of Niagara Falls Airport in New York. Flames spread to the wing, forcing Bell test pilot "Slick" Goodlin and engineer Charles Fay to bail out. The twin-jet fighter crashed at about 10:20 on a farm in Amherst, New York (about 13 miles from the airport), creating a crater about 25 feet in diameter. 6 September The first prototype of the Avia S-92.1 Turbina, a Czechoslovakian version of the Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a (standard Me 262s built from extant parts) crash-landed on its sixth test flight out of a former Luftwaffe base northeast of Prague. During high-speed runs at 13,125 feet (4,000 meters), the port engine flamed out; pilot Antonin Kraus, unable to get a relight, opted for a wheels-up landing in a field. The aircraft broke in two on landing (although Kraus was uninjured), and was a total write-off. For propaganda reasons, the second prototype (S-92.2) was reportedly the first true prototype; the first one was an experimental ship, and the first two-seater (the Avia CS-92.3), was declared the first series-production aircraft. 13 September Major General Paul Bernard Wurtsmith of Strategic Air Command was killed when his North American TB-25J-27-NC Mitchell 44-30227 of the 326th Base Unit, MacDill Field, Florida, crashed at about 11:30 into Cold Mountain near Asheville, North Carolina. In February 1953, the United States Air Force named Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda Township, Michigan, in his honor. 27 September Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. was killed when de Havilland DH 108 TG306 (the second prototype) broke up in flight, coming down in the Thames near Egypt Bay. 29 September Blue Angels pilot Lt. (JG) Ros "Robby" Robinson was killed in Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat BuNo 95986, Blue Angels No. 4, at NAS Jacksonville in Florida when he failed to pull out of a dive during a Cuban Eight manoeuvre. A wingtip broke off his fighter. 1 October RAF Bristol Brigand TF.1 RH744 failed to develop sufficient power on takeoff from RAE Farnborough, overran into soft ground and flipped over. There were no injuries, but it was the first Brigand to be written off. William J. Smokovitz, flying a B-29A (tail number 45-21726) out of Grand Island AAF, in Nebraska, crashed in Buffalo Valley, Nevada. 12 November "Santiago, Chile, Nov. 13, (AP) - Seven persons were injured last night when a United States army Douglas plane crashed in the Andes near Uspallain on a flight from Panama to Santiago. Two