Old WWII pilots used to say "Boeing builds 'em better!" And you know, they may have had some reason for saying that!

Don't try this in an Air Bus

Subject: B-52 Incident

PHOTO AT BOTTOM...

January 10, 1964, started out as a typical day for the flight test group at Boeing's Wichita plant. Pilot Chuck Fisher took off in a B-52H with a three-man Boeing crew, flying a low-level profile to obtain structural data.

Over Colorado, cruising 500 feet above the mountainous terrain, the B-52 encountered some turbulence. Fisher climbed to 14,300 feet looking for smoother air. At this point the typical day ended.The bomber flew into clear-air turbulence. It felt as if the plane had been placed in a giant high-speed elevator, shoved up and down, and hit by a heavy blow on its right side.

Fisher told the crew to prepare to abandon the plane. He slowed the aircraft and dropped to about 5,000 feet to make it easier to bail out.
But then Fisher regained some control. He climbed slowly to 16,000 feet to put some safety room between the plane and the ground. He informed Wichita about what was happening . Although control was difficult, Fisher said he believed he could get the plane back in one piece.

Response to the situation at Wichita, and elsewhere, was immediate. An emergency control center was set up in the office of Wichita's director of flight test. Key Boeing engineers and other specialists were summoned to provide their expertise. Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control centers at Denver and Kansas City cleared the air around the troubled plane. A Strategic Air Command B-52 in the area maintained radio contact with the crew of the Wichita B-52.

As Fisher got closer to Wichita, a Boeing chase plane flew up to meet him and to visually report the damage. When Dale Felix, flying an F-100 fighter, came alongside Fisher's B-52, he couldn't believe what he saw: The B-52's vertical tail was gone.

Felix broke the news to Fisher and those gathered in the control center. There was no panic. Everyone on the plane and in the control center knew the y could be called upon at any time for just such a situation. In the emergency control center, the engineers began making calculations and suggesting the best way to get the plane down safely. The Air Force was also lending assistance. A B-52, just taking off for a routine flight, was used to test the various flight configurations suggested by the specialists before Fisher had to try them.

As high gusty winds rolled into Wichita, the decision was made to divert the B-52 to Blytheville Air Force Base in Northeastern Arkansas.
Boeing specialists from the emergency control center took off in a KC-135 and accompanied Fisher to Blytheville, serving as an airborne control center.

Six hours after the incident first occurred, Fisher and his crew brought in the damaged B-52 for a safe landing.
"I'm very proud of this crew and this airplane," Fisher said. "Also we had a lot people helping us, and we're very thankful for that."
The B-52, Fisher said, "I s the finest airplane I ever flew."

------------------------------------------------

Clever move dropping the gear like that.

Strange the article does not mention the payload under each wing.

They look like HoundDog missles.

There was an Airbus that tried that once. It wound up at the bottom of Flushing Bay. May they all rest in peace.

I truly wish the A300 had been able to fly that day without it's tail. Having over 5000 hours as PIC on the A300, and having flown the actual plane that crashed (#53), I often think about the horrific loss that took so many that day.

F/O Sten Molin was a close friend and a fine pilot. I will always miss him.

Loosing a tail plane in a bit of turbulence is hardly a stronge endorsement of a plane!

What about that F-15 that lost a complete wing due to a mid air collision and landed safely?? Now that is an endosement for an aircraft!

Sure was a strange one. As I understand it, many planes have speed limits on full control deflection, especially from one side to the other and back.

But, it seems weird that a plane would have a much smaller rudder pedal movement at speed than at take-off. There's one trap, plus the makers reckoned one wasn't supposed to use rudder at all to control the plane in those circumstances. I wonder if that was in the manual?

Yet all/most American pilots quizzed said they do/would. Same with me. (In my little puddle-jumpers.)

But then another amusement I heard of (I was never endorsed on one), is that the C 210 had a cruise speed higher than it's turbulance penatration speed. IF only we could always see turbulance.

Chuck Fisher is a real pro.

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:
Yet all/most American pilots quizzed said they do/would. Same with me. (In my little puddle-jumpers.)

It was a most curious accident. In 25 years of flying heavy jets, I've never met anyone who would attempt to control roll with rudder...they're just footrests, unless an engine fails or you're landing in a crosswind.

quote:

Originally posted by jb747:

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:
Yet all/most American pilots quizzed said they do/would. Same with me. (In my little puddle-jumpers.)

It was a most curious accident. In 25 years of flying heavy jets, I've never met anyone who would attempt to control roll with rudder...they're just footrests, unless an engine fails or you're landing in a crosswind.

The only thing I can think of is the B52 has spoilers on the wings for roll, so it doesn't lift up a wing so much as it makes the other wing drop. So the PIC could have tried to pick the wing up with the rudder, but again we weren't there so shouldn't try to guess why something was done or not done.

quote:

Originally posted by jb747:
It was a most curious accident. In 25 years of flying heavy jets, I've never met anyone who would attempt to control roll with rudder...they're just footrests, unless an engine fails or you're landing in a crosswind.

Yes maybe, but the report I read related back to basic training, and especially at low speed in trainers rudder is the ONLY recomended control to pick up a wing, and old habbits die hard. And then at medium speeds one would think it normal to use BOTH aileron and rudder to keep ballanced flight, unless those spoiler things do both?

Anyway, apparently the stupid rudder pedals "changed gear" between ground mode and flight, and knowing the French, nothing would supprise me.