Also might depend on what manoevers the pilot was engaged in when hit…ie steep turn etc.
Was a full account of the ejection ever published ?
If McCarthy only flew 3 miles out before ejecting,his wingman may not have had enough time to ‘look over’ the a/c to check the extent of damage.
Of course it only requires one lucky(or unlucky) hit even with small arms fire into fuel/oil or engine control systems.
cheers baz
Just like you baz i’m clutching at straws as to what exactly happened. Cowling ejected after its quoted “the engine exploded”, although again there appears to be very little external evidence of this.. although its possible that damage was contained in the engine/airframe. But in the pre-ejection photo the props don’t appear to be feathered, and together with the visual lack of a steeper glide angle one can only assume that the engine was still produceing a modicum of power.. again not very likely if it had just “exploded”.
As for McCarthy i don’t have any pics of his aircraft pre or post-ejection so i don’t know what damage his aircraft took.
But i do seem to remember reading a post Suez report stating that although happy with the Wyverns weapons delivery and pilot/aircraft performance, it was considered to be vulnerable to small arms fire particularly at low level. Its apparent lack of speed compared to contemporary jets obviously not helping much.
ps.. yes i have already seen the links but thanks anyway. I hope others will take a look though..
Rob.
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