91-Year-Old MAA Member Recalls WWII Mathematical Exploits

January 7, 2010

Nearly 70 years ago, mathematician and MAA member Barnard H. Bissinger helped calculate the fuel needs for the iconic shark-mouthed Curtiss P-40 fighter aircraft flown by "The Flying Tigers" during World War II.

"The Flying Tigers" was the popular name of the 1^st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force. Since the United States had not yet entered the war, volunteer pilots and ground crew from US Army Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps were recruited clandestinely under presidential sanction in 1940. Commanded by Claire Lee Chennault, the squadron trained in Burma (today Myanmar) with the mission of defending China against Japanese forces.

“A lot of it was about gasoline,” Bissinger told the Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Penn.). The critical fuel had to be flown from India over the Himalayan Mountains to a tiny airbase in Kunming, Western China. This route was popularly referred to as "Flying the Hump" and was continually used by the Allies until the end of the war. Costing $30-$40 per gallon after transport, Bissinger said, "Gas was like gold."

"The Flying Tigers" used a lot of fuel. Chennault introduced some unusual tactics to cope with the planes deficiencies. A very heavy plane, the P-40 Curtiss was no match for the much lighter, more maneuverable Japanese fighters in a traditional dog fight. However it could out-dive the enemy. Outnumbered in almost all of their engagements, the "Tigers" only chance for success was to climb to a superior altitude and dive on top of the Japanese planes.

"Mathemagicians” like Bissinger used slide rules, or “slipsticks," to work out computations. “We concocted a set of tables that showed the cost of going up even 15 feet higher. If you flew lower, it didn’t take as much gas to get up there, but the air resistance was higher," Bissinger said. He also used his mathematical skills to analyze bombing accuracy and to develop aircraft cruise control procedures.

Despite conflicting assessments, "The Flying Tigers" kill ratio was superior to that of contemporary Allied air groups in Malaysia, the Philippines, and elsewhere.

“We didn’t get shot at too often. And they were good people. They were good soldiers,” said Bissinger of his time in China.

A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, Bissinger received one of the first interdisciplinary doctorates from Cornell University, in mathematics and aerodynamics, in 1943. After his war service, he joined the faculty of Lebanon Valley College, where he held the John Evans Lehman Chair of Mathematics. He later taught at Pennsylvania State University. He has been an MAA member since 1942.

The U.S. Government publication “Operations Analysis in WW II, United States Army Air Forces" (1948) detailed his contributions to the war effort.

Source: The Patriot-News (December 31, 2009).

Image and supplemental information via Wikipedia.