Did anyone catch the history channel last night? Dogfight: The greatest air battles. Dogfights strategies from WWI to modern. They had the aces on the show to explain their famous battles and tactics It was very informative and great footage.
I caught it for the first time last night. That was very good. The last story with Cunningham and Showtime 100 was amazing. A series (even a mini-series) would be awesome since I imagine that there are many non-US pilots that have some incredible tales to tell. Did they ever say who the Mig pilot was that gave Cunningham and “Irish” such a hard time?
I’ve seen it before, but not yesterday…it’s pretty awesome isn’t it? I like hearing from the guys who were actually in it. It takes a special breed to fight in the air.
Weren’t they fighting the infamous “Colonel Toon”?
Cunningham was lucky to smoke him, given that he admitted he made two boner mistakes. But trust the good ol’ Phantom to brute force its way out of trouble… gotta love that aircraft.
Yeah, having afterburners baled him out and let him fight on his terms.
Too bad such a talented and honored pilot, one who wrote some very important chapters on fighter tactics, ends up becoming a crooked politician. Kinda depressing.
I’ve seen that twice, It’s very good. Having the actual pilots that flew was the best part. I can’t attest to the other info the history channel gave, but the info on the 109 was somewhat inaccurate. A G can turn tighter than a p-51B at slower speeds. At moderate speeds there turn radious is about the same. It’s at higher speeds the P-51 gets the advantage. They fail to mention this. The 109 at moderate speeds is a better dog fighter than the P-51.
I think I’ve seen it at least a dozen times. It’s been on The History Channel, History International, and The Military Channel a number of times, and it will be on again…and again…Sometimes they interupt Hitler or UFO marathons with stuff like this or the occasional haughted something or other.
Nope Nope Nope! It wasn’t using afterburner that saved Showtime 100, Cunningham actually had to cut his throttle back and force the Mig-17 out in front of him then Cunningham forced the Mig to disengage and set it up for a good sidewinder shot.
Yep, He brake checked him. Then smoked 'em. (His “loot” was up for auction about a month or so ago in a warehouse down in San Diego CA. Ironicly near Miramar.)
I meant that once he saw that his rolling sissor wasn’t going to work, he burned-out 2 miles and started back in. He could run away and re-engage almost at will.
It was never proven but was suggested that Cunningham and Driscoll’s third kill that day was the NVAF’s leading ace, Colonel Tonb…but again was never proven nor disproven…