Fall 1942

The solution to the problem of limited aircraft range came from an unexpected source but like all good things it took time and help from unlikely sources. Boeing had worked on several high altitude research projects by modifying existing aircraft, an inexpensive way to produce a test bed for a new idea. In one such test they modified a B-17 extensively. It was intended as the test bed for systems and concepts to be used in a plane they hoped would succeed the B-17. The number of gun turrets was reduced to four, they were controlled remotely, the crew was reduced to four or five and they were housed in a pressurized compartment. The machine guns in the turrets were replaced by 20 MM cannon packing a greater range and punch than any machine gun. The engines were replaced by newer models that were lighter, more efficient, more powerful and could produce that power at altitudes of more than ten thousand feet higher than any other engine. The modified plane could operate at altitudes that were above the effective range of any flack gun in existence or being developed and more important, above the operating ceiling of most fighters. The profile of the plane was changed and its top speed rivaled that of all but the top line fighters of 1942. Even if they had the speed few fighters could even get close at their top altitude, and then only after long, hard climbs. Only four of these planes were built and they were scheduled for use in planning for the next bomber. Jimmy Dolittle was on the team to make some of the test flights and he returned to duty on the west coast excited about the plane. The maximum range of the plane was less then half of what was needed to get to Japan and back but Dolittle believed there was a way to increase it, even if he didn’t know how. He had a one track mind. There had to be a way to bomb the Japanese.

By the end of November 1942 he had prepared a plan to make recon flights over Japan using them. The idea was spawned in a bar. Dolittle was complaining to another pilot about the limited range of aircraft. A visiting naval officer who was extremely drunk looked up at him and laughed, “You fly boys ought wise up and do what the navy does on long cruises, take along a oiler.” Of course the officer was talking about refueling ships but it struck a note. The next morning Dolittle was at the library at the base, quite probably his first and last sortie to that landing strip. It took two hours to find what he wanted, information about air to air refueling. He read the document at least ten times before he handed it back to the librarian and left. It was exactly what he wanted to see. In 1932 two Army pilots had transferred fuel from one plane to another in flight using a length of hose trailed from the one plane. Refueling was possible. As he read the report he realized it would be more difficult with existing planes than the open biplanes of the thirties. The open cockpits made it easy to trail a hose from one plane to another and handle it. The closed aircraft made this method impossible. He spent the remainder of the day walking on the back of the base with one of the senior aviation mechanics. When he returned, he had some sketches.