The Fighter Pilot Podcast

The first recorded account of two aircraft engaging in aerial combat occurred in late November 1913 during the Mexican Revolution. The pilots, both American ‘soldiers of fortune’ on opposing sides of the conflict, engaged each other (unsuccessfully) with handheld pistols in otherwise unarmed aircraft.The gun—and soon after, the cannon—quickly became the primary weapon for air-to-air “dogfighting” and was incorporated in various calibers and locations into virtually all combat aircraft for the next 50 years, through two world wars and numerous armed conflicts. Until the advent of the air-to-air missile, the gunfighters ruled the skies.On this episode, retired U.S. Navy Commander Jerry “Turkey” Tucker joins us to discuss the “last of the gunfighters,” the Vought F-8 Crusader. Designed as a supersonic dogfighter, the Crusader ushered in the era of A/A missiles and, indeed, most of its kills in the Vietnam conflict were achieved with early versions of the AIM-9 Sidewinder. Turkey regales us not just with what it