22/03/1943 Republic P-47 41-6244

2^nd Lieutenant Goodson was tasked with ferrying a Republic P-47 aircraft No 41-6244 to Burtonwood from Speke for repairs, however as he took of at 14:00 hours all did not go well as described in 2^nd Lieutenant Goodson’s own words,

“The aircraft had not been inspected by any crew and I ran the engine to 2000 RPM and tested the magneto’s. On opening up to take off, the engine lost RPM considerably until well down the runway when it picked noticeably, I considered it impossible to become airborne in view of the length of the remaining runway, so I cut the switches, unlocked the tail wheel, applied the brake and the aircraft commenced to ground loop, turning onto soft ground and nosed up, resulting in damage to the propeller and tail wheel”.

The accident was also witnessed by Aircraftsman Apted in flying control as follows,

“The pilot apparently checked his mags and boost before attempting to take off. He applied the throttle and the motor seamed to be OK until he was about 500 yards from take off position when his motor began back firing. This back firing occurred just as the plane was leaving the ground”.

“There was a very noticeable increase in RPM and power, and then the engine quit completely. The plane continued down the runway and turned at the end and went up on the nose. There was no fire and the landing gear was down”.

The official cause of the accident was engine failure which resulted in damage to all blades of the propeller, broken tail wheel and the left wing tip was crinkled.