Even with No Tail, B-52 'Finest I Ever Flew,' Says Pilot
January 10, 1964, started
out as a typical day for the flight test group at Boeing's Wichita plant. Pilot
Chuck Fisher took off in a B-52H with a three-man Boeing crew, flying a
low-level profile to obtain structural data.
Over Colorado, cruising 500 feet above the mountainous terrain, the B-52
encountered some turbulence. Fisher climbed to 14,300 feet looking for smoother
air.
At this point the typical day ended.
The bomber flew into clear-air turbulence. It felt as if the plane had been
placed in a giant high-speed elevator, shoved up and down, and hit by a heavy
blow on its right side.
Fisher told the crew to prepare to abandon the plane. He slowed the aircraft and
dropped to about 5,000 feet to make it easier to bail out.
But then Fisher regained some control. He climbed slowly to 16,000 feet to put
some safety room between the plane and the ground. He informed Wichita about
what was happening. Although control was difficult, Fisher said he believed he
could get the plane back in one piece.
Response to the situation at Wichita, and elsewhere, was immediate. An emergency
control center was set up in the office of Wichita's director of flight test.
Key Boeing engineers and other specialists were summoned to provide their
expertise. Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control centers at Denver
and Kansas City cleared the air around the troubled plane. A Strategic Air
Command B-52 in the area maintained radio contact with the crew of the
Wichita B-52.
As Fisher got closer to Wichita, a Boeing chase plane flew up to meet him and to
visually report the damage. When Dale Felix, flying an F-100 fighter, came
alongside Fisher's B-52, he couldn't believe what he saw: The B-52's vertical
tail was gone.
Felix broke the news to Fisher and those gathered in the control center. There
was no panic. Everyone on the plane and in the control center knew they could be
called upon at any time for just such a situation.
In the emergency control center, the engineers began making calculations and
suggesting the best way to get the plane down safely.
The Air Force was also lending assistance. A B-52, just taking off for a routine
flight, was used to test the various flight configurations suggested by the
specialists before Fisher had to try them.
As high gusty winds rolled into Wichita, the decision was made to divert the
B-52 to Blytheville Air Force Base in Northeastern Arkansas.
Boeing specialists from the emergency control center took off in a KC-135 and
accompanied Fisher to Blytheville, serving as an airborne control center.
Six hours after the incident first occurred, Fisher and his crew brought in the
damaged B-52 for a safe landing.
"I'm very proud of this crew and this airplane," Fisher said. "Also we had a lot
people helping us, and we're very thankful for that."
The B-52, Fisher said, "Is the finest airplane I ever flew."