A Brief History On November 8, 1950, early in the Korean War, a U.S. Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, America’s first operational jet fighter, flown by U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Russell Brown, shot down a Soviet-built MiG-15 piloted by a North Korean pilot, in the first air-to-air combat between jet planes in aviation history. Digging Deeper The F-80 was a reliable and rugged airplane whose service life with the USAF lasted into 1975 and longer elsewhere, however, it was outclassed by the MiG-15. The Shooting Stars fighting in Korea were effective at shooting down piston-engine communist airplanes (Yak-9, IL-10), but their air-to-air record for shooting down MiGs was 6 for 13 of…
Browsing: November 8
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A Brief History On November 8, 1520, the Stockholm Bloodbath began, an event that followed the successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces and resulted in the execution of around 100 people. Digging Deeper In 1520, Sweden was divided between two factions. The first consisted of Swedes who favored a union of Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), a union that had been established in 1397, and the second faction consisting of those Swedes who advocated for Swedish independence. Denmark’s King Christian II launched the invasion of Sweden to maintain the union of Scandinavia. Having succeeded in his military intervention…