Quote:
Originally Posted by jimbuna
That is most probably the case....and yes, a beautiful aircraft.
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A product of the same folks who brought us the P-51 Mustang.
The Korean War was also the first airwar that suffered from planning by people far from the front. US Command was in Japan, and it showed. You would have F-80s, F-84s and F-9-F Panthers doing ground attack with Mustangs and Corsairs as top cover. Yes, that's jets doing the ground-pounding and the older "prop-jobs" as we called them when I was a kid, trying to take on the MiGs.
In World War 2 it could be doubly dangerous for a fighter pilot, because a P-51 head-on at 300 yards looks very much like a Bf-109 at 200 yards, and bomber gunners tended to shoot at both. In Korea they actually assigned straight-winged F-84s as close escort for the B-29s, with F-86s flying high cover. They were told to not chase the MiGs through the formations, because the B-29 gunners were told to shoot at anything with swept wings.
Two Korea airwar movies you should not miss.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046806/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051750/
Too much schmaltz and not enough flying in both films, but what is there makes them both worth a look.
Except for Platapus, who will hate
The Hunters, as it's
Crash Dive with airplanes.