Whether you believe it or not...living in Berkeley gave you a daily dose of aviation! Remember the airplane engines droning on landing and take offs. Or, the airplanes being tested on the firing range of McDonnell Aircraft. When the jet age arrived, we heard a new level of noise especially when they kicked in the after burners on take off. This practice was later restricted because of the extreme noise level. I remember the rattle of the .50 caliber machine guns and 20 MM Cannons being tested for aim which was a regular occurrence and could happen day or night.
The busy time of the Airline traffic was in the morning and evening with the cacophony at times making conversation difficult of not impossible until it abated. I remember many times being on the telephone and telling somebody to hold on until the airplane noise stops. Despite the noise, we became acclimated to it and it seems to be a subliminal aggravation that we tuned out.
During WW II, each warplane had a distinctive engine note that made it easy to identify without even looking to the sky. I could tell by their exhaust sound whether it was a P-40, P-39, P-51, P47, AT-10 AT-6 , DC-3, B-25, B-17, B-29, B-36 and on and on... The jet age took that identity factor away as most jet engines sound alike...loud! I use to listen for the pilot to change the prop pitch once he got airborne. My love of aviation was further enriched by working at Lambert Field all during my High School years. If I wasn't working there I spend my off hours there just soaking up the activities and the characters that made Lambert Field tick like Carl Hempel, "Pappy" Downs, Ed Tayloe, Bob Turner, George Martak, Aaron Spotswood, David Spotswood (licensed pilot in his sophomore year) and myself at age 14 learning to fly.
We also had several close calls with plane crashes. In 1941 a P-40 fighter crashed just a few feet off the BHS schoolyard which was about 500 yards from my home. I remember running up to find the pilot dead and covered with blood and mud when he plowed into the ground. Joan (Miller) Weber had a jet crash that nearly took her roof off. I remember a DC-3 crashing just off Natural Bridge road in mid Bridgeton and it was very close to Bill Lambert's home. But...the crash that was the most tragic was the glider crash in August of 1943.
In this glider crash were ten people including the Mayor of St. Louis ( William D. Becker), William N. Dysart (Pres. of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, Max H. Doyne (Dir. of Public Utilities), Charles L. Cunningham (Deputy Controller), Henry L. Mueller ( Presiding Judge -County Court), Major William B. Robertson, Veteran Aviation enthusiast and President of Robertson Aircraft Corporation who made the glider that crashed), Capt. Milton C. Klugh (71st Troop carrier Command and pilot of the glider), Lt. Col Paul H. Hazelton (US Airforce), Harold A. Krueger-VP of Mfg. & Gen.Manager of Robertson Aircraft Corp.) and PFC J.M. Davis attached to the 71th Troop Carrier Command.
This glider had made a flight prior to the second flight which had the above dignitaries aboard. A moment after being released from the tow plane, the right wing buckled and fell from the fuselage. The glider disintegrated and plummeted to the ground before the spectators at Lambert Field with bodies and parts of the glider bouncing 50 feet in to the air and scattering pieces of debris all over the field. It was later found that a defective part that attached the wing to the fuselage was the cause of the crash.
No comments:
Post a Comment