Back in the day I missed the first part of an Alaska patrol because my unit sent me to a law enforcement school. After the school I flew commercial to Kodiak and caught a very long and very unpleasant ride to Dutch Harbor in a side facing jumpseat on a C-130, 6 months later that C-130 experienced a catastrophic engine failure and the propeller came apart and tore a 9’ hole in the fuselage, the seat that I rode to Dutch Harbor was part of the 9’ hole and now sits on the bottom of the Bering Sea. When the engine came apart and tore a giant hole in the fuselage they were 6 hours from the nearest airfield and flew back and made a perfect landing.
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There was a story about a B-17 flying combat missions over Europe that got it's entire tail section blown off by 88mm flak and the crew coolly flew it back to base and landed the bird. These machines are the essence of the very American spirit. I don't think anything else in the world that flies is capable of feats like that.
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