B-52H "Flight Without a Fin"...

[AirDOGGe]

Apparently the long, slab-sided fuselage of a Boeing B-52 makes for poor stealth characteristics but GREAT yaw stability. Move over B-2 and meet the USA's tail-less bomber of the 60's(!)

An incredible true tale (tail?) from 1964:

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEeROJixl6A[/YT]

[Coyote Chris]

Re: B-52H "Flight Without a Fin"...

Wow.....thanks for posting this....reminds me of B-17 photos where their tails were shot away....we build them good in Washington, eh?

[Skyracer]

Re: B-52H "Flight Without a Fin"...

Without seeing the video I recall the incident happening over eastern Colorado and read about it at the time (crap, that was a long time ago). There's a comprehensive article here:

http://talkingproud.us/Military/page42/B52NoTail.html

[Coyote Chris]

Re: B-52H "Flight Without a Fin"...

Thanks, Skyracer....I will send that to my friends who dont have high speed internet...the B-52 that refused to crash....

[Warbirds45]

Re: B-52H "Flight Without a Fin"...

Just a note: I was the controller working GCK Low Altitude during this incident and vectored two F105's (they article said that it was an F100) to intercept the B52. The F105 pilots later came to the center and showed us the film that included the picture. The only time I really TRIED to get two airplanes together in the same airspace.

Lee

What a scary situation.

January 10, 1964, started out as a typical day for the flight test group at Boeing's Wichita plant. Pilot Chuck Fisher took off in a B-52H with a three-man Boeing crew, flying a low-level profile to obtain structural data.

Over Colorado, cruising 500 feet above the mountainous terrain, the B-52 encountered some turbulence. Fisher climbed to 14,300 feet looking for smoother air. At this point the typical day ended.The bomber flew into clear-air turbulence. It felt as if the plane had been placed in a giant high-speed elevator, shoved up and down, and hit by a heavy blow on its right side.

Fisher told the crew to prepare to abandon the plane. He slowed the aircraft and dropped to about 5,000 feet to make it easier to bail out.
But then Fisher regained some control. He climbed slowly to 16,000 feet to put some safety room between the plane and the ground. He informed Wichita about what was happening. Although control was difficult, Fisher said he believed he could get the plane back in one piece.

Response to the situation at Wichita, and elsewhere, was immediate. An emergency control center was set up in the office of Wichita's director of flight test. Key Boeing engineers and other specialists were summoned to provide their expertise. Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control centers at Denver and Kansas City cleared the air around the troubled plane. A Strategic Air Command B-52 in the area maintained radio contact with the crew of the Wichita B-52.

As Fisher got closer to Wichita, a Boeing chase plane flew up to meet him and to visually report the damage. When Dale Felix, flying an F-100 fighter, came alongside Fisher's B-52, he couldn't believe what he saw: The B-52's vertical tail was gone.

Felix broke the news to Fisher and those gathered in the control center. There was no panic. Everyone on the plane and in the control center knew they could be called upon at any time for just such a situation.? In the emergency control center, the engineers began making calculations and suggesting the best way to get the plane down safely.? The Air Force was also lending assistance. A B-52, just taking off for a routine flight, was used to test the various flight configurations suggested by the specialists before Fisher had to try them.

As high gusty winds rolled into Wichita, the decision was made to divert the B-52 to Blytheville Air Force Base in Northeastern Arkansas.
Boeing specialists from the emergency control center took off in a KC-135 and accompanied Fisher to Blytheville, serving as an airborne control center.

Six hours after the incident first occurred, Fisher and his crew brought in the damaged B-52 for a safe landing.
"I'm very proud of this crew and this airplane," Fisher said. "Also we had a lot people helping us, and we're very thankful for that."
The B-52, Fisher said, "Is the finest airplane I ever flew."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello, my dad sent this a couple years ago. My hat goes off to a great pilot and airplane!
Warbirds45

[FuryFan]

Re: B-52H "Flight Without a Fin"...

About ten year ago I was looking at a "wreck chasing" website and first learned about tendency of early model B-52's to shed their verticle stabs when moderately overstressed. In all the books I'd read as a kid that had never been mentioned. When I brought the fact to my dad's attention he had never heard of it either......he worked aircraft instrumentation for 16yrs (USAF) starting in 1961.

Kevin

[AirDOGGe]

Re: B-52H "Flight Without a Fin"...

Just a note: I was the controller working GCK Low Altitude during this incident and vectored two F105's (they article said that it was an F100) to intercept the B52. The F105 pilots later came to the center and showed us the film that included the picture. The only time I really TRIED to get two airplanes together in the same airspace.

Lee

I think the article was correct. If you watch the video it IS an F-100 flying chase off the right side. Perhaps the camera plane shooting the film was an F-105 (I didn't see any shots of the cam plane itself). That would explain why the Thunderchief pilots had the flight footage to show you but didn't appear in any of it.

Note also that during the narration the bomber pilot states that an F-100 was the first chase plane to arrive after calling for assistance.


I also saw that as the handicapped bomber got closer to the landing site the chase position was taken over by a small jet with tip tanks. Looks to me like perhaps a P-80/T-33? As the B-52 touches down you can see the tip of the left wingtip tank in the shot.


Here's a couple of screenshots of the chase planes:

............... F-100 chase plane with B-52 ....................



............... P-80(?) chase plane with B-52 ....................

[Apteryx]

Re: B-52H "Flight Without a Fin"...

Too much "bomber-blur"