B-29 crash in Seattle

When, at the beginning of World War II , the US Army Air Corps concluded that it was necessary to create a strategic bomber , on September 6, 1940, Boeing Airplane Company ordered two prototypes for the competition, which were given the designation XB-29. September 21, 1942, the chief test pilot Edmund Terni ( Eddy ) Allen raises the first prototype to the sky, which was assigned the tail number 41-002 (factory - 2482), while, in order to speed up the tests, the aircraft was not equipped with a remotely controlled weapon system. Also on the XB-29 used engines Wright R-3350-13 capacity of 2,200 liters. with. (1600 kW), but when tested, this engine showed significant cooling problems; By December, the aircraft 41-002 made 23 flights with a total duration of only 27 hours, but during this time it has already changed 16 engines, 22 carburetors, and revised the exhaust system 19 times ^[2] .

On December 30, 1942, the second prototype rises to the sky, having received the tail number 41-003 (factory - 2481) and which was also piloted by Eddie Allen. But already in the first flight on this plane, engine number 4 (the rightmost one) fails, as a result of which there is a fire in it, but the pilot managed to return to the airfield, where the burning engine extinguished the ground fire services. After this incident, the second prototype was idle for a month before January 29, 1943 took off again, and by February 17 both prototypes managed to complete 31 flights for a total of 34 hours and 27 minutes; directly board 41-003 made eight flights with a total duration of 7 hours 27 minutes ^[2] .

In the fateful flight, the crew consisted of eleven people ^[3] :

• Commander (FAC) - Edmund Terni Allen - the main test pilot;
• The co - pilot - Robert R. Dansfield ( born Robert R. Dansfield ) - a technical test pilot;
• Charles Edmund Blaine ( born Charles Edmund Blaine ) - flight test engineer;
• Fritz Mon ( Eng. Fritz Mohn ) - Senior Inspector;
• Vincent V. North ( eng. Vincent W. North ) - aerodynamic;
• Harry William Ralston ( eng. Harry William Ralston ) - radio operator ;
• Barclay J. Henshaw ( born Barclay J. Henshaw ) - flight test analyst;
• Thomas R. Lankford ( eng. Thomas R. Lankford ) - engineer;
• Robert Willis Maxfield ( born Robert Willis Maxfield ) - flight test engineer;
• Raymond Louis Belle ( born Raymond Louis Basel ) - flight test engineer;
• Edward I. Verseb ( born Edward I. Wersebe ) - flight test engineer.

On February 18, 1943, the second prototype had to perform its ninth flight, in which the performance of the aircraft was checked when climbing to a height of 25,000 feet (7600 m ) and it was necessary to obtain data on engine cooling. At 12:09 ^{[* 1]} XB-29 took off from the factory airfield and began to climb, when at 12:17 with a passage of 5,000 feet (1,500 m ), a fire broke out in engine number 1 (far left). The burning engine was immediately turned off, after which carbon dioxide fire extinguishers were activated, and Allen decided to immediately turn around and return to the airfield ^[3] .

At that time, the south wind was blowing in the region at a speed of 5 knots (9.3 km / h), so it was decided to land on lane 13. However, on the left wing at that time the fire was growing rapidly. When developing the Wright R-3350-13 engines, the designers tried to lighten the design, for which they used magnesium alloys, but the problem with magnesium was that it was combustible, and with a very high burning temperature, so in this case the burning engine broke out so that destroy the wing structure. At 12:24, radio operator Harry Ralston transmitted to the ground that they were 4 miles (6.4 km ) to the northeast of the airfield at an altitude of 1200 feet (370 m ), and just a minute later at 12:25 an explosion was heard, at the same time, the dispatcher even heard the radio operator say to the commander: Allen, let's quickly sit down. Wing spar already burning with might and main . The fire by that time got into the fuselage, and fragments of fused metal flew to the ground, so when flying near Harborview Hospital ( English Harborview Hospital ) ^[3] three people tried to escape by jumping with parachutes, but crashed, because of the low height parachutes did not have time to open ^[3] .

A burning car entering the uncontrolled bank broke the power lines, then at 12:26 it collapsed on the building of the Frye Meat Packing Plant in the southern part of Seattle and exploded, and 5,000 gallons (19 m³) of aviation fuel leaked from the tanks caused an extensive fire ^{[3] [5]} . It was lunch time, so most of the workers at this time left their jobs, which made it possible to avoid numerous victims ^[6] . However, as a result of the disaster, all 11 crew members died, 20 employees of the meat processing plant, as well as one of the firefighters, that is, only 32 people ^[3] . Some sources indicate that 30 ^[6] or 34 people died ^[7] .

In scale, at that time it was the largest plane crash in the United States and remained until the crash in New York on May 29, 1947 (43 dead). The largest aircraft crash in North America during the Second World War ^[1] .

After the crash of the second prototype, the creation of the B-29 slowed down due to the need for engine refinement. In June 1943, a third prototype with tail number 41-18335 (factory 2484) went up to the sky, on which engines of modified design and improved equipment were used, after which the aircraft was handed over to the American Air Force in Wichita ( Kansas ) to install weapons and more complete . On August 30, the first prototype was transferred to Wichita, where it received the name The Flying Guinea Pig ( Russian: Flying Guinea Pig ), but by the end of the year returned to the Seattle factory, where it was used for testing; was written off on May 11, 1948 due to obsolescence ^[2] .

Employees of the Boeing plant in Wichita collected funds for which they built the B-29-40-BW with tail number 42-24579 , named Eddie Allen ( Eddy Allen ), in honor of the deceased first tester of these planes. According to reports, the aircraft from September 15, 1944 was listed as part of the 45th Bomber Squadron from the 40th heavy bomber group ^[8] and made 24 sorties. During the bombing of Tokyo on May 26, 1945, the plane was damaged, but managed to land on Tinian , and no longer flew ^{[3] [9]} .

In 1943, Edmund Allen was posthumously awarded the Daniel Guggenheim Medal For his great contribution to aviation, the medal of his widow was presented by Philip Gustav Johnson - President of the Boeing Airplane Company ^[10] . On April 23, 1946, by special order of President Harry Truman Eddie Allen was posthumously awarded the Air Medal (as a rule, it is awarded only to the military) ^[3] .

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