Suffering a hydraulic failure, the front landing gear refused to deploy. A few seconds later, that rudder also was torn off and slid across the runway.B-1 Lancers are often called “Bone,” which is the conjunction of its designation, B-One.īack in October 4th, 1989, a B-1 From the 96th Bomb Wing was forced to make an emergency landing.
The crew struggled to keep the bomber going down the center of the runway, but it dipped to the left, leaving scrape marks from its left lower rudder and wingtip along the runway’s edge.
#Bomber crew landing with one wheel skin#
The left landing gear door, which remained open during the emergency landing, touched the runway and dragged for about 750 feet before it ripped off, ripping open the skin on the underside of the wing and exposing its internal structure. Then, without enough spring pressure to keep the left landing gear locked in place, it began to collapse partially back into its wheel well. The bomber touched down and briefly bounced, though the investigation found it wasn’t a hard landing, and then touched down a second time. The pilots started an emergency landing gear extension to make sure all landing gear were down and locked, which uses stored pressure to knock the landing gear into place, and then gravity and airflow to lock it into place with the mechanical lock link system. The loss of that fluid also meant a hydraulic lock link actuator was not working and couldn’t help the springs keep the landing gear locked in place. The bomber automatically switched to a second hydraulic system, and it quickly lost nearly all of its fluid as well. The bomber’s right landing gear had experienced a failure of its high-pressure CryoFit coupling, which caused all 21 gallons of hydraulic fluid in one system to drain out within a minute. But almost immediately, a caution light warning of a hydraulic problem lit up, and the pilots declared an in-flight emergency. While on approach, the crew tried to extend its landing gear normally.
14, and there were no signs of any hydraulic problems during the first two flights. This B-2 was on its third training sortie of the day when it attempted to land shortly after midnight on Sept. The Spirit of Georgia was delivered to Whiteman in December 1995. The Air Force has 20 B-2s in its fleet, which cost about $1.1 billion apiece. The publicly released report does not get specific about the extent of the damage to the bomber’s highly delicate, low-observable stealth coating. Repair costs were estimated to be at least $10.1 million in the report, but the final cost could end up being much higher: The investigation said engineers need to take a closer look for internal structural damage to its left wing. No fire broke out.īut the B-2, dubbed the Spirit of Georgia and assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman, suffered significant damage to components including its left main landing gear, its door, the skin under its left wing, left lower wingtip light and left lower rudder. Both pilots were uninjured and were able to shut down and exit the bomber. Its left wing hit and dragged along the runway as the bomber veered onto the grassy area east of the runway. The B-2′s left landing gear collapsed within seconds of touching down. The photo was taken at 8:24 am local time. Satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs shows a B-2 Spirit bomber next to the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, after it suffered an in-flight malfunction and crash-landed shortly after midnight on Sept.
0 kommentar(er)
