Summary

  • A US Navy F-11F fighter jet shot itself down during a training mission in 1956, a rare and strange occurrence.
  • The F-11F Tiger, known for its feline-inspired name, was a short-lived supersonic fighter jet introduced by Grumman in 1956.
  • The pilot, Tom Attridge, survived the incident with injuries, and the Tiger is now retired. Only 19 survive for display in museums.

Friendly fire incidents, also known as “blue-on-blue” incidents, are a common tragedy in wartime, leading to the aphorism that “Friendly fire isn’t.”

However, what is not so common is when a military fighter plane inadvertently shoots itself down. Yet, back in 1956. that’s exactly what happened. Granted, if one wanted to nitpick, the incident happened during a training mission and not under wartime conditions. However, it happened during the Cold War, which was a period of very uneasy peace for the United States of America and the world as a whole. This tension was starkly demonstrated in 1956, particularly by the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Revolution).

Simple Flying now takes you back to the time that a US Navy F-11 managed to shoot itself down (an event which also proves the old chestnut that “Truth is stranger than fiction”).

Grumman_F11F_Tigers_VF-33_1959

The victim: F-11F Tiger initial history and specifications

The F-11F Tiger was manufactured by Grumman, thus maintaining the company’s traditional naming convention of giving its fighter aircraft “feline” names (F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat in World War II, the F8F Bearcat and F9F Panther of the Korean War, and in the later years of the Cold War, the F-14 Tomcat).

The F-11F made its maiden flight on July 30, 1954, and was officially introduced into US Navy service in 1956. According to Naval History and Heritage Command:

“Despite its performance, the Tiger’s service life was short, as it coincided with development of the F8U Crusader and F4H Phantom II…The origins of the F11F Tiger (redesignated F-11 in 1962) can be traced to a 1952 Grumman effort to modernize the company’s F9F-6/7 Cougar. Yet, in final form the aircraft departed sharply from its predecessor. Designed as a lightweight fighter, the development model of the F11F, first flown in July 1954, featured thin swept wings, incorporating spoilers instead of ailerons, coupled with an area-rule (coke-bottle shaped) fuselage design that enabled it to exceed Mach 1.”

Fuselage Length:

45 ft 10.5 in (13.983 m)

Wingspan:

31 ft 7.5 in (9.639 m)

Width:

27 ft 4 in (8.33 m) wing-tips folded

Height:

13 ft 2.75 in (4.0323 m)

Empty Weight:

13,810 lb (6,264 kg)

Max Takeoff Weight:

23,459 lb (10,641 kg)

Powerplant:

Wright J65-W-18 afterburning turbojet engine, 7,450 lbf (33.1 kN) thrust at 8,300 rpm, military power dry, 10,500 lbf (47 kN) with afterburner

Max Airspeed:

  • 631 kn (726 mph, 1,169 km/h, Mach 0.94) at 35,000 ft (10,668 m)\
  • 654 kn (753 mph; 1,211 km/h, Mach 0.98) at sea level

Range:

1,110 NM (1,280 mi, 2,060 km)

Service Ceiling:

49,000 ft (15,000 m)

Armament:

  • Guns: 4 × 20 mm (.79 in) Colt Mk 12 cannon, 125 rounds per gun
  • Hardpoints: 4 with a capacity and provisions to carry combinations of:

    • Rockets: Aero 6A or Aero 7A “Rocket Package”
    • Missiles: AIM-9 Sidewinder

Those max airspeed figures are for level flight; the plane could, in fact, exceed Mach 1 during a dive, which would set the stage for our freaky story.

The F-11 self-shootdown incident

Stephen Ruiz tells the story most eloquently in a September 2023 article for Military.Com:

“Not every military test pilot can set records like Chuck Yeager, but what happened to Tom Attridge on Sept. 21, 1956, was truly remarkable: He shot down his own aircraft, midflight.”

“As Attridge settled into the cockpit for his second test flight of the day nearly seven decades ago, he was at the controls of the Navy’s first supersonic fighter jet, the Grumman F-11F Tiger…Attridge took off from Grumman’s airfield on Long Island, New York, to perform a weapons test over the Atlantic Ocean, piloting his Tiger to an altitude of 20,000 feet. Attridge then began a Mach 1 dive, and with the jet at about 13,000 feet, he fired a four-second round from his 20mm cannons. After a few seconds, Attridge fired again, continuing his descent.”

The first sign of trouble came with a loud smack at 7,000 feet [2,133.6 m]. Attridge first thought a bird had struck his windshield but also noted his plane was losing power.

“Attridge throttled his Tiger to about 230 mph [384.6 km/h] and began his return to the airfield. He tried to maintain altitude, but the plane was functioning at only four-fifths of its total power. With the engine sounding like it was ‘tearing up,’ Attridge lost power entirely about two miles from the runway. The Tiger caught fire and lost a wing and stabilizer, forcing Attridge to eject.”

The self-stricken warbird ran afoul of a copse of trees less than a mile (1.6 km) from the landing strip and then careened another 300 feet (91.44 m) before stopping. Bullet holes were found to have riddled the canopy glass, right engine, and nose cone; a 20 mm cannon shell was lodged in the engine’s compressor. The fighter was deemed a total loss.

Attridge, fortunately, survived this self-inflicted “friendly fire,” though he did suffer a broken leg and several broken vertebrae. Had those cannon shells been live rounds instead of dummy practice rounds, he probably wouldn’t have lived to tell the tale.

So, exactly how the heck could this freak occurrence become possible? It’s all a matter of physics, as Ruiz explains:

“The rounds fired by Attridge were traveling at about 2,000 mph. Because the bullets slowed down greatly because of the drag induced by air resistance, they began a downward curve. While their speed dropped to about 400 mph, Attridge accelerated the Tiger to about 880 mph…As both the plane and bullets descended — and one was slowing down as the other was speeding up — the difference in distance was erased. Their paths intersected a few miles after Attridge fired the rounds.

According to Aviation Geek Club, it only took 11 seconds from the time the bullets were fired to the time they struck the Tiger.

“While the Navy dismissed the incident as a ‘million to one shot,’ Attridge was skeptical. ‘At the speeds we’re flying today, it could be duplicated anytime,’ he later said.”

This truly was a case of the proverbial “Golden BB” several times over.

Where are they now?

The Tiger was retired from active aircraft carrier duties in 1961 and from service with the prestigious Blue Angels demonstration team in 1969. Out of 199 F-11Fs built, approximately 19 survive today as static displays. To name some specific examples:

My research efforts have not uncovered any significant biographical information on Tom Attridge or details of his flying career before or after the incident I just recounted. He might not have been Superman, but he is certainly remembered for flying faster than a speeding bullet.

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