Take off and crash of Consolidated XF2Y Sea Dart (BuNo 135762) on November 4, 1954

Demonstration flight of Consolidated XF2Y Sea Dart (BuNo 135762) over San Diego Bay for naval officials and the press, on November 4, 1954. The aircraft disintegrated in midair over the bay, killing Convair test pilot Charles E. Richbourg when he inadvertently exceeded the airframe's limitations.
Footage from the national archives: catalog.archives.gov/id/76191

[@phayzyre1052]

They were having sort of an airshow that day and the people in the press wanted to see the Sea Dart fly but not just fly they wanted it to go supersonic. Problem is the engineers had not cleared it to go supersonic but Convair test pilot Charles Richbourg was pressured into doing that and right about the time he broke the sound barrier the plane disintegrated with the pieces crashing into the San Diego bay. Pilot Richbourg was purportedly still alive when they plucked him from the water but died shortly thereafter.

[@Aelxi]

Ohh rip

[@Aelxi]

Is that a jet floatplane??

[@phayzyre1052]

Yep!

[@Lebxano]

Is that big plane in the back a convair r3y tradewind?

[@phayzyre1052]

Yep!

[@Lebxano]

@@phayzyre1052 cool! I’ve been looking into those old ww2 and cold era planes, it’s my teen hobby! Too bad convair shut down before I was born. They made some pretty cool planes, the b36, nb36h, the b58, the f102 and f106, and the 880s and 990s. Do you know why they shut down though? They seemed like they were golden back then. Well thanks for the clarification and stay blessed!

[@phayzyre1052]

@@Lebxano Not sure what happened to Convair. I know from about the 1950s to the early 90s Convair was around in one form or another and they had multiple other divisions including commercial aircraft, missile defense and space. However, by about the mid-1990s they were pretty much gone for good and sold their assets off to other companies. Post World War II was a hotbed of activity well into the 1970s and there were still several aviation companies around. I think the only main key players from that time who are still alive today is Boeing and Lockheed. The rest of them have either merged with other companies or (like Convair) disappeared altogether. Oh, and speaking of Convair the only Convair built aircraft I ever saw fly was the F-106. That was way back in 1982 when I was 11 years old and was in the Boy Scouts. We went to a Scout jamboree which was basically a gathering of Boy Scout troops from all over concentrated into one large campground. It was just east of Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and one morning we were woke by the earsplitting roar of F-106s in full afterburner taking off. They were quite an impressive sight to see and man, were they loud! 😱