Call Warner Brothers studio

[BillM]

I knew a B-52 pilot who declared an emergency after having a hole torn in the wing.
He was flying low level over the Great Lakes.
When they landed, they found fish scales and fish guts in the wing.
They jokingly asked “Exactly how low were you flying?”
They determined the the fish was most likely dropped by an Eagle.
He claims to have the only recorded case in Air Force history of “Fish Strike”.

I was out photographing another aircraft accident at the bombing range for Nellis AFB, part-way up a mountain, when a flight of four B-52's flew past us. We were looking down at the tops of the bombers...

Photographed an A7 out on the flight line not too long after I got to Nellis that had bits of mesquite bushes stuck in the landing gear...mesquite out there seems to mostly be under about 3 or 4 feet tall.

 

[Lee Beaittie]

I use to work with a guy circa late 80's, that has some polaroid's of a F4 that had been taken out in the evening by a Col just to keep his flt status current, brought it back with a volley ball net draped across the radome and pole wedged in one of the inlets, the next day had news reports of military strafing a beach at "extremely low level".

 

[Chuckie]

LOL, yeah they actually do basically that same test on jet engs....

Mmmm - makes me want to fire up the Air Fryer and have chicken nuggets for lunch

 

[Chuckie]

I knew a B-52 pilot who declared an emergency after having a hole torn in the wing.
He was flying low level over the Great Lakes.
When they landed, they found fish scales and fish guts in the wing.
They jokingly asked “Exactly how low were you flying?”
They determined the the fish was most likely dropped by an Eagle.
He claims to have the only recorded case in Air Force history of “Fish Strike”.

Flying Fish - I kid you not!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fish

 

[SoonerP226]

I was out photographing another aircraft accident at the bombing range for Nellis AFB, part-way up a mountain, when a flight of four B-52's flew past us. We were looking down at the tops of the bombers...

I knew a guy who was doing a cross-country flight in a Cessna when a couple of B-52s flew under him. He said that will absolutely get your attention in a hurry. He also said the rivets on those things are huge…

 

[BillM]

I knew a B-52 pilot who declared an emergency after having a hole torn in the wing.
He was flying low level over the Great Lakes.
When they landed, they found fish scales and fish guts in the wing.
They jokingly asked “Exactly how low were you flying?”
They determined the the fish was most likely dropped by an Eagle.
He claims to have the only recorded case in Air Force history of “Fish Strike”.

All I can tell you guys is that military pilots are freaking crazy! I mean it!

 

[Snattlerake]

Two brothers in Medicine Lodge, KS were crazy suckers. Each brother tried to "outdo" the other when it came to stunts. That was just their personalities. One brother was relating to me he was assisting in bird strike tests on canopies and cockpit windows at Boeing in Wichita so take this tale with a grain of salt. Maybe a bag of salt.

They too had a specially built air cannon but they didn't use frozen then thawed birds, they used live chickens. Their thinking was that the bird would bounce off but the sharp beak hitting was an unknown because the usual procedure was the heads were always cut off of the birds when shot so they decided to use live birds. They had a special harness they made from stiff cardboard to hold the chicken's heads straight.

Well, this live bird shooting went on for about a week when a conscientious passerby noticed the carnage and the fact they were using live birds. It was brought to the attention of the higher ups that Boeing was murdering chickens with their planes which really caused an uproar.

In typical Boeing fashion, memos were produced, meetings held, and it was determined to kill the chickens before shooting them since they already had the neck harness it didn't matter if the chicken was alive or dead when shot. Then again in typical Boeing corporate boondoggleness, no one on the Boeing staff knew how or even wanted to kill the chickens so they hired a chicken killer. His only job was to grab a live chicken, break its neck, then hand it over to the Boeing employee shooting it to install the harness in preparation for firing.

All this dubious rendering was from a man who previously bet his brother he could "land" his biplane into a large oak tree if the brother paid for the crane to retrieve it. This plane landing was a legend in the community before my arrival.

 

[Decoligny]

I once collided with a ringneck doing above the posted speed on my motorcycle.

Took out a sparrow when it flew into my left fist at about 90mph. Quick countersteer pulled the bike back up from the dip to the left it caused.
Had feathers and blood on my hand and arm, and a sore hand.

Flying Fish - I kid you not!

View attachment 368760

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fish

He was flying at about 300 ft. Them little winged sardine can’t gain that altitude.

 

[Decoligny]

All I can tell you guys is that military pilots are freaking crazy! I mean it!

True. I worked 23 years with Test Pilots. They are on the extreme end of the crazy scale.