Great story ZERACER! Thanks for sharing that!!

 

I started working for Douglas Canada in Malton in 1968 in tool design when I started there were about eight of us, it was reasonable to assume that we would be doing the DC-10 wings and some other parts as well. We got the contract and I worked on the handling of the parts mostly, floor stands for the wing, floor stands for the workers, lifting equipment, and brackets to mount the wing to the various handling equipment. The largest parts I designed were the air and rail shipping fixtures.
Originally the wings were to be shipped using the Super Guppy and all the shipping brackets were made to suit the air shipping fixture. Almost at the last moment, it was decided that air shipping was too dangerous and a rough landing would send the wing through the floor of the plane. The air shipping fixtures were then just used to store the wings. Rapid design was immediately required to design and make rail shipping fixtures using modified 89' railcars, one for the left wing and one for the right wing. an idler car was run between the two wing cars to allow for the overhang. The wing overhang both ends of the 89' rail car.
As the brackets mounted to the wing were designed to be square to the ground in the X, Y and Z planes for the air shipping fixture the brackets were now not square at all, this involved a lot of calculations. Remember we did not have fancy computers in those days just Fridens and some punched card calculators, and books with the Sine, Cosine and Tangents figures for degrees, minutes and seconds. Around 1975 a manager came up from Long Beach to look things over, basically he was sent to report on the managers who were wary of him, he took a liking to me a simple designer and we got along well. One day he comes up to me with a big grin and shows me a programable HP pocket calculator, I was stunned to see it spit out figures in the blink of an eye. He told me if I was wise I would get out of the aircraft industry as it was too up and down employment wise. The following year I left it for good and got into plastics when it was just about to boom, I retired from that industry when it was already in the doldrums.
We converted air shipping co-ordinates to rail shipping coordinates using so-called rotation boxes, using these tables we converted each X, Y and Z figure from air to rail coordinate.
The rail fixtures were designed on time and a dummy wing was designed to go in the rail car, fitted with instruments to measure g forces, vibrations etc encountered on the way.
We had been given an outline of the shape that would pass from Malton to Long Beach without striking platforms, bridges etc that were beside and above the rails. On an idler car, a wood structure duplicated this shape, called the shipping envelope the outer six inches or so made of polystyrene foam to show if it hit something. With great fanfare, the dummy wing was to leave the plant after all the photos of the managers were taken beside it the train left a bit late so everyone not directly involved got bored and went home. This was probably a good thing as the shipping envelope did not take into consideration the size of the plant gates where the rail lines exited the plant, lumps of foam were knocked off as the idler car went through the gates. Unable to repair the broken polystyrene the rail cars started the trip to Long Beach. I had assumed that the gates were included, I am glad to say I was one of those that left when things got boring.
Attached to the idler car was a caboose in which some engineers were to watch the dummy wing and the instruments attached to it. Somewhere in the midwest, they realized that the track was rising as they entered a railyard, panic hit when a bridge appeared that seemed to low to the rails, unable to stop the train they watched in horror as the supporting arms for the wing hit the bridge, and the dummy wing fell into the railcar with the support arms sheared off and laying on top. As I recall the whole lot was shipped back to Malton, repaired and the whole trip repeated with few incidents.
I could not find a photo of the railcar just a OO model of one. The four main supports pivoted in and out to allow for loading of the wing. The outer end of the wing was supported with large bungee chords to dampen any horizontal movement, the wing itself basically sat on brackets on the rear spar. After fifty years it all seems a bit vague now but proves that the best laid plans often go astray.

 

Wings for what plane ?

 

Sorry, DC-10 wings, they were already doing the DC-9 wings which were also shipped via rail.
The whole plant has since been razed to the ground.

 

USAF 64 ro 68, B-58 flight mechanic, (SR71 engine change,,,one) and kc135 mech. Little rock air force base , at that time our B-58's cairred one bomb,,, one 500 megaton nuclear bomb, then we modifed the B-58 to carry 100 to 300lb bombs and took it to Okinawa and used it in Vietnam, back to the SR71 we had two SR71's come to Little rock, one had a bad engine, I was chosen as one of the crew to change the engine we had a 3 day briefing. on the topsecret SR71 and we and our tool box would searched as we go to and when we left for the day,,,as the hoses, bolts,nuts brackets and a lot more were gold plated and some things were pure silver. they did not want any of that stuff to go anywhere except on the plane
the kc135 was our daily driver we even took it, can't tell you where but to pick up the SR71 engine..
I then worked for General dynamics in Texas ,,,still moding the B58 and there i got to go up in a B58 and we went mach 1.6 I also worked the F111 I then went to lockheed in Ga I giged,, tested,, and hung every engine on every C5A,, we would do a test flight to California to pick up a yes a (1) bushel of strawberries, B-58,KC135 and the sr71 I worked hydraulics,pneumatics sheetmetel, and engines.
at all locations i was stationed and lived in and out of the Airforce, i had a drag car and still do. my old 2005 crossfire 10.6 @ 132 and my now crossfire no mods 11.76 @ 122,, to see some some nice videos youtube amx1397 crossfire world fastest crossfire crossfire vs c63
jim

 

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SOMEBODY, PLEASE, make a jet engine powered Crossfire! That'll make it scream without a SKREEM!


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I am surprised you can still hear anything ! Those B58's were the LOUDEST planes I ever heard.

 

yes they were the J79 engines in afterburner extra loud,,,when we were testing the engine ,we use to throw a qt of oil into the fire stream behind the engine,,, big blue smoke when it would explode ,,, and when it went into afterbuner the ground shook,, and the next day we had to go through all the nuts bolts brackets to make sure none were cracked or loose. the C5 was kinda loud also jim

 

I have just remembered a very disturbing sight I saw while playing golf on July the 5th 1970. The course was near the Toronto International Airport, I heard a noise in the sky that was different from what was normally heard and I looked up to see an Air Canada DC-8 (Flight #621) with one wing on fire. I later found out that it had hit the runway hard on landing and was doing a go-around, the pilot did not know that he had left an outboard engine on the runway. As I looked the plane began to turn and sections of the wing started to fall off and flutter down like large feathers, then the inboard engine dropped to the ground like a smoking bomb. The plane immediately went into a nose dive into the ground, 109 passengers and crew died that instant.
I put my clubs away and went home, to my disgust cars were streaming to the crash site, some with kids in the car. A description of the site later said parts of bodies and wreckage were seen hanging from trees. The local ice hockey rink was pressed into service as a temporary morgue.
Pilot error was the cause officially, he and the co-pilot disagreed as to when to arm the spoilers this led to the co-pilot deploying them too soon rather than arming them. They were later modified to automatically arm when the main landing gear reached a certain point of compression.
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