Best Aircraft in Many Different Roles Part II

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Ive found another first for the Stringbag forget the Harrier, a Swordfish made the first vertical landing of any aircraft. During the early days of RN carriers being fitted with crash barriers a Stringbag had trouble getting the arrestor hook down so the only thing was an emergency landing. The pilot who was inexperienced and had not had to use one of these barriers banked his aircraft and made his approach. Unfortunately he came in at a far too steep an angle and bounced heavily on the deck, this shook the arrestor hook free as the tail crashed down and it assumed its rightful position however the Stringbag had now bounced 15ft back into the air, the end result being he missed the crash barrier and soared most of the plane over it but not the arrestor hook this caught the top of the barrier and brought the poor old Stringbag to an abrupt halt in mid air
it fell from the sky like a house brick and the under carriage splayed out like a gymnast doing the splits both the pilot and his crew only suffered minor injury's and the Swordfish was repaired within 24hrs.
There you go first vertical landing, it was not unknown in gales for the Swordfish (if unladen-ed) to want to take off vertically either.
 
The Storch you saw Evan probably belonged to Steve Ericson. He keeps it at Mojave. He used to be John Sharp's (Nemesis Race plane) crew chief. One time I landed right after he did, completing probably the best short field landing in my life. As I taxied to the first turn off I heard him say "nice landing kid, keep practicing, heh, heh, heh!"
 
it'd be interesting to see a race between a storch and a lizzie (lysander), where they both start on the ground, go pick up a secret agent or casualty and come back and land in a small feild, just to see who would win.........
 
I think you are right, FBJ. He has been at the last few shows and it is quite a site to see. I don't know if you have ever been to CMA, but at the show last year, he took off from the road that goes from the taxiway to the runway! We all just stood there with our jaws on the ground. When he brought it in for a landing, he set it right on the hash marks and turned right onto the taxiway. It was awesome!
 

Its amazing isn't it!
 
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