Angle Of Attack - How Naval Aviation Changed The Face Of War (2011)
Summary
Angle of Attack chronicles the 100-year history of Naval aviation from wobbly
gliders and the first shipboard landing in 1911 to modern supersonic jets and
unmanned aerial vehicles. The two-hour program deftly interweaves archival
footage, interviews with historical and military experts, contemporary footage
of cutting-edge aircraft and insights from today's Top Gun fighter pilots in
the Marine Corps and Navy. From the battlefields of yesterday, today, and
tomorrow, Angle of Attack provides stunning, previously unseen footage of the
most modern naval military aircraft and advanced unmanned predator drones ever
designed, as well as a sweeping journey through naval aviation history.
Featuring interviews with aviation experts and the men who flew and designed
the most important military aircraft of all time, Angle of Attack examines the
role of naval aviation in each of our nation’s greatest conflicts.
Interviewees
* Vice Admiral Jerry Miller, USN (Ret)
* Admiral James L. Holloway III, USN (Ret)
* Vice Admiral Allen Myers
* Captain Anthony Barnes USN (Ret)
* Capt. Mark Brooks
* John Gresham, veteran military analyst and co-author
* Norman Polmar, Naval and aviation expert
Credits
* Written and Produced by Chana Gazit and Thomas Lennon
* Directors of Photography, Thomas Lennon and Glen Mordeci
* Editors, Nancy Novack, Maeve O’Boyle and Merril Stern
* Narrator, Michael Murphy
* Composer, Mark Suozzo
* Funding provided by The Boeing Company
Plot Summary
Part One - The first hour begins by following young men and women on their way
to “earning their Wings.” In a rigorous course of instruction, they learn to
lift off and land a supersonic aircraft on the deck of an aircraft carrier in
the middle of the ocean, still considered one of the most difficult and
hazardous tasks.
Eugene Ely first attempted the death-defying feat in 1911. Ely’s act of
landing a fragile bi-plane on a make-shift wooden deck would eventually
transform into a weapon of unprecedented power and influence.
The episode concludes with World War II and the U.S. victory in the Pacific,
when carrier aviation reigned supreme. However, Naval soon would face a
threat to its existence – not from an enemy source, but from a competing
technology – the nuclear bomb.
Part Two - The second episode begins with the potential demise of naval
aviation, as many in the military establishment promote nuclear weapons and
pronounce carrier aviation obsolete. Korea, and later Vietnam, offer a
startling reminder of the utility of naval aviation, and undermine the
post-World War II conviction that the U.S. will fight all of its wars with
nuclear weapons.
As the Cold War deepens, the installation of Soviet ballistic missiles in
Cuba brings the nation to the brink of nuclear war. Another important
function of naval aviation – reconnaissance – rallies world opinion and
helps diffuse the crisis.
Photographs of the Soviet missiles taken by low-flying naval aviators provide
incontrovertible evidence of the Soviet Union’s lying. Following the age of
nuclear terror came a new low in Vietnam, where doubts about the military
merge with racial animosities to undermine morale among naval aviators.
The episode concludes by exploring the technological evolutions like
GPS-guided weapons that continue to transform the field. Interviews and vivid
archival footage from Afghanistan and Iraq highlights the new moral challenges
of asymmetrical warfare today.
