| Henry R. Poplawski |
| Original Source | PIMA ID | Donor ID | Category |
| Henry R. Poplawski | NA | PA.487-OCR | G-DA-OCR |
| The following is as an OCR scan which probably has some of the usual OCR 'typos' remaining. This is from a 4 page Lockheed Martin Newsletter. Also See: - Autobiography |
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Lockheed Martin Newsletter
Glenn L. Martin Co. test pilot tells his story of service to the company |
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Henry R. Poplawski, Lt. Col. USAF (Ret.) Flight Testing the B-26G I first saw the Martin B-26 (Marauder) in 1940, whet, I flew into the Martin airport at Middle River near Baltimore, Maryland. The first B-26 was a production model that came right off the assembly line. An accelerated test program took place at the Glenn L. Martin Company and at Wright- Patterson airfields. The first B-26 flew on 25 November 1940; the last B-26 came off the assembly line in May 1945. In that time span of about 5 years, the aircraft went through numerous modifications as a result of battle experience, but the overall design changed very little. During its peak production, almost each day a B-26 came off the assembly line. When I came to work for the Glenn L. Martin Company in October 1942, after 13 months flying in Africa for Pan American Airways, the company was in full production of the B-26, the A-30, and the PBM-3Although most of my test flying was on the B-26, I did fly the other aircraft through the end of World War 11. On most of our flight testing of the B-26, we would usually fly with one pilot and a flight engineer. With the high production rate and the limited number of pilots and flight engineers, we had to stretch our flight crews and flying hours. Before test flying any of the airplanes the usual procedure called for a comprehensive pre-flight inspection of the airplane by the flight engineer. It was also up to the pilot to make further inspection to satisfy himself of the airworthiness of the airplane. The system worked fine for me but it wasn't foolproof. What happened on this flight is best said by my accident report. |
| Subject: Accident Report on B-26G Time: At 15:05 on November 8, 1944 Place: Vicinity of Easton, Maryland This was a routine production test flight. The airplane was pre-flighted by Flight Engineer Spalding, assisted by in- training flight engineers Woody and Knox. Spalding stayed on the ground while Woody and Knox were going along on a check ride as flight engineers. On the ground taxi-run, the operational check of the airplane showed that it was in good functioning order. Take-off time was approximately 14:25, and I climbed to 9000 feet to keep above scattered clouds. I flew out into the Maryland Eastern shore test area and proceeded with the performance check of the airplane. I trimmed out the airplane for level flight and made the pedestal check. Everything appeared to be normal. I was about to make time turns and steep turns to check my gyro instruments when two P-47s out of Dover, Delaware, passed over in front of me and swung in behind. I put the airplane in a 40- to 45-degree bank to the right to see what those P-47s might be up to in back of us. Checking my instruments, I noticed I was losing altitude at the rate of about 1000 feet per minute. My airspeed was reading between 220 and 230 mph. I attempted to raise the nose of the airplane to level flight using the elevator trim tab. The aileron control gave a violent jerk, twisting the wheel control counter-clockwise and sharply throwing the airplane into a steep nose-down power spin to the left. I glanced at the airspeed instrument to see if I accidentally stalled the airplane, but it indicated around 200 mph. I pulled back the throttles and made no immediate attempt to recover from the spin, meanwhile checking my controls for normal operation. The aileron control was very rough and jumpy, while the elevators and rudder seemed very hard and firm. Through the use of the rudder I stopped the spin and had to use both hands on the control column to recover from the dive. Checking the airspeed, it never got above 300 mph. My altitude was about 4000 feet at the point of recovery, and I used the excess speed to climb to about 5500 feet. My throttles were pulled all the way back, so I pushed them to about 25 Hg manifold pressure. |
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The aileron control was vibrating very badly and any slight movement of the wheel caused the left wing to drop. I tried to bring up the left wing by cutting back the right engine and slightly increasing power on the left engine. That seemed to cause the airplane to shake more so. I used a lot of right rudder to keep my wing level. The most power I could keep on the engines was 20 Hg, to keep the vibration down. My airspeed decreased to about 150 mph and I tried to keep it there. The airplane started to lose altitude, and it wanted to Fall to the left. I had to use a lot of right rudder to keep the wing nearly level. Woody was standing between the co-pilot's seat and mine, and I asked him to check my left aileron. He could see through the navigator's window and reported it was all right. The altitude was about 4500 feet. I told Woody and Knox to get into the bomb bay, and I opened the doors for them to jump. Before Woody left, I had him open the nose wheel escape hatch behind me. Woody started back to the bomb bay and all through this, Knox seemed bewildered and just sat in the co-pilot's seat. I had to pull him by the arm and push him to follow Woody. At this time, I called the Martin control tower saying I was losing control of the airplane, and we would have to jump. I looked back and Woody was in the bomb bay and Knox was stepping into it. I flipped the bomb salvo switch and looked back to see the open bomb bay doors. Knox was still standing looking into the open bomb bay. When the bomb bay doors opened, the airplane felt like it was going to fall off to the left. I lowered the landing gear. I checked my altitude while I cut the engine throttles all the way back, and it showed about 2000 feet- descending rapidly. I went through the nose wheel head first and vaguely saw the landing gear and the airplane going away from me. I pulled the ripcord of my backpack parachute. The parachute shroud lines caught my left leg and had me hanging upside down beneath a partially collapsed parachute. I couldn't get untangled right away, so I looked for the airplane. It made a sweeping steep turn to the left and went into the ground directly below me. As it hit, there was a brilliant flash of flame that outlined the length of the wing and the round cross-section of the fuselage. I managed to untangle my leg before I hit the ground. Woody made a good parachute landing, but Knox's parachute did not fully open. He was killed instantly. |
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| Several things went wrong with this flight. I had two scared and untrained flight engineers. Woody was our link trainer operator and Knox was our parachute packer. My parachute wrapped around my leg and his failed to fully deploy. I had two riders in my airplane that hadn't the slightest idea how the B-26 systems worked. In case of a malfunction, I was on my own to solve it. I don't know what went wrong with my airplane; apparently, some part of the wing or controls failed. I was grounded for about a month with a torn leg muscle. Soon after my emergency parachute jump, the Pioneer Parachute Company enrolled me into the Caterpillar Club. (My parachute was made of caterpillar silk.) When I was bailing out of the airplane it was rolling to the left. The escape hatch I was using was in line with the engine propellers. I could have fallen into them. Fortunately for me, by the time I came out of the escape hatch the airplane was on its back and it was failing away from me. I pulled my ripcord, and I must have been falling backwards toward the ground. The pilot chute is a small parachute that catches the air, and this in turn pulls out the main canopy of the parachute, which normally would pull out the shroud lines that hold the parachute to the pilot's harness. The canopy came out between my legs, and the following shroud lines became entangled around my left leg. I took the pull of opening across my leg. With the entangled lines the canopy could not fully deploy. I was falling like a rock. I had to untangle in a hurry because I was going to fall into the exploding impact of the airplane below me. The canopy finally opened and I landed in an open field among a herd of cows. It was an "udder" disaster. I gathered up my parachute and headed to a road when a state trooper drove by and picked me up. We were heading to the crash site when a farmer waved us down and took us to Knox. The farmer said he watched Knox fall out of the sky with his tangled parachute. Woody in his parachute was floating high in the sky after I landed. Another state trooper picked him up. We were taken to an airport not far from the crash site and were picked up by a diverted B-26 test flight and were flown to the Martin airport. Here I had a different problem. The company wanted to send me to a hospital to look at my swollen black-and-blue leg. At home, my wife had her aunt and uncle visiting us. We had a dinner engagement scheduled that evening. I called my wife and told her I would be a little late because I hurt my leg stepping out of the airplane. I did not give her any of the details and said we would be going out as planned. I told our Chief Test Pilot Pat Tibbs that I would see a doctor the next day about my leg. |
| About my wife. We were married about six months and she was a Navy nurse. Married Navy nurses were a no-no! She had to resign her commission. Now she says if it wasn't for me she could have been a Navy captain. So it goes. The next day I saw a doctor who told me to get off my feet and into bed. My nurse at home had me following doctor's orders. Ice packs got down the swelling, but I was grounded for about a month. About two months after my crash, we had another. Rich Meyer, the pilot, and Zent, the copilot, were on a test flight when the airplane became uncontrollable. At a low altitude, Zent bailed out of the airplane and Meyer tried to make an open-field landing. He lost control and was killed in the crash. Meyer was an experienced B-26 pilot and our section chief He gave me a check-out ride when I came back on flying status. No problem ... I was anxious to fly the B-26. Henry R Poplawski Pilot of the Airplane |