DadOnTheInternet
16766
1082
26
Jun 5, 2023 9:28 PM
DadOnTheInternet
16766
1082
26
ElBivo
They had Harrier prototypes in the 60s? Wow. Had no idea the concept was around that long before The Simpsons. "One of our more dollar intensive ordinance delivery vectors"
phuzz00
They started development in 1957, and were test flying by 1960, but it took until 66-67 before the first Harriers were delivered. They got a bit distracted trying to make a supersonic version.
[deleted]
[deleted]
RPCharImages
"You salute the rank, not the man!"
5knotcans
Rekt.
icantheicanoclast
A nazi died on my birthday? Awesome
TypingErrror
When you compare German humour to English humour or even to French humour, you soon realise that it's not very funny. On the other hand we should all admit that it is much better organised.
b1candy2
Iran has exactly one comedian. That's three more than Germany.
TsubakiTragic
Anime series "Strike Witches" had characters named after famous war time pilots... One character was called Gerhard Barkhorn. Btw, all the characters were young females.
jamesCosmosBaron
He went with his love…..
TheyDontKnowAndYouCantTellEm
During one mission on 13 October 1963, he crash-landed a Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA.1, XS689, No. 9, at RAF West Raynham, when he apparently cut thrust one meter above ground, wiping out the undercarriage.
TheyDontKnowAndYouCantTellEm
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/hawker-siddeley-xv-6a-kestrel-fga-mk-1/nasm_A19740943000
TheyDontKnowAndYouCantTellEm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Barkhorn
nosnowyno
*304
SlightlyRelatedToThePost
He's counting vehicle kills, not pilots/personnel. The car is number 303, his wife and himself don't add to the tally.
nosnowyno
Oh that makes sense!
CrisprCAS
German humor is no laughing matter.
aThingWithTheStufAndTheJunk
aThingWithTheStufAndTheJunk
flaskfullofcoffee
R100GSPD
Perfect comment
TakuanSoho
"- jaaaa, jaaaaa..."
v
Thorketil
There's Angela Merkel in the back on the right
darthOnion
Unless they say, “Oh - we have ways of making you talk”
wizard07ksu9000
"Ve haf vays oof making you taulk." -FTFY 😁
Revyloution
Do you know how many Germans it takes to screw in a lightbulb? One, because they are efficient, not funny
Tigersterne
They like spontaneous fun at regular intervals
allan82w
Perkunas687
Of course Germans laugh. When all the work is done.
maobezw
My granpa downed over 30 messerschmidts before they got him. he was hell of a bad mechanic...
PhloydPhan
This is really misleading. You hardly needed to be an ace to crash a Harrier.
xj4low
Damn things carry 150 gal of water to help cool the engine while it hovers. That lasts for 90 sec then it will overheat.
kojenk
Water cooling? What a lame rig. Should have installed *insert overhyped pc cooling rig here*
positiveleroy
The Harrier was an incredible breakthrough in flight automation. It basically crashed itself.
andwings2go
Fuck an A. I bet I could crash it way faster.
jmw89
TIL it’s ‘fuck an A’ and not ‘fucking ey!’
Bacxaber
...No, it's "fuckin' A."
MotherfuckingJesseEisenburg
What? No! It's "Fuckin' A!"
scuba7jb
I've been told hovering it was like balancing a bowlingball on a pencil, while riding on a unicycle.
Tarmaccian
There’s a reason the F-35B STOVL (hovering and more) is completely computer-controlled.
kadaeux
Because development took so long the avionics team had nothing better to do ;)
kanemano
I met an Australian Harrier pilot once he said he had just gotten the hang of it a month before they were decommissioned,
zenoshogun
The RAAF never operated Harriers though, or was this an Aussie in the RAF?
kanemano
We were 2 guy shooting the shit in a bar in Honolulu I did not ask him for his resume but he was in town for Rimpac so I took him at his word
DawnofAzazel
Nearly did though the British government accepted an Australian government offer to buy HMS Invincible in 1981 but then the Falklands war happened and the British withdrew and in 1983 the Australians cancelled plans for a carrier but it wouldn't surprise me if they were training RAAF pilots in the meantime so that the carrier would be operational immediately.
lordblackfang
Funny how all the top nazis ended up with high positions in NATO
ROFLtheWAFL
It turns out when the Nazi Party has absolute control of the German government, most of the people qualified to run a country after the war were Nazis.
crateo
Well, he was merely a major who never joined the nazi party, but well...
lordblackfang
He's merely wearing a swastika in the photo, but oh well. As they say in my parts, "a crow won't peck another crow's eyes"
crateo
Yeah, like every single other german soldier and citizen. Look, a Jew ID card displaying a swastika. I guess she must have been a nazi too xD. Do you really believe that anyone had a saying about it? This guy was not a part of the Waffen-SS, but the Luftwaffen. Don't get me wrong, there were nazis on all branches, but not this specific fellow.
salunatics
Why is a German pilot flying British proto-types? Is this like the German rocket scientists and their magical appearance in the US?
RPCharImages
Kind of. He remained as part of West Germany's military. The need to train West Germany in NATO equipment in the 60s being an obvious need, since, ya know, USSR. His Ace status would make him an obvious choice to test fly and see what its like
iamthemanwithnoname
Not quite, he was part of a NATO type test not specifically working for the British or living in Britain. Post- WW2 he was still a West German pilot when the air force was rebuilt.
salunatics
jjw9
He was a prisoner (captured by the British after being downed) when WWII ended. Ca. 1955, when Germany entered NATO & was permitted to rebuild its military, he was offered a squadron leadership role & accepted. In 1964, as Colonel, Squadron Commander & leader of a West German T&E contingent to a joint initiative between the US, GB & DE to test the Hawker Siddeley P.1127, he suited up as a test pilot and uttered his “302” phrase following his crash from applying thrust to close to the ground.
jjw9
* too close to the ground ;-)
Trunkmonkay
West German airforce was heavily composed of Luftwaffe pilots and aces. Eric Hartman, the highest scoring ace in history, joined the west German airforce once he was released from the Russian gulags. He kept the same livery on his F-86 Sabre as he did on his BF109.
Trunkmonkay
While many, most, or all of these men had reprehensible values, at the time their skills were too invaluable to waste with the threat of the USSR next door.
CGWN
"Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down?/ That's not my department." say Wernher von Braun.
Volpe42
You mean operation paper clip?
crateo
Most of the luftwaffe remained in service after the denazification process, given that it was the less "nazified " part of the German army
causality
Magical? Operation Paperclip was public barely a year after it started.
newsguycraigevans
micuu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro&t=20s
Promethianfire
Also: Nazi Scientists ^ USSR ^ putting the first human in space.
CampbellsChunkyCyst
Would you feel better if a prototype failed and killed a pilot who wasn't an ex-nazi?
crateo
Not everyone on the German army was a nazi.
CampbellsChunkyCyst
Yes, of course. They were "only following orders." I believe they all tried to use that defense.
crateo
Yes. And justly so. That's why most of the prisoners of war, as this guy, were released without charges. This fellow was not an Auswitz guard, so the orders were "go bomb that shit". Same orders as the RAF bombing Dresden or the USAF bombing Tokyo. You can't judge all Germans for the uniform they were FORCED to wear.