
The F-106A That Flew Itself – After the Pilot Ejected, Landing Gently in a Field - mpweiher
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/plane-flew-pilot-ejected-f-106a-flew-miles-landing-gently-field.html
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toomanybeersies
What the heck? I was literally just reading about the Cornfield Bomber
yesterday! I guess somebody else read the question on Aviation StackExchange
[0] asking what autopilots are programmed to do upon pilot ejection.

Another very interesting case of a plane flying after the pilot ejected
happened with a Soviet MiG-23 in 1989, which flew from Poland to Belgium,
before crashing into a house and killing a man [1]. The map of its flightpath
is interesting [2], imagine being one of the F-15 pilots that intercepted it.
It would be nerve wracking having to intercept a plane heading straight into
NATO airspace, and then completely bizarre when you discovered there was no
pilot on it.

[0] [https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/52862/if-a-
pilo...](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/52862/if-a-pilot-ejects-
what-is-the-autopilot-programmed-to-do)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Belgian_MiG-23_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Belgian_MiG-23_crash)

[2]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120426041634/http://images3.we...](https://web.archive.org/web/20120426041634/http://images3.webpark.ru/uploads52/080331/mig_01.jpg)

~~~
shakna
The question made it to HN [0]

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17391550](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17391550)

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pasbesoin
I scan HN fairly extensively (if sometimes quickly).

There's a fair amount of OP's that pretty apparently start when someone takes
a resource cited in a comment and makes a new top-level post out of it.

I don't keep track of who and what. I just see a new post and think/remember,
I saw that in a comment 3 hours ago - 1 day ago. (Sometimes, quicker than
that.)

The behavior doesn't seem to be overwhelming HN (maybe the moderators throttle
it?), and often significant conversations seem to ensue, so, as they say,
"what the hey..."

~~~
toomanybeersies
There does seem to be a tendency on HN for there to end up being a series of
stories on a particular topic.

One person will post a link, then somebody who reads the linked article will
do some further reading, discover something interesting, and then post a link
to their interesting discovery to HN, and the cycle continues.

I rather like it. It happens at a low enough level, as you mentioned, that it
provides a nice stream of information on a particular topic.

~~~
jamesmiller5
It would be nice to capture those reply chains and package up a bunch of
related links at once. Kind of like a shared mapping of our unexpected deep
internet dives on Wikipedia, just automated.

~~~
jacobush
The data is there, it's "only for someone" to write the code to connect the
dots. I'm sure that program would make HN front-page.

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cyberferret
My old Chief Flying instructor was a test pilot in the RAF back in the 50's
and 60's. He has many stories about pilots who ejected from their 'out of
control' jets only to hang in their parachutes a minute later watching their
aircraft flying along perfectly normally.

His opinion was that most planes have a better idea how to stabilise than the
pilot does, and in fact when taking us through emergency recovery manoeuvres
in the air, he used to suggest in most cases the first reaction should be
"hands off stick and throttle" (obviously only where altitude and time
permitted) just to see if the airplane would self correct, before applying any
inputs ourselves.

~~~
steve19
What the punishment/outcome for ditching a plane? Is there a mandatory court-
martial held like when a ship is lost?

~~~
oldcynic
You get the free Martin Baker Tie and pin[0].

You probably get classed unfit to fly until medical exam.

If you were flying one of the 60s fast jets you may lose a kneecap on the way
out.

Then you get the enquiry/court martial.

[0] [http://martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/](http://martin-
baker.com/ejection-tie-club/)

~~~
King-Aaron
That Bremont watch they talk about on the page is a lovely looking bit of kit!

~~~
dole
Love the use of the OCR-B font on a flieger-style like this.

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thecopy
Am i the only one who is irritated by sentences like "In 1970, a plane got fed
up with its pilot so it hatched an audacious plan. First, get rid of the
pilot. Second: land. Third: enter history. The result was amazing."

Especially irritating the the last sentence "The result was amazing".

Is there a word for describing this type of writing in English?

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
"Tongue in cheek"?

~~~
thecopy
Maybe. As an anecdote, I see it as well in some of Elon Musks tweets, i.e.
"I’m starting a candy company & it’s going to be amazing".

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dingaling
It wasn't actually that rare an occurrence; I've heard at least a dozen Cold
War stories, all verified, of self-landers. Danish Hunter serial 415 was
probably the most famous, it flew itself pilotless down the approach at
Skrydstrup and landed beside the runway.

[http://aviadejavu.ru/Site/Arts/Art9093.htm](http://aviadejavu.ru/Site/Arts/Art9093.htm)

More morbid was the WW2 92 Sqn Spitfire that nearly made it back to its home
airfield with a dead pilot at the controls. It landed in treetops near Biggin
Hill after flying all the way back from France where he had been killed.

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user2994cb
Something like this happened in 1944: crew bailed out from Dornier 217 over
London, plane carried on north, landing by itself in the Milton Road
allotments in Cambridge:
[https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Do-217/Do-217-KG2.2-(U5+DK)/page...](https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Do-217/Do-217-KG2.2-\(U5+DK\)/pages/Dornier-
Do-217M1-2.KG2-\(U5+DK\)-Stemann-crew-shot-down-over-
WNr-56031-Cambridge-23-24th-Feb-1944-01.html)

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DanielBMarkham
This has happened many times in civilian aviation as well, many times with the
pilots still inside but incapacitated.

I remember one famous story of a doctor in a beechcraft who passed out from
hypoxia -- only to awaken hours later by the jarring of the airplane bouncing
along in a cornfield. The plane's autopilot had kept the wings level until it
ran out of gas. Then it slowly descended into a field.

What a story that guy had to tell! I wonder if he flew very much after that.

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hshehehjdjdjd
Site has bad ads that will hijack mobile user agents.

~~~
ectospheno
I tried iphone, ipad, android, and windows mobile user agents in my desktop
browser. ublock blocked all of the ads.

So I opened it on my actual iphone. adguard blocked all of the ads.

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WalterGR
Is all the anthropomorphism in the article simply artistic license? Or is the
author referring to automated capabilities?

~~~
jccooper
Author is just being cute. No automation at all was involved, simply a
naturally stable system and a fair amount of good luck. (Before fly-by-wire
and computers all aircraft had to be at least neutrally stable, or they would
be literally unflyable.)

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djohnston
im surprised that the mission even took place seeing that one of the pilots
had to ditch his jet on the runway. different times i guess, but i doubt that
the sortie would continue as normal today.

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inteleng
Somebody reads reddit.

