Crash of the X-31 near Edwards AFB in 1995

See http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/X-31_crash_site.htm for more info on this crash, and many more.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• edwards
• crash
• w
• reck
• x-31
• test
• flight
• aviation
• german
• afb
• flying

[pwnage0013]

he was killed and then buried!

[CheckSixDotCom]

Or not... Follow the link in the info box.

[joshuatzu]

he safely ejected at 18,000 ft. and parachuted to the ground.

[admiralnomad]

You can't manually override an inherently unstable airframe. An F-16, Mig-33, Gripen, Eurofighter, etc, wouls all be completely uncontrollable without computer asistance.

[spencercjohnson]

@admiralnomad Don't be so sure, not all planes are this way mr civilian expert. :)

[fiverats1]

Owned

[123456789mischief]

@admiralnomad you tell the computer what you want and it makes the aircraft do the proper corrections to its controll surface's. so your right you could never make all the corrections required to keep it flying

[bigisezhi]

@Mitsdat Wow! Excellent recall of the salient details leading to the marked divergence from controlled flight shown here in the video clip. I remember the unusual complexity of that probe seeing it in person on static display at the always excellent Edwards AFB airshows. The loss of the X-31 aircraft was regrettable. Proposed flight test if the airframe hadn't crashed would have incrementally cut the height off of the vertical stabilizer forcing the other stability systems to provide control.

[cutty02]

@admiralnomad yes you can override them... Actually in a stall you may need to override the FLCS. 

[101andrewj]

@admiralnomad sure u can, hop out the window, and surf on the plane until u get 2 the runway, then climb and manually lower the landing gear and ajust the flaps until u touch down. then u can slow the plane by dragging your feet along the ground

[mouloudo]

cool channel

[Mitsdat]

This would have been eliminated if the pilot could over-ride the system, Its commands would have still been modified by the computer but only by a small percentage, enough to put it on its belly a landing strip, All facts listed are from a book on the X-31's history. Excellent plane for the late 90's. Pitty its program was canned

[Mitsdat]

The problem is the keil probe heating system had been disconnected during routine maintenance, The keil prob supply's the planes computer with data to preform standard tasks and to alter those given by the pilot with out stalling etc. It's unconnected connection froze because cold temps are speed sending a mixed message to the computer causing to malfunction, Even though the pilot ejected the air craft still tried to recover from its stall, Lucky it didn't recover a keep flying by its self!

[earthman202]

:O..

on another note, my gramps works there