George Welch

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George Welch (actually George Lewis Schwartz ; born May 10, 1918 , † October 12, 1954 ) was an American military officer and a pilot in the United States Air Force . Welch broke the sound barrier on October 1, 1947 . However, the flight was not officially rated, so that only 14 days later, Chuck Yeager officially and proven to achieve a speed above Mach 1.

origin

Welch was born as George Lewis Schwartz. His father was a chemist at DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware . Because of anti-German sentiment in the United States after World War I , his name was changed to George Welch. He attended St. Andrew's School in Middletown (Delaware) until 1936 and then completed a three-year training course in mechanical engineering at Purdue University .

Military career

1939 George Welch entered the Army Air Corps and was appointed in January 1941 to become a pilot and after Wheeler Field on Oahu ( Hawaii added). During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , he managed to shoot down four Japanese aircraft in several flights with his Curtiss P-40 . His friend Kenneth Taylor shot down two machines. Which was suggested for his conduct for the Medal of Honor . The nomination was withdrawn because he attacked without orders. The incident was later featured in films about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Instead, Welch received the Distinguished Service Cross .

He was transferred to New Guinea after a promotional tour for US war bonds . There he flew the Bell P-39 Airacobra and the Lockheed P-38 Lightning before he had to retire from service in July 1944 due to malaria . By then he had completed 348 combat missions and scored 16 kills.

Test pilot

After retiring from the military, Welch went to North American Aviation (NAA) as a test pilot for the North American P-51 Mustang . He then tested the North American FJ Fury , the first operational carrier-based jet aircraft for the US Navy and the US Marine Corps.

When the program for the North American F-86 Saber (prototype designation: XP-86) began, Welch was named chief test pilot. In September 1947, the program moved to Muroc Army Air Force Base . The Bell X-1 was also tested here, which had been developed to break the sound barrier in level flight. The NAA was instructed by government agencies not to break the sound barrier until the X-1 did (presumably to justify the high cost of this program). However, Welch had other plans.

During the first flight of the XP-86 on October 1, 1947, it broke the sound barrier in a 40-degree nosedive and made the first acquaintance with a new phenomenon, the so-called "Mach Jump". The speedometer only seems to freeze and then jump when the sound barrier is broken. However, this flight was not officially rated because his speedometer was not calibrated to the appropriate altitude and no speed measurement took place from the ground.

On October 14, 1947, Welch broke the sound barrier again with the XP-86 in a dive, 15 minutes before Chuck Yeager did this with the Bell X-1 in level flight and thus went down in history. On November 13, 1947, Welch officially reached Mach 1.04 in a slight incline flight with the XP-86. However, this has been kept secret by the Air Force. However, when on April 25, 1948 a British exchange officer with the XP-86 broke the sound barrier and announced this unencrypted over the radio, the Air Force had to admit that the XP-86 had broken the sound barrier. However, Welch was named as the pilot because he was the first to break the sound barrier in a dive. In total, the XP-86 broke the sound barrier 23 times (the X-1 only did this 3 times).

death

During the Korean War , Welch worked as a trainer for F-86 pilots. He then tested the North American F-100 Super Saber with Chuck Yeager to be the first to break the sound barrier in a jet plane (the X-1 was a rocket plane) in level flight. However, Yeager complained about stability problems with this type. On October 12, 1954, Welch flew despite the problems with the YF-100-A. During a 7g turn, his machine broke apart at Mach 1.55 (1917 km / h). Welch was able to get out of the ejection seat , but succumbed to serious injuries on the way to the hospital. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Awards

Trivia

In the movie Torah! Torah! Torah! (1970) George Welch was portrayed by Rick Cooper.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=464
personal data
SURNAME What a good thing, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwartz, George Lewis (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American military and United States Air Force pilot
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1918
DATE OF DEATH October 12, 1954