Dare from 1959
Century stunt – pilot dove under a bridge with his B47 nuclear bomber
Unfortunately there are no photos of the flight.
©US Air Force/Commons
Captain John Lappo was one of the finest aviators of his generation. In 1959 he dived under a bridge in his bomber. He was betrayed and never allowed to fly again. But he says it was worth it, the feeling was “exhilarating”.
In the spring of sixty years ago, residents of the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan could only marvel when a mighty six-engine Air Force nuclear bomber appeared over the water. The B-47 headed straight for the bridge and dove under it. In terms of flying, that was a tremendous feat – there are only about 45 meters between the bridge and the water and the sheer height of the B-47 was already 8.5 meters. The slightest mistake with the cumbersome machine would have spelled disaster.
According to the military portal “Task & Purpose”, the B-47 was also not exactly a safe aircraft. Ten percent of the machines built crashed, that is 203 aircraft. 464 men died. But Captain John S. Lappo was not just any pilot. The 39-year-old was a highly decorated officer who sat in the cockpit for 15 years and could look back on 5,700 hours of flight experience. His career began towards the end of World War II. In 1948 he quit the service, but was drafted again in 1951 because of the Korean War. He flew 28 bombing raids over North Korea in a B-29.
This picture is just as famous: A Mig dives under a bridge in Siberia. But unfortunately it is a montage.
© Commons
Combat missions over Korea
The B-29 was the most advanced bomber of World War II. Because of its flight altitude, it was almost impossible for the propeller planes of the time to reach it. But things were different over North Korea, where modern Russian-design jet fighters were chasing the sluggish bombers. His plane, named Command Decision, was considered the Air Force’s most famous bomber. His mark was not without wit. Two dwarfs from the Disney film “Snow White” were depicted on the nose of the “Command’s Decision”, looking rather helplessly at a globe. After the Korean War, Lappo – now with the B-47 – is said to have flown top-secret espionage missions over the USSR.
In short: Lappo was one of the best pilots in the Air Force. He later said he only saw two vehicles on the bridge in April 1959, a car and a truck, as he shouted to his crew, “I’ll get them down!” Lappo flew an extraordinarily daring manoeuvre. He didn’t lower the machine slowly, but pushed it into a parabolic orbit. At its apex he passed under the bridge. To outsiders, it looked like madness. But for Lappo’s crew, the stunt was proof of what their machine could do. In her eyes, it was one of the “most beautiful maneuvers” ever flown by a Luftwaffe pilot.
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The sense of adventure
When asked why he did it, the pilot later replied, “Why do men climb mountains? Or what motivates them to go into space? It’s that sense of adventure that some men feel and some don’t.” He always wanted to fly under a big bridge. “First it was supposed to be the Golden Gate Bridge. But when I flew in the East, I was only a co-pilot. And couldn’t convince the pilot to do it.”
Only one navigator who had just joined the crew was not enthusiastic. In an interview, Lappo later said, “Yes, the Navigator was right against it. Of course I had no idea at the time that he was the General’s son and that once we landed at Lockbourne he would betray me.” Lappo was court-martialed and fined a modest $300. That was still to get over, but he was banned from the cockpit.
After a few years he retired from the service. But for him, the stunt that others would never understand had paid off. He said: “How can one describe the feelings a man experiences when he sees a beautiful woman for the first time and falls in love? How can anyone understand the relief one feels when penetrating enemy lines that are flak- Avoiding artillery while dropping your bombs and then bringing the machine back alive? Some feelings are hard to describe, but I can tell you it was exhilarating to say the least!”
Source: Alaskan’s assault on the Mackinac Recalled
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