TLDR: Grumman built tough Navy fighter planes.
The whole story:
United States Navy to the aerospace industry, a few decades back:
"We need you to design an airplane that we're going to call the A6. It has to be tough enough to bounce off the ocean at 450 Knots. And the engines can't quit when that happens, and it has to be flyable enough to get the crew back home, unharmed."
Aerospace industry, all but one of them, starts shouting "it can't be done!"
Navy: "Oh, we're not done, yet. Then, it has to also be tough enough that even though all kinds of sensitive electronics and mechanical equipment throughout the fuselage got subject to 450-knot salt-water spray, we're going to forget about it for three years, and then put it back in service. It's going to fly missions in combat. And always bring the crew back home. Or most of the way, anyhow."
This time, the aerospace industry doesn't even bother shouting that it's impossible. Because it's so obviously impossible there is no point in even taking a breath to say how impossible it is.
But over in one corner of the room, an engineer from Grumman quietly, calmly, raises his hand, and asks,
"How many do you want?"
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This was inspired by a story in the recent issue of Smithsonian Aerospace. It detailed a story of an A6 that the maintenance crews and flight crews called "Christine," after Steven King's homicidal car. Because it seemed like she was always trying to kill the crew through all kinds of mishaps and electronic and mechanical failures while in flight. This was in 1988. About a year or so later, she finally died in the air and the crew had to eject, just as they were going to land on a carrier. The crew were unharmed and quickly pulled from the water. This airplane had plagued them for over a year with repeated attempts at trying to kill them, and finally, FINALLY, she was dead, sunk in the ocean, and no one shed a tear.
One of the former flight crew couldn't let the whole thing go. So he started seriously digging in to the airplane's history, and he couldn't believe what he found:
Somewhere around 1985, a crew had "bounced" the plane off the ocean at 450 knots, during a night-time bombing training flight. It was a miracle the aircraft held together, it was a miracle the engines didn't quit, it was a miracle she was still flyable and got the crew back home!
Then, somehow, after seeing that salt water got everywhere it should never be in an aircraft, she didn't get scrapped. Three years later, they put her back in service. And it flew! Not well. She was plagued with problems that stumped the best minds in maintenance. She nearly killed the flight crew a dozen times over. Everyone hated to fly her. No one shed a tear when she died.
But considering she probably should have been scrapped after the original incident; considering salt water had three years to do it's damage to the electronics and mechanicals; what was happening was she was doing everything she could to save the crew, every time it flew after the skip off the waves! She finally got to the point she broke. And the crew still survived!
Nobody built them like Grumman!
The whole story:
United States Navy to the aerospace industry, a few decades back:
"We need you to design an airplane that we're going to call the A6. It has to be tough enough to bounce off the ocean at 450 Knots. And the engines can't quit when that happens, and it has to be flyable enough to get the crew back home, unharmed."
Aerospace industry, all but one of them, starts shouting "it can't be done!"
Navy: "Oh, we're not done, yet. Then, it has to also be tough enough that even though all kinds of sensitive electronics and mechanical equipment throughout the fuselage got subject to 450-knot salt-water spray, we're going to forget about it for three years, and then put it back in service. It's going to fly missions in combat. And always bring the crew back home. Or most of the way, anyhow."
This time, the aerospace industry doesn't even bother shouting that it's impossible. Because it's so obviously impossible there is no point in even taking a breath to say how impossible it is.
But over in one corner of the room, an engineer from Grumman quietly, calmly, raises his hand, and asks,
"How many do you want?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This was inspired by a story in the recent issue of Smithsonian Aerospace. It detailed a story of an A6 that the maintenance crews and flight crews called "Christine," after Steven King's homicidal car. Because it seemed like she was always trying to kill the crew through all kinds of mishaps and electronic and mechanical failures while in flight. This was in 1988. About a year or so later, she finally died in the air and the crew had to eject, just as they were going to land on a carrier. The crew were unharmed and quickly pulled from the water. This airplane had plagued them for over a year with repeated attempts at trying to kill them, and finally, FINALLY, she was dead, sunk in the ocean, and no one shed a tear.
One of the former flight crew couldn't let the whole thing go. So he started seriously digging in to the airplane's history, and he couldn't believe what he found:
Somewhere around 1985, a crew had "bounced" the plane off the ocean at 450 knots, during a night-time bombing training flight. It was a miracle the aircraft held together, it was a miracle the engines didn't quit, it was a miracle she was still flyable and got the crew back home!
Then, somehow, after seeing that salt water got everywhere it should never be in an aircraft, she didn't get scrapped. Three years later, they put her back in service. And it flew! Not well. She was plagued with problems that stumped the best minds in maintenance. She nearly killed the flight crew a dozen times over. Everyone hated to fly her. No one shed a tear when she died.
But considering she probably should have been scrapped after the original incident; considering salt water had three years to do it's damage to the electronics and mechanicals; what was happening was she was doing everything she could to save the crew, every time it flew after the skip off the waves! She finally got to the point she broke. And the crew still survived!
Nobody built them like Grumman!
