Al Williams famously crashed his Grumman Bearcat Gulfhawk IV in New Bern, North Carolina in January 1949. The airplane was totally destroyed in the resultant fire originating from the ruptured belly tank that the airplane landed on. I have always been under the impression that the accident was caused by a gear leg folding, but I now find that Corky Meyers’ book “Grumman F8F Bearcat” says outright that Williams forgot to put the gear down. (Meyers had checked Williams out in the GIV.)
Which is correct? Failed gear or failed to extend the gear?
I can’t find any sort of official accident report, but I should think it would have been obvious even to a curious lineman whether the gear had ever been extended. or not.
By: John Aeroclub - 14th December 2018 at 10:24
I certainly can’t throw any light on this except to make the observation that (I think) all but the first (Curtiss F6c Hawk), had some type of retracting under carriage so Williams would have been used to this vital operation on the previous Grumman’s, all be it of the wind up type. Again the stress of landing a new hotter type could set up a mistake.
John
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December 13, 2018 at 8:58 pm