10 MAY 2020 ÇPlane&Pilot
SUPER-NOISY JETS:
As of 2015 in the United States, the noisiest jets
(Stage 1) were banned from operating, part of a success-
ful program to cut aircraft noise by a whopping 32dB.
LAST ALL-MALE AIR FORCE
ACADEMY CLASS:
The 1975 class was the last one that featured an all-male
cast. In 1976, 176 female cadets joined the ranks.
FIRST FLYER’S FINAL FLIGHT:
In 1944, the first person to fly a powered heavier-
than-air craft made one last flight, hopping a ride with
Howard Hughes aboard a Lockheed Constellation. Orville
Wright was 73 years old. (His brother Wilbur had died
in 1912 of typhoid fever.) Four years after his literal final
sortie, Orville took his figurative last flight, dying of a
heart attack at the age of 77.
LANDING ATOP MT. EVEREST:
Didier Delsalle landed his Eurocopter AS
Squirrel atop the world’s highest piece of real estate on
May 14, 2005. He repeated the feat the next day to show
it was no fluke. No fluke, but it was treacherous and
super risky. The hardest part, he said, was landing on
the snow, not knowing how much snow he would have
to settle through before his helicopter settled its weight
on the world’s most famous summit.
UNDER THE EIFFEL TOWER:
To commemorate a famous 1944 dogfight,
in which American P-51 pilot and fighter ace William
Overstreet Jr. chased a Messerschmitt 109 under the
Eiffel Tower, a Bonanza in 1991 repeated the feat, with
support from the French government. How many pilots
have flown under the arch of the tower? Probably more
than a few. It has been done since at least WWI, and few
of the pilots who have done so stepped up to take credit
for the feat.
LANDING INVERTED:
Can a plane land inverted? Of course, it can.
Aerobatic airplanes are regularly flown upside down. But
landing? Piece of cake for a skilled aerobatic ace, though.
But unless it’s got landing gear on top, it’ll probably be
their last landing. Aerobatic performer and Hollywood
actor Craig Hosking has done it, many times! For a while,
Hosking, who has been busy making movies of late (most
recently on 2017’s Dunkirk), made inverted landings in
his Pitts biplane specially outfitted with landing gear
on both top and bottom. Thanks all the same, but we’ll
avoid that plane if it shows up on the line at our flying
club! Some temptations one does not need!
BOOSTING A DISABLED AIRPLANE:
To our knowledge, this has been done just
once, in March of 1967 during the Vietnam
War, when an American pilot, Captain Robert Pardo,
used the canopy of his McDonnell Douglas F-4, suffering
damage from anti-aircraft fire, to help extend the flight
time of another F-4. To do this, Pardo positioned his jet
beneath the other and used his canopy to push up on the
extended tailhook of the other jet, flown by Captain Earl
Aman. The maneuver, known as “Pardo’s Push,” succeeded
in getting both planes into slightly less-hostile territory
before they all had to bail out. Both of the pilots and both
of their backseaters successfully ejected and were later
rescued by U.S. forces, considerably worse for the wear
but alive and soon on their way back home to be with
their families. PP
