Flak or Nike?

[VALENGO]

Many times I have seen the vid where a B17 is followed by the camera until it crashes against the soil.
It is always entitled B17 down by flak, or something alike.
But after watching this vid I tend to believe that it was a missile test and not a flak kill.
Indeed, there is at least two similar vids (really, I´m not sure if it is the same)

Nike:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_tSIlMdZok


Flak (at 2:35):

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe36UMRkRbk


What do you think?.

 

[Capt. Vick]

I agree with you. It is not WW2 footage. The give away that it's a test is the smoke generators attached to the bottom of the wings.

 

[VALENGO]

You don´t imagine how many times I have felt sad about the fate of those men, and it was an R/C!.

Edit: yes, the second one has a smoke generator too. Good eyes, Capt!

 

[tyrodtom]

It must have been one heck of a warhead on that Nike.

It appears it hit near the right outer engine, but there's also massive damage near the cockpit.
Or did they pack the fuselage with demolition charges for dramatic effect, or in case of a miss ?

 

[VALENGO]

I guess the explosion created a huge amount of debris, according to the concept for missiles not designed for direct impact.

 

[tyrodtom]

I'm sure a radio controlled aircraft of that size would have a self destruct just in case something went wrong.

Then that begs the question, is what we're seeing as a result only of the missile strike, or the missile strike and then later the self destruct, or just the self destruct ??


When I went back and looked at the video again, I did notice immediate damage to the cockpit area right at the time of the wing strike, blowing sideways away from the right wing. So one heck of a warhead .

 

[VALENGO]

If you set play speed at .25, is more easy to see the missile going more or less thru the wing from starboard to port. The last part to catch damage is the aircraft nose. It is strange that the video announces "a B29 destroyed by a Nike" instead of a B17.