Scudrunners

Hadn't heard about this before today.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardo%27s_Push


[quote]On March 10, 1967, the sky was clear for a bombing run, but both F-4 Phantom IIs were hit by anti-aircraft fire. Aman's plane took the worst damage; his fuel tank had been hit, and he quickly lost most of his fuel. He did not have enough fuel to make it to a KC-135 tanker aircraft over Laos.


To avoid having Aman and Houghton bail out over hostile territory, Pardo decided to try pushing the airplane. Pardo first tried pushing the plane using Aman's drag chute compartment but turbulence interfered.


Pardo then tried to use Aman's tailhook to push the plane, the Phantom having been originally designed as a naval aircraft for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, equipped with a heavy duty tailhook for landings aboard aircraft carriers. Aman lowered his tailhook and Pardo moved behind Aman until the tailhook was against Pardo's windscreen. Aman shut down both of his J79 jet engines. The push worked, reducing the rate of descent considerably, but the tailhook slipped off the windscreen every 15 to 30 seconds, and Pardo would have to reposition his plane. Pardo also struggled with a fire in one of his own engines and eventually had to shut it down. In the remaining 10 minutes of flight time, Pardo used the one last engine to slow the descent of both planes.


With Pardo's plane running out of fuel after pushing Aman's plane almost 88 miles, the planes reached Laotian airspace at an altitude of 6,000 feet (1,800 m). This left them about two minutes of flying time. The pilots ejected, evaded capture, and were picked up by rescue helicopters.[size=9pt][/size][/quote]


In summary: He drops his hook, I bump my windshield against it, bring the power up and hope that glass holds, because otherwise I'm going to get my head smashed. Oh, and my plane is on fire.


The fucking balls on these guys...

I think there was an episode of dog fights about this. I'll look

I have to ask:  was Pardo court-martialled for destruction of
government property?

Don't laugh.  It was not unheard of to be court-martialled and
decorated for the same event.  It all depends upon whom is
around at the time.

This hero was deeply hated by the generals:

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell[/url]

[quote]William Lendrum "Billy" Mitchell was a United States Army general who is regarded as [b]the father of the United States Air Force.[/b]

Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, [b]commanded all American air combat units[/b] in that country. After the war, he was appointed deputy director of the Air Service and began advocating increased investment in air power, believing that this would prove vital in future wars. [b]He argued particularly for the ability of bombers to sink battleships and organized a series of bombing runs against stationary ships designed to test the idea[/b].

He antagonized many administrative leaders of the Army with his arguments and criticism and, in 1925, was returned from appointment as a brigadier general to his permanent rank of colonel due to his insubordination. Later that year, he was[b] court-martialed for insubordination after accusing Army and Navy leaders of an "almost treasonable administration of the national defense" for investing in battleships instead of aircraft carriers.[/b] He resigned from the service shortly afterward.

Mitchell received many honors following his death, including a commission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a major general. He is also the only individual for whom an American military aircraft design, the North American B-25 Mitchell, is named.[/quote]

Now, Billy Mitchell was a fucking idiot, according to the
generals.  He was court-martialed for [b]being right[/b].

His idea that battleships were useless, and aircraft carriers
were the future, was proven at the bombing of Pearl Harbor
and this little thing called WWII (Midway, anyone?) that
followed afterwards.

Yeah, Billy Mitchell didn't have a fucking clue, according
to the clowns in charge.

Burn the witch, burn the witch.

No one gives a flying fuck at a donut, but
the British, a year before Pearl Harbor, flying
fucking biplanes (I am not making this up)
destroyed the Italian navy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taranto

[quote]The Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11–12 November [b]1940[/b] during the Second World War between British naval forces, under Admiral Andrew Cunningham, and Italian naval forces, under Admiral Inigo Campioni.

The Royal Navy launched the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history, employing [b]a small number of obsolescent Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers[/b] from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (R87) in the Mediterranean Sea. The attack struck the battle fleet of the Regia Marina at anchor in the harbour of Taranto using aerial torpedoes despite the shallowness of the water.

[b]The devastation wrought by the British carrier-launched aircraft on the large Italian warships was the beginning of the ascendancy of naval aviation over the big guns of battleships[/b]. According to Admiral Cunningham, "Taranto, and the night of November 11–12, 1940, should be remembered for ever as having shown once and for all that in the Fleet Air Arm the Navy has its most devastating weapon."[/quote]

Yeah, the stupid fucking generals should have had
Billy Mitchell shot for giving them 15 years warning
of this.

Ol Col Boyd...
What did he know?

I see it every day: Promote incompetence and brown nosing, hold back / curtail innovation.

It's difficult to not become cynical, after a while.


IMHO [b]Robin Olds[/b] was one of the finest pilots and combat
leaders of the western military during the 20th century:

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Olds]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Olds[/url]

[quote]Olds had not only risen in rank to field grade but was given command of his squadron on March 25, 1945 less than two years out of West Point and at only [b]22[/b] years of age.

He was awarded a [b]fourth[/b] Silver Star for leading a three-aircraft low-level bombing strike on March 30, 1967, and the Air Force Cross for an attack on the Paul Doumer Bridge in Hanoi [/quote]

Naturally someone that talented and successful was
hated by the paper pushers.  Robin Olds was everything
that a man could ever want to be.  He married a goddamned
[i]movie star[/i].  I would happily follow him into Hell.


[b]John Boyd[/b] was different from Robin Olds.  In addition
to being a superb pilot, he was an incredible [i]self-taught[/i]
aircraft designer.  He did shit that people with PhD's couldn't.

We can thank him for the F-15, F-16, F-18 and A-10, which
decades after his death still form the bulk of western fighter
inventory. 

Most of the people that John Boyd dealt with, had the IQ of a
carrot compared to him.  Sometimes, frustrated with their
tiny frontal lobes, he [i]hurt their feelings[/i].  He still hasn't been
forgiven.

Naturally, someone as brillant and effective as Boyd was
deeply hated by the paper pushers.  The USAF may have
despised him for designing their fleet for decades to come, but
the USMC thought he was a fucking genius.  What a guy:

[quote]He was dubbed "Forty Second Boyd" for his standing bet as an instructor pilot that beginning from a position of disadvantage, he could defeat any opposing pilot in air combat maneuvering in less than 40 seconds

During the early 1960s, Boyd, together with Thomas Christie, a civilian mathematician, created the Energy-Maneuverability theory, or E-M theory of aerial combat. E-M theory became the world standard for the design of fighter aircraft.

Boyd is credited for largely developing the strategy for the invasion of Iraq in the Gulf War of 1991

In a letter to the editor of Inside the Pentagon, former Commandant of the Marine Corps General Charles C. Krulak is quoted as saying "The Iraqi army collapsed morally and intellectually under the onslaught of American and Coalition forces. John Boyd was an architect of that victory as surely as if he'd commanded a fighter wing or a maneuver division in the desert."[/quote]

John Boyd and Robin Olds ought to have statues, but no.


No mention of 20th century great pilots that were detested
by the administrators, would be complete without a mention
of [b]Bob Hoover[/b].  Incredible stick.  Escaped from a WWII prison
camp by stealing a German fighter.  Spent his life being harassed
by paper pushers who envied and hated him.

Spot the pattern?

[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=7179.msg19503#msg19503 date=1506743454]
I have to ask:  was Pardo court-martialled for destruction of
government property?

Don't laugh.  It was not unheard of to be court-martialled and
decorated for the same event.  It all depends upon whom is
around at the time.
[/quote]


He was reprimanded. Twenty years later that was overturned and Pardo and his weapons officer were awarded the silver star.

[url=https://www.damninteresting.com/pushed-to-the-limit/]https://www.damninteresting.com/pushed-to-the-limit/[/url]


[youtube][/youtube]

Back when Men were Men, and Sheep were Afraid:

[quote]afraid that I’d overshoot him. I did a roll over the top of him, and when I came down on the other side, I was right on his wing tip. We were both at Idle with our speed brakes out, just coasting.[/quote]

... and that's how you do a joinup.  See previous thread
about warbird clowns in Europe, demonstrating an excessive
money-to-brains ratio.

See, it's ok to have stick & rudder skills.  And, it's ok to
think that Dr Seuss isn't fucking genocidal racism.