Pre 1940's flying

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Pre 1940\'s flying

I was reading an interesting book this evening: Manual for Aviation Cadets, published in 1943 by John Hoyt. In discussing the preflight, Hoyt makes mention of "walking around the wing tip, checking to see that no one has tried to use it for a landing gear in a Chinese landing (Wun Wing Lo)."

After a little research, I figured out that a "Wun Wing Lo" landing means one wing low ... e.g. the wing tip hits the runway during landing.

Two questions .... first, anyone know where this analogy originated? Obviously times have changed and something like that wouldn't be politically correct in today's society but I was curious if there was an incident pre-1940 that specifically coined that term. Second, in all of my flying, I'm yet to hear of someone who has scraped a wingtip during landing (sure, ground loops, but those don't count as landings!). I'm guessing the must have been more common in World War II aircraft if the author makes mention of it as if it is something the previous pilot might have experienced but failed to write up. I'm sure the majority of the aircraft were low wing airplanes however I've got quite a bit of low wing time, have landed in some really bad wind, and have never been concerned with striking the wing tip on landing. What's changed?
 
Re: Pre 1940\'s flying

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I'm sure the majority of the aircraft were low wing airplanes however I've got quite a bit of low wing time, have landed in some really bad wind, and have never been concerned with striking the wing tip on landing. What's changed?


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The low wings you've flown were, more than likely, all sporting tri-cycle gear. A low wing, tail-wheel aircraft is an entirely different animal.
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Re: Pre 1940\'s flying

I think that this was just a joke, so I would not try to put too much meaning to it. But, if you think about it, the book was written for Cadets, who were in training. Almost all of the aircraft were conventional gear, so ground loops were a very real possibility. Compared to today, the accident rate in training was quite high. Especially in WW2 when pilots were transferred into very high performance aircraft with relatively low time. I think that the average pilot was sent to combat with about the same number of hours as a new commercial pilot today. To put it in perspective, here in Vero Beach about 1600 pilots were trained and there were about 100 fatalities.

The "Pilots' Information File 1944" is a reprint of a WW2 training manual that is currently available. It is an interesting read.
 
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