Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!apple!bionet!agate!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!pixar!aaa
From: aaa@pixar.UUCP (Tony Apodaca)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Toughness of Boeing craft
Summary: Some planes are REALLY tough
Message-ID: <2653@pixar.UUCP>
Date: 9 Nov 88 00:28:30 GMT
References: <4995@cadnetix.COM> <1543@banzai-inst.sw.mcc.com>
Reply-To: aaa@pixar.UUCP (Tony Apodaca)
Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California
Lines: 24

In article <1543@banzai-inst.sw.mcc.com> wex@banzai-inst.sw.mcc.com (Alan Wexelblat) writes:
>In article <4995@cadnetix.COM>, eriks@cadnetix.COM (Eriks Ziemelis) writes:
>> The early B-52 bomber (Boeing plane) had huge pointy tails.
>> The story goes that about 10 feet of the tail got knocked off
>> and still managed to fly and land no problem.
>
>The WWII-era Boeing B-17 was legendary for the amount of damage it could
>absorb and still keep flying.  Pilots flew them with one engine (of four),
>put them into vertical climbs & dives and got away with it, etc.

When I used to work at McDonnell-Douglas, I heard a story about an
F-15 involved in a midair collision with some other aircraft.
The 15 continued to fly, though the pilot was not at all surprised
to find that the plane had lost much of it's maneuverability
and had a tendency to roll to one side.

He fought the plane down to an emergency landing at the nearest air
field, and then discovered that he had quite a bit of damage.
He was, in fact, MISSING A WING!

(I know, it's not about the shuttle.  Sorry.)
-- 
UUCP:		{sun,ucbvax}!pixar!aaa		Tony Apodaca
ARPA,BITNET:	aaa%pixar.uucp@sun.com		Pixar, San Rafael, CA, USA