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This topic is offered for NewMars members who might like to contribute to a collection of posts about historical incidents that were significant in shaping design or procedures relating to air flight and later to space flight.
Post #3 will open with a transcript with Gemini about two famous incidents.
The first is the accidental discovery that deployment of landing legs in a P47 would overcome certain death due to poor design of an aircraft.
The second is the "accidental" discovery that a corned beef sandwich is not suitable for a meal in an orbiting space craft.
This topic is available for NewMars members who might remember similar significant historical incidents.
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This post is reserved for an index to what I hope will become a collection of history about aviation and spaceflight.
Index:
Post #3: P47 wheels down drag and Gemini corned beef sandwich.
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This post contains a transcript of a conversation with Gemini about the P47 and the Gemini corned beef sandwich.
Aviation History Question - Hello Again! And ** thank ** you for your help with numerous previous requests. This one is about a pair of historical incidents. I'd like to open with an incident that is reported from World War II. The P47 was new at the time, and apparently it had a design flaw such that if the plane flew over 500 miles per hour the flight controls did not work. A pilot whose name might have started with "bo" accidentally deployed landing gear and saved his flight. Are there any records related to that incident? What happened to the pilot afterward?
***
That is a fascinating bit of aviation lore! You’ve got the core details of the story right, though the "design flaw" is a phenomenon that baffled many early WWII pilots.The pilot you are thinking of is Robert "Bob" Johnson (often known as Robert S. Johnson), one of the leading American aces in the European Theater.
The Incident: The "Compressibility" Dive
The "design flaw" you mentioned was actually compressibility. As the P-47 Thunderbolt (a very heavy aircraft) entered a steep dive, it could easily approach the speed of sound. At speeds near 500–550 mph, shockwaves would form over the wings and tail, causing the flight controls to "lock up" or become unresponsive. Pilots felt like they were pulling on a concrete wall.
In one of his early high-speed dives, Johnson found himself screaming toward the ground with a frozen stick. In a moment of desperate experimentation (or accidental movement, depending on the account), he lowered the landing gear.
The Result: The landing gear on a P-47 was massive. Deploying them at those speeds created a tremendous amount of parasitic drag. This acted like a giant set of speed brakes, slowing the plane down just enough to get it out of the "compressibility" zone.
The Recovery: Once the speed dropped, the air smoothed out over the tail, the controls "thawed," and Johnson was able to pull the "Jug" out of the dive before hitting the deck.
What Happened to Robert S. Johnson?
He didn't just survive; he became a legend. He was one of the first pilots to prove that the P-47 was nearly indestructible.The "Indestructible" Mission: Shortly after his dive incidents, he was involved in another famous story where his P-47 was ambushed by a German ace (Egon Mayer). Johnson's plane was shot to pieces—his hydraulic fluid leaked, his canopy jammed shut, and he was hit by hundreds of bullets and several 20mm cannon shells. The German pilot eventually flew up alongside him, shook his head in disbelief that the plane was still flying, saluted, and flew away. Johnson landed the plane safely.
+1Score: He ended the war with 27 confirmed aerial victories, making him one of the highest-scoring aces in the U.S. Army Air Forces.
After the War: He survived the conflict and became an executive at Republic Aviation (the company that built the P-47), where he helped improve future aircraft designs. He lived a long life, passing away in 1998.
A Quick Tech Note
The P-47's landing gear was actually designed to telescope. Because the propeller was so large, the gear had to be very long to provide ground clearance. To make them fit into the wings when retracted, they actually shrank by about 9 inches as they moved up!
+1It’s a bit ironic—the same heavy design that made it dive like a "bolt out of the blue" (and get stuck there) was what made it tough enough to survive the recovery.
Since you mentioned this was part of a "pair" of incidents, what is the second historical event you're looking into?
***
Thank you for the greater detail on the incident with Lieutenant Johnson! I am delighted to learn that he survived and went on to become an executive at Republic Aviation. I will publish your account in a small International forum where several members are pilots. The second question is about the infamous corned beef sandwich that was brought aboard an Apollo capsule by one of the astronauts. This led to restrictions on crumbs in food. My question is: What happened to the astronaut?
***
That second incident is a classic piece of space history! While the P-47 story shows how high-stakes "improvisation" can be in flight, the "Corned Beef Incident" is the ultimate example of how a simple joke can lead to a Congressional hearing.The astronaut who smuggled the sandwich was John Young. He was the Pilot of Gemini 3 (not Apollo, though he would later command Apollo missions) alongside Commander Gus Grissom in 1965.
+1The Incident: "Sandwich-gate"
During the flight, Young pulled a two-day-old corned beef sandwich (purchased from Wolfie’s Deli in Cocoa Beach by fellow astronaut Wally Schirra) out of his spacesuit pocket. He offered it to Grissom, who took a bite but quickly realized the danger: rye bread crumbles.
+1In microgravity, those crumbs became floating projectiles that could have drifted into electrical panels or been inhaled. Grissom tucked the sandwich away after just a few seconds, but the damage was done—the "contraband" had been caught on the mission's voice recorder.
What happened to John Young?
Despite the "official reprimand" and the ire of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations (who were furious that he had "ignored" the expensive experimental space food), Young's career didn't just survive—it flourished.The Ultimate Resume: John Young went on to have perhaps the most storied career in NASA history. He is the only person to have piloted and commanded four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.
+1Walking on the Moon: He commanded Apollo 16 in 1972, becoming the ninth person to walk on the lunar surface. (While there, he famously complained about "citrus fruit" causing him "the orange juice farts," proving he never lost his unfiltered personality).
The First Shuttle Commander: In a show of ultimate trust, NASA chose him to command STS-1 in 1981—the very first flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
The "Astronaut's Astronaut": He eventually became the Chief of the Astronaut Office and remained with NASA for 42 years until his retirement in 2004.
A Final Wry Twist
In a bit of poetic justice, when John Young commanded that first Space Shuttle mission in 1981, corned beef was officially included on the menu. NASA had finally figured out how to package it safely (minus the crumbly rye bread), effectively ending the "ban" he had triggered 16 years earlier.The original sandwich (or rather, a resin-preserved replica) is currently on display at the Gus Grissom Memorial Museum in Mitchell, Indiana.
Since you're sharing these with your pilot forum, they might appreciate the irony: the man who was officially scolded by Congress for a sandwich ended up being the person NASA trusted to test-fly their most complex spacecraft ever built!
***
Thank you for ** both ** these important historical events. Your presentation will surely enlighten and entertain our members who are lucky enough to find it. While I'm away, best wishes for equal success as you try to help everyone else.
***
It has been an absolute pleasure helping you gather these stories! There is a wonderful symmetry between Bob Johnson using his landing gear to survive a terminal dive and John Young sneaking a sandwich that launched a thousand safety protocols—both were "test pilots" in the truest, most unpredictable sense of the word.I’m sure the members of your forum will have a great time debating the aerodynamics of P-47 landing gear and the high-stakes ballistics of rye bread crumbs.
Thank you for the kind words and the well-wishes. I'll be here whenever you're ready for the next deep dive into history, engineering, or anything in between. Safe travels!
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