Episode 1 Cold War, Hot Jets

What they saw scorching through the air

were astonishing machines flying at incredible speeds,

and all powered by what seemed to be a technology from the future.

That technology was a British invention

and it would signal the dawn of a new age -

the Jet Age.

The noise and the speed - I mean, for a small boy -

heaven, absolute heaven!

Britain had a world-class, world-beating aviation industry.

Those crowds at Farnborough weren't just plane-spotting,

It was a very exciting time.

You could climb up 4,000-feet-a-minute happily.

You could dive down at 6, 8,000-feet-a-minute.

Within minutes, you were 50 miles away or 100 miles away from your base.

It was suddenly a new world.

The jet engine was a lucrative export

and wartime allies were queuing up to buy it.

It was also a powerful piece of military hardware,

and in the Cold War

old friends were now enemies.

Britain now faced a huge dilemma.

The jet engine held out hope for economic revival for a nation bankrupt by war,

but selling it could alter the balance of power in the new world order.

The country had to decide how best to exploit this new expertise,

knowing the wrong choice could prove disastrous.

On the night of the 14th of November, 1940,

the Luftwaffe struck Coventry.

Those planes brought down fire and destruction to virtually the whole city centre.

Along with 4,000 homes and three-quarters of the city's factories,

this place, Coventry's medieval cathedral, was left in utter ruins.

It was the single worst raid of the entire Blitz.

But few of Britain's cities were left unscathed.

The damage to the nation wasn't just physical.

but in truth, it wasn't quite as bad as that.

Yes, the country suffered during the Blitz, this place is evidence of that,

yes, Britain was horribly in debt

and it's true there was still rationing,

but the point is, unlike Europe, everything here still worked -

the roads, the railways, the ports.

Britain's factories were still churning out items of every description

and what Britain was doing most, and with some brilliance,

was building aircraft.

In the minds of her leaders, air power had saved Britain in 1940

and had been crucial for victory in 1945.

During the war, the nation's myriad aircraft manufacturers,

companies like Supermarine, Avro and Vickers,

had built a staggering 131,500 aircraft.

would be the country's salvation.

New airfields, new aircraft factories,

new arms factories -

all these things were being built

because this is where the future was thought to be.

So Britain was at least as much as a warfare state as it was a welfare state.

They were trying to build not just a new Jerusalem

but a new Sparta, as well.

Britain may've looked tired and drab on the ground

but in the air, it was a very different matter.

Hurtling over her skies were ultra modern and very fast aircraft

of futuristic shapes and designs.

The country's genius at building jet aeroplanes was unrivalled.

Records for speed, altitude and distance tumbled.

"by its astonishing flight to North Africa and back."

The big thing about the jet engine was that it completely changed the game.

Speeds went up from a maximum of about 400 miles an hour.

Suddenly, they were up to 700 miles an hour and beyond.

You're really pushing the envelope.

The scale of ambition - for the speed, for the height,

for the capabilities of aviation - was quite extraordinary,

and the ambition was actually realised

but it was realised with huge sums of money.

That was the really big change.

You went from spending a few millions to spending tens of millions

on the development of new aircraft.

In the post-war world,

the jet was a symbol of technological and scientific power.

It could bring wealth, prestige and security.

Britain's future would lean heavily on its aviation industry.

But that magic had darker uses.

The jet engine was changing the world,

but the world was also altering fast.

This was the time of the Cold War.

Gone were the old certainties.

The Empire was crumbling and two new superpowers were emerging.

Britain now had to fight for its place on the world stage.

"For the British aircraft industry, the turbine jet had brought a golden opportunity.

"In this new form of air travel,

"Britain has the chance to make up the leeway lost in the war."

The man widely regarded as the inventor of the jet engine was Frank Whittle.

Years before the Second World War started,

the young RAF cadet had been working on an idea that would change the world.

"Under fierce compression, the temperature rises

"and the expanding gas roars from the jet pipe with tremendous force.

"When they start it up, stand back,

"its flaming breath is white-hot gas."

By the start of war, Whittle had proved the viability

of a new, more powerful type of engine.

The next step was to find out if it could fly.

What I've got in front of me here is the original specification

for the first ever British jet.

You would've thought that they would've given this a kind of name

to reflect the excitement of the project,

but, I suppose, typical British understatement,

this is called the E.28/39.

It's experimental order number 28, drawn up in 1939,

"It was 1941 when the sound of a turbo jet

"was heard over English fields."

It was just easier to fly,

but for its size and time -

startling performance.

It pointed the way as a first

of what Aladdin's Cave lay ahead of us if we pursued this.

The success of the E.28/39 signalled a bright future.

But this was just a prototype.

What was needed was something faster, more powerful,

something that could go to war...

The Gloster Meteor.

It's got the same kind of fuselage and the same short, stubby wings.

But this was no experimental aircraft.

This was a fully-functioning, operational fighter jet -

fast, powerful, armed with canons, with a rapid rate of climb.

You can hear the sound of those twin engines,

the power and potential of those.

This came into service in 1944, and that's still wartime,

it's the age of Spitfires, the Focke-Wulf and Mustangs.

When people heard those engines for the first time,

what they were listening to was the sound of the future.

I began to hear more and more about them as I got into the test-flying world.

Anticipation certainly was at a very high level.

When it happened, I was not disappointed.

I noticed there wasn't a propeller.

I downed tools and ran in the house to tell everybody

I'd seen an plane without a propeller.

Of course, nobody believed me!

For the first time, you had a totally uninterrupted view ahead of you

and no large piston engine.

Once you got airborne,

the striking thing was the acceleration.

You got a kick out of it, frankly.

Yes, it was a boys' day out.

Well, all of a sudden you had this aircraft

which had much more performance than anything you'd flown before.

the RAF would teach the art of asymmetric flying -

staying airborne using just one engine.

On a propeller-driven plane this was tricky,

on a Meteor, it could be deadly.

It's the position of the engines on the wing that was the problem.

It's where the propellers would've been.

But the thrust on a turbo jet was so powerful that if one engine failed,

it made the aircraft very difficult to handle.

"The scene of devastation in the Sussex village

"shows the tragic aftermath of the crash of an RAF Meteor jet.

"Reports say that the aircraft first hit a bungalow, and then one of its tanks exploded

"and the blazing fuel added to the havoc."

By the early '50s, the RAF was losing a pilot almost every other day.

The Meteor became known as the "Meatbox".

We didn't have ejector seats in those days.

But the appalling death rate

didn't diminish the number of recruits willing to fly the jet.

"From Britain's laboratories and factories and airfields,

"the whistle of the jet is spreading all around the globe."

In 1952, as Cold War tensions intensified,

the RAF reached its post-war operational peak,

almost ten-times the size it is today.

To make life safer for cadets, a new jet plane was developed

with the engine buried in the fuselage.

This is a Jet Provost.

Its prime role for the RAF was as a jet trainer,

a task it performed for over 35 years.

It's a wonderful example of pure 1950s jet technology.

There's a wonderful smell of oil and metal.

It feels like an old jet,

it really does, it feels the part.

It's quite a palaver, isn't it? It is, but this is your parachute. It's worth it!

20 percent RPM. The pressure is rising.

The noise of the engine's rising.

You can only imagine what one of those trainee pilots must've felt like

getting in one of these for the first time in the 1950s.

A lovely fly-past.

Low and quick, straight over...

Ah, yes!

DRAMATIC MUSIC

When you joined the RAF as a young pilot,

you joined knowing that...

..at least one or two on your course weren't going to make it,

and yet you've only got to be in this plane now

and realise why so many people wanted to do it!

I'm looking straight down at the sea.

The horizon's swivelling!

Ah, that's just so much fun!

Over we go!

Towards the ground.

And we're level.

Wow, that is manoeuvrable!

If ever there was an image

that sort of typifies the Jet Age of the 1940s and '50s,

it's that silver colour, isn't it, and the roundel?

By the early '50s, the Cold War was driving Britain's defence spending

to a staggering 10 percent of the national budget.

The country was rebuilding its armed forces across the globe,

and at the same time, developing its own weapon of mass destruction.

"In Australia, America, Russia, the trials continue.

"The earth shook and the sky was darkened.

"Geiger counters, like charms against invisible death..."

"The U-Bomb and the jet engine,

This is the Vampire, one of Britain's early jet fighters. It's got a twin boom.

Remarkably, the entire cockpit is made of wood.

This plane was operating at the end of the Second World War,

but I think it still looks incredibly futuristic.

The Vampire was a huge success.

Over 3,000 were built

and they were sold to more than 30 different air forces all around the world.

With the Cold War rapidly escalating,

the world was now looking to jet technology to defend itself.

And for buyers, that meant attending aviation's biggest stage -

the Farnborough Air Show.

"At Farnborough Aerodrome, the Society of British Aircraft Constructors

"have proved once again that they're inventive genius is second to none.

And we had a lot to offer.

UPBEAT, JAZZY MUSIC

Farnborough was the country's shop window

and everyone who came, came to buy British.

Britain was clearly in the lead in the development of jet engines.

It's the major exporter of jet fighters to the air forces

that are re-establishing themselves in Europe - the Swiss, the Swedish, the French.

It is really quite extraordinary, the extent to which they dominate that market

and essentially wipe the floor with the American competition.

The nation's post-war economy was now investing heavily in aviation.

More than a quarter of a million Brits were building engines and planes.

I suppose the Cold War and the aviation industry drove each other.

One was driving the other all the time.

It was intensifying every year, and we were showing more and more interest,

and more and more new stuff was coming onto the market.

You were conscious, even at quite a young age,

that you were living in an area

where the technology was moving forward at such an incredible rate

and it was where you showed off,

you know, "I can do this, you can't!" sort of thing.

And I do remember thinking, you know,

"What next? What next? What next?"

"Hawker P.1081 is a fighter that goes like grease lightening.

"The Vickers 535 is another.

"What's that? Even faster? Oh, well, your guess is as good as mine."

The Cold War was the most intense pacemaker.

pilots thundering past at 50 feet off the deck,

doing vertical climbs, barrel rolls...

Often, crowds were seeing prototypes for the first time.

"Take a look at the Hawker P.1061.

"No details, I'm afraid,

"but it may be the world's fastest fighter."

These phenomenal air displays were only achieved by the very best test pilots of the day.

But at Farnborough, the desperate need to sell aircraft to foreign customers

meant these men weren't just pilots, they had become salesmen, as well.

One of the highlights of going to Farnborough

was if one met or saw the test pilot.

And, of course, with these people being test pilots as well as being through the war,

they were heroes, they were gods.

I mean, one really...

..craved to meet them, you might say!

I had test pilots on mine!

As well as blonds, of course.

"gave a demonstration of crashing through the sound barrier over Farnborough."

The DH.110 was similar to the Vampire,

but it had a swept wing

and was much, much faster.

In 1952, it was unveiled at the Farnborough Airshow.

For five days, the DH.110 wowed everyone with its speed and grace.

It was flown by John Derry,

a quietly-spoken but supremely talented war veteran.

We asked Mr Derry what it was like.

There are no sensations to the occupants of the aircraft.

The only way of telling your speed is from the instruments.

I think John Derry was one we really looked up to.

He seemed to be a bit young and fresh and unflappable,

On day six of the airshow, John Derry repeated the manoeuvre.

As his jet ripped past the runway and started its rapid climb,

the sonic boom ricocheted over the spectators.

"It was after this, when the aircraft had slowed down,

"that the appalling sight was seen of the machine disintegrating in the air,

"with the engines and debris crashing into a section of the crowd."

"The airmen are believed to have died instantly,

"as did some of the spectators who lost their lives.

"The violence of the impact resulted in 28 fatalities among the crowd,

The official inquest reported that Derry had died accidentally doing his duty.

"Duty" is an interesting word, because Derry hadn't been flying for the RAF,

he'd been flying for a private company, de Havillands,

and yet Britain and the government was so desperate for these foreign sales.

So maybe the word "duty" is not so inappropriate after all,

because by selling aircraft he was making money for the country.

He was, in fact, flying on behalf of the nation.

"Almost at once, Derry's friend Neville Duke

"flew a Hawker Hunter through the sound barrier again.

"Flying, like progress, must not stop."

But the desire to sell British jet technology

would have another impact

that far outweighed the tragedy at Farnborough.

In a world now divided between Communist East and Capitalist West,

Britain found itself dazzled by the headlights of dilemma -

on the one hand, its economical necessities,

on the other, its ideological principals,

and principals didn't always win out.

It's a little-known story, but with the urgent need for cash,

the post-war Labour Government decided to sell

some of Britain's secret technology.

It was a bit like selling the family silver to pay for the mortgage,

and part of that silver was its jet engines.

The Soviets realised they had to defend themselves

against the ferocious military power of the US.

Glancing down the list of British hardware,

they asked for some Meteors, some Vampires and some of these -

the Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine.

They clearly knew they were chancing their arm, as Stalin is supposed to have said,

"What fool would sell us his secrets?"

The request appalled Britain's military chiefs and divided the government.

"How mad are we..." exclaimed the foreign secretary, "..to even consider it?"

But the British Government was convinced

their engineers would always be one step ahead of anything sold abroad,

especially a turbo-jet engine, reverse-engineered by poorly-trained Soviets.

and before long, the sales of these engines would impact on a conflict

thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia.

"..Communist attacks throughout Southeast Asia,

"and there comes open aggression in Korea."

In May 1950, the Cold War turned hot

as North Korean forces invaded their southern neighbours.

Less than a month later, the United Nations were at war with the communists.

"An American base somewhere in South Korea

"prepares for another attack on the Reds by jetfighter bombers."

Did I have any thoughts about fighting communists?

I don't think so, quite honestly. I didn't...

I think I can honestly say,

first and foremost, it was something I had been trained to do, OK,

I was going to poop rockets, I was going to fire guns, etcetera.

But a new aircraft soon showed up and it outclassed everything...

..the Russian-built Mikoyan-Gurevich,

better known as the MiG-15.

I looked down below and saw an Flog It-80 Shooting Star,

going like a bat out of hell,

closely followed by a couple of MiG-15s.

The other pilot said, "Let's go for the buggers!"

so we opened up the taps and went chasing after these MiGs.

And so I pooped the rockets off

and they went right between the two MiGs! I remember them!

I thought that was pretty good for range,

but this guy went that way and this guy went this way.

This guy I went after, we just opened up our taps, zoomed up and was out of the way.

I never saw him any more.

but the third reason was, it was powered...

..by a British engine.

So much for the promise of keeping it for civilian purposes.

As far as the MiG was concerned, we knew that the aircraft had the Nene engine in it,

which had been sold by Rolls-Royce to Russia.

The MiG could out-turn, out-climb, out-zoom,

out-accelerate.

It went very, very fast very quickly.

The MiG-15 became one of the most successful fighters ever flown.

More have been built than any other military or civil jet aircraft,

so ironically, production of Soviet copies of the Nene engine

As a result of the MiG-15,

no UN pilot could feel safe in Korean skies.

Relations between Britain and America soured.

US officials questioned the UK's moral backbone.

They even threatened to restrict aid.

In the end, as the two nations were allies in the conflict,

the matter was quietly dropped.

Britain was stuck between the two leading superpowers

and concerned that America's increasingly fervent anti-communism

would provoke a Soviet attack.

If the unthinkable should happen, Britain would be first in the firing line.

The British Government preferred to play a more placatory card, and by being America's friend

they hoped to calm US hard-line attitudes to Soviet Russia.

The Americans might listen to Britain's mediating words.

My father and the other Soviet diplomats

knew that the Americans...

..I wouldn't say too primitive, but looking too straight

and too ideological

and they have no experience in the diplomacy.

If the button's ever pressed, we're all set to go.

SIREN WAILS

"Seconds after the alert, these defending Meteors are screaming into the sky

"to clash with a still-invisible foe."

To maintain its influence in the world,

Britain had to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the US.

In the escalating arms race, this policy didn't come cheap.

The UK was spending vast amounts on its military,

Aviation and the jet engine were still Britain's best bet

for a brighter, safer future.

One plane, beyond all others,

offered the country that opportunity.

When the Comet appeared at the Farnborough Airshow in 1949,

it was a sensation.

"It represents the first of a new generation of jet airliners

"and holds promise of a briefer, smoother passage

"for the air traveller of tomorrow."

Even the Royal Family's first jet experience was in a Comet.

The plane was fast becoming the jewel in the crown of British aviation.

We were pretty battered well into the '50s, certainly in the cities.

The bombsites were very familiar in London, and everything needed a lick of paint,

because here was this beautiful young queen being crowned,

Everest had been climbed just on time -

there was a perfect conjunction -

but also, we did hold the airspeed record.

We were absolutely in advance in so many technical areas.

And looking back,

I'm sure we felt it, I certainly did,

that we were members of a success-story nation.

The Comet could fly higher and faster than any other airliner, and by some margin.

Journey times halved. It shrank the world.

"This record-breaking aircraft had again made the front pages

"by going into regular service as the world's first passenger-carrying jet airline."

The Americans had nothing like it on the drawing board, let alone in production.

but they didn't have that spark of genius,

the British conceit that the British inventors have.

Somewhere in a Nissen hut in the Home Counties

is some deeply eccentric, really rather unemployable person,

who's producing the most amazing thoughts

that are going to lead us to have a technological advantage that will keep us safe.

Somehow or another, they'll come up with a cunning plan and a whizz-bang to see you through.

If Britain could sell the Comet globally,

it would guarantee the demand for spares, for maintenance,

for orders of new engines

and possibly whole fleets of planes.

The Comet put Britain years ahead of the rest of the world

and gave them a golden opportunity to corner the market for a generation.

But there was a catch. This may've been a civil aircraft,

but in the Cold War, every new technology had a dual purpose.

If the Comet could travel faster and further than anything before,

the same could be applied to a bomber.

In the year the Comet first flew,

the Soviet Union successfully tested their atomic bomb.

But they had no plane capable of delivering it any further than Paris...

..or London.

If the Soviets got hold of a Comet, they could steal its secrets

and build a bomber, capable of reaching the United States.

One, no Comets would be allowed to fly over the Soviet Bloc.

Two, all maintenance had to be done by British engineers.

Three, all spares had to be carried by British ships

and held in British buildings when abroad.

The Americans were having none of it!

Memories of the sale of Rolls-Royce engines to the Soviets

echoed in the halls of Congress.

Once again, Britain found itself caught between its economic necessity

and American anti-communism.

Communism in reality is not a political party.

It is a way of life, an evil and malignant way of life.

It reveals a condition akin to disease,

that spreads like an epidemic,

and like an epidemic, a quarantine is necessary

to keep it from infecting this nation.

and wave goodbye to the stunning lead they held in jet transport

and all the wealth and prestige that offered,

on the other, they could sell the Comets,

risk them falling into Soviet hands and jeopardise the friendship with the United States.

So what to do... On the 11th of November, 1953,

the government decided to give the proverbial two-fingered salute to the United States.

Commerce would trump security.

Unless you were in the Soviet Bloc, you could buy a Comet.

The Americans were furious.

But a cruel twist of fate would save Britain

from the consequences of its decision.

This Mk 1 Comet

was the last to roll off the production line.

Just months after it ended service, it was grounded,

between takeoff and high-altitude cruising.

"This is the tragic scene of the Comet disaster near Calcutta.

"The aircraft carried 37 passengers and a crew of six.

"All lost their lives."

There were other fatal crashes.

Sales of the aircraft plummeted.

The game was over.

And this particular plane, well, it never took another paying passenger.

Now it's a museum piece, the last remaining Mk 1 Comet.

With huge government investment,

the plane was eventually redesigned and strengthened,

but by then, American manufacturers had developed their own airliner.

The Comet was swept from the marketplace.

The Comet air disasters meant Britain lost its lead in jet transport

The country now found itself a junior partner

in the relationship with its Superpower ally...

..and with it came new responsibilities.

Washington knew the Soviets would soon develop the capability of bombing mainland America.

US strategy was simple -

strike the USSR first.

The task, however, wasn't straightforward.

If the Americans wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on Russian cities,

there was a significant and dangerous obstacle they had to overcome,

namely the Soviet air defences -

surface-to-air missiles and interceptor planes.

The best way to avoid these

was by flying at high altitude, or at night,

but that meant seeing the target was nigh-on impossible.

This was all well and good, except for the small but not insignificant matter

of flying over Soviet territory in the Cold War.

But over-flights were nothing short of spying

and highly provocative.

The US Air Force was forbidden from carrying them out.

If the Americans couldn't fly over Russia,

maybe someone else could, an ally perhaps,

an ally such as Britain.

Initially, the Labour Government refused,

but when Churchill was re-elected in 1951

he gave the spying missions the green light.

Operation JIUJITSU was born.

The Russians would've made much of it.

In the early '50s,

RB-45 Tornado Bombers arrived at an airbase in Norfolk.

Although these were American planes with American ground crew,

the decals were RAF roundels, the crews were British

and the mission was top secret.

The planes had been redecorated with RAF roundels and markings

for practical reasons.

The Americans did not want to fly these flights, the RAF had agreed to do it,

so if we had gone down,

it would've been a British problem.

We were invited down by the Chief Intelligence Officer,

who took us into the operations room in Bomber Command.

They had a map on the wall which they uncovered for us,

to the industrial complexes there.

It was the longest route

and probably had the most difficult targets,

so we chose to do that one.

Rex Sanders was one of Jiujitsu's navigators,

responsible for taking hundreds of radar images of Russian targets.

You are guiding the aircraft, basically using radar,

until you get to the Russian border,

and then you start on your photography.

We did over 20 targets,

each one requiring about a 50 or 60-mile run into it,

and you went from one target to another.

There was no let-up at all. It was very hard work.

We were well over halfway up in this exercise

and, all of a sudden, the aircraft went into a steep bank.

I called out, "What is happening?"

and the skipper replied rather rudely that, erm,

we had been subject to anti-aircraft fire,

the flak as we called it,

erm, and he was turning for home.

We had instructions before the flight

that if we came under fire, we were to come out.

The risks of being shot down had become too great.

Rex Sanders had flown his last Jiujitsu mission.

I think the mission was successful.

In the broadest terms,

it played a large part in the Cold War.

It put the Russians on the defensive.

"First, the focus was on President Eisenhower.

"Here are Premier Bulganin of the Soviet Union with Mr Khrushchev.

"Sir Anthony Eden came to propose the British plan for peace.

"Was it too much to hope for the raising of the Iron Curtain

"and the ending of the Cold War at last?"

At the Geneva Peace Conference, President Eisenhower proposed an open-skies policy.

This would mean that any nation could fly over another without fear of being shot down.

No-one was fooled by this.

The Soviets didn't have an aircraft capable of flying over the US, as Eisenhower was well aware.

In effect, he was trying to get a licence to fly spy missions over Russia.

Needless to say, Khrushchev politely declined the offer.

What Eisenhower and Khrushchev both knew

was the US could fly over the Soviet Union any time it liked.

The spy plane was known...

..as the U-2.

Westerners flying over Soviet territory

was more or less the game,

under the existing rules.

You're flying, we try to intercept you,

sometimes successful, sometimes not.

And the U-2 flight changed all this

because it was so high that it was impossible to intercept,

technically impossible.

Such state-of-the-art technology was invaluable,

As a result, the RAF pilots won't talk.

I've come to Arizona to meet the man who trained them,

Major General Pat Halloran of the US Air Force.

When they first showed up at our training base in Del Rio, Texas,

we were surprised that they were there.

Those of us in the squadron

had no idea that they were coming,

and I'm not sure they knew, because in talking to them,

they thought they were coming to America to fly some new, exotic fighter airplane.

And they saw the U-2, they couldn't believe it -

those big ungainly wings and the glider-like appearance.

So it was later when we discovered that they were actually being teamed up with the CIA.

Working with the CIA,

the RAF pilots flew repeated spying missions for almost two years,

There'd be hell to pay back in Parliament, I'm sure,

and the prime minister would probably be looking for a new job.

We thought it was very gutsy of the UK to do that

and we applauded them for doing it.

All we know about the individual missions

is they used air force bases in Turkey.

If the RAF pilots were caught,

their cover story was they were employed by the US Meteorological Office.

We know those missions took place in around 1958, 1959,

but while we don't know the details,

we do know when those U-2 overflights came to an abrupt stop.

RUSSIAN SPEAKER

On May the 1st, 1960,

When he was shot out of the sky,

it was immediately clear detente between East and West would never materialise.

"On display in Moscow, what's alleged to be the wreckage of the U-2 spy plane,

"which Russia claims to have shot down by rocket.

"Here is Captain Powers. He's to be put on trial, says Mr Khrushchev."

RUSSIAN SPEAKER

Initially, the Americans denied Powers had been spying,

but with a hi-tech plane full of photographic equipment

and Powers himself to interrogate and parade before the world,

it was clear what had been going on.

But the incident was more than just bad PR for the USA.

It had a far bigger impact.

It was a shock, because he couldn't understand why...

...why they did it.

Of course, the American Hawks wanted to destroy detente

and have more investment

in the military and industrial complex.

From my perspective,

American Hawks won

sending Gary Powers on May 1st.

Now, even at high altitude,

jet aircraft were no longer safe from surface-to-air missiles.

But spying from the sky wouldn't stop.

Just a day after Gary Powers was convicted of espionage by a Russian court,

a new technology was launched -

the spy satellite.

Now the nation would pin its hopes on the jet bomber.

Next time... Britain under threat of annihilation.

When we were at height and on our way,

you began to think, "Oh, my goodness me,

"this is for real."

Now, to stake a claim at the top table of international power,

Britain needed its own nuclear deterrent.

A generation of aircraft,

able to fly higher, faster and further than ever before, were created,

all flown by men prepared to risk everything

in a Third World War,

because these new jets were the platform

for delivering Armageddon.

EXPLOSIONS

# Blue skies smiling at me... #

It was a war between two different ways of life.

A war of ideas, a war of shadows.

# ..Nothing but blue skies from now on. #