Wings.Of.War.S01E05.The.Jet.Engine
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00:00For over a hundred years, battles have raged in the air for command of the skies.
00:09If you don't have air supremacy, you're in trouble.
00:13Since its earliest beginnings in World War I, the airplane is the supreme weapon of the
00:18armed forces.
00:19This was a real battle for civilization, for humanity.
00:24It revolutionized battle and changed the ways war was fought and won.
00:28The F-117 has obviously changed how we design aircraft and air campaigns.
00:34War drove innovation in the skies.
00:36What we hear from the Air Force is, when the F-35 wasn't there, all others died.
00:41When the F-35 was there, they reigned supreme.
00:44Aircraft bred a new kind of hero.
00:46The fate of entire nations depended on the bravery of a handful of men.
00:51An appreciation of the extent to which young men were willing to put their lives on the
00:55line for an ideal is something we need to remember more often than we do.
01:00In this episode, the race to build the world's first jet engine.
01:04Frank Whittle realized that if you fly at above 30,000 feet, you can fly faster and
01:10further.
01:11The first combat-ready jet plane that could have helped the Nazis win the war.
01:16The Messerschmitt 262 is years ahead of its time.
01:20The shocking Soviet fighter that blew US bombers out of the sky.
01:24Until that one moment in time, the MiG-15 was a world-beater, and everybody knew it.
01:29The blisteringly fast American Sabre that held the line in the Cold War.
01:33You had to point the nose straight down at around 30,000 feet, and you said, oh good,
01:38I'm supersonic.
01:40Hero of the Falklands, the great British jump jet.
01:44At odds of 12 to 1, you had to be good and lucky.
01:49The supersonic strike plane with a nose for the enemy in Vietnam and again in Desert Storm.
01:55We were armed, alone, and unafraid.
02:19Today, jet engines power all the world's most deadly combat planes.
02:33Compared to the first piston-powered aircraft, the advent of the jet engine was a quantum
02:39leap in aerodynamic technology.
02:45It allowed combat planes to fly faster, further, and higher than ever before.
02:52I loved it, because it was fast, and fast as life.
02:56I liked the power that it had.
02:58It had a five-stage afterburner, which gave you plenty of power to accelerate.
03:04The skies no longer had limits.
03:10For seven-some miles above the surface of the Earth, you fully engaged the entire plane.
03:15The jet engine let combat planes burst through the sound barrier and fly faster than a speeding
03:21bullet.
03:22Going supersonic, you don't know you've done it.
03:26You can't hear the bang.
03:27It's just a speedo telling you you've gone past Mach 1.
03:31You're aware of the extra pressure on the flying controls, but otherwise it's just a
03:34number on a dial.
03:39Perhaps the most iconic jet-powered fighter plane is the British Hawker Siddeley Harrier
03:44Jump Jet.
03:46Powered by a Rolls-Royce Pegasus jet engine, the Harrier was introduced in 1969.
03:52Four progressive versions followed.
03:57The Harrier Jump Jet was famous for its extraordinary ability to take off and land vertically, a
04:03first for a combat plane.
04:06It achieves this by four nozzles, which direct the exhaust of the engine straight down to
04:11operate vertically.
04:12How you actually do it is to move the throttle to half power, move the nozzles down into
04:19the vertical take-off position, and then very quickly select full power.
04:23The engine produces 21,500 pounds of thrust to lift the airplane.
04:31The Harrier Jump Jet was the preeminent British fighter of the Cold War era.
04:37Used by the Royal Air Force and the Army, it served in a variety of roles.
04:42The Army needed a close air support airplane, which could be brought into play very quickly
04:47onto the battlefield.
04:48It then went on to be developed into an air defense fighter for the Navy.
04:53The Harrier that we had in the Navy was mainly a fighter, but it also did the other two jobs
04:59extremely well, which was both reconnaissance and strike when we needed it, and that was
05:03probably the secret of its success.
05:05Used as a deterrent in the Cold War, the Harrier would soon showcase its exceptional versatility
05:11and raw jet power in combat.
05:17On April 2nd, 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a British colony in the
05:23South Atlantic, and war was declared.
05:26The British task force sent to reclaim the islands, 8,000 miles away, consisted of 28,000
05:32men, over 100 ships, and over 160 aircraft, including 38 Harrier Jump Jets.
05:40The main requirement was to achieve air superiority so that the ships could operate safely, and
05:47in order to do that, you had to be sure that they wouldn't be attacked.
05:53When the task force arrived in the South Atlantic, the British declared a 200-mile
05:57exclusion zone around the islands.
06:00If the Argentinian forces entered, they would be attacked.
06:04But in the sky, the odds were heavily stacked against Robin Kent's Jump Jet Squadron.
06:09We had 20 aircraft, and they had 240.
06:13So we were concerned that at odds of 12 to 1, you had to be good and lucky.
06:21All vastly outnumbered, the British Harrier pilots were well prepared for their dangerous
06:26and deadly mission.
06:29We developed tactics that we thought would be sufficient to take them in a hook attack.
06:36Key to the strategy was enticing the Argentinian pilots to drop in altitude to meet the British
06:44fighters.
06:46The Harriers operated in pairs.
06:49When one of the Argentinian Mirages dropped down to attack one of the Harriers, the second
06:54British jet would hook around the back of the Mirage.
06:58And one is now able to laterally come in probably blind and take a stern shot.
07:07May 1st, 1982.
07:09The British launched an assault to liberate the Argentinian-held capital of the islands,
07:14Port Stanley.
07:16Then, a senior pilot, Robin Kent and his Harrier squadron were in the air when they spotted
07:21the enemy.
07:23The first pair of Mirage 3s came in.
07:27My wingman and I engaged them, and we were going to set up exactly that hook maneuver.
07:32We subsequently realized they were not going to come down.
07:35We ran in.
07:36They came to within about 10 miles, jettisoned their tanks, and started to turn for home.
07:43That happened again on the second sortie, and likewise the third sortie.
07:47On the fourth sortie, they descended and started to engage almost immediately.
07:53Flight Lieutenant Barton shot down one of the Mirage 3s.
07:58At the end of day one, we had five confirmed kills.
08:05Thanks to the Harrier jump jet's power and versatility, British pilots were able to distinguish
08:10themselves in the war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.
08:15They flew 1,561 sorties, shot down 22 enemy aircraft with the loss of five Harriers and
08:23tragically one British crew member.
08:26Accidents claimed the lives of three further British crewmen.
08:30The cornerstone of the Harrier jump jet's combat success was its powerful Rolls-Royce
08:36engine.
08:37And for that, thanks are due to a 21-year-old British Royal Air Force cadet who sparked
08:43the jet age, Frank Whittle.
08:46It was the young pilot who invented the jet engine.
08:50The giant leap into a new age began less than a century ago in the 1920s.
08:57Frank Whittle came from a very humble background.
09:00He joined the RAF at the age of 16 as a fitter apprentice, and he also became a pilot, a
09:06very good test pilot.
09:08Frank Whittle wrote his revolutionary thesis, Future Developments in Aircraft Design, in
09:141928.
09:16He was about 20 when he came up with this.
09:18The key thing that Frank Whittle realised was that the higher you go in altitude, then
09:24the air gets much thinner.
09:26At above 30,000 feet, you can fly faster and further with less fuel.
09:32At a time when the fastest aircraft in the RAF were only flying at around about 350 miles
09:37an hour, Whittle envisaged a new fighter that would fly at least 500 miles an hour.
09:43His concept of the turbojet engine was relatively simple.
09:47At the front end, air is sucked into the engine.
09:51There it's squeezed by the compressor, creating higher pressure air, which then passes into
09:57the combustion chamber and is ignited.
10:00That air blasts out the back, producing thrust.
10:04As the turbine blades rotate, they turn the shaft, drawing in yet more air.
10:11Now all Whittle needed was some funding to build a jet engine and test his theory.
10:17But the young engineer had a problem.
10:19The air ministry wasn't interested.
10:21People just could not believe you could have a machine that could basically double the
10:26performance of the very best piston engine.
10:29It's too good to believe.
10:31Undeterred, in 1930, Whittle took out a patent on his jet engine design himself.
10:38Meanwhile, 500 miles away, in the heart of Germany, a young engineer, Hans von Ohain,
10:46had secretly set to work building a jet propelled engine.
10:51The UK wasn't aware of all these developments in Germany.
10:54It was kept secret.
10:55Hans von Ohain admitted in his own biography that he studied the work of Frank Whittle,
11:00his ideas for a jet engine.
11:02This was in the public domain.
11:04With World War II looming in the late 1930s, the race was on to build the first jet engine.
11:11The stakes were high.
11:12The side with the fastest plane would dominate the skies and defeat any enemy.
11:25With the storm clouds of World War II brewing over Europe in the 1930s, England and Germany
11:35were in a race to build the world's first jet engine.
11:40British aero engineer Frank Whittle had finally secured some private funding in 1935, and
11:46he formed Jet Powers Limited, a company dedicated to building jet engines.
11:53A German engineer found funding too.
11:56Hans von Ohain's support was from an impressive source.
12:00Unlike in the UK, where nobody in officialdom really wanted to know, in Germany they were
12:05very receptive, and the Heinkel Aeroplane Company became very interested in the potential
12:11of jet power supported by the German government.
12:15By April 1937, von Ohain had fabricated his first test jet engine.
12:21But it would take many more months to find the right fuel and mix to make it work and
12:26not blow up the engine.
12:30The British faced the same problem.
12:33But that same month, on April 12th 1937, Frank Whittle won the race.
12:41That was the sort of magic moment that actually was the birth of the jet engine.
12:46Frank Whittle was the first person who actually designed what we now know as a jet engine.
12:55Now the race was on to build the world's first jet powered combat plane.
13:01Days after Whittle, Hans von Ohain in Germany also successfully ran his first jet engine.
13:08And then set to work building a jet propelled plane.
13:12At the same time, Frank Whittle was grounded.
13:16The air ministry didn't really want to spend money on an unknown, unquantifiable new technology.
13:23Industry was happy just making piston engines.
13:26They were trying to build as many Spitfires and Hurricanes and other aircraft because
13:30they anticipated there might be a war within a few years.
13:33They didn't want to waste time.
13:37Meanwhile in Germany, on August 27th 1939, the Heinkel He 178 took flight.
13:46The German physicist Hans von Ohain booked a place in the history books next to Frank Whittle.
13:52The jet age had arrived.
13:57After the war, Whittle and Ohain both ended up in the United States in retirement.
14:02And they got to know each other and they became friends.
14:05Whittle, his lasting legacy to the world, is he transformed the world with the jet engine.
14:12Four days later on September 1st 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II had begun.
14:24Frank Whittle now got all the funding he needed.
14:30On the 15th of May 1941, with a power jet's WI turbo jet engine, the Gloster E28-39 Pioneer
14:39took to the skies.
14:41The invention of the jet engine has been described as the most significant invention of the 20th
14:46century.
14:47It totally revolutionized aviation.
14:49It consolidated the position of aviation as the most important weapon in war.
14:59But in the fervid quest for faster, higher and deadlier planes to dominate the skies
15:04in World War II, it was the Germans who streaked ahead.
15:09For years after their famous losses in the Battle of Britain, the Germans had radically
15:13redesigned their front-line fighter planes.
15:16And in 1944, they introduced the Messerschmitt Me 262.
15:23The Messerschmitt 262 is the world's first operational jet fighter.
15:28And as such, it's years ahead of its time.
15:31The key attribute of the 262, of course, is its speed.
15:37Powered by two Junkers Jumo turbo jet engines, the Me 262 had an operational ceiling of over
15:4337,000 feet, a climb rate of over 3,500 feet a minute, and a blistering top speed of 541
15:54miles per hour.
15:55The 262 is effectively about 100 miles an hour faster than the Allied piston-engined
16:01aircraft that are flying up against it.
16:04They simply can't catch it in a straight run.
16:08The secret to its speed was not only the two turbo jet Junkers engines.
16:13The Me 262 also had unique wings that were swept back from the fuselage.
16:19It was so effective that all the jet fighter planes that followed also featured a swept wing.
16:25The leading edge of the wing is swept several degrees, anywhere from 11 degrees to 45 or
16:3260 degrees, depending on the design of the aircraft.
16:35In contrast, the first combat planes, more concerned with stability and maneuverability,
16:40all featured straight wings.
16:42Up until the advent of the jet, almost every aircraft design was a straight wing, straight
16:49with the body of the aircraft or the fuselage, starting with two wings, in some cases three,
16:55all the way through towards the end of World War II, until the Germans introduced the first
17:01Me 262 jets into combat.
17:04So the main armament of the Me 262 is its four 30mm cannons.
17:09It also has provision for 12 air-to-air rockets under each wing.
17:18One of the Me 262's most successful missions came in the closing months of the war.
17:24On the 18th of March, 1945, the Me 262 probably has its best day when 37 Me 262's intercept
17:34over a thousand American bombers heading towards Berlin in very bad weather.
17:39It must have been pretty horrifying for the B-17 crews because Me 262's are flying way
17:44too fast, they cannot get a bead on them, the P-51's escorting them can't catch them.
17:55The German Me 262's had won the day.
18:01They managed to knock out 24 B-17's, a number of their escort fighters for the loss of two
18:07262's.
18:14In all, the Me 262's claimed to have downed 509 Allied aircraft in World War II.
18:20But the German fighter jet came too late to make a real difference for the Nazis.
18:27The 262 is sometimes described as Hitler's jet.
18:30He had great faith in what it could do to turn around the war, but in fact it was really
18:35introduced far too late for that.
18:39By that time, the skies are swarming with American aircraft, so as well as the 262 can
18:45perform, it's just completely overwhelmed in the sky.
18:51By the 2nd of September 1945, World War II was over, but the race to build the fastest
18:58and most deadly jet-powered combat planes had just begun.
19:05In the 1950s, a new conflict was heating up.
19:13One that would pit the United States of America against the Soviet Union.
19:18The Cold War.
19:19They first faced off in Korea, Southeast Asia.
19:23The pre-war Japanese colony had been occupied since the Second World War by the two superpowers
19:29and was split in half.
19:31The Korean Peninsula is effectively divided between the communist north and the non-communist
19:38south.
19:39South Korea was divided on the geographical 38th parallel line, and Russia was putting
19:47control of the northern part of Korea, and China and the People's Liberation Army.
19:52In the south, you've got the South Koreans now governed and controlled by the United
19:57States and their thinking and politics.
20:01And from that point, there was a rumbling of dispute over who would actually control
20:06the whole of the Korean territory.
20:09On June the 25th, 1950, the North Koreans crossed the line.
20:15In 1950, the North Korean people started to move south, started to move across the 38th
20:23parallel.
20:24So at that point, the first combats of the Cold War had actually begun.
20:28Within two months, before the U.S. could muster its forces, the South Korean army had been
20:34pushed into a corner of the country, an enclave called the Pusan Perimeter.
20:42But like all modern wars, dominance of the skies was key to victory.
20:47To do that, the U.S. and its U.N. allies needed to field the biggest and fastest planes with
20:53the most powerful engines that they could muster.
20:57The U.S. fightback came in the autumn of 1950.
21:01It was spearheaded in the air by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the piston-powered bomber
21:07that just a few years earlier helped end World War II.
21:15In September, U.S.-led United Nations forces landed en masse at Incheon, and thanks to
21:22close air support, they drove the Communists back to the borders of China.
21:27You could say that America had air superiority with the strategic bombing to start with.
21:32The B-29s and their long range, and their very, very capable air crews and pilots, and
21:37their very, very heavily armed aircraft.
21:42The U.S. Air Force ruled the skies, and just six months into the Korean War, the Allied
21:47U.N. forces could taste victory.
21:53Then on November 30th, 1950, a squadron of U.S. B-29 bombers were on a mission to strike
21:59an enemy airfield deep in North Korean territory, when a mysterious jet-powered fighter turned
22:07their world upside down.
22:131950.
22:21The Cold War was at fever pitch when the two superpowers, America and Russia, effectively
22:27faced off in Southeast Asia.
22:31The age of the jet-powered combat plane had arrived, and it caught the U.S.A. off guard.
22:38Korea.
22:40On November 30th, 1950, a squadron of U.S. B-29 bombers were headed to an enemy airfield
22:47in the northwest corner of the country, when they got the shock of their lives.
22:54Having been used to completely uninterrupted bombing runs, suddenly this new something
23:01had attacked them and passed them.
23:03The gunners on station in the B-29 hadn't even seen the aircraft coming, couldn't recognize
23:08what it was.
23:09The pilot of the B-29 couldn't identify what it was, it was there and gone and passed them
23:14so fast.
23:15What had just happened in those few terrifying seconds began to dawn on them that we must
23:21actually now have MiG-15s fighting against us, and that was a pretty terrifying prospect
23:26for anybody in the B-29s.
23:31In the race for aerial supremacy, the Communists and their MiGs had just burst into the lead.
23:37The MiG-15 shocks the aviation world.
23:40Nobody is quite prepared to see the swept wing, ultra-sleek, fast, maneuverable MiG-15
23:46as it arrives in Korea.
23:48So this was a huge, huge jump forward.
23:52The revolutionary step change of the MiG is harnessing the heart of any jet aircraft,
23:58which is its jet engine itself.
24:00The very powerful Klimov RD-45 motor inside the MiG was really what made the difference.
24:09In the Soviet-built MiG-15s, the powerful Klimov turbojet engine nearly doubled the
24:15average combat plane's top speed.
24:18At 668 miles per hour, the MiG was a world beater.
24:24The MiG-15 is capable of speeds of just under Mach 1.
24:29What the MiG-15 essentially does is it takes a new swept wing design, very efficient for
24:36high subsonic speeds, and it marries that with a heavy armament, a 37-millimeter cannon
24:43and two 23-millimeter cannons, as well as a reliable jet engine.
24:49So when it hits the skies over Korea, the B-29s are really in trouble.
24:56The B-29s have had pretty much unmolested access over that airspace and could carry
25:03out strategic bombing very, very effectively until the MiG-15 arrives.
25:07It can go to 50,000 feet ultimate ceiling.
25:11These aircraft could now swoop in and make very, very effective attacks on the B-29s.
25:19And initially in the war, these MiG-15s are actually flown by Russian pilots, highly experienced
25:25World War II veterans.
25:27So they are well akin to aerial warfare, and they're causing havoc.
25:39Tuesday, October 23, 1951.
25:44A squadron of nine U.S. Air Force B-29s left their base in Okinawa, Japan, en route to
25:51Namsi, a North Korean airfield.
25:55It was an airfield under development, and they needed to take that out, so they were
25:58en route when they were pounced on in that area called MiG Alley.
26:03This was the area of airspace which led in across North Korea, along the Yalu River,
26:09and alongside the Chinese border.
26:13It was the area where MiGs would wait on station at high altitude, waiting for the incoming
26:18B-29 bombers to start forming up to move in over North Korea.
26:23And at that point, the MiGs would pounce, so anybody in that area in a B-29 soon became
26:29very vulnerable.
26:32Only able to reach a top speed of 365 miles per hour, the big American bombers were no
26:38match for the lightning-fast MiGs.
26:41The Americans would call this day Black Tuesday.
26:44The MiG-15s could now dive down and attack the B-29 in waves, completely unhindered to
26:53attack the B-29 forces at will.
26:59On that fateful day, on Black Tuesday, six of the nine B-29 fortresses were taken down
27:05in that one raid alone, a devastating blow to the B-29 forces.
27:11Until that one moment in time, the MiG-15 was a world-beater and everybody knew it.
27:16Incredibly, the secret behind the MiG's success was that the Klimov engine was in actuality
27:23a Rolls-Royce jet engine in all but name.
27:30Keen to thaw Anglo-Soviet relations and giving assurance that the engines were for non-military
27:35use, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee gave Soviet leader Joseph Stalin a batch
27:41of Rolls-Royce Nene engines and a license to replicate them.
27:46Now Stalin's response to this is, who would be so stupid?
27:49But the Brits are apparently only too happy to offer this engine.
27:54The Soviet version was renamed the Klimov RD-45.
27:59And a few years later, it's that Rolls-Royce Nene engine that is powering the MiG-15 over
28:05the Korean Peninsula, shooting down UN aircraft.
28:11To win the war, the Americans and their UN allies, among them Britain, France and Australia,
28:17first had to dominate the skies.
28:20To do that, they needed to best the MiGs, urgently.
28:24So they radically improved their own jet fighter, the F-86 Sabre.
28:30The Americans had started development of the F-86 and then it was rushed into production
28:34and rushed to Korea.
28:36The F-86 is actually very similar to the MiG-15.
28:40It has that single engine swept wing design.
28:44The one key difference between the two is, rather than the heavy cannon armaments of
28:51the MiG-15, the F-86 is armed with six .50 caliber machine guns.
28:57So we're talking about just getting more lead in the air really for the American aircraft.
29:08Powered by a General Electric J-47 turbo jet engine, the final version of the F-86 deployed
29:15in Korea had 5,200 pounds of thrust and a top speed of 678 miles per hour.
29:24That made it faster than the MiG.
29:27And in a dive, the American F-86 could go supersonic, faster than the speed of sound.
29:35This is the North American F-86 Sabre jet, built in 1952.
29:40They made just under 10,000 F-86s in various models.
29:47With each model of the F-86 came technological upgrades designed to give American pilots
29:53the combat edge.
29:56This is an iconic airplane, you know, it was a groundbreaker in many ways.
30:01This was the first swept wing jet that the Allies had.
30:05With its wings swept back to 35 degrees, the extreme buffering experienced as a plane nears
30:11supersonic speeds is dissipated, and the plane's wings allow it to achieve max speed and slice
30:18through the sound barrier.
30:21You had to get up to 40,000 feet, turn over upside down and point the nose straight down
30:28and around 30,000 feet you finally went through the speed of sound and you said, oh good,
30:34I'm supersonic.
30:35For sheer speed, the American F-86 Sabre now had the edge over the Soviet MiG.
30:42But the MiG had greater mobility and could still outclimb the Sabre.
30:47In an aerial dogfight, those abilities were vital.
30:51The F-86 developed very quickly, which the US knew it had to do to keep up with combating
30:57the MiG.
30:59In the battle to beat the MiG, the American designers ingeniously modified the Sabre's
31:04tail section.
31:05The original F-86 was fairly stock, then someone came up with the brilliant notion of the flying
31:13tail.
31:14With the E and the F models, the whole horizontal stabilizer moving.
31:19Outfitted with a unique flying tail, the American Sabre was now far more manoeuvrable, and most
31:25importantly, it could outrun, outroll, and outdive the MiG.
31:32If I were looking at a straight match between the aircraft, I think the F-86 might have
31:39a slight edge, given that it can dive through Mach 1, and the MiG can't do that.
31:47It's a great delight to fly.
31:48The thrust of the engine versus the weight of the aircraft is very advantageous.
31:53So it's very light and quick.
31:55It was truly one of the last fun airplanes to fly, I think.
32:03The Sabre jet was stripped to the bone for action.
32:07It's not a highly pressurized cockpit, and you must be on oxygen all the time.
32:11Fifty percent of the atmosphere of the Earth is gone by 18,000 feet.
32:15So in the 40s, it's extremely thin.
32:18It's a very hostile atmospheric environment, temperatures down to 40 and 50 degrees Celsius
32:25below zero.
32:29With major Allied, U.S. and U.N. bombing raids strategically pounding North Korean targets,
32:35the F-86's task was to provide bomber protection for runs along MiG Alley.
32:42The difference in just one year was that the American jet fighter in 1953 was more than
32:48ready to go head-to-head with the MiGs for control of the skies.
33:06Korea, 1953.
33:10The Cold War between America and the Soviets was being played out on the far side of the
33:15world.
33:16Armed with an upgraded jet-powered combat plane, the Americans were now prepared for
33:22the new era of aerial warfare.
33:26Capable of supersonic speeds and outfitted with a unique flying tail, the American F-86F
33:33was built for one purpose, to take down the North Korean MiGs.
33:38In the war, the American sabers were primarily tasked with escorting Allied bombers on raids.
33:45That meant they first had to pass through the northwest corner of Korea, an area heavily
33:50patrolled by the enemy.
33:52It was known as MiG Alley.
33:54The MiGs would come in as high as 50,000 feet and jump the F-86 fighters who were at their
34:02maximum altitude of 45,000 feet, and then the fight would start.
34:07An F-86 US Air Force pilot during the Korean War, Jim Shelton, has first-hand experience
34:16of the Sabre's awesome firepower.
34:18It had six .50 caliber machine guns, and when you're coming down at a target and you squeeze
34:24the trigger, you thought the airplane stood still while the guns were firing.
34:31Powered by a supersonic turbojet engine, the new American F-86F turned the tables on their
34:37Cold War adversaries.
34:40The numbers are debatable, but by the end of the Korean conflict, the US and Allied
34:45UN F-86 pilots claimed to have shot down as many as 792 MiGs for a loss of only 78 Sabres.
34:56By the end of the war, the F-86 pretty much holds sway in the skies over Korea.
35:01The MiG-15 could probably outperform, it could climb faster than the F-86, it's just that
35:09our pilots were so much more skilled.
35:12But airpower and pilots on their own couldn't win the Korean War.
35:17On July 27th, 1953, an armistice agreement was signed.
35:22It permanently divided the country in two, north and south, along the 38th parallel.
35:30By 1960, the Cold War between the USSR and the United States was heating up again, and
35:37both sides were rapidly rearming to gain the advantage.
35:42Once again, a new generation of jet engine was about to play a pivotal role in the outcome.
35:48The American Air Force needed a low-flying supersonic bomber, and the US Navy wanted
35:54a fighter jet it could launch off an aircraft carrier to protect its ships.
35:59The answer?
36:00The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark strike plane.
36:05It was a Cadillac of the fleet, that's how I used to call it.
36:08For its role, for interdiction, long range, it was a Cadillac.
36:15With the many standout features, the F-111 was the first aircraft to have a swing or
36:21variable geometry wing.
36:23The F-111, the swing wings from 16 degrees to 72 degrees, sweep back.
36:30The swing wing on the F-111 gave you the capability to go fast for attack mode or slow for landing,
36:39and it was excellent.
36:41To generate maximum lift at takeoff, the wings are set at a 16 degree angle away from
36:47the aircraft's fuselage.
36:50After airborne gear flaps up, we went to 26, which was a good little cruising altitude,
36:54but then when we went down, we would usually swing to 45.
36:59At high altitudes, and to go supersonic, the wings are swept back a full 72 degrees.
37:09At the heart of the F-111's peerless power, the Pratt & Whitney TF-30P-111, the world's
37:16first turbofan after burning engine.
37:20It had two of them, and it had about 18,000 pounds of thrust per engine.
37:26It had twin engines, which gave you redundancy if indeed you lost one, which occurred to
37:32me one time when I had an oil line failure and I had to shut an engine down.
37:39A turbofan has a turbojet engine at its core.
37:44What makes it more powerful is an additional chamber surrounding the core.
37:49A huge fan draws air in.
37:51Squeezed, it then enters the combustor where it's ignited.
37:56The fan also sends air through a large cylinder that wraps around the core.
38:01The extra air cools the engine and reduces noise.
38:05But most importantly, in the F-111, its turbofan produces much more thrust.
38:12This made it quiet, fast, and deadly.
38:18At low altitude, the F-111 could fly at speeds of Mach 1.2, over 150 miles an hour faster
38:26than the speed of sound.
38:29And at high altitude, a blistering Mach 2.5.
38:34In addition to raw power, the extra fuel efficiency provided by the two turbofan engines extended
38:40the F-111's range.
38:42It had an excellent long-range capability of about 2,500 nautical miles on refuel.
38:52When the U.S. increased its military presence in Vietnam in the mid-1960s, they deployed
38:58the F-111s.
38:59In 1972, they were tasked with destroying North Vietnamese airfields in what was known
39:06as the Linebacker Raids.
39:08In Vietnam, it was called Whispering Death because they could not see it at night or
39:15in the weather.
39:16They couldn't hear it.
39:17It was going so fast.
39:18By the time they heard it, they couldn't get their guns around or get a lock.
39:22We were armed, alone, and unafraid.
39:27In Vietnam, it found its niche in life.
39:29It was so fast and low, it could fly at night and in the weather.
39:36The F-111 had a state-of-the-art, all-terrain tracking radar system, which allowed it to
39:42hug the ground.
39:43And it was a clue to its inauspicious moniker, the Yardbark.
39:48The Yardbark, which is an anteater, you can tell when you look at the F-111 how the nose
39:53looks like it's snooping along the ground, just like an anteater does looking for ants.
39:58To me, it's the biggest thing.
40:00The terrain-following radar, which looked vertically, and it had another radar, similar,
40:05it was called Situation Awareness Radar, when it looked horizontally.
40:12The American F-111's combat record in Vietnam was outstanding.
40:17It flew 4,000 missions, and only six Yardbarks were lost.
40:24When in 1990, Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army invaded Kuwait, it ignited the Gulf War.
40:31Jet-powered combat planes were about to prove more decisive than ever.
40:36The F-111s were once again called into action.
40:40On January 17, 1991, Operation Desert Storm was launched.
40:47Using the U.S. and Coalition assets, 66 F-111 strike planes, its all-terrain radar and ground-hugging
40:55abilities made it ideal for Desert Storm.
40:59It was to take out mainly the air defense sites, destroy the airfields.
41:03That was its main purpose.
41:06Retooled for a new war with digitally enhanced laser-guided munitions, the upgraded F-111s
41:13were at the tip of the spear.
41:17So when it went into combat, it had not only conventional bombs, laser-guided bombs as well.
41:23During Desert Storm, the American F-111s were sent to take out command and control centers.
41:30For what would be a concrete-busting mission, they carried an extraordinary payload.
41:36It was a bomb called the GBU-28, and it was a 5,000 pound bomb designed for that F-111.
41:42It was a bunker-buster.
41:46After decimating the Iraqis' command and communication centers, the F-111s were redirected to tank-busting duty,
41:54tasked with taking out armored vehicles.
41:58And they would drop these laser-guided bombs.
42:01Right down the line, laser-designating it, dropping one bomb, one target.
42:08So it destroyed or immobilized much of their armor.
42:12It was very effective.
42:17Operation Desert Storm ended on February 28, 1991, and the American F-111 artillery had excelled.
42:27In all, they flew over 5,000 missions in Iraq, and they destroyed over 1,500 tanks and armored vehicles.
42:35The last F-111 to serve was retired in 2010.
42:40It's earned a place in the pantheon of great jet-powered combat planes that have revolutionized aerial warfare.
42:52And it was all thanks to Frank Whittle and his invention of the jet engine.
42:57The jet engine was invented in the early 1940s.
43:02What did that change?
43:04Suddenly, the performance, the speed of airplanes increased significantly.
43:10The big difference is that you get there faster, therefore, in a given period of time, you can go further.
43:19Today, there are some 20,000 military jets actively being flown by air forces around the world.
43:27With aerodynamic technology constantly being perfected and reimagined,
43:31the promise is that with each new generation of jet engines,
43:36combat planes will fly even further, faster, and engage adversaries with ever-increasing ferocity well into the 21st century.