Air Warriors

An inside look at the C-5 Galaxy and its most dramatic combat and peacetime missions.

Grumman developed the F-14 Tomcat for U.S. Navy in the 1970s to be the post-Vietnam replacement for the aging F-4 Phantom II as a long-range, high-speed fleet defense fighter/interceptor. Its primary Cold War mission, to destroy Soviet bombers and their fighter escorts from a relatively "safe" distance, was never performed in an actual war.
A maximum speed of Mach 2.4 and variable "swing wings" made the Tomcat an impressive aircraft and symbol of U.S. naval air power. It served prominently in the Middle East during operations against Libya, in defense of U.S. interests and vessels in the Persian Gulf, in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, in the Balkans in the mid-1990s, and in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s. Upgrades and modifications over the years made the Tomcat a formidable air-to-ground fighter/bomber toward the end of its service.

The Consolidated PBY Catalina was a seaplane produced in the 1930s and 1940s and one of World War II's most versatile and effective multi-role aircraft, used primarily for air-sea rescue operations, cargo transport, convoy bombing, and anti-submarine warfare. Catalinas served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in many other nations' air forces and navies. This episode reviews PBY's use rescuing sailors from the USS Indianapolis, searching for the German battleship Bismarck, and attacking Japanese shipping in the Pacific. 

The history of the B-17 reveals how the aircraft evolved into the USAF's most lethal bomber in World War II's European and Pacific campaigns. The Women Airforce Service Pilots organization transported Flying Fortresses, which delivered food to the German-occupied Netherlands in Operation Chowhound in the last days of the war.