What Made These Warbirds The Greatest In History? | World's Greatest Warbirds | Progress

foreign [Music] s of aircraft types that have actually flown just a handful have achieved what might be called greatness of course what makes a particular aircraft great can be many different things technology role numbers produced right place right time even its look it's an old engineering adage that if it looks good then it probably is good and then there are the pilots and Crews who because of their courage and skill have made an aircraft Grit the story of combat aircraft is over a hundred years old although it got off to a slow start as there were many military commanders who felt that such flimsy craft had little or no value in war as Europe was rushing headlong towards the first world war they had more pressing matters to occupy their minds the Bristol box kite is typical of aircraft of this era based on a design by French Pioneer Henry farman it became known as a farm and type as similar designs were being built all over Europe the Box kite first flew in 1910 made of wire wood and fabric it was the first design to be awarded a production contract for Britain's armed services as its engine was mounted facing backwards and behind the pilot the type became known as pushers other aircraft like those pioneered by Louis blerio had the engine facing forward in front of the pilot these were known as tractors both types of aircraft equipped Europe's fledgling Air Services at the outbreak of the first world war in 1914. initially their role was to provide reconnaissance and spot for the artillery but soon Crews began attacking each other in an effort to win control of the Skies one of the earliest Great British aircraft was the Avro 504 which first flew in 1913. designed by Elliot's Verdun Rowe Moore 504s were built than any other British World War One Design indeed it was so successful that it was still in production in 1932. a handful even remains in military service at the start of the second World War the 504 can claim several firsts it was the first aircraft to strafe troops on the ground it was also the first aircraft to make a bombing raid over Germany when four aircrafts were dispatched to bomb the Zeppelin sheds on the shores of Lake Constance although one was shot down the remaining aircraft were able to not only reach their targets but also score direct hits with their 20-pound bombs are less glorious first is that a 504 from the Royal flying cause number five Squadron was also the first aircraft to be shot down by the Germans on August 22nd 1914 killing both crew although the 504s Frontline role was short it continued to be used as a trainer a role it was to perform until the end of its service life as the air War intensified over the Western Front new aircraft designs were soon appearing with mixed success however one aircraft was to have a profound impact although only 180 foka eindeckers reached the Western Front the eindecker was the world's first purpose-built fighter but it was a simple aircraft a single seater made with steel tubing and bracing wire however its dominance over the battlefield for the nine months from Summer 1915 to Spring 1916 means its long-term influence on air Warfare is incalculable what made the eindecker so lethal is that it had a mechanism that enabled the machine guns to fire forwards through the propellers without shooting the tips off this gave the pilot greater accuracy when aiming at an opponent but the system was far from reliable and as so often happens in Wartime three new British aircraft were about to enter service that would help shift the balance of power in the Skies over the Western Front the saltwood camel was equipped with two synchronized .303 machine guns but what made it a superlative fighter was its powerful engine the gyroscopic effect of the big closure rotary engine meant that the Camel had a tendency to flip to the right it claimed the lives of many novice Pilots but in the skilled experienced hands this instability made the camel highly maneuverable it could turn in an instant which made it arguably the best dogfighter of the war by the end of the war the camel could claim nearly 1 300 enemy aircraft destroyed more than any other Allied aircraft it also played a significant role in gaining Air Supremacy for the allies in this struggle it was joined by the SE5A despite a difficult development the SE5A was to prove immensely strong and extremely fast in a dive thanks to its powerful Hispano Suiza engine indeed many an RFC pilot on finding himself outnumbered was to live to fight another day thanks to the speed of the SE5A unlike the camel the SE5A was very stable making it safer and easy to fly in the hands of novice Pilots and although it only had one synchronized machine gun firing through the propeller it also had a second Lewis gun mounted on the wing but the engine's on reliability meant that far fewer se5as than camels were delivered by the end of the war in November 1918. as the war dragged on aircraft were designed for specific roles Fighters were generally agile fast and single seaters while reconnaissance aircraft was slow stable and usually crude by a crew of two the Bristol fighter was to prove the exception to the rule in that although it was delivered as a reconnaissance aircraft it was fast and maneuverable enough to take on German Fighters and win the Bristol Pfizer was powered by a Rolls-Royce Falcon engine and when it first entered Frontline service in April 1917 it proved vulnerable due to poor tactics but when the Bristol fighter Crews began adopting more flexible and aggressive tactics they found that the aircraft was capable of being flown in combat like a single-seater the Pilot's single forward-firing machine gun provided the main Armament with the observer's swivel mounted Lewis gun providing the sting in the tail the f2b version was to remain in RAF service until the 1930s serving with distinction throughout the empire the 1930s were to see great strides in aircraft design as monoplanes began to replace the biplanes the threat of War once again served to hasten development alongside the spitfar Lancaster and mosquito the hurricane is one of the four iconic British aircraft of the second World War however while the other three came from New Designs new technology and new construction methods the hurricane was the last of a great line of classic RAF Fighters during the 1930s Britain's military Air Services relied on a range of Hawker biplanes but with the rising threat of another war with Germany on the horizon the RAF identified its need for new monoplane Fighters by the end of 1935 Hawkers had built the Prototype of the new fighter although its construction was similar to that of a biplane its fuselage and wings were metal it was also equipped with four machine guns and powered by the new Rolls-Royce Merlin engine within a few months Hawkers received an order for 600 hurricanes an unprecedented number for a peacetime Air Force by September 1939 when war broke out the RAF had 19 squadrons equipped with hurricanes in total there were 497 in service with more than 3 000 still awaiting delivery these production aircraft had a few refinements including eight machine guns rather than the originally planned 4. hurricanes went to France in September 1939 and were heavily involved when the Germans attacked in May 1940. despite losses against the Germans bf-109s The Experience proved invaluable in the summer of 1940 when hurricanes and Spitfires flew together in the Battle of Britain the Battle of Britain was a watershed moment in the history of air Warfare and hurricanes shot down 55 of all the aircraft claim also the hurricane could survive much more battle damage than the Spitfire ease of production of the hurricane meant that there was never a supply problem for this reason all the squadrons newly formed during the battle were equipped with hurricanes the Spitfire was undoubtedly the elegant star of the battle but the hurricane was the Cornerstone of RAF fighter command during that vital summer after the battle the hurricane went on to prove itself as a night fighter during the blitz of 1941. they were also used heavily in every overseas theater of a war from the hot and Dusty deserts of North Africa to the steamy jungles of India and Burma however unlike the Spitfire which was constantly developed throughout the war there were only a few further marks of the hurricane culminating in the rocket firing mark IV which were used so effectively attacking ground Targets in Burma and India over fourteen thousand five hundred hurricanes were built with the last one rolling off in July 1944. it is now one of the few surviving aircraft flying in the world and the last of the many is flown by the Battle of Britain Memorial flight as a tribute to the pilots who flew this great fighter during the second World War the Spitfire is perhaps the most famous aircraft in British aviation history is wartime record coupled with the classic shape of its elliptical wings and the instantly recognizable sound of its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine make it one of the most popular aircraft at air shows 75 years after its finest Hour during the Battle of Britain in 1940. the Spitfire was the brainchild of R.J Mitchell the chief designer at Vickers supermarine who had also been responsible for a series of successful record-breaking racing seaplanes the S5 S6 and s6b had claimed the highly prestigious Schneider trophy outright by winning three races in a row between 1927 and 1931. and while there are no directly shared features between them and the Spitfire there is no doubt that the experience of high-speed flight was helpful in developing the greatest piston engine fighter ever the Prototype Spitfire flew for the first time at eastleigh in Hampshire on the 5th of March 1936 within four months it had flown in public at the Hendon air pageant and the air Ministry had placed their first order for 310 aircraft sadly Mitchell died from cancer in June 1937 but his work on the developments of the Spitfire was continued by Joe Smith Mitchell's chief draftsman although the first Spitfire production line was in Southampton plans went ahead for a huge new Spitfire Factory at Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands the raf's first Spitfire Squadron number 19 took delivery of its aircraft during the summer of 1938. there were 10 Spitfire squadrons by the outbreak of war and 19 by the start of the Battle of Britain new Spitfires went to France in 1939 and none were involved in the early fighting after the German attacks on 10th of May 1940. however the Spitfires saw their first combat towards the end of May and intensively over the beaches of Dunkirk foreign [Music] Americans and Spitfires flew in defense of the country there were a lot more hurricanes and they shot down more aircraft but it was the classic Spitfire that symbolized Britain's dogged defense this was held by the creation of Spitfire Farms whereby local communities could club together to raise the five thousand pounds needed to build a Spitfire after the Battle of Britain the Spitfire got better and better the Mark V dominated fighter command squadrons as they began their offensive operations over Europe when it came into service in 1941. until the even more advanced Mark 9 came in a year later and became the standard variant until the end of the war in 1942 Spitfires began receiving the bigger and much more powerful supercharged Rolls-Royce Griffin engine this meant a change of design and parts of the classic Spitfire shape disappeared over 1 800 Griffin engine Spitfires were produced across six variants culminating in the final Spitfire the mark 24. during the war spitfast flew successfully in every theater of war this showed the benefit of the modern design that Mitchell had created and the way it was able to be developed constantly including for the Royal Navy as a fleet fighter called the sea fire in all Spitfire production totaled more than 22 000 aircraft of which over two thousand were seafires more Mark fives were built than any other the Spitfire remains a classic packed with power but both graceful and elegant it's no wonder that they thrill crowds at air shows all over the world [Music] the Spitfires and hurricanes great adversary was the messerschmitt's bf-109 when it first flew in 1935 Germany was well advanced in the secret training of a new generation of lufafa pilots who would fly the latest aircraft the first production variants the 109a and B appeared in 1937 and were used extensively in the Spanish Civil War where the pilots gained valuable combat experience the best known and possibly the most liked variant was the 109e or Emil as it was nicknamed built in huge numbers the E helps the German Blitzkrieg sweet all before it in the Polish and French campaigns in the early months of the second World War in the battle for France all the French aircraft and even the raf's Hurricanes were simply overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of 109s over Dunkirk at the end of May 1940 the 109s came up against the RAF Spitfires and for the first time there was virtually equal contest the Battle of Britain proved to be an epic tussle but it was luftwaffe a policy that stripped the 109 Pilots of their full potential by forcing most of them to remain in position as escorts for the bombers rather than range freely in open combat but when they were given the freedom they showed their full worth unlike the luftwaffe Obama Force the fighter squadrons were virtually intact at the end of the battle by which time the next variant of 109 was on its way in June 1941 Germany attacked Russia in operation Barbarossa and many of the squadrons were now equipped with the 109 f with more powerful engines and often carrying small bombs the 109s roamed over the flat Countryside bombing and straffing Russian airfields any Russian Fighters daring to take them on in combat were soon dealt with 109 F squadrons also deployed to North Africa as part of rommel's Africa core and soon gained superiority over the inferior Allied aircraft there less than a year later yet another variant the G known as the Gustav arrived again with a more powerful engine it still had similar Armament to previous 109s and was now beginning to suffer not only from the improved quality of Allied Fighters but also from the sheer volume of aircraft being delivered into Europe by the American factories that were now on a war footing as the war progressed so the American daylight bomber formations became bigger and more dominant large numbers were shot down but eventually sheer weight of numbers and a lack of fuel told by the spring of 1945 the Allied bombers had destroyed Germany's oil industry and most German Fighters were grounded unable to defend against formations of 1000 aircraft or more throughout the war the 109 maintained its position as one of the most successful Fighters even in the face of enormous odds all the main luftwaffe Aces flew the 109 and two shot down more than 300 enemy aircraft despite the destruction around them the 109s had maintained their position as one of the greatest fighters of the war it was built in larger numbers more than 34 000 than any other German aircraft and saw action from the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s right through to the end of the second World War the Messerschmitt bf-109 ranks alongside the Mustang and spitfire as one of the greatest fighters in history [Music] in 1941 theforkov 190 started to appear in the Skies over France and the English Channel in opposition to RAF fighter sweeps such was the aircraft's performance that at first RAF Intelligence Officers refused to believe the claims How could a fighter with a large radial engine outperform the streamlined Spitfire although specified to sit alongside the messersmith bf-109 the fw-190 had very few similarities as most of the Daimler Ben's engines were being used for the 109 the fw-190 was given a BMW radial engine the fw-190 featured a wider undercarriage to make Landings more stable but the real difference was seen when it went into combat against the RAF Spitfire Mark V in August 1941. RAF loss is mounted and for a year the fw-190 ruled the skies until the new Mark 9 Spitfire was introduced after the RAF had managed to get their hands on an fw-190 mistakenly landed in Britain as Allied bomber raids grew 190s were used to take on the Mast formations of heavily armed American b-17s and b-24s protected by the escorts of P-51 Mustangs many were lost in the Normandy campaign as conflicting orders and aircraft being used for desperate low-level bombing raids took their toll by the end of June 1944 more than 200 fw-190s had been lost together with 100 experienced Pilots losses that would never be replaced more than twenty thousand fw-190s were manufactured and they flew in every theater of operations from 1941 until the end of the war many considered the aircraft Superior in some ways to the bf-109 but perhaps the production of almost 70 different variants for almost every role imaginable meant that the available aircraft was stretched too thinly [Music] the North American P-51 Mustang was one of the greatest fighters of the second world war ranking alongside the spitfar and the Messerschmitt bf-109 it was built in the thousands but the aircraft may never have existed if it had not been for a British Order in 1940 the British needed a fighter with the range to escort bombers as they began to take the fight to Germany but the only viable aircraft was the Curtis P-40 and the production lines were full North American approached them to buy B-25 like bombers but went away with an order for 320 of a new fighter armed with four machine guns delivery of the first production examples began just nine months later in 1941. just 102 days after the order was placed the Prototype was rolled out a few weeks later the order was doubled and North American hit their deadlines for delivery however the Mustang's performance was initially disappointing its Allison engine lost power as it reached fifteen thousand feet the likely height the bombers would be flying but Rolls-Royce suggested trying the same Merlin 61 engine that was to power the new Mark 9 Spitfire this engine transformed the Mustang into a world beater the Merlin offered increased range speed and altitude so the Mustang could now fly up to 42 000 feet but still be a formidable ground attack fighter at low level the Mustang is well known as the best escort Fighter for the huge formations of U.S bombers that flew over enemy territory every day in daylight the United States Army Air Force insisted that they could send streams of heavily armed bombers unescorted on raids in daylight against the never increasing luftwaffe or fighter Force but heavy losses meant that the usaaf had to change their plans Thunderbolts and Lightnings simply did not have the range required when it came into service in quantity in the winter of 1943-44 it was the Mustang that revolutionized the defense of the bomber streams for the first time fighter escorts could fly with the bombers all the way to Berlin and back they could reach the oil fields of plastic in Romania one of the furthest trips for the bombers and one of the most well-defended targets and as the war came to a close in 1945 the Mustang was the only fighter in the Allied Arsenal that could cope with the speed and power of the German me-262 jet fighter in the spring of 1944 the low-level qualities of the Mustang were in great demands in the struggle to gain and keep air superiority over the Normandy beaches and battlefields American Mustangs strafed airfields and destroyed large numbers of enemy aircraft on the ground while the RAF attacked V1 flying bomb sites the result was almost complete Allied air dominance over Normandy of the more than 15 000 Mustangs built over 2 000 entered RAF service the RAF Mustangs were used for RAF bomber escorts when daylight raids were resumed in 1944 and for ground attack after D-Day the Mustangs moved into Europe providing close air support for ground forces Mustang units operated with great success all over the European front including in Italy and the Mediterranean and there is no doubt that they had a major effect on the outcome of the air War Mustangs also flew in the Pacific but only in limited numbers after the war most piston engine Fighters disappeared or were relegated to Second Line duties but the mustang showed its worth once again this time in Korea where it flew more than sixty thousand sources [Music] during the second world war Britain faced a huge strain on resources like the metals needed to build aircraft even as early as 1938 the air Ministry was looking at a specification for a high-speed multi-purpose aircraft built using non-strategic materials during the 1930s de havillander gained considerable experience of building Innovative high-speed aircraft like the dh-88 comet using composite wood and synthetic adhesive after several full Stars the mosquito finally flew in November 1940. during tests the mosquito proved to be faster than a Spitfire thanks to its two Rolls-Royce Merlin engines the same type that powered the Spitfire the mosquito was flown by a two-man crew the pilot and a navigator bombayimer the mosquito excelled in all its roles at high level it was almost Untouchable at low level it was so fast that it could reach its Target and drop up to four thousand pounds of bombs before the enemy Feist defenses could respond mosquitoes were also used for photo reconnaissance and as night Fighters in fact it was so good in all the roles assigned to it that it became known as the wooden Wonder mosquitoes continued in production after the war until 1950. after the fall of France in 1940 Britain's only means of taking the fight to the enemy was with its bomber Force in 1936 RAF bomber command had been formed its role when war came was to attack the enemy's own military strength by bombing their air bases shipping troops Communications and all Industries used in the German war effort but in the first years of the war the RAF did not possess a bomber powerful enough and insufficient numbers to perform its Strategic Mission by 1942 the Allied bombing offensive against Germany was faltering the twin engine Frontline bombers used since the beginning of the war such as whitleys and hampden's had outlived their usefulness they couldn't fly high or fast enough and their bomb carrying capacity was woefully low they also couldn't survive against ever improving enemy Fighters as a direct result of the failure of the Manchester came a four engine version fitted with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines which flew for the first time in January 1941. from that prototype very few changes were made before the Royal Air Force began to recede the aircraft renamed the Lancaster in great numbers 44 Squadron based on Waddington in Lincolnshire was the first RAF Squadron to receive lancasters they flew them on a few mining operations before the first bombing operation on the 17th of April 1942 six lancasters from each of number 44 and 97 squadrons attacked a diesel Factory near Augsburg in Germany it was a low-level daylight raid and seven aircraft was shot down but they hit their target and from then on Lancaster squadrons were chosen for virtually every major bombing operation for the rest of the war perhaps the most famous of all was the dambusters raid carried out on the night of the 16th of May 1943. number 617 Squadron was formed specially for the operation one that had a massive impact on the morale of bomber commands the RAF and indeed the whole country they created heroes in the leader of guy Gibson who was awarded a Victoria Cross and Barnes Wallace the brilliant designer of the bouncing bomb that breached the Myrna and Ada dams after the dam raids 617 became the Squadron of choice when a difficult operation was scheduled every time the Lancaster was called on to perform with bigger and bigger bombs a little modification made it possible in November 1944 the Squadron sunk the German battleship tirpitz in a Norwegian Fjord using 12 000 pound tall boy bombs by the end of the war 617 Squadron lancasters carried 22 000 pound Grand Slam bombs into Germany and destroyed vital targets with accurate bombing the statistics for the Lancaster are amazing 7377 were built between 1941 and the end of 1945. they flew 156 000 sources during the war dropping more than 608 000 tons of bombs and an incredible 51 million in centuries being at the Forefront of the action Lancaster's bore the brunt of heavy bomber command losses where 3249 being lost in action and 21 000 crew killed Lancaster's continued in service with the RAF until 1956 but mainly with Coastal command as the bombers were replaced by new Lincolns now there are two remaining airworthy lancasters one in Canada and perhaps the most famous of them all PA 474 flown by the Battle of Britain Memorial flight as a tribute to the 55 000 man or bomber commands killed during the second World War when a local reporter saw the number of guns that bristles from Boeing's new model 299 he called it a Flying Fortress the name stuck and the B-17 was on its way to carve its name in history the Prototype was built in less than 12 months and financed entirely by Boeing and even when it crashed it was still chosen above the Douglas and Martin competitors as it outperformed both initial orders came slowly and in small numbers and each time small improvements were made until July 1940 when Boeing received an order for 512 aircraft by this time five variants had gone before and this the sixth was the b-17e the model that would bear the brunt of the first bombing operations in Europe the b17e carried nine machine guns and most of them were not the smaller 0.303 guns used by the RAF these were the bigger .50 caliber ones the aircraft was beefed up with a much bigger tail plane and longer fuselage it's a large it could now carry four thousand pound bomb load and was ready for war against Germany the first aircraft arrived in Britain in May 1942 and daylight operations started just three months later more aircraft a ride this time mostly the upgraded b-17f and it was in the spring of 1943 that the USAF was strong enough in Britain to take their full place in the combined offensive against Germany with the RAF bombers striking at night the b-17s spearheaded the U.S attacks by day it was two attacks on the ball bearing Factory at Schweinfurt in the Autumn of 1943 that persuaded the U.S commanders their strategy had to be changed huge losses up to 20 percent showed that daylight rays far into heavily defended German territory and unescorted by Fighters could not be sustained deep penetration raids were suspended until the new long-range Fighter the P-51 Mustang was available when the Mustang was introduced into service over Europe losses began to reduce rapidly losses dropped to around seven percent still too high but enough of an improvement for long-range raids to continue at about the same time the final variant the b-17g came into service this ultimate B17 had even more defensive capability by this time the number of guns had risen to 13. it could fly higher and its increased weight was virtually all extra defensive armor and as the weight of bombing raids took their toll on German industry and oil production so the B-17 raids became ever more safe by the spring of 1945 the number of enemy Fighters decreased and the losses became negligible [Music] b-17s operated in the Pacific and Italy and the RAF operated fortresses in coastal commands but it was over Germany that he gained a fearsome reputation as a tough rugged aircraft that could sustain much punishment and still reach the target air Crews showed a preference for the B-17 and gave them names like the famous Memphis Belle over 12 700 b-17s were built either by Boeing or under license by Douglas Lockheed and many still take pride of place in museums around the world Sally B is Europe's last flying B-17 and flies regularly from its home base at Duxford Airfield during August 1944 Allied Crews came under attack from a totally new type of aircraft a jet the Messerschmitt me 262 was the world's first jet aircraft to go into combat but thanks to poor tactical decision-making poor training and a lack of fuel and other essential materials the Germans were unable to realize its full potential although experiments with jets began before the war the priority was for large numbers of proven more conventional aircraft as a result jet development was delayed and the me-262 first Jet flight was not until July 1942. Hitler having watched a demonstration of the me-262 decided that this was the aircraft that could win the war for Germany so further development was ordered but as a bomber rather than a fighter this led to further delays which meant that the fighter variants only became available in too few numbers to make the kind of impact Germany needed at that point of the war when we finally flew in Anger the me262 was certainly impressive it could fly at 530 miles per hour which made it faster than anything the Allied Air Forces had it was also heavily armed with four 30 millimeter cannon giving it the punch to take down large American bombers in one pass in one burst of Fire by attacking at high speed the jet Pilots were able to shoot down 542 enemy aircraft with a loss of less than 100 of Their Own but the war was taking its toll on resources and the Jets were often grounded due to lack of fuel and parts also their airfields were being overrun by the advancing allies the extra power of the jet meant that aircraft are edging nearer the speed of sound the key factors holding them back were the aerodynamics straight Wings created drag and as German designers had demonstrated with the Messerschmitt 262 the future performance lay with swept wings the North American f-86 saber was the first sweat-wing aircraft to be flown by the USA and gained its legendary status in combat in the Korean War it was also the most numerous Western post-war jet fighter with almost 10 000 being built in the USA and around the world under license until production ceased in 1956 [Applause] North American Aviation had previously built one of the finest vital records of the second world war the P-51 Mustang and were in an excellent position to build one of the U.S Air Force's first jet in mid-1944 when both the British Gloucester meteor and the German me-262 Jets were already in production the U.S drafted a requirement for a single-seat high altitude jet escort Pfizer North American had already proposed the fj1 fury to the U.S Navy and chose to adapt that design for the Air Force unfortunately this new Straight Wing design could not reach the required speed of 600 miles per hour using captured German research data the designers realized that a swept Wing could help solve their problems the revised xf-86 prototype flew for the first time in 1947 and during routine test flights over the next few months the test pilots found that they could fly beyond the speed of sound despite officially being a subsonic aircraft in less than two years the f-86 was in service with the U.S Air Force just in time for the Brewing conflict in Korea a war officially fought by the United Nations but where much of the air combat was fought by the U.S Pilots despite little experience with the aircraft the saber became the primary air combat Fighter for the Air Force their main adversaries were Soviet builts mig-15s which could fly higher and climb faster than the early sabers however the experience gained by Seasons second world war U.S Pilots gave them an edge over their inexperienced Chinese and North Korean counterparts Mig Valley as it was known by U.S Pilots was the area Northwest of Korea bordering on China and crossing the yalu river it was the scene of so many dogfights and helped to forge the reputation of the saber and its Pilots during the war no less than 40 saber Pilots became Aces seven variants of the saber were built in the U.S starting with the f-86a four of them were pure day interceptors while three were all weather Fighters they all carried machine guns in Cannon and had the option of carrying Rockets or bombs for attacking enemy fighters on the ground during the nine years of production North American built over 6 000 aircraft while Canada built over 1 800 under license it was more than 400 of these Canada saber Mark IVs that were operated by the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1956 as part of their contribution to Nato defenses in Europe stations mainly in West Germany they equipped 11 squadrons until eventually replaced by Hawker Hunters Britain's first jet fighter with swept Wings was the Hawker Hunter which entered service in July 1954. it was also the first RAF fighter to go into RAF service with radar and fully powered flight controls many Pilots say that if an aircraft looks right then it normally is right and the hunter definitely falls into this category despite teething problems with firing its guns at high altitude the general design of the aircraft changed little through all its variants and years in service foreign Pilots loved it it was strong handled well and was very stable which led to it becoming the aircraft a choice for aerobatics both treble one Squadron and subsequently 92 Squadron the black arrows and the blue diamonds flew the F6 variant of the aircraft in their impressive aerobatic displays in fact one of the highlights of air shows worldwide would have to be the black arrows famous 22 ship loot at the annual farnborough air show of 1958. the hunter was powered by a single Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet and although it was not Supersonic in level flight it could break the sound barrier in a dive as well as being easy to fly the hunter featured removable weapons packs which meant that they could be re-armed quickly as a result it won many export orders with some Air Forces operating their Hunters well into the 1990s in RAF service the hunter was replaced by the much faster English electric lightning during 1963. however the hunter was found a new role providing closer support a two-seat trainer version was also developed for the RAF this side-by-side seating entering service in 1957. they continued in the training role until finally being retired in the 1990s by the end of its RAF career as a Frontline Interceptor the hunter was serving alongside a very different kind of fighter the English electric lightning could fly at twice the speed of sound and was designed around an integrated radar and weapon system to enable it to fight Beyond visual range initially the lightning was armed with two fire streak air-to-air missiles the idea was that these would be sufficient to bring down an attacking nuclear-armed Soviet bomber the first Lightnings had very limited endurance its twin Rolls-Royce avons were intended to get the aircraft into the combat zone in as shorter time as possible from takeoff it was certainly never envisaged that Lightnings would fly combat air Patrols but the development of in-flight refueling and the addition of an enlarged fuel tank greatly improved the lightens range in 1968 the Lightnings of number 74 Squadron set a new world record when they flew all the way to Tenga in Singapore using in-flight refueling a two-seat T5 trainer version was also introduced as the RAF did not have any other aircraft that were anywhere near as fast as the lightning when the McDonald Douglas F4 Phantom first appeared some said it looked as though it was designed upside down others said it was like putting Wings on a brick but when the aircraft flew all those comments disappeared the Phantom went on to become one of the most successful fighters in history the Prototype first flew in May 1958 and it was less than three years before the first operational aircraft reached Naval squadrons in 1961 for Fleet defense almost immediately the U.S Marine Corps followed with their requirements for a close air support fighter bomber finally the U.S Air Force realized the potential of the Phantom evaluates borrowed naval aircraft and ordered their own replacements for their f-104 starfighters when the f4c model was delivered in 1963 it meant that for the first time one fighter was being used by all three U.S services on the front line at the same time the F4 Phantom 2 as it was designated was an all-weather twin-engine fighter that could fly at twice the speed of sound its versatility meant that it became the chosen aircraft for no less than 11 Allied Nations including Britain's royal Navy and Air Force the first real test for the Phantom came during the Vietnam war they fought continuously with a variety of soviet-built migs and in air-to-air combat they came out well ahead although the Phantom was originally conceived as a fighter armed only with air-to-air missiles it also scored the first supersonic kill using machine guns when a North Vietnamese mig-19 was successfully shot down at Mach 1.2 Phantoms were also used in a variety of other roles including ground attack ground support and tactical reconnaissance many years later Phantoms were still being used in Operation Desert Storm the 1991 Gulf War to take out enemy missile sites in Britain Phantoms were procured after a long and painful political struggle the RAF was seeking replacements for the Canberra and Hunter initially the highly Advanced BAC tsr2 was to be the replacement but on cancellation the search began once more eventually the Phantom was chosen for both services the remained as key elements of the Royal Navy's defenses until the late 1970s while the RAF operated them for a further 10 years until replaced by the tornado the last U.S built Phantom was delivered to South Korea in 1979 while the Japanese continued to build under license until 1981. by that time more than five thousand of these great aircraft had been built incorporating regular updates in avionics engines and weapon systems in 2016 the U.S Air Force continues to operate both mans and unmanned qf4 test aircraft even before the United States entered the war in 1941 it had identified the need for an InterContinental bomber or super bomber the B-29 super Fortress although not InterContinental could fly higher and faster than the Japanese Fighters sent up to try and intercept them the B-29 was also the first bomber to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima which was to bring the war in the Pacific to an end but the search for Obama that could launch attacks from home soil in America continued the convair B-36 Peacemaker certainly had the range and payload and was the largest piston-engine aircraft to see operational service in fact it was so large the B-29 was redesignated as a medium bomber in 1955 the B-36 was replaced by an even more powerful aircraft the Boeing B-52 strato Fortress incredibly the B-52 has been in operational service for over 60 years Legend has it that the aircraft was designed in a hotel room in Ohio over a weekend the result was an eight-engine jet that was America's first long-range swept Wing heavy bomber it began Service as an InterContinental high-altitude nuclear bomber and over the years its operational capabilities were adapted to meet changing defense needs B-52s have been modified for low-level flight conventional bombing extended range flights and transports of improved defensive and offensive equipment including ballistic and cruise missiles that can be launched hundreds of miles from their targets the B-52's combat career began in Vietnam since then B-52s have played a role in every major conflict amazingly it has survived in the role despite the arrival of newer aircraft like the b-1b Lancer and the B2 stealth bomber what's more the B-52 has the capability to remain in service until 2040. [Music] after the second world war the Royal Air Force was responsible for carrying Britain's nuclear deterrence which at that time was a large free-fall bomb in time this became an air-launched guided nuclear missile pulled Blue Steel three different bombers were ordered that came to be known as the v-force the first of the v-force aircraft to enter service was the Vicar's Valiant in 1955 followed by the Avro Vulcan and then the Hanley page Victor the Avro Vulcan was arguably the most dramatic design of the trio even today the vulcan's enormous delta wing housing four Rolls-Royce Olympus engines never fails to impress one can only imagine its impact when it first entered service in 1956 provoking carried no defensive Weaponry instead relying on its ability to fly fast and high to avoid interception although they were also equipped with electronic countermeasure systems but during the 1960s tactics were changed to low level the Vulcan proved as capable at low levels as it was at high level operations [Music] throughout the 60s Vulcans were kept at 15-minute Readiness in case of attack once the Royal Navy's submarine launched Polaris entered service the v-force was stood down from such a high level of operational intensity [Music] a fleet of Victor tankers and a single Vulcan achieved the almost impossible when they flew a bombing Mission all the way from Ascension Island to Port Stanley on the Falkland Islands during the anglo-argentinian conflict of 1982. Vulcans were also converted to the tanker role to provide in-flight refueling with the last aircraft being retired in 1984. foreign the 1950s and 60s was something of a golden age for British aircraft designers Britain's aircraft industry was still made up of independent companies chasing the all-important government orders aircraft like the hunter lightning and Vulcan set benchmarks for designers around the world one of the most unusual aircraft to come out of this period was the Hawker Harrier the Harrier was the world's first aircraft capable of vertical and short takeoffs and Landing Vestal for short it may seem obvious now but the benefits of v-stall Technology are many Armed Forces could operate from smaller ships and smaller Landing grounds in fact they could land refuel and re-arm much closer to the front line providing almost constant support to ground forces the project began in 1957 and just three years later pe1127 prototype began its flight trials an order followed for nine evaluation aircraft known as the Kestrel which began flight trials in 1964. following the cancellation of a supersonic version the RAF ordered modified versions of these aircraft in 1966 they were designated the gr1 and their role was to provide reconnaissance and close air support to ground forces a naval version entered service in 1980 and had only been operational for a year before going to war in the Falklands campaign in 1982. during the early 1980s the Harrier was given a major revamp by McDonald Douglas in the United States the result was the gr5 7 and 9 series of aircraft and the av8b for the United States Marine Corps the Harrier remains in RAF and Navy service until 2010 although it continues in service with the U.S Marine Corps and will eventually be replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35 lightning II the Boeing F-15 Eagle began Life as a McDonald Douglas project to find a replacement for the F4 Phantom but unlike the Phantom the new aircraft was intended purely as an air superiority fighter today McDonald Douglas is now part of Boeing and the F-15 has evolved into a multi-role Strike Fighter that can fight its way to the Target hit a ground Target and then fight its way out at low or high altitude in fact the pilot can engage in enemy aircraft at the same time as the weapons officer in the back seat attacks a ground Target the F-15 is a beast of a fighter his twin engines can deliver a top speed of Mach 2.5 plus that's over two and a half times the speed of sound they are so powerful that it can accelerate while still in a vertical climb but it retains its maneuverability which is of vital ingredient in air-to-air combat since its operational introduction in 1976 f-15s have shot down over 100 enemy aircraft for no losses in 1989 a strike version entered Service as the f-15e Strike Eagle more than 40 years after first entering service the F-15 still plays a vital role existing and future upgrades are likely to keep it in the front line until at least 2028 and perhaps Beyond in the last years of the Cold War the Soviets Union alarmed by the United States plan to introduce new Fighters like the F-15 embarked on developing new aircraft of Their Own the result was the mikayan MiG-29 fulcrum followed by the Sukhoi su-27 flanker the aim was to create two aircraft each with a different mission the MiG-29 was a pure lightweight air combat fighter while the su-27 was a bigger long-range Interceptor not unlike the F-15 the issue 27 was also the first Soviet aircraft to use fly-by-wire technology the MiG-29 arrived first going into service in 1982. it was a twin engine fighter designed to counter the F-16 in terms of performance that's exactly what it did it came as something of a shock to the U.S department for defense when they first saw images of the aircraft in 1979 as it seemed that the Soviet Union was beginning to catch up with American Technology following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc NATO was able to evaluate the fulcrum's true capabilities what they discovered was staggering the fulcrum could fly at Mark 2.25 and climbed to 60 000 feet its biggest disadvantage was this very short range which meant it could only be used tactically to meet local needs however in close combat the German Pilots believed it to be almost invincible its agility and turn rate together with an excellent helmet mounted site meant that the luftwaffe thought it to be unbeatable mig-29s were exported to Warsaw packed countries and mikayan also created a downgraded export version for soviet-friendly countries the flanker actually flew for the first time some months before the fulcrum but it was not in service until 1985. bigger and heavier than the fulcrum it had more than twice the range allowing it to provide long-range escort for Soviet bombers such as the bear and the backfire unlike the fulcrum the flanker had a much greater development potential and modern Russian aircrafts such as the su-30 and 35 continued the flanker line of production the flanker had what no other contemporary Soviet aircraft had a true multi-role capability so it could fly high escorting bombers or even attack high-flying American bombers such as the B-52 and b-1b Lancer it could be used for air superiority but could also attack ground targets one great advantage over the fulcrum was its ability to track Beyond visual range it is this variety of ROMs that sees the flankers still in service today and new upgrades coming into service for the foreseeable future it was first built more than 40 years ago but the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is still the second most numerous aircraft in service in the world today a huge Testament to its versatility and durability [Music] the F-16 was originally designed by General Dynamics before it became absorbed into Lockheed Martin in response to an Air Force requirement for a new lightweight fighter contracted in 1972 the Prototype yf-16 flew for the first time in 1974 and proved to be better than its direct rifle northrop's yf-17 it had greater range a better performance and possibly the most important factor was considerably cheaper the U.S Air Force ordered an initial 650 aircraft and instantly other Air Forces particularly in Europe showed an interest in the F-16 to replace their aging Fleet of f-104 starfighters the first production F-16 now named The Fighting Falcon was delivered to the Air Force in 1979. in 1993 General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to Lockheed Martin who have continued building new and upgrading existing aircraft ever since in total more than four and a half thousand s-16s have been built the F-16 is a single-seat highly maneuverable lightweight multi-role air combat fighter a completely different aircraft to the F-15 it is almost half the weight single rather than twin-engined and 40 percent cheaper but with a Mach 2 capability and a very similar range of weaponry and while there are now barely 200 f-15s in service with the U.S Air Force there are more than 1 200 f-16s for more than 30 years the F-16 has been an integral element of the U.S Air Force both at home and on deployment abroad it has taken part in all major overseas conflicts since Desert Storm in 1991 including the Balkans Iraq in 2003 and throughout the Afghanistan campaign the sheer volume of f-16s in the U.S inventory has meant that the Air National Guard units in the USA have become better equipped than ever before it is also the current aircraft of the Thunderbirds demonstration team internationally the F-16 has become a vital component of some 25 Air Forces around the world one of the first had the first to use it successfully in air combat was the Israeli Air Force the current variants used by the U.S Air Force is the C and D which was first manufactured in 1984. it featured a major upgrade and there are plans for another to bring many existing aircraft up to f-16v for Viper standard at the current rate f-16s will stay in service until at least 2025. and will only be replaced when the production of the f-35a lightning II aircraft gets up to speed if there is a single theme that has emerged over the last 100 years then its longevity closely followed by a multi-role capability the time it takes to bring new aircraft from drawing board to flight is measured in decades which makes it almost impossible for military planners to know what sort of conflict they will be fighting cost is another major factor combat aircraft are spectacularly expensive to make and so service longevity and the multi-role capability become even more important another development is the rise of the Drone unmanned aerial vehicles or drones have had a profound impact on air Warfare replacing pilots on missions which are either too dull dirty or dangerous as was seen in the Vietnam War capture pilots paraded on television can have a profound political impact in years to come there may well be far fewer aircraft that we can call truly great thank you

Channel: Progress - Technology History Documentaries

Views: 137,913

Keywords: Progress, Documentary, Technology, Science, History, Full Documentary, battle of britain, world war ii, world war 2, WW2, WW1, Eindecker, Avro 504, Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, messerschmitt bf 109, messerschmitt, RAF, Bomber command, fighter planes, warbirds, Black Arrows, Air Show

Id: i68pwmkamAU

Length: 71min 18sec (4278 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 05 2023