amazing journey of Betty Jo, The

Flight Journal, Dec 2003 by Bodie, Warren M

CAN YOU IMAGINE being seated in the confining cockpit of a fighter that's about the size of the one in the wartime P-51D while flying more than one fifth of the earth's circumference at nearly 350mph for 14 hours and 32 minutes? The two pilots of the Twin Mustang P-82B Betty Jo accomplished that feat. Oh, surely you know that some Lockheed P-38 pilots did that on a few combat missions in WW II, but in 1947, the world was at peace-relatively speaking.

After advance testing to prepare for the anticipated flight, on February 28, 1947, two USAAF pilots sped down a Hickam Field runway in a very overloaded, propeller-driven, twin-engine P-82B fighter. The mission of Lt. Col. Robert Thacker and Lt. John Ard-seated in cockpits 14 feet apart-was to fly nonstop from the Hawaiian base to LaGuardia Field, which served New York City. The distance was 5,000 miles, give or take some loose change.

During the testing of this Twin Mustang, powered by Packard-built Rolls-Royce Merlin V-1650-23/-25 engines, the name on the cowls was Betty Joe, but Lt. Col. Thacker had the "e" deleted prior to his departure from Hickam Field. "After all, that's my wife's name," he said.

Four Lockheed 310-gallon drop tanks were hung from the wing pylons. They had been developed early in the War for use on P-38s and were demonstrated on August 27, 1942, by test pilot Milo Burcham flying a P-38F-5-LO. The corrected mileage for the P-38's trip was calculated at 3,200 miles in 13.67 hours because the tanks could not be legally jettisoned over land. According to John Casey, then manager of North American Aviation Service Engineering, during the flight in 1947, the four empty tanks were dropped into the Pacific Ocean. During the development testing phase at North American's main Inglewood plant, the inboard tanks were the 165-gallon version, and the outboard tanks were the 310-gallon type as seen in the photograph.

-Warren M. Bodie