DC-4 Crash in Fairbanks

[///AMG]

Same with the B-25, no published Vmc. Doubt many made it to 33k flying hours (that DC-4 had been busy).

Yeah exactly. I'd be interested to see what the FAA standards were for civilian transport category aircraft back then. Was it the same 4 segment takeoff/climb system, same terrain/obstacle clearance, same same? I have no idea.

 

[ahw01]

Yeah exactly. I'd be interested to see what the FAA standards were for civilian transport category aircraft back then. Was it the same 4 segment takeoff/climb system, same terrain/obstacle clearance, same same? I have no idea.

well the FAA started in 1958 so I think it was cleared under CAR 3 maybe. https://www.douglasdc3.com/faa/a-669.pdf is the equivalent for DC-3...

 

[///AMG]

well the FAA started in 1958 so I think it was cleared under CAR 3 maybe. https://www.douglasdc3.com/faa/a-669.pdf is the equivalent for DC-3...

Thank you sir. At first glance, kinda wild they rated the engines at max TO power for one minute.

 

[NovemberEcho]

That's terrifying.

Tangentially related note, I'm reading this book right now about the introduction of the B-26 Maruader into Army Air Corps service, the lack of any flight test prior to IOC, and a hasty deployment to Europe and Africa shortly thereafter. Which is to say that the certification process that these planes went through, is probably not what we are used to today. I don't think that is super related to this, but in the case of the Marauder, there were tons of examples of overloaded combat configured aircraft losing an engine on takeoff and just being forced to crash......no hope of flying the thing

Started out as the Widow Maker and went on to have one of the safest records of any ww2 bomber (or maybe aircraft?) once proper training was introduced

 

[ppragman]

It’s funny when you think these operations are engaged in a daily model today of what was in the 40s the military performing extreme “no fail high risk” mission moving gas to austere places during WWII.

They just didn’t get the memo that the war ended, and continue to operate in that regime. It didn’t stop being a war for them because most of the war was really against the condition and elements. The actual combat risks were just garnish to that kind of operation.

Wars against or for one-particular bastard or another come and go. Historically, while those wars are extremely important, they are usually fleeting.

The struggle against the elements, the struggle against nature, entropy, and the will to bring comfort to a harsh frontier will persist for as long as humans value trying to improve their conditions. Indeed, I'd hardly call us humans if we didn't value those efforts.

I imagine in 100 years there will be some poor bastard driving a clapped-out Soyuz Capsule to bring rocket fuel to the camp on Triton just as the Falls of Clyde was hauling oil under sail to Hawaii (and then Alaska) over 100 years ago.

 

[Wardogg]

There's video of the accident floating around, the #1 engine explodes and is already fully engulfed as it rolls to left and heads towards terra firma, a parachute wouldn't have helped.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dZyo5GCr8s

What in the actual? Were they already in trouble prior to the engine grenading? Stomped the wrong rudder? Loss of flight controls?

 

[NovemberEcho]

What in the actual? Were they already in trouble prior to the engine grenading? Stomped the wrong rudder? Loss of flight controls?

Yes they had declared already and were being vectored back to the airport

 

[Skåning]

Yes they had declared already and were being vectored back to the airport

So that fire was going long enough to burn through some important bits?

 

[NovemberEcho]

So that fire was going long enough to burn through some important bits?

Don’t know. They never stated the nature of the emergency just that they needed to rtb. But at some point one of the pilots transmits “tell them I love them ma’am, tell them I love them.”