training exercise. While maneuvering at 2,500 feet, one plane passed too close under the other and the two collided. Fuel, metal, glass and other debris rained down onto newly built homes in Bellerose, New York, killing all 11 crew on board. One woman, inside a home set afire, succumbed to burn injuries the next day. 21 June Seventh (of 13 ordered) Bell YFM-1 Airacuda, 38–492, crash lands in farmer's field at East Aurora, New York, before acceptance by U.S. Army Air Corps when aircraft will not recover from spin, rudder locks, pilot cuts power prior to bail-out. After Bell test pilot Brian Sparks departs airframe, suffering severe injuries (two broken legs) when he strikes vertical fin and horizontal stabilizer, fellow Bell pilot John Strickler regains rudder control, dead-sticks the pusher twin into field ~15 SE of Buffalo. Sparks parachutes down, Strickler uninjured, airframe written-off. 27 June The second prototype Heinkel He 177A V2, wrk. nr. 0000002, CB+RQ, suffers in flight break up from control flutter. Test pilot Rickert and three crew fail to bail out and are killed. The tail surfaces of the third, fourth and fifth prototypes nearing completion are then enlarged. 29 June 209 Sqn loses a second Saro Lerwick flying boat, L7261, when Flg. Off. Pain returns to Oban from escort mission due to severe weather. While taxying cross wind to the moorings, the starboard float breaks loose, flying boat capsizes, sinking within 30 minutes at RAF Oban in Ardantrive Bay. Airframe is beached four days later and salvage operations begin, but L7261 never flies again. 30 June French Glenn Martin 167, aircraft No.4, from Casablanca to Gibraltar, is shot down by Spanish anti-aircraft fire. Four Frenchmen, Captain Vendeuvre, Lt. Weill, Lt Berger and Lt. Plessix killed. 9 July During shakedown cruise of the aircraft carrier off Cuba, one of her Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator scout bombers, BuNo 1358, crashes two miles (3 km) from the ship. Wasp goes to flank speed to close, as does the plane-guarding destroyer . The latter's boats recover items from the plane's baggage compartment, but the plane sinks with its two crew. 11 JulyOn its fifth test flight, the prototype Vought XF4U-1 Corsair, BuNo 1443, runs low on fuel, Vought test pilot Boone Guyton attempts landing on rain-slicked fairway of the Norwich, Connecticut, golf course, crashes into woods, flips over, slides into tree stump, comes to rest in ravine with wing and