what happened ? ......

[hobie]

anyone know the background to the B52 incident illustrated in the photo on the following link? (kindly posted by farsouth on a R&N thread re the Air Transat rudder problem) .....

http://www.military.cz/usa/air/in_service/aircraft/b52/b52tailless.jpg

How can the B52 handle the loss of its tailfin/rudder and the Airbus(AA) not do the same?

[rivetjoint]

Cos the Buff's just magic.

[Razor61]

Reminds me of the B-17's that came back with the same type of damage, and more!

Looks Vietnam'ish era?

[Tarnished]

In just the same way that the B-2 manages without a vertical fin (or most of the other flying wing designs). Providing the loss of weight at the extremity doesn't put the cg out of the margins for longitudinal control then the turns will be a bit un-coordinated but certainly not out of the question. B-52 clearly wasn't designed from the outset to be without a fin whereas the B-2 was. The B-2 therefore will have scheduled control surface movements which coordinate any turns (keeping teh ball in the middle). The use of spoilers as opposed to ailerons does the trick in most cases.

T

[Onan the Clumsy]

Maybe his wife borrowed it and tried to back it into a small parking space :}

[c-bert]

Low bridge......................?

[Rhino power]

I think the picture relates to an incident described by a B-52 test pilot in one of the 'GREAT PLANES' programmes, IIRC they were on a test flight over mountains to investigate gust and turbulence effects on the airframe, cue the sound of a very loud bang and the resultant loss of practically all of the fin!

Regards, RP

[FJJP]

There was enough fin left to provide a margin of stability. Flyable provided no yaw forces requiring the use of rudder, such as engine failure or extreme [for a bomber] maneouvre.

[Divergent Phugoid!]

c-bert

Pure genius!! :ok: :ok: :ok:

[Onan the Clumsy]

Oh "low bridge" is genius and "wife + stereotypical parking analogy" isn't? :*

[2port]

Rhino

Spot on, and they certainly found out the effect of those gusts. There is a video of it as well - I'm sure someone will track it down soon.
There are also pictures of a P3 in a similar state over Samoa(?), sadly not such a happy ending to that one.

2P

[Maczz]

Onan,

Get a serious grip.. What colour is the sky in your world ?

Woman stop at roundabouts to look if if anything is coming their way and in about 99.9% of the time they can only manage this when stationary (severe lack of SA), when viewing same scenario from behind said woman, and in possesion of some fun inducing dangly bits between the legs (excuse any sexual reference) blokes have the ability to weigh up SA whilst moving... no big surprise there.

So why is it questionable that woman genWrally cannot reverse park ? When was the last time you watched this pathetic lack of skill in Tesco's carpark ?

Still, they do say that there are marked differences in masculinity.

Defence rests your honour..

Cheers

Maczz

[mbga9pgf]

Plus a shedload of aircraft fuse surface area on the BUFF aft of C of G to damp any dynamic yaw loads.

[Zoom]

That's an H model because it has much shorter fin than the .... er .... oh .......

[Tarnished]

I always thought it was a Bear G when the 'G'un was 'G'one.

Thefore this must be a B52T because the 'T'ail is 'T'oast or perhaps a B52F because the 'F'in is 'F'ecked

[HAL Pilot]

There are also pictures of a P3 in a similar state over Samoa(?), sadly not such a happy ending to that one. The P-3 hit a low cable for a tram going over the bay in Pago Pago, Samoa. It crashed killing the entire crew.

[Pass-A-Frozo]

It hit the carpark of the Rainmaker I believe. There is a photo of it still flying with no fin in one of the ground handling agents offices at Pago Pago.

http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=124

[ORAC]

The B-52 incident led to the squared off tail of the later models.

The same thing, incidently, lead to the squared off tail of the later marks of the Lightning. In that case the cause of loss of the tail was fatigue caused by tail shimmy at high speed.

3 or 4 aircraft, IIRC, lost their tails before the Mk3 entered service.