Lowell Randall recalled a test that went wrong, when the Goddard team was working on a World War II Navy project developing rockets to help seaplanes take off.

During tests with a PBY flying boat launched from the Chesapeake Bay, the rocket motor began to overheat.

"I wanted to tear it down and find out what was wrong," he said. "But then the Navy commander, he didn't want to take the time." Instead, they rigged a band around the motor that was supposed to make it cut off should the motor get too hot.

Randall was in a boat while a Navy pilot and a Marine Corps co-pilot flew the PBY.

"It worked fine, got off the water just fine," he said. The commander was "all excited about coming back to put a whole bunch more sandbags in it," testing its ability to lift heavier loads.

They ran additional tests. Sometimes the rocket would shut down early. The commander ordered the safety strip removed to stop that.

"I fussed about it, I fussed about it, but he's going to do it," Randall said. "So he removed that thing. And so it takes off fine."

But when the PBY was about 200 feet above the water, "Wham! It blew up," he said.

The exploding rocket cut the plane's altitude control cables and the aircraft's nose dropped. The PBY headed toward the bay, engines idling because it was in a dive. Those inside could not nudge it up because of the broken cables.

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But the co-pilot realized he had to give the plane more power, so he pulled the throttle open.

"I was watching it from a boat," Randall said.

"It was just leveling out, but it was still going down. And it hit the water, sprayed, just — you couldn't see a thing. It (the spray) just completely obliterated everything.

"And then after the spray all settled, they were sitting out there wobbling like a duck. Nobody got hurt."

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