Boeing Airplane Company

Boeing 707

A Boeing Airplane Company test pilot was acting as an instructor-pilot on a demonstration and acceptance flight prior to the aircraft being delivered to the customer. The company was also utilizing this flight time for flight instruction purposes in qualifying airline personnel in the aircraft. The instructor-pilot demonstrated several maneuvers, including Dutch Rolls, to a pilot-trainee, an airline captain who was making his first training flight training flight prior to checkout on the Boeing 707. The instructor-pilot initiated a Dutch Roll in which the roll-park angle of the aircraft reached 40 to 60 degrees. This bank angle is in excess of limitation set by the company for demonstration of his maneuver. The pilot-trainee, who was to make the recovery, rolled full right aileron control while the right rank was still increasing. The instructor-pilot immediately rolled in full opposite aileron. The airplane stopped its right roll at a point well past a vertical bank and then rolled to the left even more violently. Several gyrations followed and after control of the aircraft was regained, it was determined that three of the four engines had separated from the aircraft and it was on fire. The fire rapidly reduced controllability of the aircraft and an emergency landing was attempted, however, the aircraft struck trees and crashed short of the intended landing area because power on the engine remaining had to be shut down to keep the aircraft wings level. The aircraft was destroyed and four crew members were killed while four others were injured.

Boeing B-52 Stratofortress

While on a test flight out from Wichita, the aircraft suffered a loss of electrical power while flying in negative G conditions. The aircraft went out of control and crashed near Skiatook, about 15 miles north of Tulsa. A crew member was injured while three other were killed.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress

The crew was performing a test flight on this second prototype. Ten minutes after departure from Seattle-Boeing Field, the crew informed ATC that engine number one caught fire and attempted to return. At an altitude of 2,400 feet, pilot feathered the propeller and notified ATC that the fire was spreading quickly. One minute later, as it was about to land, the bomber struck a power line and crashed on an industrial butchery. Extensive emergency resources were dispatched to the scene where rescuers did not find any survivors among the debris scattered over a wide area. The building was destroyed as well and 34 dead bodies were found: all 11 occupants on board the airplane and 23 people on ground. Thirty others people were injured as well. Crew: Eddie Allen, Chief test pilot by Boeing, Bob Dansfield, captain.

Boeing 307 Stratoliner

The four engine aircraft (first prototype) left Seattle-Boeing Field at 1257LT with few different representative of TWA and KLM. At 1312LT, a radio message was transmitted from NX19901 to the Boeing Aircraft Company radio Station located at Seattle, which message gave the position of the aircraft as being between Tacoma and Mount Rainier at an altitude of 11,000 feet. Some two or three minutes later, while flying at a comparatively slow rate of speed in the vicinity of Alder, the aircraft stalled and began to spin in a nose down attitude. After completing two or three returns in the spin, during which power was applied, it recovered from the spin and began to dive. The aircraft partially recovered from the dive at an altitude of approximately 3,000 feet above sea level, during which recovery it began to disintegrate. Outboard sections of the left and right wings failed upward and broke entirely loose from the aircraft. Major portions of the vertical fin and portions of the rudder were carried away by the wing wreckage. The outboard section of the left elevator separated from the stabilizer and both fell to the ground detached. The right horizontal tail surface, being held on by the fairing along the top surface and also by the elevator trim tab cables, remained with the fuselage. The number one engine nacelle also broke loose from the aircraft and fell to the ground separately. The main body of the aircraft settled vertically and struck the ground in an almost level attitude both longitudinally and laterally at a point approximately 1.200 feet above sea level. Watches and clocks aboard the aircraft, which were broken by force of the impact, indicated the time of the accident as approximately 1317LT. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and all ten occupants were killed. Crew: Julius A. Barr, first pilot, Earl A. Ferguson, copilot, Benjamin J. Pearson. alternate copilot, Harlan Hull, alternate copilot, Ralph L. Cram, first aerodynamist, John Kylstra, assistant to aerodynamist, Albert G. von Baumhauer, assistant to aerodynamist, Pieter Guillonard, recorder and photographer, William C. Doyle, operator of the oscillograph, Harry T. West, engineering officer.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

Crew was performing a test flight on this prototype of the Boeing 299 (registered NX13372 - "X13372") which will be renamed later Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Shortly after take off from Wilbur Wright Field located near Dayton, aircraft stalled and crashed in flames in an open field just after runway end. The pilot was killed while three other occupants were seriously injured. One of the survivor, an engineer, died few days later. Wilbur Wright Field became in 1948 Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The captain who was killed was Major Ployer Peter Hill, an American aviator who will give his name to the Ogden Air Base in Utah on December 1, 1939. The killed engineer was Les Tower.