WW2 Fighter Plane Landing Gear Failure - Can this really happen?

T

Tom Duffy

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Apr 7, 2019
Messages
1
Display Name
Display name:
tpd
My Father received his flight training in the Navy in 1941-2. He flew mostly Curtiss Wright SNC's (a model of the CW-22) and Grumman F3F's. The following story I was told is hard to believe, so I'm hoping that some of you pilots out there (I'm not one) can tell me if this kind of stuff really happened.

Here is the story:

While returning from a training run and preparing to land in an SNC, one of the landing gear on the wing would not go down. A second plane pulled alongside my Father's plane and with its wing, rolled and tried to knock the landing gear loose! While in mid-air! This did not solve the problem and he ended up crash landing the plane in the sand next to the runway a Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, TX. This was in April 1942.

I find this hard to believe, but hey, you never know.

Many thanks for any insights!

td
 
I can certainly see this happening.
 
It would far more likely result in both planes crashing than successfully getting the gear down.
 
What they told you about your dad was all wrong. I was there, I was an eyewitness...

 
Very possible...far stranger things have been tried, and I can’t imagine military pilots being any less likely than anyone else to do so.
 
It’s the same concept as doing some weird oscillations in order to try and unstick it
 
Great story - I know military pilots of that era often were daredevils, but I have a hard time believing this. It would've take immense skill and practice (and lots of luck) to pull it off. Not saying it couldn't be done, though.
 
Pilots of all eras are known for "10% truth" stories. Anecdotes loosely based on actual events that we embellish in order to make more interesting or fit a particular narrative at the bar. That said, the hull losses in training for the War Department (now DOD) in WWII were such that the concept of ORM (operational risk management) in garrison or training were really not a concern of the Nation during a time of high combat attrition. So certain operational lack of discipline permeated across all facets of military aviation back home. As to this stunt being attempted, sure, I can see it.

I'll go on a limb and say the Navy wasn't in the business of condoning the behavior in an official capacity, but again, we are talking about WWII here, where training losses approached those of actual combat losses. So it probably wasn't unheard of in the conduct of day to day EP resolutions on a fleet of aircraft that were being cranked out by the thousands, and pilots were dying at a rate of about 220 a day.

As to contacting aircraft in flight, they're not paper maché, the feat is not all that extraordinary. Demo teams frequently trade paint in practice. Sure, with enough impact force and leverage, any wing structure can fold, but in general folks accustomed to close formation work can park a wingtip onto a specific part of another airplane with pretty good precision provided a good platform and formation contract/radio coordination. Your story is really not that fantastic from a military circle perspective. these days of course, we're a much more professional cadre and have a lot more to lose (aside from our lives I mean), and our end strength is smaller, so hull losses due to lack of flight discipline are career enders. Not so in the days of your old man, or even Mr. McCain, who also left a couple aircraft in Corpus Bay btw.

As to NAS Corpus, yeah that place is littered with wrecks. There's a running joke you can walk Corpus Bay like Jesus, on 3 feet of water, between airplanes and cars dunked by the local denizens in that nasty pond.

So nickle on the grass, and raise a glass to another maybe BS story about days gone by and aviators long passed. Lord knows they saw things our children never have, and I certainly hope they never do. Cheers.
 
You think a kid around 20 years old, as most of those trainee pilots were, wouldn't try something like that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top