Dogfights: Supersonic Aerial Warfare (S3, E1) | Full Episode

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[narrator] To the fighter pilot, speed is life. This credo means harnessing the full power of their machine to outfly and outgun their opponent. [dramatic music plays] [clanging] Revolutionary technology takes fighter aircraft from the prop age to the jet age. [jet planes roaring] From the verge of stall speed to beyond the sound barrier. [planes roaring] Now, you're in the cockpit as ultra-fast fighters use speed as a weapon against lethal opponents, culminating in the first supersonic gun kill in history. Experience the battle. Dissect the tactics. Relive the dogfights. [booming] [dramatic music plays] [plane roaring] January 21, 1944. Under the pitch-black cloak of night, a Royal Canadian Air Force Mosquito skims across the English Channel. Its pilot is an American, "Lou" Luma. [Luma] Going over the channel was like being inside of a black barrel. I mean, you didn't see anything. You didn't know where up was or down was or anything. [intense music plays] [narrator] Luma and his navigator, Lieutenant Colin Finlayson, are night intruders. Their mission: attack German aircraft right at their doorstep. [Luma] The psychological advantage was great. They knew every time they came home that there was an intruder hanging around the airport. [narrator] Luma's Mosquito advances to Hildesheim Airbase in Germany. Without radar, Luma has to depend on visual cues to spot his prey. [man] He could look for the exhaust fires from engines. He could look for the guy that forgot to turn his lights off or turned his lights on for some silly reason. [narrator] Within minutes, an outgoing enemy pilot exposes himself with a costly mistake. He's left his lights on. [Luma] Navigator spotted this one white light coming toward us. Had a white light on the nose and a white light on the tail. [narrator] A Messerschmitt 410, and it's climbing fast. [engine roaring] Luma stays low, undetected. As the German plane passes overhead, Luma cranks his Mosquito into a sharp 180. He has to gain ground quickly before the German fighter reaches his target. Adrenaline surges through Luma's veins as he races toward his enemy. [dramatic music plays] [Luma] Those two Merlins combined, throttle was pushed all the way forward to catch him 'cause I didn't want him to get away. [narrator] In his excitement, Luma closes too fast. He's about to overshoot the German. At that point in time, I'm just sick in the stomach. I think, "God, I'm screwing this up." [narrator] Luma slams down the landing gear and throws his Mosquito into a series of hard turns to drain air speed. He manages to stay behind his prey. He opens up with all eight guns. [Luma] As soon as you do it, there's an explosion. -[booming] -[engine whirring] And then just ram the nose forward to avoid flying through all this debris. -[solemn music plays] -[engine roaring] [narrator] Later, Luma learns that the German pilot he defeated was a Luftwaffe ace. [Luma] He had shot down five British bombers that night and he had landed to get more fuel. In his excitement, he left those lights on. [intense music plays] [narrator] Luma speeds away into the shadows, a victorious night fighter. The Mosquito has inflicted its deadly sting. [dramatic music plays] The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is one of the fastest airframes of World War II. A lightweight wooden frame wedded to twin 1,700-horsepower Merlin engines. The "Wooden Wonder," as it became known, could reach speeds well over 400 miles per hour. There's nothing, nothing that was built then that would-would, uh, be able to catch you. [narrator] Its performance and its massive firepower of four 20-millimeter cannon and four 30-caliber machine guns made the Mosquito a force to be reckoned with. They could go on any number of utility missions and combat missions as well. Weather reconnaissance, photo reconnaissance, attack missions where they would actually put bombs on things. They could go on strafing missions down low. [dark music plays] [narrator] One such strafing mission will take Mosquito pilot "Lou" Luma from the murky shroud of darkness into the revealing light of day. March 24, 1944. Luma's Canadian Air Force Mosquito again steals across the English Channel. It's a rare daylight appearance for the plane and its pilot. [Luma] They had what they called "daylight Rangers." These were trips that they would let us go out in daytime, two aircraft at a time. You had to plan your own trip. [narrator] Today, Luma's target is an airbase on the French-German border. [Kennedy] The idea was they would go in unannounced, by surprise, with lots of speed, make one pass, wreak all kinds of destruction, and then get out of there. [narrator] Less than five miles from the airfield, Luma spots a bogey. It's a JU-37, a single-engine trainer. [propeller buzzing] The Mosquito pilot knows that he must jump his enemy before any alarm can be raised. He creeps into position. Luma's eight weapons bark to life. [booming] The German trainer disintegrates under the combined weight of fire. He probably never, ever knew what hit him. -[dramatic music plays] -[engines roaring] [narrator] Luma continues to the airfield at about 400 miles per hour. As he approaches, Luma spots scores of targets. Aircraft and gliders parked in the shape of an L along the flight line. We predetermined that we were only gonna make two passes, down the one circle to get in line for the other row, and then get outta there. Get in, hit 'em quick, get out quick. [narrator] The Mosquitoes wade through the ground targets... ensuring the enemy planes will never claim kills of their own. With anti-aircraft fire all around them, the Mosquitoes climb away, leaving behind the smoke and debris of a successful mission. But halfway to the English Channel, Luma spots a new target. [Luma] And then we saw a Junkers 52. That was an old trimotor transport. And that was a tough old bird. [solemn music plays] [engine roaring] [dramatic music plays] [narrator] Luma breaks for the safety of England. He lands home having scored his fifth victory. He remains the only American Mosquito ace and a prime example of a fighter pilot using speed as a weapon. [Kennedy] Lou could be writing some rules of thumb for today's intruder pilots and attack pilots. [narrator] The Mosquito earned a reputation in the European theater for its rapid speed and its hard-hitting armament. [booming] But in the Pacific, another aircraft will earn its place in history as the fastest Allied fighter of the war. [dramatic music plays] April 22, 1945. F4U Corsairs of the U.S. Marine Corps patrol off the coast of Okinawa. Flight leader Lieutenant Jerry O'Keefe and his men are part of VMF-323, the Death Rattlers. They had been tasked with a special late-war mission to seek out and destroy Japanese kamikazes before they strike home on American ships. [O'Keefe] We had been patrolling above the picket ships for over two hours without any activity and no enemy planes in the area. All of a sudden, we were notified by the picket ship below us that a large number of enemy aircraft were coming down from the north, from, uh, the direction of Japan. [planes roaring] [narrator] A swarm of suicide aircraft rattles toward the American fleet. [intense music plays] They begin to loosen their formation and disperse in an effort to present fewer targets to the advanced American fighters patrolling the area. One such patrol led by Jerry O'Keefe is high above and closing fast. If your advantage over the enemy is, say, 50 or 60 miles per hour in speed, it makes very little sense to get involved in a turning contest with them. Instead, use an altitude advantage, dive in a high-speed pass, pick your shot, fire, and use that momentum to zoom again and retain your altitude advantage. [dramatic music plays] [narrator] O'Keefe picks a target out of the pack, a slow-moving Val dive bomber at two o'clock low. Anxiously, O'Keefe slams his throttle to the firewall and dives, determined to land the first punch. [engines roaring] April 22, 1945. Corsair pilot Jerry O'Keefe is diving fast on a kamikaze. The Japanese plane fills his gunsight. [Kennedy] O'Keefe rolls in and does a classic gun run on it like he did in the Training Command. So he makes one pass at this Val and disintegrates it with the .50-cal. [booming] [gunfire, bullets clanging] [glass shattering] [booming, clanging] [narrator] O'Keefe levels off with six more Vals ahead of him. His powerful Corsair will have no trouble catching up to the lumbering dive bombers. The D3A2 "Val" was the primary dive bomber of the Imperial Japanese Navy. But with fixed landing gear and a weak 1,300-horsepower engine, the Val is not much of a dogfighter. The F4U Corsair is the most advanced fighter in the Pacific. Identifiable for its innovative gull wing design, the Corsair earned a reputation for its searing combination of speed and firepower. The Corsair was far superior than, uh, any plane, really, in combat that the Japanese had at that point. [narrator] The Corsair's power comes from the legendary R-2800 radial engine, the same engine that powered the F6F Hellcat and the P-47 Thunderbolt. [Kennedy] The R-2800 in the World War II fighters, what a fantastically reliable, capable, powerful aircraft engine. Tremendous ability to put out power. [narrator] The Corsair can top 440 miles per hour, making it the fastest fighter then in service with the Armed Forces. [dramatic music plays] Now, Corsair pilot Jerry O'Keefe is using his aircraft's trademark speed to close the gap on six Japanese Val dive bombers. [O'Keefe] I was behind them, and it was my intention to shoot all six of them down, but it didn't work out that way. [narrator] O'Keefe sights up the leader and pulls the trigger. [gunfire] [O'Keefe] And I missed him, and he left the formation and turned sharply to the left. [gunfire] [intense music plays] [engines rumbling] And I decided I was gonna stay with him until we settled that matter. [narrator] The Val dives into the clouds. O'Keefe doggedly pursues. I had put my landing flaps down a little bit so I wouldn't run past him. [plane roaring] [narrator] Finally, the Val pilot's luck runs out. [O'Keefe] There wasn't enough cloud cover for him to get into. And then I had a, you know, a dead-on shot from the stern. He just blew up, you know. [intense music plays] [gunfire] [narrator] As O'Keefe returns to the fight, another Val comes screaming right at him. [plane roaring] We went past like this and then we both turned into each other, trying to get an advantage. [narrator] This kamikaze pilot has the heart of a dogfighter. [dramatic music plays] The two aircraft engage in a deadly, low-speed scissors above the water, taking O'Keefe to the wavering edge of stall speed. O'Keefe is-is lowering his flaps, slowing down. This is a Val that can fly, actually, probably slower than he can, trying to pull inside of him. [engine rumbling] [narrator] On the second pass, O'Keefe lands a few hits. The dive bomber smokes, but its pilot refuses to back down. The kamikaze noses up, intent on ramming the Corsair. I guess he realized, uh, you know, that he was... he was gone and wanted to take me with him, and I didn't want to go. [narrator] O'Keefe desperately yanks the stick back. [O'Keefe] So I pulled up and was able to avoid him. But it was very, very close, and I was extremely scared. [laughs] [narrator] The Val noses over and plunges into the water. [splashing] It's a hard-fought third victory for O'Keefe. [dramatic music plays] The American pitches up, knowing he can trade altitude for speed. Leveling off at nearly 10,000 feet, he spots another Val below. [Kennedy] The next engagement that he has is very similar to his first engagement. He looks and sees a bogey down low, two o'clock. [narrator] The kamikaze pilot doesn't see it coming. [O'Keefe] Some of those pilots didn't seem to see other aircraft. They, uh, were oblivious to what was about to happen to them in most cases. [engine roaring] [Kennedy] O'Keefe accelerates, does another classic Training Command-style gun-firing pass at high speed, and gets the kill on the first pass. [narrator] As O'Keefe climbs away from his fourth victory, he spots a lone Val off in the distance. No doubt on an attack run against the American fleet. [beeping] With O'Keefe's engagements against the kamikazes at Okinawa, the great limiting factor is the amount of ammunition that he has in the aircraft. [dramatic music plays] [narrator] Low on ammo, O'Keefe uses his best asset: speed. [plane roaring] O'Keefe trains his sight pipper, takes a breath, then fires. [thunderous boom] With only a handful of .50-caliber rounds left in his guns, 1st Lieutenant Jerry O'Keefe becomes an ace in a day by splashing five kamikazes. The other Death Rattlers bring the day's total to 17. Not a single kamikaze successfully strikes the fleet. [Kennedy] O'Keefe and the Death Rattlers, they saved thousands of lives by blunting those assaults coming in, and we owe them a tremendous, tremendous debt of gratitude for that. [plane roaring] [narrator] The F4U Corsair proved itself to be the consummate war machine of the Pacific theater. [explosion] [solemn music plays] But the end of World War II brings with it a quantum leap in technology. Pilots trained to harness the power of piston engines now had to adapt to the blistering speed of jets. [jet roaring] The Korean War ushers in the jet age of air combat where speed becomes a major factor in turning the tide for the Allies. December 17, 1950. Four F-86A Sabrejets knife through the icy skies of North Korea. It is one of the first combat missions for the new swept-wing fighter. The stakes could not be higher. Before the F-86s came on, we're flying straight-wing F-80s. Good airplane, good flying qualities, uh, but no match for the MiG-15s. The MiG-15s came on the scene, we were putting bombers over the north, and they were getting chewed up. We had to get air superiority, and the F-86 was the aircraft to do that for us. [engines whirring] [narrator] Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Hinton leads the mission. The North Koreans are unaware that the Americans are fielding new aircraft, and Hinton plans to keep it that way. [Hinton] We were cruising at a low air speed to imitate F-80s to entice the MiG to show up and combat us. [Kennedy] There's a saying in fighter aviation and dogfighting, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying." So luring the enemy up for a fight, creating deception is all legal and it's all encouraged and it's anything you can do to get 'em going. [narrator] In a matter of minutes, the enemy air force takes the bait. [jets roaring] Hinton's wingman calls out bogeys crossing the Yalu River at nine o'clock and closing fast. Four gleaming MiG-15s bore in to the attack. The fastest dogfight of the new jet age is about to kick off. December 17, 1950. Sabre pilot Bruce Hinton keeps his cool. He's got enemy MiGs approaching his flight at breakneck speed, but he wants to lure them in close before he strikes. [Hinton] All we knew was we had to attack first. If they got on our tails, we'd have trouble. One thing you don't want to have is a MiG-15 on your tail. At all. [laughs] Ever. [laughs] [narrator] Ground control orders the MiG pilots to get a closer look at the American fighters before they engage. As they pass beneath the four Sabres, the North Koreans catch sight of the swept-wing design. [man] And to the MiGs' chagrin, there's this airplane sitting there that were every bit as high-performance as they were. The MiG itself was actually slightly slower than the F-86. [narrator] The American trap is sprung. [Hinton] Well, upon sighting the MiGs as they were crossing underneath us, I call, "Drop tanks now," and we all drop our external tanks. At that point, uh, I turned to maneuver. [narrator] Breaking right, Hinton firewalls the throttle. [Hinton] We had to pick up speed from what we were cruising at. Had to pour in the coal to get the airplane moving. So we had to pick up speed and pick up maybe to 0.85 or something like that. [narrator] Hinton's flight noses down and swings in on the enemy's five o'clock, closing fast. [dramatic music] The lightweight MiG can outclimb the Sabre and boasts harder-hitting cannon. The Sabre has a slight edge in top speed, and its heavier airframe allows it to approach Mach 1 in a dive. [Tillman] They both had strengths and weaknesses relative to one another that tended to cancel each other out. At jet speeds, suddenly, everybody is butting up against the sonic barrier, and at about Mach 0.94 or thereabouts, everybody's capable of doing the same speed. So, what did that do? That took us back into the turning arena. [narrator] The MiG flight splits defensively. Hinton's targets, the MiG leader and his wingman, break left. [Kennedy] They commit a cardinal error and reverse their turn. So Hinton slides right in for a guns kill. Now here's a very capable and qualified gunnery pilot. [narrator] Hinton's air speed indicates 0.95 Mach, the knife edge of the speed of sound. He selects his target. [Hinton] Well, I picked the lead guy as the man I ought to attack. But then as I maneuvered, I said, "I'm gonna get on the closest one." [plane roaring] [narrator] At about 1,500 feet, he pulls the trigger. [dramatic music plays] [Hinton] I could see the hits bouncing off his airplane, or at least reflecting off his airplane, but he didn't do anything, he just stayed there, and I... so I kept firing. [narrator] The North Korean pilot frantically pops his speed brakes. [bullets clanging] [Kennedy] At that point, the bogey does a second incredible error, and that's to try to slow down, maybe to spin him out, maybe to make him overshoot the turn. I had to slow down to keep... stay on his tail. I didn't want to get ahead of him. Hinton almost overshoots him, comes directly underneath the belly of the aircraft, five feet from him, so he can look up and see the rivets, and he's just hanging in there. [plane whirring loudly] [narrator] The desperate MiG driver wings over and dives, hoping the American will turn him loose. [intense music plays] No such luck. [Hinton] I followed him and followed him and I let him have a long burst. And that's a lot of .50-caliber slugs. Well, at that point, he looks like he's really out of control. [intense music plays] [gunfire] [narrator] The MiG plummets into the snow-covered ground below. [plane whistling] [booming] [dramatic music plays] The rest of the MiGs use their climbing speed advantage to bug out of the fight. [planes roaring] They just firewalled the throttle and... zoom-climbed, and the F-86s couldn't keep up with them. [narrator] Hinton has drawn first blood for the F-86 Sabre. [triumphant music plays] Within weeks, air superiority over North Korea again belongs to the Allies. Though still considered a subsonic airframe, the F-86 proves that speed is often the decisive factor in aerial warfare. [planes roaring] [dramatic music plays] As the science of high-speed flight becomes more thoroughly understood, the next generation of fighter aircraft incorporates technology and design elements that make the sound barrier a thing of the past. In the hostile skies over North Vietnam, ultra-high-speed interceptors like the F-4 Phantom make their combat debut. And one skilled Phantom crew will bet it all in an attempt to score the first supersonic gun kill in history. [dramatic music plays] June 2, 1972, Thud Ridge. An elaborate rescue operation is underway to save Roger Locher, an F-4 Phantom crewman downed northeast of Hanoi 23 days prior. Major Phil Handley and backseater Jack Smallwood lead Brenda flight, four F-4 Phantoms tasked with keeping enemy MiGs at bay while the rescue ships go in. [Handley] A massive raid was laid on because that Super Jolly Green Giant and those prop-driven Spads, A-1s, are gonna have to go in there right into the jaws of hell up by the doorstep of Hanoi to pick him up. [narrator] After several uneventful passes around the recovery zone, Handley's cockpit comes alive with a 1,000-hertz rattle that can mean only thing: a surface-to-air missile launch. Handley turns into the alarm, scanning for telltale dust and debris. [intense music plays] [Handley] The SA-2 is a rather simplistic missile which you could defeat easily if you could see it in time. So we turn into it. We can't pick them up. I see no missiles. We don't see anything. [narrator] A false alarm, but the SAM threat has forced the flight to expend precious fuel. [Handley] It was a typical day in that we were running out of fuel tanks. I was the only one of the four aircraft that had a centerline tank on it, 600-gallon centerline tank. [narrator] Handley's element leader calls, "Bingo fuel." He must break off with his wingman and head for a tanker, leaving only Handley and wingman Buddy Green to finish the CAP. And just then, a warning from radar control. He said, "Brenda 01," he said, "This is Worm. You have bandits 12... 123 at 8," 123 degrees at 8 miles. [narrator] MiGs, closing fast from four o'clock low, hell-bent on killing the Americans. June 2, 1972. Major Phil Handley and wingman Buddy Green have some unwanted company. Enemy MiGs on their tail. [planes roaring] Handley breaks hard into the threat. [Handley] My backseater Jack Smallwood's doing everything to try to lock these guys up, but it's a look-down angle, and these aren't pulse-Doppler radars in those days. Looking down into ground clutter is like looking into clabbered milk. [narrator] The situation quickly goes from bad to worse. [Handley] We're not picking 'em up, and just as we're getting close, my wingman Buddy calls, "Bingo." [narrator] Handley's wingman needs to egress and refuel. The flight lead knows that separating could be deadly. The Americans disengage and head toward the Gulf of Tonkin. But on a routine check of his wingman's six, Handley spots something. [Handley] I see this glint of light behind Buddy down low, about four o'clock. Well, MiGs are silver at the time, and nothing could be producing a glint of light other than a silver MiG. [narrator] The major orders his wingman to cross to his right wing, allowing him a better view. At a range of about 8,000 feet, there they were, bigger than Dallas, two silver MiG-19s, perfect sharp-bearing aircraft. [planes roaring] [narrator] The MiG-19 is small, agile, and armed with three 30-millimeter cannon. Its twin engines each pump out over 7,000 pounds of thrust, making it the first supersonic fighter in the Soviet arsenal. The F-4E is the Air Force's ultimate version of the venerable Phantom II. Originally designed for Navy fleet defense, the Phantom's role evolved into that of a dogfighter during the Vietnam War. To that end, the E model is equipped with an internal 20-millimeter cannon in addition to missiles. But the Phantom's reputation is built on raw power. Its twin J79 engines pump out nearly 18,000 pounds of thrust each, allowing the massive fighter to double the speed of sound. [Kennedy] The F-4 Phantom is truly the performance aircraft of its generation, and it comes to its own at high speeds. When you get that aircraft above 475 knots in a turn, it just keeps wanting to accelerate. [planes roaring] [narrator] In a dogfight, the MiG-19 is more maneuverable, but the Phantom has a huge advantage in speed and weapons systems. Now, Phil Handley is faced with a mortal decision. His wingman's fuel tank is running dry, but he wants to take a crack at those MiGs. I said, uh, "Brenda 02, you continue on out. I'm gonna take one run at this guy." And he, in a voice just calmer than you can imagine, he said, he casually said, "I'll stay with you." [narrator] Handley throws his J79 engines into full burner and cranks back towards the MiGs, an incredible 9 G pull. I was so full of adrenaline, I don't recall pulling any G's whatsoever, but I swam to over 9 G's on the airplane, and that, supported by God's radial G, I really just came around quick on these guys. [narrator] In his dive, Handley's Phantom goes supersonic. The idea was to keep their energy up and to fly faster and use the advantages that the Phantom had. [intense music plays] [Handley] I went through the Mach at the 90-degree point and never came out of afterburner. So in the next minute and 42 seconds, I traded a half a ton of JP-4 and three miles of altitude for air speed in pursuit of this guy. [plane roaring] [narrator] While Handley dives, wingman Green climbs sharply to gain altitude and conserve fuel. [dramatic music plays] The MiG leader makes a critical mistake. He climbs after Green, allowing Handley to slip past and line up a missile shot from behind. Handley rolls out on the bandit's six. He puts a five-mile bore sight on the leader and ripple-fires his two radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrows. [Handley] The first one, the rocket motor didn't ignite, just fell off. The second one took off and didn't guide, just went into a moonshot. [narrator] Handley is closing at nearly twice his enemy's speed. [Kennedy] If he continues like that, he'll overshoot them. He wants to take that energy, keep the speed without slowing down, and just fly a bigger distance through the air. And if he pulls the nose up, makes a large corkscrew maneuver and then back around, he will have flown the equivalent of five times the distance that the MiGs have flown. So that's how he keeps his air speed and also keeps him in geometric position on his pursuit. [narrator] Handley's radar-guided missiles are gone. He's down to his two heat-seekers, the notoriously ill-performing AIM-4 Falcons. There's a hit-to-kill missile, that's all I had. So I slapped it down. The tone in your headset says the missiles are looking because it sounds like a Norelco razor. [rumbling] [narrator] The lock tone sizzles in his headset. The time is now. Handley pushes the button and fires! June 2, 1972. Major Phil Handley launches his last two missiles at a pair of MiG-19s. [dramatic music plays] [plane roaring] But again, technology fails him. One of 'em never came off the rail and the other one went up in a moonshot. [missile firing] [intense music plays] [narrator] Left with only his 20-millimeter cannon and closing at over 900 miles per hour... [planes roaring] ...Phil Handley is locked into a Mach-speed version of a classic dogfight. He will attempt the first supersonic gun kill in history. [Kennedy] Handley's a guy that had a game plan that didn't count on anything working. So now he's just been let down by all the technology that American missilery has to give him. Does he give up? No, he has kept himself in the position. [narrator] Handley is here. The lead MiG and his wingman are here. Though he has kept himself in a pursuit position, Handley must now get a firing angle. An airplane turning that isn't jinking around has a plane, an imaginary plane, that sticks right vertically, perpendicular to his canopy out. If you can get into that plane of motion ahead of him and have a bullet stream laying out there and he doesn't move, he'll fly through that stream. [narrator] The lead MiG-19 breaks hard right. Handley witnesses his enemy's awesome agility firsthand. [Handley] A MiG-19 is a very fast-turning airplane. There's no way that I can do any sort of a lag maneuver or stay inside his turn, so now I'm down to a high deflection shot, uh, with the cannon. [narrator] Handley pulls hard right. He thunders toward the slower-moving MiG at a speed equivalent to four and a half football fields per second. There is no room for error. If he misses with his last weapon, he will overshoot and make himself the target. As Handley begins to pull lead, he struggles to keep a visual on his enemy. The long nose of the Phantom obscures the MiG. You cannot point out directly ahead of him because that nose obscures him, so you must carry him down here in this quarter panel here just below the plane of motion. He's coming around. At the last moment, I roll up and then back down in the plane of motion, held down the trigger... [gunfire] [narrator] A quick three-second burst. [booming] Three hundred and ten 20 millimeter rounds hurtle into the MiG's line of flight. That 20-millimeter stream walked right down. The first one hit up in the left wing root, the next one I saw it hit the wing root, uh, left nose, canopy, wing root, tail, and just that fast, and, uh, a quick as I passed him, I quarter-rolled and zoomed. [gunfire] [narrator] Handley glances back. There was flames and, uh, fluids and big chunks falling off of him, and he was flopping around. [narrator] The MiG crashes into the jungle. [booming] [triumphant music plays] After a series of frustrating misses, Phil Handley scores. And there must've been 25 fighter pilots up in Route Package 6 all hollering and shouting, and last one I recognized, my squadron commander, old John Dyson, "Way to go." [plane roaring] [narrator] The MiG wingman rolls in on Handley's six, but the American is going too fast and easily climbs away. Arriving at base, Handley learns that the rescue mission he supported was a success. [Handley] We went back to Udorn, channel 70, and there was the greatest celebration you ever seen 'cause there's old... there's old Roger Locher. You know, they got him out. [narrator] Handley's role in the rescue mission is historic. With an indicated air speed of Mach 1.2, his victory is the first and only recorded gun kill at supersonic speed. [explosion] [plane roaring] Most modern fighter aircraft are capable of surpassing Mach 2, indicating that speed and life continue to be one and the same. [triumphant music plays] The question now becomes, how fast is fast enough? The question you have to ask yourself is, once you have a Mach 3 fighter or interceptor, what are you going to do with it? Because unless the enemy has a Mach 2.8 interceptor or fighter aircraft, what are the relative advantages of your airplane over whatever anybody else might have parked on the runway at the same time? [narrator] Today's air combat tacticians are often more interested in the performance of an aircraft's weapons systems than the performance of the plane itself. You have very powerful, reliable radars, you have jam-proof communications, and you have very reliable, proven, long-range, lethal missiles. [booming] [narrator] Technology will continue to shape air combat, but if you ask the fighter pilot, speed still matters. If you give a fighter pilot a choice between performance and smooth handling qualities, he or she will pick performance every day of the week. [plane roaring]

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Channel: Military Heroes

Views: 132,152

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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, full episodes, Kamikaze, war, wars, dogfights history channel full episodes, dogfights, Dogfights, dogfights military heroes, Military Heroes, Dogfights Military Heroes, dogfights full episodes, deadliest, mission, missions, Secret Weapons, season 3, weapons, guns, fighter jet, military heroes dog fights, dog fights, dog fights full episode, dogfights weapons, weaponry, bombs, machine guns, weapons dogfights, episode 1

Id: bpehuhdW0AE

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Length: 44min 57sec (2697 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 20 2023