Warbird Information Exchange

I've always wondered about aircraft with folding wings, and whether there has been an incident where the wings folded in flight, I would assume that with high G maneuvers, the mechanisms on these type of aircraft must be incredibly tough and sturdy.

When Bill Compton had his near fatal F6F-3 crash years ago the wings were torn of when the airplane cartwheeled outboard of the fold

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

IIRC there is wreckage of a Corsair, I believe in PNG, that had a wing fold on takeoff. I took a quick look on Pacific Wrecks but couldn't find it. I think it was a Brewster-built example.

cheers

greg v.

Jack, I'm not aware of this crash ... what F6F was this?

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/f6fregistry/f6f-08825.html
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=46897&key=0

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

My A&P always tells a story about a Skyraider taking off with the wings folded . . .

I did a little digging and found this:
http://www.cloudnet.com/~djohnson/records.htm
Page down about a third of the way and you'll find a small paragraph with some information on folded wing flying, both Spads and Crusaders. A photo link shows this situation!

Pucker factor?

Scott

I doubt that it was a Brewster-built example. None of them made it to the combat zone from what I can tell. The US examples were kept here for training, but most of them went to the Royal Navy anyway. A few Royal Navy examples were shipped to Ceylon for training purposes, but none of these deployed on carriers.

Cheers,
Richard

_________________
Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

Richard

I am sure you are correct, I am going off a very old memory here. Out of curiosity, did the RNZAF operate any Brewster-built examples?


cheers

greg v.

Maybe we can get Eric D. to try and see if a Spad can do it? Take off with the wings folded that is.

_________________
Col Craig Duck
Life Member CAF
Life Member YAF
Life Member EAA

RNZAF operated F4U-1D's only during wartime, and added FG-1D's post-war. They never had any Brewsters. I am curious how the failure of the wing fold happened though, as the pins are immensely strong, and there's also a red flag which is forced up from the wing when the pin has not been properly inserted. Very curious incident. Any photos?

Cheers,
Richard

_________________
Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

Richard

I was sure that I'd seen this on Pacific Wrecks somewhere, but I have not been able to locate it again. I'll take another look, but there is a possibility that this is all a figment of my imagination

greg v.

edit: I did find this, however:

13300 (VF, OUT#3) wing folded in flight and came off 4/29/1944. Pilot killed.


from this site:

http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/thirdseries2.html

"US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (10317 to 21191)"

Perhaps this is it?

There was an "I learned about flying from that" in the 70s in Flying mag written by a guy who took off in a Spad in Vietnam with the wings folded. He didn't make it very far. The story is reprinted in one of the compilation books.

Very interesting... I wonder how that happened? I wonder if this meant structural failure of the wing itself, or whether the wing actually folded at the hinge. I can't imagine how the wing hinge could fail... it is such a heavily built structure. The outer wing panels aft of the spar were extremely lightly built though... so parhaps the failur occurred there. I wonder what the crash report said!

Cheers,
Richard

_________________
Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

There are also pictures of an F-4 that did it.

_________________
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto