@@Treblaine I know, deflection shooting was a fighter pilot's art back then. What I'm thinking of is leading the enemy plane to slam into your bullets as you're trying to evade it instead of shooting ahead in traditional deflection shooting.
I'd say that gun test was a massive success. He successfully knocked the only plane in the air out of the sky. Success! Just found this channel but you're the best! Love your stories.
@@MrJdsenior I'm pretty sure that if the plane had made it through flight test without the problem having been discovered, and that losses of planes and men began AFTER, like combat, "successful" would be the last word anyone would have used for that program.
Yep , its the first instance of shell velosity becomming a problem. At the time , planes just became faster then the shell velosity. Plus since it had never happaned before ,the pilot didnt expect that his manuver can get him the arc of his own shells.
It doesn't make sense from a physics standpoint. The projectile should have the initial velocity of the aircraft plus the velocity of it's powder charge. It should be impossible for this to happen.
@@aniquinstark4347 You're thinking of pylon attached bombs and rockets when you thought of 'projectile'. A bullet passing through a gun is more complex than that
@@aniquinstark4347 Everyone crediting the supersonic nature of the vehicle is being an idiot. That’s completely irrelevant. As you say, the velocities will add. You could do this with a CAR if you wanted to. Shoot high into the air, drive forwards and intercept your own bullets when they fall back down. All this pilot did was intercept the parabolic arc of their own bullets at the same moment as their bullets.
@@HALLish-jl5mo They aren't being idiotic at all. Believing that it's because of the plane being supersonic, while not the only factor, isn't far off because if it wasn't then it would have been harder for the incident to have happened.
Some of those test pilots were exceedingly though, and some were lucky. But you do what ya gotta do to survive, if it's at all possible, I suspect, when survival is critically on the line.
A small addition to the introduction scene: Prior to the development by Fokker of the gun synchroniser, French aviator Roland Garros was already working on a similar system. Running into problems of synching the propellor and the irregular firing rate of the gun, he developed a simple system of adding metal wedges on the propellor in order to deflect rogue bullets. After his plane was shot down behind enemy lines, the Germans got hold of his invention, which helped Fokker to further develop its own synchronisation device.
True, but some accounts doubt that Fokker used French designs since they've been already working on their own version. Anyways, that is exactly why I didn't say that Germans invented synchronization device or that Eindecker was the first aircraft equipped with it. It was the first that was produced in relatively large numbers (serial production) as oppose to single examples among Entente's planes. Thank you for your addition.
@@PaperSkiesAviation The Fokker device didn't use the French technology, it worked on a completely different principle. The French device might have helped during testing of the Fokker device of course, saving a few propellors before they got it right.
This happened to several F-86s during the Korean War, shot their 6 x .50 Cal MGs then dived to gain speed in order to then turn away, but ran into their own bullets.
Hey @@CH-pv2rz, I liked the way the video used graphics to illustrate what took place. Do you have any other links with similiar or more detailed analysis?
I do know about this incident and another similar event where a French pilot shot his own aircraft down during a test of an air-to-air missile. As with the F-11 the plot had fired the missile and then dived below it. The missile then locked onto the French aircraft and shot it down.
An F-14 shot itself down with an AIM-7E Sparrow when the missile tumbled and self destructed right after launch and FODed the left engine causing an engine fire and loss of the aircraft... Both Pilot and RIO ejected safely and were picked up at sea by rescue helos.
@@CH-pv2rz Ouch, talk about a hopefully very rare event. That thing barely got out of the chute before it went tits up. Good they got clear and down safely. Not one of those incidents where there was hesitation pulling the chord, I'll bet.
It wasn't the last time this happened. In 2019 (or 2020, was quite recently) a Dutch F-16 had the same happen to it. Luckily the damage was pretty limited and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service in short order. The investigation found that the pilot had fired the gun during a high-g left turn, the bullets hit the fuselage just forward of the gun port, causing some damage. The aircraft had overtaken its own shells. Comment: the short career was not unusual at the time as technology advanced very rapidly. 4-5 years was about the norm.
_It wasn't the last time this happened._ - it wasn't too long before the next incident either 🙂 My story is based on Attridge's recollections of the incident from the small book "Grumman F-11 F Tiger" written by Grumman test pilot Corwin Meyer. That's why some details in my video are a bit different compared to other accounts. But I tend to trust Tom Attridge more :) Here's his words from the book: "Shortly after that at Edwards, an Air Force F-100 was shooting its 20mm guns under the same negative G supersonic circumstances and was shot down by its own bullets when it caught up with them. When I heard about that happenstance, I delivered a copy of the report of Grumman’s experience and the Air Force adopted the Navy restriction that supersonic gun firing should be done under positive G only."
There must be something about the Dutch and F-16s, I used to live in a village called Marham down the from an RAF base, which had Victors and Tornadoes there. Two Dutch F-16s came to visit, the plane-spotters and a much younger me were very excited cos you didn't see many F-16s apart from airshows in the UK. I don't know the precise details but when they were up flying one ended up with the pilot ejecting and ditching the F-16, which left a crater in a field.......about half a mile from Necton middle school. Must've been somewhere in early 90s....I think.
@@ianjacka469 yes, around that time the Dutch air farce had a LOT of crashes with their F-16s (think every month or so one'd slam into the ground). Mostly lack of crew proficiency as flying hours had been cut irresponsibly low as a result of budget cuts. This of course also reduced proficiency among maintenance crews, leading to even more problems. It was basically the exact same thing that caused the slew of crashes of German F-104s early during that aircraft's adoption (except the F-16s had been flying for over a decade).
@@ianjacka469 most likely was. The Dutch also lost numerous NF-5s over Norway in the 1980s and 1990s because of stupid mistakes. Worst of which was that the crews were given maps that didn't show powerlines running over fjords and were then sent in on low level missions and flying right into those powerlines (the NF-5 used moving paper strip maps for navigation as the Dutch government had considered more advanced navigation aids like terrain avoidance radar too expensive, and then had saved even more money by supplying the pilots with road maps rather and aviation maps).
If it was used by the Blue Angels, it must mean the plane definetely had some flying qualities. And it was a nice looking plane too. But just like with humans, beauty doesn't mean that much: the Corsair wasn't a terribly good looking plane, but what a plane it was...
Corsair is one of the sexiest designs ever built. Amazingly effective, strong and looked like a bird in the air. I take umbrage at it not being a good looking plane.
The J79 powered F-11F-1F Super Tiger (which was not adopted), was possibly superior to the F-104 as an interceptor and general fighter. Certainly Japan, Italy, and Germany all thought so, and there was a.good chance of it being accepted for service if the Lockheed corruption scandal hadn't occured. Switzerland nearly adopted the Super Tiger but decided against it due to costs and went with the Mirage 3 instead. Design performance wise, it's almost like the single engine counterpart to the F-4 Phantom.
In WWI the French briefly experimented with shielding propellers with metal deflectors but as you can imagine ricocheting bullets caused a whole set of new problems.
I remember watching as a kid in the summer of 1967 the Grumman F11F Tigers of the U.S. Navy's "Blue Angels" flight demonstration team performing at an airshow held at Glenview Naval Air Station at Glenview, Illinois. I always though the Tiger was a pleasant looking jet fighter. Nice story on the F11F and thanks for sharing!
I was in attack Squadron VA 304 stationed at Naval Air Station Alameda in California in the late seventies. One of our A7c Corsair II's managed to shoot itself down. Apparently while making a gun run the pilot pulled the trigger to fire the 20 mm cannons and one of the shells, they determined, only had primer and little to no powder. The projectile left the barrel of a gun which is only a couple of feet behind the intake on the nose and immediately got sucked in. Pilot made it back to base and landed by flying very slow and level, he said it was vibrating very badly, LOL.
It's funny that you used Hot Shots footage for the "Dramatization of events." sequence. I truly believe the production company chose to use the Folland Gnat in the film because of its resemblance to the Tiger!
I'd be surprised if the production company even knew that the F-11 existed. It's not one of those iconic airplanes that are known to people who otherwise don't read up on airplanes. My guess is that the small, slow and forgiving aircraft were a natural choice, especially since a number are privately owned.
You have a fantastic sense of timing with just the right dose of irony in telling your tales, which makes them most entertaining to watch. Definitely one of the better channels on UA-cam.
I'm loving the style, narration, humour and all the beautiful period footage of your videos - add all this to some thoughtfully selected events to share, and yours is quickly becoming one of my favourite channels. Many thanks for all your efforts in bringing these slices of history to us 👍🍻
I am so happy the pilot was able to recover and continue his excellent career -- but, there is certainly an element of humor in this tale. Sometimes we learn about terrible consequences without having to experience all of the terrible consequences. Great subject for your Paper Skies Channel! Thanks!
Love your videos! You're good at being serious, or being funny, or being just the right sort of objective and detached. You have a unique voice not just because of your awesome accent but I mean your writing, the way you script these and edit them are unique as well. And very very impressive and fun. Thank you so much for all the content!!
In the early days of gun equipped jet fighters, that had the gun muzzles near the air intake of their jet engine (they often had just one single engine), the engine tended to shut down, when the guns were fired, because of lack of oxygene in the combustion gases of the ammunition. An example is the F-100 Super Sabre which had four 20 mm cannons. Great videos, subbed!
I was watching a video a few days ago, about a soviet fighter that had exactly that problem. It was their first jet, the mig 9 i believe. Armed with 2 20mm and a 57mm in the centre of the intake, meant as a bomber interceptor. Problem was, over 6000ft and 300kts it couldn't fire any of its guns without flaming out. Apparently the issue was never fixed, either.
I would try this at home, but the overly restrictive firearms laws in the U.S. sadly make the acquisition of a 20 mm cannon impractical. (Good presentation, interesting topics: keep them coming my friend.)
My grandad flew F11F off the carrier Lexington in the late 50s, and then F8s stateside in the early 60s. As a pilot he actually preferred the F11F. Handier, more maneuverable, and much easier to fly. The weak landing gear was the big weakness
I'm missing the most important part. What were the countermeasures that were taken (aka "lessons learned") from this incident? Was there a technical solution or a change in procedure?
OMG! Ive been to calverton dozens of times i remember as a kid the grumman jets doing all their test flights. I used to love the a6 intruders especially when they flew low and tight and you can hear their engines scream as they rose real quickly in the air. You'd see them and they'd be gone in a second. It was a very sad day when they closed in 1994. When i started work with my dad in an insurance company they took over one of the grumman buildings in the walk in safes they left all kinds of blue prints from the apollo space program. I wish i would of kept some of them probably worth money to some space collectors. Great video thank you!!!
Subbed - - you are several orders of magnitude better than the "historical" video makers on youtube - most are pseudo-historians ...and you have the type of voice that works, unlike many others ...
Well, no, not really. While the quality of the content is good, anybody who knows about physics and the aircraft know the way its portrayed is false, the way the plane actually shot itself down was it did the firing test in a climb, and then went into a dive, and by pure luck, hit itself with the bullets fired minutes earlier
Wonderful videos. Thanks for the quality content. You must have spent a lot of time digging archival footages. I have one recommendation. You should name your time stamps in a way that is more obvious to the reader.
Cool, I'm about your age and the first planes I remember them flying were the Skyhawks, early on. Another very pretty aircraft, especially in air show paint.
👍 Interesting video, thanks. Can't help but wonder if they wished they had paid more attention to those scratches on the tail after the first test flight!
We had a Jaguar shot it's self down with a bad batch of 30mm HE, round prematurely armed going down the barrel and as it left the barrel detonated alongside the cockpit.
:) That's a good one. I was waiting for an American to say that, because if a European like me would say so, it would be seen as an insult resulting in a virtual bloody nose.... again....
@@Retroscoop Not to anyone that knows anything. Friendly fire is not remotely exclusive to the US. In fact, EVERY country that has fought a war has had this happen (friendly fire) many many times, I suspect a LOT more than anyone outside the folks present at the time know. It is pretty much unavoidable, when you think about what goes on in war. I'm also quite sure that it has occurred many many times where it was not even recognized as a friendly fire incident.
Geez, I recall reading about the incident in the newspaper when it happened. The same phenomena would have happened in World War II but prop planes weren't fast enough to catch up to their bullets.
Imagine trying to explain to your wife how you ended up in some trees when he went home. "How was work dear?" "I shot myself down with my own cannon rounds." "That's nice dea- wait what?"
You are my hero !!! The Grumman Goose at 3:26. Love it !!!!! Yes, I commented about the Goose on the Pan Am Clipper video. The family of birds that I know are The Widgeon The Goose The Mallard The Albatross Can you do a video about the Grumman seaplanes please ?
Despite being introduced at roughly the same time, the F4 stayed in service until 1996 while, the F11 was pulled from service in 1961 (only two years after the final one was produced).
When I came upon this 🇺🇸 aviation magazine with the picture of the F-11 on the cover titled « The Tiger that clawed itself » I had no idea what it’s about. & when I got through it, I couldn’t believe such things can be !
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. But then again, i got to appreciate the tenacity of people who would say "This new supersonic thing, we don't know exactly what would happen, but f*ck it let's try anyway and find out"
*New video is coming soon. Subscribe so you don't miss it.*
do something with the sound, barely hear the voice, and music too loud
@@adilacrocodila5020 not true but okay
Wounderful video! Keep it up
You make my ears tired
*no*
That was as friendly as friendly fire can get.
Ugh. Suicides?
@@jamesbizs Well that's not really unintentionally shooting someone, is it?
The bullet knows where it is beceause it knows where it isn't. However the bullet knows where you live and is coming for you
There is no such thing as friendly fire...
Yep
1/5 of the way to becoming an Ace.
Baaad. But funny.
That was also my first thought. Did he got credited for his first air victory? .....
beat me too it just 4 more to go
The bullet knows where it is beceause it knows where it isn't. However the bullet knows where you live and is coming for you
imagine becoming an ace by shooting yourself down 5 times in a row
Kramer: "I once even shot down myself"
Seinfeld: "How is that even possible?"
Kramer: "Oh I'm good Jerry, real good!"
Now I wonder if it's possible to shoot down an enemy aircraft by leading him to bullets you fired ahead of your plane
@@MarvinT0606 Yes. It's called a deflection shot, it was done thousands of times in WW2.
@@Treblaine I know, deflection shooting was a fighter pilot's art back then. What I'm thinking of is leading the enemy plane to slam into your bullets as you're trying to evade it instead of shooting ahead in traditional deflection shooting.
@@MarvinT0606 Oh when the shooter is being chased, ohh now THAT would be something.
@@MarvinT0606 Possible? Yes. But then again so is being struck by lightning as a shark attacks you.
I'd say that gun test was a massive success. He successfully knocked the only plane in the air out of the sky. Success! Just found this channel but you're the best! Love your stories.
It was a success because they discovered that problem in their own airspace, and not in enemy airspace in combat.
I'm pretty sure if you asked that pilot after the incident that is about the LAST way he would characterize that particular test as....success.
@@MrJdsenior I'm pretty sure that if the plane had made it through flight test without the problem having been discovered, and that losses of planes and men began AFTER, like combat, "successful" would be the last word anyone would have used for that program.
Yeah
He shot down every plane!
As soon as I knew the F-11 was a supersonic fighter, I had a feeling the answer was basically "It flew so fast it caught up to its bullets."
Yep , its the first instance of shell velosity becomming a problem. At the time , planes just became faster then the shell velosity. Plus since it had never happaned before ,the pilot didnt expect that his manuver can get him the arc of his own shells.
It doesn't make sense from a physics standpoint. The projectile should have the initial velocity of the aircraft plus the velocity of it's powder charge. It should be impossible for this to happen.
@@aniquinstark4347 You're thinking of pylon attached bombs and rockets when you thought of 'projectile'. A bullet passing through a gun is more complex than that
@@aniquinstark4347 Everyone crediting the supersonic nature of the vehicle is being an idiot. That’s completely irrelevant. As you say, the velocities will add. You could do this with a CAR if you wanted to.
Shoot high into the air, drive forwards and intercept your own bullets when they fall back down.
All this pilot did was intercept the parabolic arc of their own bullets at the same moment as their bullets.
@@HALLish-jl5mo They aren't being idiotic at all. Believing that it's because of the plane being supersonic, while not the only factor, isn't far off because if it wasn't then it would have been harder for the incident to have happened.
Fair play to him for crawling out of a burning plane with a broken back
Some of those test pilots were exceedingly though, and some were lucky. But you do what ya gotta do to survive, if it's at all possible, I suspect, when survival is critically on the line.
very interesting, I imagine this episode was secret for a while
Miracle he didn't sever his own spinal cord when he was getting out.
Any landing you can walk away from is a landing.
You can do almost anything if properly motivated.
Loving your style. The use of Hot Shots footage with “dramatisation of events” superimposed on the screen had me laughing out loud.
Plus the vintage cartoon/magazine style
and "done by stunt professionals under supervision of professionals dont try this at home"
absolutely hilarious LOL
True XD
The F11 was a beautiful airplane and the most fun to fly. I got 22 hours in the F11 as the final phase of Navy flight training in 1961.
The Tiger is one of my favorite Navy aircraft (to be fair, I love most planes from that era)
I'd love to hear some stories from you about flying them!
Wow, I bet not many can boast of that! What else have you flown?
A small addition to the introduction scene: Prior to the development by Fokker of the gun synchroniser, French aviator Roland Garros was already working on a similar system. Running into problems of synching the propellor and the irregular firing rate of the gun, he developed a simple system of adding metal wedges on the propellor in order to deflect rogue bullets. After his plane was shot down behind enemy lines, the Germans got hold of his invention, which helped Fokker to further develop its own synchronisation device.
True, but some accounts doubt that Fokker used French designs since they've been already working on their own version.
Anyways, that is exactly why I didn't say that Germans invented synchronization device or that Eindecker was the first aircraft equipped with it. It was the first that was produced in relatively large numbers (serial production) as oppose to single examples among Entente's planes.
Thank you for your addition.
@@PaperSkiesAviation The Fokker device didn't use the French technology, it worked on a completely different principle.
The French device might have helped during testing of the Fokker device of course, saving a few propellors before they got it right.
just too complex system. which is why guns were eventually just moved to the wings just outside of the propeller diameter
@@mingming9604 German and Japanese fighters had guns that shot through the propeller till the end of WW II.
@@BorisZech ...and the US started WWII with them on the P-40B.
This happened to several F-86s during the Korean War, shot their 6 x .50 Cal MGs then dived to gain speed in order to then turn away, but ran into their own bullets.
I've seen and heard about this incident, but this is the first time I've seen _how_ it happened. Great explanation, and another well told story.
Guess you never heard of Google
Hey @@CH-pv2rz, I liked the way the video used graphics to illustrate what took place. Do you have any other links with similiar or more detailed analysis?
I do know about this incident and another similar event where a French pilot shot his own aircraft down during a test of an air-to-air missile. As with the F-11 the plot had fired the missile and then dived below it. The missile then locked onto the French aircraft and shot it down.
An F-14 shot itself down with an AIM-7E Sparrow when the missile tumbled and self destructed right after launch and FODed the left engine causing an engine fire and loss of the aircraft... Both Pilot and RIO ejected safely and were picked up at sea by rescue helos.
@@CH-pv2rz Ouch, talk about a hopefully very rare event. That thing barely got out of the chute before it went tits up. Good they got clear and down safely. Not one of those incidents where there was hesitation pulling the chord, I'll bet.
There are pics of the result of humongous bomber squadrons where bombs got dropped through another bomber's wing...not a good day.
sauce for the french plane?
@@osakablinladen Probably hollandaise would go best.
It wasn't the last time this happened.
In 2019 (or 2020, was quite recently) a Dutch F-16 had the same happen to it.
Luckily the damage was pretty limited and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service in short order.
The investigation found that the pilot had fired the gun during a high-g left turn, the bullets hit the fuselage just forward of the gun port, causing some damage.
The aircraft had overtaken its own shells.
Comment: the short career was not unusual at the time as technology advanced very rapidly. 4-5 years was about the norm.
_It wasn't the last time this happened._ - it wasn't too long before the next incident either 🙂
My story is based on Attridge's recollections of the incident from the small book "Grumman F-11 F Tiger" written by Grumman test pilot Corwin Meyer. That's why some details in my video are a bit different compared to other accounts. But I tend to trust Tom Attridge more :)
Here's his words from the book: "Shortly after that at Edwards, an Air Force F-100 was shooting its 20mm guns under the same negative G supersonic circumstances and was shot down by its own bullets when it caught up with them. When I heard about that happenstance, I delivered a copy of the report of Grumman’s experience and the Air Force adopted the Navy restriction that supersonic gun firing should be done under positive G only."
There must be something about the Dutch and F-16s, I used to live in a village called Marham down the from an RAF base, which had Victors and Tornadoes there. Two Dutch F-16s came to visit, the plane-spotters and a much younger me were very excited cos you didn't see many F-16s apart from airshows in the UK. I don't know the precise details but when they were up flying one ended up with the pilot ejecting and ditching the F-16, which left a crater in a field.......about half a mile from Necton middle school. Must've been somewhere in early 90s....I think.
@@ianjacka469 yes, around that time the Dutch air farce had a LOT of crashes with their F-16s (think every month or so one'd slam into the ground).
Mostly lack of crew proficiency as flying hours had been cut irresponsibly low as a result of budget cuts. This of course also reduced proficiency among maintenance crews, leading to even more problems.
It was basically the exact same thing that caused the slew of crashes of German F-104s early during that aircraft's adoption (except the F-16s had been flying for over a decade).
@@jwenting That's really interesting. I didn't want to say bacuse I don't know the details. But word around the RAF base was hinting at human error.
@@ianjacka469 most likely was. The Dutch also lost numerous NF-5s over Norway in the 1980s and 1990s because of stupid mistakes. Worst of which was that the crews were given maps that didn't show powerlines running over fjords and were then sent in on low level missions and flying right into those powerlines (the NF-5 used moving paper strip maps for navigation as the Dutch government had considered more advanced navigation aids like terrain avoidance radar too expensive, and then had saved even more money by supplying the pilots with road maps rather and aviation maps).
I just remembered the war thunder vid where the harrier locked on himself
That's exactly what I was thinking of
yeah me too
because u need speed in the harrier to fire a sparrow at an enemy
@@Isaiah-oj6zm SRAAM, not Sparrow. AIM-7 Sparrows are semi-active radar-guided missiles, and the Harrier lacks a radar, so it couldn't carry them.
@@Tigershark_3082 that’s what i meant but thanks for correcting me
Its soo funny to me, Russian video: much Vodka in plane, huge problem.
American video: Shoots himself
Sometimes the world is just simple.
British Video: Airborne Monty Python skit.
yeah i came here right after the T-22 booze plane episode lol
USA wouldn't be the USA without friendly fire!
@@sunso1991 me too. Lol!
@@ianrose666 this channel is pure gold!
Gotta give him one thing from firing that burst to when he got hit he stayed exactly on course like a ridicoulous amount of precision
He did 4 second burst, so there were 200-300 rounds fired and they spreaded on all sides
If it was used by the Blue Angels, it must mean the plane definetely had some flying qualities. And it was a nice looking plane too. But just like with humans, beauty doesn't mean that much: the Corsair wasn't a terribly good looking plane, but what a plane it was...
Corsair is one of the sexiest designs ever built. Amazingly effective, strong and looked like a bird in the air. I take umbrage at it not being a good looking plane.
The J79 powered F-11F-1F Super Tiger (which was not adopted), was possibly superior to the F-104 as an interceptor and general fighter. Certainly Japan, Italy, and Germany all thought so, and there was a.good chance of it being accepted for service if the Lockheed corruption scandal hadn't occured. Switzerland nearly adopted the Super Tiger but decided against it due to costs and went with the Mirage 3 instead. Design performance wise, it's almost like the single engine counterpart to the F-4 Phantom.
i think the sexiest modern plane ever built is the A-10 Warthog
she is a true beauty
🤣🤣🤣 (i am serious!)
@@sunso1991 Naahh, her "ears" are too big :)))
@@donmarshall4888 Big mouth, stubby nose, no coke bottle shape and not even beautiful boots :0)))
In WWI the French briefly experimented with shielding propellers with metal deflectors but as you can imagine ricocheting bullets caused a whole set of new problems.
As did chromium jacketed bullets...
I remember watching as a kid in the summer of 1967 the Grumman F11F Tigers of the U.S. Navy's "Blue Angels" flight demonstration team performing at an airshow held at Glenview Naval Air Station at Glenview, Illinois. I always though the Tiger was a pleasant looking jet fighter. Nice story on the F11F and thanks for sharing!
Should have given them a good sales pitch though: “Faster than a speeding bullet. Literally.”
I was in attack Squadron VA 304 stationed at Naval Air Station Alameda in California in the late seventies. One of our A7c Corsair II's managed to shoot itself down. Apparently while making a gun run the pilot pulled the trigger to fire the 20 mm cannons and one of the shells, they determined, only had primer and little to no powder. The projectile left the barrel of a gun which is only a couple of feet behind the intake on the nose and immediately got sucked in. Pilot made it back to base and landed by flying very slow and level, he said it was vibrating very badly, LOL.
Pretty sure there were no LOLs heard in that cockpit, after the event.
"Do not try this at home" LOL (about 8:16)
It's funny that you used Hot Shots footage for the "Dramatization of events." sequence. I truly believe the production company chose to use the Folland Gnat in the film because of its resemblance to the Tiger!
I'd be surprised if the production company even knew that the F-11 existed. It's not one of those iconic airplanes that are known to people who otherwise don't read up on airplanes.
My guess is that the small, slow and forgiving aircraft were a natural choice, especially since a number are privately owned.
usually they’d use F5s for that stuff
You have a fantastic sense of timing with just the right dose of irony in telling your tales, which makes them most entertaining to watch. Definitely one of the better channels on UA-cam.
I'm loving the style, narration, humour and all the beautiful period footage of your videos - add all this to some thoughtfully selected events to share, and yours is quickly becoming one of my favourite channels.
Many thanks for all your efforts in bringing these slices of history to us 👍🍻
Nice looking airplane with clean lines.
I feel attacked that you didn't include the F-14B Tomcat in the Cats section.
tomcat came much later....
Didn't exist in the 1960s
@@cringepog2758 doesn’t matter it’s all the cats.
Someone: you might get shot down!
The pilot: NOT IF I DO IT FIRST
Well, that's embarrassing. Finding rifling indications on the skin though, that part was pretty impressive.
I'd heard about the fighter jet that shot itself down. Hadn't heard of the fighter jet that scored hits on itself _twice._
I heard this story 30 years ago and i thought it was a joke ..
I got it now . Thanks for the illustration Man
Lovely ..
Brings a whole new angle to the meaning of friendly fire.
I am so happy the pilot was able to recover and continue his excellent career -- but, there is certainly an element of humor in this tale. Sometimes we learn about terrible consequences without having to experience all of the terrible consequences. Great subject for your Paper Skies Channel! Thanks!
This is an outstanding aviation channel. Glad to be a charter member of the early subscribers.
The fact that one of the drawbacks of supersonic fighters is the possibility of flying into your fired projectiles makes my head hurt.
Your editing is so impressive, I've learned so much from you. Another great video, thanks.
Nice channel Keep up the great work
I read about this long ago but never in such detail. I enjoy seeing the footage and the accuracy of your work.These are videos I can subscribe to.
Love your videos! You're good at being serious, or being funny, or being just the right sort of objective and detached. You have a unique voice not just because of your awesome accent but I mean your writing, the way you script these and edit them are unique as well. And very very impressive and fun. Thank you so much for all the content!!
I like the detail included in all of these videos. Very informative and concise. Thanks!
I watched many aviation videos before, all videos from you were something very interesting I never watched before. Nice job!
You do such an amazing job putting these together and finding footage. I can't believe you only have 8k subscribers. That's gonna go up real fast.
Just checked: 111.000
In the early days of gun equipped jet fighters, that had the gun muzzles near the air intake of their jet engine (they often had just one single engine), the engine tended to shut down, when the guns were fired, because of lack of oxygene in the combustion gases of the ammunition. An example is the F-100 Super Sabre which had four 20 mm cannons. Great videos, subbed!
I was watching a video a few days ago, about a soviet fighter that had exactly that problem. It was their first jet, the mig 9 i believe. Armed with 2 20mm and a 57mm in the centre of the intake, meant as a bomber interceptor. Problem was, over 6000ft and 300kts it couldn't fire any of its guns without flaming out. Apparently the issue was never fixed, either.
I would try this at home, but the overly restrictive firearms laws in the U.S. sadly make the acquisition of a 20 mm cannon impractical.
(Good presentation, interesting topics: keep them coming my friend.)
It's actually only 15k for a old surplus Lahti, that's the 20mm semi-auto Finnish gun.
The guy shot himself down, broke his back, and KEPT FLYING. What a legend
My grandad flew F11F off the carrier Lexington in the late 50s, and then F8s stateside in the early 60s. As a pilot he actually preferred the F11F. Handier, more maneuverable, and much easier to fly. The weak landing gear was the big weakness
I had heard something about this but, didn't know the details of what happened. You did a great job on this video.
I'm missing the most important part. What were the countermeasures that were taken (aka "lessons learned") from this incident? Was there a technical solution or a change in procedure?
The Air Force adopted the restriction that supersonic gun firing should be done under positive G only.
He really was his own worst enemy.... LOVE the commentary on your videos btw. keep em comin
Very interesting! Superbly put together and narrated. Subbed. 😊
OMG! Ive been to calverton dozens of times i remember as a kid the grumman jets doing all their test flights. I used to love the a6 intruders especially when they flew low and tight and you can hear their engines scream as they rose real quickly in the air. You'd see them and they'd be gone in a second. It was a very sad day when they closed in 1994. When i started work with my dad in an insurance company they took over one of the grumman buildings in the walk in safes they left all kinds of blue prints from the apollo space program. I wish i would of kept some of them probably worth money to some space collectors. Great video thank you!!!
That’s what I thought happened, he shot, dove down and increased his speed and caught up with his bullets
Such a wild story. Thanks for retelling it in detail.
Great tale and terrific video and animation. Thank you.
Subbed - - you are several orders of magnitude better than the "historical" video makers on youtube - most are pseudo-historians ...and you have the type of voice that works, unlike many others ...
Agreed, the production on the is insanely good. And this channel only has six thousand subs, wow. He's about to get a lot more!
@@NSF1994Xz He is the best new guy I have seen in over a year, I don't even mind the accent ...
I agree I've listened to some other UA-camr's channels and couldn't stand the owners voices
Well, no, not really. While the quality of the content is good, anybody who knows about physics and the aircraft know the way its portrayed is false, the way the plane actually shot itself down was it did the firing test in a climb, and then went into a dive, and by pure luck, hit itself with the bullets fired minutes earlier
@@cringepog2758 Minutes??? Seconds, more likely!!!
I just came across your content this and week, and it is so good. Informative and entertaining. Greetings from New Hampshire, USA
Wonderful videos. Thanks for the quality content. You must have spent a lot of time digging archival footages.
I have one recommendation. You should name your time stamps in a way that is more obvious to the reader.
Very interesting video thanks for uploading
this videos are way to good. you deserve wayyy much subs
I saw the Blue Angels at Moffett Field in 1962 and they were flying the F-11 Tiger, I wasn’t even three yet and I remember.
Cool, I'm about your age and the first planes I remember them flying were the Skyhawks, early on. Another very pretty aircraft, especially in air show paint.
Amazing video, well done! 👍
👍 Interesting video, thanks. Can't help but wonder if they wished they had paid more attention to those scratches on the tail after the first test flight!
Damn these videos are interesting! Great job!
I knew the story, I've heard it many times, but never quite as entertainingly as you have delivered it.
love the creativity of using the viggen as the emergency landing footage!
F-11: "I destroyed myself with my own gun"
F-35: "Hold my trillion $ budget"
this jet shooting itself out: The problem with being faster than light is that u can only live in darkness
We had a Jaguar shot it's self down with a bad batch of 30mm HE, round prematurely armed going down the barrel and as it left the barrel detonated alongside the cockpit.
Terrific video on the F-11, I had always heard about this event, but never got the complete story, thanks for filling in the blanks...
And this is why you ALWAYS pull up out of an attack dive.
The USA wouldn't be the USA without friendly fire.
:) That's a good one. I was waiting for an American to say that, because if a European like me would say so, it would be seen as an insult resulting in a virtual bloody nose.... again....
@@Retroscoop Facts are facts, some people will get butthurt no matter what.
@@Retroscoop Correct. It's like making fun of your brother, it just hits different when someone else makes fun of him.
@@Retroscoop i'm in no position to give you a virtual bloody nose but how about a virtual shank?
@@Retroscoop Not to anyone that knows anything. Friendly fire is not remotely exclusive to the US. In fact, EVERY country that has fought a war has had this happen (friendly fire) many many times, I suspect a LOT more than anyone outside the folks present at the time know. It is pretty much unavoidable, when you think about what goes on in war. I'm also quite sure that it has occurred many many times where it was not even recognized as a friendly fire incident.
I'm glad you put in that disclaimer about the stunts. I was gonna try to do the same thing in my tiger
Dude... The music used is so catchy lol
I want to hear the full version of it
Great Channel ;)
Hot shots!!!! Great film man!
speeding out your own bullets sounds pretty badass.
F-11 Tiger is such a gorgeous aircraft, excellent video
man. I was looking forward to trying this myself
never knew this happened in Grumman, i used to live right across the street from the old test site they built an outdoor museum right there.
I enjoy your video's very much.
"Do not try this at home"
Fine I guess I'll just fly my fighter jet normally then...
great video
Geez, I recall reading about the incident in the newspaper when it happened. The same phenomena would have happened in World War II but prop planes weren't fast enough to catch up to their bullets.
Imagine trying to explain to your wife how you ended up in some trees when he went home. "How was work dear?" "I shot myself down with my own cannon rounds." "That's nice dea- wait what?"
The F11 is a good looking aircraft. Looks like a cross between the F105 and the Mirage F1. Good vid!
high quality content!
"Despite a broken back"
Test pilots really are a different breed
Absolutely amazing, it is like he was drag racing againts his own bullets, then he won and caught them.
An F-35 pilot managed something similar recently... fortunately not much damage was done.
I flew the F-15C for 22 years. I cannot think of any reason to fire the gun at supersonic speeds. We never, ever did that.
I mean, this was the early days of supersonic combat aviation and all, its not like we knew that would be impractical.
You are my hero !!! The Grumman Goose at 3:26. Love it !!!!! Yes, I commented about the Goose on the Pan Am Clipper video.
The family of birds that I know are
The Widgeon
The Goose
The Mallard
The Albatross
Can you do a video about the Grumman seaplanes please ?
Wasn’t expecting a Commando reference. Glad I got it.
“I’ve scored a real air-to-air kill”
“Cool, what did you shoot down?”
“Myself”
Legend…
Despite being introduced at roughly the same time, the F4 stayed in service until 1996 while, the F11 was pulled from service in 1961 (only two years after the final one was produced).
When I came upon this 🇺🇸 aviation magazine with the picture of the F-11 on the cover titled
« The Tiger that clawed itself »
I had no idea what it’s about.
& when I got through it, I couldn’t believe such things can be !
nicely presented
Can you imagine being such a badass that being a test pilot becomes so whatever you’re still treating it like a 9-5 and can’t wait for the weekend?
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
But then again, i got to appreciate the tenacity of people who would say "This new supersonic thing, we don't know exactly what would happen, but f*ck it let's try anyway and find out"
So badass he shot down his own plane by going supersonic at the same time.