My father-in-law was Dean of Engineering at a univeristy in the mid-1940's and also an Army Air Force (AAF) primary flight instructor. Following WW2, he headed up a test program of modified Luftwaffe aircraft for the NACA and AAF. The regular pilots were AAF test pilots who did most of the flying. One of the planes was an Me109G that had been fitted with expermental flaps to reduce landing speed.
The AAF pilots goated him into flying the Me109; once he got it started and opened the throttle, he knew he was out of his league. He took off, never retracted the landing gear, circled the field and landed. (Many pilots have been killed when flying at slow speed and opening the throttle; the massive torque coupled with low aerodyanmic pressure on the flight surfaces, causes the plane to roll over with fatal results at low altitude!).
On landing, he saw the test pilots handing over money to others; it seemed that they had bet on him killing himself.
