Warbird Information Exchange

Interesting stuff.

Part 1

_________________
“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

Part 2

_________________
“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

Part 3

NACA Photos below taken at NACA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field CA
















Northrop P-61A Black Widow towing P-51B to release altitude of 28,000 ft over Muroc Dry Lake, California for in flight validating of wind tunnel measurements of drag

_________________
“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

A few more NACA P-61 photos

_________________
“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

Im nit picking, but the 1/3 scale model in the wind tunnel is of a P-51A not a p-51B.

AH! for the love of 1 or two more viable project P-61s. . . .

Tom P.

the P-61 is the ugly girl at the party that you still strangely attracted to.

Love the P-61 pics!!

_________________
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

That must have been pretty spooky for the P-51 pilot! Without engine power, would he have had to rely on batteries to operate the radio and other accessories, or would a wind-driven generator have been used? Too bad none of the pictures or documentation show the plane's serial; but by cross-referencing accidents at Muroc on the AAIR site I found it was 42-12111:

Anyone care to dig up the accident report and see if there are any photos? Looks like the pilot survived.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

An airplane without power is just a glider. Gliders fly all the time. Test pilots in the 40's and 50's didn't get spooked.

Muroc is a dry lake and is part of Edwards AFB (now). The space shuttle and lots of rocket powered X-planes landed there unpowered.

P-51 landing gear free-fall and lock by gravity without hydraulic power. The gear handle mechanically releases the landing gear uplocks (same on a T-6 BTW). The downlocks are like a door latch and lock mechanically. A pretty simple system!

The only battery power needed would be for radio communication, though they likely had some kind of paper recorder on board to collect flight data during the actual test.

I wonder how the crash happened? Problems in towing? A mid-air collision?

The write-up says the tow rope released at low altitude and a forced landing was required.