Does anyone know any information or place i could get more information on an Air Force Pilot who shot himself down over Vietnam?
2007-11-05 11:50:21 · 9 answers · asked by runnerkap 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Military
There were two who were Grumman Test Pilots. The first was Tommy Attridge who fired his 20 mm cannon while flying a F11F-1 Tiger supersonic in a 20 degree dive. At 7,000 feet he caught up to his bullets and was struck, he crashed while attempting to land. The second was Pete Purvis who was testing a sparrow missile launched from the F-14A. An errant shot caused the fins to slice the underside of the fuselage and fuel cells. Which caused fuel to enter the engine nozzles and ignite. You can google their names on the internet to read the articles.
2007-11-05 12:32:03 · answer #1 · answered by erehwon 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, I have the article from the paper cut out. I will try to post it. He was on a mission in a P-80 Shooting star fighter and had one wing tank get fowled which would not dispence fuel so with the other tank dry he was in a lateraly precarious position and out of limts to land safely. Rather than ditch after ejecting, thereby losing the aircraft, he elected to use his service pistol to shoot hole on the wing tank thereby draining the fuel and balancing the load. Jet fuel has a pretty low flash point so while risky it was fairly smart. What followed was a safe landing and no other damage to the jet or the pilot. A great and funny story!.
Chris Cain
Pilot
American Airlines
Former U.S.A.F.
2015-08-15 06:03:07 · answer #2 · answered by Chris 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
During the 80's when they were trying to establish if the SR-71 could be equipped with weapons, a test shot against a drone aircraft ended with the SR-71 making an emergency landing due to damage of the rear alerons. Apparently the SR-71 was "chasing" the drone at high speed in a straight line, fired whatever gun it was equipped with, hit its target, sped-up, over and passed the target and reestablished it's original flight profile. Well...it went so fast that it actually passed the rounds it had fired in mid-air, and shot itself in the butt. How crazy is that?
2007-11-06 08:00:43 · answer #3 · answered by theGODwatcher_ 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Strange things DO happen. I've seen F-4s come back from the range with shrapnel holes from their own 20MM ricochets and F-111s with dents all under from 500 pounders that got sucked up in the slipstream.
2007-11-05 13:01:57 · answer #4 · answered by gunplumber_462 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there's a astonishing piece in,"Zen, and the artwork of motorcycle maintenance", that announces the Buddha is contained in the middle of an Atomic Bomb as much as contained in the a procedures mountain tops. Steven Segal, Buddhist, Cop, and action picture megastar
2016-09-28 10:11:49 · answer #5 · answered by dotterweich 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think you can shoot yourself down, the only thing I can think of is accidental things that this type of plane was doing in WWII. Maybe the same thing happened in Nam.
It would fire and then, what it was designed to do, it would dive down to gain speed but they kept running into there own bullets. Like they would speed out in front of there own shots and have bullets coming in through their own roofs from their own guns. I wonder how long is took them to figure out who was shooting at them.
2007-11-05 12:05:35 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Nickusafgermany? Wanna field this one? Curious as to how one would even shoot themself down...
On a serious side, check with Veteran's Affairs as they may be able to get you a good lead. Good luck!
2007-11-05 11:57:10 · answer #7 · answered by ≤ Flattery Operated © 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
see the link...under 'trivia'.
2007-11-05 16:26:02 · answer #8 · answered by sirbobby98121 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't see how it could be done. If you find out, please let us know.
2007-11-05 12:11:51 · answer #9 · answered by Ava 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋