The Creepiest Plane to Ever Land in WW2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- On a frigid November morning in 1944, a B-17 bomber, its battered frame pockmarked with flak damage, emerged from the clouds over Belgium. To the astonishment of the Allied soldiers on the ground, this Flying Fortress, a symbol of American ingenuity and resilience, executed a perfect landing, its wheels gently kissing the runway. But as Major John V. Crisp and his team rushed to the scene, their hearts pounding, they braced themselves for the worst. The B-17 had earned its reputation as a nearly indestructible war machine, but the extent of the visible damage left little hope for the crew inside.
Crisp’s team circled the aircraft, noting the storied design that had made it a legend in the skies-a fortress in every sense, bristling with machine guns and capable of delivering devastating payloads while defying enemy fire. This bomber had been instrumental in crippling Nazi Germany’s war machine, dropping more than 640,000 tons of bombs during the relentless Allied campaign.
As they climbed aboard, an eerie silence greeted them. No wounded crew, no bodies-just a haunting emptiness. Parachutes lay neatly packed, and half-eaten chocolate bars were scattered about. The only clue was a cryptic note in the codebook reading "bad flak." The soldiers exchanged bewildered glances,
How had this battered bomber, built for war and meant to be manned by a crew of ten, managed to fly and land itself?
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This is not "inexplicable." The British Gunners who witnessed the crash landing of the empty B-17 reported that the parachutes were till on board when in fact what they had seem were the empty packs, the chutes having been used when the Pilot ordered the aircraft abandoned. The crew were all found safe and sound after they had bailed out.
The aircraft crash landed because the Pilot had set the autopilot and reduced throttles, so the aircraft would maintain level flight in a long slow dive.
Its a weird set of coincidences but really not a mystery.
You a Sabbath fan?
You are correct.....Well said
Hell yeah triple 6 all the way@davidjackson2690
Maybe an other worldly green orb chased the plane and then entered it and turned the crew into the undead?
@@mikehawkins6272 those damn foo fighters
These B-17 videos are a bit personal for me. My dad’s oldest brother was a fort pilot. Survived two tours with the 8th AF and 41 missions credited.
Godspeed unc
As Vietnam veteran please tell your dad,thank you, from me
My grandpa was the lead designer for the B 17 and my grandma and her 2nd cousin were the test pilots. I remember as a kid seeing old grandma put that bird through her paces in front of a big crowd that included Cary Grant , WC Fields and Albert Einstein.
Full respect to your uncle
@@John-k6f9kwhat an absolutely awesome story! Thanks for sharing it with us all.
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The fat electrician "old 666" vid is absolutely awesome and gives so much more depth
@jeast417 Mr fat cheeto he is awesome
This could be considered click bait.
My Great Uncle Ashley Bean was a B-17 Pilot, He was Shot down over Germany and was a POW. A few years before he past a flying B-17 came to our state and he got to fly one more time in a B-17.
The flying at air shows is not just a tribute to those that gave there life's for freedoms and the crews that survived but suffered, it's also an important link with the past.
Those that do not head the leasons of the past are fated to repeat the errors of the past.
Ultimately no one wins in war and only the weapons companies benefit.
Oh, I would argue that all the congressmen and senators that are heavily invested in defense stocks win.
The truth is,The bomber did land itself but a belly landing..the wheels were up,The chutes were used,The canvas bags that held them were left in the fuselage..no jackets were found except the light windbreaker type..nobody is going to take their heavy jackets off at altitude in cold weather November
Thank you. I was more than a little annoyed that we got half a story.
My first model at the age of 9 and now 63 years later I still love building the B-17.
Twelve O'Clock High is a fantastic film. Highly recommended.
They should have saved this plane as a museum piece!!
The US Forest service used B17s as fire bombers in Montana losing one Aug. 1967 to an engine fire on take off. (Huckleberry Mtn. Fire in Glacier National Park). I saw it flying into the Park on a run through Bad Rock Canyon and later took photos of it at the crash site. In ‘75 and ‘76 at West Yellowstone, MT I helped with smoke jumpers doing training where a B17 and a C 47 were used for a simulated fire attack training. I had a chance to go through the B17g, I was impressed by the fact that the usage wear on the plane was extraordinary, with wear patches around every toggle switch at the pilots position and fatigue cracks around the engines.
Indestructible is the name of the book about how one man was pivotal in changes to the planes and strategies of the Pacific theater.
One of the dumbest actions of the usaaf was in the beginning of "strategic bombing" was to armor the planes where the bullet holes were instead of where they weren't
I like your sense of humour.
Triple Six became the harbinger of death it was numbered to be. It just took a few men with a little devil in them to convert it
@@nicholasbell9017 ...think about it - if the plane survived the bullets that wasn't the critical area to protect. If the planes didn't back they probably got hit in the critical places - no one is going to see those holes, the plane didn't come back.
@@78tag wenn man jedes wort punktgenau für bare münze nimmt ohne mal vorher selbst den kopf einzuschalten.
du glaubst doch nicht ernsthaft das die wie dumme chimpansen einfach panzerung "auf" die einschusslöcher genietet haben oder?
dir ist schon bewusst das man vorher bewertet hat welcher schaden wo angerichtet hätte werden können?
A few weeks ago a B17 flew right over my house, at an altitude of about 2000ft, the sound it made was amazing, like an army of Harley Davidsons passing by
And you can still find the B-17's gear handle today in the cockpit of the lords Chariot the 737
The story of Old 666 was told in an episode of the History Channel show "Dogfights". It's the episode called "Long Odds" and can be watched on YT.
Back when Boeing meant top quality.
I flew on one of these a couple months after the door incident earlier this year. It had mechanical issues before takeoff, and after a lengthy test flight, was able to take off with passengers. I texted my friend "oh great, it's a Boeing too"
Never flown a fort but flown in one Sally B , we were bounced by a pair of spits on a simulated attack jeeeze it was amazing ,how the eff these men fought in these machines is quite frankly beggaring belief RIP all brave men who perished in these missions
B-17 is a most beautiful airplane, along with DC-3/ 10, P-51,P-38, P-40! Great feats of imagination and need for endurance
To all advertisers... I am NOT going to watch 2 adverts before watching a video. You are simply wasting money.
Thats crazy, it reminds me of the astounding stories episode that aired in the '80s!
It is the origin of the episode you speak of. Good memory,,cudos
❤❤❤❤❤ Thank you for telling this story
The title is a bit clicbaity. My late father was a proud young SeaBee on Midway and later Tinian. One of his buddies was the crew chief of the Enola Gay. My father took a lot of B&W 35mm images of the building processes. As a minor side interest he also shot aircraft. Of these there was an interesting image even for a dumb 10 year old. Memory fails me, but the bomber image was either a salvaged B-17 with a new nose from a salvaged B-24 spliced on or the other way around. Somehow I lost that small photo. At 77 I'm still kicking myself for losing a remarkable photo. In reality such salvage work was a daily chore. The air crews take all the risks, but the ground crews keep the beasties flying. I later worked on the J-47 engined airframes.
There was also once a B17 tail that flew and landed after the rest of the aircraft had been torn away by flak during the war.
It's crazy how many of today's fighters carry more weight than the B-17
No special feat. This is me most weekends. Head out on mission, get wrecked and wake in the morning to find my landing was automated and also pure fluke.
Well what do you know, I'm a B-17!
Sadly, we've lost a few and their aircrews that were in private hands due to accidents these last few years.
RIP to the crews of Texas Raiders and N6367, 11/12/2022, Wings Over Dallas
This would have been a good start for a Twilight Zone episode.
The checklist, as most know, is key to safety. It may have come from Aircraft after learning the hard way, but smart truck drivers heavy equipment operators and others use it every day. So did I when I was driving Comercial truck and running excavators. It's just good sense in a world that hasn't much common about sense these days.
Damn bro that AI thumbnail is wild
It's not ai, it's a real photo
@@truckrobo147 bro changed it. It was not that originally
Now do the tale of the Cornfield Bomber.
I hate that I sometimes have to turn on the captions to make out what you're saying.
Same thing happened with a P-38. No one knew how it landed itself.
But what about the other post-war mission for many B-17's including the movie "Memphis Belle" plane? Many were used as firebombers protecting the homefront once again but this time from wildfires.
What happened to the airframes 666 and the mystery bomber ? Were both parked because of damage, then scraped ?
Somehow, this incident failed to make the list of incidents for B-17s in Wikipedia . . . . yet another mystery!
Was the crew very Caucasian?😂
Can someone please tell me if I understood this correctly: The Phantom B17 had all it's parachutes still on board?
No, what was found were empty chute packs.
I believe a comment from Lancaster crews on first being shown a B17 was yeah, lovely 'plane, but where do the bombs go?
All the various heavies crews were true heroes. Unbelievable, screwing their courage to the sticking point, (to awfully misquote) time after time...
G’day Dark, That first yarn is a bit beneath you. Asking us to believe that any aircraft, autopilot or not, of that vintage, could automatically deploy its landing gear is damaging your reputation.
If you had taken the time to really research that particular incident you’d know that it was a ‘belly landing’; sure, it was a one in a million shot that it descended gradually, in level flight, as the weight of the fuel was used up and landed.
But you misrepresented it as if it was a normal landing at a prepared landing strip. You should have known that was nothing but ‘horse feathers’.
Most importantly, the crew were accounted for, having used their parachutes, leaving the chute covers to be found after the aircraft landed.
Oddly, you did this video about B-17s from an overly positive standpoint. Sure, they were amazing technology for their day, however, the USAAF’s decision to do daylight raids over occupied Europe and Germany cost extra thousands of American lives.
The RAF had originally attempted daylight raids and swiftly shelved them. They repeatedly advised the 8th Air Force not to do this but were ignored.
Eventually, after the B-17 losses were so high they had to be kept secret from the press and even from elements within the US military and Congress.
Raids were brought to a halt while desperate efforts were made to extend the range of USAAF escort fighters like the outstanding P-51 Mustangs which were originally created due to an order from the RAF.
Night raids were significantly more difficult with much reduced accuracy until ‘area’ or ‘carpet’ bombing was adopted by using Mosquitos as Pathfinder target markers.
I know it’s not easy to tell every part of a story in less than 20 minutes but you’ve been around long enough to know you don’t need to embellish or alter facts to attract views. You also don't need 'clickbait' thumbnail pics.
Cheers, Bill H.
My great uncle MIA 5-31-45, 94 BG 332 Squadron 😮
Crazy story,but true.
How it flew and landed is one thing. But what happened to the crew? And apparently without parachutes.
I did not watch this video to get a history of the B17. The title is misleading.Also, is the damaged B17 in question the one pictured ?
The Fat Electrician did a great video on Old 666.
What happened to the crew of the phantom. What did they say ???
Grampa Roy was B 17's ETO. Maybe a first EWO?
Why is the audio changed ? The previous was great, and better, correct, images.
There must have been a record of who the crew was. It should be possible to find some trace of what happened to them it is inconceivable that they would have jumped without parachutes so there must be some record of what happened to them.
It's also known as the flying coffin
That was the B24..My Uncle was a B24 mechanic then later worked for Pratt and Whitney...
Maybe an other worldly green orb chased the plane then entered and turned the crew into the undead?
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Great plane - it's true. But you won't sell me the 'ghost story', since there are no such things. Not even the auto pilot rings true; after all the plane landed on what looked like an airfield. AI in the 1940s? - I don't think so. The pilot must have landed the plane and sneaked out the 'back door' somehow. Let's examine every possibility before invoking woo. Nice history video as always Dark Skies.
Spooky.
Got to notice this time
Call Scully & Mulder.
Who lowered the landing gear? Autopilot was barely autopilot at that time.
The gear was down to slow down when the crew bailed (the parachutes were NOT still on board, just the empty packs), and the plane didn't make a "perfect landing", it broke apart.
He refers to "turbo-superchargers" at about 7 minutes in. What is a turbo-supercharger??
Cool video tho.
Hill Air Force Base is name for Ployer Hill the pilot killed in the crash of the B-17.
I thought the B-17s were powered by the P&W 1830?
*B-17 in real life:* [Able to take so much damage that it could even potentially survive gliding to a landing with no one at the controls]
*B-17 in War Thunder:* “Oh no, I took one shot to my fuselage from a machine gun round, now I’m going to tear myself apart :(
thanks for deleting my comment about a similar story about a different B-17. Undubbed 👍
So, what happened to the crew?
Yeah - seems like they could have finished that story
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This is when i'm boeing was ran by the engineers' safety first mindset, and the grammond aircraft AKA
grummond iron works
Your post is nonsense. None of it is understandable.
That can’t be true. How
Why isn't this plane as famous as Memphis Belle?
Maybe the crew were having a joke. As soon as it had landed they snuck off really quick to make it look like it had landed itself!!
I do believe in ghosts - who knows? 👻👻👻👻👀
Air Force regs are written in blood.
One plane that would be amazing to see a fully modernised reversion , perhaps with jet engines and all modern build materials and weapons 👌🏻
At least one had its radial engines replaced with turboprops!
@@robertdragoff6909And it crashed while working a forest fire. The turboprop engines improved its performance substantially. The crash was not due to the engines, but the conditions the crew found themselves in at the time of the crash. They were unable to complete an escape maneuver and crashed, killing all on board. Another B-17 had a huge turboprop engine installed in its nose for developmental testing. It had enough power to replace a 4 of the piston radial engines. There is a photo of it flying with all 4 of its wing engines shut down.
@@americanrambler4972
Didn’t know about the fortress with the turboprops crashing…..
But I did see a story about a fortress used to test a turboprop installed in its nose that was for testing the turboprops.
Great video but totally destroyed by the unnecessary back ground music.
I thought Dumbo was the C47
B 17F "Ye Olde Pub"?
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Not true the crew bailed out.
then why are you not using b17 these days?
Dirk Angel your analogy of the B-17 and the British
Lancaster is a bit a skewed! True the Lancaster had a higher payload but they were deployed at night because of the day time carnage it was exposed to.
Those Merlin engines cannot take battle damage
like those Pratt and Whitney radial engines. PROVIDE ME WITH SHOT UP PICTURES OF
LANCASTERS COMING HOME IN PIECES!
another video, of random loosely related clips with with his husky voice trying to add drama to another event that was easily explained
Landed itself? Landed by a skilled pilot?
Another inflation of the pathetic abilities of the B17 compared with the RAF's Avro Lancaster. The B17 usually carried a max bomb load of 6,000lbs, compared with the usual load of the Lancaster of 12,000lbs. The only real difference was that the USAAF hadn't been fighting as long as the RAF, and tolerated much higher casualty rates than the British.
But there were far more b17s to make up for less bombs and day raids were a little more effective but more dangerous
Build plastic kits and play with your willy. Heaven!
it was the U.S that made it possible for Britain to have the Lancaster and pretty much everything else Britain had for war learn your history
@@jakobczarnecki5131 That's true, yes.
@@warringwarthog Oh really? Roy Chadwick, the designer of the Avro Lancaster was American, was he...? And the Rolls Royce Merlin, four of which powered the aircraft, was an American engine...?
Get your facts straight before shooting your mouth off!
Boeing has fallen so low. But, they got DEI, so all is good.
Lol man this is a war time propaganda😂
bullshit