War weary airplanes, who decided and on what criteria

• Oct 13, 2016

• #41

drgondog

Major

9,597

6,280

Jun 28, 2006

Scurry, Texas

XBe02Drvr said:

I've seen wreckage pieces from two different B-52 crash sites that looked like wing structure and had cracks with patches riveted over them and patches over the patches. Aerolasticity, right? And these were supposedly young airframes.

Click to expand...

Fatigue is certainly in the domain of Aeroelastic driven structural issues. The B-52 experienced many 1G reversible loads in normal flight - Ditto UH-1 Hueys due to the rotor +/- loading on the airframe - both different from high frequency/harmonic excitation that you saw on the F-4 wing and tail.

 

• Oct 13, 2016

• #42

Airframes

Benevolens Magister

63,028

12,577

Aug 24, 2008

Cheshire, UK

Thanks for the reply regarding 'Shangri la ', Bill. I always thought it rather strange that it would just be dumped, rather than stripped for usable spares.

 

• Oct 13, 2016

• #43

Greg Boeser

2nd Lieutenant

5,263

10,944

Jul 29, 2016

Minnesota

If anything, it would be stripped, then dumped. There's a picture of some planes caught on the ground at Port Moresby and damaged beyond repair, then completely stripped of everything useful. Nothing but the fuselages remained. Not an uncommon occurrence in the Pacific in the early days of '42. Even slightly damaged planes fell under the knife to keep the other birds flying.

 

• Oct 16, 2016

• #44

bobbysocks

Chief Master Sergeant

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321

Feb 28, 2010

Pennsylvania

I heard it was stripped...engine and anything usable and the skeleton was dumped.