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A Grumman F11 Tiger Shot Itself Down (2021)
- senkora 3y ago> He flew west in 1997 at the age of 74. I’ve never heard that euphemism before. I quite like it.
- I_Byte 3y agoThis article, while not specifically about the euphemism, details it's origin and use among pilots. https://captain-al-speaking.com/2018/12/06/flying-west/ https://captain-al-speaking.com/2018/12/06/flying-west/
- xtiansimon 3y agoGoing to the west as euphemism for death is mentioned on the History of Egypt Podcast (that’s Ancient history, if you didn’t guess).
- sowbug 3y agoRead Wolfgang Langewiesche's America from the Air: An Aviator's Story if you want to read some of the best writing about the romance of flying.
- selimthegrim 3y agoI’m assuming this is the father of William?
- sowbug 3y agoCorrect! Current editions include a foreword written by William. Wolfgang is much better known for Stick And Rudder, which is about technical aspects of aviation.
- m3047 3y agoIf you want romance of flying, and depending on your style of "romance", you might try _Glacier Pilot_ a biography of Bob Reeve who came back from flying in South America as a bush pilot with undiagnosed polio, made it to Alaska, and perfected the art of crash landing on glaciers as a perfectly normal way of doing business. The book was written by Beth Day (Romulo?) who I believe was his granddaughter.
- dabluecaboose 3y agoMy granddad (WW2 air vet) used to give his father's (WW1 air vet) toast to the whole family every thanksgiving: Here's to the sands of the hourglass, a measure of time as it flies; Here's to the men who flew West today, Three cheers for the next man who dies!
- smdyc1 3y agoI vaguely remember this from reading Biggles. I think came from pilots getting shot down over enemy lines on the western front in WWI.
- btown 3y agoAh, this happened with bullets, not missiles. Because the missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation. The guidance subsystem uses deviations to generate corrective commands to drive the missile from a position where it is to a position where it isn't, and arriving at a position where it wasn't, it now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position that it wasn't, and it follows that the position that it was, is now the position that it isn't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZe5J8SVCYQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZe5J8SVCYQ
- dmoy 3y ago> In 1973, another Grumman test pilot, this one flying an F-14 Tomcat out in California, was struck by his own missile. Luckily, it was a dummy missile, Sadly, in some cases where missile should be isn't where it is.
- HPsquared 3y agoIt probably happened during that time window when the stoker had started his work but the helmsman had fallen out of his chair. https://youtu.be/yXFh54fc8GM https://youtu.be/yXFh54fc8GM
- monkpit 3y agothe missile is currently experiencing critical levels of being a sleepy lil guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csp_OABIsBM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csp_OABIsBM
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoYes, but was he credited with the kill? Like, that's 20% of the way towards being an ace, after all.
- snitty 3y agoYears ago I heard some random guy talking about how he wanted to skydive with a paintball gun and shoot at the ground as he was in free fall and my first thought was, "I bet he could end up getting hit by his own paintballs." I did that math that evening, and yeah. Absolutely. While paintballs get shot out of a marker at ~190 mph (plus 120 mph terminal velocity for a person), their terminal velocity is closer to 50 mph. So the paintball will rapidly decelerate, and you keep chugging along at over twice its speed.
- jeanlou 3y agoThe Navy says it's a one in a million event and he disagree. You concur with him based on two more events that happened decades apart. Isn't that a one in a million event?
- throwaway7679 3y ago> The Navy considered the incident a one-in-a-million fluke and was certain it would never happen again. Attridge was less convinced, however. “At the speeds we’re flying today,” he later said, “it could be duplicated any time.” I think the idea here is that the planes and pilots are perfectly capable of hitting themselves at any time. Or in other words, this type of accident doesn't require the presence of any random one-in-a-million conditions. So, the low event frequency that is actually observed should be attributed to the fact that they intentionally avoid doing the dangerous action.
- jeanlou 3y agoMakes sense, thanks
- nomilk 3y agoWouldn't it be trivial to calculate the approximate location of the bullets just 11 seconds after them being fired, and therefore warn the pilot of they're heading toward that location?
- throwaway7679 3y agoMaybe not trivial in 1956. They probably could have managed it, but the first step was to discover that the hazard exists.