Could a plane shoot itself?

[Artemis_Tardis]

WW2 bomber planes had some turrets for self-defence just like on this picture: http://acepilots.com/planes/b25h.jpg
I was wondering. did it ever happen to a plane to shoot itself? By that picture it looks like the top turret could easily shoot the plane tails. I know that machine guns behind the propellers were synchronized so they wouldnt shoot the propellers off, but what about the turrets? Would this auto-shooting count as friendly fire?

[engineer_comp_geek]

WWII planes were designed so that they couldn’t accidentally shoot themselves.

You may find this interesting, though.

The F-11 Tiger is noted for being the first jet aircraft to shoot itself down.[3] On 21 September 1956, during a test firing of its 20 mm (.79 in) cannons, pilot Tom Attridge fired two bursts mid-way through a shallow dive. As the velocity and trajectory of the cannon rounds decayed, they ultimately crossed paths with the Tiger as it continued its descent, disabling it and forcing Attridge to crash land the aircraft; he survived.[4][5]

From the wikipedia page here:

Grumman F-11 Tiger

[Atomic_Alex]

Not quite what you asked but at least one plane has shot itself down before.

http://www.aerofiles.com/tiger-tail.html

*engineer just quicker on the trigger!

[engineer_comp_geek]

After a bit of searching I found this for the B-17, which I thought was interesting because the gunner actually intentionally concentrated on areas where the turret would fire and stayed away from areas where it wouldn’t:

…The gunsight was a frame which had two lines, with one on each end of a box. You turned handles to “frame” an enemy fighter between the lines as it came in. When you had the fighter framed, you shot at him by pushing the firing buttons, which were on top of the handles. I searched mostly to the sides and the tail because there was a lot of blocked-out area up front from the body of the plane and the propellers. The turret had stops that wouldn’t let you fire there. Also, the head-on attacks came too fast for the sight.

From “Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer, B-17s over Germany” by Brian D. O’neill.

Taken from here: http://www.b17queenofthesky.com/positions/ballgun.php

[Chronos]

I remember reading once of a pilot who deliberately shot his own plane. IIRC, there was some problem with an under-wing fuel tank that was preventing it from emptying, and the extra (and lopsided) weight would prevent it from landing safely. So he grabbed his sidearm and emptied the tank that way.

[bup]

Waist gunners on early B-17’s apparently hit their own wing tips a lot. Having walked through a B-17, it’s hard to believe they didn’t all the time. The waist gunner mounts were really like someone just said to a fairly handy guy, “Here’s some tie rods and tools - make this gun stick to the plane.”

[yabob]

In WWI, before they perfected the synchronization gear, they sometimes fired through the propeller anyway, and hoped for the best, or armored the backside of the propeller to deflect bullets which might hit it (Lord only knows in what direction):

Both solutions obviously introduced considerable risk.

ETA:

Synchronization gear |

[Tom_Tildrum]

There is one famous incident, of course. (video)

[JerrySTL]

Aircraft doing strafing runs have been known to be hit by ricochets from their own guns and in some cases shoot themselves down.

It’s also possible for an aircraft to bring itself down from a bomb it dropped. That’s why many bombs have parachutes or bladders which expand to slow the bombs down. This is a real issue for aircraft like the B-1, or the old F-111, which can drop a bomb at a very low level. Dropping a nuke would be an even bigger risk.

I use to help clean up Melrose Range near Clovis, New Mexico so that the ricochets didn’t happen plus look for dud bombs which didn’t explode.

[PSXer]

some older WW1 places could shoot themselves

source: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

[Dewey_Finn]

@Tom_Tildrum

There is one famous incident, of course. (video)

First thing I thought of.

[Llama_Llogophile]

@Chronos

I remember reading once of a pilot who deliberately shot his own plane. IIRC, there was some problem with an under-wing fuel tank that was preventing it from emptying, and the extra (and lopsided) weight would prevent it from landing safely. So he grabbed his sidearm and emptied the tank that way.

Here you go!

[Chronos]

Yup, Llama, that’s the story I was thinking of!

[Hail_Ants]

According to the post above B-17s had stops in their turrets to prevent this. But I’d guess that the B-29, since it had electrically driven, remote controlled, and (analog) computer assisted aiming & firing for all its turrets, ‘knowing’ when the gun was aimed at part of the aircraft was probably built-in…