Self Landing aircraft (2004 zombie thread)

I can’t remember exactly where I read this, but it was quite recently. Possibly in ‘First Light’? I’ve lent my copy to a friend so can’t check.

There was a Spitfire which managed to find it’s way back from the French coast to the Biggin Hill area with a dead pilot at the controls.

The aeroplane was seen to dive away from an engagement (presumably the action in which the pilot had been killed), level itself out gradually, and continue on it’s heading, which incredibly took it in a straight line back towards Biggin Hill. The account I read said that the Spitfire passed close to Biggin, but then disappeared.

It was then found some time (weeks?) later, lodged in amongst some tree tops, where amazingly it had landed itself when the fuel ran out. The pilot was still aboard, but had evidently been killed in the action over the French coast by a cannon shell to the head.

When found, the aeroplane was only a couple of miles from Biggin Hill.

I read it in Bob Stanford Tucks bio. I think the pilot was named Howard Hill and possably from 92 squadron.
mmitch.

How badly wounded was he? Surely he could have died after having tried to fly home?

Not much chance of that I’m afraid. A cannon shell to the head is rather swift.

Not always. In the excellent book ‘Zero’ the author (a senior Japanese naval officer) related how a Zero pilot received TWO cannon shells in the head after a dogfight with a Lightning, then flew his plane back to his island base! Bri 🙂

Yeah, I read about the incident too, though can’t say which book it was in – so whether it’s the same accout as what mmitch read, I’m not sure.

I do remember it being stated that it was Howard Hill from 92 Sqdn – that he was a New-Zealander & that an overflying Avro-Anson crew had spotted the plane in the tree-tops.
Rather sadly, when they managed to get (IIRC) ladders up there, the cockpit was a swarming mass of flies – the cannon-shell having smashed thru both perspex & human-skull & the retrieving crew related that the smell was truly awful, made worse by the fact he’d been there for some time, in summer weather…….. Terrible bizarre tale, just hope he was killed instantly, rather than suffer for many minutes or more ?
Maybe he did set course for home, before sucummbing to his dreadful-wounds ?

Regarding the last two quotes there are several guys who’ve had the misfortune of being struck in the head by a German 20mm cannon shell & survived – there’s a photo’ in a book about the 8th & 15th A.F. somwhere with an actual picture of a B.17 Waist gunner who was struck during a rear-quater attack & survived (after mates pushed him out on a ‘chute).

Also, there is a (very small) Road in Havering – Bennions Close – (in the Town of my ‘namesake’ !) which is named after Spitfire-pilot George Bennions, who had a 20mm go thru his (middle-of) skull, during a combat with Me.110’s & as a consequence, lost his Left-eye & was out of action for 18-months/Two years (again, IIRC).
He flew a/c again, but not operationally.

Suprised no-one’s posted a pic’ of the Dornier 217-‘M’ that bombed London & flew (minus-crew) before settling itself on a Cambrigeshire riverbank ?

Really ? An F-14 crashed at Wallop 😮

When was this please ?

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My apologies, following further research, it seems to have been a TF/A-18A Hornet, serial number 160784. On Monday 8th September 1980 it crashed following catastrophic engine failure. The page Ejection History has a few more details.

My misident is probably due to the two seats and twin tails, and the distraction of having an unoccupied fast jet doing unusual things. I may also have mislead you on the location of the resting point too – it was the cricket pitch. Sorry.

Not much chance of that I’m afraid. A cannon shell to the head is rather swift.

Not always. In the excellent book ‘Zero’ the author (a senior Japanese naval officer) related how a Zero pilot received TWO cannon shells in the head after a dogfight with a Lightning, then flew his plane back to his island base!

Apparently he was almost blinded by the blood and kept pushing his fingers into his head so that the pain kept him alive until he got back. OUCH

He was back in the air within weeks.

Bri 🙂

There was the time an F-14 made an unannounced appearance in the circuit at Middle Wallop, and performed some aeros for the benefit of a surprised audience, some of whom noted that it appeared to be unoccupied. At that point the applause stopped, and mild panic set in.

Since it ended the show by reducing itself to component form on the lawn outside the Officer’s Mess, I don’t suppose it counts as ‘Self Landing’ though.

Really ? An F-14 crashed at Wallop 😮

When was this please ?

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Armstrong Whitworth AW.52 TS363 landed itself with not much damage on May 30th, 1949 after pilot J. Lancaster ejected. This was the first emergency use of a Martin Baker seat in the UK.

Roger Smith.

There was the time an F-14 made an unannounced appearance in the circuit at Middle Wallop, and performed some aeros for the benefit of a surprised audience, some of whom noted that it appeared to be unoccupied. At that point the applause stopped, and mild panic set in.

Since it ended the show by reducing itself to component form on the lawn outside the Officer’s Mess, I don’t suppose it counts as ‘Self Landing’ though.

There was a US SuperSabre which crashed at Marham in the late 60’s IIRC, which my father took me along to see afterwards. As I recall it had made a successful unmanned belly landing within the perimeter and was more or less intact though fire damaged. The pilot ejected sucessfully. I believe that prior to the belly landing, it flew unmanned along a row of Victors, dipping down into a gap between one and then climbing enough to clear the last on the row. 😮

Any one else remember? I was very young at the time.

Does this count? 😉

I don’t recall reading that bit in ‘Chickenhawk’, and as a former helicopter driver I would dismiss the claim too, for the reasons given above.

On an exercise in Germany some years ago, (’84 possibly, Soltau-Luneburg Training Area) we had an unmanned F-16 drop in on our location, after the pilot ejected when his engine quit on him. Despite being half asleep after a night on watchkeeping duties, I woke with a start when I heard the ejection, followed by the approaching whistling noise as the engine wound down, but the zip on my sleeping-bag jammed, trapping me inside.

It missed 3 Gazelles, two refuelling trucks and 15 blokes by a matter of yards.

In Robert Masons Chickenhawk a huey is described as landing safely at one of the bases with a dead crew.

As someone with 40 hours of helicopter time (but none in Hueys) I don’t see how that is possible…
A helicopter has no natural stability…
I doubt if Vietnam Hueys had an advanced autopilot that could take it to a landing. Navy ASW ships had a auto-hover device, and I think that was fairly high tech back then.
Even an autorotation requires a pilot to lower the collective…then raise it in the final few feet to cushion the landing.

If the pilot died a few feet from the ground, it’s barely possible. The helicopter then would have no ground control with no one to operate the tail rotor pedals. I wouldn’t want to be around an unmanned flying machine with two sets of whirling blades…:D

There was an incident during the Falklands War when an Argentine A4 Skyhawk returned from a mission with its bombs still on board. I can’t remember the exact details but I think it overshot the end of the runway and the pilot ejected. Unfortunately he was killed but the aircraft came to rest on its underwing drop-tanks and sustained so little damage that it saw further action during the war.

Zombie thread

RAF selflanding Hunter.

XF940 was the British example: ETPS, Farnborough, crashed after running short of fuel, 13-10-61, near Farnborough. Pilot ejected safely. Any pictures?

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but here’s a photo of XF940…….

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Not much chance of that I’m afraid. A cannon shell to the head is rather swift.

Originally posted by SteveYoung
I can’t remember exactly where I read this, but it was quite recently. Possibly in ‘First Light’? I’ve lent my copy to a friend so can’t check.

There was a Spitfire which managed to find it’s way back from the French coast to the Biggin Hill area with a dead pilot at the controls.

The aeroplane was seen to dive away from an engagement (presumably the action in which the pilot had been killed), level itself out gradually, and continue on it’s heading, which incredibly took it in a straight line back towards Biggin Hill. The account I read said that the Spitfire passed close to Biggin, but then disappeared.

It was then found some time (weeks?) later, lodged in amongst some tree tops, where amazingly it had landed itself when the fuel ran out. The pilot was still aboard, but had evidently been killed in the action over the French coast by a cannon shell to the head.

When found, the aeroplane was only a couple of miles from Biggin Hill.

I read it in Bob Stanford Tucks bio. I think the pilot was named Howard Hill and possably from 92 squadron.
mmitch.

I’m at work so I’m doing this from memory, but there was a case when a Lightning from Wattisham either collided with another Lightning or had a fire??? over Norfolk. The pilot ejected and the aircraft continued on until crashing on the perimeter of RAF Coltishall. The Lightning had been based there in the past. The ATC saw the aircraft crash and was then surprised when all there aircraft called in! Only later was the aircraft i.d. by them.

Originally posted by Denis
There was also the Dornier DO17 that gently landed itself at Shotley Essex during the B.O.B, the crew bailed out somewhere near Salisbury I think.

There was also a Do217M from KG2 whose crew baled out over Middlesex whilst the a/c ‘landed’ near Cambridge (January 1944). Neither are mentioned in Kenneth West’s ‘Captive Luftwafe’ althogh in one of Bill Gunston’s books he says the Do217 was flown by the RAF.

I seem to recall a pic of one of these perhaps from one of the Then & Now series?

I think the Spitfire incident or a similar one is covered in Battle Of Britain Then And Now.

There was also the Dornier DO17 that gently landed itself at Shotley Essex during the B.O.B, the crew bailed out somewhere near Salisbury I think.

I can’t remember exactly where I read this, but it was quite recently. Possibly in ‘First Light’? I’ve lent my copy to a friend so can’t check.

There was a Spitfire which managed to find it’s way back from the French coast to the Biggin Hill area with a dead pilot at the controls.

The aeroplane was seen to dive away from an engagement (presumably the action in which the pilot had been killed), level itself out gradually, and continue on it’s heading, which incredibly took it in a straight line back towards Biggin Hill. The account I read said that the Spitfire passed close to Biggin, but then disappeared.

It was then found some time (weeks?) later, lodged in amongst some tree tops, where amazingly it had landed itself when the fuel ran out. The pilot was still aboard, but had evidently been killed in the action over the French coast by a cannon shell to the head.

When found, the aeroplane was only a couple of miles from Biggin Hill.

RAF selflanding Hunter.

XF940 was the British example: ETPS, Farnborough, crashed after running short of fuel, 13-10-61, near Farnborough. Pilot ejected safely. Any pictures?

Best regards