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Old 10th December 2000 | 11:06
  #34 (permalink)  
quid
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Ah, yes. Arizona.

In 1961 I was flying USAF F-100s out of Luke AFB.

One day I was flying wing position on a formation takeoff, and just after rotation, there was a violent "bang", along with airframe shudder, and flame shot out the nose intake like an afterburner. Got it back on the ground, got a good chute and got it stopped right at the end of the runway. When they looked inside that afternoon, there was a lot of feathers and bird pieces. It was one of those big prarie hens, weighing 8-10 pounds. Shot 6 turbine buckets through the fuselage. We didn't have zero-zero seats in those days. A few seconds later I'd have been in a hell of a mess.

Also had a hit near the eyebrow window frame on a 727. Sounded like a brick hit us.

My share of others, too, some were not found until postflight/preflight.