Teardowns and overhaul for a R-2800 engine runs about $75K or so, so $150K for two. That's not figuring the need to overhaul the prop hub and replace the bent blades, nor the airframe work for when it was ground down by sliding on the runway. And one of those engines was fresh; it was just hung on the airplane less than two weeks ago.
Don't be too shocked if that A-26 eventually leaves KOSH by truck.
3 comments:
(door opens)
Leslie Neilsen: I just wanted to tell you good luck, we're all counting on you.
(door closes)
There is another video showing that A-26 being slammed into the runway hard, earlier, or maybe the prior day. Very ham-handed piloting on display. Habit, perhaps? The -26 is not a carrier qualified airframe, and shouldn't be flown (well, landed) like one.
It was obvious that the crew/passengers had not been instructed in how to safely abandon the aircraft on the ground. Damn good thing that didn't turn out to be an actual fire in the nose section, I'm thinking, or some (most?) of them might not have survived. Clueless all.
Add in the cost of the two canopy hatches to that total. They pulled the emergency releases very soon after the nose hit, and those tumbled along the runway for some time.
I think that may have been an improper decision to jettison them at high speed. They obviously did it in response to the amount of smoke being generated by the nose and gear sliding on the pavement, but that creates a wind tunnel effect, and could have ended up immolating the pilots, if an actual fire had been ignited. The rest of the fuselage seemed to be sealed up fairly well, so there was no airflow through it.
I was instantly reminded of the general who burned in a damaged F4 Phantom. They were trying to nurse it far enough offshore to enable a chopper pickup, when the RIO punched out (back seat is wired to go first). The fire in the nose gear area flared up so quickly with the missing rear canopy that the pilot was unable to fire his seat. The front cockpit lit up like a torch. The Phantom was being filmed by a wingman, I think. Fairly close. Pilot never moved once the RIO's canopy released.
Well, since everybody walked away, a good landing but not a great landing.
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