1st annual gunnery meet Las Vegas NV 1949…

[Mark Allen M]

Well worth the watch

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/21320

[Mark Allen M]

Part 2

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/21321

[wendovertom]

Wow - those are some seriously low F-82 fly-bys in the first film - and at about 7 min mark those are INSANELY low T-33 fly-bys. Or at least it seems to me.

Tom P

[JohnB]

A couple of points about #1...
-I've never seen a T-33 use RATO.
-Interesting inclusion of the shots of African-American pilots and groundcrew with the P-47s (Ns I think). I wonder what unit?
-It would be interesting to learn more about F-47 operations. I had a neighbor when I was a kid who had post-war Mustang and N-model Thunderbolt time. He flew RF-101s in Vietnam, earning a Silver Star.
He retired after serving as a F-111 wing commander.
Quite a career...Thunderbolts to 111s. Nowadays a pilot could spend 25 years flying F-15s..

[junkman9096]

#1 at just after the 3:00 there is an aerobatic team which has to be the "Red Devils" based there and only in existence in 1949. Fuzzy image but enough to confirm paint scheme and some markings. Regarding the black aviators with the F-47, those planes can only be from the 332nd Fighter Group then at Lockbourne AFB in Ohio. It was disestablished later in 1949 in the course of Armed Forces integration.

My only color image.

[Randy Wilson]

The pair of F-82s with the right engines feathered on the low pass was different! Interesting footage.

Randy

[Chris Brame]

Wow - those are some seriously low F-82 fly-bys in the first film - and at about 7 min mark those are INSANELY low T-33 fly-bys. Or at least it seems to me.

Tom P

Insanely low indeed - at 8:40 in the second film one of the F-80s clips the target with its right wing!