Tragic

[Da-bigguy]

IMO, a Merlin powered Spitfire making a flyby at WOT has to be the sweetest sounding machine ever made.

Agreed!!!!!!! The Spitfire is my all time favourite aircraft. I had the honor of attending an Air Tattoo in the UK, right before the Farnborough Air Show, about 15 years ago. There must have been around 20 Spitfires flying there!! That was absolutely amazing!!

 

[CorkyE]

Excellent analysis from a former USAF Thunderbird Commander:

I watched that yesterday, excellent commentary. He's basically saying the same thing as previous. Whatever the cause, it's really looking like a loss of situational awareness.

 

[John Wright]

I watched both of those commentaries, and both seemed to make mention of the lack of visibility in the P-63. The first commentary used scale models and that was helpful realizing how even a large plane could go unseen given the right circumstances. When I first saw the news and they showed the video, I was wondering how in the world could he not see that plane, but it now makes sense. Now for why the P-63 took the line he did, is a good question. Could he have been trying to catch up to the planes in his formation (the extra 50 knots of speed) or was he too close to those planes and trying to make space (making the wider turn)? It all seems probable and to me it seems apparent that he completely missed seeing the B-17 somehow.

 

[Da_Raabi]

Ugh, this was terrible. My wife worked on that B17 a few years ago. When she heard she was in tears. Both of the B17s she's worked on have now crashed. It's very sad.

I actually have a piece of Texas Raider in my garage. One of the projects the shop she worked at did was install the top turret. I have the circle of fuselage they cut out as a piece of garage art now. I had no idea how important it would become. These aircraft are few and far between, and the loss of any one of them (including the lives on board) really is a tragedy. At least Fifi was not involved, it looks like it was close.

 

[Rustbucket350]

Jesus. I love vintage aircraft. Seeing that is tough. Not to mention the lives lost which are irreplaceable on what should have been a nice cruise on a sunny day. Looks like the fighter plane evaporated and completely separated the fuselage from the wings on the B17.

 

[ls777z]

When I first saw the video that day target fixation came to mind combined with the the visibility issue.

 

[danbrennan]

I was curious about midair collisions during WW2, since with so many planes in the air at once, that would seem to be a likely place to collide. Apparently it did happen from time to time, but not enough to keep statistics on. This collision seemed to me kind of similar to the Dallas crash, with the angle the planes are at.

 

[danbrennan]

Here's a story about a B-17 on top of a gas station, that I haven't read before,

A World War II Flying Fortress Was Made into the ‘Gas Station Bomber’ on a $5 Bet

For 60 years, a World War II-era B-17 Flying Fortress sat atop an Oregon service station, serving as a canopy for customers stopping to refuel.

www.military.com

"For 60 years, a World War II-era B-17 Flying Fortress sat atop an Oregon service station, serving as a canopy for customers stopping to refuel. It only made it there after an incredible cross country journey that involved smuggling booze and a two-plane pileup on an Oklahoma runway."

"Art Lacey created the "Gas Station Bomber" -- one of Milwaukie, Oregon's most visited sites -- on a five-dollar bet."

"According to his daughter Punky Scott, the now-deceased Lacey was attending a birthday party in 1947 when he told fellow revelers he was going to put a B-17 bomber on top of his local gas station. He'd learned about the surplus of B-17s and that they could be acquired for near-scrap value. He wanted to use the warplane's wings as a canopy for his gasoline pumps."

"One of the partygoers told him he was crazy and it would never happen. Lacey bet the man $5 that it would. While at the same party, Lacey asked a friend for a $15,000 loan. That friend was allegedly involved with some less than legal businesses."

""And the guy had it on him," Scott said in an interview with ABC affiliate KATU. "I don't know how that translates into today's money, but it's got to be a lot.""

 

[scrapmetal]

I almost went to that show RIP