Bill Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut, crashes in Puget Sound

Oh Geeze! Beautiful weather here. Sad to see this
 
Atronaut Williams Anders has died in a plane crash of a T-34 Mentor off the San Juan Islands near Seattle. He was 90 years old.

His isn’t a household name, you probably don’t recognize it. But you probably know the picture he took on Apollo 8.



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Piperonca said:
General Anders was 90, and an incomparable photographer. RIP.

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That picture still gives me goosebumps. Never gets old. Bar none my favorite picture in this life that doesn't involve my kid. What an experience that must have been. It is a beautiful planet.

110+ billion homo sapiens sapiens conservatively so far come and gone, only a few witnessed that in person before we started on our own (sixth) mass extinction. Talk about timing and luck.
 
I think my family met him about 15 years ago when he had stopped at KSAT with his P-51 Valhalla for fuel. We didn’t have a clue who he was but saw the P-51 at the FBO and stopped to look. That was back when I had a film camera and I’m pretty sure I took some pictures, but I have no idea where they are at the moment. He was really polite and nice to talk to and we got to go all around the P-51. Had no clue at the time who he was.
 
The Apollo 8 mission was a daring first manned full up test of the Saturn V with an S1C first stage. It was a magnificent success, and certainly Ander's photo was a gift to all mankind that will endure forever.

Rest easy, General.
 
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I came across a video of the crash on YouTube, taken from a distance of two miles or so. Wasn't looking for it, my algorithm prioritizes aviation stuff. I recommend avoidance.

Anders hit the water at the bottom of a loop, having insufficient altitude.
 
Piperonca said:
What a remarkable life—he also received the Navy Cross, the service’s highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/07/...e_code=1.yE0.9f1m.ocExKQBplBaJ&smid=url-share
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It was Ander's father that received the Navy Cross for his actions during the attack on the US Navy gunboat USS Panay. He was the exec when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft in 1937.

William Alison Anders was born on Oct. 17, 1933, in Hong Kong, where he was living with his mother, Muriel Adams Anders, while his father, Lt. Arthur Anders, a career Navy man, was serving as an officer on the gunboat Panay on patrol along China’s Yangtze River.

After a stint in Annapolis, Md., the family returned to China, with his father posted aboard the Panay, once more, as the executive officer, or second in command. But after a Japanese attack in Beijing in July 1937, prompting the start of the Sino-Japanese War, Bill and his mother fled to the Philippines.

In December, while the Panay was carrying out the evacuation of Americans from China, Japanese planes bombed and strafed the boat.

Its captain was severely injured and Lieutenant Anders, who was also wounded, nevertheless took command and ordered the boat’s machine gunners to fire at the Japanese planes. He also oversaw the boat’s evacuation before it sank, for which he received the Navy Cross, the service’s highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor.

[Bill Anders] received his pilot wings in 1956 and served as a fighter pilot with interceptor squadrons in California and Iceland tracking Soviet heavy bombers that were challenging America’s air defense borders. In 1962, he received a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. A year later, he joined the third class of astronauts at NASA, although he lacked experience as a test pilot, a traditional route to flying for the agency.





unfurl="true"]https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/07/science/william-a-anders-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yE0.JwuH.ydXivPrunLzg&smid=url-share
 
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3393RP said:
It was Ander's father that received the Navy Cross for his actions during the attack on the US Navy gunboat USS Panay. He was the exec when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft in 1937.

William Alison Anders was born on Oct. 17, 1933, in Hong Kong, where he was living with his mother, Muriel Adams Anders, while his father, Lt. Arthur Anders, a career Navy man, was serving as an officer on the gunboat Panay on patrol along China’s Yangtze River.

After a stint in Annapolis, Md., the family returned to China, with his father posted aboard the Panay, once more, as the executive officer, or second in command. But after a Japanese attack in Beijing in July 1937, prompting the start of the Sino-Japanese War, Bill and his mother fled to the Philippines.

In December, while the Panay was carrying out the evacuation of Americans from China, Japanese planes bombed and strafed the boat.

Its captain was severely injured and Lieutenant Anders, who was also wounded, nevertheless took command and ordered the boat’s machine gunners to fire at the Japanese planes. He also oversaw the boat’s evacuation before it sank, for which he received the Navy Cross, the service’s highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor.
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Distinguished family, then. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
 
RyanShort1 said:
I think my family met him about 15 years ago when he had stopped at KSAT with his P-51 Valhalla for fuel. We didn’t have a clue who he was but saw the P-51 at the FBO and stopped to look. That was back when I had a film camera and I’m pretty sure I took some pictures, but I have no idea where they are at the moment. He was really polite and nice to talk to and we got to go all around the P-51. Had no clue at the time who he was.
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That was probably one of Bill's sons Greg, who is a very approachable guy. The whole family is really nice.
3393RP said:
I came across a video of the crash on YouTube, taken from a distance of two miles or so. Wasn't looking for it, my algorithm prioritizes aviation stuff. I recommend avoidance.

Anders hit the water at the bottom of a loop, having insufficient altitude.
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That was not a loop.
3393RP said:
The Apollo 8 mission was a daring first manned full up test of the Saturn V with an S1C first stage. It was a magnificent success, and certainly Ander's photo was a gift to all mankind that will endure forever.

Rest easy, General.
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Indeed. For the curious, I highly suggest the book/audio book "Rocketmen". Apollo 8 was way sketchier than Apollo 13.
Third launch of a Saturn V (the second one blew up so obviously you strap dudes into it for the next launch), first time mankind left Earth orbit - on a highly compressed schedule in order to beat the Russians. They strapped in knowing their chances of survival were 50/50.
 
Aerobatic maneuver gone wrong?
 
RyanB said:
Aerobatic maneuver gone wrong?
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Yep. Looks like he was doing a split S and too low to the water to pull it off. Kinda reminds me of the blue angel crash a few years ago. 90 years old and doing aerobatics. I guess there was one old, bold pilot left. Blue skies…


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aftCG said:
That was probably one of Bill's sons Greg, who is a very approachable guy. The whole family is really nice.

That was not a loop.

Indeed. For the curious, I highly suggest the book/audio book "Rocketmen". Apollo 8 was way sketchier than Apollo 13.
Third launch of a Saturn V (the second one blew up so obviously you strap dudes into it for the next launch), first time mankind left Earth orbit - on a highly compressed schedule in order to beat the Russians. They strapped in knowing their chances of survival were 50/50.
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Thanks for the book recommendation. I read “Apollo 8” a few years ago and thought it was awesome. It made me feel a lot safer the first time I flew my E/A-B.
 
Peter Anderson said:
Yep. Looks like he was doing a split S and too low to the water to pull it off. Kinda reminds me of the blue angel crash a few years ago. 90 years old and doing aerobatics. I guess there was one old, bold pilot left. Blue skies…
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Funny. Was having a scotch with a buddy last night and we were talking about a mutual friend who passed away from aggressive brain cancer last year. Retired Navy fighter pilot. Right before surgery he took one last flight in his Pitts to watch a SpaceX launch. We were both surprised he returned from the flight. "Just roll inverted and pull."

Celebrate a life well lived.
 
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iamtheari said:
Thanks for the book recommendation. I read “Apollo 8” a few years ago and thought it was awesome. It made me feel a lot safer the first time I flew my E/A-B.
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I thought Apollo 8 was a good book too. I asked Greg Anders about it. He said Bill didn't care for the book because it had a lot of inaccuracies, and recommended Rocketmen.
 
Skyrys62 said:
Aerobatic maneuver gone wrong?
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My first thought was it might be deliberate. Split S with insufficient altitude is a rookie move. This man was no rookie. It was the first maneuver he flew, not one in a sequence, which reduces the chances of an entry gate error.

But looking closely at video on YouTube, it appears he tried to pull through and just barely missed it. Another 10-20 feet of vertical and he would have made it.

One of the news stories posted the flight-aware track. Anyone have his N Number? Would be very interesting to see his entry airspeed and altitude. Both are critical for a Split S. Too low OR too fast can kill you in an instant.
 
Any chance that he experienced G-LOC?
I'd assume he has quite a tolerance for G forces, obviously, but is that something that diminishes with age?
 
Baked Potato said:
Any chance that he experienced G-LOC?
I'd assume he has quite a tolerance for G forces, obviously, but is that something that diminishes with age?
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Probably not. That's more of a jet fighter thing, because it takes sustained high G. You would have to try really hard in that aircraft. I can roll my Decathlon inverted and pull full deflection at full power and not exceed 4.5G, which is nowhere near the amount required for G LOC. At contests I see Extras and Pitts pull out of long vertical down lines at full power all the time without a problem.

Plus you would see the radius relax, which it does not. He was pulling right to the end.

From the video, the entry altitude is really obviously blatantly low. Just a question of why.
 
I put my instructor full asleep in a T-34… at a mere 3.5 gs. It can EASILY be done.

I maybe, sorta, kinda, perhaps, grayed out.. just a little teeny tiny itsy bit. Yep. That’s my story (for another day)…

BUT, would think we’d have seen a deliberate relaxation of pull rather than a consistent hard pull all the way to the water.

Hard to say what happened. Sad to say the least…. A grim reminder of how deliberate we need to be in ALL we do. No matter our previous experience. Life is just THAT fleeting.
 
I hope it wasn't.
 
i cant help but think g-loc. maybe realized he was a bit lower than he liked and pulled a little harder to tighten it up and blacked out. at that age you just can't handle the g's that you could when younger. what ever it was, RIP general. blue skys and tailwinds.
 
Tools said:
A grim reminder of how deliberate we need to be in ALL we do. No matter our previous experience. Life is just THAT fleeting.
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Remember Steve Fossett in his Super Decathlon: even when you are a superlative aviator but continue tempting fate, it becomes the hunter and finally kills.
 
Bill Anders talked about getting the "Earthrise" photo in this interview:


This interview gives a little more detail on the shooting of the photo itself:

 
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