B-1 adapts, remains effective after 25 years

AF News Service ^ | 4/26/2010 | Janie Santos

[tanknetter]

But it is difficult for me to imagine one of my beloved Tomcats flying on one wing.

Case of "close enough"?

[rlmorel]

I got caught behind a JBD one time as a Tomcat went off in afterburner.

It sucked. I just wasn’t paying attention, everyone ELSE ran out, and by the time it started winding up, I couldn’t run out. All I could do was duck inside the wheel well, tuck into a ball and pull my vest up over my face.

It got so damned hot I couldn’t breathe, thought I was going to suffocate. It felt like a REALLY long time, but it couldn’t have been more than 10 seconds or so.

I remember as the JBD was coming down, the other guys walked over to me and gave me shit. They laughed at me, but I didn’t think it was funny at the time. I kind of do now, though...:)

Whew!

[rlmorel]

LOL! No...I could hardly argue with your point of view! I tend to think you are right on this...:)

[rlmorel]

That had to be intentional for testing or something!!!! (looks like one of the early ones they flew at Pax River with the orange paint...)

I’ve never seen that before. But you know, I don’t doubt it could fly like that. I gotta keep that one and show it to my buddy (Also an AD)

I was FOOLISH to doubt the Tomcats!

[moehoward]

I guess behind is better than in front.

[rlmorel]

We had a guy who got sucked down the intake of a Tomcat while I was there. It was either VF-32 or VF-14, I don’t remember which.

Apparently, the guy walked out from under the engine nacelle and stood up right in front of the intake with his back to it and got sucked right in.

The pilot had been looking right at the intake when the guy appeared, stood up and went in backwards, head first, and the pilot had the wherewithal to shut down the the engines immediately.

The pilot’s quick thinking saved the guy’s life, but the unlucky guy slammed head first into the cone on the front of the compressor and snapped his neck. They airlifted him off, and we heard later he was a quadriplegic.

I went down in the hangar bay a couple of days later, they had pulled the engine out of the Tomcat and had it sitting in a cradle down there, waiting to be shipped out. The engine case had some big, jagged holes in the sides, apparently some of his tools had come out of his pouch as he went in and preceded him into the engine. They went in, chewing up some of the compressor blades, then were ejected right through the compressor section casing.

It was very sobering to see.

[rlmorel]

You were on the Connie? I heard there was a guy who walked into an E-2 prop on the Connie...once, is that true? (It was hard to tell sometimes if the stories were true, or if they were just trying to scare the crap out of us to keep our heads on straight)

[tanknetter]

That had to be intentional for testing or something!!!! (looks like one of the early ones they flew at Pax River with the orange paint...)

Yup, that's Tomcat #3, iirc and the picture was taken during initial flight testing. I believe that the Tomcat was actually ok'd to [i]trap[/i] in that configuration ... if a pilot found himself to be in such an unlucky situation. But I don't believe any ever did.

[rlmorel]

LOL...I sure never saw one. Very interesting!

[moehoward]

I was on in 74-75. I can’t recall any real trouble like that. I’m certain it’s happened at some point.

Lot’s of close calls though.