F-89C Scorpion,what`s the story on this old bird?

a reply to: Tardacus

Whoa check this out, found a report not sure if it is true, but it's interesting on this case:

Filer's file on case

Claims to have found the scorpion wreckage 500 feet down with a disk near it .. Sounds too convenient but who knows.

a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Lake Superior is full of wrecks. They'd have to investigate every one to find out if it was the aircraft. As for wreckage, it depends on how they hit. If they hit the water at a high rate of speed it would explode on impact and be in pieces.

If they dove down on the radar contact the way they said, there's a good chance the aircraft did break up, especially with its history of structural problems.

a reply to: cavtrooper7

What about it?

a reply to: Zaphod58

I was born at that airbase, which by 1962 was called Kincheloe AFB - don't know when name was changed . Nearby town is called ' Kinross' .

This base is seventy miles or so , from Canada , in what was then a very remote part of America .Cold war nuke-support and interceptor bases all over the north...

My question is ( war games and role-playing aside ) : how would an American interceptor be in a position to confuse a Canadian RCAF aircraft for whatever ... ? Doesn't sound like there was a joint forces op in progress .

Only miles off that lakeshore , the Edmund Fitzgerald lay in more than 600 ' of water . The ship in nearly 1000' long... and wasn't easy to find .

a reply to: Zaphod58

I want to know what it is.

a reply to: Slakecontagia

We don't know that the crew did. A ground based radar system had an unknown contact they were sent to investigate. We don't know what they did beyond what the radar showed.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Slakecontagia

We don't know that the crew did. A ground based radar system had an unknown contact they were sent to investigate. We don't know what they did beyond what the radar showed.

Oh , I get it - f89 aircrew isn't known to have made contact at all...
Must be a terrible thing ... to have to scramble in an unreliable aircraft .
There was no way of surviving for long in L Superiors waters , in the days before the modern survival suit .
If , that is - they weren't beat to death by a wing breaking off .RIP.

At the time of this incident, the Air Force was only 6 years old, and still finding its feet. The F-89 was one of their first jet fighter programs, and was a borderline disaster. It had been grounded in 1952, and by the time of this incident, at the end of 1953, only 36 had been returned to service. That meant both aircraft that crashed that day were part of that group. Any evidence that they were still having structural problems was probably going to be covered up in an effort to protect the service.