It used a derivative of the Rolls-Royce Nene engine, which had been sold to the Soviet Union, and had entered squadron service in the Soviet Air Forces just a year earlier. pilots that their prey was hit and falling.Īt the time, the MiG-15 was the world's most advanced operational fighter. Soviet scholars speculate that the jettisoning of drop tanks by the MiGs and the tactics used in escaping the F-80s might have suggested to U.S. But Soviet records show no MiG losses on that date. records accord the first MiG-15 kill of the war to an F-80 pilot in that encounter. The first all-jet air battle in history was fought on 8 November 1950, when four Soviet-piloted MiG-15s engaged four U.S. carriers with Panthers and Banshees, their only aerial opponents were a few North Korean piston-engine aircraft. An estimated nine aircraft were destroyed on the ground.Īlthough the Valley Forge was soon reinforced by other U.S. There was no opposition, and all 57 aircraft returned safely to their carriers. The jets then turned their cannon against ground facilities. They were the first Navy jet pilots to down an enemy aircraft. Two airborne piston fighters-Yak-9s-were shot down, one each falling to the guns of F9Fs piloted by Lieutenant (junior grade) Leonard H. They felt a degree of safety in their capital, which was more than 400 miles from the nearest U.S. The North Koreans were taken by complete surprise. and British warplanes included eight Panthers, with others being held ready on the Valley Forge's flight deck in the event Chinese or Soviet aircraft appeared. The threat of North Korean air attack against the carriers was considered negligible, but the task force was only 100 miles from Red Chinese airfields on the Shantung Peninsula and 220 miles from Soviet airfields at Port Arthur. 3Īfter first being diverted to the Formosa (Taiwan) Strait in a show of force, the Valley Forge and the British light carrier Triumph raced to the coast of Korea where, early on the morning of 3 July, they launched strikes against airfields and other facilities in the area of Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. It consisted of two fighter squadrons with 30 F9F-2B Panthers two fighter squadrons with 28 piston-engine F4U-4B Corsairs an attack squadron with 14 piston-engine AD-4 Skyraiders and detachments of several special-mission aircraft. On her decks was Carrier Air Group 5, a typical carrier air group of the period. She had arrived in the western Pacific in May 1950 and was steaming just north of Hong Kong when the North Koreans struck. carrier in the Far East was the 27,100?-ton Valley Forge (CV-45). When the Korean War erupted in late June 1950 the only U.S. (The Blue Angels flew the plane until November 1951, when they transitioned to F9F-5, followed by the F9F-6 and the F9F-8.)īy the summer of 1950 the Navy had made a remarkably rapid transition from piston to turbojet aircraft. 2 In August the Blue Angels flight demonstration team and Marine fighter squadron VMF-115 received the F9F-2. Fixed armament was four 20-mm cannon in the nose up to 2,000 pounds of bombs and rockets could be carried on wing attachment points.įighter squadron VF-51 was the first to receive the Panther-the F9F-3 variant-in May 1949. The initial F9F-2 Panthers to enter squadron service had permanent, 120-gallon wingtip fuel tanks. (Its contemporary, the McDonnell XF2H-1 Banshee, first flew on 11 January 1947, and like the F9F, was quickly placed in production.) The aircraft was soon ordered into production as a fighter-bomber. The very attractive, streamlined prototype first flew on 21 November 1947. However, the British had developed the far more powerful Rolls-Royce Nene engine, which produced 5,000 pounds thrust and was adopted for the aircraft, now designated XF9F-2. Four powerplants were needed because of the low power available in contemporary jet engines. The XF9F-1 was designed as a two-seat night fighter with four wing-mounted turbojet engines, a competitive design to the Douglas F3D Skyknight. Its design was initiated in October 1946 as the Navy sought second-generation jet fighters from several manufacturers. Continuing a long line of Grumman-built fighters that dates to the FF-1 "Fifi" biplane of the early 1930s, the F9F was the firm's first turbojet aircraft. The Grumman-built aircraft may have also have been the world's first jet-propelled aircraft to shoot down another jet. Navy's first jet-propelled aircraft to enter combat was the F9F Panther.
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