Jay

After the two crashes they found the problem and fixed it but then
they didn't sell good to airlines due to crash history.

Navy bought a large number (with MAD gear) after fix, that are now
configured to the P-3C Orion (ASW) configuration and many P-3's were
sold around the world in ASW confguration. Navy is still using them
while waiting for a new bird. There is a request out to industry for a
new bird???

Big John

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On Thu, 08 Nov 2007 06:09:52 -0800, Jay Honeck
wrote:

I've just finished reading the tale of the first round trip coast-to-
coast flight (which was accomplished by mid-air refueling,
occasionally from milk cans) from Spokane, WA to the east coast and
back, way back in 1929. They flew a distance of 10,000 miles (they
circled over airports whilst refueling) without landing. A
fascinating story, printed in a terrific magazine, "Aviation History".

One of the pilots, Nick Mamer, went on to a career with Northwest Air
Lines. The author of the article states that he was killed in 1938
flying a Lockheed 14 Super Electra over Montana when the plane crashed
after suffering structural failure due to harmonic vibration. All
passengers and crew were killed.

This is something I've never heard much about. I understand harmonic
vibration can destroy any structure, given enough time and amplitude
-- but wouldn't a pilot be aware of such an event occurring in
flight? I picture something similar to flying a twin without synching
the props -- the noise and vibration will just about drive you crazy.

I don't have any further information on this crash, so I suppose the
vibration could have destroyed the engine mounts, causing the engines
to depart the airframe. This would probably be impossible to detect
from the cockpit before disaster struck.

Does anyone have any more information on this phenomenon, and this
crash specifically? Also, are there any Super Electras still flying
and, if so, how did they solve this problem?