MovieChat Forums > Operation Crossbow (1965) Discussion > They let those pilots die

They let those pilots die

posted 11 years ago by kimmylita
6 replies | jump to latest

Testing that plane? No one thought of a way to eject before crash. I wonder when/where the ability to parachute out of a crashing plane came about. Anyone?

[–] craighenderson-925-318178 11 years ago

Well, on one level, they were expendable. They were trying to end the war before the Normandy invasion, according to the script. Asking why they didn't save their pilots' lives is like asking why did they send so many soldiers to their deaths at the Russian front? (Not to mention the civilians killed in the camps)

However, in point of fact, they did order the female pilot to eject, and she refused in order to find out why the plane was malfunctioning.

[–] whiskeyTango-06 10 years ago

in WWII there was no such thing as an ejection seat. she was told to "bail out" which is quite impossible at jet/rocket aircraft speeds.

yet many V-1's were shot-down by subsonic aircraft, so the V-1 was subsonic and "bailing out" -- not "ejecting" -- is fully acceptable.

then again: the real person this character was based-on was dropped from an aircraft at altitude, as all piloted V-1 flights were... and she was studying why other pilots could not land the thing properly.

all rockets are jets, but not all jets are rockets. and all scotches are whisky's, but not all whiskey's are scotches.

[–] david_colbourne 10 years ago

The Germans did actually introduce an ejector seat during the Second World War. It was fitted to the Heinkel 219 nightfighter, although I have read that it didn't always work too well and occasionally left without the pilot's arms!

It's also not entirely unknown for test pilots to be killed flying new types; hey, that's how they find out what the aircraft won't do.

[–] fnj-07126 7 years ago

The V-1, and its manned variant the Fieseler Fi 103R, was not fast. It was no faster than a good propeller driven fighter, and slower than many. Now it is true that bailing out would have been exceedingly difficult, but that is because the cockpit was incredibly cramped, and situated directly in front of the jet intake.

It was estimated that the pilot might have had a 1% chance of a successful bailout.

The Me-262 jet fighter was much faster than the V-1 (160 mph faster), yet it was entirely feasible to bail out.

[–] TongueFu 8 years ago

Those were flying bombs, not planes.

[–] liscarkat (16476) 2 years ago

There were no ejection seats at that time. The movie shows the pilots of the V-1 with parachutes, and they were told to bail out if necessary.