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| Re: Mid-Air collision at Dallas | A tragic air show
Quote:
Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli  May you kindly explain this part? Sounds very interesting. |
This was in a time where the USA and the Soviet Union were allied. Difficult to imagine a currently the USA and the EU are sending an endless stream of various weapon system to Ukraine to help fight the Russian.
Bu the P39 makes for interesting reading:
From Wikipedia: Quote:
The Bell P-63 Kingcobra is an American fighter aircraft that was developed by Bell Aircraft during World War II. Based on the preceding Bell P-39 Airacobra, the P-63's design incorporated suggestions from P-39 pilots and was superior to its predecessor in virtually all respects. The P-63 was not accepted for combat use by the United States Army Air Forces. However, it was used during World War II by the Soviet Air Force,[1] which had also been the most prolific user of the P-39.
Deliveries of production P-63As began in October 1943. The USAAF concluded the Kingcobra was inferior to the Mustang, and declined to order larger quantities. American allies, particularly the Soviet Union, had a great need for fighter aircraft, however, and the Soviets were already the largest users of the Airacobra. Therefore, the Kingcobra was ordered into production to be delivered under Lend-Lease. In February 1944, the Soviet government sent a highly experienced test pilot, Andrey G. Kochetkov, and an aviation engineer, Fyodor P. Suprun, to the Bell factories to participate in the development of the first production variant, the P-63A. Initially ignored by Bell engineers, Kochetkov's expert testing of the machine's spin characteristics (which led to airframe buckling) eventually led to a significant Soviet role in the development. After flat spin recovery proved impossible, and upon Kochetkov's making a final recommendation that pilots should bail out upon entering such a spin, he received a commendation from the Irving Parachute Company. The Kingcobra's maximum aft CG was moved forward to facilitate recovery from spins.[
P-63A-8, SN 269261, was extensively tested at TsAGI in what was then the world's largest wind tunnel. Soviet input was significant. With the Soviet Union being the largest buyer of the aircraft, Bell was quick to implement their suggestions. Most of the changes in the A sub-variants were a direct result of Soviet input, e.g. increased pilot armor and fuselage hardpoint on the A-5, underwing hardpoints and extra fuel tanks on the A-6, etc. The Soviet Union even experimented with ski landing gear for the P-63A-6, but this never reached production. Most significantly, Soviet input resulted in moving the main cannon forward, favorably changing the center of gravity, and increasing its ammunition load from 30 to 58 rounds for the A-9 variant. The P-63 had an impressive roll rate, besting the US P-47, P-40, and P-51—and the Japanese Navy's Kawanishi N1K2 Shiden-Kai fighter—with a rate of 110° per second at 275 mph (443 km/h).[6]
The first version to be supplied in quantity to the Soviet Union was the P-63A-7 with a higher vertical tail, and reinforced wings and fuselage. The fuselage proved to need strengthening; consequently, in October 1944 a reinforcement kit for operational P-63s was developed.[10]
Air Transport Command ferry pilots, including U.S. women pilots of the WASP program, picked up the planes at the Bell factory at Niagara Falls, New York, and flew them to Great Falls, Montana and then onward via the Northwest Staging Route through Canada to Alaska, where Soviet ferry pilots, many of them also women, would take delivery of the aircraft at Nome[11] and fly them to the Soviet Union over the Bering Strait via the Alaska-Siberia route (ALSIB). A total of 2,397 (2,672, according to other sources)[12] aircraft were delivered to the USSR, 72.6% of the overall 3,303 production aircraft.[13]
By a 1943 agreement, P-63s were not allowed for Soviet use against Germany and were supposed to be concentrated in the Soviet Far East for an eventual attack on Japan.[citation needed] However, there are many unconfirmed reports from both Soviet and German sources that P-63s did indeed see service against the Luftwaffe. In memoirs published in the 1990s, one of Pokryshkin's pilots reported that the entire 4th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (4 GvIAP) was secretly converted to P-63s in 1944, while officially still flying P-39s. One account states they were in action at Königsberg, in Poland and in the final assault on Berlin. There are German reports of P-63s shot down by both fighters and flak. Hans Rudel, the most-decorated pilot of the Luftwaffe, states in his memoirs, "We often encounter American types of aircraft, especially Airacobras, Kingcobras and Bostons." This was in the Courland front towards the end of the war.[14] Nevertheless, all Soviet records show nothing but P-39s used against Germany.[citation needed]
In general, official Soviet histories played down the role of Lend-Lease supplied aircraft in favor of local designs, but it is known that the P-63 was a successful fighter aircraft in Soviet service. A common Western misconception is that the Bell fighters were used as ground attack aircraft.
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So you can see that whilst the Americans can be credited with the original design, it was very much up to the Russian to modify this aircraft to the point where it became a viable operational fighter.
An update on what is happening in the aftermath of this sad accident. From CNN: Quote:
The FAA was leading the investigation Saturday, but the NTSB took over the investigation once its team reached the scene, the agency said at a news conference Sunday. The team dispatched by the NTSB consists of technical experts who are regularly sent to plane crash sites to investigate the collision, according to the NTSB.
The NTSB has received the air show common frequency recording, which is the verbal radio transmissions between pilots, and it will be processed by an investigative specialist, NTSB Member Michael Graham said in an update Monday.
Neither aircraft was equipped with a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder, often known as the “black box,” Graham said.
“However, we recovered this morning the electronic flight display from the B-17 and a GPS navigational unit from the P-63,” he said in an update Monday.
The units from the two aircraft were damaged during the accident, according to Graham, and are being sent to the NTSB recorder lab in Washington, D.C., to determine “whether data and relevant information can be recovered from both units.”
“The NTSB’s recorder lab specializes in recovering data from electronic devices and avionics and the data often assist in determining the probable cause,” Graham said.
Data that these types of units “may have,” according to Graham, would be things like GPS location, possible altitudes of the aircraft, and the airspeeds of the aircraft.
Investigators surveyed the accident site using both an NTSB drone and a photograph of the scene from the ground to document the area before the wreckage is moved to a secure location, Graham said earlier.
“We have recovered the wreckage of the P-63 as of this morning, and it has been transported to a secure location and it’ll be laid out for examination and analysis,” Graham said. “Rain has delayed further recovery of the B-17. The recovery process will continue tomorrow, weather permitting.”
Graham asked anyone with photos or videos of the incident to share them with the NTSB.
“They’ll be very critical to analyze the collision and also tie that in with the aircraft control recordings to determine why the two aircraft collided and to determine, basically, the how and why this accident happened and then eventually, hopefully, maybe make some safety recommendations to prevent it from happening in the future,” he said.
According to Coates, the individuals flying the aircraft in his group’s airshows are volunteers and follow a strict training process. Many of them are airline pilots, retired airline pilots or retired military pilots.
“The maneuvers that they (the aircraft) were going through were not dynamic at all,” Coates noted. “It was what we call ‘Bombers on Parade.”
“This is not about the aircraft. It’s just not,” Coates said. “I can tell you the aircraft are great aircraft. They’re safe. They’re very well-maintained. The pilots are very well-trained. So it’s difficult for me to talk about it because I know all these people. These are family, and they’re good friends.”
While neither aircraft did not have a flight data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, and “nor are they required to,” Graham said the NTSB would be looking “down the road” at whether it is something that needs to be recommended.
“We also must remember these are very vintage, old 1940’s aircraft. So that’d be something that we’ll look at as a possible recommendation down the road, but I have nothing further on that to say if that is what it would be,” he added.
A preliminary accident report is expected in four to six weeks, but a full report on the investigation may not arrive for 12 to 18 months.
The Wings Over Dallas event, which was scheduled to run through Sunday, was canceled, according to the organizer’s website.
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Jeroen
Last edited by Jeroen : 15th November 2022 at 11:47.
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13th November 2022, 15:29
(14)
Thanks
