"technical" question about a P-47 crash

[Flyingkag]

Hi everyone,

Working about some very old WWII statements concerning the crash of a P-47, I would love to learn your own opinion about the following elements:

the guy (15 years old in 1944) said that the P-47 arrived with a low negative Climb, (maybe 5% or 10% negative Climb), at a relative low speed (it was still climbing as it was hit and then get down relatively "slowly" I guess)

-the plane hit the ground with that 5% negative climb and then made a long trench, about 50 meters long ad 80cm deep at his extremity

- at that point, the P-47 came "ass over head", and desintegrated on the ground,

- the parts were scattered on a very long area ("some hundreds meters long")

- and the engine and one safe bomb would have been found at about a 400 meters (!!!) distance from the first inpact point!!!

My question is;

do you believe one bomb and the engine should have "jumped" so long (about 400 meters) from impact point to their last position???

thanks for your point of views!

Mathias

[Revi16]

Sounds like the plane hit the ground almost level (5* nose down), skidded for a while, then flipped over or cart wheeled. An engine or bomb could be thrown/roll quite a ways. I wouldn't take the "400 meters" as gospel though.

[Flyingkag]

Thanks Revi16!

I agree!

the 1944 guy said he had noticed many little "holes" in the fields on places the engine had bounced until he finished in a little ditch.

Sure the real speed of the crashing plane (250 ...or 400 km/h?) can changed such a "scattering distance" to!

Mathias

[ClinA-78]

Hello,

I was not there so I cannot tell much but
a similar case occured in my area - as witnessed - involving a strafing P-47 which rammed the trees along the road he fired upon. It seems the angle of dive (your negative climb??) was rather flat (and the pilot focused on the target?); the aircraft 'landed' flattely nearby with the engine projected at - at least 200m - from the fuselage. The unfortunate pilot's body was still strapped inside the cockpit.
Lt. Harold MORRIS 82nd FS RIP

Best regards

ClinA-78

[Graham Boak]

You can look at it ballistically, using Newton's Laws of Motion. An object (in this case a bomb) launched at 250mph at an angle of 45 degrees, will fly for some 12 seconds before impacting some 2100ft away, still with considerable forward velocity i.e. it could carry on bouncing further. This is obviously idealised, with no losses due to drag, but shows that 400m is not unreasonable.

Numbers open to more thorough analysis...

[Flyingkag]

Thanks guys!

So it seems my 1944 young witnesses had maybe not drunk to much "chnapps" (very strong german alcohol) and their statements could be correct and sharp!

I should soon go search on the crash site and be able to take the real distance of these "bouncing engine and bomb", with probable little parts of teh plane still on crash site in the open fields (allready identified);

I'll be back to you then, and give that distance as soon as checked!

Thanks for the help,

Mathias

[Flyingkag]

Hey guys,

back home after a jump on crahsite:

a big surprise was to find here; the "P-47" was in reality a... F-104G Starfighter! I found an identification plate in the fields in open air yesterday! (after 3 hours walking in the naked fields).

Concerning our questions about the "dispersion of parts on crahsite", it in reality was about 500 meters long !!!, as I could check yesterday:

It now sounds better, according with the "Starfighter" speed (2300km/h in high altitude!!!), a little bit to long for a P-47!

In conclusion: no Thunderbolt ...but a Starfighter ; not to bad!

Thanks for having helped!

Mathias

[ClinA-78]

mine was a real P-47