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View all comments The F-15 is the only plane to have safely landed, not a controlled crash but actually returned to a runway and landed, after losing a wing.
Edit to add link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Negev_mid-air_collision
9 points
14 points
“the F-15 landed at twice the normal speed to maintain the necessary lift, and its tailhook was torn off completely during the landing.”
20 points
I like this part even better:
He added, “Only when McDonnell Douglas later went to analyze it, they said, OK, the F-15 has a very wide [lifting] body; you fly fast enough and you’re like a rocket. You don’t need wings.”
4 points
But the pilots quote was best of all
“it’s highly likely that if I had seen it clearly I would have ejected, because it was obvious you couldn’t really fly an airplane like that.”