Today's Trivia

[MikeJackmin]

"A Storch [a German observation plane] was the victim of the last dog fight on the Western Front and another was fittingly downed by a direct Allied counterpart of the Storch - a Piper L-4 Grasshopper-from the L-4's crew directing their pistol fire at it. The pilot and co-pilot of the L-4, Lts. Duane Francis and Bill Martin, opened fire on the Storch with their .45 caliber pistols, forcing the German air crew to land and surrender. The involved Storch was the only aircraft known to have been downed by handgun fire in the entire war."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieseler_Fi_156

 

[ReadyontheRight]

Good thing the USA wasn't using 9mm back then. That Storch could have just kept on flying.

Just kidding. Gotta feed the 9mm vs. .45 machine.

Great bit of trivia!

 

[Superlite27]

Lts. Duane Francis and Bill Martin, opened fire on the Storch with their .45 caliber pistols, forcing the German air crew to land and surrender. The involved Storch was the only aircraft known to have been downed by handgun fire in the entire war."

They must have taught a class on this after the war. I've seen hundreds of helicopters brought down on T.V. Simon and Simon, Hunter, Magnum P.I.........There were choppers going down right and left in the 1980's. I've seen this many times since as well.

All you have to do is shoot a hole in the sheet metal, then oil pours out and the chopper goes down. Easy.

 

[Tommygunn]

It would actually not be hard to bring a civilian helicopter down with a handgun assuming that you could hit the right place. They have light aluminum frames & skin; hitting the fuel tank would leak the fuel out, and hitting the engine cowling would kill the turboshaft engine.
Hitting any control linkage might be problematic but that would cripple the chopper as well.
The real issue would be the skill/luck in hitting the chopper in the first place, and that would depend upon circumstances & position.

 

[rcmodel]

Got to wonder why the Fieseler Storch pilot didn't just drop the flaps and park in place for awhile, and let the Piper L-4 speed on past him at 45 MPH?

It was said the Storch's leading edge slats and humongous flaps allowed it to land setting still, or actually flying backward slowly with a good headwind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fieseler_Fi_156_Storch.jpg

I built a scale R/C model of one once, and the slow-speed, STOL performance was phenomenal!

rc

 

[Duke of Doubt]

Allegedly, 2nd Lt. Owen J. Bagget shot down a Japanese Zero with a 1911A1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_J._Baggett

http://www.sightm1911.com/1911 Myth.htm

 

[High Planes Drifter]

Thats one heck of an example of marksmanship.