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Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Wanna see a quick 2 Billion up in flames?


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considering that the planes have flown for 20+ years with no crashes was a great record.

It's a shame that not turning on the pitot tube heater cost 1.6 billion dollars <_<

I'm sure glad the crew got out ok.

dj

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It seemed to me the second plane tried to pull up to take off closer to the beginning of his roll than the first plane did, but they both seemed to have the same velocity at that point. They also seemed to try to climb much steeper than the first. I think the second pilot got itchy with the stick and wanted to get airborne too quick.

Adam

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Read the investigative writeup. It says the pitot tube had moisture in it causing an erronous input into the computer which initiated the 30 degree nose up attitude and the resulting stall and crash. The pilot error, if there was any, was a failure to turn on the pitot tube heater and drive the moisture from the tube. The report indicated that he probably wasn't aware of that problem. The humidity on Guam always runs extremely high and a temperature change can cause a lot of condensation.

From the Report:

"Moisture in the aircraft's Port Transducer Units during air data calibration distorted the information in the bomber's air data system, causing the flight control computers to calculate an inaccurate airspeed and a negative angle of attack upon takeoff. According to the report, this caused an, "uncommanded 30 degree nose-high pitch-up on takeoff, causing the aircraft to stall and its subsequent crash." "

dj

edited to add snippet from report

Edited by dajarrel
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Just did some quick searching - typical B2 takeoff weight ~336,500 lbs. Gold = $927/oz. B2's weight in gold = 4.99 Billion. About 6 years ago, gold was about $300/oz, so the B2 would have been worth much more than it's weight in gold :D

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