FEATHERDUSTER: Phantoms And Starfighters Dogfight With F-86 Sabres To Prepare For Vietnam, 1965

MiG attacks became more frequent and more aggressive during the first month of Rolling Thunder. Then, on April 4th 1965 F-105s attacked the Dragons Jaw Bridge in North Vietnam. The second wave was ambushed by MiG-17s, which shot down two of the lumbering Thuds.

US planners who had initially assumed that the obsolete MiG-17 would pose little threat to the powerful supersonic US tactical fighters received a rude surprise. In response, they commissioned a crash programme of dissimilar dogfight training called Featherduster.

Over a three month period, all of the major USAF tactical fighters engaged Air National Guard F-86H Sabres in dogfights to understand their strengths and weaknesses against first generation fighters. The results were as prescient as they were astounding. In this video I explore the lessons that the TAC did, and more importantly, should have learned from this experience.

I hope you enjoy this one. I really couldn't believe what I was reading when I first came across the declassified documents. It makes you wonder what might have been...

Notes:

Antique, but brilliant forum thread on Featherduster: https://rec.aviation.military.narkive...