Dutch pilot gets first air combat kill since Kosovo

[DrainBamage]

Well "combat" is obviously an exaggeration, but just think if he can do it four more times he'll be an Ace.

Dutch F-16 makes emergency landing after plane shoots itself
A Dutch F-16 fighter jet flying a training exercise over the Netherlands scored a direct hit — on itself — when the pilot fired the aircraft’s 20mm rotary cannon. The Royal Netherlands Air Force pilot was able to make an emergency landing at Leeuwarden Air Base after the plane suffered “considerable damage,” according to a report from Dutch state media. At least one round ripped through the jet’s exterior, the report said, while munition fragments were also found in the aircraft’s engine.

 

[harmonica]

I'm guessing it worked before this..?
maintenance problem...?

 

[Daryl Hunt]

Well "combat" is obviously an exaggeration, but just think if he can do it four more times he'll be an Ace.

Dutch F-16 makes emergency landing after plane shoots itself
A Dutch F-16 fighter jet flying a training exercise over the Netherlands scored a direct hit — on itself — when the pilot fired the aircraft’s 20mm rotary cannon. The Royal Netherlands Air Force pilot was able to make an emergency landing at Leeuwarden Air Base after the plane suffered “considerable damage,” according to a report from Dutch state media. At least one round ripped through the jet’s exterior, the report said, while munition fragments were also found in the aircraft’s engine.

The first Fighter to experience this was the F-100. In level flight, the F-100 could maintain mach speed. In a dive, the F-100 could exceed Mach 1. If you fired your cannon, the shells would exit and then slow down and you would fly into your own projectiles. I guess the Dutch Pilot didn't read that part of the Flight manual written more than 60 years ago.

I had an old CO that is recorded as the only pilot to ever shoot himself down by his own Heat Seeker Missile. He was flying, fired a heat seeker, hit the burner, flew past the heat seeker which picked up on his and downed him. He immediately went from Pilot to Maintenance Officer.

 

[whitehall]

What would the U.S.do without NATO?

 

[Daryl Hunt]

What would the U.S.do without NATO?

We would have had to pick up the pieces of Europe once again.

 

[DrainBamage]

Interesting article about F-11 that shot itself:

The Fighter Plane That Shot Itself Down

In 1956, the Grumman aircraft corporation was testing its new fighter, the F-11 Tiger, off the coast of New York state. The pilot fired a long burst from its guns and moments later suffered mysterious, catastrophic damage that caved in the windshield and mortally wounded the engine. What happened? The pilot had shot himself down.
The F-11 Tiger, like all Grumman aircraft, was named after a cat. Fast and nimble, the F-11 was only the second supersonic fighter in the Navy's inventory, capable of 843 miles an hour (Mach 1.1). It was actually Grumman's first supersonic fighter and the company's inexperience with the consequences of supersonic flight, as well as the fighter's amazing speed, would be one test Tiger's undoing.

On September 21st, 1956, as DataGenetics explains, a Grumman test pilot flying a Tiger off the coast of Long Island dropped his nose twenty degrees and pointed it at an empty spot of ocean. He fired a brief, four second burst from his four Colt Mk.12 20-millimeter cannons, entered a steeper descent, and hit the afterburners. A minute later, his windshield suddenly caved in and his engine started making funny noises, eventually conking out as the pilot attempted to return to Grumman's Long Island airfield.

The test pilot had assumed he had been the victim of a bird strike, but the accident investigation revealed another cause: in his fast descent, the pilot had actually flown into his own stream of 20-millimeter cannon rounds. Although the rounds had a head start (the air speed of the aircraft plus the muzzle velocity of the rounds) they slowed quickly due to drag passing through the surrounding air. The rounds decelerated, the Tiger accelerated, and the two reunited in the sky, with fatal (for the aircraft) consequences.