Mojave spy shot?

[speeddemon]

Re: Mojave spy shot?

I just watched the video/film last night on the crash of the Phoenix. What I read and saw was that Mantz was in a shallow descent and hit somewhat hard. I'm not sure, but it appears there was no suspension in the main gear........does anyone know? The plane bounced back into the air........ but the rear fuselage was already breaking and the ensuing crash was well underway. It didn't look like he hit that hard, but it was solid, and I would assume the wooden fuselage was not up to handling that kind of stress. A very sad thing. Also read that Mantz's parnter Tallman was suppose to be doing the flying, but had injured his leg pushing his kid on a go kart........an infection set in and he later lossed the leg.
Brian

By the time he was killed in 1978, Tallman actually had lost both legs above the knee...and yet he was still one of the best pilots I have ever seen, or had the pleasure of knowing.

My dad tells a story about one day while they were up in the Tallmantz B-25 filming for a tv movie, and Tallman was making runs on the camera ship in a 2/3 scale FW-190....and how Tallman actually was so close on one head-on pass that he went between the two vertical stabilizers on the way 'out'. How he missed the aerials that run up to the top of the stabs, I'll never figure out. Considering my dad was taking pictures from the top 'bubble', he said it was pretty impressive. He said that Frank Pine was at the controls of the B-25, chomping on his ever-present cigar, and over the intercom all Pine could muster was...."wow".

Not bad for a pilot with no legs.

But then again, wasn't Sir Douglas Bader in the same situation?

I'll have to see if I can find the photos somewhere over at his house.