It was a record setter, too. Won the Bleriot Trophy. And while
ferrying the aircraft to Paris for that presentation at the Paris Air
Show, they asked for permission to go for a New York to Paris speed
record and got it. They set the record, too. But then, when the crew
that won the Bleriot Trophy took off from Paris, they made a pass in
front of the Air Show crowd and, apparently, attempted a victory roll
and crashed the aircraft. There were other records, too. And it was
something else to look at. Beautiful.
That said, it really was a maintenance nightmare. 10 and 12 hour days,
6 and 7 days a week,
On 7/16/2014 6:40 AM, Chris Trask wrote:
Actually, as I remember, it was more like 1200 man-hours of maintenance
per hour of flying time. I worked on them as a Bomb-Navigation Systems
Mechanic. You are right about the vacuum tubes. They were
sub-miniature tubes. The circuit boards were coated with epoxy. What a
mess to work on.
Still, it was the first supersonic bomber.
--
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