The first U.S. Military aviation mishap involving powered flight occurred before the Army even owned an airplane. The crash was at Fort Myers, Virginia, on 17 September 1908. The occasion was the final flight in the acceptance trials of the first aircraft purchased from the Wright brothers. Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge was flying with Orville Wright. After they had been airborne about 3 or 4 minutes, the aircraft suddenly nosed over and crashed at a steep angle. Lt Selfridge was fatally injured and died several hours later. Orville was seriously injured and hospitalized for 7 weeks. Thus, the first powered flight of a military man ended in his death, not a very auspicious beginning for military aviation and flying safety. The Army ordered an investigation to learn the cause of the mishap. The investigation consisted of observing the remains of the crashed aircraft and taking witness statements. The board found a new, longer propeller contacted a rudder guy wire and eventually caused the wire to come out of its socket. This allowed the rudder to fold sideways, and the pilot lost control. This first mishap investigation was very unsophisticated when compared to our investigations today. But so were the aircraft. The purpose was the same - to find out what happened so it could be prevented from happening again. And it worked. The Wright brothers designed an improved version of their aircraft with structural changes which ensured the propellers could not hit any guy wires. This marked the beginning of the flight safety program so familiar to us today.


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    Titel :

    First United States Army Aircraft Accident Report


    Beteiligte:
    J. D. Martin (Autor:in)

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1999


    Format / Umfang :

    11 pages


    Medientyp :

    Report


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch