Aviation History - July 2016

Operation Desert Storm, the U.S.-led coalition’s response to

Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, started

25 years ago, on January 17, 1991. The first raid on Iraq’s

capi tal city of Baghdad was conducted by 10 F-117A Night-

hawks of the 415th Tactical Fighter Squadron flying out of

Khamis Mushait Air Base, in Saudi Arabia, targeting the Iraqi

inte grated air defense systems. Night hawks attacked 31 per-

cent of the initial targets, part of a multipronged force that

struck dozens of targets during Desert Storm’s opening

hours. Fixed-wing aircraft in the U.S. strike force included

F-14s, F-15s, F-16s, F-111s, F/A-18s, A-6s and B-52s, joined

by a variety of coalition aircraft, including British Tornadoes.

According to James P. Coyne’s Airpower in the Gulf, “In that

first night, more than 650 aircraft, including almost 400 strike

aircraft, attacked Iraq.” The onslaught proved so effective

that by Desert Storm’s sixth day, “electronic emissions from

the radars controlling [Iraq’s] SAMs, AAA, and early warning

network had dropped off by ninety-five percent.”

Milestones

Desert Storm

25th Anniversary

10 AH july 2016

BRIEFING

I

n 1949 the British

invented the four-

engine, long-range jet-

liner, the de Havilland

Comet. Nine years

later, Boeing snatched

away the prize with the

707. In 1962 de Havilland
     tried again and built the
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     medium-range, short-
     runway trijet with a T tail
     and a trio of tail-mounted
     engines, one buried in the
     \IQTKWVMIVL_WÆIVSQVO
     it. They built just 117 DH
     Tridents before Boeing
     again copped the concept
     and ultimately manufac-
     tured 1,832 727s.
     At one point, the British
     and Americans had con-
     sidered building a joint-
     venture trijet design, but
     Boeing engineers believed
     they could design one to
     use 4,500-foot run ways
     rather than the Tri dent’s
     6,000-foot capability.
     *WMQVO\WWSIL^IV\IOMWN 
     the 727’s unencumbered
     wing to mount full-span,
     \ZQXTM[TW\MLÆIX[\PI\
     origami’ed out from the
     entire trailing edge, plus
     3Z]MOMZÆIX[IVLM`\MVL-
     able slats that ran from
     wing root to tip along each
     leading edge, thus allowing
     I[TQKSPQOP[XMMLIQZNWQT\W
     become a hugely cam-
     bered collection of high-lift

devices. Three-Holer pilots

LQLV¼\M`\MVLÆIX[\PMa

called it “disassembling

the wing.”

=VTQSM\ZILQ\QWVIT

LM[QOV[\PM^MZaÅZ[\

100 wasn’t just a prototype

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After spending a year as a

test article, N7001U was

cleaned up, repainted and

sold to United Air Lines.

1\[XMV\\PMVM`\!

ÆQOP\PW]Z[KZIVSQVOW]\

more than $300 million

in revenue for United

against its $4.4 million

purchase price. In 1991

the airplane was donated

to the Museum of Flight,

south of Seattle, but

between United stripping

the airframe of useful parts

and years spent sitting on

an airport ramp awaiting

restoration, the airplane

steadily deteriorated.

In 1999 serious resto-

ration by a faithful crew of

volunteers, many of them

M`*WMQVOMUXTWaMM[

began. Two parts airplanes

had been donated, one by

Clay Lacy and the other

NZWU.ML-`IVLWV5IZKP

\PM_WZTL¼[ÅZ[\

UILMQ\[TI[\ÆQOP\ ̧

minutes from Paine Field,

in Everett, Wash., to King

County Airport, home of

the Museum of Flight.

Stephan Wilkinson

The First

Three-Holer

final flight

The restored prototype

727-100 leaves Paine

Field, headed for the

Seattle Museum of Flight.

TOP: FRANCIS ZERA/THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT, SEATTLE, WA; BOTTOM: U.S. AIR FORCE