The World at War
The United States declared war on Japan the next day. Although taken by surprise by the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war against the United States on December 11, justifying this action on American provocations against German ships and submarines since September 1941. In fact, three American destroyers, the Greer, the Kearney and the Reuben James had fired on German submarines. These developments brought the United States fully into the European conflict. The world now was truly in total war.
In 1941, the most reliable way for the delivery of goods to Europe was by cargo ship, but the German U-boat threat to the mercantile transport fleet was very real. Several innovations were instituted, including the convoy system across the North Atlantic. At the same time, the United States military, in conjunction with the domestic civilian air transport fleet, created a series of Atlantic Ocean air routes for the purpose of delivering war materiel from the United States to the war zones in Europe and Africa. These routes were generally operational beginning in 1942.
The primary air routes were the North Atlantic Air Route, the Mid-Atlantic Air Route, and the South Atlantic Air Route. Because no aircraft existed that had sufficient range to bridge the entire Atlantic Ocean from the United States, aircraft were required to “hop” from one landing field to the next over large expanses of ocean. The DC-3, whose military designation was the C-47, was the mainstay of transport aircraft at the time. Pilots were advised to place their trust in God and Pratt & Whitney.1
The South Atlantic Route began at one of four bases in Brazil, to which aircraft arrived from Florida, and then proceeded to Ascension Island, which is located in the South Atlantic some 1,400 miles from Natal or Recife, Brazil. From there aircraft landed on the African continent, usually in French Morocco or Liberia.
The Mid-Atlantic Route ran from Morrison Field in Florida to Bermuda and thence to the Azores, from where landings were made in Marrakech or Casablanca, French Morocco or RAF St. Mawgan in Cornwall, England.
The North Atlantic Route commenced in either New Hampshire (Grenier Army Air Base) or in Maine (Presque Isle Army Airfield) and
“A jumble of rocks proved to be Semitak Island. It swept past our right wing and became lost almost instantly in the mist. Now for the fiord. The correct fiord. We held on straight for the coast line. We would soon be committed. The distance between the island and the mouths of the three fiords was only two miles. How could we be sure we had entered the fiord in the middle unless it was possible to see the other two? Eenie-meenie-miney-mo. .
Although the DC-3 was the mainstay of American transport aircraft in 1941, the Douglas DC-4 and the Lockheed Constellation, both four-engine designs, were in development. While these two aircraft appeared at about the same time, they were very different from each other and the reasons for their appearance were based on very different circumstances.
The DC-4 was created under specifications requested in the late 1930s by United Airlines to provide that carrier with a longer range passenger airliner. It first flew on February 14, 1942 and because the United States had recently entered World War II, the production line was requisitioned by the military. It was designated the C-54 for military cargo transport. The DC-4 carried twice the number of passengers as the DC-3, had a much longer range, and was the first transport aircraft to have tricycle landing gear. It had a relatively simple fuselage design and could be produced in large numbers easily.
The Lockheed Constellation, on the other hand, was the brain child of Howard Hughes, who in 1939 had taken over control of TWA. His support for the creation of the Boeing 307 had so far caused five of the pressurized Stratolin – ers to be delivered to service, but he had bigger plans—plans that would create one of the most impressive shapes in the history of the commercial airlines.
The shark-like Constellation was to be pressurized, unlike the DC-4 that would be limited to lower altitudes. Hughes favored pressurized aircraft partly due to his prior experience with the H-l Racer that he had designed and flown in 1935. Pressurized aircraft had the advantage of flying above most of the weather, without the requirement of oxygen masks, and could seek the further advantage of favorable winds. Hughes provided Lockheed with the essential specifications and told them that he would buy it if Lockheed would build it.
There was at Lockheed a young aeronautical engineer by the name of Kelly Johnson,
who headed up a small team of engineers in the Advanced Development Programs division. His team developed the P-38 Lightning in 1939, the world’s first 400 mile-per-hour aircraft, and much of his design was beyond government specifications and without a written contract. That was his style. He set up his team in a separate, walled-off section of the Lockheed building that was off-limits to all but a few. His mode of operation led to his group garnering the label “Skunk Works,” from which astounding aircraft developments would later appear, including the super-secret U-2 (1955), A-12 (1962) and SR-71 (1964) spy planes, and stealth aircraft like the F-117 (1977). His was a reputation for speed, innovation, informality, and on-time, underbudget aircraft productions.
In 1939 Kelly Johnson was put in charge of the design, development, and production of the Constellation. Lockheed agreed to Howard Hughes’ terms, including that TWA would get the first 40 planes off the line and that the project be held in the strictest secrecy (Hughes was developing his reputation for paranoia even then). The deal was made with Hughes Tool Company, not TWA, both to ensure secrecy and because of the fact that Hughes Tool had the money. The project was begun, drawings were prepared, reviewed, revised, and by 1941 about half of the original prototype was done.
World events in 1939 and 1940 caused the War Department to conduct a survey of United States airplane manufacturing plants with a view to ascertaining production levels in the event of the United States being brought into the hostilities. The secret Constellation design was thus disclosed. The war atmosphere had also caused the United States to create the War Production Board, whose job was to allocate the industrial and manufacturing resources of the country in a way to best ensure its defense and guarantee the production of essential goods. This higher cause was understood by all concerned, including Howard Hughes, and by agreement it was determined that Pan American would participate in the Constellation project along with TWA. Pan Am was the only international air carrier for the United States, and it was not a competitor of TWA at that time. Further, Pan Am had the international experience, the routes, the landing rights, and the foreign contacts that could make the best and highest use of the Connie’s range and speed. Thus amended, the project went ahead under the auspices of the War Production Board.
General “Hap” Arnold was Chief of the Army Air Corps in 1941. He was one of the first military pilots in the Army and he had even received flight instruction in 1911 at the Wright brothers’ aviation school in Ohio. He was to play a central role in wartime aviation. His duties before and during World War II included the monitoring and evaluation of aircraft production at plants around the country. The design shape and relative complexity of the Constellation (military designation C-121) caused him to halt production work on the airplane several times in favor of the simpler and less expensive DC-4. Because of this, the Constellation would not actually fly until December 1943, almost two years after the first flight of the DC-4. After the first Connie was rolled out of the Burbank, California plant, and as a part of its test flight regimen, Howard Hughes and Jack Frye would fly it to Washington, D. C. in a new record time of under seven hours, nonstop.
The Connie would not contribute in any significant way to the war effort. The DC-4, on the other hand, would take center stage as the transport workhorse for the military for the duration of the war. With the exception of the five Boeing 307 Stratoliners in service, the DC-4 was the first serious transoceanic aircraft to become available. The first of these aircraft did not go to United Airlines, which had provided its specifications and had submitted the first orders for it, but ironically to its competitor, TWA, which was flying the southern transatlantic route to Africa for the military. During the war, these planes would log
over a million miles a month over the Atlantic, some 20 ocean sorties every day.