George Welch (pilot)
| George Welch | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 10, 1918 Wawaset Park, Wilmington, Delaware |
| Died | October 12, 1954 (aged 36) |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service/branch |
United States Army Air Corps United States Army Air Forces |
| Years of service | 1939-1944 |
| Rank | Major |
| Unit |
47th Fighter Squadron 36th Fighter Squadron 80th Fighter Squadron |
| Battles/wars | Korean War |
| Awards |
Distinguished Service Cross Silver Star Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal American Defense Medal Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four battle stars Presidential Unit Citation |
George Welch (May 10, 1918 – October 12, 1954) was a World War II flying ace, a Medal of Honor nominee, and an experimental aircraft pilot after the war. Welch is best known for being one of the few United States Army Air Corps fighter pilots able to get airborne to engage Japanese forces in the attack on Pearl Harbor and for his work as a test pilot.
Welch resigned from the United States Army Air Forces as a major in 1944, and became a test pilot for North American Aviation.
Welch's personal historic flight log has been recovered . The log begins with his primary training record at Randolph field Texas and continues until the day of his death October 12, 1954.
The log shows every flight made by Mr Welch from 11-19-40 to October 12, 1954 showing a total pilot in command time of 3728.45 hours.
The log also verifys Mr RA Bob Hoover's along with other participants claim that Welch did not go Mach 1 on October 1st 1947. Other claims that Welch was tracked by the same radar as the Bell X1 on a flight profile that he had earlier flown is disproved with Welch's log entries showing he had not even flown the XP86 on the claimed date of the supposed test.
Welch's personal log shows 1st flight Oct 1st 1947 .50 minutes. Bob Hoover was flying chase as an observer for the Air Force at the time in one aircraft along with Bob Chilton N/A chief test pilot in an other company aircraft taking photos. Several minutes into the flight during a gear retraction and extension test the nose gear failed to lock properly. RA Hoover had stated that Welch was preparing to eject over concerns of the aircraft tumbling on touch down. After 20 minutes of attempting to get the nose gear down Hoover said he convinced Welch to land with the unsafe nose gear condition. Upon touchdown the gear snapped into place saving the aircraft for future test flights.
Nose gear extension problems were traced to an inadequate cylinder size and was quickly redesigned and installed. This caused the aircraft to be grounded until Oct 9th at which time Stall and stability tests were conducted for :43 min. The XP-86 was not flown again until the 14th in two flights one for :06 minutes and the second for :51 totaling :57 min. Again a log entry was made indicating stability tests were conducted not high speed tests. There simply is no evidence of high speed flight on the first three recorded flights of the aircraft.
...
Wikipedia