1930s Boats Used By Navy Article

SAGA OF THE VOUGHT-SIKORSKY VS-44A

During the mid-1930s, the idea of building really big flying boats began to take hold. One of the first to enter the field was Sikorsky, who after discussions with the Bureau of Aeronautics, signed a contract on 29 June 1935 to build and design a long-range four-engine flying boat designated XPBS-1 (BuNo 9995). A graceful and attractive aircraft, work on this prototype proceeded quite quickly and the aircraft made its first flight on 13 August 1937 with Edmund AlLen and Clifford Swartz at the controls. Powered by reliable R-1830-68 Twin Wasps, the aircraft was dominated by a tall flowing vertical tail.

The press quickly gave the plane the name "Flying Dreadnought" and, for the time, the machine was fairly heavily armed with a .50-cal weapon in a manually operated front turret, two .30-cal weapons in side-by-side waist hatches and a .50-cal gun in the tail which was the first real tail gun position on an American aircraft. Also, the craft would carry 4000-lbs of bombs and other weapons.

Extensive flight testing followed which revealed some undesirable stall characteristics but these were traced to down wash of the wing on the horizontal tail and cured. The Navy took delivery of the plane on 12 October 1937 and assigned the craft to Patrol Wing 5 at NAS Norfolk, Virginia, where testing was continued. Navy pilots found the aircraft to meet contracted specifications but Sikorsky lost the four-engine contract to Consolidated with their four engine Coronado. The prototype went on to be assigned to Air Transport Squadron Two at NAS Alameda, California. However on 30 June 1942, while returning from Pearl Harbor, the craft struck a log in San Francisco Bay and was written off as destroyed. At the time, the Sikorsky had accumulated of flying time - not bad for a one-off prototype.

Even though the flying boat did not win further Navy orders, its capabilities were not lost on civilian operators. American Export Shipping Line had establishing an aviation subsidiary, American Export Airlines, and went after Congress in order to smash Juan Trippe's monopoly as the unofficial flag carrier with Pan American Airlines. While this was going on, United Aircraft Corp. combined operations of its Chance Vought Division with Sikorsky to create the new Vought-Sikorsky Division (at this time, the company designation of S-44 for the XPBS-1 was changed to VS-44).

American Export Airlines (AEA) kept its battle going against Pan American and in Decemher 1939 placed contracts with Vought-Sikorsky to redesign the XPRS-1 for commercial use. Along with this came a contract option to purchase three aircraft. The Civil Aeronautics Board ruled in favor of AEA in July 1940 to hegin transatlantic service and the company immediately exercised its option for the three aircraft. The flying hoats were to he named Excalibur-(NC41880), Excambym (NC41881), and Exeler (NC41882). The parent company's three premier cargo ships also carried these names and were known as the "Aces" so it was not illogical that the aircraft hecame the "Flying Aces."

The new aircraft would he quite impressive and would he ahle to fly the Atlantic non-stop with a full load of passengers and mail at a top speed of 235-mph. The flying hoats were equipped to carry a maximum of 32 passengers in daylight configuration of 16 passengers with sleeping accommodations for the transatlantic service.

In elahorate ceremonies, the first VS-44A, named Excalibur, was christened on 17 January 1942 at the Sikorsky factory. The airline took delivery immediately following the ceremony and the first flight took place the next day with Capt. Charles Blair, AEA Chief Pilot, in command. After a few flights, he would comment, "The VS-44A is one excellent aircraft!" In April 1942, the aircraft was sprayed in standard Navy camouflage. Excambian was delivered to the Navy on 4 May 1942 and it had been camouflaged at the factory. Excalibur made its first transatlantic trip on 26 May 1942 and started a weekly round-trip service between America and Ireland. Exeter was delivered on 23 June 1942, and the trio of flying boats began valuable wartime service hauling high-ranking passengers and priority cargo. Interestingly, a number of returning American Volunteer Group pilots would join AEA to pilot the flying boats.

Tragedy was not far behind and Excalibur was totally destroyed on 3 October 1943 when it crashed on takeoff from Botwood, Newfoundland. The aircraft reportedly porpoised several times before gaining an altitude of around 35-ft before nosing down and crashing into the ocean. When the plane hit, there were 26 passengers and eleven crew. Six of the passengers and five crewmembers were killed. Official reason for the crash was listed as inadvertently lowered wing flaps but Capt. Blair disagreed with this and stated he had been having trouble with the pilot who would not follow established operating procedures. Blair commented on takeoffs, "The VS-44 was a real submarine - it sat so low that the water almost reached the windows when we carried a full load. When we applied takeoff power, the spray of water nearly submerged the ship. Takeoff was critical. On hot days, we would use up about two miles of water getting airborne."

The survivors continued to give splendid and vital service and in January 1943, the Navy requisitioned the two aircraft but kept AEA crews and AEA markings on the planes which allowed them to operate out of neutral ports. However, on 31 December 1944, the contract with the Navy was terminated and in January 1945, both Exeter and Excambian returned to their original AEA colors and went back into passenger service. The company would eventually be absorbed by American Airlines who had no use for flying boats and Capt. Blair made the last AEA transatlantic flight on 22 October 1945. The aircraft were retired and were put up for sale by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) along with tens of thousands of former military aircraft.

The two rare birds immediately found a buyer - Huestis Wells purchased the craft for his Tampico Airlines and the planes were quickly put into charter service. Chartered to Condor Airlines of Peru, Excambian made a non-stop flight from Lima, Peru, to New York City on 13 July 1946 in 19-hrs 56-mins. The company quickly failed and the planes were purchased by Skyways International in April 1947. The new company hired Blair, now flying for Pan American, to check out the new crews. Ever enterprising, Blair leased Excambian in June 1947 to fly men and supplies from Minnesota to Iceland to construct new facilities at Keflavik Airport (does anyone have photos of the Minnesota operations? The plane operated from Lake Minnetonka).

While all this was going on, Exeter was operating in Latin America, hauling guns and ammunition for Paraguayan rebels. Attempting a night landing on the Rio del Plata near Montevideo, the aircraft crashed and sank near the wreck of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. Only three of the twelve aboard survived the crash. The wreck, in not bad condition, was discovered by divers in the late 1980s with most of the weapons still in the fuselage.

Excambian now began it long and lonely fight for survival. After Blair finished the Iceland project, the sole survivor was used for occasional charter work until being impounded by the city of Baltimore for non-payment of tie down fees. The aircraft was put up for sale, sold to a local minister for $500, and then resold to Heustis Wells's Aviation Exchange Corporation who then had Excambian rebuilt at the cost of $250,000. When the plane emerged from the overhaul, it was painted overall metallic blue with the bottom of the hull in red and the top of the wing international orange. All fabric surfaces were silver. Interestingly, the name Excalibur was painted in large script on the nose - perhaps the company thought it sounded better than Excambian. The plan was to use the plane to fly up and down the Amazon River as a flying trading post, supplying natives with various goods in exchange for gems, animal skins, etc. Not surprisingly, the plan did not work and it was abandoned in Ancon, Peru.

During 1957, Dick Probert was approached about possibly purchasing the aircraft. This was not surprising since Dick was co-owner of Avalon Air Transport which used a fleet of amphibian aircraft for transporting passengers from the mainland to Catalina Island. However, the initial asking price was too high but it was lowered to a more reasonable figure. The plane had been parked on a beach for some 18 months. Dick and his partner envisioned adding seats to the aircraft to carry 75 passengers since the flights would be so short. Dick went to Peru and found that the plane was not in the best condition and that its interior arrangement of bulkheads would not allow high-density seating. Another deal was struck which would see Dick and his crew get the plane flyable, take it Long Beach and put it up for sale. It turn, Dick would receive a portion of the sale price.

After some work was undertaken, an initial flight occurred on 10 May 1957. Few problems were encountered until two of the engines started backfiring and within two minutes had quit. With numbers two and four shut down, it was time to land which was done safely. All the spark plus were changed on the two engines and another test flight went okay. However, the flight back to Long Beach was full or problems and brushes with disaster.

The intrepid crew eventually got Excambian to Long Beach where numerous repairs were undertaken and scats for 47 passengers were installed. Also, to save money, the flight engineer's panel was removed and needed controls and instruments were moved to the pilots' compartment. So configured, the plane went to work and during its career with the airline the VS-44A made the Catalina and Long Beach trip some 8172 times carrying an estimated 211,246 passengers during its ten years of operation.

In 1967, the flying boat was sold to Antilles Air Boats which was owned by none other that Charles Blair. Blair had started his airline with a single Grumman Goose and had grown into a successful company with numerous aircraft operating between St. Croix, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, St. John and Tortola. An aircraft with more capacity was needed and the VS-44A was purchased for $100,000. In January 1968, the plane started its long trip to a new home. Dick Probert helped train the pilots hut just a year later an event occurred that brought the flying life to the VS-44A to an end. On 10 January 1969, the aircraft was on a takeoff run when an engine failed and the plane swung, apparently hitting something which gashed the hull. The plane sank in 4-ft of water but no one was injured. The crew managed to pump enough water out of the hull to taxi the aircraft hack onto the ramp.

An examination showed that the plane was very corroded and restoration would be cost prohibitive. The Excambian was parked near the salt water for six years which did nothing for its condition. In 1976, the craft was offered for sale to the New England Air Museum but the museum could not find a reasonable way of transporting the plane to the museum. The plane was donated to the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola, Florida. The aircraft was transported to its new location but was placed in outside storage and neglected, its condition becoming progressively worse.

In 1983, a deal was worked out that saw the plane placed on long-term loan to the New England Air Museum and the flying boat was transported to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where Sikorsky provided company support for the restoration. It was an immense job tackled by a hardy band of volunteers who put in over 300,00-hrs and replaced 97% of the skin and 35% of the structure due to corrosion. However, the task was finally completed and today the magnificently restored VS-44A Excambian is proudly on display at the museum as a very distinct reminder of a portion of American aviation history that is now mainly just a memory.