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Mannon takes to the sky in WWI relic

  • Published
  • By George Woodward
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  At 70 mph, the "high-speed" pass of the Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" over Kickapoo Airport in Wichita Falls, Texas, Nov. 21 wasn't exactly snapping heads on the ground.

But, for the guy flying in the front seat of the 90-year-old aircraft, it was an experience to rival any he's had in his 4,400-hour flying career -- especially since he got some stick time.

"Oh, man!" were the only wordsBrig. Gen. O.G. Mannon, 82nd Training Wing commander, could find to describe his experience after climbing out of the Jenny on Kickapoo's grass airfield. His mile-wide smile said it all.

As a career special operations pilot, General Mannon has had his fair share of experience with small aircraft operations, but the Jenny gives new meaning to "low and slow."

"It's a little different from what I'm used to flying," he said. "For one, there is no boost -- when you move the stick, you're moving the control surfaces directly by cable. And when you turn in this thing, you have to lead with rudder. Today we can usually turn with aileron -- but that isn't going to work in one of these."

The general got good marks from instructor pilot Tom Danaher, a veteran of World War II and Korea, who has more than 23,000 hours in the air.

"He did good -- really well. It takes a lot of guts to climb into a 90-year-old airplane with an 86-year-old pilot," Mr. Danaher said.

Not to mention the Jenny's average operational lifespan  was less than five hours in the air when it was used from 1917-1918, training Army Air Corps pilots at Call Field.

"Most of them got cracked up pretty quick," Mr. Danaher said.

The Jenny was the first aircraft the U.S. military purchased in large quantities.  With 6,000 produced, it is sometimes called the Model-T of the skies. About 20 percent were destroyed in training and pilots of the time were fond of saying, "If you can fly the Jenny, you can fly anything." Today, only five are known to be airworthy.

This particular Jenny began its career as training aircraft #46 at Call Field, just down the road from Kickapoo Airport.  It made it through the war, only to be damaged in an Iowa barnstorming crash in 1921. After languishing in a barn for nearly half a century, it was restored for over 17 years and flew again in 1987. It was purchased in 2007 by the city of Wichita Falls to serve as the centerpiece of a museum, commemorating Call Field and the men who died laying the foundations of American airpower.

Thirty-four names carved into a stone monument outside the Call Field Museum pay silent tribute to the danger inherent in early aviation, and the sacrifices made during just two years.

Though Call Field was shuttered after World War I, it helped lay the groundwork for the birth of Sheppard AFB 20 years later in the months before the U.S. entered World War II. Today Sheppard is the Air Force's largest and most diverse training base, and the only one with both technical and flying training.

"Our predecessors at Call Field were trying to figure out the best way to train pilots, mechanics and ground crews for combat over Europe," General Mannon said. "Ninety years later, across town at Sheppard, we've learned their lessons and train 80,000 Airmen every year as pilots, crew chiefs and ground support troops."

"Taking the stick of that old airplane takes you back in time and makes you realize how much things have changed. But it also makes you realize what hasn't changed -- the quality and courage of our young Airmen."