A historical curiosity, a short training film by the USAAF about how to fly a lumbering B-24 despite battle damage and land it safely. It's a pleasant but stern pep talk for pilots. You won't see that B-24 take a flak shell in the root of its left wing and disintegrate here.
Instead, you'll see a series of hints about maintaining control with various combinations of engines feathered, with flat tires, with half-demolished fuselages, and during water landings. (Slowest possible speed, no tail down, into the wind, or, in rough seas, parallel to the wave crests.) It's all so clearly written that I think I could do it myself, although some of the cant about engine setting was at a higher altitude than I was.
Still, I'm happy not to have participated in a dangerous landing. The closest I ever got was in a form of B-24 called a Privateer, modified for air/sea rescue. I happened to glance out the window and noticed that the pilot had feathered one of the engines. I think I wondered why. Now I know.
Instead, you'll see a series of hints about maintaining control with various combinations of engines feathered, with flat tires, with half-demolished fuselages, and during water landings. (Slowest possible speed, no tail down, into the wind, or, in rough seas, parallel to the wave crests.) It's all so clearly written that I think I could do it myself, although some of the cant about engine setting was at a higher altitude than I was.
Still, I'm happy not to have participated in a dangerous landing. The closest I ever got was in a form of B-24 called a Privateer, modified for air/sea rescue. I happened to glance out the window and noticed that the pilot had feathered one of the engines. I think I wondered why. Now I know.
