Aviation History - July 2018

JULY 2018 AH 7

OPPOSITE PHOTOS: EAA/JIM RAEDER; TOP RIGHT: DOUGLAS CURRAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; INSET: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; BOTTOM RIGHT: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

Air Quotes

“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.”

–GENERAL HENRY H. “HAP” ARNOLD

what has inevitably been

renumbered as a “Yak-110.”

It required a carefully engi-

neered and fabricated center

section joining the two fu -

selages, plus mating of the

horizontal stabilizers and

trimming of the outboard

horizontal tails. Both cockpits

remain fully operational, and

the Yak-110 has been exten-

[Q^MTa\M[\ÆW_VQVKT]LQVO

a full range of conventional

aerobatic maneuvers.

Now builder Dell Coller,

of Dell Aero Speed, in

Caldwell, Idaho, is adding

a 3,000-pound-thrust GE

CJ610 turbojet to the air-

plane, slung under the center

section. Essentially a Lear

25 engine, it will provide the

equivalent of roughly four

times more horsepower than

the Yak-110’s two nine-

cylinder, 360-hp Vedeneyev

radials already generate.

<PMÅZ[\IQZ[PW_XMZNWZUMZ

to team a CJ610 with a piston

engine was Jim Franklin, who

QV!!JMOIVÆaQVOPQ[2M\

Waco UPF-7. That airplane,

and Franklin, were lost in

an airshow midair in 2005.

In 2014 Coller’s Screamin’

Sasquatch Jet Waco, a 1929

Taperwing with a CJ610,

was introduced, and has since

JMKWUMIÅ`\]ZMI\IQZ[PW_[

The Yak-110 is set to

appear at this summer’s EAA

AirVenture in Oshkosh,

Wisc. Like the F-15, F-

IVL[M^MZITW\PMZ[]XMZÅOP\-

ers, it has a thrust-to-weight

ratio greater than 1-to-1,

which should provide for

some decidedly unconven-

tional aerobatics.

Stephan Wilkinson

O

n March 4, remote-

controlled sub-

mersibles from

the research

vessel Petrel, sponsored

by Microsoft co-founder

Paul Allen, owner of the

Flying Heritage Collection

in Everett, Wash., located the U.S.

Navy aircraft carrier Lexington on the floor of the Coral

Sea, where it sank on May 8, 1942, after history’s first

direct carrier-versus-carrier engagement.

“We’ve been planning to locate the Lexington for about

six months, and it came together nicely,” said Robert

Kraft, director of subsea operations. As a war graveyard,

Lexington will not be subject to any salvage attempts,

but underwater photographs reveal how well preserved

the ship has been in the cold depths. Equally remarkable

is the condition of the 35 Douglas TBD-1 Devastators,

SBD-3 Dauntlesses and Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats that

went down with it, battered by time and sea, but with

their camouflage and markings still distinct after 76 years.

One F4F-3 sports four small Japanese flags under the

cockpit, as well as the “Felix the Cat” insignia of fighter

squadron VF-3. When VF-2 replaced it aboard “Lady

Lex” in April 1942, seven of VF-3’s pilots and many of its

F4Fs—complete with Felix—were transferred to VF-

for the Coral Sea fight. That included “F-5” and its pilot,

Lieutenant Albert O. Vorse, who downed two Aichi D3A1s

at Coral Sea and survived the war with 10½ victories.

Jon Guttman

“lady Lex”

Located

frozen in time

A Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat

sunk aboard the aircraft

carrier Lexington (inset) still

displays the markings it wore

when flown by Albert Vorse.