The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General of the Air Force Henry "Hap" Arnold - Jan. 26th, 2004

www.centennialofflight.gov ^ | Pamela Feltus

[SAMWolf]

Henry H. "Hap" Arnold -- Portrait of a Visionary

During the early 1940's there were no wind tunnels or steel pipes dotting the landscape of Middle Tennessee. There was no Air Force base stretching between Manchester and Tullahoma. There were thoughts of the global conflict that was underway, not of an engineering development center. Little did anyone know that a high-technology testing complex would one day arise from the forests of Middle Tennessee.

There was a man with a vision, however, to look beyond the war and the United States' technological capabilities of the 1940s and look into the future. He was a man with a vision to keep the U.S. Air Force on the leading edge of technology.

His name was Henry H. "Hap" Arnold. The man destined to become the "father" of the modern U.S. Air Force was born on June 25, 1886 in Gladwyn, Pa.

Following the family tradition of a military career, Arnold entered West Point in 1903, the same year the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk.

After graduating from West Point in 1907 he served a tour in the infantry in the Philippines.

In 1911, at the age of 25, Arnold volunteered for flight training with the Wright Brothers in Dayton, Ohio, beginning his aviation career. In those early stages of Arnold's aviation career, Congress appropriated $125,000 for aviation development. Although it would not pay for the instruments in even one of today's fighters, in 1911, this money paved the way for some of the first contributions to aviation history. New equipment for training and reconnaissance work and more openings for new pilots could now be realized.

Groundbreaking ceremonies were being held for the first military aviation school at College Park, Md. In essence, the money opened new doors for future aviation pioneers, including young Lieutenant Arnold.

Arnold made many "first" contributions to aviation during his early career. He was the first to demonstrate how the airplane could be used for reconnaissance and was awarded the first MacKay trophy for his efforts. He was awarded the first military aviator's badge and expert aviator's certificate for his pioneering flights. During his assignment at College Park, Arnold established a world altitude record of 6,540 feet.

Arnold enjoyed a highly successful military career. His contributions to the aviation industry during that time, helped further developments in the field of aviation and helped fuel his vision of a stronger, more prominent U.S. Air Force.

General Hap Arnold with President Franklin Roosevelt, in North Africa, 1943

While chief of the Army Information Service, during World War I, Arnold also served as assistant director of military aeronautics, responsible for training pilots and acquiring most military flying bases in the United States.

After the war, he promoted innovations such as the aerial forest patrol and in-flight refueling while on the road to becoming chief of the information Division for the Air Corps in 1925.

Arnold was credited for seeking publicity and support for air power throughout his career, working closely with the motion picture industry still in its infancy.

He also began an association with members of the scientific community at the California Institute of Technology that was to have a significant impact on the Air Force of today.

Boeing B-17 bombers.

Another of Arnold's aviation "firsts" was his organization and leadership of ten Martin B-10 bombers on a historic flight from Ohio to Alaska. The planes flew 18,000 miles round trip, then conducted over 35,000 square miles of aerial surveys of Alaskan territory. Arnold was awarded his second MacKay trophy for this flight.

It was during his term as chief of the Air Corps, that Arnold began turning his vision of a supreme American air power into a reality. World War II had helped develop Arnold's vision. As Commanding General, Arnold led his worldwide Army Air Forces to victory through the use of strategic air power. The Air Corps had grown from a group of 24,000 men to an organized force of more than two million, and from a collection of 2,400 aircraft to more than 80,000. The war had demonstrated air superiority was a prerequisite to any ground or naval action.

The Boeing B-29 "Super Fortress" of World War II.

To Arnold, it seemed the most important lesson of the war was the need for preeminence in air research to provide national security. Toward the end of World War II, Arnold met with Dr. Theodore von Karman, one of the world's great aeronautical scientists, to discuss developing a plan to help guarantee the superiority of future air power.

Von Karman recalled a statement Arnold made in their initial conversation: "We have won this war....I do not think we should spend time debating whether we obtained the victory by sheer power or by some qualitative superiority. Only one thing should concern us. What is the future of air power and aerial warfare? What is the bearing of the new inventions, such as jet propulsion, rockets, radar, and the other electronic devices?"

Generals Arnold and Yount, Jacqueline Cochran

Arnold looked to the scientific and academic communities, for the expertise which could help him find the answers for which he was looking.

Arnold asked von Karman to "gather a group of scientists who will work out a blueprint for air research for the next twenty, thirty, perhaps fifty years." He wanted the group to look into every science and find the basic developments that could make U.S. air power invincible.

Arnold's vision of an Air Force "built around scientists--around mechanically minded fellows" to support an engineering development center, progressed slowly though the political sphere between 1946 and 1949. Arnold witnessed the Center's major hurdle of Congressional approval and funding, but died of a heart attack on January 15, 1950, more than a year before the Center was dedicated in his honor by President Truman on June 25, 1951.

WASP Jacqueline Cochran

The only Air Force officer to ever hold five-star rank, General of the Air Force, Henry Harley Arnold was enshrined into the National Aviation Hall of Fame on December 19, 1967, for his outstanding contributions to aviation by his pioneering flights, devotion to concepts of strategic air power, and brilliant leadership of the Air Force in World War II.

[SAMWolf]

Among Arnold’s successful mobilization projects was the development of the B-17 and B-29, heavy long-range bombers for large-scale strategic bombing campaigns.

The B-17 and B-29 in World War II

Throughout the 1930s, new bomber aircraft emerged in all countries. However, these older models were inadequate to carry out the theories of strategic bombing--they could neither travel far enough nor carry a heavy enough bomb load. Eventually, two American planes were designed that embodied the qualities of the perfect bomber--the Boeing B-17 and B-29. Both planes helped the Allies win the war and define the reality of air power.


Really bad luck.
A flight of B-17's flying to Pearl Harbor from the mainland arrives during the Japanese attack on Dec 7. Ford Island and Battleship Row burns below the bomber, unarmed and out of fuel, looking for a place to land.

In April 1934, the U.S. Army Air Corps requested bids for a multiengine bomber that could carry a bomb load of 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) for at least 1,020 miles (1,642 kilometers) at a speed of 200 miles per hour (322 kilometers per hour). Boeing proposed the four-engine Model 299, with its all-metal construction and a bomb bay that could hold 4,800 pounds (2,177 kilograms) of bombs. It was heavily armed with a gun turret in the nose and three rounded windows (blisters) for gunners on the sides and bottom of the plane. When it rolled out on July 28, 1935, a Seattle Times reporter nicknamed it the "Flying Fortress" because of its heavy armament.

After three weeks of testing, the Flying Fortress flew nonstop from the Boeing factory in Seattle to Wright Field, Ohio, overshadowing the Douglas Aircraft entry, the twin-engine B-18. But tragedy struck on the Fortress’s second air corps test, when the plane crashed due to pilot error, killing two. The Flying Fortress seemed to have no future as the air corps placed orders for the Douglas B-18.


A Boeing B-29 Superfortress flying over Japan, is attacked by a "Nick" twin engine fighter

Over the next winter, Boeing received only a few orders for the Flying Fortress, then designated the YB-17. Twelve planes were delivered to the 2nd Bomb Group in December 1936, where they were used to make historic flights, including record-breaking goodwill tours to South America. Despite their excellent safety record, however, Congress opposed spending so much money on a large bomber.

Then Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and President Franklin Roosevelt mobilized the country for war. Boeing received a contract for 38 B-17Cs (the blisters were replaced with flat glass and self-sealing fuel tanks were added). Over the next six years, Boeing built more than 12,000 B-17s for the USAAF. Production demands meant that the government needed Douglas and Lockheed to build B-17s as well.


During The Big Week, February 20-25, 1944, 3,300 bombers were dispatched to Germany from England and 500 from Italy, with 137 of the former and 89 of the latter being lost.

As the United States went to war, crews were equipped with B-17Es and B-17Fs. (The B-17E added a Sperry ball turret in the front and a remote turret in the belly; and redesigned the tail assembly to include a tail gunner position; the B-17F made 300 further small changes, including adding a one-piece, clear molded-plastic nose.) These planes arrived in North Africa, the Pacific, and England, where they formed the nucleus of the 8th Air Force. The B-17s proved essential to success in Europe, delivering half of all bombs dropped in that theater.

The men who flew the Flying Fortress loved their plane and felt it was good to them. The solid plane endured a lot of punishment, often limping back to base when a lesser bomber would have crashed. And for the military, it was an important symbol. General Henry "Hap" Arnold called it "Air Power that you could put your hand on" and predicted that it was only the first of many great American bombers.


An 8th Air Force B-17 makes a bombing run over Marienburg, Germany, in 1943. The date and photographer are not known.

That next great bomber was already being built. In 1939, Arnold formed a special board, named the Kilner Board, to produce a five-year plan for research and development in the Air Corps. Among its findings was the need for a long-range bomber with twice the range of the B-17. As the war in Europe began, the possibility that all air operations on the continent would need to originate in the United States began to seem real. Captain Donald Putt, a test pilot, was asked to write the requirements for such a plane. He stipulated a four-engine airplane with a range of 5,333 miles (8,583 kilometers) and a speed of 400 miles per hour (644 kilometers per hour) carrying a one-ton bomb load.

By the time Boeing received these requirements, it had already developed the plane. Because of the company’s close relationship with the Air Corps, it had predicted that such a plane would be required and had already been developing the Model 345 before Congress had even approved the appropriation. Boeing won the contract to build 250 B-29s on May 4, 1941, with the first plane scheduled for completion by August 1942. When the United States declared war, that order was expanded to 500.



The plane that Boeing built, eventually nicknamed the "Superfortress," incorporated all the technological advances of the previous decade. A special wing, the 117, was developed to reduce drag, increase high-speed maneuverability, and allow low-speed takeoffs and landings. It was the first bomber to be pressurized, with the front cabin connected to the one in the rear by a pressurized tunnel that went over the bomb bays. There was a remote-controlled gunnery system designed by General Electric that controlled four turrets, and the tail turret was manned separately. Its air-cooled Wright engines generated 2,200 horsepower (1,641 kilowatts), and it could fly at 360 to 380 miles per hour (579 to 612 kilometers per hour) with a range of approximately 5,725 miles (9,213 kilometers).

On September 21, 1942, the XB-29 made its first flight. For the first two test flights, the plane flew satisfactorily, and Donald Putt claimed it was easier to fly than the B-17. Problems soon arose, however. Parts malfunctioned. Engines began to catch fire. Yet adjustments were made and testing continued.



Then disaster hit. During a test flight on February 18, 1943, an engine fire spread into the wings, forcing the plane to crash into a meat packing plant, killing the crew of eleven and 20 on the ground. Many, including President Roosevelt, wanted to end the B-29 program right then. But Hap Arnold, for whom the B-29 had become a pet project, held an investigation and found that the problem was with the manufacture of the engines. The B-29 program was labeled a "special project," which gave the USAAF full control over all facets of the development--from flight tests, production, and modifications to the training of crews. Based at the Boeing plant in Kansas, the project was devoted to getting the plane ready for action with the 20th Air Forcein China by January 1944. The deadline was met, and the first B-29 mission was flown from India on June 5, 1944, against Japanese-held Bangkok. When the Marianas Islands were recaptured in October, the 20th Air Force was relocated there. They were given as many B-29s as possible, since Japan was within flying range of the plane.



Under the leadership of its commander, General Curtis LeMay, the 20th Air Force used B-29s in an intensive bombing campaign against Japan that included traditional and incendiary bombs. As many as 300 bombers were used for each mission, a number that doubled the following summer. As the threat from enemy fighters decreased, the armament was stripped from the planes to allow more weight for bombs. The firestorms created by the incendiary bombs became so intense that the silver planes returned to base black with soot. And on August 6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay dropped the first nuclear bomb on the city of Hiroshima, followed three days later by a second bomb dropped by the B-29 Bock’s Car on Nagasaki. The Japanese surrendered a week later.


The Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber used in the atomic mission that destroyed Hiroshima

Although many credited the nuclear bomb with ending the war, the bomb never could have been dropped without the range and carrying capacity of the B-29. When the earlier B-17s returned from the war, they ended up in boneyards in the desert, whereas the number of B-29s in service did not decrease. While Japan signed the surrender on the USS Missouri, 500 Superfortresses flew overhead as a show of force. In the weeks after the war, it flew "Missions of Mercy"--searching for and dropping supplies on prisoner of war camps.



In 1946, the plane was mobilized to participate in nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll. And on June 25, 1950, the day the Korean War began, four B-29s from Guam were sent to drop bombs on the invading North Koreans. But by then, they were already obsolete--no match against jets--and they were used mainly for reconnaissance. The plane that had delivered the first nuclear bomb and had formed the backbone of the United States nuclear weapons delivery command was retired less than a decade after its dramatic debut.

Additional Sources:

www.arnold.af.mil
www.hq.nasa.gov
www.arlingtoncemetery.net
www.centennialofflight.gov
www.nps.gov
www.wasp-wwii.org
www.chandellewinery.com
www.alaskapostercompany.com
www.dickjurgens.com
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com
home.att.net/~sallyann4
www.20thaaf.com
www.oldgloryprints.com
www.cloudnet.com
www.b17bomber.de
www.wpafb.af.mil

[SAMWolf]

Hap Arnold was honored on this 1988 stamp. His role in Alaska developing aviation is overshadowed by his many contributions nationwide. Supporting Mitchell nearly cost him his career. But he eventually became a 5 star General of the Army. Then, after the U.S. Air Force was established in 1947, he became the only person ever to hold the 5 star General of the Air Force rank.


Hap Arnold and his son Lt. Bruce Arnold in 1945

'Offense is the essence of air power.'

'A modern, autonomous, and thoroughly trained Air Force in being at all times will not alone be sufficient, but without it there can be no national security.'

'Strategic air assault is wasted if it is dissipated piecemeal in sporadic attacks between which the enemy has an opportunity to readjust defenses or recuperate.'

'It’s got to be done and done quickly, so let’s get it done.'

'No man expects to live for ever. But the man in perfect physical condition will live longer, especially in combat.'

'The WASP proved that they could fly wing tip-to-wing tip with their brothers in a time of critical need in this country.'

'When the question comes up of whether we use the atomic bomb or not, my view is that the Air Force will not oppose the use of the bomb, and will deliver it effectively if the Commander in Chief decides to use it. But it is not necessary to use it in order to conquer the Japanese without the need for a land invasion.'

-- General H. H. 'Hap' Arnold, USAAF.

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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[snippy_about_it]

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Good Monday Morning Everyone

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[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[snippy_about_it]

Morning Aeronaut, cool Navy blimp!

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

[snopercod]

Morning y'all!

Great writeup on Hap Arnold. Glad to see Jackie Cochran in there, too.

I heard via the grapevine that some big changes in the Air Force were coming down the pike later this year. I really don't know what kind of changes.

Do you suppose that the AF could ever be successfully reabsorbed into the Army?

[The Mayor]

The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward." —Exodus 14:15

If God has already told you what to do, you don't need to ask Him again.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC, we have a covering of ice over our snow this morning. Brrrr.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[snippy_about_it]

Morning snopercod. Glad you enjoyed today's thread. I can't even imagine the Air Force merging back into the Army. Doesn't seem like it would ever go back.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning feather. Hope today finds you well!

[Soaring Feather]

Hi snippy, feeling okay here. Have not had my coffee yet, so I may upgrade to fabulous after coffee.

[snippy_about_it]

Sam this was a wonderful read on Hap Arnold and highlighting the planes as well. He had an amazing career and contributed so much to our country. Thanks for bringing him to the Foxhole.

[CholeraJoe]

Great Airpower Thread, SAM.

The statement that Arnold AFB, TN is the only USAF base without a flying unit is probably not correct. I don't believe Goodfellow AFB, TX, Brooks-City Base, TX or Bolling AFB, DC have active runways. Peterson AFB, CO, Falcon AFS, CO, Schriever AFB, CO and Onizuka, AFS, CA are Space Command bases and provide satellite control and early warning.

[Professional Engineer]

Hiya Sam. Gen Arnold was definitely a visionary.

[Professional Engineer]

Howdy ma'am. Feeling any better today?