Johnny Kytle was an airmail pilot in the 1930's, delivering mail from Atlanta to New York City. One moonlit night, as he was flying over North Carolina, Kytle spotted a freight train below and came up with an idea.
He flew well ahead of the train, then turned around and flew towards the train, a few feet above the perfectly straight, single-lane, railroad. A couple of miles out, he turned on one of his million-candlepower landing lights. The result was instantaneous, as he confided to a friend: “I lit the fuse on the biggest sparkler you ever saw! Within ten seconds, every wheel on every freight car was flat. I'll bet they still haven't found the engine crew. When I went over, they were all jumping and running.” He then added: “Strangely, nobody ever reported the incident to the Interstate Commerce Commission.”
Source: Frank Kingston Smith in Legacy of Wings, via www.aerofiles.com.
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