Wings of Destruction

Fifty thousand young men of the warring nations went forth to do battle among the clouds during World War I. In 1914 no one had ever known and history had never recorded a struggle to the death in the air. This is the story of the German, French and British aces of the Great War.

Raoul Lufberry, Quentin Roosevelt, son of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, Edward Rickenbacker and William Thaw all figured extensively in the news of the American Air forces during World War I. Lufberry and Roosevelt were killed in action. Rickenbacker survived as the 'Ace of Aces'. William Thaw formed the original Lafayette Escadrille, American volunteers that flew with the French air force.

This is the story of the Second World War in the air over Europe from the Blitz to the daylight bombing raids over Germany. It is the story of the great aces on all the sides.

From Pearl Harbor to the Japanese home islands this is the story of the air war in the Pacific. It includes the daring ambush of Japanese fleet commander Admiral Yamamoto; the stories of World War II Aces and Medal of Honor recipients Richard Bong and Pappy Boyington; and the Japanese Kamikazes.

October 14, 1947: The sound barrier (Mach 1), during level flight, was officially broken by an American aircraft, the Bell X-1 flown by test pilot Chuck Yeager from what is now Edwards Air Force Base in California. Yeager had named the aircraft 'Glamorous Glennis' after his wife. Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 as a Brigadier General. The Age of the Super Sonic fighter was born.

"MiG Alley" is the name given by U.S. Air Force pilots to the northwestern portion of North Korea. During the Korean War, it was the site of numerous dogfights between the U.S. F-85 Saber fighter jet and the MiG-15 flown by the Communist forces. As the site of the first large-scale jet-vs.-jet air battles, MiG Alley is considered the birthplace of jet fighter combat.

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) was formed when Israel declared statehood in 1948 and found itself under immediate attack. A variety of obsolete and surplus ex-World War II combat aircraft were quickly sourced by various means to supplement this fleet. The battles in this episode include actions during the Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War including the famous Ofira Air Battle.

This is the story of American aces such as Robert Olds and Randy "Duke" Cunningham and charts the evolution of America's air war strategy.

On June 7, 1981 eight IAF F-16A fighters covered by six F-15A jets flew in Operation Opera to bomb and destroy the Iraq nuclear facilities of Osiraq. Among the pilots that took part in the attack was the late Colonel Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut. Other actions include the 1982 Lebanon War with the IAF claiming 100 air victories without a single loss in air combat.

The strategic bombing of Iraq, described in wartime briefings as a campaign against Baghdad's offensive military capabilities in both wars designed to achieve some of the military objectives in the Persian Gulf War. This is the story of those missions and the first use of stealth technology and "smart weapons".