84 I Wouldn’t Try It Again

He shouldn’t have come back alive. Captain J. H. Hedley was a British pilot in World War I. He fell victim to a bit of misfortune that would have been enough to kill anyone. Yet with bad luck staring him in the face, good luck was coming up fast on his tail.

Captain Hedley was flying a mission over Germany with his copilot, a Canadian flyer named Makepeace. Suddenly they were surrounded by a group of German fighters. Makepeace, an experienced pilot, knew he had to take the plane into a dive straight down in order to slip away from the Germans. Inexplicably, Hedley was caught unaware by his copilot’s maneuver. He was thrown sharply out of his seat and out of the plane. Makepeace sadly counted Hedley a dead man and continued trying to avoid the enemy.

Suddenly, Makepeace spotted Hedley clinging to the tail of the plane. Hedley hung on and pulled himself back into the plane when it leveled off. Makepeace was stunned by the sight of Hedley, but he kept his composure enough to get them out of trouble and out of Germany. The best explanation for Hedley’s reprieve was that the plane’s sudden vertical dive had created a vacuum in the air behind it. Hedley fell into the vacuum and was pulled along until he grabbed the tail and made his fantastic reentry.

84 我不会再试一次了

他本不该活着回来的。J·H·赫德利上尉是第一次世界大战中的英国飞行员。他遭遇了一场足以致命的不幸，但就在厄运逼近他时，好运也迅速追上了他。

赫德利上尉和他的副驾驶——一位名叫梅克皮斯的加拿大飞行员——正在德国上空执行任务。突然，他们被一群德国战斗机包围了。经验丰富的梅克皮斯知道，为了摆脱德国人，他必须让飞机垂直俯冲下去。令人费解的是，赫德利没察觉到副驾驶的操作，被猛地甩出座位，飞出了飞机。梅克皮斯难过地认为赫德利已经死了，继续试图躲避敌人。

突然，梅克皮斯发现赫德利正紧紧抓着飞机的尾部。当飞机平稳下来时，赫德利坚持住并爬回了飞机里。梅克皮斯看到赫德利的样子很震惊，但他保持镇定，带着他们脱离了危险，离开了德国。对赫德利能死里逃生的最佳解释是：飞机突然垂直俯冲，在机身后方形成了真空。赫德利掉进了真空区域，被气流带着前进，直到他抓住机尾，奇迹般地回到了飞机里。