The quest for the worst combat aircraft in history...

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by TarJak

But the Nimrod was a sorted Comet and served well in it's Maritime partol and ASW role up until March 2010. Anything that serves nearly 40 years has got to be out of contention for worst aircraft.

Yea, I was just thinking that.

Ok new criteria: the aircraft must suck so bad that no corrective measures can fix it.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Ok new criteria: the aircraft must suck so bad that no corrective measures can fix it.

The Kamikaze

[JU_88]

Tarjak beat me to the punch, I was gonna go for the HE-177 also.
Though i think if there was ever on aircraft you wouldnt get me to fly on, it would be a De haviland Comet. (but its civil)

[HunterICX]

Convair B-58 Hustler

Originally Posted by Airspacemag.com

Even in its operational life, the Hustler maintained its reputation as a dangerous airplane to fly. Darrell Schmidt, a B-58 pilot from 1966 to 1970, says, “There were 116 aircraft built, 26 of which were destroyed in accidents, with 36 crew members killed. If that doesn’t fit the definition of ‘dangerous,’ I don’t know what would.”

HunterICX

[krashkart]

IIRC from what I read about the Hustler, it had a problem with fuel shifting around during maneuvers?

Cool plane to look at, though.

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by krashkart

IIRC from what I read about the Hustler, it had a problem with fuel shifting around during maneuvers?

Cool plane to look at, though.

It had more problems as you can read here:

The B-58 accident rate in 1959 and 1960 had been alarmingly high, which led SAC to delay acceptance of executive responsibility for the aircraft. The first accident had taken place on Dec 16, 1958, near Cannon AFB, NM when 58-018 was lost. The accident was attributed to a loss of control during normal flight when auto-trim and ratio changer were rendered inoperative due to an electrical system failure. On May 14, 1959, 58-1012 was destroyed by fire during a refueling operation at Carswell AFB. 58-1017 was destroyed on September 16 of that year when a tire blew during takeoff from Carswell AFB. On October 27, 55-669 was destroyed near Hattiesburg, Mississippi when it lost control during normal flight. On November 7, 55-664 was destroyed during a high-speed test flight near Lawton, Oklahoma when it disintegrated in midair. Convair test pilot Raymond Fitzgerald and Convair flight engineer Donald A. Siedhof were both killed. The flight was attempting to collect vertical fin side loads data under the conditions of the loss of an engine at high speed. A friend of mine witnessed this accident from the ground. Although the cause of the accident was never adequately explained, it appears that a design flaw in the aircraft's flight control system and defects in the integrity of the vertical fin structure were to blame. There is also the possibility that when the number 4 engine was purposely shut down for the test, number 3 lost thrust as well. On April 22, 1960 a failure of the Mach/airspeed/air data system caused the loss of 58-1023 near Hill AFB, Utah. On June 4, 1960, 55-0667 was lost due to pilot error while flying at supersonic speed near Lubbock, Texas.

Also many where due carelessness in handling it as the aircraft was dificult to fly and as it was a leap forward in technology as the first operational supersonic jet bomber it had to work out a lot of mechanical and system problems that came with this jump forward.

but damn does it look like a mean machine.

HunterICX

[krashkart]

That definitely was a dangerous airplane alright. Thanks for the reading material.


Sure wish I could think of a crappy combat aircraft to post here.