Мересьевы

[ymarkov]

Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, CBE, DSO and Bar, DFC and Bar, FRAeS, DL, RAF (21 February 1910–5 September 1982);[1]) was a successful fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Bader joined the RAF as a Cranwell cadet in 1928. [...] On 14 December 1931, while visiting Reading Aero Club, he attempted some low-flying aerobatics at Woodley airfield in a Bulldog, apparently on a dare. His plane crashed when the tip of the left wing touched the ground. Bader was rushed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, where, in the hands of the prominent surgeon Leonard Joyce, both his legs were amputated - one above and one below the knee. [...]

Bader got his chance to prove that he could still fly when, in June 1932, Air Under-Secretary Phillip Sasson arranged for him to take up an Avro 504 which he piloted competently. A subsequent medical examination proved him fit for active service. [...] When war broke out in 1939, Bader used his RAF Cranwell connections to rejoin the RAF. Despite official reluctance on the part of the establishment to allow him to apply for an A.1.B. – full flying category status, his persistent efforts paid off. [...] By August 1941, Bader had claimed 22 German planes shot down, the fifth highest total in the RAF. On 9 August 1941, Bader was shot down and taken prisoner. [...] Bader was captured by German forces, who treated him with great respect. General Adolf Galland, a German flying ace, notified the British of his damaged leg and offered them safe passage to drop off a replacement. The British responded on 19 August 1941 with the 'Leg Operation'- an RAF bomber was allowed to drop a new prosthetic leg by parachute to St Omer, a Luftwaffe base in occupied France, as part of Circus 81 involving six Blenheim bombers and a sizeable fighter escort.


Colin 'Hoppy' Hodgkinson... 2 Kills.... Metal Legs...
COLIN "HOPPY" HODGKINSON, who died aged 76, lost both his legs learning to fly, but, inspired by the example of the legless fighter ace Douglas Bader, became an accomplished fighter pilot in the RAF.
Although he called himself "the poor man's Bader" Hodgkinson had no cause to cast himself as an understudy. Such was his courage that he succeeded despite bouts of claustrophobia and an admitted fear of flying and combat.

Ну, и конечно - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Petrovich_Maresiev