All language subtitles for Weapons Race_S01E01_Jet Fighter

[narrator] The skies
over Langley Air Force Base,

Virginia, 2005.

The most formidable jet fighter

the world has ever seen
goes operational.

The United States'
F-22 Raptor.

The skies over the trenches
of the Western Front,

Europe, 1915.

The world's first specialised
fighter goes into combat.

The German Fokker Eindecker.

The Raptor and the Eindecker.

One, the ultimate,
the other, the first.

And in the years
and wars in between,

a race to build the ultimate
aerial fighting machine.

The prize for the winner,

air supremacy over
any battlefield

and a massive military
edge over any enemy.

The weapons race
is for the jet fighter.

The Lockheed F-22 Raptor.

Designed during the Cold War

specifically to vanquish
any Soviet fighter.

Top speed more than twice
the speed of sound.

Service ceiling
over 50,000 feet.

Armed with a 20mm cannon

and up to eight guided
missiles and GPS-guided bombs.

Its revolutionary feature,

performance which outmatches
any competitor

plus stealth.

It is virtually invisible
to radar

or infra-red detection.

The Fokker Eindecker.

Top speed 81 mph.

Service ceiling 3,000 feet.

Armed with one
7.92mm machine gun.

Its revolutionary feature,

a single machine-gun that can
fire through the propeller.

With this it dominates
air combat for more than a year

and shows how vital it will be

to win this weapons race.

Between 1915 and today,

the fighter is reinvented
for each new conflict.

World War Two,

Korea, Vietnam,

the Middle East,
the Cold War, the Gulf.

Each sees a quantum leap
in the weapons race.

In the hundred years
that we've been flying

and involving
war planes in battles,

no campaign has been won

where air supremacy
had not been achieved.

That simple fact
is why there's a race.

Key to the development of modern
jet aircraft is technology.

There are qualities to be had.

Things like firepower,

sensors, speed
and manoeuvrability

are offensive qualities
you have to have.

Get them right, you win.

Do it badly, you die.

Dominating each stage
of the weapons race

from the Eindecker
to the Raptor,

are certain critical features
that define success
for a combat jet.

Taking part in the race
certainly isn't simple.

Developing any new piece of
equipment, let alone a fighter,

is demanding
and incredibly complex.

In order to do that,
a nation needs

to have a very strong
technical and economic base,

and that's just to compete.

Winning the race
requires something more.

1914. The beginning
of World War One.

Even before the Eindecker,
one factor is vital.

From the days of
Eddie Rickenbacker to today,

fighter pilots will tell you
speed is life,

and it's not just
a throw-away line.

Speed in a fight means
you control the fight,

you get into it
the way you want.

It allows you to get
out of the fight

if you are not in the offence.

World War One dogfights

show that other features
are also critical.

Firepower and manoeuvrability.

But as fighter aircraft develop
between the world wars,

the ultimate factor remains.

Speed.

By the mid-1930s,

new monoplane metal fighters

are taking existing technology
to its limit.

There's a challenge
and everyone is facing it.

Aircraft are powered
by piston engines.

The propeller accelerates the
air passing over the aircraft

and this gives it
forward motion.

The faster the propeller spins,
the higher the air speed.

But there's a fundamental
problem.

There's a limit
to the performance

of a propeller-driven aircraft
engine can deliver.

At low altitudes, the propeller
blades bite into the dense air,

but it's slow, it's slowed down
by the dense atmosphere.

As you climb into thinner
atmosphere, you get faster,

but simply the propeller blades
can't bite into...

there's no air density
to bite into.

And so you've reached
a cut-off point

in terms of aircraft
engine performance.

Whoever solves this problem
controls the skies.

The race is on.

Three nations, and three men,
take up the challenge.

In Britain, Frank Whittle.

In Italy, Secondo Campini.

In Germany,
Hans Joachim von Ohain.

Britain, 1929.

Frank Whittle qualifies
as a pilot and engineer.

He investigates
the speed problem.

His solution is revolutionary.

He does away with the propeller
and the piston-engine.

Instead, his engine
draws in air

through a series of compressors
or fans.

It is mixed with fuel
and ignited.

The resulting hot gas blasts out
the back of the chamber,

pushing the engine forward.

The exiting hot gas
turns a shaft

that spins a turbine, creating
a loop of intake and combustion.

Frank Whittle has launched
the race for the combat jet.

He is just 21 years old.

He approaches the British
Air Ministry for funding

but nobody is interested.

Italy, 1931.

27-year-old engineer
Secondo Campini

proposes a jet-propulsion
system to the Italian Air Force.

It shows no immediate interest.

Germany, two years later.

Hans-Joachim von Ohain

is taking a doctorate
in physics.

He develops
a demonstration model

of what is essentially the
world's first turbo-jet engine.

This is a classic example
of simultaneous invention,

with three separate people
at three separate places,

inventing the same thing
at just about the same time.

Then in 1934,

the Italian Air Ministry
approves the development
of a jet aircraft.

Campini teams up with Italian
aircraft manufacturer Caproni.

The race is on.

Campini seems to have
taken an early lead.

1935. In Britain,

Frank Whittle has patented
his idea for a jet engine.

At last,
he secures financial backing
from the Royal Air Force.

He sets up a company,
Power Jets, and gets to work.

1936, Hitler sends German troops
into the Rhineland.

In England, Whittle bench tests
a prototype jet engine.

1937. In Germany,

Hans-Joachim von Ohain
tests his first prototype.

It is shown to one of Germany's
leading aircraft designers,

the formidable Ernst Heinkel.

He takes on Von Ohain
and his revolutionary idea

and throws the weight of his
massive company and reputation

behind his jet aircraft project.

In contrast, almost at
the same time in Britain,

the RAF decides it can no longer
afford to back Whittle

and halts his funding.

Germany and Von Ohain
pull ahead.

In 1938, Hitler annexes Austria

and then sends his troops
into Czechoslovakia.

War is approaching.

Very soon, the race
for the jet fighter

will no longer be
just a technological challenge.

Very soon, air supremacy

could determine
the fate of the world.

The United States, 1939.

Clarence Kelly Johnson

is head of the design team
at Lockheed,

the US aircraft manufacturer.

He too puts forward a proposal
for a jet engine.

But the United States
Army Air Force

shows no interest and declines
to finance anything.

Johnson's idea stays
on his drawing board.

And the United States
stays out of the race.

Temporarily.

Five in the morning.
Sunday, August 27th, 1939.

A strange-looking
propellerless aircraft

taxis out at an airfield
in Germany.

As it takes off,
the men on the ground

hear the high-pitched
whistling sound

of a jet plane in flight
for the first time ever.

At this critical moment,

Von Ohain and Heinkel put
Hitler's Germany into the lead

in the race for the jet fighter.

Five days later,
Hitler invades Poland.

Two days after that,
September 3rd, 1939.

Britain and France
declare war on Germany.

World War Two has begun.

1940.

Concerned by rumours that
the Germans are testing

revolutionary new power plants,

the British Air Ministry
changes its mind,

and instructs the Gloster
Aircraft Company

to work with Whittle
on a prototype airframe

to test fly his jet engine.

It's not a moment too soon.

August, 1940.

At an airfield near Rome,

Campini watches test
pilot Mario De Barneradi

take the Caproni prototype
on its maiden flight.

But Campini's
isn't a true jet engine.

It relies on a conventional
piston engine

to compress the air that
mixes with fuel and ignites.

Thus it suffers from
the same speed restriction

as a standard propeller-driven
aircraft.

And Italy doesn't have the
economic or industrial capacity

for the research and development
Campini needs to solve this.

Campini and Italy
drop out of the race.

But things are about to change
in a big way.

Hitler's Blitzkrieg
has crushed France,

Belgium and the Netherlands.

But by October,
his Luftwaffe has failed

to achieve the air superiority
necessary to invade Britain.

The stakes in the battle
for air supremacy
couldn't be higher.

For the country which
gets a jet fighter into combat

could overwhelm its enemy.

World War Two
hangs in the balance.

May 15th, 1941.

Frank Whittle watches
as test pilot Gerry Sayer

lifts his experimental
jet aircraft,

the Gloster E-28/29
into the sky.

It reaches a speed of 370 mph.

Britain is back in the race

as the Air Ministry
now commissions Gloster

to develop the nation's
first combat jet fighter.

But Whittle's success
has reawakened the interest

of the giant
from across the Atlantic.

The United States is not at war.

But US military intelligence

has been receiving reports
about jet propulsion.

Air Force General Hap Arnold

formally requests that Britain

share its technology
with America.

October 1st, 1941.

A mystery aircraft

lands at Bolling Field
near Washington.

It is carrying one
of Whittle's jet engines.

Two months later, December 1941,

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.

The United States is at war.

Less than nine months later,

October 1st, 1942,

at Muroc Army Air Field,

test pilot Bob Stanley

takes the Bell XP-59A
down the runway

and up into the sky
over the California desert.

But the P-59 is essentially
a test bed,

not the combat-capable aircraft

the US Army Air Force needs.

Lockheed's Kelly Johnson

is given 180 days
to come up with an answer.

The US is now fully in the race.

But its rivals are well ahead.

Europe, May 1943.

After a competition between
Heinkel and Messerschmitt,

the German Air Ministry
orders 100

of the Messerschmitt jet fighter
design, the Me-262.

Now that the race is on
to put a viable jet fighter
into combat,

designers have to address
another feature.

Allied bombers are striking
deeper into Hitler's Reich.

The Luftwaffe wants the Me-262

as a high-speed interceptor
against them.

But after the Allies
invade Italy in mid-1943,

Hitler wants the Me-262
as a fighter-bomber

to annihilate the anticipated
invasion of France.

He orders the Me-262
adapted to carry bombs.

But the Luftwaffe
and Messerschmitt

continue to develop it
primarily as a fighter.

What you have is the beginning
of a huge bureaucratic in-fight

involving Hitler, that
would cause terrible delays

in the introduction
of the aircraft.

The delay is a major
set-back for Germany

in the race for the jet fighter.

It's really scary to consider
what would have happened

if that one-year delay
had not occurred

in the introduction
of the Me-262.

[Lloyd Clark] In retrospect,
that one-year delay

probably cost the Germans

the chance to break
the Allied bomber offensive

and to turn the tide of the war.

But just as Germany
is falling behind,

across the Atlantic,
the race for the jet fighter

is shifting into high gear.

January 8th, 1944.

Kelly Johnson and his team

watch the Lockheed XP-80
make its first flight.

They'd been given 180 days
to build the prototype.

They deliver it 37 days
ahead of schedule.

The real genius of Kelly Johnson
in the design of the P-80

was that he accepted
that 180-day deadline

to fly the aeroplane, knowing

he had his 1939
design to build upon.

[Bruce Gudmundsson] The American
jet fighter programme made
rapid progress,

not merely because of the
considerable talent of the team

that was putting
the aircraft together,

but also because
of the large infusion

of British technology.

In later tests,

the XP-80 tops
500 miles an hour.

American planners aim to have
it operational over Europe

in less than a year,
by January 1945.

The race is now moving
into the skies.

June 6, 1944.

D-Day.

Allied soldiers storm ashore.

That same month,

20 of Gloster's new fighter,
the Meteor,

are delivered to the
British Royal Air Force.

Hitler is already sending over
his V1 flying bombs,

over to the British Isles,
and it becomes an RAF priority

using the jet fighter
to catch them,

to destroy them
and to end the menace.

July 27th, RAF ace Dixie Dean

intercepts a V1
targeted at London.

His guns jam.

Dean then uses his wing
to steer the V1

straight down to the ground.

Combating the V1s will be
the Meteors' primary task

until the end of the war
in Europe.

That same month,
Hitler's jet fighter-bombers

finally reach France,
but it is too late.

With Allied bombers devastating
Germany's cities,

the Me-262s

are at last deployed
as interceptors.

July 25th.

The first recorded air combat
involving a jet fighter.

An Me-262 pounces
on an RAF Mosquito,

which barely escapes.

August 28th.

The first jet fighter
is lost to enemy action.

Two US Army Air Force
P-47 Thunderbolts

shoot down an Me-262
near Brussels.

October 7th.

US Army Air Force
Lieutenant Urban Drew,

flying a P-51 Mustang,

shoots down two Me-262s
as they take off.

January, 1945.

America's P-80 Shooting Star
enters service,

The British Meteor
is deployed over Germany,

but it never comes up
against the Me-262.

World War Two ends
without a head-to-head

between the jets
produced to fight in it.

Defeated Germany drops out
of the race for the jet fighter.

But now there's a new player -

the war's other victor,
the Soviet Union.

As the Allies occupy Germany,

the race enters a new stage,

with every country sweeping
through the ruins

for technology and scientists,

including the men behind
Germany's jet programme.

Will the Soviets
be able to catch up?

Although well behind,

they do have the essential
technology base.

By the end of World War Two
they were producing

single-engine fighters
that were as good as anything

in the western world,

and consequently,
with the German technology

that they scoured
from scientists,

factories and documents
at the end of World War Two,

they had a technology base
that was the equal
of anybody in the world.

April, 1946.

The Soviets test not one

but two prototypes of their
first-generation jet fighters,

the Yak 15

and the Mig-9.

Both have German-based
turbojet engines

which are short on power
for their needs.

The Soviets are in the race
in a big way.

But the development
of their next generation jet,

the Mig-15, is being delayed
by a major problem.

They lack the metallurgical
knowledge

to produce a more powerful
engine quickly.

However, help is on the way
from an unexpected source.

Britain has already given away
its jet secrets once,

when it gave the engine
to the United States in 1941.

Now it goes even further.

As a gesture of goodwill,

the British government
allows Rolls-Royce

to supply the Soviet Union

with 40 of its Nene jet engine,

one of the most advanced
in the world.

It is 1946,

the Soviet Union
is still supposedly an ally,

but it is an extraordinarily
trusting decision.

The Cold War hasn't yet begun,

but the British action
is incredibly naive.

It gives the Soviets the
technological boost they require

to get that engine,
and this is going to be

important for them
during the Cold War.

Now the race moves
into a new phase.

June 1950.

Communist North Korea
invades the south.

The US leads a United Nations
force to save South Korea.

The US Air Force deploys
its first jets,

the F-80 Shooting Star

and the F-84 Thunderjet.

At first,
they dominate the skies,

escorting B-29 bombers
and attacking ground targets.

But in November 1950,

when the communist Chinese
enter the war,

US pilots get a nasty surprise.

The swept-wing Mig-15
outperforms both their jets.

Only later is it discovered
that the Mig-15

is powered by a pirated version

of the British Nene jet engine.

November 7, 1950.

American Lieutenant
Russell J Brown

takes off
in an F-80 Shooting Star.

Over the Yalu River,
he engages an enemy Mig-15.

Russell wins.

It's the first time a fighter
jet has shot down another.

The United States rushes
its own swept-wing fighter
into action,

the F-86 Sabre.

Now it's a head-to-head

between the two leading jet
fighters of their generation.

The Soviet Mig-15.

Maximum speed 670 mph.

Combat ceiling 51,000 feet.

Armed with twin 23mm

and one 37mm cannon,

plus rockets
or 2,000 lbs of bombs.

And the American F-86 Sabre.

Maximum speed 685 mph.

Combat ceiling 49,000 feet.

Armed with six
.50 calibre machine guns

and eight 5-inch rockets
or 2,000 lbs of bombs.

Ralph Parr,
a double ace during Korea,

compares the two aircraft.

[Ralph Parr] The Mig
had a smaller wingspan,

was shorter,

smaller all-over
and therefore harder to see.

It could turn tighter,
it could out-accelerate.

It could out-decelerate.

It could climb higher

and it had, for a while there,

it had a better than 2,500
foot per minute rate
of climb advantage

and had bigger guns.

Generally speaking, one of
those advantages the Mig had

will normally work
for you in combat.

Although more agile
than its opponent,

792 Migs are shot down

against 76 Sabres.

The crucial factor
is the combat experience

of the World War Two
veteran US fliers.

By the end of the Korean War,
we've re-achieved air dominance,

because it is not just
the airframe or the technology
of the airframe,

it's a combination
of the training, the tactics,

and particularly the people
that are in the fight.

This is a lesson that
technology people have to learn

with every generation
of technology,
it's about the people.

In their dogfights over Korea,

pilots are still using
guns and tactics

developed in World War Two.

But the face of war is changing

and with it, the race
for the jet fighter.

The threat now
is seen as long-range bombers

carrying atomic,
then hydrogen, bombs.

In the early 1950s,

the role of the jet fighter
is redefined.

The aircraft designs that have
been developed at this stage

are not the dogfighting fighters
of the Battle of Britain.

These are very fast aircraft,

capable of climbing rapidly

and intercepting nuclear bombers

well out of range
of friendly territory

and shooting them down before
they can deliver their loads.

Emphasis swings back
to the original mission

for the German Me-262
in World War Two.

Intercept the bombers.

But to intercept the bombers
far enough from the homeland,

planners now have to balance
three features

in the race
for the jet fighter.

The first factor is the old one,
speed.

But there is a new challenge.

Fast jets are now pushing
against a new barrier.

In air, sound travels

at around 670 mph
depending on the altitude.

This is referred to as Mach 1.

As an aircraft
approaches Mach 1,

it is buffeted by shock waves.

This is the so-called
sound barrier.

To travel any faster,

jet fighters
have to get through it.

But now designers and pilots

are pushing into dangerous
unknown territory.

Nobody knows if an aircraft

can force its way through the
shock waves without breaking up.

In 1946,

just a year after
World War Two ends,

the race for the jet fighter has
become a race to go supersonic.

But the sound barrier
proves a deadly obstacle.

One of the first attempts

is made by British test pilot
Geoffrey de Havilland.

Over the Thames Estuary,
his DH-108 Swallow

breaks up as it hits
the speed of sound,

killing De Havilland instantly.

A year later at Muroc Field,

flying the experimental
rocket-powered Bell X-1,

Captain Chuck Yeager
becomes the first man

to push an aircraft
through the sound barrier

and fly at over Mach 1.

It takes the Soviet Union
a full year to catch up.

1948, I E Fedorov

becomes the first Soviet pilot
to break Mach 1.

Mach 2,
twice the speed of sound,

becomes the next milestone
in the race for speed.

US test pilot Scott Crossfield

achieves this
in the early 1950s.

Test aircraft and test pilots

demonstrate what is possible,

but to go supersonic
in a working jet fighter

the shape of the aircraft
has to change.

Airframe structures
are improved and strengthened.

The wings are already
swept back, to reduce drag.

Now the cockpit is streamlined
back into the fuselage.

Entering service
in the mid-1950s,

the first US supersonic fighters

include the Mach 1.1
F-100 Super Sabre

and the Convair
F-102 Delta Dagger.

The Soviet Union matches them

with the Mach 1.4 Mig-19.

Before the end of the decade,

top speeds explode again

with the Mach 2.2 Lockheed
F-104A Starfighter.

The Convair Delta Dart.

And the Mach 1.85 Soviet Mig-21.

Other countries
are also competing in the race

to produce Mach 2 fighter jets.

One of the best
pure interceptors

is the British
English Electric Lightning.

A big twin-engine design,

it carries two missiles
and two cannons

and can get up to
50,000 feet in just one minute.

All of these interceptor jets
had one thing in common,

their job was to go
from a dead stop,

get to altitude,
speed and distance,

and keep these incoming bombers
at bay.

And thus you find Mach 2 speed,

guided missiles
and other new features

that were common
to all the designs.

The new generation
of combat jets

triggers a revolution
in another critical factor

in the race for the jet fighter.

To intercept the bombers
as far away from their targets
as possible,

guided air-to-air missiles
are more lethal than guns.

It's no longer,
who has the best fighter

to take on an enemy fighter?

Now it's who has
the best fighter

to go against their bombers?

And missiles are the key.

The main impetus
for the development of

radar-guided air-to-air missiles

was the desire
to shoot down enemy bombers.

Once these missiles
started to appear, however,

there were many who argued
that they should be used

to make dogfighting obsolete.

In the US, in particular,

this idea combines
with the realisation

that dogfighting
in the traditional way

is impossible
at supersonic speeds.

You see a number of aircraft

actually designed
for the first time without guns.

The popular notion,
both with politicians
and with senior leaders,

was, "The dogfight is dead."

Unfortunately, it didn't
quite work out that way.

The need for close-air support
of forces on the ground,

along with air supremacy
over the battlefield,

is not completely forgotten
in the race for speed.

The US produces fighter-bombers

like the specialist Republic
F-105 Thunderchief

And the highly versatile
McDonnell F-4 Phantom II.

Both of which can carry
a 15,000 lbs bomb load,

as much as a World War Two
heavy bomber.

The French come up with
the much-smaller Mirage III,

which is capable of Mach 2,

but can still carry
3,000 lbs of bombs.

But the emphasis
remains on speed.

The ultimate example
of this fixation

is the Soviet Mig-25 Foxbat,

a massive interceptor,

designed to shoot down the
proposed US B-70 Valkyrie bomber

which would have had
a speed of Mach 3.

But by the time the Foxbat
comes into service,

the Valkyrie has been cancelled.

As the 1950s end,

the rules of the race
are changing again.

The manned bomber
is beginning to be superseded

by the intercontinental
ballistic missile

and the US military
will soon be forced to rethink

whether the dogfight
is really dead.

In the skies over Vietnam
in the mid-1960s,

US pilots find themselves
taking their fast jets,

like the Phantom II
and the Thunderchief,

head-to-head against
the smaller and slower

Soviet Mig-17 and Mig-21.

It should be an unequal contest.

The early Vietnam War
is almost a...

classic illustration of the
technology people failing again.

They had this enormous faith
that the technology
would replace people,

so they took the guns out
of the F-4 for the Navy version.

They were going to rely entirely
on the Sparrow
and the Sidewinder.

They had the conclusive proof
in their tests, 80% accuracy,

we'll win this from a distance.

And then they went into a real
fight against real people.

The Soviet jets
are more manoeuvrable.

They can get in close, into the
lethal six o'clock position.

At which point,
they can use their guns.

Unlike the enemy,

the US pilots
are not allowed to fire

their long-range missiles
at aircraft

unless they first visually
identify them as hostile.

But close-up,
their most lethal weapons
are worthless to them.

Hurriedly, the Americans
retro-fit their fast jets

with cannons in detachable pods.

Vietnam also emphasises
another requirement

in the race for the jet fighter.

Although they can carry massive
loads for ground attack,

the big supersonic
fighter-bombers,

like the Thunderchiefs
or Super Sabres,

can spend little time over
the target or waiting for one.

Increased speed reduced
the payload and weapons

and greatly reduced
the accuracy that those weapons
could be delivered

to support the fight
on the ground.

During the Arab-Israeli War
of 1967,

the Israelis show that fast jets
can be lethal in ground attack.

Their fleet of mainly
French-built Mirage IIIs
and Vautours

demolishes the Egyptian
and Syrian Air Forces

with 30mm cannon fire

and then establishes
total air control.

After the Vietnam experience,

it's time for an even more
radical re-think

in the weapons race
for the jet fighter.

The early 1970s.

The war in Vietnam
draws to a close.

After the problems which
the obsession with speed
has caused in combat,

the rules of the race
change fundamentally.

You have aircraft designers
and engineers

finally going to pilots
and actually talking to them
for the first time,

saying, "Well,
what would you like

in the next generation
of combat jets

in the way of new
or improved qualities?"

And they very rapidly
get three things that they want.

Guns are back.

And with them, so are
head-to-head dogfighting skills.

At Red Flag and Topgun,

the US Air Force and Navy

begin to teach the skills
of air combat again.

The renewed need
for dogfighting skills

puts emphasis on another factor
in the race for the jet fighter.

The need to give the pilot
superb visibility and control.

Bubble canopies and raised
cockpits give all-round vision.

Vital controls are positioned
on the throttle and stick,

so-called HOTAS,
hands on throttle and stick.

HUD, the head-up display,

projects an information
display directly
in the pilot's line of sight,

so he doesn't have to look down
in the middle of combat.

You might have flying data
like altitude,

air speed and such,
weapons data,

and the firing cues
for all your weapons
were contained there as well.

Combined with the controls
on the stick and the throttles,

it meant you could go and switch
modes very, very easily

and literally redesign
the aeroplane in flight,

with just the flick of a switch.

All of this is made possible

by a technical revolution
in the race
for the jet fighter.

The computer.

Which leads to digital
fly-by-wire systems.

Electro-mechanical
and hydraulic linkages

are replaced with a computerised
control system.

And this impacts on the third
factor the pilots wanted.

Fly-by-wire enables designers
to build jets

which are aerodynamically
unstable

and only controllable
by computer.

Turns are faster, tighter.

The US produces a fighter
designed specifically

to outfly and outfight
any proposed Soviet machine.

The F-15 Eagle.

The Soviets respond
with the Mig-29 Fulcrum

and the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker.

At the end of the 1980s,
as the Cold War ends,

these are the main competitors
in the jet fighter race.

They seem evenly matched.

The F-15 is a superb aircraft.

It's got amazing
technology in it

and fantastic radars
and fire-control systems.

The Russian aircraft
are simpler,

and in some respects
possibly more practical

in some of the battlefields
over which they're going
to be flying.

But when they do go head-to-head
in the 1991 Gulf War,

five Iraqi-flown Mig-29s
are shot down

by US F-15s with no losses.

The development of these jets
is becoming enormously
expensive.

There is a joke that soon
even the richest nation
in the world, the United States,

will only be able to afford
three copies
of its next jet fighter.

one for Europe,
one for the Pacific,

and one more at home
in the US for training.

Designers must find ways
of controlling costs.

They are helped
by a revolution in engines,

from turbo-jets to turbo-fans,

which are more fuel efficient,
with higher thrust,
and lighter weight.

The US produces a cheaper
multi-role aircraft,

the Lockheed-Martin F-16,

which becomes one of the mostly
widely used in the world.

For many air forces
it proves the only jet fighter
they need.

Until now, designers have
been balancing five key factors

in the race for the jet fighter.

But now they have
to consider another.

A massive problem,

even with some of the world's
most sophisticated jet fighters,

became painfully obvious
in October 1973.

The Yom Kippur War

between Israel
and its Arab neighbours,

Egypt and Syria.

Israel considers its air force
to be unbeatable.

But Egypt knocks the Israeli
planes from the skies

with Soviet supplied
surface-to-air missile
or SAM systems.

And when the Israelis fly
lower to avoid the SAMs,

they are decimated by new
radar-directed gun systems.

The concern is that these
are the same weapons systems

that would be used
on the central European plains.

As a result of this,
it's a time to rethink,

a time to change the game.

There are two ways an aircraft
can avoid radar detection.

One way is to knock out
the radar system.

In the Bekaa valley
in Lebanon in 1982,

the Israelis show
how to do this.

The other way is by making
the aircraft itself invisible.

The race is on again

to find a way to eliminate
an aircraft's radar signature.

1983.

The first combat aircraft

which is virtually invisible
to radar goes operational.

The F-117A Nighthawk

is another revolutionary product

of the famed Lockheed
Skunkworks.

All these stealth designs
had their roots in the Cold War

and would undoubtedly have been
used against the Soviet Union.

But equally,
there's a great possibility

that the Soviet Union
would have developed
their own stealth designs

that would have been used
against the United States.

By the end of the decade,

the United States
has a commanding lead

in the race to develop stealth
technology for jet fighters.

But the world
is about to change.

Berlin, 1989.

The wall that symbolises
the Cold War comes down.

It's the beginning of the end
of the Soviet Union

and the Cold War.

And the beginning of a new phase

in the weapons race
for the jet fighter.

Come the end
of the Cold War in 1989,

and everybody now again
has the same technology base.

So once again, as fighter
designers go into

the new generation
of designs in the 1990s,
they're all even again.

Multi-role,
with digital systems.

Improved cockpits
and aiming systems.

New generation
air-to-air missiles.

All capable of what the experts
call super-manoeuvrability.

And the next generation
of jet fighters

come to the start line.

The Mig-35.

The SU-35 Flanker.

The Eurofighter.

All have the same
characteristics,

except one thing, stealth.

Now, as they did with stealth,

American designers
are about to change

the rules of the race again.

They will skip a generation
of jet fighter

and produce a new aircraft
that leap-frogs ahead

of anything even on the drawing
boards anywhere else.

The most sophisticated plane
in the world,

the US F-22 Raptor.

Maximum speed at altitude,

1,325 mph.

Able to cruise supersonically.

Armed with long and short-range
air-to-air missiles,

a 20mm cannon,

and GPS guided bombs
and missiles for ground attack.

The raised cockpit allows
maximum visibility
in all directions.

The radar system allows
a range of options,

from electronic counter-measures
and jamming,

to air-to-ground
and air-to-air target mapping.

It can jam or actually burn out
enemy electronic systems

such as radar and data links.

Improved structures,
aerodynamics

and flight control software
maximise manoeuvrability.

Thrust vectoring allows it
to literally stand in mid-air,

or twist around.

And...

it is virtually
invisible to radar

and infra-red detection.

But all this comes at a cost.

Around one hundred million
dollars per aircraft,

roughly twice the price
of any other fighter.

Consequently, we're
going to pay a price

in the number of aircraft we're
going to be able to deploy.

[Bruce Gudmundsson]
Stealth was a classic example

of spending a great deal
of money

to gain a set of improvements

that, while useful,
are far from revolutionary.

The fundamental problem
with stealth technology

is that the countermeasures
are far cheaper

than the technology itself.

The cost of the Raptor

is one reason why
it may not be overtaken

until well into
the 21st century.

There's another, the next
generation of jet fighter

may well be a fundamentally
different kind of aircraft.

The F-22 flight control system

intentionally has inhibitors
built into the software,

so that the G-forces,
when they're applied quickly,

will not go and tear
the eyeballs and guts
out of the pilots.

The aircraft is capable
of a lot more,

but the human body cannot
take the kinds of stresses

that go beyond
what the Raptor can do.

The manned jet fighter
may have reached its limit

due primarily to the physical
limitations of the pilot.

Thanks to its combination
of costs and capabilities

in the growth of unmanned
aircraft systems,

it's very likely the Raptor
will be the last

pure manned fighter ever built.

When you ask what's the future
of fighter aeroplanes
beyond the Raptor,

the answer is robots
and remote control.

Unmanned, uninhabited
aircraft systems.

And its future rivals

may not even try to equal
its extraordinary capabilities.

I think one of the things
we've got to worry about
is an asymmetric response

in the air as well
as on the ground.

Instead of going for
the high-priced aircraft,

they could go for swarms
of very low-cost drones,

and the idea is they may lose
50 or even 100 drones

to get one of ours,
but they're cheap enough
to produce that that gets a win.

The quantum leap
in fighter technology

from the Eindecker
to the Raptor,

would have seemed like science
fiction in World War One.

Almost certainly, the next
stages in the weapons race

for the jet fighter
will mean leaps

which will make the Raptor
look as primitive

as the Eindecker does today.