Thread: when your number is NOT up

Best pilot in the World.
Regards Philip A

Fake. See FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show a Plane Landing Safely After Losing a Wing?

wanna really see a plane land with one wing ...

I seem to remember many years ago a real incident was reported about a case, in the UK, where a plane's wing started to fail in upward bending, with the pilot rolling to inverted and flying that way to the airfield where he rolled upright as he flared. There was crash, but he survived with minor injuries. It was doing acrobatics.

Also, I seem to remember a case from NZ about 1970 where a DC-3 cropduster lost about half of one wing in a midair and made a successful landing.

Somewhere I have a biography of a test pilot, who was flying his family from UK to France (I think just after the war) in a single, and just after crossing the channel, the engine fell out of the plane. It immediately pitched up, but rather than allowing it to stall, he continued into a loop, during which he transferred the kids into the front with him and his wife, and successfully made an emergency landing without further damage to aircraft. He claimed in his autobiography that his only other real emergency in his career was an emergency landing after an engine failure in a new Spitfire during its first flight. Being wartime, he had not let fog delay the test flight, and his landing was in town - in about a dozen backyards. Unfortunately these had been separated by garden walls and fences. I can't remember his name or the name of the book.

This ones real,,
The right person in the right place at the right time..
Luck?

YouTube

JD,
Yes, Neil Williams, Captain of the British Aerobatic team in a Zlin, circa 1970. A truly great piece of flying.
Alan

Originally Posted by aussearcher

JD,
Yes, Neil Williams, Captain of the British Aerobatic team in a Zlin, circa 1970. A truly great piece of flying.
Alan

Thanks. This, as you say, was a truly great piece of flying. Also, someone who was very closely into the aircraft and very quick thinking. Unfortunately no video as far as I know. I wonder if it inspired the video that started the thread?

Not sure about inspiration for the video, but Zlin now pressurise the main spar of their aircraft with nitrogen, and fit a pressure monitor, and thereby hopefully picking up any fatigue cracking. I remember reading Williams' account of the incident in the DCA Crash Comic when I was a young Air Force cadet learning to fly, and being suitably impressed by his airmanship!