Question Mark (aircraft) - Followup Efforts and Legacy

Followup Efforts and Legacy

Eaker was involved in a second attempt at aerial refueling in September 1929. Piloting a Boeing Model 95 mail plane nicknamed the Boeing Hornet Shuttle on a transcontinental endurance flight eastbound from Oakland, California, he was refueled in flight by C-1s and Boeing Model 40 aircraft. Over Cleveland, Ohio, a Boeing refueling crew accidentally dropped a five-gallon can of oil through his wing, ending the first attempt. On a second attempt westbound, his engine quit over Utah when dirt clogged the fuel line, forcing him to crashland in the mountains near Salt Lake City.

The flight of the Question Mark inspired a rash of projects to break the endurance record. In 1929 alone 40 flights were attempted, all by civilians, and nine succeeded in surpassing Question Mark's record. At the end of 1929 the record stood at over 420 hours, established by Dale "Red" Jackson and Forest E. "Obie" O'Brine in the Curtiss Robin Greater St. Louis.

The Air Corps followed up the flight of the Question Mark with a mission to demonstrate its applicability in combat. On May 21, 1929, during annual maneuvers, a Keystone LB-7 piloted by Moon took off from Fairfield Air Depot in Dayton, Ohio, on a simulated mission to New York City via Washington, D.C. Plans were for the bomber to be refueled in flight several times, drop a flash bomb over New York harbor, then return to Dayton non-stop, again by way of Washington. Moon had 1st Lt. John Paul Richter, who had been a hose handler on the first-ever refueling aerial refueling mission on May 28, 1923, as a member of his five-man crew. The C-1 tanker employed to refuel the LB-7 was flown by Hoyt and two enlisted men. While attempting an air refueling en route from Dayton to Washington, icing forced the tanker to land in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where it got stuck in mud. After flying to New York, the LB-7 was forced to land at Bolling Field. The next day the tanker joined the bomber and both flew to New York, where they made a public demonstration of air refueling and four dry runs.

Of the 16 Army aviators involved in the project, six later became general officers. Spaatz, Eaker and Quesada played important roles in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Spaatz rose to commanding general of the Army Air Forces and became the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. Eaker commanded the Eighth and Mediterranean Allied Air Forces. Quesada commanded the IX Tactical Air Command in France. Strickland, Hoyt and Hopkins all became brigadier generals in the United States Air Force, and the Brigadier General Ross G. Hoyt Award is issued annually for the best air refueling crew in the Air Force. Halverson, though he rose only to colonel, led the HAL-PRO ("Halverson Project") detachment, 12 B-24 Liberators that bombed the Ploieşti oil refineries in 1942, and became the first commander of the Tenth Air Force.

Moon, a bomber pilot, became an influential member of the "Bomber Mafia" at the Air Corps Tactical School from 1933 to 1936, but died on November 19, 1937, awaiting retirement from the service at the age of 45. Solter, a pursuit pilot, was killed in an accident flight-testing an all-metal trainer at Randolph Field, Texas, in September 1936. Elmendorf, while not having a flying role in the project, was an accomplished test pilot and was killed on January 13, 1933, testing the Y1P-25 at Wright Field, Ohio.

The Question Mark was re-engined with 300 horsepower (220 kW) Wright R-975 engines in 1931, and in the practice of the day was redesignated a "C-7". It served out its service life as a transport airplane, first for the 22nd Observation Squadron at Pope Field, North Carolina, and then with the 47th School Squadron at Randolph Field, Texas. On November 3, 1932, the aircraft ran out of fuel and was severely damaged trying to land at Davenport Auxiliary Field, four miles north of the base, and was surveyed (scrapped) in 1934. A major component of the refueling device is in the collections of the Historical Society of Berks County in Reading, PA.