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P51 Mustang crashes at Flying Legends, Duxford

HepKitty

One Too Many
Messages
1,156
Location
Idaho
How sad... glad the pilot is ok. I agree and hope that no one tries to stop air shows. Airplane crashes are rare so they get all the publicity when car accidents are so common that they have to be bad to make local news.

A few months ago a Skyraider crashed, I was told it was the blue one but I think it was the camo one I got to climb into last year. Even sadder, the pilot and his fiancee didn't make it. Word around the hangar is that the pilot was scud running from Salt Lake City to either Idaho Falls and somehow ended up flying across Nevada instead of heading north and crashed into the mountains just inside the Idaho border.

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/local/twin-falls/article_fca5a6ba-4aed-11e0-b554-001cc4c03286.html
 

Fly Boy

One of the Regulars
Messages
243
Location
Glasgow, Scotland
Another sad loss of a vintage warbird. Fortunately nobody got hurt this time.

I wonder if we'll see more flying replicas eventually? Accurate ones like the ME-262 and Focke-Wulf projects, but perhaps some Allied aircraft...
 

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
Somehow I expect to see new technologies develop that will make fabricating complex parts much easier. I think this is the key to full scale replicas of larger vintage aircraft. I've gone on the record before as being not real happy with the idea of flying the vintage birds, both from that standpoint of loss of aircraft and of human life. I'd like to know the statistics on safety for these vintage aircraft.
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
Somehow I expect to see new technologies develop that will make fabricating complex parts much easier. I think this is the key to full scale replicas of larger vintage aircraft. I've gone on the record before as being not real happy with the idea of flying the vintage birds, both from that standpoint of loss of aircraft and of human life. I'd like to know the statistics on safety for these vintage aircraft.

The loss of aircraft and pilots is of course tragic, but do we stop every human endeavour because there is some slight risk of loss? In any given year, how many vintage flights take place, and how many incidents such as this?

Two thousand Canadians will die in traffic accidents this year. I still drive to work every day. You can't legislate a risk-free life.
 

MPicciotto

Practically Family
Messages
771
Location
Eastern Shore, MD
I'm not sure the statistics pertaining to vintage and/or exhibition aircraft and their respective operations but I suspect you will find it to be staggeringly low. When a historic bird goes in for it's final approach the whole world notices. Yet if you just read a LOCAL paper hardly a day goes by when an A/C of some sort has an incident. And as previously stated auto accidents are so prevalent they are not even worthy of news in most places.

Having flown on a B-25J as crew and gone for a joy ride with a pilot in an L-2 I can assure you the safety standards are extremely high and the pilots who fly these aircraft and fly at these shows are hands down some of the best pilots in the world. On more then one occasion a warbird pilot has sacrificed his air craft and his life to prevent harm to others.

As for reproduction. There is not a part that cannot be faithfully reproduced right down to the manufacturing process that was originally used. It's simply a matter of cost. There is no need for new technology to construct something built originally with 70 year old technology. A substantial expense are engines. Facts are facts. Patterns can be made from existing engines or from blue prints, those cast in iron at foundries, then milled and machined into engines. But the cost of doing all that far exceeds even the enormous cost of an engine.

Matt
 

Phantomfixer

Practically Family
Messages
819
Location
Mid East coast USA
Sad thing is that when a warbird goes down, that is it done finished. There are only x amount of P-51s etc around. When they are gone they are gone. This is not a new subject and is a can of worms I am sure. My view...?There are tons of engines around that can be rebuilt find a newer airframe stick in the radial and go for it. Cost I agree with Matt, it will cost plenty to manufacture a new FW-190 or ME262 but it has been done in Texas. Why not a P-38 etc......
 

cco23i

A-List Customer
Messages
472
Location
Phoenix
There is a company making reproduction P-40's, so it's only a matter of time for them or others to make different airframes.

Scott
 

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