Death Trap Aircraft

[timshatz]

Originally Posted by k9kiwi

He said the worst part about bailing out was not knowing if your parachute had been shot to ribbons, and that the relief of it opening in one piece was intense.

Oh man, that would totally suck. Bird on fire, maybe a jammed cockpit, finally fight your way out, scrape along the fuselage, bounce off the rudder and THEN THE PARACHUTE IS FULL OF HOLES!

Talk about it not being your day...

[V-1710]

Originally Posted by Marshall_Stack

Bailing out of a P-38...be careful of the horizontal tail boom.

I have heard it said by P-38 pilots that it was almost impossible to get hit by the horizontal stabilizer when bailing out of a P-38. At low speeds, you crawled out of the cockpit and slid off the center wing, and would miss the tail by better than 10 feet. At high speeds, you would open the canopy and get sucked right out of the cockpit, going over the tail by several feet.

[V-1710]

Originally Posted by red admiral

The other single seat fighters don't crush the pilot to death when he crash lands and the engine moves forwards.

I have heard that one, too. But, it seems that it was something of a myth. The P-39's fuselage was immensely strong and ridged. It had to be to keep the driveshaft in proper alignment so it would not vibrate, a problem many of the P-39 prototypes had. If you crashed a P-39 hard enough to send the Allison through the front of the aircraft, your day would be done no matter what you were flying.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

wasn't the "official" way to bail out of a P-38 to get out, crawl along the wing then down part of a boom then jump clear because they were so worried about people hitting the tail?

[Twitch]

I once interviewed Walter Krupkinski and I found this comment on the P-39 amusing-

"I encountered many of your (American) aircraft. My experience with the Airacobra- they were easy to shoot down with the engine behind it. I had easily gotten behind one and fired. It was burning like hell. The aircraft was in heavy smoke and the pilot tried to bail out. This was my first experience with the Airacobra remember, and he opened a door! I had never seen that before; that the pilot could just open a door and step out of the aircraft cockpit!"

[wmaxt]

Originally Posted by syscom3

P38's were also hard to bail out of.

Actually they wern't, the tail if you look at profiles was further bach from the cockpit and even or a tad higher than most fighters. A set of scale drawings illistrates this at this site P-38 Profile

There is a vidio on Zeno's page of a pilot bailing out of a P-38 and he clears the tail by several feet (it looks to me to be about 5 feet).

Any airplane had conditions that were dangerous to try to get out, a spin for example, and did include the P-38 but in normal situations it wasn't any worse than, say, a Mustang.

wmaxt

[pbfoot]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ***

wasn't the "official" way to bail out of a P-38 to get out, crawl along the wing then down part of a boom then jump clear because they were so worried about people hitting the tail?

iwas given to understand you just slid off the wing and the airflow would suck you down

[wmaxt]

Originally Posted by pbfoot

iwas given to understand you just slid off the wing and the airflow would suck you down

Thats right you were supposed to just slide off the wing. With nothing to hold onto and a red hot turbos going out to the boom is not realistic or even possible in most cases.

wmaxt

[pbfoot]

Originally Posted by wmaxt

Thats right you were supposed to just slide off the wing. With nothing to hold onto and a red hot turbos going out to the boom is not realistic or even possible in most cases.

wmaxt

I seen that on zenos

[V-1710]

Originally Posted by Twitch

I once interviewed Walter Krupkinski and I found this comment on the P-39 amusing-

"I encountered many of your (American) aircraft. My experience with the Airacobra- they were easy to shoot down with the engine behind it. I had easily gotten behind one and fired. It was burning like hell. The aircraft was in heavy smoke and the pilot tried to bail out. This was my first experience with the Airacobra remember, and he opened a door! I had never seen that before; that the pilot could just open a door and step out of the aircraft cockpit!"

That very strong fuselage allowed for two big car door sized holes in the sides!

[Twitch]

99% of the time if the aircraft could still roll over they just went inverted and hit the quick release and let gravity do the job.

[R988]

What about those early Typhoons with the 'car' door, they probably wouldn't be that easy to get out either, especially if it was going fast and you were trying to open the door against the wind resistence.

I imagine most bombers would have been something of a deathtrap, at least for the pilots who would have to hold it steady if possible for the crew to get out then try and get out via some escape hatch further back by himself with the plane going down out of control.

Hurricanes also got a bit of a reputation for burning pilots, though they usually got out alive. I guess Japanese aircraft probably burnt quite a few as well.

[daishi12]

"Hurricanes also got a bit of a reputation for burning pilots, though they usually got out alive. I guess Japanese aircraft probably burnt quite a few as well."

I have read that when Douglas Badder was shot down it was a good thing he had tin legs as his feet got caught in the pedals. The straps holding his legs on broke during a spin and he was able to make a timely exit.

(I can't remeber whether he was in a Hurricane or Spit at the time though)

[timshatz]

Originally Posted by daishi12

"Hurricanes also got a bit of a reputation for burning pilots, though they usually got out alive. I guess Japanese aircraft probably burnt quite a few as well."

I have read that when Douglas Badder was shot down it was a good thing he had tin legs as his feet got caught in the pedals. The straps holding his legs on broke during a spin and he was able to make a timely exit.

(I can't remeber whether he was in a Hurricane or Spit at the time though)

Spit.

[daishi12]

Cheers Tim