NASA WB-57 Crashes At Ellington Field

[MIflyer]

Hard to believe that NASA still has three WB-57 flying, but one of them made a gear-up landing at Ellington Field yesterday. Gear would not come down.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Read about that in the bath this morning. Glad the aircrew was safe, sad another legacy airframe had to suffer this insult.

 

[c1951]

Hard to believe that NASA still has three WB-57 flying, but one of them made a gear-up landing at Ellington Field yesterday. Gear would not come down.

View attachment 865433

They'll fix it or get another one

 

[SaparotRob]

All that wing area must've been helpful in this situation. Does anyone know what its wing loading is? What is its stall speed or its V(foos)?

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

All that wing area must've been helpful in this situation. Does anyone know what its wing loading is? What is its stall speed or its V(foos)?

Took a little looking, and I found this page. About 2,000 sq ft of wing area, max gross of 72,000 lbs gives us about 36 lbs/sq ft.

No stall speed given on that page. Pilot did a nice job giving it a long flare.

 

[GTX]

NASA WB-57F Canberra Jet Makes Fiery Belly-Landing In Houston (Updated)

NASA has a fleet of just three of the high-flying WB-57F aircraft, which are used for a wide array of scientific and defense-related missions.

www.twz.com

 

[MIflyer]

They'll fix it or get another one

I don't think they will be able to find one other than the other two they had.

Admittedly, there was an abandoned Canberra in RN markings at Melbourne Airport that I think ended up with Valiant Air Command, The Airport Authority got tired of looking at it and asked for bids. But that one was quite different from the WB-57F model, which has much larger engines as well as two more podded engines under the wings.

I recall a Shuttle launch that I worked that had a WB-57F come observe it for some reason. I thought it odd that it was flying even then.

 

[GTX]

NASA Crewmembers Unhurt In WB-57 Gear-Up Landing | Aviation Week Network

NASA says the two-person flight crew of a vintage WB-57F high altitude research aircraft were unharmed after the aircraft made a gear-up landing.

aviationweek.com

 

[ARTESH]

I'm really happy that the crew were safe.

 

[Count de Bastrop]

According to the website amarcexperience.com, AMARG holds 4 WB-57F, as well as 5 EB-57Bs, and 1 B-57E, as of January 15, 2026.