Eileen Bjorkman
@AviationHistGal
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I tell veterans’ stories. Retired USAF. Most recent book: “The Fly Girls Revolt: The Story of the Women Who Kicked Open the Door to Fly in Combat"
Everett, WA
Joined July 2019
The Fly Girls Revolt is now available in paperback! The Audible version is also available at Amazon.
amazon.com
In 1993, U.S. women earned the right to fly in combat, but the full story of how it happened is largely unknown. From the first women in the military in World War II to the final push in the 1990s,...
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RT @NavalInstitute: #RIP Cmdr. Vern Jumper who passed away last Friday at the age of 93. Jumper was the Air Boss of USS Midway during Opera….
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By WWI, aviators were thinking about ways to extend aircraft range. On June 27, 1923, the first aerial refueling took place. A DH-4B flown by Lts. Virgil Hine and Frank Seifert passed gas through a hose to a DH-4B beneath it, flown by Lts. Lowell Smith & John Richter.
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Happy birthday to Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, born #OTD in 1886. One of his flight instructors was Orville Wright, and he later commanded the U.S. Army Air Forces during WWII. He encouraged innovation in science & technology, and Arnold AFB is named for him.
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Many thanks to Shannon Huffman Polson for having me on The Grit Factor podcast. You can watch and listen here:
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When working on a homebuilt aircraft, some days you produce something that looks like it belongs in an airplane. Other days, you wind up with a pile of parts that look like they might belong to a piece of IKEA furniture.
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#OTD in 1941, Jacqueline Cochran departed Canada to ferry a Lockheed Hudson bomber to the RAF. She later led a group of US women to the UK to ferry military aircraft as a precursor to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). The story is told in Spitfires by Becky Aikman.
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Nice video on the Benefield Anechoic Facility at Edwards. I’m old enough to remember when it was being built.
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On June 8, 1966, the #2 XB-70 Mach 3.0+ prototype aircraft crashed at Edwards AFB when it collided with an F-104 chase plane. The production aircraft was cancelled in 1961; the prototypes were used for research. The surviving XB-70 is displayed at the Natl. Museum of the USAF.
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On June 5, 1948, a Northrop YB-49 “flying wing” crashed due to a structural failure, killing all five crewmembers, including copilot Capt Glen Edwards, for whom Edwards AFB is named. Although it never entered production, the design later influenced the B-2 and B-21.
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Building an airplane is like painting: 90% of the work is in planning & prepping. This seat part for my RV-8 involved removing protective material, deburring the edges, & removing two small pieces of material. Next is priming, fitting, etc. Riveting will take about 5 minutes!
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I think the F-107 is one of the oddest-looking aircraft I've seen that was intended for production. It lost the competition for an all-weather fighter-bomber to the F-105. What do you think is an odd-looking production (not experimental) aircraft?
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On May 30, 1949 J.O. Lancaster became the first to use a Martin-Baker Mk.1 ejection seat when he ejected during the crash of an A.W.52 flying wing. More than 6,000 people are now members of the Martin-Baker Tie Club. Total lives saved to date: 7,789.
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On May 25, 1953, the YF-100A air superiority fighter flew its first flight at Edwards AFB, reaching Mach 1.04 during the flight and becoming the first fighter aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound in level flight.
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On May 22, 1991 the House passed the 1992 defense budget bill, including a provision to repeal the 1948 law that excluded women from combat aircraft. After much resistance in the Senate, President Bush signed the bill on Dec 5; DoD did not change its policy until Apr 28, 1993.
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98 years ago today, Charles Lindbergh completed the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris. His flight ignited a passion for aviation in the U.S. that still exists today. It especially amazes me that he was only 25 years old when he did this.
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Many people remember May 18, 1980 as the day Mount St Helens erupted. It was also memorable for me since it was the day I left Seattle for USAF Officer Training School. Fortunately, OTS wasn't as turbulent as my send off! Joining the Air Force was the best decision I ever made.
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On May 10, 1972, the YA-10A made its first flight at Edwards AFB. Although officially designated the “Thunderbolt II” after the P-47, the A-10 is more commonly known as the “Warthog” and is loved more by the Army than the Air Force.
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On May 9, 1932, Capt Albert Hegenberger made the first solo flight completely on instruments from takeoff to touchdown in a Consolidated NY-2 biplane. His system of non-directional and marker beacons was later adopted across the U.S. He retired as a 2-star general.
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The AC-130U was the first gunship equipped with a radar to engage a target obscured by cloud cover. On May 6, 1999, this capability was demonstrated for the first time in combat when a crew attacked a border post on the Albania-Kosovo border during Operation Allied Force.
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On May 3, 1952 USAF Lt Col William P. Benedict made the first aircraft landing at the geographic north pole in a C-47 equipped with skis. In addition to the flight crew, the aircraft carried a geophysicist and his assistant who measured the gravitational pull at the pole.
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