Military

FIGHTER PILOT RECOUNTS SURVIVING EJECTION AT MACH 1.2

Capt. Udell spent four harrowing hours lost at sea after ejecting from his F-15 Strike Eagle. Composite by Coffee or Die Magazine.

Floating in icy 5-foot swells, Air Force Capt. Brian Udell realized that he was probably going to die. Bloodied and broken, he managed to pull himself into a one-man inflatable raft with his one working arm before any sharks could arrive. He’d just ejected from his F-15 Strike Eagle at night while going Mach 1.2 and parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean.

“Had I waited one-third of a second longer to pull the handles, I would have impacted the water still in my seat,” Udell told Black Rifle Coffee Company in a recent interview.

Fighting off hypothermia and shock, Udell did everything he could to stay awake, knowing that even a short rest could be fatal. He spent hours enduring rough seas and doing mental gymnastics to keep from nodding off.

“Daytime in the open ocean, calm seas, sun angle just right, there’s like a 74% chance that they can find you,” Udell said. “At night, that drops to about zero.”

After the longest four hours of his life, Coast Guard rescuers finally located Udell drifting alone in the dark water, 60 miles off the coast of North Carolina. The former fighter pilot now flies commercial airlines, but he still holds the record for surviving the highest-speed ejection from a fighter aircraft.

Related Posts

Breaking: An 800 million-year-old princess’s coffin was found in a forest, and her skin is still oddly pink.

A princess coffin was discovered, having slept peacefully for 800 million years and her beauty remained the same, full of life as if she were still sleeping. According…

The US агmу’s Top-Notch Helicopter: Largest, Fastest, and Most Advanced.

Operated by the U.S. агmу, the Chinook is one of the heaviest lifting helicopters in the world. Named for the Chinook tribe of Oregon and Washington state, the…

At Eglin Air foгсe Base in Florida, Beta’s prototype vertical electric takeoff and landing aircraft arrives.

AFWERX Ai𝚛m𝚎n 𝚊n𝚍 s𝚎v𝚎𝚛𝚊l l𝚘c𝚊l m𝚎𝚍i𝚊 𝚘𝚞tl𝚎ts 𝚐𝚊th𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚊t D𝚞k𝚎 Fi𝚎l𝚍 𝚘n E𝚐lin Ai𝚛 F𝚘𝚛c𝚎 B𝚊s𝚎, Fl𝚘𝚛i𝚍𝚊, t𝚘 witn𝚎ss 𝚘n𝚎 𝚘𝚏 th𝚎 𝚚𝚞i𝚎t𝚎st Ai𝚛 F𝚘𝚛c𝚎 𝚊i𝚛c𝚛𝚊𝚏t 𝚏l𝚢𝚘v𝚎𝚛s 𝚎v𝚎𝚛….

The U.S. Air foгсe’s C-130E stealth fіɡһteг, which was dubbed the most exceptional weарoп in history, was defeаted in a duel by a 1970s-eга aircraft

It’s the мost expensiʋe weарoп in history Ƅut Aмerica’s F-35 stealth jet has Ƅeen outperforмed Ƅy a 40-year-old F-16 jet in a dogfight. A мock air Ƅattle was…

Introducing the F-14 Tomcat: An in-depth look at America’s supersonic twin-engine fіɡһteг with a twin tail, variable wings and two seats (VIDEO)

The story of F 14 Tomcat – a American supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-ѕweeр wing fіɡһter aircraft. The Gruммan F-14 Toмcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, fixed-wing…

Polish PZL M28 Ьɩoсk 5 skytruck light transport aircraft are ordered by the Nepalese агmу Air Wing.

A𝚎𝚛𝚘s𝚙𝚊c𝚎 m𝚊n𝚞𝚏𝚊ct𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚛 P𝚘lis𝚑 PZL Mi𝚎l𝚎c 𝚑𝚊s w𝚘n $30.4 milli𝚘n t𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘vi𝚍𝚎 M28 Bl𝚘ck 05 Sk𝚢t𝚛𝚞ck li𝚐𝚑t t𝚛𝚊ns𝚙𝚘𝚛t 𝚊i𝚛c𝚛𝚊𝚏t t𝚘 N𝚎𝚙𝚊l𝚎s𝚎 A𝚛m𝚢 Ai𝚛 wіп𝚐. W𝚘𝚛k will 𝚋𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚘𝚛m𝚎𝚍 in…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *