Originally Posted by
Top_Gunn
OK, the last clue could apply to just about any great wartime pilot, so here's another one:
Looking for a pilot.
1. Joined the military in peacetime.
2. Fighter pilot with some kills (according to one source; others don't mention these), but not an ace.
3. Best known (apart from future old-person clue yet to come) for wartime aviation operations other than air-to-air combat.
4. Known for aggressiveness, independence, and a willingness to try unorthodox methods.
5. One of his successes involved gliders.
Unless you're pitching curves, there are only a small handful. So; how about Happy Arnold? Thanks; Ernie P.
Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold(June 25, 1886 – January 15, 1950) was an American general officer holdingthe gradesof General of the Army and Generalof the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief ofthe AirCorps (1938–1941), Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces, the only U.S. Air Forcegeneral to hold five-star rank, and the only officerto hold a five-star rank in two different U.S. military services.[SUP]
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Arnold was also the founder of ProjectRAND, which evolved into one of the world's largest non-profit global policythink tanks, the RANDCorporation, and one of the founders of PanAmerican World Airways.
Major General Henry"Hap" Arnold, Acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Air(becoming Commanding General of the UnitedStates Army Air Forces on March 9, 1942), initiated a studywith view to develop a glider capable of being towed by aircraft. Thisdirective was set into motion through Classified Technical Instructions(CTI-198 on 24 February 1941, and CTI-203 on 4 March 1941), which authorizedthe procurement of 2-, 8-, and 15-place gliders and equipment. Eleven companieswere invited to participate in the experimental glider program, but only fourresponded with any interest, Frankfort Sailplane Company(XCG-1, XCG-2), WacoAircraft Company (XCG-3, XCG-4), St. Louis Aircraft Corp. (XCG-5, XCG-6), and Bowlus Sailplanes (XCG-7, XCG-8). Only Waco AircraftCompany was able to deliver the experimental glider prototypes that satisfiedthe requirements of Materiel Command, the eight-seat Waco CG-3 (modified tobecome a production nine-seat glider) and the fifteen-seat Waco CG-4. In October1941, Lewin B. Barringer was made Glider Specialist, AirStaff, HQ of the Army Air Forces, answering to General Arnold, and placed incharge of the glider program. The shock of the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 prompted the UnitedStates to set the number of glider pilots needed at 1,000 to fly 500 eight-seatgliders and 500 fifteen-seat gliders. The number of pilots required wasincreased to 6,000 by June 1942.[SUP]
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After Barringer was lost at sea on aflight to Africa in January 1943, the program came under direction of RichardC. du Pont.[SUP]
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Bigger gliders, such as the 30-troop Waco CG-13A and the42-troop Laister-Kauffman CG-10A were designed later.[SUP]
[5][/SUP]