Vulcan Crash in Glenview
I witnessed the crash in 1978 at GNAS.
First a little background.
Born and raised in Glenview about 2 miles south of the main runway. I always had planes flying over the house when they were doing touch and go's and such.
Every year they have an airshow in downtown Chicago, and many of the military planes would fly out of GNAS. My buddies and I would bike out to the North end of the runway, and later drive our van, and watch the practices, take-offs, landings and such. Usually an f-14 or f-15 would put on a show for us. We were VERY close to the end of the runway and it was always a thrill.
1978. I am not sure if this was the first year the Vulcan was there or not. One thing I distinctly remember is sitting at the north end of the runway where almost all the planes took off (there was open land north of the airport) and seeing the vulcan at the far end. You could always tell when they were rolling by the smoke plume, you could not hear anything. All of a sudden they would seemingly go nose up to vertical! I know I am exagerating but with the large delta wing appearing suddenly this is what it looked like. At the same moment you would hear a sound I never heard from any other plane. Almost a screaming whine. And then over our heads and off to the lakefront. Quite spectacular if I say so.
Now, back to 1978. It was August. I "believe" it was around the 25th although I am not sure. The planes had been at the base for a day or two already. The shows were on saturday and sunday, and this was thursday or friday. I was in the car with my dad and we were driving north towards the airport running an errand. I saw the vulcan fly over our car heading north on the east side of the airport. This was the normal pattern. As it got to the far eand of the airport it suddenly climbed straight up (from my vantage point behind it about 2 miles away) and banked to the left after the nose went up. The right wing turned over the left and it when inverted, nose down behind trees that were blocking my view of where it went down. To me it looked like the pilot went up and to the left in an extreme way and probably stalled. He was way too low to recover, "maybe" 300 -400 feet up.
Needless to say I was stunned. at first when I saw him climb and bank so hard I though wow..and then shock. We drove north on waukegan road about 1/2 mile east of the crash site (a garbage dump, now a golf course) and saw the smoke. It was very sad for me to see.
Of course this was along time ago and the base was closed to save money. I of course won't ever forget what I can still see when I close my eyes.
If there is any clarification you need let me know. I will do the best I can.
Jim