National Affairs: He Wanted Wings

For one unsettling second U.S. Navy Lieut. John B. Barnes thought that the laws of aerodynamics had suddenly been repealed. There he was, climbing away from the runway at Italy’s Capodichino Airport, and on each side of him the wing of his flashy new F8U Crusader jet was turned upright 6½ feet from the tips—as if parked on a cramped carrier deck. Why the tower had cleared him for take-off and how his plane had staggered into the air with the outboard wing panels folded up, he could not say. But there was no time to speculate. He rammed the throttle home and clawed for altitude. At 500 ft. he circled cautiously until he could jettison his fuel, then landed with his wingtips still folded.

The Navy was understandably in no hurry to advertise Lieut. Barnes’ embarrassment—or its own. But Chance Vought Aircraft, Inc., makers of the plane, thought it too good a story to keep—as if the brief flight proved something special about their plane instead of something forgetful about the man who flew it.