Decades before the term ‘Buffalo Wings’ evoked the image of a plate of fried chicken parts covered in hot sauce, the wings produced in Buffalo were covered in fabric and aluminum. Buffalo Wings flew in defense of freedom in two world wars. Machines built in Buffalo broke the sound barrier, pioneered vertical flight, lifted astronauts off the surface of the Moon, and trained others to fly the Space Shuttle.
Buffalo’s contributions to aviation – WWI to the space race.
The four images above (all courtesy NASA) represent some of Buffalo and Western New York’s most important contributions to aviation and space.
From left to right:
The Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny,” produced in the thousands, taught the World War I generation how to fly. In the 1920’s barnstormers and daredevils flew them around the country and created what we remember today as the Golden Age of aviation.
Bell’s XP-59A, America’s first jet-powered aircraft. Bell built the airframe in the Ford plant (later the Trico plant) on Main Street in Buffalo’s central park district. Mated with General Electric engines based on the British designs of Frank Whittle, the aircraft ushered in a new era in aviation. Newer jet aircraft went higher and faster in a short time, but the one built in Buffalo was first.
Bell Aircraft built several experimental aircraft during and immediately after World War II. The most famous has to be the X-1 in which Charles Yeager became the first to break Mach 1 (the speed of sound) on Oct 14, 1947. Built to emulate the shape of a .50 caliber bullet, the X-1 created the first sonic boom.
After World War II, Bell Aircraft became involved in building rockets for NASA and the military. The Lunar Module ascent engine, tasked with lifting astronauts off the Moon, was one of the most mission-critical rockets of them all. If it didn’t work, the astronauts would be stranded. Thanks to the engineers and technicians responsible for its design and construction, the ascent engine worked every time.
These are just four examples out of a long and colorful history. Please come back for future posts to learn about the history of aviation in Buffalo and western New York.