Whether it is a Cessna-150 or a Space Shuttle, place moving parts under stress, heat, and pressure & every once and a while the parts is gonna break. The higher the pressure the more damage will be done to the surrounding airframe.

 

I can't imagine how terrifying it would be to drift in your chute into that pall of black smoke.

 

Terrible photography.

 

Check Six

 

Rocky

"http://www.acc.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-080605-058.pdf"

HEre is the link to the report.

The Pitot tube had an error that cause the computer to pitch it up. You can tell the crew really tried to save it by punching out at the last minute.

link target="_blank">link

First, the flying wing is an interesting plane with decision speed (go-abort speed in the event of engine out) and initial climb out speed very low for high performance military aircraft. That is a testimony to the soundness of the design concept. Second, what about that puff that occurs just as the aircraft rotates. That is no pitot tube puff! There is also a decided drop in the port wing at that point. Both of those events are signs of a multi-engine engine-out emergency. IMV that could be engine failure, such failure actually might be the reason for over rotation (because the aircraft's power drops & I think I remember hearing the flying wing type aircraft are very touchy in pitch with power changes. Maybe from one of Yeager's interviews about a flying wing accident out at Muroc back in the 50's).

 

I know what is being said in the media and what was released but I have my doubts having seen that video. Agreed the video conveniently stops recording the aircraft's orientation at that point and only catches up about 1.5 seconds later.

 

Am I seeing things here?

 

Check Six

 

Rocky

 

 

Silence Linked to B-2 Crash
Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/09/2008 , page 19

 

B-2 aircrews and maintenance teams had learned about the sensitivity of the stealth bomber?s air pressure sensors to moisture during a Guam deployment in 2006. They also discovered that turning on 500F pitot heat would quickly evaporate the water and the flight computer would receive normal readings. But the information was not formally ?captured? in maintenance or lessons-learned publications, says Maj. Gen. Floyd Carpenter, president of the accident investigation board and vice commander of 8th Air Force. The result was that by the 2008 deployment, the information was passed on by word-of-mouth so ?some people knew about it and some people did not,? he says. The moisture sensitivity phenomenon had not been encountered at the bomber?s home base of Whiteman AFB, Mo. Earlier in the 2008 deployment, another B-2 had reached 70 kt. in its takeoff roll when abnormal indications caused the pilot to abort. The aircraft taxied back to the maintenance hangar, the moisture was evaporated with pitot heat, and the mission continued without incident. But on Feb. 23, calibration of the sensors was performed without turning on the sensor heaters. The skewed information from three of the 24 air pressure sensors on the Spirit of Kansas fed distorted information into the flight control computer. When the aircraft reached 130 kt., the computer thought it was at the 140-kt. takeoff speed and rotated for takeoff. The sensors also indicated the bomber was in a nose-down attitude so it commanded a rapid pitch-up that reached 30-31 deg. before the pilots could correct and stop the climb at an altitude of about 80 ft. The effects of the low takeoff speed and high angle of attack caused the B-2?s speed to deteriorate until the aircraft stalled, began a roll to the left, and its left wing tip struck the ground. At that point, the pilots ejected. The aircraft?s remains were boxed and will be sent to the U.S. where the cockpit, seats and hatches will be used for training. Additional information, including the crash investigators? report and video are posted on Air Combat Command?s web site at link