NASA
RESEARCH PILOT
Craig Bomben was
flying at 20,000
ft. under a
clear, blue
desert sky this
past March when
a sudden lurch
rocked his
highly modified
F-15 Eagle
fighter jet. The
plane's nose
jerked
sickeningly
upward, a sign
that the
aircraft had
suffered one of
the worst
possible
malfunctions:
Part of the
stabilator, the
combination
horizontal
stabilizer/elevator
that controls
up-and-down
motion, had
jammed. "It's
not something a
pilot ever wants
to feel," Bomben
recalled later.
"You can lose
your stabilator
a bunch of
ways--computer
failure, stuck
actuator,
missile up the
tailpipe--but
when you lose
it, you're out
of Schlitz.
You're not going
to fly the
airplane home."|
NASA
RESEARCH PILOT
Craig Bomben was
flying at 20,000
ft. under a
clear, blue
desert sky this
past March when
a sudden lurch
rocked his
highly modified
F-15 Eagle
fighter jet. The
plane's nose
jerked
sickeningly
upward, a sign
that the
aircraft had
suffered one of
the worst
possible
malfunctions:
Part of the
stabilator, the
combination
horizontal
stabilizer/elevator
that controls
up-and-down
motion, had
jammed. "It's
not something a
pilot ever wants
to feel," Bomben
recalled later.
"You can lose
your stabilator
a bunch of
ways--computer
failure, stuck
actuator,
missile up the
tailpipe--but
when you lose
it, you're out
of Schlitz.
You're not going
to fly the
airplane home." Read the full article at: |
