PLANE TALK
Joe Benkert Part 1
As a young man of 17 years old, Joe Benkert dropped by the Norwood Airport one day thinking he might like to take a ride, when he saw a sign outside Wiggins Airways offering rides. On May 23, 1953, he went in, and dispatcher Lydia Roche said to him, “Why take a ride when you can take a lesson?” That proactive question (more about that philosophy later on from Joe) got him hooked when he went up in a J-3 Cub with instrument instructor Frank Comerford, a man Benkert termed ‘the finest ever.’ Within 364 days, a day short of one year, Benkert had bought a Piper J-3 and an Aeronca Chief and had received his student, commercial, flight instructor, instrument flight instructor, multi-engine rating, four ground ratings, and taught his first student on the 365th day.
Benkert was a pilot with no social life. How come, one might ask? At this point, 18 years old, he was averaging 30-35 hours of flight time a week plus 7:00-11:00 p.m. night school teaching sessions four nights a week, and he did that for a year. His next stint was volunteering for Air Force duty. There, he wound up instructing (in B-25s) one of 20 rated pilots, a Cuban flyer who was one of Castro’s followers (Castro was then in the mountains as a guerilla opposing the dictator Batista). This was in a little-known program sponsored by the U.S. government. Ironically, when allegiance changed and the U.S. became anti-Castro, that pilot was one of those shot down.
In 1954 the Air Force was looking to cut back personnel, and Benkert, now only 20 years old but ready to move on, approached his base commander requesting permission to apply to TWA. Permission was granted, and he went on to an unusual role for someone so young with no seniority. He was assigned to Idlewild (now JFK) to fly Lockheed’s new Super Constellations, with routes to Dublin, Ireland, London, England, and Frankfort, Germany. Benkert provided some interesting info on the aircraft, saying, “The Super Connie (1049 G) completed its first flight on October 13, 1950. The original designs for the Constellation had been conceived by Howard Hughes in the late 1930s. When he was first shown its designs, he noted the huge vertical tail surfaces and commented there was no hangar in the country it could be put into. The vertical fin/rudder had to be so big because the Connie was designed to maintain altitude with only one engine operating, even the most outboard one, at Hughes’ request. Asymmetrical thrust from that required a lot of counteracting rudder. His solution: cutting the tail surfaces into thirds, building three vertical surfaces. Hence the Connie was born with three rudders, and a graceful ‘dolphin-shaped’ fuselage.
“It was a joy to fly…I compare it to the DC-3 in that it was way ahead of its time. I believe it is still the only four-recip-engine aircraft that can maintain 3500 feet, standard atmosphere, at gross weight, with one engine operating. Radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey, along with Eddie Rickenbacker, demonstrated this on TV while plugging Eastern Airlines, which owned a fleet of them. When TWA decided to become the world’s first ‘all-four-engines’ airline, the Connie was their choice. It was a gentle, forgiving airplane and served TWA well. The Connie was my favorite airplane. “Engines: Wright 3350 hp, 18 cylinders, in two rows of nine (36 spark plugs per engine!). The flight engineer had an on-board engine analyzer to monitor their performance in flight. Cruise speed around 330 mph, 100 mph stall, service ceiling 24,000 feet. Capacity 60-95 passengers, up to 109 in all-tourist configuration. Wing span 126’ gross weight 137,500 pounds.
“Recently, while basement-cleaning at home, I found a silverware set, including real china plates, for serving fresh fruit cup, filet mignon, baked potato, green beans almondine, and peach shortcake to the TOURIST class. Things have changed!” Benkert’s assessment of his overseas route was, “This was my dream—but it turned out to be boring.” Boring? Asked why, his response was, “It was anywhere from fifteen to seventeen hours looking at—nothing but whitecaps.”So what did he do, to relieve the tedium, after 10 years on that route, but apply for a U.S. route from Idlewild to Chicago. It was a nine-stop route, definitely not as boring because for one thing, he got lots of practice in landings and takeoffs and some instrument time.
There were high standards for airline pilots of that day. “When we were at TWA we were the last to get on the plane and the first to get off. If you were in uniform and went into a liquor store to buy alcohol and were seen by anyone in the company, you were gone! Nor could you order a drink in a restaurant if you were having dinner in uniform.” The restless move on, and his next assignment was with the S.D. Warren Company in Boston, as one of two co-captains flying their twin Beechcraft, for seven years. He would log 7200 of his eventual 19,000 hours total flying time with this specialized paper manufacturer in the company’s Boston, Portland, Augusta, and Muskegon (Michigan) sphere. This was a very comfortable existence, inasmuch as the pilots got to stay in the same hotels and eat in the same restaurants as the company officers. It was more interesting because they flew to various destinations all over the U.S. and Canada, averaging 52 nights a year, approximately once a week. This lasted until 1971, when the now-married father of two children found the flying schedule beginning to conflict with his family life. As he put it, “It seemed as though every time we bought circus tickets or had some other function to go to with the kids, I had to be away.” Soon, our restless pilot would find it was time to move on again, but before we tell you where, next time Benkert will recall for readers one touching, and one historic, flight.