The photo below says all that needs be said.
For those who might not recognize the photo, that’s the USS Shaw at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941.
Enjoy the weekend, everyone. But while doing so, if you’re so inclined maybe say a prayer for those whose lives ended on this day 78 years ago.
“Then there was that time a jet aircraft shot itself down . . . .”
No, that’s not the beginning of a sea story, a “no sh!t” story, or a tall tale. At least once . . . it actually happened.
And the pilot – though injured in the resulting crash-landing – lived to tell about it. He also later flew again.
. . .
The time frame: mid-1950s. Supersonic flight wasn’t new, but aircraft actually capable of same were still fairly uncommon. Manufacturers were still gaining experience in dealing with supersonic flight issues.
Enter the Grumman F11F/F-11 Tiger.
The Grumman F11F Tiger was developed under the Navy’s pre-1962 numbering scheme; it was re-designated the F-11 under the 1962 Tri-Service numbering scheme. It was the Navy’s second supersonic jet aircraft (the F4D Skyray was the first); and it was fairly successful. A total of 200 were ordered by the Navy, and it was flown by the Blue Angels from 1957 to 1969.
It also was armed with 20mm cannon. And that – coupled with the fact that it was also Grumman’s first supersonic aircraft and the company was still learning about supersonic flight peculiarities – led to the aircraft gaining a unique place in US military aviation history.
How so? On 21 September 1956, a Grumman F11F Tiger became the first jet aircraft to shoot itself down.
. . .
Here’s what happened. On that date, Grumman test pilot Tom Attridge was flying a Grumman F11F Tiger – BuNo 138260 – off Long Island. He put the plane into a dive, and fired a 4-second burst (some sources say he fired two bursts) from the aircraft’s 20mm cannon.
He was at approximately 22,000 feet altitude when he fired. He then continued his dive; some sources say that he increased his dive angle and accelerated as well.
At an altitude of about 7,000 feet, Mr. Attridge got a rather nasty surprise. His windshield caved in, and his engine started losing power.
Attridge thought he’d struck a bird, and tried to nurse his damaged aircraft back to Grumman’s Long Island airfield. Unfortunately his engine soon quit altogether. Since the F11F was a single engine aircraft, this was truly “bad news”.
Attridge crash-landed the aircraft. He survived, but was injured and unable to fly for some time. However, he did eventually recover and return to flight status. (The aircraft did not; it was a total loss.)
. . .
What had happened? Well, as Attridge dove his aircraft was under power; some sources say he used his afterburners and increased his dive angle during the dive. His aircraft thus almost certainly picked up speed while in the dive.
However, his 20mm cannon rounds didn’t; due to air resistance, their speed continually decreased. And since they were fired at around 22,000 feet altitude and at an oblque angle, they had a rather long time of flight.
Bottom line: at some point after his firing run, the aircraft’s speed matched – then exceeded – the speed of the rounds he’d fired. And when that happens, it becomes possible for the two trajectories to intersect.
On 21 September 1956, those trajectories intersected at approximately 7,000 feet altitude off the coast of Long Island. Post-crash investigation showed that Attridge’s aircraft was hit by three of his own previously-fired 20mm rounds. One of those rounds was recovered from his engine and was determined to be the cause of its failure.
. . .
OK, that’s enough “odd aviation history” for today. Enjoy the WOT, everyone – and the weekend.
—–
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F-11_Tiger
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a27967/the-fighter-plane-that-shot-itself-down/
The Crisis
Thomas Paine
December 23, 1776
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but “to bind us in all cases whatsoever,” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet.
All that [Gen.] Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.
I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent.
Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he.
* The present winter is worth an age, if rightly employed; but, if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the evil; and there is no punishment that man does not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.
‘Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fifteenth century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment!
Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.
The remainder of Paine’s essay The Crisis is here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3741/3741-h/3741-h.htm#link2H_4_0002
It is free to read and copy, if you choose. I suggest reading it when you have time to devote full attention to it.
In 1914, the Pope issued a statement suggesting that all sides in conflict in the Great War should observe a Christmas truce.
In Europe, along the front lines between British and German troops, an unofficial truce began on Christmas Eve.
The story is recorded here:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-the-christmas-truce
Guns went silent. German soldiers were out of their trenches and hidey-holes. Some were playing soccer or just goofing off. The Brits joined them in No Mans Land. They shared cigarettes, drinks, chocolate and stories.
For a brief moment, there was no war.
A major volcanic eruption has generated a lethal, destructive tidal wave (tsunami) in the Sunda Strait of Indonesia.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46663158
Anak Kratatau has erupted twice in the last 24 hours. After the first eruption, a tsunami swept across the Sunda Strait, toward Sumatra and toward Java. This was followed by a second eruption. Anka Krakatau’s most recent prior eruption was in July.
In the town of Pangdelang, a concert was underway on the beach, with over 200 concert goers and a band named “Seventeen”. They are now missing and presumed dead.
It is daylight by now in Indonesia. Vulcanologists are trying to determine if the tsunami was caused by a slide of part of Anak Krakatau’s cone to the sea floor, displacing seawater and generating the tidal wave. The Sunda Strait is narrow, which channels these giant, destructive waves into focused trains.
As you may recall, in 2004, the 12/26/2004 Boxing Day earthquake at Banda Aceh on the west coast of Sumatra was a 9.2 quake that created a massive tidal wave which rolled across that area as if it did not exist, pulled back and rebounded across the Indian Ocean, and rebounded again toward Sumatra. The possibility that the tsunami might reach the west coast of the US was very real. Hawaii did get a flood that was up to 1 meter deep and the wave rolled further east toward California. Over 288,000 people lost their lies to that earthquake-generated wave of destruction.
Anak Krakatau is the successor volcano to Krakatoa’s massively self-destructive eruption for two days in August, 1883, which sent a tidal wave in all directions before the caldera collapsed inward. That massive eruption not only caused damage everywhere the tsunami that it created went, but also dropped the temperature worldwide by 1 degree Celsius.
A plinian eruption, which is what Anak Krakatau engaged in, is very similar in its shape to a nuke explosion. Same shape, same shock wave, same rebound.
Anak Krakatau is the result of filling a new magma chamber to revive Krakatoa’s extinct caldera. This has been going on since 1927.
There is no such thing as a truly extinct volcano. They tend to move with the Earth’s plate movements. Mount Damavand a potentially active volcano, is a stratovolcano which is the highest peak in Iran and the highest volcano in Asia. Erta Ale in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression is the most dangerous volcano in the world. It sits on three plate boundaries, and the caldera has finally filled to the brim and is spilling over. The Earth’s crust there is less than a half mile thick, whereas it is normally 18 to 20 miles thick on land, and at the bottom of the oceans, barely 3 miles thick.
The US Navy has a base at Sigonella, Sicily, below the very active volcano Etna. While there has been recent speculation about a revival of activity in the Alban Hills volcano complex south of Rome, it is more likely that the magma is moving under the sea bed to Etna’s magma chamber.
Why do these things matter? Because they affect everything that we take for granted if they are severe enough events. If you will recall, Iceland’s Eyafyalajokull shut down all air traffic in Europe and between Europe and the US/Canada until it simmered down. Pinatubo forced the evacuation of Clark Air Force Base in the Phillippines.
Keep the missing people from this disaster in mind when you’re having Christmas.
If you find a few minutes to watch this video you may begin to understand why many of us believe Beer is so much more than just a breakfast drink.
Something of a local neighborhood legend, the story has often been met with eager but disbelieving nods of approval. To set the record straight earlier this month, Donohue, now 73, self-published “The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A True Story of Friendship Stronger Than War,” a book about his beer-hocking trek across Vietnam. Here’s how he got from a bar in New York to a warzone with beers in hand.
Jonn posted about this a while back but didn’t have the video.
Flt. Lt. Alastair “Sandy” Gunn was executed for his role in the “Great Escape” prisoner breakout. (Spitfire AA810 Project)
An extremely rare World War II Spitfire fighter plane flown by a pilot who later took part in the “Great Escape” has been recovered from a remote Norwegian mountainside. Specially equipped for long-range reconnaissance, the Royal Air Force Spitfire AA810 was shot down on March 5, 1942, during a mission to photograph the German battleship Tirpitz. The Spitfire’s pilot, Flt. Lt. Alastair ‘Sandy’ Gunn, bailed out from the plane but was captured by German forces. In 1944 he was part of the famous “Great Escape” breakout from the Stalag Luft III POW camp. Recaptured shortly after the breakout, the Scot was among 50 escapees executed by the Gestapo.
Gunn’s plane was a specially adapted Mk 1 Spitfire stripped of guns and armor and fitted with additional fuel tanks to extend its range from 575 miles to nearly 2,000 miles.
Read the entire article here: World War II fighter plane flown by ‘Great Escape’ pilot discovered on Norwegian mountain
George Herbert Walker Bush, the president who managed the end of the Cold War and forged a global coalition to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait, has died at age 94. In a political career that spanned three decades, he lost his bid for re-election and lived to see his son win the Oval Office.
The death of Bush — nicknamed “41” to distinguish himself from son George W. Bush, “43” — was announced in a statement released late Friday.
“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” his son, former President George W. Bush, said in a statement released by family spokesman Jim McGrath. “George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”
His death, which was announced by his office, came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush.
Mr. Bush had a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined. In April, a day after attending Mrs. Bush’s funeral, he was treated for an infection that had spread to his blood. In 2013, he was in dire enough shape with bronchitis that former President George W. Bush, his son, solicited ideas for a eulogy.
But he proved resilient each time. In 2013 he told well-wishers, through an aide, to “put the harps back in the closet.”
On the day he turned 18 years old, Bush both graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and enlisted in the Navy, little more than six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Less than a year later, when he was still 18, he received his wings and officer’s commission, believed to be the Navy’s youngest pilot.
For the next two years, with World War II at its peak, Bush flew torpedo bombers off the USS San Jacinto. On Sept. 2, 1944, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire while he was on a bombing run in the Pacific. Bush bailed and was rescued by a submarine, but his two crewmembers were killed. Bush would later say he thought of them every day.
