Thanksgiving Eve 1971: a man who identified himself as D B Cooper walks into the airport at Portland, Oregon. D B Cooper buys a one-way ticket to Seattle. His only luggage a briefcase. He’s the last person to board the plane. Unsolved Mysteries
And so begins one of the most infamous crimes in US history. To this day no-one knows the true identity of the man who called himself D B Cooper or if he survived his daring parachute leap from 10,000 feet. This case remains the only unsolved skyjacking in the world. ibid.
Four parachutes were delivered. Both the flight crew and the FBI were worried that Cooper would use the extra chutes to take hostages with him. ibid.
Cooper ordered the pilot to fly from Seattle all the way to Mexico City, at a height of only 10,000 feet, and a speed of only two hundred miles per hour ... Somewhere over the forests of Washington State Cooper jumped. He hasn’t been seen since. ibid.
Seven years later a hunter deep in the Washington forest discovered a plastic sign from a 727. It had been ripped form the lower stairwell of Flight 305. ibid.
February 10th 1980: a family was preparing a barbecue on the shore of the Columbia River. It was twenty miles south-west of Cooper’s supposed jump point. They planned on digging a fire pit, but dug up something else. The bills totalling $5,880 were waterlogged and deteriorated. Many believe that D B Cooper survived and some think he may have struck again. Only five months after Cooper’s flight, a half a million dollars was extorted in another hijacker: he was a former green beret and his name was Richard McCoy. He was sentenced to forty-five years for air-piracy but he escaped, and he was killed in a gun battle with the FBI. ibid.
Who was D B Cooper? ibid.
It was a time when legends ruled the skies. One legend time and memory has not eroded – the tale of the notorious Red Baron. In 1918 Manfred von Richthofen, the peerless German ace, was shot down by a single bullet. But who fired the fatal shot? Unsolved History s1e9: The Death of the Red Baron, Discovery 2002
Manfred Baron von Richthofen – the Red Baron. An expert flyer and a superb marksman, the twenty-five-year-old German aristocrat commanded a crack air squadron in the Imperial Air Service. From 1916 onwards the squadron known as Richthofen’s Flying Circus terrorised air foes in the skies over northern France. Many tried to shoot the Baron down, and many died trying. In January of 1917 Richthofen had grown so confident of his ability that he painted his plane bright red as a taunt to his enemies. ibid.
By April 1918 the Red Baron had single-handedly downed eighty enemy aircraft. ibid.
Of all the candidates, the only one left is Snowy Evans. ibid.
It was one of the pivotal events of the Reagan years: a Korean passenger airliner shot down by a Soviet fighter jet. Why did the Soviets fire on a defenceless airliner? How did Flight 007 get off course? And where was it shot down? Why wasn’t it warned before the attack? Unsolved History s2e18: Kal 007, Discovery History 2004
In the late summer of 1983 a 747 flew high above the Pacific with almost three hundred people on board. Korean Airlines Flight 007 was nearing the end of its journey from New York to Seoul. But it had wandered of course hundreds of kilometres to the west into Soviet air space. ibid.
One of the most controversial events of the Cold War. ibid.
The passenger jet hit the water at over seven hundred miles per hour. Korean Airlines 007 was completely destroyed. ibid.
It was one of the most daring heists ever attempted: one man, two hundred thousand dollars and a parachute. Did D B Cooper survive his daring leap from a 727? Or did he perish in the rugged mountains of the American north-west? Unsolved History s2e20: The Great Plane Robbery
Why is his crime the only unsolved skyjacking in history? ibid.
On a cold and windy November afternoon in 1971 a nondescript middle-aged man boarded North-West Orient 305. ibid.
The parachutes and ransom were brought on board. ibid.
Did D B Cooper survive his leap into the stormy void? If so, where did he go? Whose identity did he assume or re-assume? And what about the money? The serial numbers of each of the ten thousand $20 notes were recorded by the FBI before the ransom was paid. But not a single one has ever been found in circulation. Nor did any other evidence turn up ... So what became of D B Cooper? ibid.
Since 1971 hundreds of people have made jumps from a 727, but with much more modern sky-diving gear. Cooper demanded a military parachute. Similar to those used by paratroopers in the Second World War. But he was dressed in a business suit. And wore street shoes. ibid.
Darkness was the least of Cooper’s worries. The leap from the speeding jet would have been extremely dangerous. ibid.
Air and ground searches continued for eighteen days. They turned up nothing. Tips poured in from all over the country. They led nowhere. The cost of the manhunt mounted, becoming one of the most expensive to date in US history. But D B Cooper had vanished into thin air. ibid.
Nine years after D B Cooper jumped into the void, an eight-year-old boy was gathering wood for a campfire along the banks of the Columbia river. What he found would set off a new media frenzy and send a new generation of treasure hunters out into the wilderness of Washington state. ibid.
We do know that the banknotes weighed nine and a half kilos; what we don’t know is how Cooper secured the money to his person. ibid.
In addition to the main parachute Cooper donned a chest-mounded reserve chute. ibid.
The coincidences between the life of Duane Weber and what we know of D B Cooper are striking. The men’s physical descriptions are virtually identical. Both were chain-smokers. Both drank Bourbon. Both apparently had some military experience ... Both exhibited a detailed knowledge of aviation and the geography of the upper north-west. ibid.
Out of the top ten people that have come back out of these thousands of pictures Duane Weber is match number one. ibid.
In the early 1990s Aviation Weekly published reports of a secret aircraft observed in the night sky at extremely high altitude. Could this be the Aurora? Unsolved History s3e5: Beyond Area 51, Discovery 2005
New Evidence Bolsters Reports of Secret, High Speed Aircraft: Evidence of a high-speed high-altitude classified aircraft powered by an advanced propulsion system continues to grow, despite US Air Force claims that no such aircraft are being acquired by the service. Aviation Weekly, article William B Scott & Lancaster Calie
The first thing to remember is always treat your kite like you treat your woman. No, get inside her five times a day and take her to heaven and back. Blackadder Goes Forth: Plan D – Private Plane, Flashheart to trainees, BBC 1989
The battleship was no longer the capital ship, the decisive weapon of naval warfare. Aircraft were to make these ships too vulnerable to attack ... The submarine as U-boat is for ever associated with the mythology of World War II as the definitive Nazi weapon. World War II: The Complete History: The End of Illusion, Discovery 2000
The Battle of Britain was a battle of attrition. The side that lost most planes and most pilots would be defeated. World War II: The Complete History: A Time of Legend
The Spitfire was by far the fastest and most agile. Its flying qualities meant Spitfires were the planes of choice to engage the opposing German fighters. A myth of the War was that the Spitfire won the Battle of Britain for the RAF. The truth was that Hurricanes were far more numerous and shot down many more German aircraft. ibid.
Fifty British and French airfields were attacked on the first day. The World at War 3/26: France Falls, Thames TV 1983
In the summer of 1940 Britain was in terrible danger: Nazi Germany was planning to invade our shores. Only the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force could stop them. The Battle of Britain, BBC 2012
Most of its fighter pilots had never been in action before. Facing them was a truly formidable enemy. ibid.
The RAF put up a good fight: German planes were shot down at a rate of 2:1. ibid.
There were 1,700 Hurricanes and less than 400 Spitfires. ibid.
Luftwaffe pilots called it Black Thursday. ibid.
18th August 1940 the Hardest Day ... Goering’s new strategy was to destroy the RAF not in the air but on the ground. ibid.
Many pilots were being scrambled into action four or five times a day. ibid.
This shortage of pilots was the critical issue as the Battle of Britain reached a decisive point. ibid.
That unforgettable smell of leather and oil and grease. ibid.
15th September 1940 Battle of Britain Day: RAF Uxbridge was the nerve-centre. ibid.
The appearance of so many RAF planes shattered Luftwaffe moral. ibid.