I read a recent book on Boyington and never came across
such a reference. I did read where he had an ashtray
installed in his corsair. He used to smoke while flying!


What I read about Boyington's smoking is that he used to fly with the canopy
cracked open and then used to flick the butt out the crack and slide the canopy
closed when he spotted the enemy. Boyington's wingman learned to watch for
this as much as looking for enemy aircraft.

The other thing is that Boyington created a rubber band autopilot. He got some
large rubber bands and would twist them over the stick and then hook them over
some convenient protruberance in the cockpit thus holding the stick roughly
neutral. Then he would fall asleep! If the airplane fell off on one wing he
had only to nudge the stick to get back to level and usually did so many times
without being fully conscious.

John Dupre'