RIP Lt. Col. Eric Schultz.

[arrow-nautics]

Sorry Mods since there is no confirmation but the Pentagon are being unusually tight lipped on this. And it happened at Nellis Air Force Base.

http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/anna ... y,amp.html

The aircraft was assigned to Air Force Materiel Command, which leads development of new combat technologies for the service.

Maj. Christina Sukach, a spokeswoman for the 99th Air Base Wing, said Schultz died as a result of injuries sustained in the accident. The crash remains under investigation, and additional details were not immediately available.

“Our immediate concern is for the family of Lt. Col. Schultz,” she wrote in an email.

Schultz is a 1991 Annapolis High School graduate, and the son of Linda and Larry Schultz, of Annapolis. They traveled to Nevada on Wednesday to be with their son’s wife and other members of the family.

A former civilian test pilot, Eric Schultz held multiple graduate degrees when he joined the Air Force in 2001. He went on to be an experienced flight training officer who was the 29th pilot to qualify to fly the F-35 fighter jet in 2011.

His crash was one of two Air Force crashes near Nellis on Wednesday. Twos A-10C Thunderbolt II jets assigned to the 57th Wing crashed on the test range at approximately 8 p.m.

An Air Force spokeswoman at Nellis said the pilots ejected safely. The aircraft were on a routine training mission at the time of the crash.

Prayers to the family.

[gc]

Its not a F-35. The spokesperson said its a classified platform that she cannot reveal. Wonder what it is.

[blindpilot]

Here's a toast to the host of men who fly ...

According to military.com
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017 ... range.html

"Information about the type of aircraft involved is classified and not releasable," Maj. Christina Sukach, chief of public affairs for the 99 Air Base Wing at Nellis, said in an email.

I suspect we will not hear what type aircraft was flying 100 miles NW of Nellis, but that question can wait. Lt. Col. Schultz was among the best of the best.

My prayers and thoughts for now are for family and friends.
BP

[spazsinbad]

Nellis AFB News Release: http://www.nellis.af.mil/About/Press-Re ... -accident/

Alert5 & photo: http://alert5.com/2017/09/09/28th-perso ... more-64833

http://alert5.com/wp-content/uploads/20 ... 43x500.jpg

"AF-1 Flt; Capt Eric “DOC” Schultz; First F-35 Flight; Pre-flt & Hosedown; F-35 ITF Edwards AFB; Ca.; 15 September 2011"

[citanon]

RIP. A sad reminder that advances in aeronautics rest on the bravery and sacrifice of our test pilots.

[krorvik]

Blue skies, Doc...

[popcorn]

R.I.P.

[spazsinbad]

This text was posted on Pprune without attribution:
"Unknown ‘classified’ aircraft type lost at or near Area 51

The fact that an aircraft accident has occurred is usually released immediately. Unusually it was three days before the USAF admitted that it had lost a still unidentified aircraft at “around 6:00 PM’ on Tuesday 5 September, during a training mission on the Nevada Test and Training Range.

Details of the accident remain sketchy, and Major Christina Sukach, chief of public affairs for the 99 Air Base Wing at Nellis, said that: “Information about the type of aircraft involved is classified and not releasable,” though it was admitted that the aircraft was assigned to Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC). This would make it likely to have been a test aircraft of some kind – perhaps simply an F-16 or F-35 assigned to test duties, or possibly a classified prototype or a foreign aircraft type under evaluation, or in use for adversary training.

The 53rd TEG’s Detachment 3 is understood to be the operator of the Su-27s and MiG-29s used by the USAF for foreign material exploitation and associated training, and, according to the USAF, “maintains an active involvement with AFMC”, though it is not formally assigned to Air Force Materiel Command. Det 3 is the successor to the 4477th TES or Red Eagles squadron that operated the USAF’s secret fleet of MiG-17s, MiG-21s and MiG-23s.

Nellis Air Force Base said that the cause was under investigation and that additional information about the accident would be released at a later date.

A Nellis spokesperson implied that the delay in reporting the accident reflected the focus that had rightly been placed on search and recovery efforts and on notifying next-of-kin.

The location was given as being “about 100 miles northwest of Nellis AFB” – which, perhaps not entirely coincidentally, is also a good description of the location of the top secret Groom Lake test airfield – popularly known as Area 51.

It was reported that the pilot involved, Lieutenant Colonel Eric ‘Doc’ Schultz, 44, had died as a result of injuries sustained in the accident, though Major Sukach said that it was “unclear as to whether Schultz had died at the crash site.” Another Nellis spokesperson, Tech. Sgt. Siuta Ika confirmed that Lt. Col. Eric Schultz had been piloting the aircraft when it crashed, but said that it was unknown whether other people were on board at the time of the crash.

Colonel Schultz’s unit assignment has not been released.

As a young boy Eric Schultz dreamed of becoming an Astronaut, but poor eyesight led to three rejections from the US military after he graduated from Annapolis High School in 1991.

As a freshman at Pennsylvania State University, he was turned away from the Reserve Officer Training Program but was denied due to poor eyesight. While still at University, Schultz took a civilian job with the Navy as a flight test engineer.

Schultz subsequently worked as a business development director for an aerospace company and took multiple college degrees, gaining a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2000.

In 2001, after the Air Force began accepting pilots who had undergone corrective l@ser eye surgery, Schultz was able to join the USAF as a pilot, initially serving as a flying instructor.

In 2006, while flying F-15s with the 391st Fighter Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base he was listed as one of the year’s Ten Outstanding Young Americans – an honour previously meted out to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.

At that time, Schultz still aspired to becoming an astronaut, saying that while he loved flying jets, his goal remained to be in space, though he also said that: “As long as I'm enjoying what I'm doing, and I'm contributing positively, that's all that counts."

On 15 September 2011, then-Captain Schultz became the 28th pilot to qualify to fly the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter."

[doge]

It seems that it was not a F-35...
https://twitter.com/Oriana0214/status/9 ... 2344848387

Oriana Pawlyk‏@Oriana0214
#BREAKING: "I can definitely say it was not an F-35," -@GenDaveGoldfein told @Militarydotcom accompanying him on trip to #NGAUS2017.

https://www.facebook.com/Militarydotcom ... 4835384270

Military.com
UPDATE: Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein says the aircraft involved in the deadly crash was not an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. "I can definitely say it was not an F-35," he said.

[blindpilot]

It seems that it was not a F-35...
... Gen. David L. Goldfein says the aircraft involved in the deadly crash was not an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. "I can definitely say it was not an F-35," he said.

Folks I suspect that we will not know.

That doesn't mean it was a X999 spaceship. It could be training tactics against an F-16 using an old modified Mig 23, carrying some new tech weapons/sensor package to see what happens with new Chinese sapphire lenses looking into the sun, at Mach 1.5, in a high G turn, and anything else we can imagine.

The bottom line is Lt. Col. Schultz was trusted with our most important, and risky test missions. He will be missed.

MHO,
BP

[rheonomic]

[ricnunes]

R.I.P.

[citanon]

LCol "Doc" Schultz received a PhD in aeronautical engineering from Caltech. His thesis research was on pulse detonation combustion. He was probably one of the top scientific and engineering minds in the Air Force. A brilliant career cut short at age 44.

[southernphantom]

[sunstersun]