Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "Friendly Fire: Three Planes That Shot Themselves Down" video.

Like it. I knew maths was dangerous
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That moment you wish you'd packed a change in underwear.
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The expensive way to shoot yourself in the foot. And the wing. And the engine. Et cetera
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@TonyRule Just tried scraping a fly of my screen. 😊
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The more complext it is the more there is to go wrong.
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I have read of an incident in which French aircraft shot itself down just as the F-11 did. And an American pilot who was shot down by his own missile doing the same as the F-11. And there is film footage of a B-25 in WW2 dropping a bouncing bomb but the aircraft was much to low and the bomb came back up destroying the tail which crashed killing the crew. I did read of a British RAF aircraft skip bombing a German ship which had almost the same result. Skip bombing is flying in low and dropping the bomb so it skipped into the side of a ship, much like skipping a stone across a pond. The problem is that it was not unusual for the bomb to bounce higher then the aircraft was flying sometime hitting the aircraft. In this case the tail gunner had a birdseye view of the bomb as it just missed hitting his position as it went passed. And again as it came back down. He immediately warned the pilot who changes course in case it was third time unlucky. It may have been the excitement of the moment but the tailgunner said that it passed him by inches.
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@williamdixon8283 He was part of a mission to use old bombers filled with explosives to attack targets in Northern Europe. He was one of a two man crew and flew the aircraft. They had just set up the aircraft for the attack and were about to bailout when it exploded in midair killing both of them. The project was not a success and was overtaken by events.
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@chuckaddison5134 The original skip bombing used standard bombs which were released in a similar way to torpedo. They were then skipped into the side of the ship where they would explode after penetrating the side of the hull. It was usually used against transport ships as the hull was easier to penetrate. Rockets proved a much better weapon and an eight rocket salvo of them was the equivalent of a broadside from a cruiser. As well as the Dam Buster bombs Barnes Wallis developed a smaller version for use with the Mosquito aircraft. Wallis not only designed the bomb but also the aiming mechanism to use it. As well as ships at sea it could have been used against ships in harbour being protected by torpedo netting, such as the Tirpitz. One of the advantages of such a bomb was it exploded below water so, as with the Dam Buster bombs, it could use the pressure of the water to magnify the explosive effect. Possibly breaking the keel. Wallis moved to America after the war and was involved with the 'Swing Wing' of the F-111.
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