Air show collision: B17 and P63

   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #61  
So far, I think, Animarchy History has the best explanation of what happened. Posted on #45 by overszd. It gives me a greater appreciation of the WWII pilots that flew planes like the F4U Corsair.
 
   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #62  
JasperFrank said:
So far, I think, Animarchy History has the best explanation of what happened. Posted on #45 by overszd. It gives me a greater appreciation of the WWII pilots that flew planes like the F4U Corsair.
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The chances of failure were so much greater then than now for fighter pilots. Today the aircraft would be screaming at you of the pending doom long before it was unavoidable.
 
   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #63  
JasperFrank said:
………. It gives me a greater appreciation of the WWII pilots that flew planes like the F4U Corsair…….
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The F4U Corsair was one of my favorites. Theres one that comes to my local air show almost every year. When he does the low fly-overs, the massive single engine sounds amazing. It thumps your chest and almost shakes the ground.
 
   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #64  
I worked for a guy part time who owned an excavating by the last name of Tyson when I was 18-20. He taught me how to run dozers & shift Mack dump trucks. He was nice when he was sober, but a wicked mean SOB when he drank. His wife kept his books.
One day I had to go to his house to pick up my check from her. I knocked on the door and she answered. Upon entering the house, I observed him laying on the couch drinking water from a vodka bottle in big gulps.

We went to the back office and I asked her, “Why is Mr. Tyson drinking water from a vodka bottle”? She said, “Thats not water, it’s real vodka”. He spoke to me on the way out and sounded completely sober. I was dumbfounded at the amount he downed in front of us the way we would drink water.
She followed me outside and explained to me he was a B-17 pilot in the big war and dropped hundreds of bombs on German people and could not live with himself. In subsequent visits, she showed me pictures of his B-17. I got sucked into the mess of having to hide his car, cover for him when he was drunk, etc.
He drank himself to death a few years later.
 
   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #65  
Hay Dude said:
The F4U Corsair was one of my favorites. Theres one that comes to my local air show almost every year. When he does the low fly-overs, the massive single engine sounds amazing. It thumps your chest and almost shakes the ground.
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If you're a fan of the Corsair, then I recommend the book written by the test pilot who developed the prototype. His name is Boone T. Guyton, and the book is "Whistling Death".

 
   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #66  
   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #67  
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   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #68  
The NTSB released their preliminary report on the accident. Not much new information, except to note there was no "altitude deconfliction" between the various types of aircraft.

This is what I wrote in post #37-- aircraft that operate at different speeds are usually separated by altitude. In this case, tragically, they were not.
 

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   / Air show collision: B17 and P63 #70  
I had the fortune to ride in the B-17 "Aluminum Overcast" in Appleton, Wisconsin during the EEA show in nearby Oshkosh several years ago.
Its unbelievable how "unsubstantial" the frame and sheeting on that plane is. Pretty sure a baseball pitcher could throw a rock right thru the skin. It's no wonder the plane was cut in two.
In that aircraft, there is no "interior" as such, just the aluminum ribs and the skin.
And to imagine that those guys would go up mission after mission with virtually no defense against shrapnel, AA and machine gun bullets from fighters. Courage doesn't begin to describe it, especially if you barely made it back to base in a shot up airplane and several days later came an early morning knock on your door. "You're on todays mission, get dressed."
 
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