undercarriage on landing when pilot O. E. "Pat" Tibbs, director of flight for Martin, applied heavy pressure to specially-designed, slow-to-respond air-braking lever. Tibbs and co-pilot E. R. "Dutch" Gelvin were uninjured. July–December 1947 1 July An Army Air Force P-84 Thunderjet was flown by Maj. Wilbur J. Webb on a routine acceptance test from the Republic Aviation Corporation plant in Farmingdale, Long Island. Webb was flying at about 9,000 feet, cruising at about 600 mph (the plane's maximum speed). When he radioed that his engine was dead, he ditched the plane near a lighthouse between Cold Spring Harbor and Huntington Bay and was rescued. 3 July USAF Douglas C-54G-1-DO Skymaster 45–519 (c/n 35972/DO366), en route from Bermuda to Morrison Field in Florida, crashed in the Atlantic 294 miles northeast of Florida after a loss of control due to storm turbulence. Its six crew members were killed. 7 July 1947 Navy fighter crashes into house on Faxon rd N. Quincy Ma. One fatality. Plane was heading for Squantum Naval Airbase. 18 July "Carrizozo, N. M., July 18 (AP) - An Army pilot attempting a P-80 jet plane takeoff from a highway was killed and four other persons were injured today when his aircraft crashed into a service station and exploded. White hot flames erupting from the plane's 700-gallon fuel tanks destroyed station, aircraft and three automobiles. The flier's body was charred. 'We were lucky that more weren't killed,' said Sheriff Nick Vega, who was slightly burned in helping to rescue the injured. The gasoline station was as the north edge of this southern New Mexico town. There are no houses close by. At March field, California, Army air base the pilot was identified as Capt. Floyd G. Soule, 28, adjutant of the 73rd Fighter Squadron. His widow, Hilda, and three children reside at 3272 Oakwood Place, Riverside." P-80A-5-LO (44-85349) was listed in 1947 with the USAF 71st Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group. 19 July RAF Bristol Brigand TF.1 RH742, assigned to the A&AEE and piloted by F/L T. Morren, failed to pull out of a firing pass during an exercise in the Lyme Bay area off the Dorset coast. It began a slow roll, lost speed while inverted and dove into the sea, killing both crew. It was thought that one of the dive brakes might have failed, and it was the first fatal accident of the type. 21 July "Buenos