Page 4 - Steerman Ashley News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

A vintage plane lands at washington international airport, and flips upside down. caught on two cameras. >> i was just shocked. i couldn't figure out why that would happen. >> in june 2010, ashley halsey iii, transportation reporter for "the washington post," is invited by a trend to take a ride on a vintage plane. >> he said we're going to be flying steermans into national airport, would you like to be on one? i said yes, even though i didn't know what a steerman was. >> the steerman, he learns, is a treasured world war ii biplane. >> it was used to train first-time pilots. a lot of them are ...

We flipped over hard. >> the steerman is one tough little plane. >> it was built for training. they knew they were going to be abused. they knew people were going to be flipping them over and it was just a really well-designed airplane. >> in hindsight, mike realizes what's happened is also due to a feature of his vintage plane. its finicky brakes. >> it's notorious to be a tough airplane to land. when i landed in fighting the wind, it was gusty. i touched down on the main wheels. the brakes on my plane were the original drum brakes. if you've ever had original drum brakes, they stick. if you ...

Lockup. >> for ashley, this video may prove to be the most widely distributed story of his career in journalism. >> it was a camera that i'd owned for less than 12 hours, and it's been picked up all around the world. >> while the video goes viral, the steerman goes to the repair shop. >> airplanes can get fixed. runways can get fixed. people don't get fixed that easy. >> whoa! >> there's a lot of very fortunate things happened that day. the most fortunate thing is nobody got hurt. coming up -- rafters are stranded in an icy, raging river. >> there are no guarantees that they would be success...

Toward the plane, ashley and mike realize the plane itself has saved their lives. >> the plane was resting on its upper wing, upside down. took a heck of an impact because we flipped over hard. >> the steerman is one tough little plane. >> it was built for training. they knew they were going to be abused. they knew people were going to be flipping them over. and it was just a really well designed airplane. >> in hindsight, mike realizes what's happened is also due to a feature of his vintage plane, its finicky brakes. >> it's notorious to be a tough airplane to land. when i landed in fighting ...

Would you like to be on one. i said yes, even though i didn't know what a steerman was. >> the steerman, he learns, is a treasured world war ii biplane. >> it was used to train first-time pilots. a lot of them are flown by barnstorming pilots. they are revered by those pilots the way some people love a model t or the little deuce coupe. they're restored, they're cared for. >> the steerman ashley is to ride in is owned by michael trushell, who performs with the flying circus in northern virginia. >> we're going to simulate a strafing and bombing run. >> we replicated an old-time barnstorming ac...