George Welch
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
George Schwartz Welch (May 18, 1918 - October 12, 1954) was a World War II flying ace, a Medal of Honor nominee, and an experimental aircraft pilot after the war. Many people contest that Welch verifiably broke the sound barrier one week before Chuck Yeager in his prototype P-86 Sabre.
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Early Life
George Welch was originally born George Louis Schwartz, Jr., but changed his name to avoid the anti-German sentiment surrounding World War I. He completed 3 years of a mechanical engineering degree from Purdue University before joining the Army Air Corps in 1939.
World War II
After a year of training, Welch was posted to the 47th Fighter Squadron on Oahu island, Hawaii. At dawn on December 7, 1941, George and another pilot, Ken Taylor, were returning from a late-night party when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Welch phoned ahead to the airfield to ready two Curtiss P-40 fighters and immediately drove with Ken to airfield. Upon taking off, Welch claimed two kills before returning to refuel and reload. On a second sortie Welch downed two more aircraft for a total of four that day. Both Welch and Taylor were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for their actions, but despite nominations were not awarded the Medal of Honor because they had taken off without orders.
After Pearl Harbor, Welch returned to the continental U.S. to give war bond speeches until being assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron of the 8th Fighter Group in New Guinea. Dissatisfied with the considerably older Bell P-39 Airacobra, Welch repeatedly appealed to be transferred to the 80th Fighter Squadron which flew the P-38 Lightning until he was granted a transfer. Welch continued his record of success, flying a total of 348 combat missions with 16 confirmed kills before a bad case of malaria retired him from the war.
George Welch was portrayed in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! by Rick Cooper.
Breaking the Sound Barrier
In the spring of 1944, Welch was approached by North American Aviation to become a test pilot for the P-51 Mustang. Resigning his commission from the army, Welch accepted. He went on to fly the prototypes of the FJ Fury, and when the F-86 Sabre was proposed, Welch was chosen as the chief test pilot. The project gained momentum and was moved to Edwards AFB, California, the same base at which the Bell X-1 was being developed. North American was instructed that they were not, under any circumstances, to break the sound barrier before the X-1 achieved this milestone. However, Welch disregarded this order, and during a test flight on October 1, 1947 he entered a steep dive from 35,000 ft. During the dive, Welch observed symptoms compatible with Mach jump, and a sonic boom was heard at the base. However, due to problems with the landing gear, further full-speed flights were delayed. On October 14, the same day that Yeager was to attempt supersonic flight, Welch performed a second supersonic dive. This time he started from 37,000 ft, and executed a full-power 4g pullout, greatly increasing the power of his sonic boom. Yeager broke the sound barrier approximately 30 minutes later.
Due to the political investment in the X-1 program, the Pentagon ordered the results of Welch's flights classified and in fact did not allow North American to publicly announce that the XP-86 had gone supersonic until almost a year later. The Air Force still denies that Welch broke the sound barrier first. However, a USAF documentary about the X-1 says the X-1 and Yeager were the first to break the sound barrier "in level flight". This leaves the door open for Welch's claim.
Later Career
Welch went on to serve with the army again in the Korean War as an instructor where he reportedly downed several enemy aircraft while "supervising" his students. However, Welch's kills were in disobeyance of direct orders for him to not engage, and credits for the kills were thus distributed among his students. After the war, Welch returned to flight testing - this time in the F-100 Super Sabre, an upgraded version of the F-86. Welch became the first man to break the sound barrier in level flight with this aircraft on May 25, 1953. However, stability problems with the aircraft arose and on October 12, 1954, Welch's YF-100 disintegrated during a 7g pullout at Mach 1.55. Welch ejected, but the supersonic ejection severely injured him and tore several panels out of his parachute. Though Welch was alive when rescuers found him on the ground, he died shortly thereafter in hospital.
External Links
The Amazing George Welch (http://home.att.net/~historyzone/Welch1.html): Biography
Categories: 1918 births | 1954 deaths | American World War II flying aces | Korean War veterans | American aviators
