Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 27, 2024 22:34:15 GMT 12
Jet Aircraft Overtakes Its Own Cannon Shells
(Rec. 11.50 p.m.) _ , WASHINGTON, October 28.
A new United States jet fighter, flying at supersonic speed, shot itself down by running into cannon shells it had fired seconds before, the Navy Department said today.
The fantastic accident — the first of its kind in aviation history — occurred on September 21 while a test pilot was test-firing new 20 millimetre cannons over the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island. The test pilot, Tom Attridge, was making a series of diving runs in an F11F1, a new single-seat, carrier-based fighter still undergoing tests by the Grumman Engineering Aircraft Company.
The Navy said the pilot’s mission was to reach a certain speed and test the four cannons at that speed by firing them into the ocean. He put his jet into a shallow dive at a speed of 880 m.p.h. some 13,000 feet above the water, and fired a four-second burst from his cannons. After a pause, he fired another four-second burst.
As he finished the second round of firing, an object shattered the bulletproof glass in his windshield. Thinking he had rammed a bird, Attridge headed for the aerodrome at Peconic river, near Calverton, Long Island. But unknown to the pilot, a second shell had pierced his jet engine which died, causing the jet to crash-land in a wood half a mile short of the airfield.
Pilot Injured
Attridge, a 33-year-old former Navy pilot, was taken to hospital with a fractured leg and three broken vertebrae.
The battered cannon slug was recovered from the jet engine. In addition a hole was found in the plane's nose where a third shell had struck. None was live ammunition, which would have exploded upon impact. The Navy gave this probable explanation of the accident:
When the stream of cannon shells spewed from the four guns at the rate of 1000 rounds a minute, or more than 64 rounds for each four-second burst, they were travelling more than 1500 feet a second faster than the aeroplane.
But they immediately began to slow down because of air resistance and to fall from the firing path because of gravity, so that they were following a curved course toward the ocean. The jet, meanwhile, went into a slightly steeper dive and about two to three miles from the point where the firing began, the plane and the spent shells arrived at the same point and collided. The Navy said test pilots would be warned in the future to turn aside or climb after test-firing their guns.
Although this was the first time a plane has shot itself down in just this way, planes have been hit by their own bullets ricocheting after a low-level strafing run, or have run into their own bullets which “tumbled” after being fired from worn or defective gun barrels. Three of the cannons on Attridge’s jet were examined after the accident and found to be in perfect condition.
THE PRESS, 29 OCTOBER 1956
(Rec. 11.50 p.m.) _ , WASHINGTON, October 28.
A new United States jet fighter, flying at supersonic speed, shot itself down by running into cannon shells it had fired seconds before, the Navy Department said today.
The fantastic accident — the first of its kind in aviation history — occurred on September 21 while a test pilot was test-firing new 20 millimetre cannons over the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island. The test pilot, Tom Attridge, was making a series of diving runs in an F11F1, a new single-seat, carrier-based fighter still undergoing tests by the Grumman Engineering Aircraft Company.
The Navy said the pilot’s mission was to reach a certain speed and test the four cannons at that speed by firing them into the ocean. He put his jet into a shallow dive at a speed of 880 m.p.h. some 13,000 feet above the water, and fired a four-second burst from his cannons. After a pause, he fired another four-second burst.
As he finished the second round of firing, an object shattered the bulletproof glass in his windshield. Thinking he had rammed a bird, Attridge headed for the aerodrome at Peconic river, near Calverton, Long Island. But unknown to the pilot, a second shell had pierced his jet engine which died, causing the jet to crash-land in a wood half a mile short of the airfield.
Pilot Injured
Attridge, a 33-year-old former Navy pilot, was taken to hospital with a fractured leg and three broken vertebrae.
The battered cannon slug was recovered from the jet engine. In addition a hole was found in the plane's nose where a third shell had struck. None was live ammunition, which would have exploded upon impact. The Navy gave this probable explanation of the accident:
When the stream of cannon shells spewed from the four guns at the rate of 1000 rounds a minute, or more than 64 rounds for each four-second burst, they were travelling more than 1500 feet a second faster than the aeroplane.
But they immediately began to slow down because of air resistance and to fall from the firing path because of gravity, so that they were following a curved course toward the ocean. The jet, meanwhile, went into a slightly steeper dive and about two to three miles from the point where the firing began, the plane and the spent shells arrived at the same point and collided. The Navy said test pilots would be warned in the future to turn aside or climb after test-firing their guns.
Although this was the first time a plane has shot itself down in just this way, planes have been hit by their own bullets ricocheting after a low-level strafing run, or have run into their own bullets which “tumbled” after being fired from worn or defective gun barrels. Three of the cannons on Attridge’s jet were examined after the accident and found to be in perfect condition.
THE PRESS, 29 OCTOBER 1956
