From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #74 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Wednesday, 27 April 1994 Volume 05 : Number 074 In this issue: YF-12 first official flight U2 stories Phoenix See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the skunk-works or skunk-works-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rschnapp@metaflow.com (Russ Schnapp) Date: Tue, 26 Apr 94 08:55:05 PDT Subject: YF-12 first official flight Just wanted to pass this along: My tickler software reminded me that today is the 30th anniversary of the first official flight of the YF-12. ...Russ ------------------------------ From: phil@sonosam.wisdom.bubble.org (Phil Verdieck ) Date: Tue, 26 Apr 1994 10:31:12 +0000 (GMT) Subject: U2 stories My pardon if this was posted before, but I yanked these off rec.aviation.military and I thought they would be of interest. - ---------- In Chris Pocock's book "Dragon Lady", on page 155, you can find another, probably true story like this. I don't want to type it all, but here are the most relevant parts: At least most of these silent pilots lost their engine over land. But Captain Robert 'Deacon' Hall had the misfortune to lose his engine over wide expanses of the Pacific Ocean. (...) Hall was participating in the first Crowflight deployment to Australia in October 1960. He was flying at optimum ferry altitude -- 60.000 feet -- on the first leg between Laughlin and Hickam AFB, Hawaii, when he heard a dull thud and the hydraulic gauge began to wind down. (...) Hall had a flame-out on his hands. He was almost exactly halfway between California and Hawaii. Hall declared an emergency on HF, which was picked up by a passing Pan Am airliner and relayed to Hickam. (...) Hall reckoned that he might be able to glide in from 200 miles out of Hickam, if the fuel supply lasted that long. He later descibed a comic exchange with the Pan Am pilot who acted as radio relay: 'I asked the guy to tell Hickam I had lost my engine, and was declaring an emergency. He asked me how many engines I had. Just one, I told him. There was a pause. "You really have got an emergency!" came the reply. Later, after I had relit, he asked me for all the usual information -- souls on board, ETA, fuel remaining, and so on. I told him between two and a half and three hours fuel onboard, with ETA Hickam three to three and a half hours. Another long pause. "You're not going to make it!" he exclaimed.' But Hall did indeed make it. The fuel finally ran out with 150 miles to go, but the aircraft arrived overhead Hickam in perfect shape, at 3,000 feet and 100 knots. (...) - ------ He landed with some dificulties, but he and the U-2 were fine. I remember another U-2 story like this, but I don't know where I read it. It was also about a U-2 gliding into an civil airport from far out after a flame out. - ------ Here is an excerpt out of Chris Pocock's book "Dragon Lady", page 151: An even more remarkable incident occured on the last day of January 1981. Captain Edward Beaumont was in the early stages of check-out at Beale AFB, having made his first trip in the U-2CT only nine days earlier. This day, he was flying one of the last single-seat U-2C models remaining in Air Force service (they were finally retired a few months later). On a bright winter's day, he performed a number of touch-and-gos, and then climbed out for some work at medium altitude. After this, he reported descending through 14,000 feet. Some time later, his mobile control officer on the ground at Beale was surprised to hear Beaumont key the mike, but make no transmission. Instead, all that could be heard was a heavy breathing sound as the U-2 pilot's transmitter remained open, but silent. The tower was alerted, and a T-37 trainer that was also flying locally was instructed to rendezvous with the errant U-2 and attract Beaumont's attention. As the two pilots in the T-37 drew alongside, they could hardly believe their eyes. The U-2 pilot appeared to be slumped at the controls, with the aircraft in a gentle, turning descent. Beaumont had had a catatonic seizure, and was completely unconscious. With the accompanying pilots in the T-38 (sic) powerless to intervene, the U-2 floated slowly towards the Sierra foothills north of Oroville. As it neared the sloping ground, some high-voltage power transmission lines barred the way. The T-37 pilot braced themselves for a searing explosion as the black airframe flew into the 230,000-kilovolt wires. It never came. Incredibly, the U-2 clipped the bottom two wires with a wingtip, but failed to incinerate. In fact, the contact with the power lines had the effect of rolling the aircraft into the correct attitude for a forced landing in an adjacent cow pasture. Had its wingtip not been flipped up in this way, the aircraft would have cartwheeled as it impacted the gently sloping terrain with one wing low. As the astonished T-37 pilots orbited overhead, the U-2 flopped into the muddy field and ground to a halt with the engine running. Fuel began spilling from a ruptured tank, but it ran downhill and therefore failed to ignite. The sudden arrival on terra firma revived the stricken pilot. Although confused, he managed to shut the engine down. But the drama wasn't yet over. As the still-groggy Beaumont began to extricate himself from the aircraft, his foot slipped and caught in the D-ring of the ejection seat, which he had failed to make safe. It fired through the canopy, flinging the pilot upwards with it. Beaumont's body described a somersault, but he landed on his feet to one side of the aircraft, while the seat thudded into the ground nearby. His only injury was a chipped tooth! When the preliminary accident report was circulated, SAC generals and Lockheed managers alike thought that someone had made up the whole story as a joke. Not surprisingly, Beaumont was scrubbed from the U-2 programme on medical grounds. The U-2C which ended its flying days in a cow pasture, is now on display at Beale. [That aircraft is article 381 / serial 56-6714] ------------------------------ From: "Philip R. Moyer" Date: Tue, 26 Apr 94 20:22:02 -0700 Subject: Phoenix I, like the Phoenix (which happens to be the city I'm in at the moment, too), have finally risen from the ashes of lost Internet connections and broken hardware. I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused people, particularly Kean Stump, who I'm sure has other things to do than babysit this list. The arrival of my new machine yesterday should herald in a much better response to administrative requests and the end of my hiatus from the Net. Cheers, Phil ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #74 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@mail.orst.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. 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