Talk:Samoan Clipper

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[edit] Bill Sage

I've moved the Bill Sage document here pending a cleanup I have on my to-do list.

According to Don Metzger, whose father Sam Metzger was a personal friend of Ed Musick, the Samoa Clipper developed some sort of engine problem shortly after taking off from Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa's island of Tutuila. The S-42 was fully loaded with fuel, and was over the gross weight maximum required for a safe landing. Becasue of this, Captain Musick elected to dump fuel prior to setting her down.

Metzger told me that because of the weight and loss of power, the S-42 was circling the harbor with flaps extended to maintain the necessary lift while fuel dumping was in progress. Apparently, Sikorsky had never tested fuel dumping while flaps were fully extended, and the position of the fuel dump vents on the wing coupled with the shape of the airflow caused by the flaps extended created a sort of back eddy of vaporizing fuel which lingered and grew around the trailing edge of the wing.

Apparently, the vaporized fuel air mixture grew to a critical mass large enough and in close enough proximity to the engine exhaust manifold incandescent gases to create optimal conditions to detonate catastrophically. In other words, the dumped fuel and the hot engine exhausts created a fuel-air bomb large enough to blow the Samoa Clipper to bits, killing all on board.

I heard this explanation from Don Metzger when he was General Manager of KGU Radio in Honolulu back around 1985. He had a picture of his Dad Sam Mezger on the wall of his office showing him in a Glenn Curtiss Pusher. Don told me that Sam held U.S. Pilot's License #15, and when Ed Musick landed in Honolulu back in the mid 1930's, Don as a little boy had been given a tour of the S-42 by Captain Musick. Unfortunately, Don Passed away about a decade ago, but this is what he told me about the fate of the Samoa Clipper, to the best of my recollection.

Bill Sage, Honolulu sagecorp@lava.net

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