Today in NACA History

[Subdeacon Joe]

Quote

September 8, 1954, NACA test pilot Scott Crossfield made the first powerless “deadstick” landing of an F-100. Crossfield explains the event in his 1960 book, "Always Another Dawn, The Story Of A Rocket Test Pilot."

"I called Edwards tower and declared an emergency. All airborne planes in the vicinity of the base were warned away from the lake area. I held the ailing F-100 on course, dropping swiftly, following the glide path that I used for the dead-stick Skyrocket. [Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket] I flared out and touched down smoothly. It was one of the best landings I have ever made, in fact. Seconds later, while the F-100 was rolling out, the remaining bit of hydraulic pressure in the control lines drained out and the controls froze.
I then proceeded to violate a cardinal rule of aviation: never try tricks with a compromised airplane. The F-100 was still rolling at a fast clip, coming up fast on the NACA ramp, when I made my poor decision. I had already achieved the exceptional, now I would end it with a flourish, a spectacular wind-up. I would snake the stricken F-100 right up the ramp and bring it to a stop immediately in front of the NACA hangar. This trick, which I had performed so often in the Skyrocket, was a fine touch. After the first successful dead-stick landing in an F-100, it would be fitting.

"According to the F-100 handbook, the hydraulic brake system—a separate hydraulic system from the controls—was good for three “cycles,” engine out. This means three pumps on the brake, and that proved exactly right. The F-100 was moving at about fifteen miles an hour when I turned up the ramp. I hit the brakes once, twice, three times. The plane slowed, but not quite enough. I was still inching ahead ponderously, like a diesel locomotive. I hit the brakes a fourth time—and my foot went clear to the floorboards. The hydraulic fluid was exhausted. The F-100 rolled on, straight between the yawning hangar doors!

"The good Lord was watching over me—partially anyhow. The NACA hangar was then crowded with expensive research tools—the Skyrocket, all the X-1 series, the X-3, X-4 and X-5. Yet somehow, my plane, refusing to halt, squeezed by them all and bored steadily on toward the side wall of the hangar. The nose of the F-100 crunched through the corrugated aluminum, punching out an eight-inch steel I-beam…

"Chuck Yeager never let me forget the incident. He drew many laughs at congregations of pilots by opening his talk: “Well, the sonic wall was mine. The hangar wall was Crossfield’s.” That’s the way it was at Edwards. Hero one minute, bum the next…

Every night after landing, I taxied the F-100 slowly to the NACA ramp. At the bottom, placed there on orders of [Center Director] Walt Williams, there was a large new sign, symbolic of the new atmosphere at Edwards. It said: PLEASE COME TO A COMPLETE STOP BEFORE TAXIING UP RAMP. "

Learn more about Scott Crossfield:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/improvingflight/crossfield.html

Scott Crossfield talks about his experience as the first person to fly Mach 2. View the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Nm5kMaGxQ

 

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Yeager was very critical of Crossfield in his autobiography. He said he said he’d given the operating manual to Crossfield the day before and claimed he didn’t bother to read it. He said that hydraulic issue was clearly covered.