F-8 Crusader – taking off with wings folded?

Further to my earlier post:- I cannot recall where I read about it but the F-4 incident I was thinking of was not actually in pouring rain but it was on night ops. Apparently they were doing night training and to save space on the apron as they came in to refuel they were folding their wings. Duly refuelled th aircraft concerned taxied out and took off. According to what I remember the pilot was not aware of anything amiss until the crosswind turn after take off when he reported a severely degraded roll rate.

am bored so back to an old post…….

I read in an old wings of fame volume, one of the F-8 pilots who did it came in for a safe landing, other than he forgot to put his wheels down….

bad day…. bad bad day….bad day at the office that must have been !

It was also possible to fly the F-4 Phantom with the wings folded. There were (IIRC) a couple of cases in Viet-Nam where it happened. I think they both happened on night ops in pouring rain, one certainly did.

that looks reasonably believeable lol wonder how interesting it would have been to fly 😉

its an aerospace publishing book that I have on the F-14 – I’d back their research, having the stars and bars on the upper side of both wings looks a bit odd but its the real deal. wonder if they tried it with a Tornado as well?

that looks reasonably believeable lol wonder how interesting it would have been to fly 😉

crazy, have you got a picture of it to hand?

http://instapinch.com/?p=238

here you go – have seen it written about in “written” print as well – I’d say it was genuine.

crazy, have you got a picture of it to hand?

is that possible?

aircraft No 3 was used between Dec 1985 and Feb 1986, landings were made with the aft swept wing at 60 degrees (not the max of 70 I think it is) 4 in service aircraft suffered the fault so they tested at Pax River

ever seen that snap of the F-14 with one wing swept back and the other locked forwards? That is 100% genuine for sure.

is that possible?

Well there you go, I do hope that none of these pics are doctered!

I hope not as well – I have my hands on 3 F-8 books since I started digging and non feature in those (all by the same author though) and not in the old wings of fame volume that featured the F-8 – I’d have thought one would have made its way in ?

still, never let the truth get in the way of a good story as they say !:diablo:

ever seen that snap of the F-14 with one wing swept back and the other locked forwards? That is 100% genuine for sure.

Link to picture of an F4 in the air with folded wings..oops!

Well there you go, I do hope that none of these pics are doctered!

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/3227/f-4e.htm

Link to picture of an F4 in the air with folded wings..oops!

I’m not surprised about the Crusader flying with the wings folded as it is a fairly small portion of the wing that folds, I can imagine the Phantom doing the same.
However I am very surprised there wasn’t a micro switch controlled sytem fitted to prevent this happpening!

distinctive sphincter flutter

:D:D

I recall reading of one WW2 aircraft ( F4U Corsair ? ) which caused a few accidents.

Apparently, the wing fold selector had 3 positions – Fold, unfold and lock.

It was apparently possible to unfold the wings and leave the selector in that position – which didn’t isolate the wing actuators form the rest of the hydraulic system.

So, the aircraft takes off, pilot selects U/C up…….. and the U/C actuators drain the fluid from the open wing fold mechanism. 😮

Anyone care to confirm ?

In N Hansons book about flying Corsairs he describes it happening (Carrier Pilot?) – scary.

I recall reading of one WW2 aircraft ( F4U Corsair ? ) which caused a few accidents.

Apparently, the wing fold selector had 3 positions – Fold, unfold and lock.

It was apparently possible to unfold the wings and leave the selector in that position – which didn’t isolate the wing actuators form the rest of the hydraulic system.

So, the aircraft takes off, pilot selects U/C up…….. and the U/C actuators drain the fluid from the open wing fold mechanism. 😮

Anyone care to confirm ?

This reminds me of the time…

… when I took off in a Slingsby Swallow (Dart canopy) at Perranporth (01) on an auto launch with the air brakes fully open…

Longer than usual ground run, much pole bending to get her to climb, amazingly got to the top of the launch, 800′, released, and immediately noticed that something was not quite right.

Higher than normal rate of sink (Swallows not noted for their low sink rate anyway), more noise than usual, handling seemed strange.

Only then did I suddenly remember the airbrakes, accompanied by distinctive sphincter flutter, increased heart rate, audible heart-beat, rising facial colour and temperature, all associated with acute embarrasment, and fear of the inevitable ridicule to follow.

I slid that horrible Slingsby airbrake lever forward quicker than every before; she seemed to leap back up into the sky. With the excess airspeed I heaved back, got an extra couple of hundred feet, and wizzed around into the circuit, airspeed all over the place. Two minutes airtime.

I still squirm with discomfort when I remember it.

Not quite as exciting as taking off with wings folded, but “I learnt about flying from that”.

And the CFI, dear old John Turner, (CPO, RN), was not too unkind about it.

http://mofak.com/Night_Infamy.htm

thanks Flanker_man – I never thought of checking:( but scroll down and look at the snap….. 😮

I thought the last tale at the bottom of the page was even more scary, wings folded and then he forgot to lower the gear and used the 200lb bombs he was carrying as landing gear!!

My memory has an incident of an F-8 taking off with wings folded from an airfield in Italy – Sigonella ??

IIRC, the pilot, finding that the control responses were ‘sluggish’, realsied that the wings were still folded.

He ‘explored the flight envelope’ with some gentle manouevres – and landed.

Ken

PS A Google search for ‘Crusader flight wings folded’ turned up quite a few links to such incidents.

Here’s one I found – although it was from Naples…..

The operational history of the F-8 Crusader has an interesting distinction. In August 1960, a US Navy pilot took off from Naples, Italy, and climbed to about 1.5 kilometers. When he leveled off, he found he needed an unusual amount of pressure on the stick. Looking around for the cause, he discovered that he hadn’t unfolded his wings! The pilot was obviously cool-headed, since he decided to investigate how the aircraft handled in this configuration while he dumped what fuel he could. After about 24 minutes of flight he came back in for a landing, which was fast but otherwise uneventful. He reported no particular handling problems with the aircraft. Vought engineers were very pleased when they heard the story, though Navy brass was far from happy with the incident

Some more…… from this site.

This is said to be the first case where an aircraft took off with folded wings and safely landed again, but Crusaders took off with folded wings at least seven more times afterward. Unsurprisingly, it usually happened at night. One pilot managed to waggle the aircraft and get the wings back down in flight. In response to the posting of an early version of this document on the Internet, the executive officer of the French Aeronavale squadron operating the Crusader, Antoine Guillot, said one of his pilots had pulled the same trick at an airshow in Belgium. At least under such circumstances the pilot might have been able to claim he did it intentionally as a stunt.

Ken

without answering my own post but….

http://mofak.com/Night_Infamy.htm

thanks Flanker_man – I never thought of checking:( but scroll down and look at the snap….. 😮