AIRLINES

Air Classics, Dec 2004

"ONE OF MY MISSILES..."

Just finished reading "One of My Missiles Has Fired!" in V40/N8. I rememher the incident well as, at that time, I was a B-52E crew chief at Walker AFB, New Mexico, and had visited Biggs AFB un several occasions. We were shocked when we heard the news but never did get the details on the recovery operations so it was great finding out the end results from the article on the incident.

A couple of other incidents which may he of interest to your readers: Back in the early 1960s one of our Buffs from Walker was over northern New Mexico and experienced severe buffeting. They changed altitude several times in an attempt to get out of the turbulence but this was without success. Suddenly, the aircraft began an unscheduled roll which control inputs failed to halt. The aircraft commander alerted the crew for possible bail out but did not get a response from the tail gunner.

When it became obvious that the pilots could not control the bomber, the aircraft commander ordered a bale-out. The ECM operator, who was not in his seat, and the tail gunner were lost. The gunner never had a chance as the whole empennage of the aircraft had separated resulting in the bomber spinning out of control and this probably pinned the gunner who was found still in his seat. The tail came down near Nora, New Mexico, in an inverted position. It was slowed by pine trees hitting the horizontal stabilizers (but not enough to help the gunner) and still intact except for about 15-ft of the upper vertical stabilizer that had crushed on impact.

We were then introduced to a little known (at that time) atmospheric phenomenon called wind shear. By the way, the aircraft commander was one of our best and I had flown with him on several occasions.

Item numher two took place in the late 1950s. The Boeing B-47 (especially the E model) was a true beauty to fly. Its handling was equivalent to that of a very large fighter and, as far as I know, was the only true multi-engine (six J-47s) aircraft that routinely performed LABS bombing maneuvers. The USAF had experienced several B-47 losses due to problems with the rear mount pin failing on outboard engines.

The outboard engines had a "saddle mount" at the front (basically a rounded/barrel shaped fork that curved around the top of the forward portion of the engine and was secured approximately halfway down both sides of the engine). The aft mount, however, consisted of a stub secured to a similar device on the lower surface of the wing by a pin. The pin would sometimes fail and the peculiar aerodynamics of the engine/wing at that point, combined with the thrust of the engine, would cause the engine to swing down at the exhaust portion... thus presenting a significant "flat plate" surface at the outer wing area (deadly at the critical point just after takeoff) and the engine would then shear the forward mounts and continue over the top of the wing, leaving sheared electrical wiring (sparks) and fuel line (still pumping JP-4) flailing on the top of the wing.

Anyway, hack to the incident. A B-47 (I don't remember from which base) was on a training mission at cruise and at altitude when one of the outboard engines decided to depart (I think it was #6). The pilot saw what happened and then, without a word, ejected. The copilot was a hit surprised and was about to follow but, for some reason, bent over to make sure the navigator was gone and saw that he was still aboard and apparently unconscious. The copilot stayed with the beast, descended to lower altitude so the navigator wouldn't die from hypoxia, and proceeded to land the aircraft at the nearest base. He got a well-deserved Distinguished Flying Cross but we never heard what happened to the pilot other than he survived the bailout. I have included a couple photos from my B-47 days.

Will Groom

wmgroom@worldnet.att.net

USAF SAUCERS?

Please allow me to state that this is no type of prank or joke. I am a very serious aviation historian with no time for ridiculous science fiction stories about UFOs or "little green men." That being said, the primary focus of my research deals with vintage historical experimental jet aircraft. In particular, low aspect ratio lenticular aircraft.

Enclosed please find a computer generated forensic composite illustration of an actual USAF jet flying disc, which is based on the specific details provided by USAF personnel that are very familiar with this special purpose aircraft. There were four different sizes built measuring 20-, 40-, 70- and 116-ft in diameter. All four aircraft had tricycle landing gear with control surfaces running along the circumference of the disc.

The smaller 20- and 40-ft diameter craft had a single air intake on both sides of the pilot's compartment, while the 116-ft craft utilized two air intakes on either side. The large craft had a crew of five to seven. The crew compartment on all of the different discs was located at the very center of the disc which tapered hack towards a very high vertical tail at the aft end of the aircraft.