B24 test ditching in James River

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - B24 test ditching in James River

Posted: 7/27/2013 3:34:49 PM EDT

I was poking around in Youtube and found this. Pretty interesting if you're into this sort of thing
10 minutes long

Posted: 7/27/2013 3:51:17 PM EDT

[#1]

Posted: 7/27/2013 3:51:41 PM EDT

[#2]

Hmm, I wonder what that crew brief was like:
"Today we're going to crash into a river with the tail making contact first."
Tail gunner:
"Uh, no fucking thanks, I quit."

Kinda funny how that guy acts like it's no big deal and starts combing his hair while standing on his sinking airplane.

Posted: 7/27/2013 3:56:45 PM EDT

[#3]

I noticed the hair combing thing too. Test pilots are like that I suppose

Posted: 7/27/2013 3:57:28 PM EDT

[#4]

Balls of steel!

Posted: 7/27/2013 3:58:55 PM EDT

[#5]

I googled that after reading

UNBROKEN

Hell of a book.

http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163

Posted: 7/27/2013 4:10:57 PM EDT

[#6]

So the submersible B-24 thing didn't work so well. I'm sure toasts were in order at the officer's club that night.

Posted: 7/27/2013 4:14:38 PM EDT

[#7]

Quote History

Quoted:
I googled that after reading

UNBROKEN

Hell of a book.

http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/12/unbroken-excerpt-201012/_jcr_content/par/cn_contentwell/par-main/cn_pagination_contai/cn_image.size.unbroken.jpg

View Quote

I just added that to my birthday list, thanks!

Posted: 7/27/2013 4:14:58 PM EDT

[#8]

My uncle was a navigator in a 24. Front row, first on the left. www.458bg.com/crew46rogers.htm

They were lost on their first mission 3/6/44 over Berlin.

Always wished the history channels would do more with the Liberator. It was quite a plane but the 17's seem to get all the coverage.

Posted: 7/27/2013 4:17:06 PM EDT

[#9]

So did that end up being the approved method? The flop at the end snapped the bombers back (accelerating flooding) and looked pretty hard on the crew. But I don't know what would have happened if they came in level and the props or nose impacted first.

Posted: 7/27/2013 4:32:58 PM EDT

[#10]

cool!

Posted: 7/27/2013 5:00:01 PM EDT

[#11]

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

Posted: 7/27/2013 5:12:57 PM EDT

[#12]

Yeah, like OSHA would approve that flight test today.

Kharn

Posted: 7/27/2013 5:22:01 PM EDT

[#13]

That was cool, thanks for sharing

Posted: 7/27/2013 5:24:19 PM EDT

[#14]

I read somewhere that Liberators tended to snap their backs on ditching, as demonstrated in that video,and that their survival rate was less than 10% of a B17 ditch

Posted: 7/27/2013 5:48:04 PM EDT

[#15]

Quote History

Quoted:

Yeah, like OSHA would approve that flight test today.

Kharn

View Quote

The environmentalists would scream too.

Posted: 7/27/2013 5:57:32 PM EDT

[#16]

Quote History

Quoted:
My uncle was a navigator in a 24. Front row, first on the left. www.458bg.com/crew46rogers.htm

http://www.458bg.com/crew46rogers.htm

They were lost on their first mission 3/6/44 over Berlin.

Always wished the history channels would do more with the Liberator. It was quite a plane but the 17's seem to get all the coverage.

View Quote

I embedded the pic. Thank you to your family and especially your uncle.

Posted: 7/27/2013 5:58:42 PM EDT

[#17]

"You know,guys, we've got this extra B-24 sitting over there...

Posted: 7/27/2013 6:05:59 PM EDT

[#18]

One of those planes flew over me while I was fishing one day, completely unexpectedly. The sound was incredible. I can't imagine what it was like when dozens of them were coming to your town full of hate.

Posted: 7/27/2013 6:45:48 PM EDT

[#19]

Thank you LePew!

Posted: 7/27/2013 6:58:22 PM EDT

[#20]

They did that right in front of Newport News Shipyard. Thats the old James River Bridge which is not gone except for a few hundred feet worth used for a fishing pier.

Posted: 7/27/2013 7:17:40 PM EDT

[#21]

Did they screw it up, or did the water hitting the elevator/tail make it pitch up and bellyflop in? What was with the left roll, a stall?

Seems like you could easy that girl in nice and flat. Maybe they were testing not best case but something more midrange?

Posted: 7/27/2013 7:27:41 PM EDT

[#22]

IIRC, the high wing and design of the bomb bay doors made the B-24 very hazardous to land in the water.

Posted: 7/27/2013 7:28:42 PM EDT

[#23]

Thank God it's history and not a current event.

Posted: 7/27/2013 7:39:31 PM EDT

[#24]

Quote History

Quoted:
One of those planes flew over me while I was fishing one day, completely unexpectedly. The sound was incredible. I can't imagine what it was like when dozens of them were coming to your town full of hate.

View Quote

I was fishing on our little stock pond one spring day when a B-17 flew over head. About 30 seconds behind it was the entire CAF Tora Tora Tora group. This single bomber being chased by six or seven planes in Japanese markings was on of the most sureal things I have ever seen.

There were more B-24's produced during the war than B-17's. The '17's just got all the good/bad publicity.

Posted: 7/27/2013 7:42:29 PM EDT

[#25]

Very cool.

Posted: 7/27/2013 8:03:32 PM EDT

[#26]

I wonder how much more quickly it would have sunk if it had the standard plexiglass nose, would have taken on ALOT more water and gone down quickly. And Yes, Unbroken is an amazing book about an amazing man!

Posted: 7/27/2013 8:05:20 PM EDT

[#27]

What would today's media have done with these facts? Might be a very, very different world.

http://pippaettore.com/Horrific_WWII_Statistics.html

Posted: 7/27/2013 8:20:16 PM EDT

[#28]

Quote History

Quoted:
One of those planes flew over me while I was fishing one day, completely unexpectedly. The sound was incredible. I can't imagine what it was like when dozens a thousand of them were coming to your town full of hate.

View Quote

fixed.

Posted: 7/28/2013 4:42:31 AM EDT

[#29]

Cool video.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - B24 test ditching in James River

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