Remember the Stranger-the final seconds!
The U.S. Air Force rightfully honored Captain Edwards when they named their base for testing aircraft after him. I doubt if anyone alive today could tell you why this honor was given him-at least in the way I am going to tell you as shown by his last seconds of flight:
When Captain Edwards stalled the YB-49 at 15,000 feet he had to get the nose down to recover from the stall. He sucessfully did this. Once the nose was down the YB-49 dove toward earth at a rapidly accelerating speed. Captain Edwards knew that the complete trailing edge of the airplane was very fragile and if he attempted to pull out of the dive to suddenly the flaps, elevon, and tail cone would disintegrate so he was putting very little pressure on his stick and then the YB-49's wing tips came off. All this happened in seconds and he was experiencing g's of a fighter pilot. The earth was rapidly approaching and he knew he had to put more pressure on his stick and just as he knew the complete trailing edge of the airplane disintegrated and the plane also started to come apart but he was sucessful in bringing the plane out of its dive. As the plane headed upwards and reached the apex of its climb its airspeed reached zero and it inverted. His plane was still disintegrating and all control surfaces were destroyed except for one rudder but with this one rudder and his eight engines he still managed to fly the YB-49 even though it stayed inverted. Two engines were given slight power and the plane was slowly spinning toward earth. It was descending so gradually that an eyewitness test pilot thought he saw a crewmembers parachute descending but it was a large piece of the YB-49 which had come off. If you want to visualize this take a maple tree seed and throw it into the air and see how perfectly and gently it spirals and falls to the ground. This was how Captain Edwards was still flying his YB-49. Even the angle that the maple seed falls to earth corresponds to the angle the YB-49 was spiraling down at. When Captain Edwards landed the YB-49 the accident reports state he made a soft landing at a slow speed, the airplane basically stayed intact, and all the pieces of the plane which were not destroyed by fire were not more than two inches below the surface-found in the surface desert sand. (All the pieces I found were on the surface.)
I believe they survived the landing and would have walked away if not for the fire and explosion.
A few weeks ago I listened to the live news conference after the sucessful maiden flight of Boeings new Dreamliner. The first thing the test pilot said indicating his love for his plane and flying was: "Did you see my landing? pretty good wasn't it!"
I know Captain Edwards spirit says the same about his landing. You now know why Captain Edwards is the best pilot the U.S. Air Force has ever had or will have.
Captain Edwards deserves to be given the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor.
The U.S. Air Force rightfully honored Captain Edwards when they named their base for testing aircraft after him. I doubt if anyone alive today could tell you why this honor was given him-at least in the way I am going to tell you as shown by his last seconds of flight:
When Captain Edwards stalled the YB-49 at 15,000 feet he had to get the nose down to recover from the stall. He sucessfully did this. Once the nose was down the YB-49 dove toward earth at a rapidly accelerating speed. Captain Edwards knew that the complete trailing edge of the airplane was very fragile and if he attempted to pull out of the dive to suddenly the flaps, elevon, and tail cone would disintegrate so he was putting very little pressure on his stick and then the YB-49's wing tips came off. All this happened in seconds and he was experiencing g's of a fighter pilot. The earth was rapidly approaching and he knew he had to put more pressure on his stick and just as he knew the complete trailing edge of the airplane disintegrated and the plane also started to come apart but he was sucessful in bringing the plane out of its dive. As the plane headed upwards and reached the apex of its climb its airspeed reached zero and it inverted. His plane was still disintegrating and all control surfaces were destroyed except for one rudder but with this one rudder and his eight engines he still managed to fly the YB-49 even though it stayed inverted. Two engines were given slight power and the plane was slowly spinning toward earth. It was descending so gradually that an eyewitness test pilot thought he saw a crewmembers parachute descending but it was a large piece of the YB-49 which had come off. If you want to visualize this take a maple tree seed and throw it into the air and see how perfectly and gently it spirals and falls to the ground. This was how Captain Edwards was still flying his YB-49. Even the angle that the maple seed falls to earth corresponds to the angle the YB-49 was spiraling down at. When Captain Edwards landed the YB-49 the accident reports state he made a soft landing at a slow speed, the airplane basically stayed intact, and all the pieces of the plane which were not destroyed by fire were not more than two inches below the surface-found in the surface desert sand. (All the pieces I found were on the surface.)
I believe they survived the landing and would have walked away if not for the fire and explosion.
A few weeks ago I listened to the live news conference after the sucessful maiden flight of Boeings new Dreamliner. The first thing the test pilot said indicating his love for his plane and flying was: "Did you see my landing? pretty good wasn't it!"
I know Captain Edwards spirit says the same about his landing. You now know why Captain Edwards is the best pilot the U.S. Air Force has ever had or will have.
Captain Edwards deserves to be given the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor.
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