the Legend of Dead Dugan (C-119 story)

Thu Oct 08, 2009 9:05 am

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/c119-dugan_story.htm
One of my favorites, enjoy!

Chaz

Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:52 am

WOW! Quite a story, and they all walked away....more or less, talk about an adrenaline pumper! :shock:

Nothing like a routine mission to spoil you day and total a perfectly good airplane! I had never seen a pic of a C-119 with the jet pack (guess I had never Googled it!) Interesting!! Here is a link to a nice pic of one at wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Miles ... -01-16.jpg

Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:05 am

Very cool story!!!

Thanks for sharing!

Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:45 pm

Holedigger wrote:WOW! Quite a story, and they all walked away....more or less, talk about an adrenaline pumper! Nothing like a routine mission to spoil you day and total a perfectly good airplane! I had never seen a pic of a C-119 with the jet pack (guess I had never Googled it!) Interesting!! Here is a link to a nice pic of one at wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Miles ... -01-16.jpg

That was a mod that Hawkins and Powers did to all thier C-119s. Even the Phoenix had it installed. The jet was removed for the movie and a fairing installed over the mounts. We had the jet removed and fairing reinstalled before we flew it to Glendale.

Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:53 pm

Did that jet engine run on jet fuel and have a separate system or was it modified to run of avgas?

Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:56 pm

Holedigger,

It runs on the same 100/130 (or 115/145) the radials run on.
Also, the pod and jet comes from the P-2 Neptune!

Chaz

Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:59 pm

Chaz Harris wrote:Holedigger,

It runs on the same 100/130 (or 115/145) the radials run on.
Also, the pod and jet comes from the P-2 Neptune!

Chaz

And here's a good picture: http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/8/3/6/1459638.jpg

Chaz

Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:00 pm

Well, I didn't think the radials would run on any JP, not very long at least, wasn't too sure what AvGas would do in a Jet! Learn something new every day! Cool!

Fri Oct 09, 2009 8:37 am

Holedigger wrote:Well, I didn't think the radials would run on any JP, not very long at least, wasn't too sure what AvGas would do in a Jet! Learn something new every day! Cool!

All of the early jets ran on avgas. B-36, KC-97L, KB-50J. It was an alternate fuel for our C-130s. The engines tended to run hotter and you had to inspect the turbine blades for lead build-up.

Fri Oct 09, 2009 8:46 am

I recall reading an article on Glenn's record setting dash across the US in a F8U, Project Bullet. One of the refueling tankers during practice for the run, an AJ Savage, started belching black smoke form one engine, then the other and went down. Radials don't do well with that jet fuel! Wrong fuel in wrong tank. Ooops! Guess it was safer when the engines ran on the same stuff. When they switched to totally different fuels, it got complicated! :shock:

Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:27 am

The Pratt & Whitney PT-6A will run avgas as well in a pinch.

Fri Oct 09, 2009 1:01 pm

I wonder what the crash landing site looks like today? Probably not much left if it was on a sandbar.

Fri Oct 09, 2009 1:05 pm

I would imagine the first spring thaw took whatever was there. Wonder if they tried to salvage anything from her? Or at least mitigate pollutants, I know that if it were today they would have a huge effort there or pay a huge fine.

Fri Oct 09, 2009 1:07 pm

Actually, still pretty intact from what I hear. From the bottom of the page:
..."As of the summer of 2005 you could still see most of the C-119"...."The Koyukuk River is slowly covering the aircraft and the willows are covering it so it is mostly not visable from the river."...
I saw a picture taken from the top of the fuselage on a website a while back, can't remember where I found it.

-Chaz

Fri Oct 09, 2009 1:14 pm

Here it is!

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/search116.htm

Scroll down about 3/4 of the page, or search "C-119". (The rest of the page is pretty cool also.

)

-Chaz