BBC reporting east midlands airport closed due to a spitfire crashing on runway ,pilot seriously hurt ?
updated now NO ONE HURT thankfully
BBC reporting east midlands airport closed due to a spitfire crashing on runway ,pilot seriously hurt ?
updated now NO ONE HURT thankfully
This is all I have at the moment.
https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/stat...25399564414977
Rob.
Some news about it
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20939051
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...rt-runway.html
The pilot was unhurt.
Attilio
Typical of the B.E.F. communications.
I live ten miles from East Midlands Airport, and have to rely on the Italian Wing Commander for up to date news on the situation.
Thanks Attilio old bean.
Kyte.
[sarcasm]Undercarriage collapse on a Spitfire? Never would have believed it.[/sarcasm]
I'm glad no one was hurt and that the damage was relatively minor.
an update on the aircraft involved
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-20949389
I know there is a athread on this but I read today that there are 140 Spits at the Burma sites that are being looked at. I have to find the post about that.
this is latest on the Burma Spits http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20957162
sad news
Granted, the problem really became apparent with the Seafire; but any narrow-track landing gear is going to be a pain to work with. (At the moment, any attempts to perform a web search on the topic are impossible, as any mention of the topic links straight back to the above-mentioned accident article.)
The only thing I could come up with was this from a serving officer :-
"The landing gear can be tricky to handle, as it's narrow stance makes ground loops easy. This becomes more and more a problem as the engine power increased. Be careful when taxiing and taking off or landing."
Also this article from much later.
http://www.touchdown-aviation.com/fl...-ix-g-ccca.php
Not really conclusive evidence given the number of landings that Spits made during the War. If there had been an inherent problem I think we would have heard more about it.
Rob.
Like I said: It mainly cropped up with the Seafire, which had the same landing gear as the land version; the "controlled crash" which was the CV landing really pointed up the design's faults (one will note: The design was never used again). I suspect if one digs deeply enough, one will find a great many of the "accidents" listed for the Spitfire were in fact landing-gear collapses.
That said: The Me-109 was even worse; where the Spit's gear was more-or-less vertical, the -109 had its gear at an angle, which made it even more collapse-prone.
An expensive mistake!
'Spitfire pilot pulling 'wrong lever' caused accident. The WWII aircraft had been recently restored at a cost of £1m. Pilot error was to blame for an accident involving a Spitfire which forced the closure of East Midlands Airport in January.'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-22474805
Guess that's what insurance is for.
Or in the RAF 'switch pigs'.
Great news the the pilot was not injured and hope the damage wasn't that bad and can be repaired.
From the AAIB report, hyperlinked in the BBC article at #17 - 'Damage to propeller, lower engine cowling, both radiator
fairings, left flap, left aileron, underside of left wing.'
Not crtitical, but not cheap either, especially as it will require a new set of airworthiness checks if she's ever to get off the ground again.
Thankfully, no-one was hurt.
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