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  • Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron

    The Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), never numbering more than 28, was created in September 1942 within the Air Transport Command, under Nancy Harkness Love's leadership. WAFS were recruited from among commercially licensed women pilots with at least 500 hours flying time and a 200-hp

  • Bombing as a Manpower Problem

    The Norden bombsight served as the U.S. Army Air Forces' primary high-altitude visual bombsight during World War II. In 1939 a journalist exaggerated its accuracy with the claim that it could "drop a bomb in a pickle barrel from 18,000 feet." The claim was exaggerated, but unprecedented accuracy was

  • Honeywell C-1 Autopilot

    The HoneywellC-1 Autopilot was an electronic-mechanical system used to lessen pilot fatigue by automatically flying an airplane in straight and level flight. It could also be used to fly the aircraft through gentle maneuvers. When combined with the Norden bombsight, it created the stability

  • Norden M-9 Bombsight

    The Norden bombsight was crucial to the success of the U.S. Army Air Forces' daylight bombing campaign during World War II. Initially developed by Carl Norden for the U.S. Navy, the Army Air Corps acquired its first Norden bombsight in 1932. Highly classified, it gave American forces bombing

  • Bombing as a Technical Problem

    For the USAAF's doctrine of daylight precision bombing to succeed, a bombsight had to solve three technical problems. First, a bombardier had to use a complex formula that accounted for true air speed, gravity, air resistance and wind. Since making all these computations in combat would be almost

  • Bombing as a Mathematical Problem

    Until it is released, a bomb travels through the air with the same forward velocity as the airplane, and this velocity relative to the air is called true air speed. The instant the bomb is released, four factors act on it: 1) true air speed; 2) gravity; 3) air resistance; and 4) wind. Calculating

  • Strategic Bombing: Victory Through Air Power

    To avoid another long and bloody war like World War I, the U.S. Army Air Forces' leaders in the 1930s planned to use strategic bombing to destroy the enemy's factories, power supplies and transportation facilities. Without weapons, the enemy could not fight, and the war would be ended quickly.During

  • WWII Pierced Steel Planking

    The PSP landing mats under the Type F-1A heater and the Bell P-39Q aircraft represent the most commonly used form of World War II prefabricated runway material. They could be joined together with hand tools and provided a hard runway surface even suitable for bombers, where lack of time, materials

  • Type F-1A Utility Heater

    The Type F-1A heater, built by the Herman Nelsen Corp., is a World War II-era portable gasoline-powered unit designed to produce a steady flow of heated air. The Army Air Forces used it in cold climates to pre-heat aircraft and motor vehicle engines for easy starting, and to heat crew compartments,

  • The Four Chaplains

    Heroism and Interfaith in Icy WatersIn April 1941, the United States and Denmark signed an agreement pledging the U.S. to defend Greenland from invasion. It allowed the U.S. to build military bases in Greenland, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated was critical to defending the Western