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Old 6th Jan 2023, 02:35
  #182 (permalink)  
megan
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
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The section of video with the Hudson losing its wing I'd assume is the event at Bairnsdale.
Details from ADF Serials
A16-38 had seen damage to the mainplanes in combat twice and repaired. The second was being shot up by three Zeros (one shot down) at Lae resulting in repairs including main shear booms of both wings. With 915 hours on airframe (and during a filming of it in the air diving and leveling near the ground for a Cinesound film unit (Fox Movietone), disaster struck at 1500hrs on the 27/10/42 on circuit of Bairnsdale Aerodrome during a test flight following its 80 hrs service. When pulling out of high speed shallow dive at 80 feet and some 200 yards down from the camera, the starboard wing failed at wing station # 144, causing part of the outer wing (3 feet from engine) and spar to separate from the aircraft, with the aircraft then rolling inverted, causing a further failure of the tail plane, with the aircraft then crashing into the ground and exploding. The crew, Sqn Ldr P C Tampion Serv#349, Cpl H P Smith Serv#17024, LAC A P Thomas Serv#13975 and LAC N L Cheshire Serv#49572 all killed instantly. The starboard wing panel was sent to the CSIR for metallurgy inspection. The finding was that the mainplanes had been repaired per then accepted practices, but had failed in flight where numerous patched repairs were made during its overhaul at 5AD. The report stated that many Hudsons withdrawn from operational service and used in 1 OTU had been flown to the limits with resultant heavy loadings on their wings on operational service. All similar houred Hudsons were inspected some found to have similar problems, which would result in their replacement by GAF Beauforts in the near future in operational squadrons.




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