by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
This adrenaline-pumping new series on the History Channel is for serious aviation junkies who want to relive the most famous aerial dogfights in history. The action dates back to WWI when the flimsy biplanes fought each other with handguns and machine guns. Since the Wright Brothers’ first flight was in 1903 and the First World War began in 1914, development of the airplane was in its infancy. At first, no one knew what to do with it in wartime.
The early biplanes were considered strictly a reconnaissance tool, but then some pilot decided to take a pot shot at the enemy and bang zoom, the airplane became a tactical weapon. Some smarty-pants fly-boy got the idea of mounting a machine gun on the fuselage. Fine, but the first guy to try this new weapon shot his propeller off and crashed. Then a German engineer invented the synchronized cam shaft that allowed the gun to fire between the spaces in the propeller. The invention allowed opposing forces to chase each other in what was tagged “dogfights,” developing the strategies and flying skills that are still taught in the Air Force’s Top Gun school. Terms like getting on the “enemy’s six-o’clock” entered the lexicon.
Now, of course, the newest tactical fighter–light-years ahead in stealth technology--the F-22 Raptor can shoot down multiple targets at more than 100 miles away with smart missiles. It is both an air-to-air tactical fighter and a bomber. Despite all the advanced missiles, every fighter pilot wants a gun just in case he encounters and enemy fighter at close range. And yes, the F22 has a rapid-fire 20mm cannon as a last resort weapon.
This need for a gun dates back to Vietnam when at first the F4 Phantom fighters had no gun. It was strictly a fighter-bomber. But that changed when several F4s were shot down by Mig fighters with guns. Nonetheless, in Vietnam, the biggest danger to the F4 Phantoms was the enemy’s SAM (Surface to Air Missiles) sites.
The new series Dogfights recreates the famous battles in aviation history using advanced CGI graphics. With up to 25% of the program consisting of animation, the viewer gets a cockpit eye-view of the action. First-hand accounts from veterans authenticate the stories. Rare archival footage and original scenes supplement the CGI. The series features aerial action from WWI through the Korean war, which featured American F-86 Sabre Jets versus Russian-made Migs. In these dogfights, the F-84 was equipped with four rapid-fire 20 mm cannons mounted in the nose and some early sidewinder heat-seeking missiles. Also, the series includes a few rare dogfights during the Vietnam War.
In the premiere episode, titled Mig Alley, Air Force F-86s met the enemy Migs over a land mass above Korea called “Mig alley” where history’s first jet dogfights occurred. American aces Robbie Risner and Ralph Parr shoot down dozens of Mig-15 fighters as the viewer sees the action in incredible detail.
In another episode, Air Ambush features Colonel Robin Olds setting a trap for the North Vietnamese Mig-21s. His squadron, the famed Wolfpack, disguised an F-4 Phantom as a vulnerable bomber, with the other F-4s at high altitude. The Migs fell for the trap and attacked. The air sting was called Operation Bolo and it devastated the Migs.
Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, a courageous band of American pilots challenge the overwhelming might of the Japanese Air Force in an episode titled Flying Tigers. The legendary Flying Tigers race through the skies of China and vanquish the Japanese dominance of the air. The action follows Tiger aces Tex Hill and John Alison in their P-40 Tomahawks that dogfight to the death against the agile Japanese I-97 Nate fighters.
In 1943, over the skies of the Pacific ocean, the fast and maneuverable Japanese Zero was decimating American aircraft. At the time, the American fighters were inferior to the Zero. That changed when the Navy rushed to deploy a new fighter–the mighty F6F Hellcat, which could out-fly the Zero in every maneuver. Inside the Hellcat, the pilots took full advantage of the Zero’s weaknesses. It proved to be a mighty tactical fighter that cleaned house on the Zeroes giving the Allies air superiority in the Pacific theater. This episode is especially exciting as American aces in their superior F6F Hellcats easily outwit the Japanese fighter pilots.
The series runs on the History Channel, Friday nights at 10:00 pm ET with repeats throughout the week.
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