Pardo's Push - another great aviation story.

[RogerM]

This is a great story from the Vietnam War. Bob Pardo is definitely the kind of guy you would want on your wing when flying combat missions and justifiably earns the title of "legend". If you've not seen it before, it's 4 mins well spent, and if you have, well worth a revisit.

[youtube]RRNbcPS3A9c[/youtube]

 

[Dan0741]

An absolutely beautiful aircraft, have loved them ever since I made one as my first airfix model when I was about 8! A good story also.

 

[RogerS]

Great story, Roger bscene-drinkingcheers: :text-bravo:

 

[Rod]

Brave man and incredible flying skills
Glad he was eventually rewarded.

I wonder if in modern planes, the canopies are now designed to allow safe ejection?

Rod

 

[RogerM]

Rod - I'm in awe of the flying skill required for one 20 ton battle damaged aircraft to push another 20 ton aircraft in this way when only 4 ft apart. This would have been done at the "best glide" speed which for the F4 was, I believe, around 240 knots (about 265 mph). And at the same time to have to deal with an engine fire. No thanks.

The canopy referred to in the video was the parachute canopy - not that of the aircraft. The pilots back injuries would have been compression fractures of his vertebrae caused by the violence of the ejection. In those days, ejection was via a cartridge exploding in a tube with the seat being attached to a piston. You were quite literally the bullet in the gun, and the sudden application of over 30g of acceleration was enough to cause compression fractures. Later seats used a smaller charge which was supplemented by a small rocket engine which burned for about a second. Doesn't sound much, but it was enough to give an even higher end velocity but with lower "g", thus making it less likely to cause back injury.

These were developed for use in the Harrier where during vertical landings, the pilot would be very vulnerable in the event of an engine failure. The new style rocket assisted seat would save the pilot even in the event of an engine failure in the hover. There was no time to mess about though. In the early 1970s I was lucky enough to have a series of trips in the back seat of a 2 seat Harrier operating out of a wood in Germany. I still remember the ejection brief from the boss, which was "If I say eject and you say "what?" you'll be talking to yourself. But I have "follow me" painted on the soles of my boots"! :lol:

 

[TrimTheKing]

Wow! Just wow! Always amazes me some of the things these guys can do, and the ones we'll probably never hear about...

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers
Mark

 

[RogerS]

.... In the early 1970s I was lucky enough to have a series of trips in the back seat of a 2 seat Harrier operating out of a wood in Germany. I still remember the ejection brief from the boss, which was "If I say eject and you say "what?" you'll be talking to yourself. But I have "follow me" painted on the soles of my boots"! :lol:

Jealous? Me? What makes you think that? Not at all. No way. Not in a million years. :eusa-liar: