the beginning of 1961 and was produced for only two years. The plane was a modified version of its earlier Convair 880. A major change was the large anti-shock bodies on the upper trailing edge of the wings to increase the critical Mach and reduce transonic drag. The larger inboard bodies also carried additional fuel. The anti-shock "speed capsules" and substantial streamlining of the engine pylon/wing interface increased the velocity at which the onset of transonic drag would occur by 0.09 Mach. As such, the 990A was capable of speeds slightly in excess of 700 miles per hour, the fastest airliner in the world until the Concorde.

Aside from its hot-rod good looks and balanced beauty, the aircraft was a total failure due to delays in delivery, high fuel consumption, and limited passenger capacity. The aircraft never lived up to its promise of coast-to-coast nonstop capability and American Airlines soon sold their fleet. The airliner was better suited for the short hops of European carriers. One of the more successful was Swissair, who bought eight of the speedsters and the only airline to call their fleet the "990 Coronado."

A Blériot Trophy Then Tragedy

 

In 1930, aviation pioneer Louis Charles Joseph Blériot established the Blériot Trophy, to be awarded to an aviator who demonstrated flight at a speed of 1,242.742 mph for 30 minutes. Three decades later, on this day in1961, a USAF Convair B-58A-10-CF Hustler, The Firefly, did just that. Flown by a crew consisting of Aircraft Commander, Major Elmer E. Murphy, Navigator, Major Eugene Moses, and Defensive Systems Officer, First Lieutenant David F. Dickerson, the Mach 2+ Strategic Air Command bomber flew from New York to Paris in 30 minutes, 43 seconds. Their average speed was 1,302.07 mph. The marble trophy was presented to the B-58 crew by Alice Védères Blériot, widow of Louis Blériot, at Paris, France, May 27. It is on permanent display at the McDermott Library of the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Tragically, on 3 June 1961, the Blériot Trophy-winning crew of Murphy, Moses and Dickerson departed Le Bourget Airport for the return trip to America. The B-58 crashed five miles from the airport. All three men were killed and the aircraft totally destroyed.

A Tidy Lincoln

 

American auto enthusiasts probably are aware that Ford Motor Company's studies for the 1961 "bullet" Thunderbird looked a lot like the Lincoln Continental up front---a stretched version for the T-bird---which lost its slab sides and squared fenders to the Lincoln. But the family resemblance in the grille design remained. 

As beautifully subtle as the Lincoln was from three-quarter views, the side profile has become a bit dated over time due to the technology and designers of the era. The symmetry of the interior cabin right in the middle suggests it is either coming or going. Above is my suggestion of what Lincoln might have done to its first generation of new Continentals---shortening the overhang on the front and slicing about eight inches off the rear. This makes for a slightly asymmetric balance of the cabin. The subtle change presents a more cohesive design overall.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

 

On this day in history was the premiere of Walt Disney Productions animated adventure comedy based on the 1956 novel, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith. Its huge box office success rescued the studio from the financial slump caused by Sleeping Beauty. Set in London, England, it is a story about a litter of Dalmatian puppies kidnapped by the villainous Cruella de Vil, voiced effectively by radio's Betty Lou Gerson, who wants to use their fur to make coats.