On January 10, 1964, a gust over the Rocky Mountains tore almost the whole tail fin and rudder off a B-52H bomber. Its crew flew it for about six more hours and landed it.
A tail fin keeps a plane pointing where it’s going, like the feathers on a dart: when the nose swings, the air pushes sideways on the fin, far behind the plane’s balance point (its centre of gravity), and swings the nose back. Without the fin, the air’s sideways push lands mostly on the long nose, ahead of the balance point, so a swing tends to grow.
B-52H 61-0023 was on loan to Boeing for low-level turbulence tests, carrying 20 accelerometers and more than 200 sensors. Climbing to 14,300 ft (4,360 m) near the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, it hit clear-air turbulence: Boeing’s report describes a mountain-wave rotor whose gust reversed and peaked at about 147 ft/s (about 100 mph). The aircraft commander, Boeing test pilot Chuck Fisher, ordered his three-man crew to prepare to bail out.
With Boeing engineers on the radio, the crew kept it under control by changing the engine settings, moving fuel to change its balance, using small amounts of airbrake, and lowering the rear main wheels “to gain some lateral directional stability”. They slowed from 345 to about 210 knots on the airspeed dial (about 400 to 240 mph): the air’s push grows with the square of the dial speed, so the sideways push for the same swing fell to about a third.
They landed, flaps up, at Blytheville Air Force Base, Arkansas, chosen to avoid the mountains’ turbulence and for its calm wind and few people below. The pilot said the front main wheels made the plane swing as they came down, and it was fine once they were down. The plane was repaired and flew until 2008.
Three days later, another B-52 lost its fin in turbulence over Maryland and crashed; three of its five crew died.
The swings in the diagrams are drawn bigger than real; the plane is our 3D model of a B-52H in its 1964 test paint. The mountains are the real Spanish Peaks (USGS elevation data).
Film: “Flight without a Fin” (1964), U.S. Air Force, Lookout Mountain Laboratory, via archive.org (public domain). Terrain and aerial photos: USGS 3D Elevation Program and USDA NAIP (public domain). Sky: Poly Haven (CC0). 3D model: B-52 generated with Meshy (meshy.ai); its landing gear and torn fin built by us. Narration: AI-generated voice.
#b52 #aviation #physics #airforce #howitworks #shorts
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Infact that it happened to Jal 123 is crazy that two Boeing Lost tail from apart year
JAL 123……..
Ai blender
Factually, aircraft gears actually drop in sync. They don't partially deploy and deploy the other one manually
The mission was to intentionally fly into a mountain wave to measure the effect on the airframe. FAFO
Why the hell does the freaking landing gear look like that?
Btw this not the startaforce b52 this is nasa b52 mother ship used to test a plane like x15 and x43 even other plane drone edition
Como se llama el juego? O es una animacion?
The “tail fin” is called a rudder by the way
bro beated the record that JAL123 broke 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The model used in the video looks like an easyJet b52
Hello my name is Rocky
Jal 123 cousin
Well thank you Captain Chuck Fisher for losing your rudder and balancing with your life in danger, so to just make me know what a tail fin does. Like there were no other way to teach me.
Gosh AI, you make Donald Trump look like the genius he thinks he is anyway.
It's called VERTICAL STABILIZER not "tail fin" and that was a garbage landing
It’s actually called a vertical stabiliser, not a “tail fin”
It’s a rudder, not a fin 😭
If JAL 123 did it 😢
Compensate 😅
Stop
Sþip
That was JAL 123 if it didn't crash.
JAL 123 if it didn’t crash.
Edit: Bro this went viral overnight.
Damn
props to these guys, ngl if that was a crew of women they'd be ducked.
theyd freak out too long and loose it beyond saving.
the stupid AI narration makes me nauseous I hate it so bad. It makes the video unwatchable. Shheeesh!
Smooth landing
Engine adjustment will also help. Fly dirty
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The famous 10 January 1964 B-52H test-flight incident, when a Boeing test crew lost about 83% of the aircraft's vertical stabilizer and the entire rudder after encountering severe clear-air turbulence over Colorado/New Mexico.
Thats why its called a vertical stabilizer.
The early model 52’s up to H had vertical stabilizer issues that could cause it to shear off during certain low altitude high speed flying through turbulent air. This is just the most famous occurance of it happening.
The vertical stabilizer helps keep the plane straight. The moveable surface at the back of the stabilzer is the rudder and helps change direction….
More ways than one to skin a cat . Pilots are generally very quick thinkers … Well done !
I used to think it was like the antenna on a car😭
Pretty sure we call that a rutter 😂
Would you have stayed on board or bailed out? 🪂