Page 3 of 6 FirstFirst 12345 ... LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 51

Thread: Collings B-17 Mishap

  1. #21
    Airmutt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    NW. Atlanta GA
    Posts
    560
    Ron, I love watching any vintage aircraft fly and I’m not an alarmist by any means. But the reality is we are slowly losing these awesome aircraft.
    The engineer in me asks who deals with the aging aircraft issues for these types? Given the training and combat loses during WWII I doubt service life was much of a design consideration.
    For example, it took a T-34 to break apart in flight at a air combat simulation operation with a couple of fatalities to highlight spar issues. Military aircraft cycle thru depot inspections and have engineering support to address such issues. The Navy cycled it’s P-3’s thru service life extension programs to replace out wings and horizontal tails. Remember the C-130A fire tanker that broke apart in flight; Lockheed had informed the operator about issues with the center wing section. The operated chose to ignore and we know how that ended. While I’m sure owners may crosstalk amongst themselves, is there anyone out there performing that function?
    The time will come when these aircraft are considered too old or rare, or the regulatory burden becomes too prohibitive. Just may not be in our life time.
    Dave Shaw
    EAA 67180 Lifetime
    Learn to Build, Build to Fly, Fly for Fun

  2. #22
    rwanttaja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    2,948
    Quote Originally Posted by Airmutt View Post
    Ron, I love watching any vintage aircraft fly and I’m not an alarmist by any means. But the reality is we are slowly losing these awesome aircraft.
    I don't disagree. But as I said in my previous post, my point was to disagree with Chris' suggestion that General Aviation as a whole is at risk over WWII aircraft accidents. There'll be pressure to limit passenger flying in these aircraft, but the accidents won't cause a reaction against GA in general.

    Ron Wanttaja

  3. #23

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Marietta, GA
    Posts
    963
    Quote Originally Posted by Airmutt View Post
    Ron, I love watching any vintage aircraft fly and I’m not an alarmist by any means. But the reality is we are slowly losing these awesome aircraft
    On the other hand, there are people out there rebuilding and vitually scratch building new ones. Where there's a will (and lots of money), there's a way.

    Here is (effectively) a new build B-17 fuselage, under construction.



    And a cardboard box full of gussets for a new B-17 wing spar.

    how to upload images

  4. #24

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Clarklake, MI
    Posts
    2,461
    Quote Originally Posted by Kyle Boatright View Post
    On the other hand, there are people out there rebuilding and vitually scratch building new ones. Where there's a will (and lots of money), there's a way.

    Here is (effectively) a new build B-17 fuselage, under construction.

    And a cardboard box full of gussets for a new B-17 wing spar.
    They just need a way to speed up the process......The B-17 rebuild in Urbana, OH will be around the 25 yr mark by the time it flies.

  5. #25

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Marietta, GA
    Posts
    963
    Quote Originally Posted by martymayes View Post
    They just need a way to speed up the process......The B-17 rebuild in Urbana, OH will be around the 25 yr mark by the time it flies.
    Absolutely true. Thing is, once someone builds the tools to make (say) a B-17 bulkhead, now the tooling exists for the next one of those someone needs. Apparently, there is a lot of sharing in the B-17 community, so maybe, just maybe, the time needed for each of these projects can be reduced.

  6. #26

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    2,575
    I was just discussing the Collings accident with a man who flies another B-17. He said it should climb out even on three engines and be able to fly back to the airport on three good engines. No real eveidenc of why they couldnt 't get that performance.

  7. #27

    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Posts
    61
    The Collings Foundation website is back up if you want to send them some support: https://www.collingsfoundation.org/giving/

  8. #28
    Airmutt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    NW. Atlanta GA
    Posts
    560
    Found this in an article at military.com. Will be interesting to see how the FAA reacts to this tragedy.

    Federal investigators will take a hard look at the possibility of restricting or banning rides for the public aboard World War II-era aircraft following the fiery crash of a restored B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber in Connecticut last week that killed seven and injured eight.

    Dave Shaw
    EAA 67180 Lifetime
    Learn to Build, Build to Fly, Fly for Fun

  9. #29
    BusyLittleShop's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2019
    Location
    Sacramento California
    Posts
    88
    B-17G "Nine-O-Nine" KBDL NTSB Preliminary Report




  10. #30

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    2,575
    Information on other sites says both no 3 and no 4 engines may have been shut down or at least not producing much power. Cause is not known but fuel was avgas as it was supposed to be.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •