Gabby Gabreski had the 56th use British MkII because they were superior to AAF N-3 for lead shooting because of the very large ring. Nearly all AAF fighters reaching depots in England had their N-3 thrown in piles and replaced with MkII. P47 pilots long after the Mk8 was standard equipment up to the K14 becoming the default in bubble canopy deliveries and field mods. Stayed with their MkII. All of the 56th cockpit photos from WW2 I find, they have a MkII under the hood. I find the same in P51 and P40 photos that passed through depots in England.
Some of the source for the Gabreski chewing gum legend.
World War II came to an end and Gabreski resumed his flying career, but now as a USAF test pilot. Eventually he found employment with The Douglas Aircraft Corporation, but this was only temporary, as a new war had come on the scene. Korea! Gabby returned to serve the USAF, this time as ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Gabreski’ – commanding officer of an F-86 Sabre squadron. According to legend, Gabreski was not familiar with the more modern gunsight and chose instead to rely on a piece of chewing gum stuck on the windscreen. In spite of this minor obstacle, the World War II veteran scored no less than six and a half MiG-15 kills during the Korean War. This meant that Gabby had become one of a handful of pilots to achieve ‘ace’ status in both World War II and in Korea.
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Seems Gabreski had problems with the early active lead computing gunsights. More of the source for the chewing gum legend.
The A-1C(M) gunsight: a case study of technological innovation in the United States Air Force.
The A-1C(M) lead-computing sight was the first fighter gunsight to employ radar ranging. It was widely used in Korea where it received a mixed reception by the F-86 pilots who depended upon it. Many of the younger, less experienced pilots found it a godsend, while the veterans, particularly some aces of World War II, considered it unreliable and much too complicated--particularly its radar. Nevertheless, the introduction of the A-1C gunsight was an important milestone in the development of sophisticated fire control equipment for air-to-air combat.
The story of the A-1C provides evidence of the importance of the heterogeneous engineer in developing new technology and the impact of "innovative departure" on the users of a new weapons system. It also provides insight into the non-technical problems that often arise when a new weapons system is introduced.
Jump to Gabreski's challenge of the A-4. A-4 is the A-1C with all of the bugs worked out and enabled higher Saber kills than Mig in Korea. And the chewing gum legend
Col. Francis S. "Gabby" Gabreski, considered by many to be a "fighter pilot's pilot," was the senior member of the team. (48) He was flamboyant, heroic, and had been the leading U.S. fighter ace in the European Theatre during World War II. In June 1951, Gabreski, then in command of the 56th Fighter Interceptor Wing, was posted to Korea. He flew 123 missions in the F-86E and was credited with an additional 6 1/2 MiGs, making him one of only six U.S. Air Force pilots to have achieved the distinction of becoming an ace in both conflicts.
But Gabreski has been chastised for ignoring his wingmen. He flew the fastest aircraft available and would not respond when wingmen could not keep up. (49) He was also criticized for a lack of discipline among his off-duty pilots, and for allegedly encouraging exaggerated kill claims.
Gabreski did not like the A-1C sight. He often claimed that he "could do better with a piece of chewing gum in the windshield," which he may have used in place of the A-1C on more than one occasion. (50) He came to Eglin to prove that the K-14 would show much better results. (51) During the flying portion of the project, Gabreski, using the K-14, was paired against Col. James K. Johnson, using the A-4. Johnson, called "Rabbit" because of his quickness as a pilot, was one of the test pilots chosen to replace two of the original test team selectees who had not arrived in time for the fly off. He had yet to fly in Korea where he would become a double ace, but he was an experienced combat veteran of World War II.
Before taking off, Johnson asked Gabreski where he wanted the pipper to be. He had to badger the unresponsive ace for an answer. Gabreski finally said, "Just put the pipper on the cockpit!" (52) Johnson was an extremely smooth pilot who made good use of the A-4. When the gun camera films came back, almost every frame showed Johnson's pipper right on Gabreski's cockpit.
When Gabreski's turn came to be the attacker he told Johnson to "hold it" so that he could bore sight the camera that was rigged through the K-14. As soon as he was lined up on Johnson's tail he triggered the gun camera and radioed "fights on." When Gabreski's film was developed Johnson's tail pipe was in the center of the first few frames, after that, all you saw was sky, because Gabreski was not able to get in another shot at Johnson once he started to maneuver defensively. (53)
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One of the issues with K14 in jets was the higher E load reached faster that locked up the gyros or moved the pipper out of sight do to not having a maximum deflection range limiter. Same problem happened in ww2 with the K14, you either dmaged the gyros or got the 6-star back functioning when you let up on E load. The next generation A-1 to A-4of radar enhanced guns sights for the F86 in Korea addressed that issue. Robert Johnson probably knew this and made a fool out of Gabreski to prove that point.
Boots Blesse said this about the Korean War family derivatives of the K14 first used in the F86. And where Gabreski may have been forced to use chewing gum.
"The earlier gunsights had a pipper in them and if you didn’t have this range limiter to set, the pipper would go off the screen when you turned sharply, and it wouldn’t display, because you needed more lead than it could give you. Until you backed off on the "G’s," the pipper wouldn't come back. Well you can’t do that in a fight. So that wasn’t very useful to us."
Doing all of the research on ww2 gunsight technology so I could create the historic reticles. Returned mountains of modern day fallacies accepted as history. And in our game we compound them x1000 many times because we take them for face value and distribute and defend them as gospel.
