Nuclear-armed stinger from Hawthorne: the Northrop F-89J

In 1955, the Douglas Aircraft Company began full-scale development of a short-range unguided air-to-air rocket to carry a 1.5 kiloton W25 nuclear warhead, the MB-1 Genie, after it became clear that traditional World War II-era US fighter armament would be inadequate to repel a bombing attack by squadrons of the Soviet Union's new gas turbine powered strategic bombers, the Myasishchev M-4, Tupolev Tu-16, and Tupolev Tu-95. The MB-1 Genie obviated the need for precise accuracy when targeting enemy bombers because it was designed with a large nuclear blast radius. Beginning in March 1956, Northrop modified numerous F-89D Scorpion all-weather interceptors from the F-89D-35 to -75 production blocks to carry the MB-1 Genie under Project Bellboy, and the company designation N-160 was allocated to this scheme. The resulting Genie-armed Scorpion, designated F-89J, carried two MB-1 Genies below launching rails that were mounted on the underwing pylons and had the standard wingtip missile pod/tanks replaced with 600 gallon (2,271 liter) fuel tanks, although a few F-89Js retained the wingtip tanks of the F-89D. Later, the F-89J received an extra modification by adding two more underwing pylons inboard of the launching rails for the Genie to carry four Falcon air-to-air missiles tipped with non-nuclear warheads. The F-89J was equipped with the Hughes MG-12 fire-control system (a upgraded and more advanced development of the E-5 fire control system installed on the F-89D), which could allow it to attack enemy bombers at much higher altitudes by making it easier for the crew to launch the Genie rockets while in a nose-up, climbing altitude. During interception of an enemy bomber formation, the MG-12 fire-control radar tracked a target and assigned a Genie to its target, after which the pilot armed the nuclear warhead and fired the Genie at the bomber pack before pulling the interceptor into a tight turn to escape the nuclear detonation and then proceeding to use remote control to allow the Genie's nuclear warhead to explode and destroy enemy bombers.

Left: Two F-89Js (serial numbers 52-1848 and 52-1862) in flight, 1958
Right: An F-89J (serial number 52-1949) at the March Field Air Museum, photographed by me on December 17, 2022.

In November 1956, the US Air Force began taking deliveries of the F-89J, the 84th Fighter Interceptor Squadron based at Hamilton AFB in Novato, California being the first unit to receive the F-89J, and standing active alerts of the F-89J with the Genie started on January 1, 1957. A total of 350 F-89Ds were converted to F-89J standard, with modifications completed by February 1958, and the US Air Force assigned the system code WS-205G (Weapons System 205G) to the F-89J. On July 19, 1957, as part of Operation Plumbbob, the F-89J carried out the first and only live firing of a Genie (codenamed John) when an F-89J with serial number 53-2547 fired an MB-1 Genie over the Yucca Flats Nuclear Test Site in southern Nevada, with the rocket's warhead detonating at an altitude of 15,000 feet (4,500 meters). To prove that the Genie was safe for use over populated areas in the event that Soviet bombers would penetrate US airspace, a group of five Air Force officers volunteered to stand uncovered in their light summer uniforms underneath the blast, and they were apparently spared from the effects of the blast after the live-firing test of the Genie over the Yucca Flats.

Despite proving to the US Air Force that a live-firing of a nuclear-armed unguided air-to-air rocket was feasible, the F-89J was destined to have a brief operational career with the Air Defense Command, and beginning in July 1959 it was replaced in ADC units by the supersonic F-101B Voodoo and F-106 Delta Dart, which also carried the Genie air-to-air rocket. The F-89Js were then transferred to the Air National Guard, operating with ANG until late 1968, when they were retired. In an interesting footnote, in 1963 ten F-89Js were stripped of their nose radars, fitted with additional underwing fuel tanks, and eventually used for testing Nike missile defenses in Japan, being redesignated DF-89J.  

References:

Balzer, G., and Dario, M., 1993. Northrop F-89 Scorpion. Leicester, UK: Aerofax.

Chong, T., 2016. Flying Wings & Radical Things: Northrop's Secret Aerospace Projects & Concepts 1939-1994. Forest Lake, MN: Specialty Press.

Davis, L., and Menard, D., 1990. F-89 Scorpion in Action (Aircraft Number 104). Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications.

The miniature bee from San Diego: the Beecraft Wee Bee

Everyone, myself included, has been fascinated with gigantic aircraft from the annals of heavier-than-air powered flight, like the Hughes H-4 Hercules, Antonov An-124 and An-225, Convair B-36 Peacemaker and XC-99, Sikorsky Il'ya Muromets, Tupolev ANT-20, and the Riesenflugzeugen-type bombers built in Germany in World War I. However, very small airplanes have tended to fly under the radar, although many miniature heavier-than-air flying machines existed in the earliest days of homebuilt airplanes, and most people don't know that once upon a time in the late 1940s, the aircraft industry in San Diego built the smallest ultralight plane anywhere in southern California, the Wee Bee. Hence, I am dedicating this post to discussing the oft-neglected story of the smallest aircraft manufactured in San Diego.

 

Convair engineer William "Bill" Chana (1921-2012), who worked on design of the Wee Bee and became one of aircraft's test pilots.

During the late 1940s, the US aviation industry was intoxicated by the nearly-monthly trend of new and improved airplanes appearing in the United States, so in 1947 Convair engineer Kenneth Coward toyed with the notion of a balsa wood airplane having an empty weight of 70 pounds. Despite being the chief designer for his proposed miniature airplane, Coward also enlisted five engineers from Convair, including William "Bill" Chana, Karl Montijo, James Wilder, Tom Bossart, and A.B. Mandeville, to explore the possibility of building an extremely small airplane. Chana himself took a leading role in working out the layout of Coward's proposed aircraft, having built award-winning model planes since he took an interest in aviation at age 6 and studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University before joining Consolidated Aircraft in June 1941 to become a flight test engineer for a variety of aircraft built by the San Diego division of Consolidated (which became Convair after 1943). Coward, Chana, and other members of the group decided that balsa probably would not be an appropriate building material for use in construction of their proposed aircraft because war-surplus aluminum was available in sufficient quantity and the tooling equipment for fashioning could be readily obtainable. 

The aircraft design by Coward and Chana that soon emerged, dubbed the Wee Bee, was an all-metal monoplane whereby the pilot lay prone atop a girder-like fuselage to allow for a reduction in weight and drag and which had the elevator control beneath the pilot despite being in the same spatial position as in a conventional airplane as well as rudder pedals housed in slots on top of the fuselage. The Wee Bee had a length of 14 feet 2 inches (4.32 meters), a height of 5 feet (1.52 meters), an empty weight of 210 lb (95 kg), and a maximum takeoff weight of 410 lb (186 kg). The Wee Bee's designers formed a new company to undertake manufacture of the aircraft, which was initially called Ken S. Coward & Associates and then was known for a while as Beecraft Aviation Associates before finally changing its name to Bee Aviation Associates, and Bill Chana became president of this new firm.

Left: The Beecraft Wee Bee taking off on its second flight in November 20, 1948.
Right: The Beecraft Wee Bee parked next to the Convair XC-99 prototype heavy-lift transport near the Convair factory, late 1948. The huge size disparity between these two piston-powered planes is evident.

The Wee Bee aircraft was completed in early 1948, eventually receiving the civil registration NX90840. After receiving a few modifications, including replacing the original 15 foot (4.57 meter) wing with a slightly bigger 18 foot (5.49 meter) wing that had a wing area of 44 square feet (4.1 square meters), it began taxi tests at El Cajon's Gillespie Field in August, but the tail skid originally incorporated onto this aircraft carved up with asphalt runways of the airfield, and even though a tail wheel was substituted, it created a ground-looping tendency and the 20 hp (15 kW) Kiekhaefer O-45-1 flat-twin piston engine installed on the Wee Bee did not generate enough power. Therefore, the Wee Bee was fitted with a tricycle landing gear, which not only cured the ground-looping tendency but also allowed the nose to be lifted off the ground at 30 mph (48 km/h). On September 26, 1948, the Wee Bee carried out its first flight with Bill Dana himself at the controls, flying at an altitude of one foot at a distance of less than 100 feet. After a few additional flights by Karl Montijo and William Bouck, which were also hops in ground effect, the Wee Bee was fitted with a more powerful 30 hp (22 kW) O-45-35 engine by a US Navy officer at a hangar in Ream Field at Chana's behest, and on March 12, 1949, Montijo carried out the first "true" flight of the Wee Bee, reaching an altitude of 40 feet (12 meters) and banking to the right in level flight. He  further reduced the weight and drag of the Wee Bee by changing the aircraft's wing incidence to 19 degrees and installed fairings on the wing junctures to the fuselage and engine to fuel tanks while fitting the Wee Bee with a shorter nose gear strut and a new Sensenich propeller. On April 20, 1949, the Wee Bee reached an altitude of 400 feet and flew for 10 minutes on its next flight, and after being fitted with wingtips, it was ferried to the UK via the Queen Mary for a demonstration flight at Gatwick Airport in London. A planned demonstration flight at Belfast, Northern Ireland, was shelved due to bad weather, but the Wee Bee caught the attention of the print media as the smallest plane ever flown when it impressed crowds at the 1949 National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio, with a flight that lasted seven minutes. Kenneth Coward bolstered his messaging that “the Wee Bee was big enough to lift a man and small enough to be lifted by a man” by wrapping his arm around the airplane and lifting it off the ground. Bill Chana again changed the aircraft's wing incidence again to 12 degrees in order to further enhance performance, and with this modification, the Wee Bee attained a top speed of 82 mph (132 km/h) during a series of flights by Chana himself on March 11, 1950. The thirteenth and last full-fledged flight of the Wee Bee occurred on  April 20, 1950, by which time newsreel companies were utterly impressed by the performance of the Wee Bee.

A replica of the Beecraft Wee Bee on display at the San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park, San Diego, photographed by me on August 24, 2019.

Even before the last flight of the Wee Bee, Beecraft Aviation Associates proposed a military version of the Wee Bee for the US Air Force, the Military Mite, which would have been armed with six underwing rockets and featured provisions for folding wings to allow for easy ground transportation, while being capable of takeoff and landing from any road. However, the USAF had no interest whatsoever in this proposal. After being retired from flying, the Wee Bee became a static exhibit at US airshows before becoming an exhibit at the San Diego Air and Space Museum in San Diego in 1963. On February 22, 1978, the Wee Bee was destroyed when the original museum building was set on fire by an arsonist, even while plans were underway to move the SDASM and its aircraft collection to the Ford Building in Balboa Park. Despite the loss of the original aircraft, a replica of the Wee Bee was constructed and is now on display at the current home of the San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park.