F-80 Pilot Shoots Down His Own Plane

[Matt308]

This is a fascinating story from 1952 in K-13 Korea. A. J. D'Amario was flying his F-80 Shooting Star, when he encountered a failure to feed from his tip tank. Unable to drop the tank and unwilling to eject out of a perfectly good airplane, he decides to reduce speed, open his canopy and pull out his 1911 .45ACP. Below is the link. See page 46 for the details and amazing finale.

American Rifleman - November 2013 - 19

 

[fubar57]

Heck of a story. Curious as where you would have to aim to account for speed.

Geo

 

[Gnomey]

Certainly an interesting story!

Yeah, would be interesting to know how far forward you would have to aim to take account of the airspeed.

 

[T Bolt]

Cool story Matt

 

[Matt308]

Hmmm... physics.

My first thoughts weren't the physics, but whether he stuck his .45 into the slip stream at 100mph+ with his aiming hand waving all the eff around in the wind... shooting a target 90 degrees off axis with one hell of a Kentucky windage. No wonder he missed his first shot!!l

I'm guessing that with a port shot he cross-drew over his body and kept his 1911 inside the slip stream of the cockpit canopy. Anyway it was one hell of an effort for 7+1 shots while flying, contending with wind and aiming for the "wet" portion of the tip tank. Phenomenal story.

 

[Wildcat]

Great story!

 

[Snowman]

Inventive guy!

Here is another account of this story: Above Beyond: Shooting Up a Shooting Star | History of Flight | Air Space Magazine

 

[vikingBerserker]

That is so cool.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I bet his crew chief was happy!

Another story about using a gun during flight!

"Santa Claus, like all pilots, gets regular visits from the Federal Aviation Administration, and the FAA examiner, Orton, arrived last week for the pre-Christmas check ride.

In preparation, Santa had the elves wash the sled and bathe all the reindeer. Santa got his logbook out and made sure all his paperwork was in order. He knew they would examine all his equipment and truly put Santa's flying skills to the test.

The examiner walked slowly around the sled. He checked the reindeer harnesses, the landing gear, and even Rudolph's nose. He painstakingly reviewed Santa's weight and balance calculations for sled's enormous payload.

Finally, they were ready for the check ride. Santa got in and fastened his seat belt and shoulder harness and checked the compass. Then the examiner hopped in carrying, to Santa's surprise, a shotgun.

"What's that for!?" asked Santa incredulously. The examiner winked and said, "I'm not supposed to tell you this ahead of time," as he leaned over to whisper in Santa's ear, "but you're gonna lose an engine on takeoff."

 

[Matt308]

An oldie but goodie!

 

[Gixxerman]

Reminds me of a tale about an F11F-1 pilot who hit his own cannon shells.

 

[vikingBerserker]

 

[Matt308]

Never heard that one, but did hear that the F-111 had a tendency to "shoot itself" if pulling negative g's while firing it's original belly gun placement during TFX competition trials.