Posted on 08/25/2015 6:23:53 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The last dogfights between piston-engine, propeller-driven airplanes weren’t fought in the skies over Germany in the 1940s or even Korea in the 1950s. They occurred in Central America in 1969, and all of the combatants were flying U.S.-built Corsairs and Mustangs.
The dogfights were among the final acts in a brief but bloody four-day conflict between Honduras and El Salvador, commonly (but misleadingly) known as the Football War. Although a pair of soccer games between the two nations sparked the initial riots, the war was the culmination of longstanding tension over immigration and land reform.
Honduras boasted the more impressive and better established air force. Nearly a dozen were military-surplus Vought F4U-4, F4U-5, and F4U-5N Corsairs bought privately and imported through American aid programs. Several had flown in the Korean War.
The Salvadoran air force also had Corsairs—about half a dozen Goodyear-built models called FG-1Ds, worn out and all but decommissioned. To replace them, buyers returned from the United States shortly before the war began with a handful of demilitarized P-51s, sold as Cavalier Mustang IIs.
Hostilities commenced at dusk on July 14, 1969, when a Salvadoran Douglas C-47 transport, escorted by two Cavalier Mustangs, pushed out 100-pound bombs over Toncontin Airport in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. Although this and several other early evening aerial attacks caught the Hondurans by surprise, the damage was primarily psycholog
(Excerpt) Read more at airspacemag.com ...
Thank you for posting this article.
Saw a Corsair do a fly by at an airshow at NAS Alameda in ‘78. Loud !
very interesting
In 1948 pilots of the new state of Israel were flying Messerschmitt 109’s & shooting down Egyptians flying British Spitfires.
Saw Corsairs coming out of the CT factory and flying in 1944. [Ol geezer]
You lived in Lordship/Stratford, CT then?
FReegards!
The Israelis had Spits, too. Their Messerschmitts — Czech-built Avia-199’s — were equipped with Jumo engines and non-standard props. Those dogs had fleas. But the IDF was buying everything they could get on the international arms market.
Clever (I’d be happy to own either).
Won't work.
The FAA won't let us arm them.
Thanks for the ping. I had not heard about this.
IATZ
In the film “Battle of Britain” the Messerschmitts & Heinkels were Spanish built IIRC; the former with engines that were distinctly unlike Junkers Jumo’s during startup. The Ju-52 in the intro was postwar produced.
Once Israel became a sovereign state the postwar milsurp market offered them aircraft for sale at pennies on the dollar, especially in the U.S.
Also saw Sikorsky`s helicopters, “BIG BUGS”, flying 1944-45.
If there were gun cameras on these planes, it would make for some thrilling footage on one of the cable military channels.
They had a P-51 at an airshow before they closed BNAS.
It was sitting over on the runway idling...exhaust popping and backfiring...sounded like the ultimate bad-ass hotrod.
The ex-Spanish AF ME-109’s used in the movie “Battle of Britain” we sporting RR Merlin engines. Even the engine cowling were moded.
I think I saw a ME-109 being restored in upstate NY that had a Hispano engine.
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