Apr 21 2008Nothing Good: What Happens When You Fly An F-111 Fighter Into A Pelican At 340 MPH
This F-111 hit a pelican in New South Wales, Australia while doing over 340 MPH. As you can see, it's not looking so hot. "The plane was flying at around 3,000 feet during a test bombing raid when a pelican collided with the fiberglass nosecone and was then sucked into one of the engines." Even with a hole in a wing and an engine failure, the pilots were still able to safely land the aircraft. No word on how the pelican is doing, but if I had to guess I'd say seriously fucking not good.*
*Dead
F-111 Fighers And Pelicans Don't Mix [ohgizmo]
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Reader Comments
1. Frosty - April 21, 2008 6:34 PM
hoh-lee-shyteeeeee.
that's crazy damage man. and you thought experiments to fly chickens into the wind screens of planes were enough.
new form of biological warfare. hmm.
2. gonna be sick - April 21, 2008 6:41 PM
what the hell's a pelican doing at 3,000 ft up?!
I didn't even know they could fly that high.
Maybe Santa Claus can look into replacing the reindeer
if the economy keeps going down.
bleh, pureé of peilcan, it's what's for dinner.
xo
M
3. Daniel - April 21, 2008 8:18 PM
Is the Pelican ok?
4. SlowMonkey - April 21, 2008 8:34 PM
@3 the pelican is d-e-d.
5. Branwellington - April 21, 2008 8:46 PM
340 mph is fast, but not that fast. P-51s in WWII flew over 400 mph. And that was like a hundred years ago I'm pretty sure. Still, I guess that's kind of beside the point when you look at the damage to that nosecone.
6. Mike Brown - April 21, 2008 9:34 PM
Is that what F-111's are made of? Spaghetti?
7. .Ben - April 21, 2008 9:50 PM
And the red is bolognaise right?... RIGHT?!?!
8. Veralynn - April 22, 2008 2:37 AM
Amazed that one bird can do so much damage. Better than a bullet. Maybe the army should get in on this?
By dead though, he did mean okay, right? Right??'
Also 340 seemed fast until I was thinking about the 800mph land speed record mentioned earlier. We really need to get into raising speed limits/ improving roads/vehicles for faster transport. Or efficient railroads. Fucking Europe being so far ahead of us.
Okay. I apologize.
/rant.
9. Samuel - April 22, 2008 2:42 AM
Our bomber fleet is soooo old....
10. Veralynn - April 22, 2008 2:54 AM
Testing.
11. sachmaster - April 22, 2008 6:12 AM
but Australias got the best pilots, just not the best fighterplanes.
12. yam - April 22, 2008 8:42 AM
i wonder if they had barbecue for lunch....?
13. Tec_ - April 22, 2008 10:02 AM
it will go faster than 340 mph, but think about it fiberglass is strong, but a 30lb bird hitting it at 340 mph will do a lot of damage to any thing.
what i think is truly amazing and a testament to these pilots skill is the fact that they landed the plain after all that damage.
14. wooo - April 22, 2008 11:37 AM
Australia is the only air force to still use the f-111. top speed is something like mach 2.5
15. oooow - April 22, 2008 11:39 AM
veralynn - checked your myspace page. you lookin' good girl, but i'm afraid - you're hiding your face! uh-oh.
16. SmokingGirl - April 22, 2008 11:52 AM
St. Augustin stated (I believe it was him, but anyway) "The best weapons are the birds of the air and the beasts of the ground."
Apparently you guys haven't seen the damage that a pigeon can do to a fighter, let alone a giant pelican. That's why all runways are to be free of birds, and I know that some Air Force bases use specially trained hawks to guard the flightline of sparrows, pigeons, bluejays ect. ect.
Birds are some of the worst enemies to planes, and this is what you get. It's amazing really, if one thinks about it.
17. Veralynn - April 22, 2008 3:44 PM
ooooow- the whole point of teh internets is anonymity right?? lol. maybe when we become bff you can see all of me.
18. David - April 22, 2008 4:36 PM
It wasn't New South Wales, it was Brisbane and they flew it over populated areas to land back safely. Australia has the best pilots and will soon have some of the best aircraft (I hope).
19. Super Duper! - April 22, 2008 10:53 PM
No, Australia won't soon have some of the best in the world. We'll soon have some questionable planes that are a safety measure for not getting the real planes on time. Check out this link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/opinion/items/200703/s1864837.htm
I LOVE the Australian government. They do us proud.