Yes, we’d loose something magical to have these things grounded, but failures happen in all forms of mechanical things, so at some point we’re going to loose every last one to crashes if they keep flying. They’re just too large and complicated to be maintained by small groups of volunteers. Asymmetric thrust from failed engines leads to crashes often enough that it’s often joked that the purpose of multiple engines is simply to get the aircraft to the crash site faster.ĭefinitely a tragedy that this happened, but it’s arguable that these types of aircraft just shouldn’t be flown any longer. If the number 4 engine refers to one of the outboard most engines, a failure of one of those would create significantly more adverse yaw than one of the inboard engines. How often did the crew of this plane fly? Most likely not multiple times per week as the pilots did during wartime. That young, experienced, war tested pilots could fly a B-17 with multiple engines out does not mean old(er) pilots with far less current experience should be able to handle smaller failures with comparable success. Externally the new engine is identical, except for the engineer cab roof being slightly flatter so it’s 1 inch lower to meet the maximum height allowed on UK rails. But for that project they adopted some new technologies such as using ball and roller bearings everywhere the original had plain bearings, and the project was able to get the frame rails made in a single piece instead of the two piece rails of the originals. It’s about 2/3 the size of a B-17 so it’s not beyond a determined group of people to pool their knowledge and skills to re-create a B-17.Īnother very massive undertaking to re-create an antique vehicle was the new Tornado steam locomotive in the UK. Out of only four Black Widows that remain, it will be the only one that will fly. I assume that any doubt causes a piece to be tossed and a replacement fabricated. Looks like as they’ve gone through every part, they’ve been taking absolutely every bit of it apart, only re-using pieces that have no sings of corrosion, cracking, or bending. Despite it having crashed with only around 10 hours flying time, the crash and decades of weather exposure and vandalism did bad things to it. MAAM is “rebuilding” a P-61 that when done is expected to have at least 70% of its airframe newly constructed. Posted in News, Slider Tagged air crash investigation, B-17, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Nine-O-Nine, NTSB Post navigation How long until we say farewell to this part of our history, with the final flight of a B-17, or its kin? The loss of yet another B-17 is also tough to swallow, as this leaves just ten airworthy B-17s. We feel terrible about such loss of life and hope the injured make a speedy recovery. The vintage bomber (civilian registration number N93012) has been all but completely destroyed in the fire, with only a section of the wing and tail remaining recognizable. One person on the ground was injured as well. Of the thirteen people on board, seven died, with the remaining six surviving with injuries. The NTSB has indicated that they have dispatched a team to investigate the crash, and say that a preliminary report is likely two weeks away. Unfortunately the aircraft ran off the runway and struck a building, after which it burst into flames. The airplane’s pilots tried to perform an emergency landing at Bradley International Airport, Connecticut, where it had taken off from only moments ago. Painted to look like another B-17 of WWII ( Nine-o-Nine, variant B-17G-30-BO), this late-model B-17G-85-DL aircraft wasn’t finished in time to join World War II, but instead spent its 74 years being a flying museum to these amazing airplanes.ĭetails about the cause of the crash are still scarce, but from radio communication between the crew and tower, it’s understood the B-17 was having having issues with the number 4 engine, which was seen sputtering and smoking by a witness. Incidentally, this is the very same airplane which we covered only a number of days ago. Thus it was that on October 2nd a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress crash-landed after technical troubles. The harsh reality of keeping historical airplanes airworthy and flying is that from time to time one will crash.
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