The SAS Factory > Movies & Screenshots
40 years ago, today...
Texx:
...Vietnam war saw its biggest air battle. http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_345.shtml
"Trailing a plume of white smoke, it accelerated out in front and began tracking upwards at a shallow angle, but detonated when its motor burned out. With range now down to 6nm (10km) Major Lodge fired a second Sparrow which launched successfully and tracked upwards at a 20 degree angle. It left a contrail and then came the flash of the detonation. A few seconds later a MiG-21 fell out of sky, trailing fire and minus its left wing. Lt. John Markle in Oyster 2 also fired a pair of Sparrows and his second missile started tracking upwards and slightly to the right. As Markle watched, the big missile pulled lead and flew right into North Vietnamese plane, causing another yellow explosion."
"As Locher prepared to leave the falling Phantom, Captain Steve Ritchie, flying as Oyster 3, had been chasing either the MiG-21 #1 or the J-6 of Nguyen Duc Tiem which continued almost straight ahead. Lacking visual contact and acting on radar information, Ritchie pulled up to the right in a 4 to 5G turn. Rolling out at 18.000ft (5.500m) he finally sighted his target almost 10.000 feet (5.500m) away to the left. He pulled to the inside of opponent's turn, locking on his radar as he went. From a range of 6.000ft (1.800m) Ritchie ripple-fired two Sparrows, both of them guided. The first passed close under the target without detonating, but the second scored a direct hit. From the rear seat of Oyster 03, Captain DeBellevue caught a glimpse of a dirty yellow parachute of the Vietnamese pilot as they passed the falling MiG. "
Below Steve Ritchie and Robert Locher F-4s cross over a layer of clouds just before the combat:
"What followed was the epic battle, in which both planes engaged in four subsequent series of vertical rolling scissors, until the better training of Cunningham and the power of his trusty F-4J prevailed and the MiG dived away to make a fundamental error of opening the range and presenting his tail. The American made the most of the opportunity. He curved after the enemy plane, placed the gunsight pipper over it and squeezed the trigger. The Sidewinder detonated beside the tail of the MiG, which didn’t blew up, but simply flew into the ground. For many years, stories were explained around, about Lt. Cunningham shooting down the greatest Vietnamese „ace", „Col. Tumb" or „Toon". Yet, during his visit to Vietnam, Dr. Toperczer couldn’t find any records about a man with this name. Actually, there were very few pilots in the SRVAF, and they knew each other very well from the training and from joint service. Yet, nobody remembered any „Col. Toon" or „Tomb" (the name „Tomb" doesn’t even exists in the Vietnamese language), and in 1972 there was not a single flying pilot in the SRVAF with the rank of Colonel. Also, if the SRVAF would have an ace with 13 kills to his credit, the Northvietnamese propaganda would certainly have used him. "
Below Cunningham and Driscoll are on the top of a vertical scisor with "Col Toon" both aircraft almost stopping in the air
And the final shot
Thanks to OC-Tiger for the Navy Phantom skin.
;)
A1_Phoenix:
well, i read the combat report on an aviation magazine when i was 8 years old.. ("Take Off", published in Italy around 1989/90)
i'm still shocked to learn 10 minutes ago that Duke Cunningham is now jailed.. 8 years and 4 monts for "Conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion" :o (funny thing is we had a PM with much more charges and is -and maybe will be forever- still free.. f**k..)
sad to see how even respected peoples makes wrong decisions.. :(
Texx:
--- Quote from: A1_Phoenix on May 10, 2012, 07:35:34 AM ---i'm still shocked to learn 10 minutes ago that Duke Cunningham is now jailed.. 8 years and 4 monts for "Conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion"
--- End quote ---
:o +1
Very sad news indeed! I know what you mean about your PM. We have many of "those" here too... :-[
BT~Tarik:
Oh he's jailed ? :(
As I said before, these events in Nam are great action ;)
which map is the bottom pic on ? Vietnam south ? Looks good
Thing is that I kinda miss a good map to make a mission for this, North Vietnam is fine but the textures are a bit bright for my taste, and cities are placed in a funny way (no offense please :o). And vietnam south isnt really fitting for the area, no gulf of tonkin etc...
Though the Kep airbase is not on any map at all, its really far away from the gulf actually ! Didnt know these interceptors scrambled from so far away.
Texx:
Hi MilanTarik
I am sorry to disapoint you but the map is the Smolensk one available in the QMB. I had little time to spare to build up this pictures... :-\
Me too, I like the vietnam maps, but I kind of miss a North-southVietnam+Thailand alltogether.
;)
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