BAK-12 Portable Barrier Test at Edwards (Read 1,168 times)

I recently saw these wire photos on sale at Ebay. Thanks to Erv Smalley for capturing the pictures for us.

456th FIS Pilot Fred Williams was involved with these tests. Fred is also a docent at the Udvar-Hazy National Air & Space Museum at Dulles, VA. If you visit there, please get on his tour - he is fantastic!

After the pictures you'll see emails I swapped with him about these pictures. Click on the pictures to enlarge and select FULL SIZE when you get to the web site.






Hi Fred,
Attached is a picture of a 456th F-106 that was on Ebay. I made a .pdf copy for you. Thanks, Pat Perry

Pat, Great to hear from you and the pic from the past. The rest of the untold story. I was sent from Castle down to Edwards as we were testing the BAK-12 portable barrier (actually 2 B-52 brakes anchored on either side of runway attached to the cable.

The other 2 airplanes were F-101 and F-100. We were to cycle thru catches 12 times in an hour to see if the system held up.

On my last pass (I had already made 4 engagements) I was supposed to catch the tailhook 50 feet off center at 150 knots plus). As a precaution, the landing gear and seat pins were in and the canopy had been removed.

As you are aware, the retrofit of the hook was to be used only in emergencies. When the hook catches the wire it acts like a water hose if you shake it. The downward pull on the steel bolt attached to the longeron was enough to pull it out.

We were using the old short runway (4000ft) and there I was at take off speed so I plugged in AB and got airborne. We were on a special radio channel for the test and the Edwards tower had no idea what we were doing.

I topped a small rise at the end of the runway and there ahead of me was a zillion miles of the lake bed. There was no depth perception as the lake had not had the spring rain and the runways were not painted onto the alkali. I just set up a 300 ft rate of decent and painted it on the lake. I then contacted Edwards ground and they directed me to the follow me truck where I returned to concrete. Fearless Fred.

Hi Fred, What a great story! That landing had to have a "pucker-factor" of 10! Would you mind if I put the story in the next 456th Newsletter and on the F-106 Forum at forum.f-106deltadart.com/ . I won't put it anywhere without your approval. No problem if you say NO. Thanks, Pat Perry


Pat, I woult be honored to be published. As an aside, the aircraft #56457 was a round eye that we picked up from Geiger when we had to transfer the last 20 aircraft built to George.

Some of those aircraft arrived is such shape that Big Jim Price took one of the alert bays and turned it into a paint hanger (We only had limited use of the SAC paint barn). (Pat's note: for those who don't know, Gen Price (El Jefe) was a real stickler for clean aircraft).

On a sad note, a good friend Don Anderson passed away last Sat nite in Naples Fl. He came to the 456th from F-102's at the 332FIS at Thule. He was selected from the squadron to be part of the first cadre of Instructor Pilots at F-106 CCTS, Tyndall AFB. He and I were students at the Interceptor Weapons School. He got our of service, went to Allageney Air, then U.S. Air, retiring as a 737 captain. He had Lews Body Disease, similar to Alzheimers. Fearless Fred

And now you know the rest of the story!

Thanks Fred! And Erv!

Pat P.

:patriotic-flagwaver