Опубликовано в FLIGHT JOURNAL
In june 1943 I was selected to be the test pilot for the turbocharged Hellcat, but there was on fly in the ointment; I had never flown with a turbocharger. To give me a required turbosupercharger training, Bob Hall arranged for me to spend a week flying P-47 Thunderbolt at nearby Republic Avalon. I made six, most interesting flights, on of which was of the type I’m glad didn’t happen often
My mentor at Republic was chief production test pilot Carl Bellinger. He was most amiable and spent much time en educating me about the rather complicated turbo-supercharging system and the flight characteristics of the high-wing-loading fighter (the P-47’s wing loading was 48 pounds per square foot; the Hellcat’s was 36 pounds per square foot). He warned me which aerobatic maneuvers I should not attempt in the P-47: spins, low-altitude spilt-S maneuvers ( a half roll followed by a half-loop) and slow rolls at airspeeds of below 150mph. The Hellcat allowed them because of its much lower wing loading
Carl didn’t have to convince me about low-altitude spil-S’s: during the winter of 1943; I saw the five holes in the ice of Long Island’s Great South Bay that were result of Army Air Corps P-47B pilots following their leader in a spli-S maneuver below 15000 feet. His very detailed explanation were most informative to a young and “invulnerable” (euphemism for egocentric) test pilot who was still in the highly overconfident and dangerous 500-hour flight time range.
Four particularly interesting notation in the Pilot’s Handbook applied to all pilots, but not, I was sure, to me:
1.Never make turns at less then 150mph in the landing pattern.
2.Don’t stall; don’t ever stall; never, ever stall; these are the three rules for a forced landing
3.Spin recoveries. Remember this. When your airplane goes out of control or is out of control below 4000 feet, jump!
4.Under no circumstances do a split-S at less then 15000 feet with the power on. The speed builds up at a dizzying rate. If started at speeds of more than 250mph, you can loose as much as 15000 feet before you can complete a recovery.