F-22 Edwards Crash

[contraildash]

In 1995, an F-15E crew got spatially disoriented after their instruments froze on a night sortie. The only reason they knew something was wrong was because they heard the wind rush from outside the canopy - they were pointed at the ground going over 600 knots (above mach). The WSO (Capt Dennis White) died, but the pilot (Capt Brian Udell) survived with massive injuries. He holds the record for surviving the highest speed ejection from a US fighter.

Here is a story from Airman magazine and here is the story from the horse's mouth - not for the squeamish.

I have a Coast Guard video on the rescue of Capt Udell. Converting, will upload.

[HossHarris]

In 1995, an F-15E crew got spatially disoriented after their instruments froze on a night sortie. The only reason they knew something was wrong was because they heard the wind rush from outside the canopy - they were pointed at the ground going over 600 knots (above mach). The WSO (Capt Dennis White) died, but the pilot (Capt Brian Udell) survived with massive injuries. He holds the record for surviving the highest speed ejection from a US fighter.

Here is a story from Airman magazine and here is the story from the horse's mouth - not for the squeamish.

Here's a snippet from the less graphic text:

Back to the topic at hand - I wasn't aware that LM contractors flew test aircraft. Anybody know the approximate ratio of active duty to civilian test pilots?

Word from the ACES guys is that based on the sequencing, Capt Udell was likely close to subsonic when he actually left the Jet.

The current Fastest Man Alive is "Lucky" Shultz.

636knots in a block 50 from Shaw in full AB pointed straight down.

Also badly beaten up and all-around awesome guy.

[contraildash]

Action starts around 2:20ish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3_zueaQ4T8

Edited August 9, 2009 by contraildash

[uhhello]

Way to go Coasties

[EvilEagle]

Word from the ACES guys is that based on the sequencing, Capt Udell was likely close to subsonic when he actually left the Jet.

The current Fastest Man Alive is "Lucky" Shultz.

636knots in a block 50 from Shaw in full AB pointed straight down.

Also badly beaten up and all-around awesome guy.

Also, Jon "Jughead" Counsell - he punched as a student in the C model after a GLOC. He ejected at 1.14m. Took him 2 years to learn to walk, but I flew Eagles with him a few years ago. See his story (and many others) here: http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/f-15.htm

[sputnik]

What I don't understand is why the two versions would be different. The AIB can't take information from Tab 2 out of the SIB, but they can ask all of the same questions to all of the same people (right?). The only way they should be different is if they're getting different answers. Either people are lying to the SIB, or people are lying to the AIB, or both. Either we're passing on bad safety information in trying to prevent mishaps, or we're making incorrect life/career altering assessments based on crappy information. Which is it? Which program needs to be scrapped or otherwise seriously reconsidered? Both?

It's actually good to have both. The public has a right to know what happened to their millions of dollars of equipment and/or aircrew. That's the AIB. From an aviation point of view, we want to know asap what caused it, and more importantly how to prevent it happening again. Thus we can offer immunity to just about everyone off the bat in the interests of getting honest answers fast. Note that in case of any indication of criminal wrong doing the SIB shuts down and turns everything over to an AIB.

AIB there is no promise of immunity. Thus less incentive to talk. As crew you might be willing to talk to a SIB, you can't really get in trouble for it. Not so true with an AIB. You can say aircrew should man up and you might have a point. Not necessarily true of a manufacturer who could be opening themselves up to a multimillion dollar lawsuit.

There's be some interesting divergences between SIBs and AIBs lately, I'm not going to try to talk around the subject with specific cases. Sometimes it's hard to know which one is right. In the past I've found the best way is to read the white elephant myself and draw my own conclusions. I've noticed when doing that occasionally I've drawn different conclusions than the SIB, so I suppose it's not unusual for the AIB to get different results when they're not even looking at the same stuff.