Everyone on board was killed, as was a woman on the ground. The mid-air collision resulted in airplane parts, engines, fuel, and bodies raining down on Bellerose, New York. In another prewar accident, on June 17, 1940, two twin-engine Douglas B-18 bombers, with 11 men on board, were flying out of Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York, when one passed too closely beneath the other. Eventually the company would build nearly 7,000 of them, while two other contractors built another 5,745. Undeterred by the fatal mishap, the government awarded Boeing a contract to build 13 more B-17s. A part that was inadvertently left in a locked position caused Model 299 to crash, killing Tower and his co-pilot, Major Pete Hill.
(The plane’s maiden flight had occurred three months earlier.)Įverything went perfectly during the flight-until it was time to land. The prototype, known as Model 299, took off from Dayton’s Wright Field on October 30, 1935, with Chief Test Pilot Leslie R.
Boeing bet the company’s future on its design for a new, four-engine bomber, the B-17. Despte the accident, the government awarded Boeing a contract to start mass producing the “Flying Fortress.”Īccidents happened even before the start of the war. Before and After: Boeing XB-17, Model 299, the prototype for the B-17 ( above), crashed at Wright Field, Ohio, on October 30, 1935, killing the pilot and co-pilot due to a ground crewman’s error ( shown at top). But with the tremendous buildup of aviation forces during the war-with rushed training and a punishing manufacturing schedule to churn out planes (the aircraft plant operated by Ford Motor Company at its huge Willow Run, Michigan, facility built a complete B-24 every hour see WWII Quarterly, Spring 2017), things were bound to go wrong. Planes (and gliders, too) have crashed ever since they were first invented. Heavier-than-air flying machines, operated by young, inexperienced pilots (and even seasoned veterans), are subject to mechanical failure, unfavorable weather conditions, and human error-even before they arrive in an overseas combat zone, where the dangers quickly multiply. Their story, however, has gone largely unknown, their sacrifices unrecognized.Īs everyone knows, flight involves risk. Army Air Forces, Navy, and Marine personnel during World War II. Tragically, there were far too many such accidents that took the lives of thousands of U.S. Everyone on board was killed.Ī freak accident? Yes. Realizing that he had overshot the runway, the pilot attempted to pull up but slammed into a tree.
The pilot was beginning his landing approach into the Indianapolis municipal airport but a heavy fog shrouded the runway. Navy C-47 Skytrain with five men aboard was en route from Naval Air Station, Olathe, Kansas, to Columbus, Ohio.
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