Is every plane, from which a pilot with a parachute jumps out in flight, doomed to extinction? Or maybe such "ghost planes" can fly further, covering long distances or reaching their destination precisely? It turns out that sometimes ... yes.
The most famous plane that took off with a pilot, but later flew without him, flying over several countries, was the MiG-23 fighter, which on July 4, 1989 took off from the Russian base in Bagicz near Kołobrzeg. The pilot, Colonel Nikolai Skuridin, discovered shortly after take-off that the machine was losing speed and altitude as a result of a decrease in engine thrust. Turning on the afterburner did not help and the plane was clearly on its way to its end on the ground.
To minimize the losses, Skuridin sent the MiG to the sea and catapulted himself. When the emergency services found him, he was convinced that his fighter had long since fallen into the sea and drowned. Meanwhile, the MiG unexpectedly regained engine power and controllability - and even rose to a speed of 700 km / h headed west. It flew over the GDR, West Germany and the Netherlands until it finally reached Belgium.
On the way, it was intercepted by American fighters, but not shot down for fear that its remains would fall into a built-up area. In Belgium, however, the MiG fuel supply ran out and the fighter fell to the town of Kortrijk - a 19-year-old man died as a result of the crash. As it turned out, the plane flew without a pilot for over 69 minutes.
Another incident - luckily ended only with the loss of the aircraft - occurred this year:on July 31, the Russian Su-35S fell, the pilot of which ejected (as reported) due to the failure of the machine. It would not be surprising if it were not for the fact that this fighter was supposed to "fly alone" about 300 kilometers before it fell into the Sea of \ u200b \ u200bOkhotsk off the coast of Sakhalin.
Lublin landed without a pilot
But the strangest unmanned flights in history have ended ... happily - though it seems utterly impossible. The first of them took place in Poland in 1931. Its "hero" was the Lublin R-XIV plane, on which engineer Jerzy Rudlicki wanted to introduce changes to improve the handling of the aircraft.
Rudlicki was a very talented constructor - the author of the first retractable landing gear in Poland and the so-called butterfly tail , in which the horizontal and vertical fins were transformed into a layout resembling the letter V. During World War II, he refined a bomb launcher that allowed for bombing from high altitude, then used in the American Boeing B-17 bombers - Flying Fortresses.
Rudlicki (on the left) was a very talented designer - the author of the first retractable landing gear in Poland and the so-called butterfly tail
Now, however, in the small town of Lublin, he slightly changed the shape of the fuselage and lengthened the ailerons. At the Aviation Technical Research Institute, it was flown by Jerzy Kossowski, who lost control of the plane during one of the attempts:the steering rod pin was sheared off, which became unusable.
Kossowski jumped out, and Lublin ... gracefully flew to the ground and landed in the field by himself! Surprised Rudlicki, who previously, fearing bad luck, did not want to give the plane the number XIII he was entitled to, now dismissed his fears and renamed the lucky machine to RXIII. Lublin, enjoying very good flight characteristics and landing characteristics, entered mass production and was equipped with Polish liaison and observation squadrons.
Landing two planes simultaneously
The second amazing flight took place in Australia near Brocklesby:here two planes landed at once, of which only one had a pilot on board:as it turned out, both twin-engine Ansons previously collided with each other in the air ...
The incident, or literally - a collision - took place on September 29, 1940, during the flight of two Avro Anson training planes from 2 Service Flying Training School. Navigators Ian Mencies Sinclair and Hugh Gavin Fraser, both 27-year-olds, trained on their decks. Their pilots were much younger - Leonard Graham Fuller was 22 and Jack Inglis Hewson was just 19.
During the turn, Fuller's plane flying a little higher collided with Hewson's machine, crashing into it from above . At this point, the first Anson's engines stopped working, and both navigators and the wounded Hewson jumped out with parachutes. Fuller found, however, that the connected machines stay in the air, and moreover, he can steer his plane, and the engines of the lower, pilotless machine are still working.
The second amazing flight took place in Australia near Brocklesby:here two planes landed at once, of which only one had a pilot on board
In this situation, Fuller decided to… land two planes at the same time! He tracked a long lane of livestock near a farm in the Brocklesby neighborhood. He managed to approach the landing against the wind. He lowered his flight and landed without extending the landing gear of the lower plane.
Both Ansons, now forming an unusual two-story structure, glided on the grass for about 200 meters before stopping. Both - after renovation - returned to service :the upper one as a flying copy, the lower one as a technical support. All crew members survived, although the fate was ultimately not kind to the heroic pilot:Fuller was killed on March 18, 1944, when he collided with a bus while riding a bicycle.
Mistel system - one pilot in two planes
It is also worth mentioning the flights of unmanned airplanes, initially conducted by a pilot, but at a later stage of the flight flying without him and remotely controlled. These included Mistels, or Mistels (also known unofficially:"piggyback") - one of the secret weapons of the Third Reich.
The secret of their construction was based on the use of two planes:a lower bomber without a crew (but with an explosive charge) and an upper fighter, placed above it on a special scaffold, and guided by a pilot who was approaching the attack area, detached from the carrier and further along the road radio directed it to hit the target. In this way, the Germans attacked ships, ships and important bridges, mainly on the Oder and Neisse. The Mistels, however, did not achieve spectacular success, although a total of about 250 teams in different versions were built.