Mystery pilot

Maureen Dig Aire · 20 March 2014, 10:19 AM

Can anyone help me out with this? I read somewhere (I have no idea where I read this--whether in a book or online somewhere) about a pilot who, as the legend goes, was supposedly killed in air in a battle. His plane is said to have made a perfect landing right in a cemetery---which is where they buried him. Yeah, I know this is just a story. But does anyone have any details of its origin, who the pilot might've been, etc.?

Volker_Nemsch · 21 March 2014, 02:28 PM

Hello!

I think it is just a story. I think that even a perfect landing in a cemetery would result in a total loss of the aircraft /damages caused by crosses and other monuments. You should also take into consideration the inevitable collapse of the landing gear / turn over of the aircraft in the gaps between the grave-mounds.

I heard a story about an Allied aircraft (a British B.E.2?) that was attacked by several scouts. It later landed (due to the stable flying characteristics of the aircraft) with an empty fuel tank on a field. The dead crew was riddled by bullets.

This story also sounds strange and I never heard any "real fact" about such an incident.

.

PFFF · 21 March 2014, 02:46 PM

I think a report of a aircraft with a dead crew was in Floyd Gibbons "The Red Knight of Germany"

see link
http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/pe...ghes-link.html

Also links of INterest:

Kirk R. Lowry · 22 March 2014, 12:11 PM

Bonjour mes amis!

Well, the famous story of Sandy and Hughes, though perhaps not so poetic as the tale of a dead pilot landing in a cemetery, is well documented.
James L. Sandy and Henry F. Hughes, while flying a ranging patrol, in RE8 A3816 of 3 Squadron AFC, on the 17th of December, 1917 were attacked by aircraft of Jasta 29. One of those, Albatros D.Va D5390/17 flown by Rudolf Clauss, who was wounded, was forced to land and both pilot and aircraft were captured. The RE8 flew on following the combat and, eventually, made a dead stick landing with both Sandy and Hughes already dead having been killed by a single bullet.
I can provide further information if you are interested, but I would recommend reading Albatros D.V/D.Va At War, Windsock Datafile 152, by Forum member Colin Owers for a detailed account of the remarkable occurrence.

Salut!
Kirk

sator · 22 March 2014, 08:28 PM

I,ve never heard that story before but who knows stranger things have happened in that war.

Maureen Dig Aire · 24 March 2014, 10:38 PM

Thanks for the input, so far.

Y'know what??? Let's relate other such stories that we know about. It's possible that the tale I asked about is something of a composite of several different myths/legends.

Tell about the tales you've heard or read about mysteries and myths and legends of The Great War Aviation.