The jet age made the concept of large bomber armadas executing daylight missions untenable. In an image reminiscent of WWII, MiG-15s turn in formation as they prepare to engage allied bombers in this case, B-29 Superfortresses. Only the North American F-85 Sabre was capable of going toe-to-toe with the MiG, relegating all piston-engine fighter aircraft to ground attack roles. As the United States attempted to get back to it’s pre-war, quasi-isolationist way of life, less funding and manpower were allocated to the development of new weaponry this became glaringly obvious as Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s swept down the Korean Peninsula as the conflict continued to escalate. This was due to the relatively short amount of time that lapsed between the two conflicts, as well as the massive military drawdown that occurred after 1945. The Korean War was the first major conflict of the Cold War, and it was fought with a substantial amount of WWII-era weaponry, including aircraft. By the time of its combat debut, the tide had been irreversibly changed for the German military aircraft and war-production factories were being pulverized by the allied strategic bombing campaign and there simply weren’t enough 262’s to impact the course of the war. However, the cutting-edge jet fighter was too little too late.
Gun camera footage of an Me-262 tangling with an allied piston-engine fighter. In the last months of the war, staggeringly outnumbered 262 squadrons engaged 1,500 plane armadas, still managing to achieve positive kill ratios (2). Unable to catch it at high speeds, escort P-51s were routinely caught off guard as 262s sliced through allied bomber formations. However, while actually engaged in aerial combat, the 262 performed rather well. Furthermore, by the time the 262 was fielded, overwhelming allied air superiority made its deployment difficult most of the German jet fighters that were shot down by American P-51s were done so while they were either landing or taking off from their bases. Though allied kill scores-specifically against Me-262s-are high, these figures are somewhat misleading due to the fact that several European Theater air groups included aircraft destroyed on the ground as kills. One of the most common fighter foes faced by the 262 was the North American P-51 Mustang. The idea of a jet aircraft was so new-in combat, no less-that it allowed the quote of infamous American aviator Chuck Yeager, “The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down,” to be uttered (1). It was a menace to allied air power and feared by American and British bomber crews. With a top speed of 560 mph, 37,000-foot ceiling, formidable armament of four 30mm cannons, and of course it’s two Junkers turbojet engines, the Me-262 was unmatched in the skies above Europe. Tested as early as 1941 and fielded in 1944, the Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe (Swallow) rocked the foundations of aerial warfare of the era. Though several of the primary belligerents of WWII had jet-powered aircraft in development-most notably the British Gloster Meteor and American Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star-it was the Luftwaffe to deploy the first one. Though less likely, the dueling of dissimilar-powered aircraft still has the potential of erupting in future conflict. A cataloguing of each individual engagement would be too cumbersome, but an overview of this unique aspect of warfare reveals some truly hair-raising moments on behalf of the airmen locked in battle.
With the dawn of the jet age in the waning days of World War Two and its rapid expansion throughout the Cold War, prop and jet fighters experienced a substantial overlap. Propeller-driven aircraft engaging jet fighters in combat seems highly unlikely, but is surprisingly more common in the history of aerial warfare than one would think.
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