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Description
| Manufacturer: | Beechcraft | |
| Base model: | U-22 | |
| Designation: | QU-22 | |
| Version: | B | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | |
| Designation Period: | 1952-Present | |
| Basic role: | Utility | |
| Modified Mission: | Radio controlled drone | |
Specifications
| Not Yet Available |
Known serial numbers
Recent comments by our visitors
| skip speth , NJ | I was a pilot (Vampire 30) in the second group to be deployed to NKP. Reading the other entries brings back many memories. Everything that has been said is true. I remember there was this Major based at Wright Pat that kept comming over and try to fix these machines. The problem was that I don't think Beech had flying at 25,000 feet in mind when they designed it. We all have many stories but the one I like to tell is about the Rooster Tail. We were always briefed if anything really bad happened, try and bail out over the Rooster Tail (Laos). One nite I was on orbit (Va (listening to my casette recorder) over Laos and Maj. Matt Peach Vampire 03) was coming back from the DMZ orbit. He lost his engine and bailed out over the Rooster. I raised him on his radio and relayed to him that he should NOT MOVE. This was contrary to what we were taught; get away from your chute at least 5 minutes. After Matt was picked up the next morning, we all learned why Intel (oxymoron)thought the Rooster was safe. IT WAS MINED BY US!!! 07/22/2008 @ 13:07 [ref: 22212] |
| Calen C. Chrzan Keller, TX | Lori, I also just stumbled on this website. I was an Air Traffic Controller who worked at the Rapcon at NKP from 1971-1972. Capt. William Prude my boss and Lt. Lanny York (Vampire47, Lanny's Call Sign) knew each other from some Air Force School. I only met your brother-in law the night before the accident when I came out to work the mid-shift. He came out to visit Capt. Prude and the Rapcon that night. Lanny really loved flying and was flying an extra mission the next day. He was supposed to take off at noon and that is when the accident happened.
About 10 years ago I was flying back from Tuscon to Houston on Continental and the co-pilot had the Vampire Squadron decal on his map case. I mentioned Lanny's name and the accident and he told me he was the one who investigated the accident The QU22B Aircraft was plagued with problems. It was overweight and was just not structurally built strong enough to handle the mission. 05/24/2008 @ 19:57 [ref: 20999] |
| Bill Devroy Saint Paul, MN | I worked on the computer equipment on board the QU-22 at Nakon Phanom RTAFB during 1972. The QU-22 was pulled from service due to large numbers of malfunctions. I may have seen Lanny's crash site. I think it might have been tail number 547 but memories are fading.
in late spring or early summer of '72 one of our aircraft crashed when its engine failed on takeoff, it went down just at the end of the runway. I never knew the pilot's name but it might very well have been Lanny's. The QU-22 was replaced by putting the equipment on board C-130s for the remainder of my tour. 05/04/2008 @ 11:13 [ref: 20791] |
| Lori Peterson Connell West Liberty, IA | I just stumbled onto this web site while trying to learn more about my brother-in-law Lanny A York. It was very strange to see his name highlighted in reference to this plane. Lanny died in 1972 while flying a Beechraft QU-22B. I remember at the time hearing that there were a lot of problems with this particular aircraft and heard that they discontinued using it at least for a while. It wasn't until today that I learned how many problems there were.
09/29/2007 @ 11:20 [ref: 18050] |
| johnny montrose Florence, SC | I was stationed at Eglin Field 3, 424th Sots from Oct 69 Dec 70. After I departed Hurlburt Field where I was with the 603rd SOS, worked on A-26a
Attended Beech factory training class on qu-22b.Aircraft. The project was called Paved Eagle. 07/28/2007 @ 07:18 [ref: 17316] |
| David Melick Blairsville, GA | I was in the first group trained to work on the QU-22B. We went TDY to Eglin field 3 (in the middle of nowhere). Our departure to NKP was delayed because of problems with the Aircraft. The original plan was that although we would be based at NKP officially, the QU-22B would be mobile and able to fly out of short, crude runways found in places other than NKP, or Thailand for that matter.
It never flew drone, as it was intended. While flying it's circut over Laos the most common problem was the oil pressure dropping, the engine freezing up and all equipment going dead, no generator. In spite of this problem planes were used. The problem was "solved" by placing a "pilot" in it. The pilot would read a book or whatever, and didn't have to do anything until the engine would freeze-up then they would make every effort to glide it back to NKP. They usually made it but several times they didn't. Pilots hated this duty, I can't blame them. 08/02/2006 @ 20:10 [ref: 13786] |
| Kevin Sisti WestMilford, NJ | I have a restored Qu22. With all of the drone equiptment and military radios removed. It flys just fine. 02/05/2006 @ 06:04 [ref: 12418] |
| Kevin Sisti WestMilford, NJ | I have a restored Qu22. With all of the drone equiptment and military radios removed. It flys just fine. 02/05/2006 @ 06:04 [ref: 12417] |
| Kevin Sisti WestMilford, NJ | I have a restored Qu22. With all of the drone equiptment and military radios removed. It flys just fine. 02/05/2006 @ 06:03 [ref: 12416] |
| tony Iglesias Asbury, NJ | I was a maintenance mechanic working on the QU-22's during my 2 years stationed at NKP Thailand (70-72) It is a wonder anyone who flew this aircraft survived ( a few didn't - including Lt. Lanny York you went down after takeoff in 1972) This airplane was way overloaded with too much equipment and the strain on the engine, etc. really took its toll. Even the tech reps that came over from the states couldn't isolate the many problems these planes had.
An experience to say the least. 09/16/2005 @ 13:58 [ref: 11248] |
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