A strange pacific war tale

[Heeward]

I remember reading this about the mystery P40 from the Philippines lost over china, in the magazine Air Classics back in the mid-late 70's. It was a storywas bit more fleshed out though being a three to four page article.

[Skyros]

Sounds more like a story from the comic book "Weird War"

[kaleidoscope]

As best I can piece together,
the story first appeared in
print within a book  written
by this fellow, Col. Robert L. Scott.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Scott,_Jr.

He is otherwise famous
for writing the book "God is my Copilot".
and eventually retired as a brigadier
general.

I suppose this is why the story has legs,
coming from a famous person of some
standing....a genuine war hero ace with
the right stuff and all that razzmatazz.

Does not make the story true but
does explain why the tale has been hard
to permanently put to rest.

Maybe he was simply trying to sell more books

[JeffroK]

http://www.warbirdforum.com/phantom.htm

[dorjun driver]

As we Yanks found to our dismay, one doesn't require "landing" gear.  Simply having "take off" gear will suffice.  In a pinch.

[KenchiSulla]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

ORIGINAL: kaleidoscope

Elevated inclined ramp with a sea cliff Terminus? :)
That is one reason it is a strange story.

It's not strange, it's moronic. You can't launch an aircraft with a propeller in the front without landing gear.

Yes you can...

[mdiehl]

And after the flames had cooled, the wreck recovery team finally noticed the inscription, scrawled in blood, written on the canopy by the dying pilot's hand .... "See You Next Wednesday!"

[Nikademus]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Yesss, very clever. Pat yourself on the head and say good boy.[8|]

the gear could have been drawn like in that episode of what was it...."Amazing Tales" that featured a trapped ball gunner of a B-17 who saved his life by drawing cartoon landing gear on the B-17 that landed.

oh well. Don't see what the fuss is about. The Japanese regularily cobbled together enough parts to put a plane or two into the air for harrasement purposes long after Rabaul was totally cut off. The lack of landing gear is puzzling but i've heard stranger stuff. Maybe it's just a tale.

[sandman455]

Assuming the plane was salvaged from a previous wreck, its very likely it would have sustained major damage to the gear.

This means that any effort to get it airborne again would have depended on some kind of makeshift gear with most likely a skid system. It would have to be very short and stout to support the stress but it could be done with wood. After that all you would need is a hard packed beach or maybe a very shallow surf. The Philippines might have a few of those.

Our two hold outs, who were undoubtably already nuts, were very worried all the military activity would have IJ units finding them first. So they decide the time is now to follow some allied aircraft to a field. They make it airborne with bambo gear and they crash and burn on the landing. The fire burns the bambo and you end up with a cool but tragic story.

It's doable and I've retold crazier stories that I know are true.