"W. D. Allen" wrote in om...
On 23 December, 1956, an FJ-3 Fury fighter plane was launched from the U. S.
S. Shangri La while operating south of Japan. The FJ-3 did not follow
normal departure procedures - instead it continued flight with it's landing
gear and flaps still down while slowly banking left as the plane turned
almost opposite to the ships course abeam to it's port-side. The plane
continued rolling left until it dropped into the ocean and sunk. Both plane
and pilot were lost. No pilot communications were reported. No firm
conclusion was ever arrived at as to the cause of the loss. Some years later
a former squadron mate was cycling the wing fold mechanism on an FJ-3 when
he noticed something that might explain the loss of his friend years
earlier.

The FJ-3 had two wing folding/spreading controls: the first, mounted on the
right forward instrument panel, was a handle hinged at the bottom for
locking (handle up vertically and locked in place) and unlocking (handle
unlocked and down to horizontal) the ailerons before folding or spreading
the wings to prevented aileron control linkage damage. Most importantly,
this handle had a thumb operated detent button on the left side to lock the
handle itself in the closed position when the wings are fully spread and
locked and the ailerons were free to be used. Also connected to this same
handle were metal flags, painted red, located in each wing indicating wings
locked when the flag is down with no red showing and unlocked when up with
red showing. Behind that handle was a small left/right lever used to
actually fold or spread the wings.


If I understand correctly at least one FJ Fury flies today. Has its
operator been notified of this? Maybe someone reading this knows the
guy.