2007-04-05 10:45:00 · 5 answers · asked by amos 2 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Aircraft
The only one I know about was a 172. A wing separated in flight because of a missing nut on the wing strut.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20021230X05642&key=1
2007-04-05 11:30:49 · answer #1 · answered by eferrell01 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My research has revealed that dives do to "spacial distortion" cause most in-flight break ups of 150s and 172s. G forces way beyond specification!
"Normal flight" failure is extremely rare. Corrosion or mechanical negligence is to be blamed. These are very well engineered aircraft.
2007-04-05 16:32:08 · answer #2 · answered by Mere Mortal 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wings don't "fall off." They can be pulled off or torn off by huge forces, either from weather or from too much crankin' and bankin'. You could tear them off by pointing the nose straight down, too; but why would you do that?
Heck, you can pull the wings off nearly any airplane, though fighters since WWII, in general, will black (or red) you out before you can pull off the wings. In fact, they'll probably stand more Gs than you can. In other words, if you pull the wings off an F-16 by pulling high Gs, you'll probably already be dead.
2007-04-05 16:36:27 · answer #3 · answered by Yesugi 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
never seen em fall off.....but i have seen them kink so bad that the aircraft was no longer flight worthy.
2007-04-05 16:05:17 · answer #4 · answered by texasflyer553 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, but no one lived to tell about it.
2007-04-05 11:33:36 · answer #5 · answered by imajiknation 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋