B-52 STRATOFORTRESS FILM REPORT 1964 "FLIGHT WITHOUT A FIN" 23364

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B-52 STRATOFORTRESS FILM REPORT 1964 "FLIGHT WITHOUT A FIN" 23364

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Күн бұрын

This incredible film, FLIGHT WITHOUT A FILM, recounts an extraordinary accident that took place in 1964. As Lt. Col. Schmidt of Norton Air Force Base explains, on January 10, 1964 a flight crew flying a B-52H for Boeing was testing the aircraft over mountainous terrain. Flying from 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. The bomber then flew into clear-air turbulence. As Fisher recounts, 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 they 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, "Is the finest airplane I ever flew."
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Пікірлер: 23

@lawrencegore6647 2 жыл бұрын

I had planned to go on this flight as an observer. I was Chiief of Structures Technology at Boeing-Wichita at this time, and the data from these flights was sent to my section for analysis.The purpose of this flight was to record gust velocity and airplane accelerations and stresses during low level flight. This was at the height of the Cold War, and SAC crews were required to practice this type of terrain avoidance flying to be ready to penetrate below Soviet radar. These flights and other activity were part of a vast program to understand the environments in which the B-52 had not been intended or designed to fly, and to analyze the effects on the structure. I had planned to go on the flight as an observer, sitting behind and between the pilot and co-pilot, but this plane did not have a tie-down restraint for an observer. Chuck Fisher, was concerned for my safety and suggested I fly instead on 56-632, which had a seat belt attached to the flight deck, and which I had flown on before. So I flew with Dale Felix and his two-man crew on a different low-level route two days before Chuck's flight. During my flight, Dale let me sit in his pilot's seat and fly a short while, with the co-pilot keepiing a close eye, of course. So there I was, tooling around only a couple hundred feet over the farms of eastern Colorado in an eight-jet-engined beast. Quite a thrill for a non-pilot! And two days later I was glad not to have gone on Chuck Fisher's famous flight. When he first lost control. Chuck had given the order to "Prepare to abandon ship." If I had been aboard, I would have been on the upper deck, with my ejection seat on the lower deck, and it ejecting downward!!. Not a pretty picture. We analyzed the data from this flight and found the gust velocity was three tmes that for whiich the plane was designed. A year or so later, we had made modifications to strengthen the tail and fuselage structure to withstand these forces. I then flew with Dale Felix over the same route as this flight, up and over and around the foothills. Again it was quite a thrill, and I salute all the airmen who make such flights as part of their training,

@bradsanders407 2 жыл бұрын

How does one get the job of Chief of Structures Technology?

@lawrencegore6647 2 жыл бұрын

@@bradsanders407 Is this a serious question?

@bradsanders407 2 жыл бұрын

@@lawrencegore6647 yes

@lawrencegore6647 2 жыл бұрын

@@bradsanders407 This was 58 years ago. I had degrees in aeronautical engineering, 15 years experience in analysis and design on B-47 and B-52, overseeing lab testing and full-airplane strength and cyclic testing, responsible for strength, fatigue, loads, dynamics, weights, materials & processes engineering sections. I represented Boeing B-47 and B-52 fatigue and durability programs to the highest levels of the USAF. I am now 95 and honored that the decisions I made contributed to the B-52H endurance now on display.

@bradsanders407 2 жыл бұрын

@@lawrencegore6647 very interesting. I figured you were close to that age having been that accomplished in the 60s. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Have a good day.

@64curarine 4 жыл бұрын

I noticed they didn't mention the airframe was carrying two AGM-28 Hound Dog missiles! Amazing job by the crew.

@OzAerobat 2 жыл бұрын

Uhhhm, live weapons are not carried on structural load test flights, unless the test flight requires specific weapons carriage/release. Suitable ballast/weapons bay loads might be however.

@kd4pba 7 күн бұрын

These people are absolute heroes.

@shaunl446 3 ай бұрын

Proud of these men

@kevinmckinney3785 Жыл бұрын

The B-52, the C-130, the A-10, the F-15....and I am sure a handful of other aircraft that serve and have served above and beyond the Call of Duty.

@Mark_Ocain 8 жыл бұрын

Kid of tell you how stable a plane this is despite it's crankiness in the pattern. Straight in , no problems even with the vertical stabilizer missing.

@MrCruznc4 8 жыл бұрын

B-52H 61-0023 is the tailless bird and it's currently in type 1000 storage at Davis Monathan.

@PeriscopeFilm 8 жыл бұрын

+MICAH DEEM Amazing that they were able to repair and fly again.

@willb3698 6 жыл бұрын

Incredible testament to the crew and the aircraft. But: shouldn't the tail have never come off in the first place, not just through turbulence? Or am I missing something.