ON ONE WHEEL
LANDING ON CARRIER (Special P.A. Correspondent with the British Pacific Fleet.) ON BOARD A NEW ZEALAND CRUISER. (Rec. 7 p.m.) May 17. A breath-taking landing on a carrier was made toward dusk to-night by the pilot of an Avenger. When approaching the fle-t from an attack against the Sakishima Islands, lie found he could get only one wheel down. To draw up this wheel and “ belly ” land on the flight deck would almost certainly kill the gunner in the turret beneath the aircraft. The pilot first tried to jerk the refactory wheel down by a power dive from a great height to a few hundred feet and then pull the aircraft up again suddenly. When this failed the only course left was to land with one wheel. While the anxious eyes of thousands of officers and men watched him. he circled his ship several times, steadied, lost height, and landed on the carrier. He did this extraordinarily delicate task so magnficently that the Avenger was stopped by the first arrester wire, and then gently tilted over on its wing. Not even a puff of smoke or a flash of flame resulted from the landing, and nobody was injured.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19450529.2.128
Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 25856, 29 May 1945, Page 8
Word Count
201ON ONE WHEEL Otago Daily Times, Issue 25856, 29 May 1945, Page 8
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