B24 ditching test video

I type slow!

Yes, don’t you hate it when that happens; you spend ages writing a post and then when you post it you find that somebody has made all the same points…

…just ten minutes earlier!

I would think the ‘roller shutter’ bomb-doors would be particularly vulnerable on a B-24 during a ditching.

Creaking door our threads were at similar times. A glass nose would have gone straight away and the strengthening was right where the crews ditching stations were if I remember correctly!

So what did that prove? IMO not a lot about survivability. The aircraft ditched in a flat calm with two crew and if you notice the glass nose was fared over, and look at the extent of the damage. My Father flew Libs and had 572 hours on this type. On conversion a nice Major from the USAAF said if it is at all possible bale out otherwise it will be your coffin. The guy from Consolidated who was with him said nothing but sat there scowling.
A better vid would be a damaged Lib trying to ditch in rough sea possibly at night with a full crew and see how many survived.(not that I would really want anyone to do that!)

I wonder what the purpose of the test was?

If you look at the latter parts of the video there are shots of the considerable strengthening of the lower fuselage and of the damage that the impact did to this (wooden) strengthening. Also I am sure that the nose perspex glazing has been replaced by sheet alloy. Even then this B-24 broke its back.

Why didn’t it sink; is it sitting on the bottom after the ditching?

It is also pretty instructive as to the likely condition of any ditched aircraft immediately after a ditching (never mind an additional seventy years under seawater) even under such controlled conditions.

They also tested a B-17 and more surprisingly considering its value, a new C-54.

Bad ass of the day 🙂

How did they talk the pilots into that! I love the shots around four minutes when one of the pilots climbs out, and then carefully combs his hair. It’s all about the look!