May "NEWARK, Cal., May 17 (UP) - Test Pilot R. S. Carter of San Jose, was killed today when his surplus P-51 fighter plane exploded in flight." 18 May Lockheed P-80B-1-LO Shooting Star (45-8497), one of several taking part in manoeuvers testing northwest air defenses, crashed three miles east of Sprague, Washington. Officials at Spokane Air Force Base said on 20 May that pilot Capt. Franklin T. Johnson of Lake Elsinore, California was killed. 23 May In the early evening, ex-RAF Handley Page Halifax C.MK 8 (registered G-AIZO, ex-PP293 and operated by Bond Air Services), carrying a cargo of apricots from Valencia, Spain, crashed in Studham, Bedfordshire on a Standard Beam Approach (SBA) to RAF Bovingdon in bad weather. After a steep turn to port and losing height rapidly, the Halifax side-slipped towards the ground until, seeming to recover and flying straight and level with engines at full power, the aircraft struck the ground flat and broke into its component sections. The crew escaped alive. After initial suspicions that the cargo may have shifted in flight, an AAIB report blamed loss of control by the pilot while the aircraft was too close to the ground for recovery. 27 May A Douglas C-47 Skytrain en route from New Orleans to its home base at Roswell, New Mexico crashed in an electrical storm in a cornfield 20 miles southwest of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, killing all seven on board. The wreckage was scattered over at least an acre. The National Guard identified the pilot as 1st Lt. Philip R. Vaughn, and the co-pilot as 2d Lt. K. R. Bailey. Some of those aboard were servicemen hitching rides to the West Coast. June The second Supermarine E.10/44, TS413, was lost while undergoing trials with a 270-gallon ventral fuel tank. A&AEE pilot Lt. T. J. A. Joyce-King, Royal Navy, was killed. The loss was thought to be probably caused by rudder lock-over (sometimes experienced in a side-slip while carrying a large, ventral tank), and was cured by adding a long dorsal fin to all production Attackers. 4 June "Tokyo, June 12 (AP) - Three American airmen were killed in the crash of a P-61 on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, Far East air force headquarters announced. The victims were identified as First Lts. Joseph R. Johnson of Bellefonte, Pa., pilot, Clarence T. Konecn, Bryan, Texas, radar observer; and Sgt. Joseph R. Beeles, Fulton, N.