LEFT:
David Tallichet III
owned three of the
B-25s.BELOW:
Doolittle Raiders on
the flight between
Philadelphia and
Worcester.AEROPLANE JULY 2018 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 31Department of Transportation. His
professional background, as we shall
see, was to bring him into conflict with
Hawke’s own take on airmanship.
At dusk two B-25s were in the
circuit. At last David Tallichet had
arrived for the rendezvous — minus
one aircraft. Always Dangerous and
Tokyo Express taxied in. Tallichet,
along with his co-pilot Lestor
Addie, a Canadian airline pilot who
normally flew Boeing 737s, climbed
down from Always Dangerous which
they had brought up from MacDill
AFB near Tampa, Florida. Tokyo
Express had started its ferry flight
from Chino, California and was in
the hands of Bill Baldwin and Vern
Ohmert, who was bringing his wife
Becky along too. As for the missing
Silver Plane, it was believed to be
somewhere between Kansas and New
York. This particular aircraft had been
languishing at Topeka, Kansas for the
previous two years.
At this point Hawke was having
to temper his frustration. His
objective throughout the project was
consistently to have his warbirds in
one flock, believing that with such
temperamental machines, lacking
modern aids, there was safety in
sticking together. “The object also”,
he said, “is to get us all there together,
not in bits and pieces scattered around
in 10 different directions!”Forty years on, Tony Howarth
recalls communication being an issue.
“One of the — many — problems
with Hanover Flight was basic
communication and instrumentation.
This [aircraft] could talk to that but
not to the other two. This [aircraft]
had a working compass, that one did
not. There was muted laughter about
World War Two radio direction-
finders. They didn’t work anyway.”
On Wednesday 3 May 1978, all
four Mitchells were flying together,
having taken off from Worcester.
Soon, however, Tallichet’s two aircraft
broke away and headed for Portland,
Maine. There they intended waiting
for Silver Plane which Mike Wright
and Bill Muszala had under way,
leaving Hawke and McQuinn to
carry on to St John’s, Newfoundland.
Tallichet had the fire trucks waiting
for him at Portland after he reported
a hydraulic failure and possible belly
landing. A normal landing denied the
fire crews the opportunity to practise
on a wartime bomber.
Meanwhile, Hawke now had
friend and colleague Lorentzen in
the left-hand seat, he himself actingas navigator and co-pilot. The flight
ahead was not to be easy. The aircraft
had a malfunctioning radio, with the
added disadvantage of a lower fuel
capacity than the other Mitchells.
The duo flew between two banks
of cloud which progressively closed
in, forcing the machines to fly closer
and closer because those in Doolittle
Raiders were dependent upon
McQuinn’s working VOR (VHF
omnidirectional range) navigation
aid. The cloud grew denser still untilvisual contact was lost. The tension of
those aboard Doolittle Raiders, which
included Tony and Carolyn, increased
considerably. They were earnestly
hoping that the lead aircraft would
have climbed higher as a precaution
against being rammed from behind.
To compound matters, oil pressure
in Raiders’ port engine began to drop
and ice was forming on the wings
— de-icing boots were a luxury they
did not have. Climbing into drier
air was not an option because theHawke’s objective was consistently to have
his warbirds in one flock, believing there was
safety in sticking together
28-35_AM_Hanover_July18_cc C.indd 31 04/06/2018 12:24