Page 119 - MY STORY

the Douglas Aircraft Company multiple lawsuits and

millions of dollars. The result is that we were permitted
by our management to evaluate the parts Sid left behind.

The story about the broken parts, from Sid, went
something like this. At least two Boeing B-52 bomber
aircraft had lost their vertical stabilizers in-flight,

resulting in fatal crashes. A third B-52 lost the majority of
the vertical stabilizer, but the pilot was able to get it home
safely.

A review by Boeing and the USAF Failure Analysis lab at

Wright Patterson AFB (WPAFB) in Dayton concluded
the failures were due to excessive gust loads and resultant
stress overload of the attach fittings between the vertical
stabilizer and the fuselage. Sid Berman, as a dissenting

voice, was not sure about the finding and filed a minority
report that indicated the failure might have been caused

by faulty structure and possible design flaws. The rusty
parts Sid left us to examine were the steel fittings that
attached the vertical stabilizer to the B-52 fuselage of a

crashed aircraft!