WB-57F photos

The WB-57F

The cockpit

The aircraft crew

Damage to the WB-57F during the intercept of April 15, 1999

The WB-57F had a problem on this April 15 flight that was identified on the following day during a visual inspection of the tail assembly. The plane returned to Ellington and the tail was detached.

Here we see the full tail section.

And the WB-57F without its tail wing.

The detached tail section was parked off to the side.

Here we see a close-up of the undamaged fingers from the port side of the tail wing (to the right in the previous picture).

And a close-up of the patch piece placed over the damaged fingers on the starboard side of the tail wing.

Photos taken by Paul A. Newman and Tom Kucsera of NASA/GSFC.

Go to the available forecast plots? Yes.