World War II Database

Contributor: Alan Chanter

ww2dbaseBenjamin Scovill Kelsey was born in Connecticut, United States, in 1906. At the age of 15 he completed a flying course in New York and in June 1928 he graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.

ww2dbaseKelsey was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps in May 1929 and worked alongside Lieutenant Jimmy Doolittle in developing blind-flying systems. Following flying school he was assigned to the 20th Pursuit Group and in 1934 was transferred to Material Command to serve as the Fighter Project Officer in the Engineering Section.

ww2dbaseFrom the mid 1920s, if an officer wanted to advance up the chain of command, he was compelled to tow the party line and "love the bomber". For two decades USAAC's doctrine had insisted that the strategic bomber would fly so high and fast that no fighter or anti-aircraft battery could shoot it down. Should some interceptor get near, they insisted, the bomber would have enough guns aboard to destroy the attacker. Those who dared to question this doctrine were repeatedly denounced until they either left the service or kept their peace. Nevertheless, a few diehards stayed in the service and worked behind the scenes.

ww2dbaseWith little funding or encouragement for innovation, Kelsey, in his role as Fighter Projects Officer invented the term "interceptor" (at least in the Army Air Corps) in order as he recalled: "to permit development of true combat types with adequate armament and excluding baggage compartments for golf bags." Believe it or not, the latter was then an official requirement for US Army fighter aircraft.

ww2dbaseAs Project Officer, Kelsey was able to test fly a great number of aircraft models, but he was living through the years when the fighter "was scorned by the military philosophers and neglected in the USA. In Germany and in Britain there was a more pragmatic approach which led to superior performing, record breaking Messerschmitts, Hurricanes and Spitfires." When, in late 1936, Kelsey tested the new Allison 12-cylinder engine which reached an remarkable altitude of 26,400 feet without turbocharging he realised that he had a powerplant upon which to base specifications for a new range of "interceptor" fighters. By dogged pressuring his superiors (he was still only a captain) Kelsey eventually succeeded in getting design specifications issued which, in time led to the development of the P-38 Lightning, P-39 Airacobra and P-51 Mustang.

ww2dbaseFrom May to July 1940 Kelsey was sent as assistant military attaché for air to Europe to assess the technical progress of German, French and British fighter aircraft. Even though several American observers, including Colonel Carl "Tooey" Spaatz were also in Europe at the same time, most saw no need for escort fighters with American bomber groups since, they insisted, the B-17 Flying Fortress would be able to mount an effective self-defence. They could not have been more wrong, as they were to learn at a dreadful cost in lives and machines just three years later. In England, Kelsey spent a month touring British airfields, air groups and aircraft manufacturing facilities, receiving excellent cooperation from the Royal Air Force and learning much about fighter tactics.

ww2dbaseReturning to the United States, Kelsey used his connections with Lockheed to develop drop tanks to extend the range of the P-38, even though Air Corps policy at the time was absolutely inflexible toward fighter aircraft carrying external fuel tanks. In this he was again proved correct for when, in the spring of 1942, he was attached to the VIII Fighter Command, their use would prove vital for the trans-Atlantic ferry flights. Indeed, as an acting colonel, Kelsey would fly a P-38F in the first ferry flight of fighters across the North Atlantic to England.

ww2dbaseReturning in England in November 1943 he was appointed as Deputy Chief of Staff with the IX Fighter Command, and in the following February was appointed Chief of the Operation Engineering Section of the US Eighth Air Force. Once when he was present when a British commander was asked if fighters were necessary to escort the bombers on operations, he replied, "Rather." When asked if the bombers could not provide their own mutually supporting defence, he replied "I suppose they can, but you see, when we send out the bombers without the fighters we lose the bombers. When we send the fighters we get the bombers back. I don't know what the fighters do but we send them out because we have to."

ww2dbaseAfter the war, Kelsey remained in the Air Force serving in a number of roles including as an instructor at the National War College. In 1952 he was appointed Deputy Director of Research and Development and from October 1954 was heavily involved in the X-15 rocket-powered research project. He retired from the service at the end of 1955 but continued to have a keen interest in aeronautical subjects; regularly flying his personal Cessna and giving lectures and interviews.

ww2dbaseBenjamin Kelsey died of cancer at the age of 74 on March 3, 1981 at his home in Virginia. His book The Dragon's Teeth?: The Creation of United States Air Power for World War II (in which he maintained that the nation should keep a core of military engineering and manufacturing industries alive) was published posthumously by the Smithsonian Institution in 1982.

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