All language subtitles for B T W S03E03 1080p WEB h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

- This program was made possible
by Wings Over the Rockies,

educating and
inspiring all people

about aviation and
space endeavors

of the past, present,
and the future.

Hi, I'm Shahn Sederberg, and
this is "Behind the Wings".

In this episode, we'll
get an inside look

at the Century Series fighters.

- [Narrator] Three Century
Series strike aircraft.

- You ever flown an
airplane, Lieutenant?

- No, sir.

- [Shahn] The Century
Series defined an era

of aviation during the Cold War,

charting a course from
one era to another.

- [Narrator] First of
the supersonic fighters.

- Jets were in their
infancy, and many milestones,

including the sound
barrier, loomed large.

- [Narrator] Welcome to
supersonic pilot training.

- Morning, sir.

- [Shahn] In an arms race
with the Soviet Union,

a rising superpower,

the US got to work

developing a variety of
impressive fighter jets

known as the Century Series.

It's time to go
"Behind the Wings".

(cheerful music)

- I'm Chuck Stout.

I'm the curator

at Wings over the Rockies
Air and Space museum.

As soon as we started
developing jet fighters,

we knew that we wanted
to build something

that would go faster
than the speed of sound.

So the sound barrier
was first broken

by Chuck Yeager in 1947.

Manufacturers started trying
to figure out immediately

how they could build a
supersonic production airplane,

an airplane capable of
exceeding the speed of sound

in level flight.

We recognized that the Soviet
Union would be a major threat,

a threat to democracy.

We had nuclear weapons and
they didn't until 1949.

So as soon as they started
exploding nuclear weapons,

then it became the Cold War.

In the late '40s, early 1950s,

we realized that the
biggest threat now

would be Soviet bombers
coming over the pole,

carrying nuclear weapons.

So the first efforts

towards building supersonic
fighters and interceptors

were to take out nuclear bombers

coming from the Soviet Union.

Because of the Air
Force numbering sequence

of their fighter planes,

the first supersonic fighter
happened to be the F-100,

hence the beginning
of the Century Series.

- [Narrator] The big punch
of the Tactical Air Command

is made up of these three
Century Series strike aircraft.

All can deliver nuclear
or non nuclear weapons.

The North American
F-100 Super Sabre,

first US Air Force fighter
to fly operationally

in supersonic speed in
straight and level flight.

- My name's John Stewart.

I joined the Air Force in 1966

and I went to F-100 training
school at Luke Air Force Base.

Graduated from that and
went directly to Vietnam

in October of 1968,

I had gone to high
school overseas

at Wheelus Air Force Base.

And so I'd seen an F-100
when I was in high school.

When we'd go to lunch, they'd
be at the officer's club

and you'd see the
pilots hanging around

and you thought, this
was really something.

And then eight years
later, I was flying one.

The first time I flew the
F-100 was quite a thrill.

The first time I soloed
and got in an airplane

with only one seat,
no one in the airplane

and lowered the canopy, and
I said, here I am flying

what at the time was one
of the most iconic fighters

in the Air Force.

The people that flew the F-100s

were hardcore fighter pilots.

They lived on the edge.

It just had an image
of a big, bad machine.

You had to be completely
in charge of the airplane

to fly it and survive.

And so you looked
at these people

as almost demigods of aviation.

Almost the first day
in F-100 training,

they showed us a video of one
of them, the early models,

that did what they
call a sabre dance

and it ended up crashing.

It was at Edwards
Air Force Base.

And they talked about
the challenges of
flying this airplane

and the characteristics of this
airplane when it gets slow.

And the fact they
drilled into our head

that you must understand
how to fly it,

or you'll be one of those
people that does a sabre dance

and you won't live through it.

And the flying of it,
it was very heavy.

38,000 pounds maximum weight.

It had low performance unless
you had the afterburner

and the afterburner
gave 60% more power.

- [Pilot] Okay, I
got the burners.

It's a good light.

- It was a very
responsive airplane

once you got up to
about 300 miles an hour.

Before that it was a little
sluggish at slower airspeeds.

Well, the F-100 had a
worldwide reputation

as the first fighter aircraft

that would go supersonic
in level flight.

- [Narrator] Unveiled in 1953

was the first of the
supersonic fighters,

fighters capable of
operating regularly

above the speed of sound.

- Prior to that, all the
supersonic flight had occurred

in taking the airplane
up to 40000 or 50000 feet

and going in a steep dive
and going supersonic.

During training and we'd
go out and accelerate it,

go through Mach 1.

And then when you got back,
Northrop gave you a pin.

And so that was cool.

The airplane, when you went
Mach 1, you hardly knew it.

There'd be a little
change in the feeling

of the flight controls

because when you go supersonic,

the pressure on the airplane
changes dramatically.

You said, well, here
I went supersonic

in the first airplane that went
supersonic in level flight.

You felt like you were in a
special group of aviators.

Like the space race, we
were in a race in the nation

and the people that were
developing airplanes

were trying to improve the
airplane's performance.

- [Narrator] Now from
experimental labs
and drawing boards,

there came yet another
aviation miracle, the jet!

- Before that in World War Two,

except for a few German jets,
there were just prop planes.

And so the transition
from propeller planes
to jet airplanes

was just taking place
when the F-100 came in.

- [Narrator] After many
years of study and research,

jet powered aircraft
was a reality.

More powerful than any
plane previously conceived,

the jet opened up a new
vista in aviation progress.

- And the shape of the fuselage

was part of the technology.

And a lot of it
was experimental.

They didn't really know
what was going to happen

until they got the
airplane and tested it.

The F-100 started the series.

And each one, they
were trying to go

faster and faster and faster

and have more combat capability

as they went through
the Century Series.

- Okay, we get it.

These fighter jets
are super fast.

But how exactly do
sonic booms work?

Next we'll hear
from Camille Calibeo

to learn a little more
about sonic booms.

- The Century Series fighters

were some of the first planes
to reach supersonic speeds.

But how do sonic booms work?

Imagine you are walking
down a crowded sidewalk.

You were walking
at a decent pace

faster than the other people,

but they have time to react and
move out of the way for you.

This analogy applies
to subsonic flight.

You are the plane

and the people around
you are the air molecules

the plane is trying
to move through.

The air molecules have time
to react to the plane coming

and can move out
of the way for it.

Now imagine that you
are in a big rush.

This time you are moving much
faster than the other people,

and they don't
have time to react

and move out of the way for you.

This analogy applies
to supersonic flight.

Again, you are the plane

and the people around
you are the air molecules

the plane is trying
to move through.

The plane is moving much faster

than the air
molecules can react,

which means they don't have
time to move out of the way.

The supersonic plane in this
instance causes a shockwave

because the air
molecules have compressed

and built up a lot pressure

just like you would compress
the people in the crowd

if you were running
and pushing through it.

Shockwaves looks similar
to wakes created by boats,

except that they are
three dimensional cones

that extend all the
way to the ground

from the front of the plane.

On the ground, a sharp
release of pressure occurs

and creates what is
called a sonic boom

that you would hear whenever
the plane passes over you.

- Development was very fast

and progress was going
at an astonishing rate.

At the same time
that North American

was developing the F-100,

McDonnell was
developing the F-101,

and Lockheed was
developing F-104,

Convair was
developing the F-102.

- [Narrator] The year 1957
was an increasingly active one

for the F-102
flight test program.

- [Chuck] The F-102 was
intended to be supersonic,

but during its initial test
flights, it was subsonic.

That was very disappointing

because they did
everything right.

They did everything
according to the rulebook.

- The first jets were tubes
with intake in the front

and exhaust in the back.

And you would attach
wings and fuel tanks to it

and a cockpit and
away you would go.

When we started to getting to
the point of pushing the Mach,

going Mach 0.9, 0.95, 0.97,

you'd run into a wall.

Drag profile would go way up

and the thrust profile
wouldn't change.

That was what was called

for many, many years
the sound barrier.

- [Narrator] Now at
the speed of sound,

it forms a dangerous
wall of shockwaves

known as the sound barrier.

- It's not a barrier at all,
it was an aerodynamic problem.

- Meanwhile, in another
part of the country,

NASA had scientists
working on aerodynamics.

One of them, Richard Whitcomb,

had been studying the
area rule for years.

- When you started
approaching the Mach

you would get huge drag
rise over those wings.

This guy found out
that you really needed

to have the profile
that looks like this,

including the wings.

So to do that, they took a
big piece out of the fuselage

called the Coke bottle effect.

And that would give a total
profile going through the air

of a fairly sleek design.

- When you look at
the old-fashioned

glass Coca-Cola bottles,

they start out
narrow, they get fat,

then they narrow again and
then they get fat again.

And if you look at
supersonic airplanes,

there's always a narrow part

where the wings stick
out from the fuselage.

And usually the tail gets a
little bit wider behind that.

So that's the Coke bottle
that everybody talks about.

- The F-102 wouldn't
even come close

to going through the Mach.

They changed it.

They put some big twofers on
the outside of the engine,

in the rear.

They changed the intake
design, which was upfront.

And then they took a big
chop out of the fuselage

to give it an area rule.

Then they found out the thing
went supersonic just fine.

With the same engine.

(pensive music)

- The Century Series exemplified
an era of rapid development

fueled by the military tensions

and resulting demands
of the Cold War.

The US government
approached manufacturers,

simultaneously producing
a variety of aircraft

each with their own
unique characteristics
and capabilities.

Next we'll take a look at the
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter,

a single engine supersonic
interceptor aircraft

that was used extensively
during the Cold War,

and eventually saw
widespread manufacturing

and use outside of the US.

- When I got into the Air Force,

I decided I had to
be a fighter pilot.

That's how I got into F-104s

is on the heels of the
Cuban Crisis in early 1963.

- [Narrator] The F-104
is a tower in the sky

from which men can keep
vigil over their homeland.

- The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

was designed under the same
design team under Kelly Johnson,

who was also responsible
for the P-38 Lighting

in World War II

and for the F-80 Shooting Star,

which was our first
operational jet fighter.

So when he approached

this point defense
interceptor problem,

he and his design team,
the Skunkworks at Lockheed,

went for simplicity,
lightweight,

and a very efficient design.

- Kelly Johnson came
up with the Starfighter

and we called it
the high fastie.

The high, fast, faster airplane
would win the battle.

What would it do?

Go high and fast.

Once you did that, you
better head back home

because you're out of gas.

And you better not
try to turn real hard

or you'll fall out of the sky.

It took a big piece of airspace
to make a 360 degree turn.

- [Chuck] You'll notice
that the wings on the F-104

are proportionately very
small compared to the wings

on other airplanes.

And they are designed strictly
for supersonic flight.

That means you have
to get them going

really fast on the ground
before you can even take off.

- The F-104 went supersonic
on its first flight.

It was always fast.

It carried very little fuel
and had a great big engine

and was very pointy so
it was easy to go fast.

The 104 was a basic airplane.

When we were flying the
thing out of Homestead

in those early days,

we didn't even have
a navigation system.

We'd just go out there
until we sort of passed over

a little set of
islands that we knew

that was sort of where the line
was between Cuban territory

and US territory.

That was about the most
complex system that we had.

We had sort of a super
squadron at Homestead.

We had 26 unit
equipment airplanes.

And we could scramble from
wake up at 2:00 in the morning

to the sound of a horn,
and it would go, eee,

and we would come
awake, run out the door,

run to our airplane,
get in and start up

and be airborne in less
than three minutes.

I have gotten airborne

and then been going
through 10000 feet

when I'm saying to
myself, come on, Charlie,

wake up, wake up,
you're flying now.

And that's the way
you feel sometimes

when you're scrambled
in the dead of night.

We scrambled on some
very interesting things.

Sometimes they had an idea
of what it was or who it was.

But most of the time
it was we get airborne

and we're on the way
out to take a look.

And that happened the time

that I intercepted
a nuclear submarine.

Nobody knew what it was.

- [Narrator] Field of radar,

which will search out
on unknown aircraft

long before they
reach US borders.

- But it was clearly a nuclear
submarine on the surface.

Is it friendly or not friendly?

In this case turned out
to be a British submarine

coming in to Cape Canaveral.

The typical air defender says
when you make your intercept,

get type and numbers and color.

I'd say big black submarine
with three numbers.

Submarine's not going very fast

and the slowest I
can fly is 180 knots,

which is pushing
200 miles an hour,

going well, psh, going to have
to come back around again.

I didn't quite get
the numbers that time.

But that's how you get
to intercept a submarine.

- F-104s gained a reputation
as being widowmakers.

They were dangerous to fly.

They had a high accident rate
compared to other airplanes,

even other really
high-performance airplanes.

The good news is boy,
is this airplane sexy.

And the Air Force
recognized that

and used it a lot
for their recruiting.

(energetic music)

They would show an F-104 doing
aerobatics and steep climbs

while an announcer read the
poem by John Gillespie Magee Jr.

called "High Flight".

This video inspired a
whole generation of pilots

who were maybe six to 10 years
old when they saw this on TV.

- As a young kid growing
up, I saw "High Flight"

before I got into the
Air Force Academy.

When they would say the poem,

I was all set to
go fly this thing.

Oh, I have slipped the
surly bonds of earth

and flown on laughter
and silver wings.

- [Narrator] Sunward I climbed,

and joined the tumbling
mirth of sun-split clouds,

and done 100 things you
have not dreamed of.

Wheeled and soared and swung,
high in the sunlit silence.

Hovering there, I chased
the shouting wind along

and flung my eager
craft through--

- That was my motivation.

And the fact that I ended up

getting to have a long
tour in the Starfighter

was just magic.

- Hearing directly
from these pilots,

we can only begin to
imagine the full experience

of flying these
remarkable machines.

Being at high altitude
at supersonic speeds

and alone in the cockpit

is something that most
of us can only dream of,

something that pilots can
only describe as magic.

Next we'll hear from
Charlie Johnson,

who flew the Republic
F-105 Thunderchief.

- [Narrator] A pilot's tour
of duty is 100 missions.

♪ 100 missions to be flown

♪ 100 targets still unknown

♪ But it's my belief
that my Thunderchief ♪

♪ Strikes a telling
blow to help GI Joe ♪

♪ 'til 100 missions,
I myself have flown ♪

- My name is Charlie Johnson

and I had the privilege
of flying the F-105

in 1969, '70, '71, and '72.

I have been a fan of
airplanes all my life

since I was three years old.

I believe in motivation

and I've never been
motivated to do anything

other than be a fighter pilot.

The 105 to me personally

is a machine you
truly connect with.

It was, in my estimation,
the epitome of airplanes

in its time.

Carried more, did more,
just a tremendous machine.

- [Narrator] And this is the
Republic F-105 Thunderchief.

- At the same time that the
other Century Series fighters

were being developed
by other manufacturers,

Republic Aviation in New
York is developing the F-105.

- [Narrator] Screeching through
the clouds at Mach plus,

these F-105
Thunderchiefs are bent

on destroying the
enemy's ground potential.

- The F-105, although it's got
an F for fighter designation,

was really designed
around the idea

that it could carry a
nuclear weapon internally

and deliver it supersonically.

Nevertheless, it became a
superb air to air fighter

and it was mainly
used for ground attack

during the Vietnam War.

(explosions thundering)

- 105 development
rumors started in 1951,

started getting serious in 1958.

Almost everybody that ever
flew it flew it in combat.

You really start to
identify with the power,

the magic of the airplane.

And when I went to pilot
training at that time,

if you were first in your class,

you could pick any
airplane in the inventory.

And the 105 was all
I ever wanted to fly

since I was in high school.

So I had the good fortune

of knowing a lot about the
airplane, watching development,

watching it go into service.

And then when I graduated
from pilot training

being selected to
go to F-105 training.

Have always felt that there was
never a finer fighter built.

One of the interesting
things about flying fighters

is that you have to
be very competitive.

And there is an attitude
in fighter pilots,

and it's kind of an
invincibility almost.

And you're pretty much convinced
that if anything happens,

it's never going
to happen to you.

If you walked into a
room with 100 people

getting ready to
go out on a mission

and whatever you believe in
stood up on the stage and said,

99 of you folks are not
going to come back today.

Everybody would stand up
in the room and walk out,

saying it's really sad

that all those other people
aren't coming back today,

because I am.

And there is always
the element of risk.

The people that are concerned

about hurting
themselves in a fighter

don't last in a fighter,

they generally will
quit or wash out.

It's driven by attitude.

It is driven by
incredible training.

There's not an
emergency or a system

or a thing that can
happen in that airplane

that the pilot doesn't know
about before you take off.

So you're trained to
handle whatever happens.

- The two seat F and G models

were used in extremely
dangerous missions

called Wild Weasel missions,
where they would go out

and try to protect
other American airplanes

by attracting surface
to air missiles.

They would fly over and mimic

an attacking force
of American airplanes,

get the North Vietnamese
radar to lock onto them

so that they could see where
those radar sites were,

and then they would attack them

with anti-radiation missiles,
anti radar missiles

The problem with that is

by the time you find
out where that radar is

and lock your missiles onto it,

they've launched
missiles at you.

And so it's extremely dangerous.

You're purposely
drawing their fire

and getting them to shoot at you

and then hoping that you
can get out of the way

of those missiles that
are already airborne

or get to the radar before
they can launch the missiles.

- They found the 105

was the absolute ideal
airplane for that.

They built an F model,
which was two seats.

They converted those

to put all the electronics
warfare equipment in the back.

We equipped them
with standard arms,

which was a very,
very lethal weapon.

The Weasel's total job

was to fly ahead and
behind the strike force

and to keep the
missile's heads down.

Republic has always had an
interesting design philosophy.

It was overcoming
weight with power.

We literally had to refuel
within 20 minutes of take off.

We'd take off lightweight
and then refuel,

and then we'd refuel again
going into the target.

Most missions had at least
reached three refuelings,

two going in, one coming out.

I had one where I was doing
a search and rescue Air CAP

that I had 11 refuelings.

So it brought the boom
down and give you some gas,

and you'd keep going.

There's nothing
I would love more

than for somebody to fuel up a
105 and go jump in right now.

If I could go back and
do anything in life,

let me go fly one
more force show,

let me go fly one more flight.

So a lot of lessons were
learned from the airplane.

Evolutionary is the right word

because every piece
of the airplane,

the way that it works

and redundancy that you
build into the airplane

is all a result of
losses in machines

like the Century
Series fighters.

Each of the fighters
that you see

in each of the Century
Series fighters

contributed tremendously

to the fighting forces
that we have right now.

- We look back at the 1950s
and the Century Series

as a time of enormous growth
in aviation technology.

Anything was possible

and development was happening
at a lightning pace.

We still see the legacy
of the Century Series

in the aerodynamic profiles
of modern day fighters.

Avionics, automation,
and intelligence

make today's fighters safer,
faster, and more effective

than ever before.

The Century Series was a
part of that trajectory,

but what the future holds,

we will have to
just wait and see.

(energetic music)