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glen, meltedraccoon, jordan likes this
Humblebrag. I know Al Bowers, the engineer interviewed. He was a junior engineer at the time. I also know the man who was a more senior engineer of the project. The way the remote controlled the flight was by rigging the autopilot. That slowed reaction time a lot. If you watch the film you see the aircraft drift a bit before impact. The FAA blamed that on the explosion but neither the drift nor the explosion could be avoided. They wanted a very carefully controlled crash which is kind of the opposite of the definition of a crash. My friend the senior engineer said that the guy flying the aircraft remotely was one the of the best pilots he knew and he'd been in flight test for a LONG time.
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glen 5 years, 9 months ago
Wow, great personal connection there. Thanks for the share.
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