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00:00To be continued...
00:30The fighter plane captures the imagination and fuels the fantasies of everyone interested
00:40in aviation.
00:42World War II was a pressure cooker for fighter aircraft development.
00:45In six years of intense combat, the speed and efficiency of fighters increased faster
00:50than pre-war designers could possibly have imagined.
00:54This is the story of that evolution.
01:00The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is one of the classic aircraft of all time.
01:28It was produced in greater quantity than any other fighter in history.
01:33The first prototype appeared in 1935.
01:37The last, 109, was produced in Spain in 1957.
01:41More than 33,000 were built.
01:45At the time of its first flight in 1935, the Bf 109 was the most advanced fighter in the
01:50world.
01:50The Messerschmitt engineers placed the landing gear attachment points on the fuselage.
01:57This reduced weight and made production and repair easier.
02:01But for the pilot, it made ground handling tricky.
02:04The wheel track was very narrow, which led to instability while taxiing, especially on
02:08rough surfaces.
02:18Takeoff and landing accidents were common.
02:20They still happen today with the few surviving 109s flying.
02:27The Messerschmitt design team created the smallest possible airframe into which the largest available
02:42engine could be fitted.
02:45A measure of the basic design's capacity for development is that the last model, the Messerschmitt
02:50Bf 109 K4, had much the same airframe as the prototype.
02:55But it was equipped with a 2,000 horsepower engine, a power increase of 300%.
03:09In its long career spanning the whole of World War II, the Bf 109 established itself as one
03:15of the greatest combat aircraft in history.
03:18It was small.
03:19It could be built fast and cheaply.
03:22It was easily transported.
03:24It had quick acceleration.
03:26It could climb and dive fast.
03:28It was very nimble in the air.
03:39For the pilot, there were drawbacks.
03:41The cockpit was tiny and cramped.
03:43Visibility was poor.
03:46In combat, under high G forces, the leading edge wing sleds often opened, throwing the pilot
03:51off his aim.
03:52But the good outweighed the bad.
04:09Early in the war, its only competition was the Spitfire.
04:13Even in 1945, 109s could hold their own with many of the newer allied competitors.
04:30The 109's teammate was the Bf 110.
04:36It was designed as a heavily armed Zerstörer or destroyer.
04:40It was supposed to be able to clear the way for German bombers by defeating enemy interceptors
04:45over their own territory.
04:51When the German military proposed the Zerstörer concept, Professor Willi Messerschmidt was not enthusiastic.
04:58But he tried to please Hermann Göring, even though he felt that a large twin-engined fighter
05:03would be a compromise.
05:06The twin-engined Messerschmidt did well in Poland, in both the bomber escort and ground attack
05:20roles.
05:22Over Britain, it found the going much tougher.
05:25But it re-emerged to prominence as a night fighter against the British area bombing raids.
05:34A successor to the Bf 110 was planned as early as 1937.
05:42It was the 210 Hornisse.
05:45The fuselage design and the layout of the tail surfaces were quite different from the 110.
05:51But the engines were basically the same.
05:59The rear armament was more sophisticated than that of the 110.
06:03Remotely controlled guns in barbeds on each side of the fuselage were operated from the
06:08rear cockpit.
06:10There was a forward bomb bay.
06:13In the reconnaissance version, it could house cameras.
06:16But in spite of its apparent sophistication, the ME 210 offered little assistance to the German
06:22Reich.
06:27Early versions had severe stability and landing gear problems.
06:31These were improved, but there were still many accidents.
06:35Only 352 were built before production was stopped.
06:40There was a demand for Willi Messerschmitt's resignation.
06:43But design changes led to the 310 and the less radical 410, which was more satisfactory.
06:53In 1939, Hawker Hurricanes were the only aircraft in the British Royal Air Force adequate to meet
07:05the Germans.
07:07But even they had several handicaps.
07:09In early models, the propellers were made of wood.
07:12Their pitch was fixed.
07:13They were very little different from those used on World War I fighters.
07:18The wooden propellers limited the hurricane's speed, rate of climb and ceiling.
07:23But metal three-bladed variable pitch propellers were soon fitted and performance improved.
07:36It was the right aircraft at the right time to make a mark in the Battle of Britain.
07:45The hurricane could not match the all-round performance of the Bf 109, but it could out-turn
07:50most other fighters of the time.
07:52Eight Browning machine guns gave it heavy firepower.
07:55It was devastating against German bombers.
08:03Other versions of the hurricane were developed for the fighter-bomber and ground-attack roles.
08:08They would operate far away from the English Channel and make their mark in some of the more
08:12remote theatres of the war.
08:23The Hurricane II, equipped with 40mm guns, was extremely effective against Rommel's tanks
08:28in the North African desert.
08:36These hurricanes are stationed in Burma, fighting against the onslaught of the Japanese in the
08:41South West Pacific.
08:43Tropicalised hurricanes were fitted with sand filters under the nose.
08:47They could also carry drop tanks for long-range missions.
08:51The last hurricane was delivered in September 1944.
08:55By then, around 14,000 had been built.
08:59This outmoded design from the mid-1930s turned out to be one of the most enduring contributors
09:04to the Allied war effort.
09:10The RAF Spitfire was its ace in the hole.
09:14In the skies over Dunkirk, it was a rude surprise to the Germans.
09:21Early in the war, German intelligence reported that the Messerschmitt Bf 109 was far superior
09:26to the Spitfire.
09:28In fact, the two aircraft were very close in performance.
09:32The Spitfire with its trademark elliptical wing had the edge in manoeuvrability and top
09:36speed, the Messerschmitt was better in climb and dive.
09:40In the final analysis, victory would depend on the skill of the pilot.
09:55This restored Spitfire carries the JEJ marking, immortalised by the great British ace, Johnny
10:00Johnson.
10:02His home is now in the USA, in California.
10:19Rolls-Royce Merlin engines fitted to Spitfires and Hurricanes were the key to their great performance.
10:25But Merlin's had a drawback.
10:33They had carburettors.
10:35When a Spitfire or Hurricane was pushed over into a dive, the engines promptly died.
10:40Fuel-injected Messerschmitts had no such problem.
10:51The prototype Spitfire flew in 1936.
10:54It had a very long career.
10:57Spitfires served throughout the war and were constantly changed and upgraded.
11:04Early versions had a top speed just over 350 miles an hour.
11:12By the end of the war, this had increased by 100 miles an hour.
11:17The Spitfire 14, with a 2,000 horsepower Griffon engine, was fast enough to chase and destroy
11:22German V1 flying bombs.
11:26After the Battle of Britain and Germany's move onto the Eastern Front against Russia, RAF fighters
11:36were underemployed.
11:37They made sweeps into Germany and occupied France.
11:48These Spitfires are operated by an RAF Norwegian unit, flying sorties into their occupied country
11:57from bases in Scotland.
12:04Several versions of the Spitfire were modified to increase low-altitude performance.
12:08The tips of their elliptical wings were clipped.
12:23These clipped wing versions carried the designation LF, for low-altitude fighter.
12:32All Spitfire variants were highly manoeuvrable, but as the war went on, the demands on the
12:44Spitfire grew from dogfighting to ground attack and high-altitude interception.
13:00The high-altitude interceptors carried the designation HF.
13:05The Mark VII HF had a pressurized cabin.
13:09It was powered by a 1,600 horsepower Merlin with a two-stage supercharger.
13:25The wingspan was increased by almost four feet for more efficient high-altitude performance.
13:31Spitfires flew high and low.
13:32They flew in every theater from airstrips and aircraft carriers.
13:36They became one of the legendary aircraft of World War II.
13:46This is the famous shark's mouth motif that adorned the first American fighter to have an impact
13:54on the war.
13:56The connection between the shark's mouth and the Curtis Hawk family began with the American
14:01volunteer group, the Flying Tigers.
14:04The Flying Tigers flew P-40s against Japanese Zeros and Bettys in China before America entered
14:09the war.
14:10But by then, these fighters had already made their presence felt.
14:23The French Army Dallaire began to buy hawks in 1939.
14:27They fought bravely but hopelessly in the ill-fated Battle of France in 1940.
14:39The British also bought P-40s early in the war.
14:42They called them the Tomahawk and the Kittyhawk.
14:44They were no match for the Messerschmitts in Europe, but they found a real niche in the
14:48deserts of North Africa.
15:04They may have been obsolete, but they were maneuverable and tough.
15:08In the desert, they operated effectively in ground attack and as fighter bombers.
15:13P-40s were powered by liquid-cooled Allison or American-built Merlin engines.
15:18Their top speed was around 350 miles an hour, and their service ceiling was 30,000 feet.
15:25This is an RAF P-40 in North Africa in 1942.
15:45The United States also operated P-40s in North Africa.
15:49Experience against the Germans and Italians in this theater was invaluable training for
15:53later operations in Europe.
16:09The P-40 may not have been the best fighter of World War II, but in China, at Pearl Harbor,
16:14on Guadalcanal, in New Guinea, in Russia, and in North Africa, it proved that obsolete
16:20doesn't necessarily mean useless.
16:23They were built in thousands.
16:25Their shark's mouth emblem remains one of the war's most enduring symbols of dogged toughness.
16:39In North Africa, the P-40 was opposed to some very interesting and little-known Italian aircraft.
16:57This is the Fiat G-50 Freccia, one of the early Italian monoplane fighters.
17:04It was first delivered to the Italian Air Force, the Regia Aeronautica, in 1938.
17:10The Freccia was maneuverable, but not as fast as British fighters.
17:14Top speed was under 300 miles an hour.
17:22The Machi Castol di Saita was also delightful to fly.
17:25It was faster than the G-50, but still much slower than its British opponents.
17:52The stock-fighting performance was excellent, and the G-50 could not be underestimated.
18:11The name Saita means lightning.
18:13It saw more combat than any other Italian fighter, throughout the Mediterranean and on the Eastern
18:19front.
18:20Both these radial engine fighters were poorly armed.
18:37They also suffered because Italy had no powerful modern engines.
18:41Later when German engines were fitted, the story was different.
18:46The slick Machi Castoldi C-202 Folgore would easily dominate the P-40s and Hurricanes in
18:52Africa.
18:53Later versions of these fighters were equivalent, in most respects, to the Fog-Wolf FW-190 or
18:59the North American Mustang.
19:02The reliability was poor.
19:03The Italian fighters were not robust enough to withstand the rigors of desert combat.
19:15The simpler and more rugged P-40s and Hurricanes could not outperform them, but they could outlast
19:20them.
19:21In the Soviet Union, in the first half of 1941, a new wave of fighters appeared.
19:35They were modern, low-wing monoplanes with retractable landing gear and enclosed cockpits.
19:42They needed development.
19:43They got it.
19:44One of the results was this aircraft, the Yak-3.
19:49The design was simple and easy to maintain in the rough environment of the Russian front.
20:15In the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943, it showed that the Soviet Air Force was capable
20:21of matching the Luftwaffe.
20:24German pilots were told to avoid the Yak fighter without an oil cooler under the nose.
20:43Soviet fighters teamed perfectly with the uniquely successful ground attack aircraft, the Ilyushin
20:49Il-2 Sturmavik.
20:52Stalin proclaimed that the Sturmavik was as vital to the Soviet army as air or bread.
20:58It was tough and perfectly suited to close support work.
21:02It was so effective that German soldiers called it Black Death.
21:15Engine and pilot were well protected in a single armored structural unit.
21:21The Il-2 carried machine guns, cannon, rockets and bombs.
21:27It had a most unlikely ground attack companion, an American fighter that was supplied to the
21:32British and the U.S. Army Air Forces and thought to be a failure.
21:37It was the Bell P-39 Air Cobra, called the P-400 in its export version.
21:54At Guadalcanal and in New Guinea, the P-39 shrugged off its poor reputation as a fighter.
22:00Pilots took advantage of its heavy cannon as an effective ground attack weapon against
22:04the Japanese.
22:05The P-39 was supplied in quantity to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program.
22:11The Soviets also exploited its potential for ground attack.
22:15But some pilots managed to use it well in air-to-air combat.
22:19Soviet ace Alexander Prokryshkin scored 20 of his 59 victories in the Kuban campaign, flying
22:26a Bell P-39 Air Cobra.
22:29But P-39s in the Pacific were no match for the classic Japanese fighter of the war, the
22:34Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
22:42The Zero was built in greater quantities and served longer and more widely than any other
22:47Japanese warplane.
22:49The A6M2 that attacked Pearl Harbor had a top speed of 331 miles an hour.
22:56The Zero was heavily armed.
22:58It had two 7.7mm machine guns in the upper fuselage decking and two wing-mounted 20mm cannon.
23:07It weighed only 5,313 pounds, fully loaded.
23:13Allied pilots were shocked by its agility.
23:16Early in the war, it was not uncommon for Japanese pilots to flaunt their skill by performing
23:21aerobatics during a dogfight.
23:24Lightweight and heavy armament expressed the Japanese offensive mentality.
23:29Its aircraft were there to do the shooting, not to be shot at.
23:36The Zero was designed as a carrier-based fighter, but the Japanese Navy also operated a land-based
23:58air force, and the Zero saw a great deal of land-based combat throughout the Pacific.
24:04The endurance of the Zero was one of its principal strengths.
24:08In 1941, it had a range that would not be matched by Allied fighters until 1944.
24:13The A6M was the first carrier-based fighter in the world to have the capability of outperforming
24:28land-based rivals.
24:34Before the Allies learned how to handle the Zero, a mystique grew about its capability.
24:55When an example was finally captured by the Americans and analyzed, the truth was revealed.
25:02It was an excellent, original aircraft that achieved maneuverability and long-range by
25:06the sacrifice of structural strength and safety equipment.
25:13Throughout the war, it was continuously upgraded.
25:17It was produced in greater quantities than any other Japanese combat aircraft.
25:22But the last version was not a fighter.
25:25It was designed for the one-way kamikaze mission.
25:32One of the Zero's most famous opponents early in the war was the Grumman F4F Wildcat.
25:38The Wildcat was a little heavier than the Zero, just as fast, but not so maneuverable.
25:44It was tremendously strong.
25:58An obvious feature of the Wildcat is the location of the landing gear wells and the fuselage.
26:03The Wildcat was originally designed as a biplane and then developed as a midwing monoplane.
26:16This is a group of Wildcats at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.
26:23For a long time, the F4F provided the lion's share of fighter strength on the island.
26:33Wildcat pilots developed team tactics to lure the Zero into their line of fire.
26:38Then their heavy .50 caliber machine guns could chop the lighter A6M to pieces.
26:45By the time the Wildcat came to hold its own against the Japanese fighters, Grumman was
26:49designing a purpose-built Zero killer.
27:00The process had to be quick.
27:02The lessons learned in the first months of the Pacific War had to be addressed in this
27:05new fighter.
27:12It was the F6F Hellcat.
27:14It did exactly what it was supposed to do.
27:20By the end of the war, the Hellcat would rack up over 5,000 victories against about 250 losses.
27:27The Hellcat was a war winner.
27:29It was extremely maneuverable and rugged.
27:31It could take on the best Japanese aircraft and pilots in one-on-one combat.
27:36In just three years, Grumman built more than 12,600 F6Fs, improving them continually.
27:58The British fleet air arm bought Hellcats and flew them from carriers in Europe and the Far
28:02East.
28:11The Hellcat's chief rival was the gull-winged Vought F4U Corsair.
28:16It was known to the Japanese as the Whispering Death.
28:20It would remain in production longer than any other U.S. fighter.
28:24From 1940 to 1952, 12,500 would be built.
28:29Its huge Pratt & Whitney R2800 radial engine generated 2,100 horsepower for takeoff.
28:40The Corsair was extraordinarily rugged and versatile.
28:52For the Marines, it was a weapon that made the beloved Wildcat seem like a toy.
28:56It could lift huge ordnance loads and deliver them with precision.
29:01Its top speed was 446 miles an hour, and its range was just over 1,000 miles.
29:20Flying from land and from carrier decks, the Corsair achieved an 11 to 1 kill ratio against
29:26the Japanese.
29:27Some Japanese officers rated it the best fighter they faced.
29:48The Focke-Wulf FW 190 was introduced into combat in Europe in 1941.
29:53It was the only Luftwaffe fighter to use a radial engine.
29:58It was about 30 miles an hour faster than the Spitfire 5, up to 25,000 feet.
30:04It had the fastest roll rate of all fighters in World War II.
30:07In June 1942, by accident, an FW 190 landed in England.
30:22The British already knew it was good, but now they were able to see up close just how technically
30:29superior it was.
30:31Not only was it advanced aerodynamically, it was a small target, was extremely strong,
30:38and had excellent pilot visibility.
30:47The 190 was also more heavily armed than its predecessors, with various combinations
30:52of machine guns and cannon.
30:54It appeared in a wide variety of versions, fighter, tank buster, torpedo bomber, and night
31:01interceptor.
31:02Some even had strengthened wing leading edges for ramming allied bombers.
31:10The basic engines were BMW double-row radials.
31:14Using their emergency boost system, they could punch out well over 2,000 horsepower.
31:22The long-nosed version, powered by a Junkers-Jumor liquid-cooled engine, became the fastest fighter
31:27of the war, until the jets appeared.
31:31It could reach speeds of around 470 miles per hour.
31:35More than 20,000 aircraft in this outstanding line of fighters were produced.
31:53The Lockheed P-38 was an extraordinary airplane.
31:56It was the first twin-engine single-seat fighter ever put into mass production.
32:01Lockheed was new to military design.
32:03Its fighter was revolutionary.
32:05It looked different, was complex, and had initial testing problems.
32:09But its potential excited the Air Corps.
32:12It had its first kill on the day America entered the war.
32:16It would prove to be highly versatile.
32:18It was used for long-range escort, reconnaissance, and ground attack.
32:34The Lightning was never to be the success in the European theater that it became in the Pacific.
32:39But it was a valuable commodity in the North African desert.
32:56The twin-engine safety and long-range of the P-38 made it perfect for the Pacific war.
33:20Some P-38s were modified to extend their already long range.
33:24Some versions could carry large bomb loads.
33:27Others were developed as photographic reconnaissance aircraft.
33:38The Lightning, with its unmistakable twin-boom silhouette, was one of the most versatile aircraft of the war.
33:44This is the immense bulk of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, known as the Jug, one of the biggest and toughest fighters of the war.
34:12The Jug was designed around the Pratt & Whitney R2800 double WASP radial engine, developing upward of 2,000 horsepower.
34:23It drove an enormous four-bladed propeller.
34:26Republic was seeking speeds well above 400 miles an hour.
34:30The P-47 had elliptical wings, similar in plan to the Spitfire.
34:35It went into production in 1942.
34:51In early 1943, two fighter groups were equipped with the new giant.
34:56They joined the 8th Air Force in England to escort daylight precision bombing raids.
35:17But their initial range of less than 600 miles meant they couldn't take the bombers all the way deep into Germany.
35:30Drop tanks helped, but the Jug wasn't the answer to the long-range escort problem.
35:48These are early P-47s in service in England.
35:52Early models were called Razorbacks because of the raised fuselage profile behind the pilot.
35:57The devastating firepower of the Jug made it perfect for another role.
36:02It became a deadly ground attack bomber.
36:05It was produced in large numbers and carved a fearsome reputation in Europe and the Pacific.
36:23Almost 16,000 were produced.
36:26Deliveries continued until the end of the war.
36:28By then, its speed and range had been increased to levels undreamed of before Pearl Harbor.
36:34The prototype of the North American P-51 Mustang was completed in just 102 days.
36:52It was soon evident that North American had produced the best American fighter to date.
36:57But the U.S. Army Air Forces only bought two for test purposes.
37:03The early Mustang's Allison engine handicapped its performance at high altitude.
37:12It was recommended that the Mustang be fitted with the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
37:16It was a marriage made in heaven.
37:18The Merlin gave the Mustang outstanding high altitude performance.
37:23An 85-gallon tank was installed, squeezed in behind the pilot.
37:24This made the Mustang unstable until some fuel had been burned off.
37:28But it now had endurance of seven and a half hours, enough for the round trip to Berlin.
37:29The long range of the Mercedes-Benz.
37:30The Mercedes-Benz.
37:31The Mercedes-Benz.
37:32The Mercedes-Benz.
37:33The Mercedes-Benz.
37:38An 85-gallon tank was installed, squeezed in behind the pilot.
37:48This made the Mustang unstable until some fuel had been burned off.
37:53But it now had endurance of seven and a half hours, enough for the round trip to Berlin.
37:58The long-range escort fighter had at last arrived.
38:08The P-51 was fast and agile. It had no handling vices. It was a fighter pilot's dream.
38:38This is film of an RAF squadron of Mustangs in 1942.
38:49Some early RAF versions operated as high-speed, low-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
38:55The next model would have a sliding bubble canopy, retaining the high fuselage profile behind the pilot.
39:02Then would come the familiar straight-backed version with the teardrop canopy.
39:08Most of the P-51 variants served in Europe.
39:18Their main mission was the vital one of escorting daylight bombing raids deep into Germany,
39:23all the way to Berlin and beyond, and then back home.
39:27The P-51 was the only aircraft of the war capable of doing it.
39:31Almost 16,000 Mustangs were produced.
39:45Its career was not finished with the end of the war.
39:48At least 55 nations used it in the period when world military aviation began transitioning to jets.
39:54More P-51s continue to fly than any other World War II warbird.
40:00Just as remarkable in its own way as the P-51 Mustang was the British De Havilland Mosquito.
40:24De Havilland planned it in 1938 as a high-speed day bomber.
40:29It was to be built of wood because of the demand on metal supplies.
40:33But the Air Ministry wasn't interested.
40:36They should have been.
40:38When they reluctantly gave the Mosquito the go-ahead,
40:40they found themselves with an effective and versatile aircraft
40:43that served in an extraordinary range of roles for the rest of the war.
40:46The Mosquito was a bomber, a fighter bomber,
41:11reconnaissance aircraft, high-altitude fighter, torpedo fighter, and more.
41:15Almost 8,000 were built in Britain, Australia, and Canada.
41:45Almost as versatile was the Mosquito's twin-engine companion, the Bristol Bowfighter.
41:54The Bowfighter was an initiative of the Bristol Airplane Company,
41:58which wanted to build a tough, cannon-armed, multi-role fighter.
42:06Construction was based on the existing Bristol Beaufort and could begin rapidly.
42:10It took only six months to get it into the air.
42:26It was in service by May 1940.
42:29It operated as a night fighter in the Blitz,
42:31and then on all fronts throughout the war.
42:33Like the Mosquito, it was extremely versatile.
42:44It packed enormous firepower.
42:47It could deliver bombs, rockets, torpedoes, and cannon barrages.
42:51It was equally feared by the Luftwaffe and the Japanese.
42:54Another deliverer of intense British firepower was the Hawker Typhoon.
43:08It recovered from a disastrous early career
43:11to cut ground-attack swathes across Europe
43:13from English bases in the months before D-Day.
43:16After the invasion of Europe,
43:36it proved capable of effective operation from forward airstrips.
43:39It harassed German ground forces and tanks without mercy.
43:46The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was a purpose-built night fighter.
44:01It was designed from the start to carry radar in the nose.
44:05It shared the P-38's twin-engine, twin-boom layout
44:08and had a very advanced wing design,
44:11using spoilers for lateral control.
44:16It entered service with the Army Air Forces
44:18in the South Pacific in 1944.
44:21It served successfully there and in Europe for the rest of the war.
44:25It was enormous for a fighter with a wingspan of 66 feet,
44:30but it was fast and agile.
44:31Without question, the single most advanced aircraft the Germans put into the field
44:45was the Messerschmitt ME-262 jet fighter.
44:49This is one of the early development versions
44:51before the fitting of the tricycle landing gear.
44:53With its swept wings, heavy armament and 540 miles an hour top speed,
44:59it was easily the best fighter of the war.
45:01The fighter version was called the Swallow.
45:16The bomber version, favoured by Hitler for years,
45:18was called the Stormbird.
45:20It was a beautiful aircraft,
45:37but its pilots liked it for more than aesthetic reasons.
45:41By the time it began to appear in service in late 1944,
45:45the Allies dominated the air.
45:46The ME-262s gave Luftwaffe pilots at least a slim chance for survival.
45:57About 1,433 were delivered to the Luftwaffe,
46:01but only about 300 got into operation.
46:05Production of the 262 was delayed
46:07because of the difficulty of producing a satisfactory number
46:11of the radical new jet engines.
46:12If the utmost priority had been placed
46:16on the development of the jet engine from 1939,
46:20the 262 could have entered service in mid-1943.
46:24If it had, the air war over Europe
46:27would have been vastly different.
46:28Germany and Britain were developing the jet engine at the same time.
46:39Britain's first operational jet fighter
46:41was the Gloucester Meteor.
46:44Like the ME-262, it took a long time to develop
46:46and was not ready to enter service until July 1944.
46:51Its major contribution to the war
46:53was chasing German V-1 flying bombs.
46:57It set a world speed record in 1945
46:59and laid the foundation for Britain's post-war jet air force.
47:03The most extreme and radical aircraft of the war
47:15was the Messerschmitt ME-163 Comet.
47:19It was a rocket-powered flying wing interceptor
47:22designed to reach the greatest possible height
47:24in the shortest possible time.
47:26The Messerschmitt ME-163 Comet
47:30It flew at 624 miles an hour in 1941.
47:44That was such a fantastic feat
47:46that any self-respecting Allied spy
47:48would have refused to believe it.
47:51It worked.
47:52In 1944 and 1945, it damaged Allied bomber formations.
47:56But there was almost as much hazard
47:59to the pilot in each flight
48:01from the volatile rocket fuels
48:02as there was to high-flying Allied aircraft.
48:06It was a brave concept,
48:08but it could not win the war for the Luftwaffe.
48:11but it was a beautiful fact,
48:12so it would not win the war
48:12except the rich and self- agony stepped away.
48:13the bomb nicoïえ
48:15jol seriously
48:16intimidate
48:18which is so dangerous
48:20that we can notstoppable
48:21can administer
48:21and roles
48:22instead
48:22pass
48:23with
48:25You
48:26for
48:27while
48:28category
48:29may
48:29but
48:30not
48:32just
48:32from the
48:33world
48:34and
48:36have
48:36been
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