So, I figured I'd do a bit of searching on the subject today to see just how far back I could push the first instance of the term "warbird" being used to specifically refer to retired military aircraft in civilian ownership. A couple notes before I get there though.
First, it is worth noting that an aviation pulp magazine first published in March 1928 was titled "
War Birds".
Next, it seems that the word was in vogue around the end of World War II and became specifically attached to surplus aircraft sitting in boneyards in the southwest. (Note how many of the newspapers are from Arizona.) Some examples:
Quote:
Roosting. Thousands of tired warbirds are laid up at Kingman, Ariz., depot.
(Source: “[Untitled],”
Daily News, April 1, 1946,
40.)
Jerry McLain wrote:
The greatest air force in world history, including famed warbirds which helped blast the Germans and Japanese to their knees, has come to die among the cacti and sagebrush on the Arizona desert.
(Source: Jerry McLain, “7,000 Warbirds ’Rest Near Kingman,”
Arizona Republic, April 23, 1946,
1.)
Jerry McLain wrote:
WINGS OF A NATION AT REST: It took blood, sweat and tears and more than $250,000,000 to put these mighty warbirds in the air to deliver the knockout to Japan while a nation and its fighting men kept praying for more of them. Today they rest, "pickled" against weather and deterioration at Davis-Monthan Field near Tucson, ready to take to the air again at a moments notice, so those prayers nee not be repeated.
(Source: Jerry McLain, “700 Superforts Rest Wings in Desert Sun,”
Arizona Republic, May 11, 1946,
1.)
Quote:
Exact moves to end a wrangle about sale of an estimated 2,500,000 to 4,000,000 gallons of gasoline in the tanks of the warbirds at Kingman were uncertain but a W.A.A. spokesman explained efforts are planned "to see that everybody is satisfied."
(Source: “War Planes Gas to Be Credited,”
Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1946,
6.)
Quote:
What once was the greatest single collection of airplanes in the world-more than 5,000 tired warbirds stored after World War II on the destert near Kingman-has disappeared into huge melting pots.
(Source: “Saga of Air Conflict Ends on Desert,”
Arizona Republic, January 29, 1948,
1.)
Frustrating my efforts to find results on Newspapers.com, yet still interesting, was that an Abilene, Texas high school sports team was named the "Warbirds". In regards to the team, the story notes:
Jack Holden wrote:
Mrs. Robinson was a cheer leader in 1925, and apparently three years later the word Warbird was used. We asked Hal Sayles, former sports editor and later managing editor of the Reporter-News it he remembered the first usage of Warbird. He not only remembered it but apparently was the first writer to apply it to an Eagle team. As a senior in Abilene High in 1928 Sayles won a national scholastic prize for a story on an Abilene Ranger football game. In that story he called the Eagles "Warbirds." The team did become a warlike organization that year as it drove to its second state championship.
(Source: Jack Holden, “Sports Spotlight,”
Abilene Reporter-News, December 21, 1955,
13-A.)
Now, to get into the results. The first use of the term "warbird" used in the sense mentioned in the first line of this post I could find after a quick search was an article about Avengers being converted into waterbombers from 1957:
Bob Stirling wrote:
GUNSIGHTS, armor and other gear are being removed from the "tired warbirds" by Gordon B. Hamilton & Co. at Tucson's Municipal Airport.
(Source: Bob Stirling, “Old ‘Warbirds’ Reassigned to Battle on Forest Fires,”
Tucson Daily Citizen, February 26, 1957,
20.)
The first use of the term specifically in reference to these type of aircraft being used for historic purposes is in a 1961 article about Frank Tallman and Michael Hinn flying a Nieuport and Corsair respectively to Pensacola for the 50th anniversary of naval aviation. Note that the word "warbird", in both this article title and the previous one, is enclosed in apostrophes, potentially indicating that the writer thought the public would be unfamiliar with the term:
Quote:
Naval aviation took a nostalgic look backward Sunday as two of its famous warbirds began the first leg of a transcontinental flight.
(Source: “S.L. Airport Greets 2 ‘Warbirds,’”
Salt Lake Tribune, May 22, 1961,
19.)
However, in what may be the earliest usage of the term to refer to
any kind of historic aircraft, a 1947 article discussing World War II aircraft on display at Davis-Monthan that were earmarked for the Smithsonian or "an airforce museum in the middle west", uses the term "warbird" to refer to the aircraft:
Frank Johnson wrote:
Foremost among the warbirds is the world"s [sic] only B-19, a $3,000,000 bomber, which until recent development of the B-35 and B-36 was the largest ever flown.
(Source: Frank Johnson, “D-M Aerial Museum Holds Many Notable Specimens,”
Tucson Daily Citizen, August 1, 1947,
15.)
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Wish I'd thought of that.
)
