F-8 flying with wings folded!

[JDRoest]

Wandering round the internet this evening and found mention of F-8 Crusader flying with it's wings folded. Dug around a bit more and found this photo!

internet said:

The operational history of the F-8 Crusader has an interesting distinction. In August 1960, a US Navy pilot took off from Naples, Italy, and climbed to about 1.5 kilometers. When he leveled off, he found he needed an unusual amount of pressure on the stick. Looking around for the cause, he discovered that he hadn't unfolded his wings! The pilot was obviously cool-headed, since he decided to investigate how the aircraft handled in this configuration while he dumped what fuel he could. After about 24 minutes of flight he came back in for a landing, which was fast but otherwise uneventful. He reported no particular handling problems with the aircraft. Vought engineers were very pleased when they heard the story, though Navy brass was far from happy with the incident

This is said to be the first case where an aircraft took off with folded wings and safely landed again, but Crusaders took off with folded wings at least seven more times afterward. Unsurprisingly, it usually happened at night. One pilot managed to waggle the aircraft and get the wings back down in flight. In response to the posting of an early version of this document on the Internet, the executive officer of the French Aeronavale squadron operating the Crusader, Antoine Guillot, said one of his pilots had pulled the same trick at an airshow in Belgium. At least under such circumstances the pilot might have been able to claim he did it intentionally as a stunt.

Thought it was worthy of sharing.

Edited by JDRoest on Saturday 12th January 05:14

[Eric Mc]

It's a fairly well known incident. The wing fold on the Crusader was quite far out on the wing which meant that there was sufficient wing area remaining to allow the aircraft to fly.

[tight5]

first time i've heard this !
one of my favourite planes too .

[Tango13]

It happened a couple of times iirc, i'll have a look for details when i've got a bit more time later.

[Eric Mc]

The F-8 also had a variable incidence wing - which must have helped too.

[Fonz]

Now that is just showing off!

[Hooli]

Eric Mc said:

The F-8 also had a variable incidence wing - which must have helped too.

As can be seen set to 'high lift' in the photo.

[speedtwelve]

It's happened a few times in the F4 World too. IIRC the Phantom was fitted with 'beer cans' that protruded through the wing upper surface to indicate whether or not the outer wings were locked.

Not sure what the catapult launch crew were looking at before they fired this off the ship...

[irocfan]

wasn't there an Israeli F14 that lost half a wing in flight which landed safely? I'll try and fin this later

[Mr E]

irocfan said:

wasn't there an Israeli F14 that lost half a wing in flight which landed safely? I'll try and fin this later

F15, lost a wing in a collision. Landed safely...

[Eric Mc]

irocfan said:

wasn't there an Israeli F14 that lost half a wing in flight which landed safely? I'll try and fin this later

Israel never operated F-14s. Only two nations have used the F-14 - the US (Navy) and Iran.

[brenflys777]

Eric Mc said:

It's a fairly well known incident.

Not to me - thanks OP for posting!

[fadeaway]

Mr E said:

irocfan said:

wasn't there an Israeli F14 that lost half a wing in flight which landed safely? I'll try and fin this later

F15, lost a wing in a collision. Landed safely...

yeah, and not half a wing, it lost a whole wing. Just amazing that it still flew!
Video on YouTube (@3 mins in):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk1KBQ96_DI

[Eric Mc]

fadeaway said:

Mr E said:

irocfan said:

wasn't there an Israeli F14 that lost half a wing in flight which landed safely? I'll try and fin this later

F15, lost a wing in a collision. Landed safely...

yeah, and not half a wing, it lost a whole wing. Just amazing that it still flew!
Video on YouTube (@3 mins in):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk1KBQ96_DI

I don't think there is any video of the actual event but Discovery did do a re-enactment of the incident using mocked up video and stills of the real aiircraft.

[Mojocvh]

speedtwelve said:

It's happened a few times in the F4 World too. IIRC the Phantom was fitted with 'beer cans' that protruded through the wing upper surface to indicate whether or not the outer wings were locked.

Not sure what the catapult launch crew were looking at before they fired this off the ship...

Smallest "beer cans" in the world then

[fadeaway]

Eric Mc said:

fadeaway said:

Mr E said:

irocfan said:

wasn't there an Israeli F14 that lost half a wing in flight which landed safely? I'll try and fin this later

F15, lost a wing in a collision. Landed safely...

yeah, and not half a wing, it lost a whole wing. Just amazing that it still flew!
Video on YouTube (@3 mins in):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk1KBQ96_DI

I don't think there is any video of the actual event but Discovery did do a re-enactment of the incident using mocked up video and stills of the real aiircraft.

Yeah, your right Eric. It's not a video of the event, but from a TV programme about it. Includes the pilot talking about it and photos of the plane after it had landed

[anonymous-user]

fadeaway said:

Mr E said:

irocfan said:

wasn't there an Israeli F14 that lost half a wing in flight which landed safely? I'll try and fin this later

F15, lost a wing in a collision. Landed safely...

yeah, and not half a wing, it lost a whole wing. Just amazing that it still flew!
Video on YouTube (@3 mins in):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk1KBQ96_DI

Considering the shape and thrust to weight ratio of an unladen F15 it's not actually that amazing that it "flew" more than the control systems could cope with the massive non linearity of response, and the hydraulic and electric system redundancies still operated correctly with that level of airframe damage! I wouldn't have put any money for example of the main U/C operating correctly etc.