B17 crashed

[JG52Krupi]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger

I cant think of many "fuse boxes" in the wing of a B-17,if there was an electrical fire it would have spreaded in the fuselage,but then again with 7 people on board I reckon that they would have been able to put the fire down..

It could have been a supercharger failure,which might have caused a fire under the wing (hence the visibility from below and the ineffective fire extinguisher procedure). I suppose we will have to wait for the CAA report.

Uh and aluminium pretty much burns in the same way,no matter how old (plus bear in mind that most of these birds are re-skinned).

True, could have been the supercharger.

On the old side of things i wasn't referring to the actual age of the material but the type of aluminium used, aluminum has come a long way since the types/alloys that were first being used on aircraft.

[Al Schlageter]

There was a fire in the wing well behind the inboard starboard engine (photos on line). Supposedly the a/c had been grounded to fix a leaking fuel tank. Used some epoxy to fix the leak, so I would say the epoxy let go and the leaking fuel caught fire.

Been informed that the head of maintenance of the a/c is borderline incompetent.

Originally Posted by JG52Krupi

True, could have been the supercharger.

On the old side of things i wasn't referring to the actual age of the material but the type of aluminium used, aluminum has come a long way since the types/alloys that were first being used on aircraft.

yep, no matter what kind of alloy, it still burns darn quick once ignited

Originally Posted by Al Schlageter

There was a fire in the wing well behind the inboard starboard engine (photos on line). Supposedly the a/c had been grounded to fix a leaking fuel tank. Used some epoxy to fix the leak, so I would say the epoxy let go and the leaking fuel caught fire.

Been informed that the head of maintenance of the a/c is borderline incompetent.

that's a lot of speculation and I somehow doubt that the head of maintenance would be an incompetent guy, the plane has been flying for many years and nobody would put the maintenance of such a machine in the hands of someone who's not up to the job.. Again, let's wait for the CAA report on the accident..

[JG52Krupi]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger

yep, no matter what kind of alloy, it still burns darn quick once ignited

Slightly OT:

On this forum i did hear that the aluminium that the germans used was inferior to that used by the allies, it would be nice to see the material specs and compare them (damn it engineering is supposed to be my job not my hobby ).

[Al Schlageter]

No speculation on the a/c as the a/c had been grounded on the weekend for some kind of maintenance. The a/c exploded in flames after touch down which would happen with no air flow. Gee, just what fuel does.

The comment on the head of maintenance was made by a guy that restores a/c.

[Blakduk]

Good to see the crew got out okay.
There will be a lot of engineers sweating now waiting for the investigation- the civil aviation guys are very thorough, and that looks like a grease monkey did something they shouldn't or missed something they should have seen.

I say keep 'em flying. There's nothing to compare with seeing these static objects become flying machines again. Accidents will happen, it's a statistical fact, but they can be rebuilt.

Originally Posted by Al Schlageter

No speculation on the a/c as the a/c had been grounded on the weekend for some kind of maintenance. The a/c exploded in flames after touch down which would happen with no air flow. Gee, just what fuel does.

The comment on the head of maintenance was made by a guy that restores a/c.

yeah, that's the typical hangar bitching, as soon as something goes wrong people start talking $hit about others.. seen it happen before..

Let's look at FACTS: here is a dramatic photo sequence of the fire:

http://www.wgnradio.com/news/chi-110...1.photogallery

as you can see they managed to land the plane properly, and the fire is on the engine 2 area. If you look closer the prop of engine 2 is actually feathered, which means that it's likely the engine and/or supercharger are at the base of the fire.

Once the fire was out of control, all they could do was look at the plane torching away

[retrojet]

It's annoying that all the headlines say " crashed and burned", when the pictures show that the pilot made a brilliant landing. Everyone got clear...
That's great skill under the circumstances! Sad, but could have been so much worse!

[drewpee]

Some thing as simple as a rag used to clean a part or catch a drip while changing oil accidentally left behind could be enough to cause a fire. Once a fire was able to take hold and the fuel tank caught its time to get out of there. Its hard to imagine the flames and heat that amount of av-gass would produce.

[baronWastelan]

Originally Posted by retrojet

It's annoying that all the headlines say " crashed and burned", when the pictures show that the pilot made a brilliant landing. Everyone got clear...
That's great skill under the circumstances! Sad, but could have been so much worse!

you are SO right!!!

The A/C got down safely and all crew got out unharmed. Nothing lasts forever. I'm glad the Boeing spent it's last day doing what it was built for: flying, not rotting away in a museum!!!