[Milsurplus] Wing Flexure

[D C *Mac* Macdonald]

I went through B-52 crew flying training at
the old Walker AFB at Roswell, NM in the
spring of 1963.  This was not too long
after several buffs had fallen out of the
sky because the tail broke off in turbulence.
A Boeing test crew deliberately flew on of
the tall-tail (F model and before) into an
area of known clear air turbulence (CAT).
Aircraft was heavily instrumented and a
camera was installed in the periscopic
sextan mount just foward of the EWO
position.  Sure 'nuff, the entire rear
of the fuselage and tail structures went
into violent shaking and over half of the
vertical stabilizer failed and was ripped
off.  Moom pikshers of it were awesome!

Absolutely incredible airmanship on the
part of the crew managed to get the
aircraft safely on the ground.

It sure did not inspire a whole lot of
confidence in this young 1st Lt!!!

Mac - K2GKK/5



----Original Message Follows----
From: "Falls, Jim" <Jim.Falls at conservation.ca.gov>
To: <Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>, <hankarn at pacbell.net>
Subject: [Milsurplus] Wing Flexure
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:24:48 -0800

I flew into Albuquerque one early evening in the summer of 1991. We were in 
a Southwest 737 and ran into thunderstorms over west AZ. Intellectually, I 
knew that these wings are carefully designed to flex, but my hindbrain DID 
NOT LIKE the vision of that wing flapping and the engine doing the twist! We 
hit one bump and everything went weightless for about 5 seconds after which 
one fellow up front waved his hat over his head and yelled "YEE HAW!". 
Beverage service had been suspended about 20 minutes before, fortunately.

As Shelley Berman says: "Flying is the safest way to fly............."

Jim Falls
KG6FWT
Eureka, CA


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