Went by Stead.....

[knot4u]

Re: Went by Stead.....

I'm wondering how much heavier it is?

Alot. Solid blades vs hollow. Big oil filled dome vs relatively small regulator.

[W J Pearce]

Re: Went by Stead.....

And prop failure on the XP-62 nearly killed Mr. Hughes. :-(

Spacegrrrl

You mean Howard Hughes and the XF-11? True, but if he had...

1) Not performed the first flight for over 45 minutes like the AAF had requested
2) Not performed the first flight in a populated area like the AAF had requested
3) Not performed the first flight at dusk like any normal test pilot / company / government body would suggest
4) Not retracted the gear like the AAF had requested
5) Executed an emergency landing at the first sign of trouble
6) Communicated with his chase

... then things might have worked out differently.

Oil leaked out of the seals on the rear set of props on the right engine causing them to eventually reverse pitch. Because of the poor lighting and being distracted by a faulty gear indicator, Hughes never noticed the oil leak. Because of the poor lighting and flying a ways behind the XF-11, the A-20 chase never noticed the oil leak. If the flight had occurred midday rather than at 5:20 PM, the oil might have been spotted. But it is entirety conceivable that it could have been missed.

The problem with the propellers occurred about 1 hour and 15 minutes into the flight. This would have been 30 minutes after Hughes was already on the ground if he had kept to the 45 minute flight. When the prop started having issues Hughes maneuvered (to maintain control) thinking the right main gear had dropped down. This thought was because of the indicator light issues he had earlier in the flight. If he had left the gear down, there would have been no distractions from the gear.

Chase thought he was banking to set-up for landing at Culver City, so chase broke "formation" and landed. Had he been communicating with chase, not only would chase have known he had a problem, but they could have told Hughes the right main gear was not down allowing him to rule out that thought.

While troubleshooting, Hughes, now alone, flew away from the airport. When things got worse, this left him with few options and in the very difficult position of making an off-field landing at around 6:40 PM in a populated area. Had Hughes opted for the runway at the first sign of trouble or made the flight in an unpopulated area, he would have had more options.

Like with almost all accidents, it is a series of events that lead up to the final outcome. You take any one of the six items noted above and that completely changes the odds. Maybe it would not change the outcome, but it is very possible that it would have.

Like Hughes, I don't think I could have resisted bringing up the gear or taking bit longer than a 45 minute flight in such a magnificent aircraft. But then I never claimed to have the discipline of a test pilot. It is a shame; while he was whacky before the crash his morphine additional after the crash really did him in.

Totally off topic but since this has been such a "unique" thread, I don't think any puppies will be harmed.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Went by Stead.....

All very true Bill... In this case, Hughes had too much personal interest in the airplane to be its test pilot, he also, by his very life style, showed very little the "discipline" needed to be a test pilot.

There's a good reason that guys like Dave Morss have been able to eek out a living doing first flights and test programs on airplanes built by very capable pilots....

Don't get me wrong, I've admired Hughes my entire life, held him in hero status throughout my youth... he was an amazing man, very, very strange man, but amazing none-the-less.

[C_roundy]

Re: Went by Stead.....

It strikes me, that had my somewhat, ahh... extremely bizarre hero Howard H. managed to force himself to see the logic of relinquishing his aircraft to a way more qualified test pilot than himself on that fateful night, not only would the mission have been scrubbed for the evening, and the airplane have been saved from destruction; But more importantly, with Howard's obligatory mega-buck backing, and the very high performance of his beloved XP-11, we (history) may have seen contra-rotating propellers enjoy an engineering fruition (bugs worked out), and a production run heyday that utterly dwarfed everything the British accomplished with contra (s) during the era, and would have also led to stuff similar to the Russian Tupolev TU-95 Bear in wide use in many roles during slightly later cold war years.

( before jets ruined everything of course).........

All that said, my beloved Rare Bear coulda' woulda' ended up sporting a contra...

Or at least had a damn good one available for us to argue about!

[spacegrrrl]

Re: Went by Stead.....

Howard Hughes is a sort of hero of mine, but there is no explaining a lot of what he did.

On other counter rotating prop issue of note was the XP-56. It never performed anywhere near expectations and in the end they finally determined that the prop also was having issues with the pitch of one set of blades.

Spacegrrrl

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: Went by Stead.....

The XP75 had contra-rotating props but that was with the Allison V-3420-19.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Went by Stead.....

I'm wondering how much heavier it (3 bladed R-Bear propeller) is?

Alot. Solid blades vs hollow. Big oil filled dome vs relatively small regulator.

Thank-yew for clearing that up for me.

[Pylon Valhalan']

Re: Went by Stead.....