One of NASA’s three WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft is sitting on its belly in Houston today after a gear-up landing on Tuesday morning. The aircraft, a modified Martin B-57 Canberra, came to a halt on the runway at Ellington Airport (KEFD) around 11:30 a.m.
Video captured by KHOU in Houston shows the long-winged jet sliding along the concrete before coming to a stop. The pilot was seen climbing out of the cockpit unassisted, and NASA has confirmed that both crew members are safe.
The agency is citing a mechanical issue for the mishap. First responders were on the scene immediately, and the runway was closed to clear the crippled aircraft.
The Johnson Space Center has three of these aircraft, and they have been flying research missions since the early 1970s. In the WB-57 the pilot and sensor equipment operator (SEO) sit in tandem. The airplane has a range of approximately 2,500 miles and an endurance of more than six hours. It’s not yet clear how much damage the airframe sustained or how long it will be out of service.
It says something for the 73 year old design of the original Canberra bomber that this plane is based in that it is still in service.
We had several squadrons of them in early ’60s at Clark AB, PI. They would rotate to Vietnam and back on a schedule. Flew locally frequently problem free. Couldn’t say the same for the many F100s.
Not sure why the jet chose to land at Hobby as opposed to its normal base at Ellington field nearby. Ellington has a longer runway and far less traffic. Better fire rescue capabilities at HOU?
It did land at Ellington. In this case KHOU is the local TV station.
The USAF WB-57 had, in addition to the large turbofans embedded in the wings, two turbojets slung under the wings outboard of the fans. Looking in the cockpit of one I noticed the barber pole on the airspeed indicator was not very far above the stall speed. They would avoid over speeding by climbing steeply on departure.
One day I took off ahead of the WB-57 in a T-33 at Eielson AFB, Alaska, just southeast of Fairbanks. Shortly thereafter, departure control asked for my altitude. I reported passing 12,000 MSL. He then asked the WB for his altitude and the WB reported, “Above 65”. Above FL650! ATC said “Roger, radar service terminated.”
I looked up at a very tiny airplane ahead of a contrail. The climb rate was impressive!