Air Combat Pilot: WW2 Pacific

In September of 1942, the US Navy was able to capture, restore, and fly a Japanese A6M Zero. At the time, the Zero had a reputation as the alpha dog of all fighters in the Pacific. After 24 test flights, Lt. Commander Eddier Sanders discovered some flaws in the seemingly unbeatable Zero. The Zero had trouble performing rolls at high speeds, and the engine would sputter badly when on a high speed dive. With this information, pilots began to start using strategies to force Zeros in maneuvers that the plane struggled with. Eventually, the Zero lost its untouchable reputation, and the US’s newfound knowledge certainly helped turn the tide of the war in the Pacific.

An F-80c, a variant of the P-80 Shooting Star, drops na**lm during an air strike in North Korea.

“MiG Alley” refers to the northwestern part of North Korean along the Yalu River. The name was coined by United Nations pilots because that area of North Korea was the site of numerous dogfights between F-86 Sabres and Soviet supplied MiG-15s.

The lesser known Douglas A-20 was a medium bomber and reconnaissance aircraft which saw action across the globe during WW2. The A-20 was undeniably important, and known as a true “pilot’s plane” because its surprising agility gave pilots the freedom to maneuver it like a fighter. You can take to the skies in the A-20G and A-20J in Air Combat Pilot Pacific!

Captain Joseph McConnell is the top scoring jet ace in the USAF. McConnell shot down 16 North Korean MiG 15s while piloting his F-86 Sabre during the Korean War.

The first ever jet versus jet dogfight in Korea ended in Lt. Russell Brown shooting down a North Korean MiG-15.

Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier. He did it in an experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane. The aerodynamic body of the X-1 inspired many subsequent fighter designs.

The highest scoring American ace of all time and Medal of Honor recipient Richard B**g in his P-38 Lightning. B**g recorded 40 enemy aircraft shot down over the course of WWII. After his promotion to V Fighter Command in 1944, he was no longer required to fly combat missions but did so anyhow. After the war, B**g was selected as a test pilot for new experimental jet aircraft. Sadly, B**g was killed in a crash when testing a P-80 Shooting Star which had malfunctioned.

The Japanese cruiser “Mikuma” in flames while another wave of Dauntless dive bombers approaches to engage during the Battle of Midway. June 6th, 1942.

Legendary Royal Air Force ace Douglass Bader sits on his Hawker Hurricane, 1942.

A damaged TBF Avenger on final approach to land on an aircraft carrier, January 1942.

Name this iconic plane:

“The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down.”
-Chuck Yeager

B-17s bombing the Focke-Wulf factory in Marienburg, Germany. Focke-Wulf was a German aircraft manufacturer, which produced many of the Luftwaffe’s planes.

In 1944, Col. Bruce Carr’s P-51D was shot down by German flak while providing air to ground support for American troops in Czechoslovakia. He crash landed close to a Luftwaffe airfield, and planned to surrender. His plans changed when he saw a German FW 190A-8 fighter being fueled up on the runway. Carr stole the fighter and managed to fly it back to the Allied base in France while evading fire from both Germans and Americans. After landing, American soldiers surrounded the fighter with weapons drawn. They were dumbfounded to see Col. Bruce Carr inside the cockpit of the German fighter.

July 30th of 1954 marked the first flight of the Grumman F-11 Tiger. The Tiger became well known for being the first plane to shoot itself down. During a test flight in September of 1956, Tom Attlridge fired the plane's 20mm cannons while on a dive. As the rounds’ velocity slowed, the plane accelerated into the path of the lead barrage. The plane's right intake was damaged, causing the engine to quickly lose power. Unable to make it back to base, Attlridge was forced to crash-land the Tiger. Fortunately, Attlridge survived.

American twin-engine bombers, provided by lend-lease, are shown being hoisted aboard ship in an unnamed American port.

Capt. Edward J. Steichen, USNR, (retired), photographic expert, on island platform, studies his surroundings for one of his outstanding photographs of life aboard an aircraft carrier. Capt. Steichen held the rank of Comdr. at this time., ca. 11/1943

F6F takes off from USS Lexington (CVA 16) for third day of strikes in attack on Mili Atoll, Marshall Islands., ca. 11/1943

An external view of the abandoned B-24 which, according to investigators, bellied into the sand with three engines feathered and without fuel; the fourth engine was still operable. Wheel tracks on the sand are of the geological team that discovered the wreck.

"Sharing credit for Negro fighter pilots' victory over N***s are mechanics George Johnson...and James C. Howard... . Their outfit, the 99th Fighter Squadron, bagged 12 N**i fighter planes in two days."

The USS MONTEREY, ca. 1944.

"Pilots of a U.S. Army Air Forces fighter squadron, credited with shooting down 8 of the 28 German planes destroyed in dogfights over the new Allied beachheads south of Rome, on Jan. 27, talk over the day's exploits at a U.S. base in the Mediterranean theater. Negro members of this squadron, veterans of the North African and Sicilian campaigns, were formerly classmates at a university in the southern U.S."

"Fliers of a P-51 Mustang Group of the 15th Air Force in Italy `shoot the breeze' in the shadow of one of the Mustangs they fly."

Ordnancemen loading belted cartridges into SBD-3 at Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia

Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., Pilot of the Enola Gay, the Plane that Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Waves from His Cockpit before the Takeoff, 6 August 1945, Army Air Forces

What's the best nose art you've ever seen?

USS ESSEX based TBMs and SB2Cs dropping bombs on Hokadate, Japan.

USS SHAW exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, T.H.