THE MORNING RANT: Periodic Aviation Thread - 10/25/2024
[Roger Ball]

BOOM

[Note: It’s an honor to fill in for Buck Throckmorton this morning. Wish him safe travels.]

Wide selection aviation buffet (any definition will do) today. Pick your post.

GO INSIDE THE COCKPIT for a pilot’s eye view of XB-1’s fourth test flight, narrated by Chief Flight Test Engineer Nick Sheryka. Listen in on the comms between Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg, the control room, chase plane, and tower from takeoff to touchdown.

You won't want to watch the whole thinng unless you're a geek, but I applaud the BOOM supersonic team and wish them all success as they safely pursue their development and test program.

If you ever watched The Right Stuff, however bad the movie made it look, it was worse. Sayings like “One a day into Tampa Bay” are usually based on hard experience and blood.

…but new trainees at home had serious problems and there were numerous accidents, causing the Marauder to earn such epithets as "The Flying Prostitute", "The Baltimore Whore", "The Flying Vagrant", or "The Wingless Wonder", these names being given because the B-26's small wing area appeared to give it no visible means of support. Other derisive names being given to the B-26 were "The Widow Maker", "One-Way Ticket", "Martin Murderer", "The Flying Coffin", "The Coffin Without Handles", and the "B-Dash Crash". In particular, there were so many takeoff accidents at MacDill Field during early 1942 that the phrase "One a Day into Tampa Bay" came to be a commonplace lament.

One of the most famous Navy design disasters was the Vought F-7U Cutlass. Yes, that same Vought aircraft company that designed the awesome Corsair. But the Cutlass was designed during the unique time in history when there was still stiff competition among numerous aircraft manufacturers, and aviation was transitioning from props to jets. Added to the challenge was that the engines were not very powerful and the designers were still figuring out high speed flight. Radical envelope bending and expansion was all the rage, and it was mostly done with slide rules, drafting tables and wind tunnels. No “floating point computation” for those manly engineers! Sometimes it worked and sometimes, like the Cutlass and others, it didn’t.

More than one-fourth of the 300-plus airframes built were destroyed in accidents, many of which were attributed to unreliable engines that generated insufficient thrust. In the end, the F7U would cost the Navy four test pilots, and 21 regular pilots killed, earning it such uncomplimentary nicknames as “Gutless Cutlass” and “Ensign Eliminator.” Yet in the hands of a skilled pilot who was aware of its limitations, the sweptwing jet performed well, and some suggested that its failings could have been overcome with additional developmental work, as would be the case with Vought’s F8U Crusader.

I’m sure many of the HORDE have seen the famous ramp strike on the USS Hancock (CVA-19) in 1955?

It’s a little grainy, but did you notice the “fastest LSO in the West”, running across the landing area in front of the crashing jet?
You get a good view in the video above at about 1:00.

The LSO made it. The pilot didn’t. Interestingly, my college English teacher was a Cutlass survivor. He chain smoked and drank a lot. I couldn’t explain that at the time.

The current aviation safety rate is figured on incidents per 100,000 flight hours. If fatal accidents get above about 0.50 then companies, the FAA and the NTSB start looking at what’s going wrong. One problem is that airplanes carry so many people now, so a major accident with fatalities will be hundreds of people. Also, there are just a lot of flights. In the years after World War II, the military (at least the Navy) measured the rate in incidents per 10,000 flight hours. If they could keep it less than 10.0, they would be happy. Commercial aviation of course was much better, but the planes were smaller, and the number of flights was much less than today.

Speaking of accident rates and, implicitly, survival, have you ever heard the story of The Indestructible Alkemade? One minute, Nicholas is a tail gunner in a Lancaster, 18000 feet and…

Three hours later, Alkemade opened his eyes. He was lying on snowy ground in a small pine wood. Above him the stars were still visible, only this time they were framed by the edges of the hole he had smashed through the tree canopy. Assessing himself, Alkemade found that he was remarkably intact. In addition to the burns and cuts to the head and thigh, all received in the aircraft, he was suffering only bruising and a twisted knee. Not a single bone had been broken or even fractured. Both of his flying boots had disappeared, probably torn from his feet as he unconsciously struck the tree branches. Being of no further use, Alkemade discarded his parachute harness in the snow.

Speaking of survival, General Aviation lent huge support to the folks in the North Carolina counties devastated by Hurricane HELENE. While scores of small privately owned aircraft and helicopters brought in supplies and brought out survivors, several venerable DC-3/C-47s did the “heavy” lifting.

Here’s a nicely done video by the non-profit Warbid South Flying Museum taking their DC-3C to the disaster area. You’re not going to want to watch the whole thing but, if nothing else, just listen to those Pratt & Whitney 1830s purr. (Note, they took off from runway 6 at Northeast Alabama Regional (KGAD)).

If you don’t watch anything at all, at least watch them land on runway 12 at Banner Elk/Elk River, North Carolina (NC06) (Sorry about the ads. I don't know how to yeet them from the clip.). Here is the you tube clip. The runway’s plenty long enough at 4600 feet but a little narrow at 75 feet. Plus, there are lots of trees and hills. The river is to the right of the frame, but you can see the mud on the left side of the runway, so the airport was completely covered at some point. As of Monday, NC-194was still marked as closed. You won’t see any big cargo airplanes doing that, I can guarantee you.

I’ve known about the IDITAROD since I was a little guy. The wife of one of my dad’s wartime buddies raised Huskies and raced the IDITAROD numerous times. (She was also a little weird.) What I did not know about, until I got my AOPA magazine, was the IDITAROD AIR FORCE. Now that right there is some manly flying!

From a logistical viewpoint, the Iditarod Sled Dog Race is dependent upon the IAF, a group of volunteer pilots who freely give up their time, use their own planes, and share their years of experience. The IAF accomplishes MANY things: • delivering supplies and goods to all of the checkpoints • transporting people to and from all of the checkpoints • picking up and transporting return dogs • and, consistently ensuring that all passengers are safe

AOPA even made a video about it (18 minutes). Oh, and lots of doggehs!

Finally, I’ve been working on a corollary to Buck Throckmorton’s First Law of Live Music. Buck’s theorem: “If There’s an Upright Bass in the Band, It’s Probably Going to be Good”. So, I offer the “RBall Corollary to the First Law: If There’s an Upright Bass and a Banjo in the Band, It’s Going to Sound Like ‘Merica!”. (I know it opens with a mandolin, but anyway.)

By the way, did you notice the slide guitar? Check out one of my favorites with Jackson Brown and slide master Greg Leisz.

Keep the blue side up, HORDE!
Roger, out.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:59 AM

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