NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

[Cloudchaser427]

Picture of a P-47 after probably setting a low pass record and still able to fly away ;~)

Cloudchaser

[FuryFan]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

It's hard to believe that there was enough "functional" propeller there to fly 150 miles!

Kevin

[Reever]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

You know what they say about the "Low Altitude Record"? You can never break it, you can only tie it! I would call the P-47 a tie.

Steve

[hotrods55@hughe]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

If you look at the cowling, and the rearward direction of the bent blades, this was a nose over incident. I know if the engine was developing power, the blades would have been bent forwards, and the cowling would not be dented. Look it over again, and don't trust the explanation on the bottom of the page.

[Dialtapper]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

Maybe they where doing it for a movie.

[laminar]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

If you look at the cowling, and the rearward direction of the bent blades, this was a nose over incident. I know if the engine was developing power, the blades would have been bent forwards, and the cowling would not be dented. Look it over again, and don't trust the explanation on the bottom of the page.

Hey Guys,

I can't argue with the dent in the cowling that looks nose over to me.

However I was thinking about the blades forward power was on, blades back power was off thing. Obviously that was derived from landing accidents (as they are much more common than this accident). Perhaps in an engine braking situation the result of a low low pass could be bent back blades. Like at the end of a big nasty dive with the prop all the way forward and the throttle all the way back because the pilot was worried he was going to pull the wings off of it (which might make sense in an airplane that dives like a jug). At least this way we can still imagine that pilot tearing in on his target and not just flopping over in a landing incident. Besides think of the sound it would have made (all those revs). Anyway its worth discussion I suppose.

It also reminds me of the poem that Chris reads in "the Defender"

He climbed into the cockpit and he made that twin wasp blare
He gunned it down the runway and we watched him disapear
We knew it was a thoroughbred when he pushed it through the gate
For in that pratt and whitney were fifteen hundred pounds of hate

Party on,
Elliot
Wasabi

[Coyote Chris]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

I see hoaxes on the web all the time like this. Someone posts a real picture with a made up story. I dont understand why they do these things, personally. The last one I saw was a series of pics of Hitler "done" by a Life magazine photog (Hoax) and a female pilot in makeup flying a never before seen stealth aircraft off a carrier.

[Randy Haskin]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

a female pilot in makeup flying a never before seen stealth aircraft off a carrier.

That was for a movie that was actually made and released. No hoax about it.

[T. Adams]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

Maybe they where doing it for a movie.

Ouch. Only if it was posted on WIX.

[First time Juke]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

This MIG 15 is clearly the second in the list !!

[AirDOGGe]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

If you look at the cowling, and the rearward direction of the bent blades, this was a nose over incident. I know if the engine was developing power, the blades would have been bent forwards, and the cowling would not be dented. Look it over again, and don't trust the explanation on the bottom of the page.

No, I disagree. (If the photo isn't fake) they caption says that the aircraft was on a strafing run and deflected off the ground.


That means, what, 300-350 miles per hour? Maybe more? You go FAST when people are shooting back, as pilots experience on most low altitude strafing runs.

Now look at the blades again. In a runway nose-over the blade tips get bent back, or maybe bent reverse of the path of rotation if the plane is moving forward very slowly at time of impact. If the aircraft is stationary then they MIGHT get bent forward, depending on if the surface material is soft enough for the tips to dig into yet firm enough to deform them (sun-baked hot runway asphalt or packed dirt maybe?)

But those blades are bent so far back that the tips are nearly rotated 180 degrees and a few are now pointing back at the prop shaft! It takes one hell of a forward-to-reward impact force to do that. No contact at landing or take-off speed is going to tweak a metal prop like that. It appears to be high-speed damage to my eyes.


.

As for the cowl damage.... True, many such accidents result in no cowl contact, specially with a round cowl, unless they have a two-blade prop of course. Here's a couple of examples showing no-contact tip-overs:

However, a wheels-down nose-over might have dented the front of a P-47 cowl with it's long, oval shape that mounted with more than half of it below the prop-shaft centerline, unlike most round cowl installations. But I see the P-47's whole cowl underside damaged or flattened back nearly to the wing, and possibly under-fuselage skin damage behind it (not sure of the last item).




That HAS to be wheels-up impact damage, unless the pilot nosed it over and then raised the landing gear for some reason (unlikely). I can believe this plane was damaged as described in the photo caption.


Ummmm....if true, then I guess this qualifies as a (very fast) touch-and-go rather than a low pass, eh?

[degroodtt]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

Was it a touch and go, or a touch, touch, touch, touch and whew.

[sierra fox]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

That was for a movie that was actually made and released. No hoax about it.

"Fighter Squadron" with Edmund O'Brien and Robert Stack

Lots of great flying in that film and all in color!

[evanflys]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

Picture of a P-47 after probably setting a low pass record and still able to fly away ;~)

Cloudchaser

That's how Gaby Gabreski became a POW.

Evan

[Coyote Chris]

Re: NOW THIS WAS A LOW PASS

I am still not buying it yet although I will keep an open mind.
It looks to me the cowling was indeed damaged by the passing of the bent prop tip.

If you told me the guy was making a low pass over the runway, hit the prop, then throttled back , got the gear down and landed, I could buy that.

I have a problem with that prop pulling a five ton aircraft for 150 miles without creating so much as an oil leak in the R-2800 or the Hamilton Standard prop.

Sure, I know of guys that got bullet holes in their props and the engines dont vibrate apart. I would just like to see what this engine does if run up to anything like cruise power. Perhaps one of our mechanic friends out there has seen an engine run at cruise power with a prop this damaged? I will see if I can send the pic to Two old USAF mechanics
I know and see what they say.

(Randy is correct, the actress in the "carrier stealth fighter" was for a movie, but the pics are being portrayed on the web as the real deal.
And that is a hoax.)