That Time A B-52H Stratofortress Bomber Lost Its Tail Over New Mexico But Managed To Land 6 Hours Later.
The story of the first and only B-52H Stratofortress’s tailless landing!
On Jan. 10, 1964, Boeing civilian test pilot Chuck Fisher and his three man crew launched from Wichita, Kansas, for a mission aboard B-52H serial number 61-0023. The aircraft was involved in a test mission whose purpose was to examine the effects of turbulence at varying altitudes and airspeeds. In other words the aircrew would shake, rattle and roll the Stratofortress bomber at high speed and low altitude to record sensor data on how such conditions could affect the plane’s airframe.
This kind of testing was done because new tactics required the B-52 to fly a different flight profile than the one it was originally designed for. In fact, the Stratofortress bomber was designed to fly at high altitude and hi speed (near supersonic). However, as the Russian air defenses advanced in their ability to hit high flying targets, so the best method to defeat the emerging Soviet threat was considered to be a high-speed low level penetration, whose stress on the airframe required additional testing.
For the test, the Air Force loaned 61-0023 to Boeing that installed 20 accelerometers and 200 sensors to record the stresses on the airframe. The first part of the test went as expected: the crew flew some of the test patterns to measure the effects of turbulence on the jet, then aborted one portion of the flight due to turbulence becoming too strong for what was needed for the tests.
At that point the crew took a short lunch break, heading to smoother air.
As the B-52 was climbing to 14,300 feet it hit CAT (clear-air turbulence) over northern New Mexico’s Sangre de Christo Mountains.
The crew would later describe it as a giant force that picked up the plane and hit it.
“When this event occurred it was so violent that I was literally picked up and thrown against the left side of the airplane and over the nav table” said James Pittman, navigator. I had the rudder to the firewall, the control column in my lap, and full wheel input and I wasn’t having any luck righting the airplane,” said Charles Fisher, instructor pilot. “In the short period after the turbulence I gave the order to prepare to abandon the airplane because I didn’t think we were going to keep it together.”
Immediately after the severe turbulence, the jet rolled hard right and almost went out of control and it required about 80 percent left wheel throw to control the aircraft by the time things had settled down.
Although the vertical fin and the rudder had been sheared off by a gust of turbulence, the aircrew didn’t know the full extent of the damage until later.
Based on the sensor readings, the gust hit the B-52 at 81 mph (130 kmh)! This left the plane with only a small stub of metal protruding from the fuselage to serve as the vertical tail. The first assessment was carried out by the aircrew of another B-52 that was vectored to intercept 61-0023.
Later an F-100 would scramble to chase the injured B-52 to Blytheville Air Force Base, Arkansas, an airfield chosen because it was in a less densely populated area and located so that the aircraft would not need to cross the Rocky Mountains which would have subjected the BUFF to additional turbulent conditions.
For the next six hours Boeing Engineers and Air Force pilots on the radio would work together to find out the possible ways for safe landing the aircraft.
According to the U.S. Air Force records, “the crew along with Boeing engineers decided that a combination of altering the center gravity by moving fuel on board, changing the engine settings, and small amounts of airbrakes could give the crew the fighting chance it needed. The plan worked, and gave the pilot a small additional measure of control as the jet crept along at a little more than 200 knots.”
The crew was instructed to land at Blytheville AFB. The pilot would fly a final “flaps-up” landing.
“Arriving at Blytheville we lowered the rest of the gear,” said Fisher. “The front main gear made flying kind of tricky when it came down it made the airplane yaw but once it finally was down we were in good shape.”
The worn-out crew landed the jet safely. Saving the plane also saved the data recorded on it with information the that would help engineers understand why the tail failed and also teach future crews about the limits of the B-52.
Still, three days later, another B-52, a D model, tail number 55-0060, flying as “BUZZ 14” was lost after the vertical stabilizer broke off in winter storm turbulence. The incident, also known as the Savage Mountain B-52 crash, is particularly famous because the aircraft was carrying two live, 9 mega-ton B53 thermonuclear bombs.
The pilot, Maj. Tom McCormick, co-pilot, Capt. Parker Peedin, navigator, Major Robert Lee Payne and tail gunner Tech Sgt. Melvin E. Wooten all managed to actuate their ejection seats and egress the aircraft into the black, freezing sky. Major Robert Townley may have been pinned inside the B-52 by G-forces as the crash accelerated out of control and he struggled with his parachute harness, his ejection seat may have malfunctioned or he may have been knocked unconscious in the bone-breaking turbulence. He never got out. His body was discovered more than 24 hours later. The two bombs were found “relatively intact in the middle of the wreckage” and removed two days later.
Back to 61-0023 and its tailless landing, despite the damage, the aircraft returned to active service and flew with the U.S. Air Force until 2008, when it was retired at the 309th AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, where it can be found on the so-called Celebrity Row, stored with the PCN/Inventory No. AABC0481. The airframe 61-0023 was the first B-52 to be retired at the “Boneyard” (a place, from where, Stratofortress can also be resurrected, as demonstrated by “Ghost Rider” and “Wise Guy“!). Sjekk under:
The Only Two B-52 Bombers To Be Resurrected From The “Boneyard” Undergoing PDM Together At Tinker AFB
“Ghost Rider” and “Wise Guy”, the two only two B-52 Stratofortress bombers to be resurrected from the Arizona desert have been undergoing programmed depot maintenance, before returning to Minot Air Force Base.
Only two B-52 Stratofortress bombers have been restored out of the Boneyard to be returned to the fleet: “Ghost Rider”, tail number 61-0007, and “Wise Guy”, tail number 60-0034.
Both aircraft were retired at the 309th AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, where they were supposed to remain to be cannibalized of parts needed by other front-line BUFFs and never to fly again.
The first to be resurrected was Ghost Rider, that eventually returned to service in 2015 with the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, North Dakota, after being mothballed for seven years in the desert day. As reported in detail recently, the second “Lazarus” B-52, nicknamed Wise Guy, spent 10 years in the desert before being resurrected late last year.
The two aircraft were regenerated at the Tinker Air Force Base’s Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, where they currently are, undergoing PDM (Programmed Depot Maintenance), a very complex process, that each B-52 undergo every four years, made of heavy checks, during which the aircraft is almost completely disassembled and each part is inspected and all defects are fixed before they are rebuilt and sent back to their home stations as they were (almost) brand new. Even the paint is stripped off the entire airframe so that technicians can analyze every part of the aircraft and make repairs where needed.
Ghost Rider, is currently undergoing routine PDM whereas Wise Guy is undergoing PDM as the final part of a three-phase process to resurrect the aircraft. The aircraft will soon join the fleet at Minot AFB, bringing the number of B-52 bombers mandated by Congress to full strength at 76 aircraft.
We have provided some exclusive photographs and footage of Wise Guy undertaking FCF (Functional Flight Check) ahead of moving to the paint shop that you can find in the article linked here.
A public release provides some interesting details about the two aircraft’s specific regeneration processes:
Though they are both the same type of aircraft, there were many challenges to overcome with each aircraft as it travelled through the regeneration process.
John Raihl, 565th AMXS aircraft section chief, said the biggest challenge with Ghost Rider was establishing a plan to ensure all required inspections, maintenance, and modifications were accomplished on schedule and within budget. The plan was implemented in coordination with the B-52 System Program Office, Logistics and Engineering, as well as the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group’s 76th Expeditionary Depot Maintenance Flight.
“Using scripting tools, the enterprise team drafted a script that achieved this in addition to maximizing concurrent work across different maintenance disciplines,” said Raihl.
Wise Guy presented the enterprise team with a different challenge: two major electrical wiring projects.
“Rewire I and II projects were the biggest challenges due to the scope of the project, as well as the limited experience we had with those specific wire bundles,” Jennifer Smith, 565th AMXS avionics/electric section chief, said.
Main landing gear structural defects also presented unique challenges for Wise Guy during the initial regeneration phase, as well as during the PDM cycle.
Travis Reese, AFLCMC lead regeneration engineer, said, “Repairs necessary to prepare Wise Guy for first flight presented risk to the overall project. Additionally, these temporary repairs had to be removed and permanently addressed, adding scope and complexity for the technicians in the 565th AMXS structural repair section.”
Additionally, the 76th Commodities Maintenance Group partners had to manufacture all of the wire harnesses from original drawings. This process alone took more than four months prior to the aircraft arriving at Tinker Air Force Base, Smith said.
The experience grown with Ghost Rider translated into important Lessons Learned that the team could apply when working on Wise Guy:
“By utilizing enterprise team meetings ahead of the aircraft’s arrival, we were able to expand Ghost Rider’s process script into a precise script,” said Mike Bassham, 565th AMXS sheet metal section chief. The script process enabled the team to measure milestones for all major jobs for the purpose of keeping the aircraft on schedule and determining where they needed to apply additional resources to tackle constraints, he added.
Jeff Base, 565th AMXS director, explained that hundreds of people across the OC-ALC are involved in regenerating and, or overhauling aircraft requiring a total Team Tinker effort.
“AFLCMC provides engineering and logistics support, the 76th EDMX traveled to the 309th AMARG to prepare aircraft for flight after years in storage, the 76th CMXG overhauls and manufactures parts, the 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group overhauls engines and manufactures parts,” Base said.
David Strawderman, AFLCMC’s B-52 System Program Office regeneration project manager, echoed Base’s comments, adding the motivation and dedication of everyone involved ensured both regeneration programs were successful.
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