Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Not to be argumentative, but I remember reading this story when it happened -- it was widely publicized. Consensus was that he had caught up with his own bullets after doing a high speed dive.

The links referenced above mention that at least one bullet struck his windshield.

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ford2go wrote:

.... one bullet struck his windshield.

If that is the case, simply, I'm mistaken.

Just like the IAF Eagle that lost its right wing in a midair and successfully recovered, I don't know why this story is so difficult for people to believe. Confused

He flew below the flight path of the bullets, as they fired on an arc. As the bullets traced downward, he flew straight through their flight path. He only sustained a couple of hits. Nothing to cause a Class A.

I guess that's the way of the world these days. It's so much easier for people to disbelieve things, and be skeptical. When I first heard of this story, the story of the Tomcat that shot itself down, and the Israeli Eagle, I looked up as much information as possible, because these stories are definitely not something you see very often. Actually, they are quite often once in a lifetime.

Apparently there have been several instances of aircrews who shot themselves out of the air. Let me tell you about one that I'm familiar with. I happened to be assigned to a C-130 crew in early 1968, supporting F-111 operational tests taking place on the west coast. The first F-111 operational squadron was assigned to Canon AFB, New Mexico.

One day we had a mission to pick up the escape module from an F-111 and haul it back to the General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth. Since it was the first time the escape module had been used in an ejection, everyone wanted to determine how well it worked.

The story we got was that the crew had flown over a test range off the coast of California and fired their guns. Then they dived and ran into the shells they'd just fired. Oops!

Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Plane that shot itself