V o L u m e I : a d

cripple or destroy electronics of all types. Thus, a nuclear air burst can read-

ily render communications, vehicles, ships, computers, and missile guidance

systems unusable.

The first atomic bomb, dropped over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, was

an air burst, exploding some 1,890 feet over the city. The blast obliterated

4 square miles of Hiroshima, destroying 62,000 buildings. More than 71,000

Japanese died; another 20,000 were wounded, and 171,000 were left homeless.

Spencer C. Tucker

See also

Atomic Bomb; Nuclear Weapons, Tactical

References

Bernstein, Barton. “The Dropping of the A-Bomb.” Center Magazine (March–April

1983): 7–15.

Pacific War Research Society. The Day Man Lost: Hiroshima, 6 August 1945. Tokyo:

Kodansha International, 1972.

Thomas, Gordon, and Max Morgan-Witts. Enola Gay. New York: Stein and Day, 1977.

Having benefited greatly from the technological leaps made during World

War II, aircraft emerged as vital military, political, and socialization tools for

both sides of the Cold War divide. Fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft were devel-

oped and fielded at a phenomenal pace and emerged as key components of

geopolitical policies and ambitions.

The close of World War II saw the beginning of the end of the era of

piston-powered fighter aircraft, as both Germany and Great Britain fielded

jet-powered aircraft in combat. Building largely on German research, both

the United States and the USSR unveiled seminal jet-powered models in the

years immediately after the war. Soviet production began with the Mikoyan-

Gurevich MiG-15 Fagot, of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

designation, that saw service in 1948 and stunned U.S. pilots in the early

days of the Korean War. The MiG-15’s primary U.S. counterpart in the skies

above the Korean Peninsula was the North American F-86 Sabre, which uti-

lized the latest in swept-wing technology and could achieve transonic speeds

in level flight while protecting American pilots through the use of the first

production aircraft ejector seats. Although the F-86 was marginally inferior to

its Soviet nemesis, the model enjoyed stunning success in Korea due largely

to the superior training and tactics of American pilots over their Soviet and

Chinese counterparts.

Although test pilot Chuck Yeager had piloted the Bell X-1 Glamorous

Glennis through the sound barrier in 1947, the title of the world’s first truly

supersonic war-fighting machine resided with America’s next production

model jet fighter, the F-100 Super Sabre. Debuting in 1954 as the first in the

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Aircraft

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Century series of U.S. fighters, the Super Sabre can be more accurately labeled

as an interceptor/fighter/bomber.

Utilizing two Tumanskii turbojets to reach Mach 1.36 speed, the MiG-19

Farmer became the first supersonic fighter produced outside the United States

when it entered service in 1955. The MiG-19 saw extensive use during Viet-

nam and the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973. Plans for the MiG-19 were

also exported to China, where by the late 1950s the model was produced by

the Shenyang Aircraft Factory for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force

(PLAAF) under the designation of J-6.

France’s ability to keep pace in the Cold War’s rapidly evolving fighter

industry was maintained almost solely by designs fielded by the firm of Mar-

cel Dassault. The Buchenwald survivor’s Mystère II joined the Armée de

l’Air in 1954 and after only a year’s time was joined by the Mystère IV. The

latter model was also exported to Israel, where it quickly saw action against

Egyptian MiG-15s during the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Britain’s entry into the realm of the supersonic fighter began with the

English Electric (later British Aircraft Corporation) Lightning, which Fighter

Command declared operational in 1959. The single-seat Lightning’s dis-

tinctive, vertically stacked engine configuration allowed the aircraft to reach

speeds that would break the then-current air-speed record of Mach 1.72 during

Aircraft

83

During the Korean War, U.S. Operation 

MOOLAH

offered $100,000 and political asylum to the first communist pilot to

defect with an undamaged MiG-15. The United States wanted the Soviet-built aircraft for assessment and evaluation.

Shown here is the MiG-15 flown by North Korean defector pilot Lieutenant No Kum Sok to Kimpo Airfield in South

Korea on 21 September 1953. He claimed that he had not been aware of the financial incentive. (National Archives and

Records Administration)

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flight testing in 1957. The idiosyncratic design would also prove to be the

model’s downfall, however, as the twin engines left scant room in the fuse-

lage for fuel, limiting the Lightning to a range of under two hours.

The U.S. Navy responded to the demands and restraints of carrier-based

flight by continuing to employ piston-powered fighters well after the land-

based services had switched to jet power. Models such as the Vought F4U

Corsair and Douglas AD Skyraider saw action during the Korean War, and

the versatile Skyraider remained operational in Vietnam into the 1970s. Naval

turbojet models were produced beginning in the mid-1950s, most notably

with the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and F4D (later F-6) Skyray, the navy’s first

supersonic jet.

The navy caught up with its land-based contemporaries with the 1961

service debut of the McDonnell (later McDonnell-Douglas) F-4 Phantom II,

which proved so successful that the U.S. Air Force began land-based use of

the F-4C model in 1963. The Phantom became the premier U.S. fighter/

bomber in Vietnam after 1965, providing air cover for and later replacing the

less capable F-100s and F-105s. F-4s notched the first air-to-air kills against

the North Vietnamese Air Force for both the U.S. Navy and Air Force in

June and July 1965, respectively, by downing MiG-17s over Gen Phu and

Hanoi.

The United States also exported the F-4 in large numbers to ten allied

countries, most notably Australia, Britain, Israel, Iran, Japan, South Korea,

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U.S. McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter aircraft shown in flight over Florida. (U.S. Air Force)

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