# Would it be possible to fly a fighter jet through a tunnel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 16, 2018, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704 "2018-03-16T23:36:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/21 "2018-03-19T03:39:10Z")
> [@Atomic\_Alex](#): > > if something that happened only about forty years ago, that was filmed extensively and with probably hundreds of eyewitnesses is so uncertain it does make you wonder how much faith you can put in the reports of historical events hundreds or even thousands of years ago. 🙂 And… we have officially tied in to the Oak Island thread! Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/22 "2018-03-19T12:31:18Z")
This question was asked [here on the Dope a few years ago.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=710005) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/23 "2018-03-19T14:18:17Z")
> [@Atomic\_Alex](#): > > _(I’ve heard the same thing mentioned about the famous ‘shoe banging’ incident by Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations, there is no clear consensus on whether or not he did actually bang his shoe on the lectern)_ [Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfnxj9U_aVY). ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/24 "2018-03-19T15:26:54Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > This was a problem that had to be designed around for the tunnels under the English Channel – that’s one of the purposes of the cross-connecting passages between the main tunnels. I think something like this is common in long transportation tunnels. See “Piston Effect”: > **[Piston effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piston_effect)** > > Piston effect refers to the forced-air flow inside a tunnel or shaft caused by moving vehicles. It is one of numerous phenomena that engineers and designers must consider when developing a range of structures. > In open air, when a vehicle travels along, air pushed aside can move in any direction except into the ground. Inside a tunnel, air is confined by the tunnel walls to move along the tunnel. Behind the moving vehicle, as air has been pushed away, suction is created, and air is pulled to flo... ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/25 "2018-03-19T15:48:24Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Barnstormers famously flew through barns, thus the term. And a barn is basically a wooden tunnel, if you think about it. Any time you saw that in a movie, it was almost certainly done by stunt pilot Paul Mantz, for whom it was a trademark. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/26 "2018-03-19T16:44:13Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfnxj9U_aVY). So why are both the New York Times and Wikipedia so uncertain about it? > **[Opinion | Did he bang it?: Nikita Khrushchev and the shoe (Published 2003)](https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/26/opinion/IHT-did-he-bang-it-nikita-khrushchev-and-the-shoe.html)** > > The shoe that the world thinks Khrushchev banged at the United Nations is one of history's most iconic symbols. Ask many Westerners, and even quite a few Russians, about the man who succeeded Stalin and then denounced him, who ruled the Soviet Union... > **[Shoe-banging incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-banging_incident)** > > The shoe-banging incident occurred when Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, pounded his shoe on his delegate-desk in protest at a speech by Philippine delegate Lorenzo Sumulong during the 902nd Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly held in New York City on 12 October 1960. > In 2003, American scholar William Taubman reported that he had interviewed some eyewitnesses who said that Khrushchev had brandished his shoe but not banged it. He ... ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/27 "2018-03-19T17:05:33Z")
> [@Atomic\_Alex](#): > > So why are both the New York Times and Wikipedia so uncertain about it? Who ya gonna believe? The New York Times, or [your lyin’ eyes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4JhyHz3M5U)? ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2018, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/28 "2018-03-20T02:01:51Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfnxj9U_aVY). How do we know that was _his_ shoe? You really can’t see the shoe in that clip. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2018, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/29 "2018-03-20T08:06:11Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Who ya gonna believe? The New York Times, or [your lyin’ eyes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4JhyHz3M5U)? Without going down the route of complete insanity and trusting Youtube commentators someone there states that the middle segment is faked footage, and indeed his nose does look distinctly different, also in the first ten seconds or so he has no medals on his right lapel then suddenly he does. I’m not particularly invested in this either way and he probably did bang his shoe, but if the footage was so readily available why is there still so much doubt about it? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2018, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/30 "2018-03-20T10:14:39Z")
On the one hand, I would have thought the Bond film sequence with the jet flying through a hangar was done with clever editing and models. On the other hand, the scene in _Live and Let Die_ where Bond runs across the heads of live crocodiles was done by having the animal wrangler [actually run across the heads of live crocodiles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDeUzB12ln8) so who knows - those people were crazy. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2018, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704/31 "2018-03-20T10:30:28Z")
Charles Godefroy  flew a plane through the arc de triomphe. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/HIZzkq5Y8q0/hqdefault.jpg "Charles Godefroy Flies Through the Arc de Triomphe") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIZzkq5Y8q0) Done again, illegally in 1991. Flew under the girders of the Eiffel Tower and then arc de triomphe before landing. > **[Pilot flies under Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel - UPI Archives](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/09/15/Pilot-flies-under-Arc-de-Triomphe-Tour-Eiffel/7242684907200/)** > > An audacious pilot guided a small stolen airplane under both the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower Sunday before flying out of the capital unhindered and... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-fighter-jet-through-a-tunnel/810704.md?page=1)