At the end of this week a new movie on the famous Tuskegee Airmen will be released. Entitled Red Tails it promises to be an action packed adventure story. The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is remarkable given the adversity they had to overcome.
Known as the “Red Tails” because of their unit markings, the Tuskegee Airmen overcame much adversity to become one of the most respected units of the Army Air Corps. In June 1941, the Tuskegee Airmen program officially began at the Tuskegee Institute, a highly regarded university founded by Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Airmen, including ground support crews, were placed under the command of Capt. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., one of the few African American West Point graduates. The Tuskegee Airmen saw their first combat in North Africa in 1943 and were initially equipped with P-40 Warhawks, P-39 Airacobras, later with P-47 Thunderbolts and finally with the airplane that they would become most identified with, the P-51 Mustang. By the end of the War, the Tuskegee Airmen achieved a very impressive combat record, shooting down well over 100 German aircraft, receiving 3 distinguished unit citations as well as, The Tuskegee Airmen were awarded several Silver Stars, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 8 Purple Hearts, 14 Bronze Stars and 744 Air Medals. Their valiant efforts lead the way to the desegregation of the armed forces in 1948.
The Tuskegee Airman were inducted into the San Diego Air and Space Museum’s International Aerospace Hall of Fame in 2008. Our P-51 painted in the markings of the Tuskegee Airman.
Make sure to check out the movie and also our Flickr collection of Tuskegee Airman
The Library & Archives will be closed tomorrow (December 23) and Monday (December 26) for the Christmas holidays. I wrote this little poem last year for the holiday’s. I updated it for this year.
‘Twas the night before our Christmas and all through the Library
Not a creature was stirring, except for our mouse;
The stockings were hung by the stacks with care,
In hopes that St. Bob and the banana bread soon would be there;
The volunteers were nestled all snug at their desks,
While visions of archiving manuals danced in their heads;
And Katrina in her ‘kerchief, and Nelson in his cap,
Had just settled down for an afternoon chat,
When out on the pavilion there arose such chatter,
I sprang from his desk to see what was the matter.
Away to the pavilion I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The reflection on the PBY from the new-polish shown
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to his wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature UPS Truck, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Bob.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, Lindbergh! now, Earhart! now, Wright and Curtiss!
On, Ryan! on Boeing! on, Hellcat and Spirit!
To the top of the pavilion! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the truck full of banana bread, and St. Bob as well.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Bob came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of cookbooks he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
Happy Christmas to all, and enjoy your time off.”
Happy Holidays from the Library Staff
This weekend is the annual Holiday festival held in Balboa Park. December Nights (at one time know as Christmas on the Prado) is a staple of the San Diego Holiday Season. For two nights – Friday December 2 and Saturday December 3- the Museum will be open for FREE. During this time there will be special hours for the Museum.
On Friday, December 2, the Museum will open at 3pm and close at 10pm. (last admission at 930pm)
On Saturday, December 3, the Museum will open at 2pm and will close at 10pm. (last admission at 930pm)
The Library & Archives will not be open for researchers on Friday December 2. But we will be operating a table in the rotunda offering books and magazines for purchase. If you have aviation enthusiasts in the family the Library & Archives table is the place to pick up some great deals on rare books and aviation magazines.
The Library & Archives Staff wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Students in and around San Diego have had the week off. The Library & Archives Staff will be taking some much-needed time off for the Holidays and reopen on Monday!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Our Library & Archives Staff in our effort to make our collection more accessible to the public has digitized another one of our special collection. The Harold DeWolf Kantner Collection is now available for viewing on Flickr.
Curtiss JN-4, upside-down in a field
Harold DeWolf Kantner spent his life in aviation in a variety of roles. He attended the Moisant School of Aviation in 1911 and received license no. 65. He went on to fly, test, design and build planes as well as instructing others on flying. He also designed an outboard hydroplane that won many regattas. During World War II Kantner worked for Consolidated Vultee in San Diego as a design engineer. Kantner was a longtime member of the Early Bird organization.
This photo collection covers the different aspects of Kantner’s career. It includes several early flying boats that Kantner designed, built or flew, as well as photos from projects he worked on at Consolidated Vultee.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/sets/72157628106796132/
The Library and Archives will be closed on Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25 for the Thanksgiving holidays. We will reopen on to the public on Tuesday November 29 at our regular business hours.
The Library & Archives is always looking for new and exciting ways to make our collection more accessible to the general public. The Library & Archives is the leader in Balboa Park in placing our collections online and accessible to the public. A new venture for us in the purist of making our collection more accessible online is the Online Archives of California. You may wonder “What is the Online Archive of California (OAC)?”
The OAC is a website that provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary source collections (artwork, manuscripts, papers, historic photographs, and so on) maintained by more than200 libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California — including collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses.
The OAC is a core component of the University of California’s California Digital Library (CDL) and is administered by the Digital Special Collections program.
Their are over 20,000 online finding aids (or guides) available so far on the OAC and growing. So far we have 11 of our collection finding guides up. This is just one way that the staff at the Library is improving the online presence of our collections. Our Flickr, Facebook, Blog, YouTube, Amazon Store, and now the Online Archive of California have produced increased visibility to the third largest aerospace archives in the United States.
Today is the 236th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Established in 1775 the Marine Corps has protected the United States from the founding of our nation on land and sea.
With the advent of powered flight in 1903 the Marine Corps has taken to the skies. Marine Corps aviation began in 1912 and Marine Corps aviators has served their country in every major conflict since then.
Some famous Marine Corps Pilots (and there are many more not listed here)
Lt Col. Alfred Austell Cunningham- first Marine Corps aviator
Major General Marion Carl- first Marine Corps ace in WWII, shot down 18 aircraft
Col. Gregory “Pappy” Boyington- Marine Corps fighter ace in WWII, awarded the Medal of Honor and Navy Cross. Shot down 22 aircraft
Col. John Glenn- Marine Corps Pilot, first U.S astronaut to orbit the earth, U.S Senator
Col. Ed McMahon- Marine Corps fighter pilot in WWII and Korea. Later co-hosted the tonight show with Johnny Carson
Capt. Ted William- Hall of Fame baseball player and Marine Corps pilot in WWII and Korea
Lt. Col. Jerry Coleman- Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster, Yankees Second baseman, and Marine Corps pilot in WWII and Korea
One of the most significant aircraft built by the Ryan Aeronautical Company was the Ryan Fireball. The Fireball was a the first operational composite aircraft employed by the United States Navy. What is a composite aircraft? A composite aircraft was an aircraft that was both piston and jet engine aircraft. The United States Navy approached T. Claude Ryan during the Second World War with the idea for a composite aircraft.
At the time it was not thought that a jet engine aircraft could take off and land successfully from an aircraft carrier. The early jet prototypes could not land on aircraft carriers. So the thought was to create an aircraft that had both a piston engine (to be used while landing) and jet engine. Ryan Aeronautical went to work on this radical new design in 1943.
The composite aircraft
The Fireball looked like a standard American monoplane fighter. It had a conventional engine, was armed with machine guns in the wings. After the pilot canopy the plane was anything but conventional. The whole back half of the aircraft was the jet engine. The aircraft was produced and served in the fleet for a short time but with the end of the war in the Pacific the larger order of Fireballs was cancelled. By 1947 the composite aircraft were replaced by modern jets that could land safely on aircraft carriers.
