World War II Chronicle: November 8, 1941
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The editorial section discusses the possibility of Pres. Roosevelt recalling U.S. Marines serving in China (page 12)… Sports section begins on page 27
80 years ago, the newspaper’s funny pages featured military airplane silhouettes. Perhaps newspapers printed these illustrations simply because they are interesting, but it’s possible that our government wanted to warm American minds up to recognizing friendly aircraft from foes should the air war spread to the United States.
Brewster’s fighter looks like something Mickey Mouse would fly. In fact, the only American warplane I’ve seen that looks less “fierce” is Boeing’s P-26 Peashooter. While Finnish Buffalo pilots fared well against Soviet planes, the F2A was outclassed by Japanese and German fighters.
To answer today’s question, the tricycle landing gear featured on new aircraft like the B-17 and B-24 bombers (as opposed to taildraggers like the Buffalo) had in fact been around since the pioneering days of aviation. Eugene Ely used a tricycle-equipped Curtiss Pusher to conduct the first takeoff (1910) and landing (1911) from a ship.
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 8 November 1942. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1942-11-08/ed-1/