Mr. Duncan, the last Hummingbird was flown by Harlan J. Quamme and he survived by ejecting. The Hummingbird program was scrapped after that. Harlan passed away October 8th 2009 and was laid to rest at Magnolia Baptist Cemetery, Whigham, Georgia. Flying was Harlan's life and we miss him!

Kenneth Paul, kpaul5(@)triad.rr.com, 28.08.2009
Just remembered the last name of "Ernie," below. It's Brooks! Any one know him? Also, a test pilot who flew 24504 (XV-4B) on its final flight is Frankie Quamme. He DID punch out when this plane got into trouble, and it crashed into Lake Lanier. I never knew him, but have made contact with he and his brother, as well as Glenn Gray.

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Mr. Paul, your info is incorrect! The last pilot of the Hummingbird was my late brother in law Harlan J. Quamme. Harlan's widow Frankie is my sister. I was living in the Atlanta area and working for Lockheed when the crash occurred. We were very happy that Harlan survived the crash as you might surmise. Harlan was a good man with a great soul. Just wanted to let you know who was flying that death trap.. Cheers, Carlton Collins

Just remembered the last name of "Ernie," below. It's Brooks! Any one know him? Also, a test pilot who flew 24504 (XV-4B) on its final flight is Frankie Quamme. He DID punch out when this plane got into trouble, and it crashed into Lake Lanier. I never knew him, but have made contact with he and his brother, as well as Glenn Gray.

I joined Lockheed Marietta in June, 1963, fresh out of the Army. I was assigned to the Hummingbird project as a flight test engineer (this is not a flying position). I had a degree in A.E. (U Ala, 1960) and had worked for Boeing for about 10 months in the aero staff (707 days!) No pilot training whatsoever, just a sliderule jockey, so don't know why Lockheed saw fit to put me in such a hands-on position with such a radical new project. Nonetheless, under the guidance of Ernie (?) and Wynne Daughters, the only other flight test engineers on the project, I was right there for the early tethered hovers, right through the crash of 24503, pictured above. Daughters was the lead FTE on 24504, the second plane, later to become the doomed XV-4B; Ernie was lead and I his #2 on 24503. The Lockheed test pilots for these craft were Glenn Gray and Bernie Dvorak. They were both in the T-33 chase plane when the Department of Army test pilot Bill Ingram crashed 24503 in the summer of 1964. Yes, it was totaled and Bill was killed, and it did hit the ground in a small construction site where new homes were being built; no one on the ground was injured.

I wrote the test plan for that day (with Ernie's sign-off, I'm sure). It called for reverse transition training for Ingram, wherein he was to take off in conventional mode, maintain at least 3500 feet AGL, and practice diverting first one engine, then both to vertical flight mode; this would result in "flying" at 30 kts or less. After feeling out the aircraft in such a strange regime, he was to return to normal flight by un-diverting first one, then both engines. On a previous similar flight, he had remarked that 'you get such a kick in the ass when those 6600 pounds of thrust kick back in' that you would never have to eject from this airplane; just push those buttons and zoom! On the fatal flight, as he was down to 30 kts or so, a duct carrying high pressure bleed air from the engines to the nose thruster blew out, and he immediately lost pitch control. Both Lockheed pilots in the chase plane barked "Bail out! Punch out!" but there was no reply. He instead flipped both engines back to conventional mode, the nose fell through, and he experienced a high speed stall just as he pancaked into the ground. He was at 3500 ft MSL, but the area was about 1500' so he just didn't have enough air under him to blast out of the problem.

My cousin William Ingram was the pilot of the original Hummingbird. He did indeed give his life to keep the aircraft from hitting in a residential area. This is according to my aunt, his mother. He also flew P-38's out of England during WWII. He loved flying more than life.

My father retired from NAS ATL (Chief Petty Officer),in 1962. He then went to work for Lockheed as an inspector on the afternoon shift at the time of the crash. He worked with the XV-4 HUMMINGBIRD project until the program was canceled after the crash. News of the crash was relayed to my father via a phone call from one of his work mates almost instantly! It was late morning to around noon as I recall. The a/c crashed somewhere north east of McCollum Airport here in Marietta. I was 16 at the time. My father owned an Ercoupe airplane and we drove to airport and climbed up high to view and make one quick pass near the crash site (not too close!!..FAA rules prohibit flying over a crash site!).

When my father was stationed at NAS Atlanta,I recall our next door neighbor in Marietta Ga was a test pilot for lockeed. He was flying chase on g
the hummingbird when a nozzle stuck and the aircraft began a flat spin-the test pilot held off ejecting trying to save the aircraft and lost track of altitude and rode it in to the ground fataly. I think this was the second crash for the prototypes. Thats when they scrapped the program.