Crazy- Jet lands itself without autopilot

[m21sniper]

Old F-106. True story with lots of pix.

"F-106A 58-0787 of the 71st FIS landed without a pilot in a field in Montana on 2 Feb 1970 after pilot Captain Gary Faust ejected."

F-106 "CornField Bomber" - ADVrider

[Sapporo Guy]

Area51 ?

[m21sniper]

Nah, just a crazy story about a plane landing itself in a field after the pilot ejected. That's probably weirder than a story about a UFO.

[widgeon13]

Twilight Zone..............

Does anyone remember that episode? Still gives me the creeps.

[Sapporo Guy]

Really an amazing story, considering that they kept the plane in service.

Wonder how much of a burn was going still when the local police showed up. I take it that you just can reach in and turn off the ignition

Just thinking that when the pilot ejected somehow, maybe, the plane righted itself ... definitely eerie stuff.

Sorry about earlier, I was in a rush.

[Sapporo Guy]

Which episode?
The one were the aliens come back to wipe us out because we got all peaceful like?
Or the one about adam and eve?

those changed my view of the all mighty a bit ...

[Leland Pate]

I can't imagine how much crap he received from his fellow airmen after that incident...

[Seahawk]

Except for the fact that the jet landed by itself, it is not that uncommon, especially at altitude in an out of controlled flight condition, for the ejection sequence to be exactly what the aircraft needs to regain balanced flight.

A few reasons: Pilots often misinterpret the unusual attitude, OOC'd flight and apply the wrong flight control inputs and exacerbate the OOC. The best thing that can happen is get rid of the pilot!

Also, the forces on the airplane in an ejection sequence, and the affect on weight and balance, flight controls can also be just the tonic the aircraft needs to regain balanced flight.

I am familiar with two incidents in the Navy, an S-3 and an F-18B.

[kach22i]

I'd hate to be the guy riding out a flat spin only to have it not level out in time for a safe ejection or landing.

This is the first time I've read of such a thing, good post.

[HardDrive]

Great story, thanks for sharing.

[Dixie]

It's worth noting that the "autopilot" (The Hughes MA-1 Fire Control System - a roughly 2,500 lbs vacuum tube computer) was so capable that the pilot was practically redundant. The system was capable of scrambling, targeting, intercepting, and returning the aircraft to it's home base. It's also the first jet allowing pilots to eject at supersonic speeds, as well as sitting still on the tarmac.

[audiman08]

That's pretty amazing for the technology of the day...The Soviets designed a computer to land the Yak-38 on an aircraft carrier without pilot input...of course I probably wouldn't want to trust my life to Soviet electronics.

[KarlCarrera]

Yea, I bet he did catch a load of sheeet. Cool read though. Thanks!

Karl
88 Targa

[onewhippedpuppy]

Very cool. Think they changed the pilot's call-sign after that? Maybe "Autopilot"?

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Very cool. Think they changed the pilot's call-sign after that? Maybe "Autopilot"?

LOL! Fun story...thanks for sharing it.

[aj748]

Had the opportunity to work on 58-0787 for a number of years while it was part of the 49th FIS at Griffiss AFB, Rome, NY. I remember that anytime it had a unique avionics maintenance issue, it was attributed to the "cornfield" landing and subsequent rebuild. A number of "sixes" were lost due to inability to recover from flat spins.

According to the below website, 787 was retired to static display duty at USAF Museum at Wright Patterson AFB. After their interceptor role was taken over by the TAC, a number of 106's were modified as drones and used as targets and as weather research aircraft.

Here's a web link to a great website about the F106: F-106 Delta Dart The Ultimate Interceptor