Mid-air Collison at Duxford

Wow. Look at the Skyraider. What a tough airplane....amazing it could take this much damage and land safely. What are the chances it can be repaired and able to fly again?

So glad all involved survived.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Some more pix....both of those pilots are very lucky
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Any idea where the damage to the P-51 was? It looks relatively intact in that photo. Damage to a control surface perhaps?

 

looks like a big gash aft of the air inlet[just past the star and bars on the port side] and maybe the whole small tail section looks bent down a little???

 

Here is a video of it happening:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HAOVgrHCk0[/ame]

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmsJW0-6JB0&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

 

Glad everyone did well. These guys I imagine were very qualified.
A lesson here as well.

 

Just a question for Sparky or other warbird form guys. Reviewing the video, they were in a vic and lead broke from in front across two. I have never seen that before. It looked like two was trying to reform inside. Is that an airshow thing?

 

Looks like a position and timing error to me. I'm not an expert but I have flown formation and i know that you never make a turn into the formation. Both of the pilots were blind to each other and the Sky Raider appeared to have made his pull up too early if that is what was planned and I don't quite understand what they were trying to do in the way they were breaking out of the vic. Looks like the P-51 took some deep damage in the aft fuselage and maybe the right stabilizer. A blind pull up is what destroyed my old L-3.

 

Thinking, I always get into trouble when I do that but I was thinking about the P-51. It appears that the impact load was heavy enough to fail the Sky Raider wing in a negative direction. To do that, the P-51 fuselage had to have also taken a heavy hit. Maybe enough to cave in the right hand lower longeron, put a bend in the aft fuselage enough to give a pronounced downward trim in the tail and end controlled flight. That's what I git fer thinkin'

 

Sounds good to me Bob. The Spad really shoves the 51 askew upon impact. Entire exit duct and tail wheel pretty well shoved up into the lower longerons. Rudder cables right above that longeron area...like 2in above them. Elivator cables up pretty high. Production break just aft of the duct and fwd of the tail wheel. Looks like entire aft fuselage has a down look about it. Strange break with center guy up and out first. He was just in front and above #2. Seems that every year someone at the Duxford show prangs something. The Hinton boys are over there flying some of Stephen Grays stuff. Wonder if they saw it. 8 ton Spad one...4 ton 51 zero.

 

Looking at the photos, the P-51's fuselage and tail surfaces all look fine to me. The only thing I can think of that would make the aircraft uncontrollable would be failure of the control cables, as sparky suggests. And I think that the A-1 was lucky not to lose his aileron.

 

In the view from below looking at the P-51 you can see light through a hole in the lower aft fuselage near the radiator fairing. The force of the Sky Raider wing is pretty heavy in the video of the contact. After all, he was in a left roll and held it after the contact thus putting a pretty strong down load on the right outer wing, strong enough to fail both spars. There is ,I imagine, some down load already on the tail of the Mustang and having a " cave-in" of the aft lower fuselage ain't gonna help anything. It would be difficult to assess the deformation of the structure from looking at the fuzzy photos, I think. Sparky and Gatorrari could be correct, however.

 

New vid of 51/spad mid air. Google flyingfilm.co.uk second part in slo mo

 

Video here:

http://vimeo.com/26291756

 

That airplane took a helluva whack. Kicked sideways and had a hole punched in the fuselage. Since it didn't burn after impact, they will certainly be able to ascertain collision damage. I still can't figure out what they were trying to do when they pitched up out of the vic. Disjointed maneuvers...In the morning pilot's meetings held at the Abbotsford Airshow, every detail of what each performer was to do was covered and timing breakdowns were gone over. Anyone who diverted from the plan was suspended from the show. Maybe there was some confusion at Duxford.

 

Man, that thing must've been worse for wear as he was ready to bail immediately. Didn't even look like he tried to get a feel for the plane. Within seconds the top was popped off and he was setting up to bail.

Assuming most of the controls were destroyed upon impact, how did the plane right itself after impact? Is that just motion/aerodynamics doing it on their own?

 

The pilot of Big Beautiful Doll did pretty well to get out. He had the canopy open and off in four seconds. So that was an automatic instinct. Probably not much time to fly. He was out ten seconds later. Possibly not too many seconds too early or too late. So I hate to say it but well done. Have a pint and remorse about the loss of your Big Beautiful Doll.

 

Summary:
#2 hit lead in a dissimilar aircraft initial break pull up from a tight vic.

Both of those guys survived by quick thinking and luck post-impact.

It is so wonderful that everyone survived and there were no ground casualties.

 

I think that was very prudent! Clearing his escape he then flew the aircraft for a further ten seconds before exiting - long enough to establish aircraft control (or not).

Brilliant that noone was hurt in the air or on the ground.

 

That airplane is as good as you can get when it comes to stability, plenty of vertical fin area, adequate tail arm, and enough dihedral to return to stabile flight without any pilot inputs. Talk to any of the Mustang Aces and they will tell you how good that airplane is. After taking a heavy hit it corrected back to straight and level before the effects of the collision took over.

 

After looking at some stills of the Mustang after the collision it is readily apparent that the entire lower fuselage aft of the radiator fairing is heavily damaged well up into the longerons. That gets into a lot of control cables and I imagine it weakend the structure as well. A lot of force put on both aircraft.

 

That is definitely where the contact was.

I think the pilot did fly it, or rather tried to. I think he had a nose down attitude. It appears at one moment as though he probably made a concerted effort to correct that. At that moment it looks as though the tail sickenly sank briefly.

A couple more seconds of that, nose down uncorrectable at that altitude, and the pilot was wise to bail out. I don't know what his rate of descent was but he made it.

Has anyone heard what he has to say about it?

 

Just saw the 51 pilot on Youtube. Dont know how to get it to fchat.