The Swearingen-TEB incident: control issues with twins

("Matt Barrow" wrote)
http://www.twincommander.com/aero_design.htm

The story of the man begins with Ted Smith, and the dream starts when, as
project engineer at the Douglas Aircraft Company during the Second World
War, Smith envisioned the day when peace would come and the airplane would
fill its promise of usefulness to man as a transportation vehicle.


(Posted this last week in another thread)
OT - Speaking of Aero Commanders, I saw the Pella Windows corporate jet a
few weeks ago at the Pella, Iowa airport open house. Talked with the crew.
It's an Aero Commander jet. Israeli company converts them - see link.

http://tinyurl.com/a7duk
Israel IAI-1124A Westwind


Montblack

Matt Barrow wrote:

The story of the man begins with Ted Smith, and the dream starts when, as
project engineer at the Douglas Aircraft Company during the Second World
War, ....

If he worked for Douglas, he had nothing to do with the design of the Martin
Marauder (the B-26). He may well have been involved with the design of the
Douglas A-26.

One cause of confusion is that three aircraft have been designated the B-26. The
Marauder was the first. After all of the Marauders were retired, a version of
the Douglas A-26 was produced as a bomber and was called (at least by some) a
B-26. Later, the USAF changed the numbering scheme and a jet bomber got the B-26
moniker in the 50s. Since the USAF has restarted the numbering yet again (with
the B-1), it's possible that we might see yet another B-26 in the future.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 06:59:39 -0700, "Matt Barrow"
wrote:

The story of the man begins with Ted Smith, and the dream starts when, as
project engineer at the Douglas Aircraft Company during the Second World
War, Smith envisioned the day when peace would come and the airplane would
fill its promise of usefulness to man as a transportation vehicle.

The B-26 Marauder was designed by the Martin Company, not Douglas.
Douglas designed the "A"-26 Invader, which replaced the B-26 by the
end of the war.

Two VERY different airplanes from two different (and competing)
aircraft companies.

Corky Scott

Matt,

You sure it was Ted Smith? For some reason I was thinking he was at
Consolidated and heavily involved with the B-24 design. Not sure.

He had a thing for outward retracting landing gear...

All the best,
Rick

"Corky Scott" wrote in message
...
The reason for this was due less to the robust construction of the
bomber or it's flight characteristics than to the Luftwaffe's orders
to concentrate on the heavy bombers at the expense of all other
operations. When the heavies were up, it was usually because the
weather favored visual bombing. That being the case, all other
bombers were usually also flying missions. The Luftwaffe did not have
the numbers to respond to each and every type of enemy incursion, so
they concentrated on the heavies.

So the Marauders kind of drew a bye when they flew on bombing
missions. They even got lucky with the AA artillery because most of
it was removed from the fronts to surround the cities in defense
against the heavy bomber attacks. But the missions were not a piece
of cake as any B-26 combat veteran can tell you, there was plenty
enough AAA still around to make missions harrowing.


And IIRC, the B-26 drew mostly low level attack missions which drew all
sorts of fire, most of it more accurate than the high level bombing!?!?

On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 19:09:55 -0700, "Matt Barrow"
wrote:

And IIRC, the B-26 drew mostly low level attack missions which drew all
sorts of fire, most of it more accurate than the high level bombing!?!?

The B-26 crews that were going to Europe initially trained for
extremely low level missions. At the time, the only information
available was from the Pacific Theater and low level missions there
were relatively successful with acceptable casualties.

But the Japanese did not have the concentration, training or accuracy
of the German AA crews. In the initial sortie from England against a
Netherlands target, every single bomber was shot down by AA fire. It
wasn't a huge flight, I think 6 or 7 took off, but the only surviver
was one bomber that turned back over the Channel due to some technical
problem, or he probably would have been shot down too.

This catastrophy caused the B-26 group to halt all operations and
rethink the mission. They spent several months retraining at medium
height, which required the bombardiers actually learn how to use
bombsights, and returned to combat flying above the level of accuracy
of the small caliber AA guns.

Corky Scott

Corky Scott wrote:

Many of the training flights involved takeoff at max gross. At that
weight during takeoff, the loss of an engine or having the prop slip
to flat pitch was disasterous. The bomber rolled into the dead engine
virtually instantaneously and pitched into Tampa Bay, or impacted the
ground upside down. "One a day in Tampa Bay" became the bitter
refrain.

Martin provided instructions for recovery from an engine failure. The Army had
it's own standard procedure, however, and refused to make a type-specific
exception. Eventually the accident rate forced them to change to the procedure
recommended by Martin, and the accident rate went down to one typical for twins.
The Army never did like type-specific training, however, and retired all the 26s
as soon as it could.

My father worked on the Martin assembly line in Baltimore. My mother worked
there in the accounting department. She says that you wouldn't think it possible
that they could lose something the size of one of "those big flying boats" (as
she calls them), but, according to her, they did.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

"George Patterson" wrote

My father worked on the Martin assembly line in Baltimore. My mother
worked
there in the accounting department. She says that you wouldn't think it
possible
that they could lose something the size of one of "those big flying boats"
(as
she calls them), but, according to her, they did.

Nah, they didn't lose it! Someone stole it, one piece at a time, and took
it out of the plant in their lunch bucket. ;-o
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:

Nah, they didn't lose it! Someone stole it, one piece at a time, and took
it out of the plant in their lunch bucket. ;-o

So, somewhere out there there's an entire Martin Mars hidden away? I guess it'll
show up at Fantasy of Flight sooner or later. :-)


George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

"George Patterson" wrote

So, somewhere out there there's an entire Martin Mars hidden away? I guess
it'll
show up at Fantasy of Flight sooner or later. :-)

Right. Problem is, it will take a while longer than they originally
thought. Seems the culprit didn't think it through, quite enough.

The thieves are now having to put the parts back together. Problem is, that
it is hard to reassemble a prop from all of the 6"" x 8" x 10" chunks that
fit in the lunch boxes. That's just the prop. How about the engine case,
and tires? g

Thanks George. You're a great straight man!
--
Jim in NC