P51 Mustang crashes at Flying Legends, Duxford

http://www.cambridgefirst.co.uk/news/crash_at_duxford_air_show_1_958563

Thank goodness the pilot parachuted out and is OK.
But I fear that sooner or later somebody might try to put an end to air shows. And what a shame!

They closed our local show already...

http://www.airshows.org.uk/news/2010/03/airshows-of-the-past-woodchurch-wings-and-things/

How sad... glad the pilot is ok. I agree and hope that no one tries to stop air shows. Airplane crashes are rare so they get all the publicity when car accidents are so common that they have to be bad to make local news.

A few months ago a Skyraider crashed, I was told it was the blue one but I think it was the camo one I got to climb into last year. Even sadder, the pilot and his fiancee didn't make it. Word around the hangar is that the pilot was scud running from Salt Lake City to either Idaho Falls and somehow ended up flying across Nevada instead of heading north and crashed into the mountains just inside the Idaho border.

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/local/twin-falls/article_fca5a6ba-4aed-11e0-b554-001cc4c03286.html

thats bad i was only there on the saturday show and it was great les than 24 hours later that happens

Another sad loss of a vintage warbird. Fortunately nobody got hurt this time.

I wonder if we'll see more flying replicas eventually? Accurate ones like the ME-262 and Focke-Wulf projects, but perhaps some Allied aircraft...

Somehow I expect to see new technologies develop that will make fabricating complex parts much easier. I think this is the key to full scale replicas of larger vintage aircraft. I've gone on the record before as being not real happy with the idea of flying the vintage birds, both from that standpoint of loss of aircraft and of human life. I'd like to know the statistics on safety for these vintage aircraft.

dhermann1 said:

Somehow I expect to see new technologies develop that will make fabricating complex parts much easier. I think this is the key to full scale replicas of larger vintage aircraft. I've gone on the record before as being not real happy with the idea of flying the vintage birds, both from that standpoint of loss of aircraft and of human life. I'd like to know the statistics on safety for these vintage aircraft.

Click to expand...

The loss of aircraft and pilots is of course tragic, but do we stop every human endeavour because there is some slight risk of loss? In any given year, how many vintage flights take place, and how many incidents such as this?

Two thousand Canadians will die in traffic accidents this year. I still drive to work every day. You can't legislate a risk-free life.

I'm not sure the statistics pertaining to vintage and/or exhibition aircraft and their respective operations but I suspect you will find it to be staggeringly low. When a historic bird goes in for it's final approach the whole world notices. Yet if you just read a LOCAL paper hardly a day goes by when an A/C of some sort has an incident. And as previously stated auto accidents are so prevalent they are not even worthy of news in most places.

Having flown on a B-25J as crew and gone for a joy ride with a pilot in an L-2 I can assure you the safety standards are extremely high and the pilots who fly these aircraft and fly at these shows are hands down some of the best pilots in the world. On more then one occasion a warbird pilot has sacrificed his air craft and his life to prevent harm to others.

As for reproduction. There is not a part that cannot be faithfully reproduced right down to the manufacturing process that was originally used. It's simply a matter of cost. There is no need for new technology to construct something built originally with 70 year old technology. A substantial expense are engines. Facts are facts. Patterns can be made from existing engines or from blue prints, those cast in iron at foundries, then milled and machined into engines. But the cost of doing all that far exceeds even the enormous cost of an engine.

Matt

Sad thing is that when a warbird goes down, that is it done finished. There are only x amount of P-51s etc around. When they are gone they are gone. This is not a new subject and is a can of worms I am sure. My view...?There are tons of engines around that can be rebuilt find a newer airframe stick in the radial and go for it. Cost I agree with Matt, it will cost plenty to manufacture a new FW-190 or ME262 but it has been done in Texas. Why not a P-38 etc......

There is a company making reproduction P-40's, so it's only a matter of time for them or others to make different airframes.

Scott

Here is a video with the actual mid-air collision.

http://www.flyingfilm.co.uk/

There are multiple videos on the page. You want the one about Big Beautiful Doll.

Tom