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RAF Pilots At War Eagle Field Lancaster, CA (1941)

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Apr 222012
 
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War Eagle Field From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Eagle_Field
War Eagle Field is a former airfield located in the Mojave Desert, about 5-mile (8.0 km) west of Lancaster, California. It is currently used as a detention facility.

Polaris Flight Academy, which opened on the field’s grounds on July 15, 1941, trained cadets for the Royal Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force. (The school also used two auxiliary fields, Liberty Field and Victory Field.) The airfield had two hard-surfaced bituminous runways, one of 3,100′ aligned NE/SW (05/23) the other of 2,950′ aligned E/W (09/27).

After the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor, the flight school began training cadets for the United States Army Air Forces on 28 July 1942, being operated by the Polaris Flight Academy as a contract basic flying school (phase 1). The primary trainer in use was the BT-13 Valiant.

In 1944, the flight school changed its name to Mira Loma Flight Academy. The airfield inactivated on 1 October 1945, and was declared surplus in 1946. Responsibility for it was given to the War Assets Administration. The land was bought by Los Angeles County. The airfield was converted to a detention facility, and it continues to be used for that purpose.

Many wartime buildings, including two still intact hangars are still in use On the roof of one of the hangars, the name “War Eagle” is still faintly perceptible. Flight operations continue at the airfield with a helicopter pad, used by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

Douglas XB-19 First Flight (1941)

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Apr 162012
 
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National Archives
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_XB-19
The Douglas XB-19 was the largest bomber aircraft built for the United States Army Air Corps until 1946. It was originally given the designation XBLR-2 (XBLR- denoting Experimental Bomber, Long Range).

The purpose of the XB-19 project was to test the flight characteristics and design techniques associated with giant bombers. Douglas Aircraft Company strongly wanted to cancel the project, because it was extremely expensive. Despite advances in technology that made the XB-19 obsolete before it was even completed, the Army Air Corps felt that the prototype would be useful for testing. Its construction took so long that competition for the contracts to make the XB-35 and XB-36 occurred two months before its first flight.

The plane finally flew on June 27, 1941, more than three years after the construction contract was awarded. In 1943, the original Wright R-3350 engines were replaced with Allison V-3420-11 V engines. After completion of testing, the XB-19 served as a cargo carrier until it was scrapped in 1949.

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