Mustang vs. Corsair; the Last Piston Engine Dogfight
Вставка
- Опубліковано 20 лип 2021
- On July 17, 1969, the day of the piston engine fighter aircraft finally past.
But it certainly went out fighting.
This is the story of Captain Soto of the Honduran Air Force, who scored three kills in a day in what would be the final piston engine dogfights.
Check out Mario's other books:
www.amazon.com...
And the Latin American Aviation Historical Society:
www.laahs.com/
If you like this content please consider supporting me at Patreon:
/ ednash
Want another way to help support this channel? Maybe consider buying my book on my time fighting ISIS:
amzn.to/3preYyO
Interested in military affairs/history?
militarymatters...
I have seen that exact Honduran Corsair in person. That aircraft is on static display at the entrance to the Honduran air defense base at Tegucigalpa. Very cool aircraft.
How do you pronounce that?
What dude
@@richardm3023 teh-goo-see-GAHL-pah
@@nairbvel Looks like "Dave" to me.
How Cool
"I destroyed 40% of the enemies air force in a single day!" is one hell of a bragging right.
Not much of an Air Force more like air farce
@@curiousgeorge5992 God! Even the Red Baron himself would laugh at such antiquated aeroplanes.
@@bonetiredtoo Well, the U.S. Air Force still used Mustangs in the Korean War and the last Mustang in service in the American forces was withdrawn in January 1957. Fact is the U.S. military actually purchased two Mustangs in 1968 as chase aircraft to test the new Lockheed Cheyenne attack helicopter.
It must be said however that by 1969 the Soviets used the MiG-21, the U.S. the F4 Phantom, the French the Mirage III, the British the English Electric Lightning and even the Chinese used Chengdu J-7 - all of which were capable of Mach 2 speeds.
My guess would be that these Central- and South American small countries were blockaded/prohibited from buying anything fancier (like a jet) from anybody willing to sell of their first generation jets like the Soviets, French or Chinese. It's also possible they couldn't afford to purchase them anyway or that said nations didn't believe it would be a very good idea to provide them even if they had have the funds.
@@tucoramirez4558 even older Props are very good for COIN ops in small countrys, USAF used A-1 and B-26 Invader during the Vietnam war. Latin american countrys had a lot of uprises and rebellions in 60s, 70s so Corsairs and mustangs werent a bad choice for their airforces, do you really believe this countrys are capable maintaining high tech Jets, paying for high tech jets and the infrastructure needed? maybe for F-5As or A-37 Tweetybirds.
Soto probably never had to buy another drink in his life.
F4U Corsair versus the Mustang. Who would have known? The last true aerial gunfight and between two machines that were on the same side in another time. Great story Ed. Thanks!
Its like War Thunder in real life.
The longevity of the production run of the F4U (1942 - 53) meant there were airframes and spares in abundance for years to come, which made its ongoing use sensible for small nations who couldn't affford to buy more up to date equipment.
Worth noting that if these where considered old at 25 years max (1945) then there are F-15 Eagles flying out of USAF bases here in the UK that are 1984 FY builds (37 years old). To put it another way that's the time span between the Wright Bros flight and the prototype of the XF-4U1.
With upgrades in engines and electronics. These are basically the same planes. But it is amazing the longevity of the F15s, F16s and the F18s.
Yup. Great post. I have lived in the Tucson Arizona area my whole life. F-16s, A-10s, and C-130s are still the planes over this city on a regular basis just like when I was a kid. I'm 40 now. I think it was the fall of the Soviet Union that halted serious competition and therefor reason to advance.
@@01Z06guy I recall visiting my grandparents in the late 1980's who had retired to Sun City, Arizona from the East Coast. I think I spent most of my time staring towards the sky watching the jet fighters out of Luke AFB. If I recall correctly, they were flying the F-5, F-104, F-4 and the F-15 at that time. Yes, the F-15 platform is still around, but I just loved watching the twin smoke plumes of the F-4's...and they sounded glorious!
The US B-52 fleet is old enough to have grandkids
@@ditto1958 I’ve got a feeling from now on the term “boomer” is just going to remind me of a B52
This is the sort of channel that makes UA-cam worthwhile.
In June, 1975, I flew into the airport at San Pedro Sula, Honduras on a TAN Airlines (Honduran Airline) Boeing 737-200. As I was walking from the aircraft to the terminal I noticed at the end of the airport five Honduran Corsairs lined up in a row. I took out my camera and snapped off a shot of the vintage fighters. That was the only photo I was able to take as I could not get any closer to the F4Us and I'm lucky I got that one shot!
Around 1979 while working at an FBO, Nashville Flying Service, I arrived at work one day to see a Corsair doing high G turns and pull ups in the middle of the then parallel runways. It was not uncommon to see warbirds putting on improptu tower approved passes in this much friendlier times at BNA. It turns out the plane had landing gear issues and a local warbird pilot, John T. Baugh, who had several aircraft based with us was called to the tower to talk with the pilot owing to his vast experience and owning several war birds. On the last high G pull up before decision to belly land and low on fuel, the gear came out to the cheers of all watching followed by uneventful landing with the Corsair parking in front of our operation with me marshalling the plane and staying with us several weeks. To say the pilot was grateful was an understatement. John's mechanics, Gene Coles and Jerry Myatt would affect repairs on the Corsair over the weeks it would spend at BNA.
I got to know the owner of the Corsair during his stay and the back story of the Corsair. Robert "Bob" Furgeson bought 5 Corsair from the Honduran Government that had been sitting at the airport unused and riddled with bullet holes. He managed to sell three and kept two to make the one that he flew that day. To bring this full circle, John Baugh owned a P-51 Mustang, Miss Coranado, previously owned by Bob Hoover. We moved the P-51 to his plane port and the Corsair to the hanger for the period it took to make the plane air worthy again. It was an exciting day when the two planes taxied out, took off in formation and did high speed passes across the field.
Never did I expect to ever find a story that matched up to a real aviation experience.
@@williesweetjr8713 Wow, what an interesting story and happy eventual outcome regarding that former Honduran F4U Corsair facing landing gear issues. Thanks for sharing!
Good one Ed: " destroyed 40% of the enemies air force" Don't think that'll ever get beaten!
By war impact, he might actually be the most influential combat pilot on a conflict of all time.
It could happen if you are up against New Zealand.
@@rsoul7282 New Zealand has 49 aircraft in their Air Force…
@@1992AC and approximately how many of them are capable of shooting back at you?
@@rsoul7282 None lol
Well done on the history of the world last piston engine dogfight mark felton will be very pleased with you
On the other side off the world.. F-4 Phantoms were taking on Mig-21s in Vietnam at this time. Then this event or war in Central America and both American manufacturered aircraft dating from WW2. Crazy stuff.
At the same time a man was landing on the moon!
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Very true and also the first Boeing 747 and Concorde had taken flight. Aviation advanced so fast in the 50s and 60s.
What's even funnier is that both me and the Phantom still fly for a lot of airforces in the world today, half a century later. The Phantom still flies for Iran, Turkey and Greece whereas I still fly for a lot of developing nations in both my original form and my Chinese built clone, the J7.
Amazing story, warplanes from another time finishing the age of of piston warfare with over two decades after they entered service.
Guess the infantry never got their air support.
No time for grunts. Must shoot other zoomies.
Well , the Salvadoran infantry never got their air support, but after that day, the Honduran corsairs really had their way strafing and bombing the Salvadorans’ main advance column pressing their advance trough the western central provinces. They got so overconfident, so careless , that they we’re executing an “administrative “ march under broad day light, with out any air support, one could only imagine the slaughter those guys suffered for almost 36 hours
There's a first in the history of the infantry.
Quite possibly one of the most exciting air combat stories I've ever come across.
I still think of what these events happened in aerial combat in the 1960s between Mustang and Corsairs there is still the most interesting thing I've ever heard of
The P47s vs everything else in the Chinese Civil War is a another good post WW2 exercise in piston engine dogfights, with the Chinese nationalists killing the communists at a massively high exchange rate, even having at least 1 P47 shoot down a Mig 15.
The Corsair and Mustang were both great fighters but I give the edge to the Corsair overall.
Low alt yes but up high a mustang is gonna run circles around the Corsair
I don't believe it's anywhere near that simple. What was the role of the aircraft? Corsairs were not intended as a long range escort fighter, nor to operate at very high altitudes. And the Mustang certainly was not designed for carrier duty. They both served their missions well.
The other issue with trying to compare the two so far outside of their intended theatres of operations - there are so many factors around training, tactics, support and logistics, aircraft readiness - were these well maintained and fully combat ready or was they war weary birds supporting only very limited operations? Did they even have the right fuel? Pilot experience in the type and combat experience also challenges any fair comparison.
These planes were different, built for different missions. Flown at different altitudes with different ordinance loads drastically affects combat performance as well. Outcome could easily have been different.
Anyway - these are both legendary, iconic warbirds and deserve their own place in history for their contribution to the war effort and my eternal respect and thanks for the brave pilots and crew and support personnel that fought with them.
@@scootiepatootie7721 in mock combat during ww2 the corsairs were dominant over mustangs
Give me the Corsair.
@@AC_702 At high speed the P-51 took a lot of muscle to control it. It flew like a truck without power steering. You could do aerobatics or dogfight at any altitude in an F4U using two fingers on the stick. The same maneuvers in a Mustang require both hands on the stick while using a lot of muscle from both arms. After a 3 minute dogfight, mustang pilots were exhausted.
That exact Corsair is on display at my city’s Aeronautical Museum in Tegucigalpa, pretty lovely bird and also theres some gems at the Museum like some F86’s and a Northrop F5
I've always loved that sweet little gem from Northrop. In terms of looks alone, it's probably the prettiest jet fighter ever built, and with a 720° per second roll rate and excellent pitch response, was impressively agile! Mind you, once you hung anything under the wings, its agility took a mighty big hit.
Still, when they first started using the F5-E/F Tiger II as an aggressor at Fighter Weapons School/Red Flag, there were an awful lot of demoralised Tomcat and Eagle drivers! They had to change the rules to favour longer range missile engagements to make it harder for "the bad guys" to win.😉
Too bad Corsairs had to fight Corsairs but happily a good number of these Corsairs still fly today thanks to Bob Ferguson and Howard Pardue and others!
Very cool! Heard of this war before but not these WWII planes dogfighting, 3 kills so soon in that situation is something else
Thank you for covering this! This is a very underrated point in history
Nicely done Ed. I learned something today, thank you. I was aware of the "Football War" but had not heard or read details of arial combat during that short Central American conflict.
I really recommend for everyone to read Ryszard Kapuściński's book "Football War" that actually coined the term. Incredible piece of journalism.
@mixererunio I felt the title a bit misleading since it not so much about this conflict in it. He was also known for blowing up events that he witnessed.
Thanks for the tip! Kapuściński's "Imperum", about travels, first within the Soviet Union and then to the ex-states shortly after the SU's demise, was really good. A great journalist and writer.
Ad Nashes brilliant history niche! Again thanks. Can't remember ever having heard of this war even. Let alone this gripping dogfight day.
What an interesting engagement, would love to hear more about this conflict as a whole.
Honduras is sparsely populated, El Salvador is the most densely populated country in the continent. So, many El Salvadoreans worked/owned in Honduras fields. Honduras launched an agrarian reform, which meant taking the land from the foreign landowners and expulsing tens of thousands of peasants, that couln't be taken in such a short time. Hence, the war.
I just about remember this being reported not long afterwards but nowhere, in as much detail. Thank you for this.
Ed Nash brings light to obscurity!
They made over 12,000 F4U Corsairs, That is amazing and so is the Plane!
Double Wasp vs. Merlin (or so as it’s a Cavalier….), how awesome must that sound!
I am so happy you did this story, most peeps dont know the story!
Most people outside aviation nuts and the Combat Flight Sim Community.
First heard of this on mission4today an IL-2 Mission repository.
I think someone made a Mission or campaign on it. Admittedly without the right map, given this was before modding.
The IL-2 Forgotten Battles series really lived up to it's name by teaching about a lot of those Forgotten Battles.
Flight som make for great tools to teach history.
I do wonder what the ground forces thought when their expected air support dumped the ordnance and went off chasing aircraft DEPARTING the area...
You lose your air-support, but your enemy loses theirs in turn, and permanently.
@@sheeplord4976 maybe so..in the medium term. Doesn't help the grunts who have called for support RIGHT NOW!
@@trooperdgb9722sure, maybe you take some ground losses today, and lose the fight, but those downed enemy aircraft were orders of magnitude more significant to the war. The argument that Joe on the front line needs CAS "RIGHT NOW!" and should have priority may be ignorant of the realities of the deep fight and the operational necessities of taking out the enemy's critical assets. You accept some ground losses up front so you don't have to later, and get a quicker resolution to the war.
Well, what if the enemy fighters turn around and attack your fighters while they are attacking enemy ground troops? Especially given, that those ground troops will also cry for help.
Those Fighters were the biggest threat to the Honduran Fighters so they were justified going after them.
And there's the cold hard logic of a pilot being a costly specialist into which the Military has more than a Grunt, they'll want to protect him more.
Same for the aircraft, it's a highly valueable force multiplier, you don't want to loose it needlessly, but you also want to take the enemy's away.
@@LupusAries yes, it's called prioritized targeting, essentially a part of commander's intent.
Even the "Breitling" commercial couldn't decide which was best.....
Terrific video! The research on this was exemplary and I look forward to the follow-up!
Heh, Apollo 11 was on it's way to the moon on that date.
In the hands of equal pilots, those planes were the best of WW2. I suspect there would be no definitive winner until one of the pilots made a mistake. Each plane has its strengths and weaknesses.
....the corsair could and DID fly with whole cylinders shot off its engine....the P51??? not so much
@@ssnerd583 What part of "Each plane has its strengths and weaknesses" don't you understand?
@@robinsattahip2376 ...THE same part as PISS OFF???
@@ssnerd583 more then few but way more p47's come home with missing jugs lol and pilot did not even know till he landed
Very good story indeed. The Corsair never received the credit it was due because for the most part, the European conflict received much more attention at times during WWII than the Pacific conflict. Although the Brit's used the Corsair and made it carrier capable, it wasn't until 18 months later (I believe) that it was used on U.S. carriers. The good thing about both planes, they had a 11 to 1 kill ratio. I like the corsair much better, but either one could be parked in my driveway! A good story indeed Sir !
11 to 1 is a ratio created by 'the winners' & quite meaningless. The Hellcat had a 19 to 1 ratio for example. The Corsair was very difficult to use on carriers. hard to control & over 300 pilots were killed trying to master it. The kill ratio does not include those 300 guys!
@@nightjarflying Good points there!
A war about which I previously knew nothing, and about which I now know ... something.
Seriously though, thank you for shining some light on an obscure (to a European!) conflict, and broadening my knowledge by even just a little bit.
Fascinating stuff. I usually rely upon Mark Felton for my lesser known military historical tidbits. This is a nice addition. Keep it up!!
Wasn’t aware of this. Excellent video!
This has undoubtedly happened before, but I can't remember any other war where 2 of the same fighter types fought against each other. Thanks for the video, I like your work a lot!
Early conflict in Israel v Egypt (?). Both sides flew Spitfires, but the Israelis also flew Czech-built Bf109s (Avia), fitted with bomber engines.
I don't know if they ever had a "mirror match" fight like that, but both India and Pakistan operate MiG-21s
I can't cite examples, but something rings a bell about same-type matchups of jets in middle east conflicts. With all the shifting loyalties in the area and the desperate drive to sell western military aid to keep off soviet influence, there's got to be at least one dogfight over the years.
The Corsair and P-47 were designed to take a beating and keep flying, right down to their air cooled radial engines. They had no radiator to shoot up like a P-51.
Mustang had 6 separate cooling systems.
True but also 20mm cannons (assuming they work) are a lot more effective than 50 cals. Explosive shells do a lot more damage. With the 50 cal you have to hit something vital to be effective, the 20mm can pass close to a critical component and the explosion will do the work.
@@FreeloaderUK also depends on what ur shooting at
Corsairs have (oil cooling?) radiators in the wing roots and a fair amount of plumbing.
P-51s werent actually made to engage any type of fighter 1 on 1, they actually got out turned and there assed kicked by alot of older airframe designes, if germany wasnt getting bombed as bad and had more available pilots even tho they already had a ton thrown at the russians, the fw-190 doras would of messed them up over germany. By the time the mustangs were rolling in, germany was on its last legs. All the p-51 did was have good range and fly fast, it couldnt really turn well, and it couldnt roll good at all either.
The Football war. Never seen such a video before, very educational. Congrats.
Thanks!
My dad flew the Corsairs in the South Pacific during WWII.
He loved flying the Corsairs and the stories of flying...
Excellent info on a little known piece of history. Thanks!
Wow! That post was one of the best I’ve watched in a while. Fascinating. Kudos and thank you!!!
"The quality of the crate matters but little. Success depends upon the man who sits in it." Manfred von Richthofen
I am surprised of see a english video of Sotillo thanks man for that from Honduras 🇭🇳
Excellent review of the aviation assets and their performance Ed. Thank you.
This is super interesting. Of course I’ve heard of The Football War. But I never heard anything about the aerial part of it. Let alone it being the last combat between piston engine fighters & American ones from WWII at that. RIP to the brave pilots that perished & kudos to Capt. Soto for his achievement.
As soon as he mentioned tip tanks, I knew where it was headed. Wonder how it would have played out if those Mustangs had drop tanks instead.
Probably the total opposite. The Corsair is no slouch, but the original Mustang was on a whole other level. Even with the tip tanks this was a pretty close affair. It does make an interesting what if scenario, though.
I immediately thought the same. I think the Mustangs would've had a significant advantage if they could drop their tanks. Corsairs had to be built pretty rugged and heavier for carrier operations, I don't imagine these land based Corsairs were lightened that much but I could be wrong.
@@johnladuke6475 Wrong, the Navy was considering buying Mustangs, after the war they conducted an evaluation of the two. The Corsair was all over the Mustang in every category except at very high altitude maneuvering.
@@jeepman1467 Agreed, low altitude I am betting on the Corsair every time.
@@TheAeroegg No way... Mustangs were overmatched in dogfights back when they were new against bf-109s and Fw-190s... The Mustang got a lot of glory In history books simply because they had the range to Escort bombers. Only chance they'd have is energy conservation in a high altitude dogfight. Low levels or regular turning fight the Corsair wins 9 out of 10 times with equally skilled pilots. Mustangs wings liked to stall pretty damn easily if you pulled too hard. On top of that, the mustang was relatively fragile. While the corsair was much tougher especially when it came to the big radial air cooler engines vs the mustangs little water cooled ones. Add to that, the fact that the corsairs had bigger harder hitting 20mm cannons vs the 50 cals on the mustangs. Corsair vs P-47 is a more fair fight than vs a P-51 at anything but the highest altitudes. Get a P-51 and try to dogfight with it in a realistic flight sim and you'll be cursing the day the thing was ever built. "WTF all I did was THINK about the controls and a damn wing stalled.".. Seriously, look the plane up on forums for more realistic sims like DCS...even IL-2.. There's endless complaining, posts with names like "P-51, impossible to fly?" and people straight up filing bug reports for the game thinking the aircraft model is broken because coming from planes like Corsairs, P-47s, bf-109s, Fw-190s, etc... It's a whole different animal.. Laminar wing, very critical... It was simply built for Range first, speed second, and dogfighting third.. It was built this way because nothing else had enough range to Escort bombers all the way. It was also introduced quite late in the war when the vast majority of the skilled German pilots were already dead. So it's kill count was greatly padded by not only flying against much more poorly trained and inexperienced pilots, but also, the Germans at that point were focusing almost completely on the bombers. Another source of easy kills for mustang pilots.. Shooting down the Germans from behind while they tried to shoot doen bombers. I'm not saying the P-51 is a bad plane.. It wasn't, it was an excellent plane for the job it was designed to do...lokg range bomber Escort.. But if I found myself teleported back in time to WW2 and knew I'd be primarily dogfighting against the Germans, I'd be praying for a P-47 over a P-51. Different tools for different jobs.
Brilliant....Most of us know very little about the history and current affairs of South America.
But its not southamerica, is central america
@@golantrevize1245 Sorry my lack of knowledge
I'm so happy to have found your channel ! Please continue like this for a long time !
This Pilots literally sound like War Thunder Pilots like they're on a bombing run and they see another fighter and they're just like kill kill kill kill kill kill!!!!!! lol
Excelente informe.
Saludos desde Argentina.
Thank you for History as a man married to a Americana, I love to know History of the Americas'
Oh look at all those surplus rifles and carbines!
A mate of mine who was a mechanic in the RAF one time fixed a Honduran corsair, I don't know what we're the circumstances but he did send me a photo of the aircraft with damaged propeller.
Damn, I love both of these beautiful planes. I really hate to see them pitted against each other! These should be babied in air museums and taken out and flown once a year to keep them operating. Really amazing flying machines.
Not the first time. Interestingly, in Israel's first war, Spitfires were flown by Arab forces were up against Me109 aircraft flown by Israeli pilots. Exactly how each side fared is something that I would like to examine.
The Mustang was designed as long range fighter, depending on it's fuel load, it had trouble in a dogfight.
The Corsair, was designed as a dogfighting fighter with reasonable range. Later modifications, such as long range drop tanks and engine mods. gave it the legs. (Notice how, despite Hollywood, they didn't carry bombs when doing the long range sweeps, but fuel tanks.)
my father a very biased corsair pilot but also a very experienced combat pilot often sang the praises of the corsairs air cooled engine particularly when it came to small arms fire when flying ground support.
Were they Hispano cannons? The RAAF had consistent problems with them in 1943, mainly due to lack of equipment to keep them warm at high altitude ( yes the British who sold them didnt think the air in the Southern Hemisphere was cold....)
Nah they were American m3 20 mms
Thanks Ed. Love these lesser known aviation events👍
Great story, three cheers for the Honduran Air Force and Captain Soto !
Mustang vs Corsair. I just dont know how to feel about this.
Well researched and well presented. In the early hours of the morning the day after El Salvador dropped bombs on the Honduran Air Force base in Tegucigalpa I witnessed a dogfight over the city. A couple of Mustangs flew in and were intercepted by Corsairs and an armed T-28 trainer flying high cover. The T-28 had a pair of 50 cals mounted in underwing pods and landed shots on a Mustang that left the area smoking heavily. From reports that I recall the Mustang did go down before returning to base.
Ed, you are truly amazing. If there is a person, an event or even an aircraft, you will not only know about it, but will report the detailed history involved. You could not imagine, how much that means to me.
My RAAF Mirage Sqn Technical Officer had flown Mustangs in the Korean War. He told me that during practice dogfights against RNZAF Corsairs they would lose because of the Corsairs greater ability to sustain manoeuvring energy.
The Corsair was massively underrated as an air to air fighter imo.
@JZ's Best Friend odd?
@@TheShrike616 How is the Corsair in any way underrated? Wikipedia page calls it "one of the most capable carrier-based fighter-bombers" and "regarded it as the most formidable American fighter of World War II". Plane has been showcased in numerous books, documentaries, computer games and was even the starring machine in a major TV series ("Baa Baa Black Sheep").
@@Ozraptor4 You said it. Rated as a fighter bomber. But underrated in the air to air role compared to its contemporaries. When you think of Ww2 Pacific air combat you will first think about the Hellcat.
@@TheShrike616 That's because the US Navy were afraid of it, so gave it to the Marines who used it for ground attack. Then some Corsairs were sent to the Royal Navy, who found it excellent, and taught the US Navy how to land it on aircraft carriers. But by then, there weren't that many Japanese aircraft left for it to shoot down.
Next stop Korea...where it struggled to catch the Migs
@@TheShrike616 The Hellcat? You mean the over glorified stop gap plane that only excelled because it managed to out run zeroes?
Didn't know about this History! Thanks forr teaching me something new
"I swear I thought we were over Honduras when I shot him down."
Everyone singing the praises of the Corsair over the Mustang need to listen to the narrator starting at 5:25. Would have been interesting to see this dogfight without a modified ground attack Mustang. Also pilot skill is huge.
Great piece of history..
P-51 was never a nimble dogfighter , the wingtip tanks would definitely make it even less nimble.
What it lacked in agility, it made up for well with firepower and speed. Oh, I guess I forgot about range and/or endurance also.
@@finntastique3891 yep , it was an excellent escort fighter and did its job very well , I never said otherwise.. It just wasn’t super nimble and the wingtip tanks made it even less so. I stand by what I said.
Brilliant video as always!
Heads up for future videos; people from El Salvador, counterintuitively, are not called El Salvadorans or El Salvadorians, they are called Salvadorans.
Keep up the great work!
Fantastic story! Thank you for sharing...I appreciated and admire both planes. My dad few a mustang in the pacific, escorting B-29's over Japan.
I imagine this war is one reason why Shaw devoted so much time in “Fighter Combat” to similar plane combat and any time at all to prop fighters. That and Spads tangling with jets in Vietnam.
What is a spad?
@@JohnSmith-eo5sp Originally a French WW1 Biplane Fighter.
But it's also a nickname for the A-1 Skyraider the last prop driven attack plane in US Navy service. It's original designation was AD=Attacker Douglas.
EXCELLENT video, many thanks for sharing this!
On a side note, if one gets the chance try the favored breakfast of the region, fried plantain with refried beans and fried eggs.
I'd give my left arm for film footage of this pair of incidents.
20mm cannon will help you with arm removal right-quick-like.
Well done piece of significant history … even the History Guy missed ….
My father was a Marine in the Pacific during World War II. He was an airplane mechanic who maintained Corsairs. He always told me it was the best plane the US had. (but he might’ve been a little biased) ;) interesting facts about the Corsair. It holds the record for the longest active service of any military fighter in US history - 11 years. It is credited with shooting down a MIG 15 jet fighter during the Korean War. As this video helps show, it was still being used by militaries around the world up until 1979.
I was driving to Costa Rica and was in Mexico City when war broke out between El Salvador and Honduras.
9:50 Capt Fernando Zoto , awesome fighter pilot 👨✈️ 💪💥 3 kills in a day , should he had 3 more days he’ll destroy the entire enemy fleet
Si no fuera por el llamado de la oea, hubiera sido un desenlace completamente diferente.
The Corsair, particularly the -5 version, could easily out-turn and out-climb any P51 Mustang. The fight against the FG-1's would have been more evenly matched, but even then, the -5 had a strong advantage.
Not true. Against a P-51D model, yes, the -5 was somewhat better. However, the P-51H was a different story...it would easily outperform any version of the Corsair...
P-47M could easily out-turn out run and out climb any P51 AND CORSAIR (except the P51H)..
@@ILSRWY4 It was the fastest prop plane of that era, but I don't know about outturning or outclimbing the P-51H. It was a smaller, and more powerful version of the Mustang and was much faster, could turn tighter, and had a much higher climb rate the the previous D model. The H would outperform ANY Corsair, but the P-47M was a beast..I'd like to see that fight!
@@jamesbottger5894 I said "except the P-51H" which means I was excluding it from my comparison. you and I agree... you just didn't read my statement correctly.
@@jamesbottger5894 Do 335 is faster
Australia has a Corsair from Honduras flying it may have been sold. There is a vid on here of it landing without gear down.
Bravo Ed《☆》F4U Corsairs & F14 Tomcats are my 2 most favorite aircraft of all time👍😎I imagine both countries have upgraded their fleets to something that burns jet fuel by now◇¿.🌴◇:*:◇🌴Greetings from⛾Florida🤳Brother😎🎱☮🔊🖖👍
Honduras 🇭🇳 now has F-5 Tiger 2
Well done Edd, excellent video!
Glances at British military history, notices The War of Jenkins Ear....
As interesting a subject as ever Ed and well covered.
Great content Ed. And yes the reason a war begins is not the reason why it started ! Thanks Ed.
0 … tez
My father who is still alive participated in the war,he was an artillary captain in the honduran army back then.Just yesterday he told me that most of the pilots from El Salvador came to Honduras to graduate from our airforce academy back then.Sotillo as my dad calls him was their instructor and called them out on radio the day of the dog fight " this is your instructor about to shoot you down "
Most of the pilots from el salvador who graduated from the honduran academy reveared him as the best instructor and the fear was present to face him and their psychy was shattered.
Sí eres hondureño, dile a tú pueblo qué conozcan y recuerden, qué ambos países no son países hermanos, por más qué la gente ignorante lo justifique, entiendes.
Something tells me the real end to the "100's hours war"....was that both sides ran out of bullets or just lost interest. I can visualize the dogfights now....planes charging at each other engines straining on oil that has not been changed in 5 years, no gauges working on the dash other than the check engine light and all 3 tires completely bald. Arrriba! Andale, andale!
Not really. I don't know about FAS, but the FAH is a pretty good air force. To this day, one of the best in Latin America. Pilots had and still have great training. As for maintenance, these corsairs still fly so you bet they were in a nice condition back then. The war ended because the OEA intervened.
Well done, Ed!
Ed, a thank you for this very interesting explanation and also for the work you put into all of you videos.
Best accolade I can offer is every time I see your name attached to a video it gains supremacy over anything else going on (single and retired, here) and I stop to savour it.
Cheers from E. Ontario
Many thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoy my work.
The 20mm Corsairs in Korea worked well enough - this could have been a maintenance issue
It was ammo. I'll cover it in the next vid.
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters - great videos, Ed !
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters From watching Forgotten Weapons I've learned that in small arms a surprisingly large percentage weapon malfunctions are actually due to the ammo or the magazine.
to function/feed properly 20mm ammo should be perfect aligned in the Belt and well oiled.
I've heard tales that the French had trouble with the 20mm cannons on their F4U-7's also....
I was a six year old kid then, living in the residential area next to Tegucigalpa’s Toncontin airport, it was a hellish night I shall never forget, an element of the FAS probably a four plane squadron begun the attack on the airport, dropping ordinance and executing staffing runs all over the place, but , besides leaving a handful of dirt craters on the surrounding hills, they did’t hit anything of value
Interesting stuff!
The book you mention is published by Helion & Company as part of their Latin America @ War series. I am now looking for this book.
They are a great publisher for military subjects, not quite Osprey but close. I have several of the Middle East @ War books.
I was desperately trying to find a link for sales, but there are none available. It's an EXCELLENT book, thoroughly recommend!
Yeah dosen't look like its available digitally either unfortunately www.helion.co.uk/helion-digital-editions.php?sid=a5ac4ee0dedebc6c20a6a8973b2790f1&filter1=20
But I can imagine their will be some in 2nd hand book shops in Britain and quite a lot of those will ship abroad.
Kinda makes a mockery of the forum gurus that state "these aircraft would never meet in real life so its all a moot point".
Great video and historic retelling. The only let down in answering the question of which was the BEST piston fighter, was that the Mustangs here where heavily modified for ground attack and not as maneuverable as their original design. So in my book, the Corsairs had an advantage.
Almost sounds like some kind of alternate history. Two ex-American fighters slugging it out against each other!
General Soto Cano passed on last week, on July 4th.
It's weird to hear about a conflict with such tiny air forces. Air power plays such an important role in modern war that you just don't expect the assets to be so small. Put it in this perspective - if they were all parked on a runway, I could personally disable every single plane in both air forces, probably in less than one hour. Given a whole day uninterrupted on that runway I could personally destroy both air forces.
What a Story, Great Research!