11
Nov
Posted by keithly » 1 Comment »

Veteran’s Day

The “most decorated U.S. Marine Corps aviator in history,” Col. Kenneth L. Reusser, passed away back in June.

In 1945, while based in Okinawa, he stripped down his F4U-4 Corsair fighter and intercepted a Japanese observation plane at an altitude much higher than usual. When his guns froze, he flew his fighter into the observation plane, hacking off its tail with his propeller.

Just one of his 253 combat missions. – from OregonLive.com

There's 1 Comment So Far

  • Erik
    November 15th, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    Definitely a courageous man. During those days, pilots had a lot more freedom to customize their planes and execute risky maneuvers. Ace pilots sometimes visited aircraft manufacturers to give design input, and safety was based around the level of risk that pilots were comfortable with. These days, both plane and pilot are far too valuable to allow these sorts of encounters.

    And regarding your tagline: We have a saying in the aerospace department. “Given enough thrust, anything can fly.”

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