Impossible Situations

NightHawk · 04-20-2005, 07:52 AM

I have no idea how did they get to this sitoations.............

evangilder · 04-20-2005, 08:03 AM

I could take a guess on the B-24. The nose gear on that airplane was pretty fragile and was prone to collapse on bumpy runways. The Germans flew a couple of captured B-24s that had the nose gear collapse when landing on a less than smooth grass runway. Probably a rough field combined with a nose gear collapse at a reasonably good speed.

The B-17 shot is quite well known. The aircraft in the picture was out of position in a lower formation. Because of that, he was in the path of the bombs. There is another famous movie clip of one taking a bomb right through the section where the wing meets the fuselage.

FLYBOYJ · 04-20-2005, 08:32 AM

Actually the B-24 incident happened because the pilot, for some reason decided not to commit to a take off and decided to slam on the brakes. My guess is he (the pilot) felt that he didn't have enough runway for take off. This was a common occurrence for low time multi-engine pilots and in many situations, they actually had enough room to take off. Many runways have a natural "hump" to them an during a takeoff roll you have an illusion that you're running out of runway. Anyway I seen this photo before and it stated that 6 or 7 people were killed during this incident!

evangilder · 04-20-2005, 08:44 AM

It's a real shame guys died like that.

FLYBOYJ · 04-20-2005, 08:51 AM

My Uncle was a B-24 Bombardier stationed at Mountain Home Idaho during WWII. About 2 weeks before he was supposed to go over seas he was on a training mission in a "D" model. He remembers looking outside and seeing a flight of P-38s escorting this formation. He rolled over and went to sleep -

When he woke up, he looked up and saw the P-38s again, except he now noticed they were hanging from a ceiling! When he looked down he was in a full body cast, someone even drew a checker board on his chest! He had been in a coma for almost 6 months as a result of an in flight engine failure and crash that took the life of his entire crew! He was the only survivor and probably survived because of his little nap!

evangilder · 04-20-2005, 08:55 AM

Yikes!

trackend · 04-20-2005, 09:25 AM

That's a rough call Fly, still he had better luck than his poor old mates

Here's a couple of tales that I'm sure you probably know of but hey I'm a boring repetitive guy.

I.M. Chisov:

Lt. I.M. Chisov was a Russian airman whose Ilyushin IL-4 bomber was attacked by German fighters in January of 1942. Falling nearly 22,000 feet, he hit the edge of a snow-covered ravine and rolled to the bottom. He was badly hurt but survived.

Alan Magee:

Alan Magee, a gunner on a B-17 with the 303rd Bomb Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force, was on a mission to St. Nazaire, France in January of 1943, when his bomber was set aflame by enemy fire. He was thrown from the plane before he had a chance to put on his parachute. He fell 20,000 feet and crashed through the skylight of the St. Nazaire train station. His arm was badly injured, but he recovered from that and other injuries.

Nicholas Alkemade

In March of 1944, Nicholas Alkemade was the tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber on a night mission to Berlin when his plane was attacked by German fighters. When the captain ordered the crew to bail out, Alkemade looked back into the plane and discovered that his parachute was in flames. He chose to jump without a parachute rather than to stay in the burning plane. He fell 18,000 feet, landing in trees, underbrush, and drifted snow. He twisted his knee and had some cuts, but was otherwise alright.