Other aircraft had a rad the Douglas F3D Skyknight of the Navy the Vought-Corsair F4U-5N of the Marine Corps. This detail made it a maintenance nightmare. The transistors were not and the radars were stuffed with vacuum tubes, very sensitive to various conditions, including temperature. Korea was really a "dirty war for aviation, a war that Western experts absolutely did not foresee.
Korea is not a fertile ground for a "clean" air war. “The ground is a mixture of sand and dust, half-flooded rice fields or unforgiving steep mountains. The climate varies very rapidly. storms or downpours of ne alternate with long periods of ta ne and completely cloudy skies. Finally, let's add the current conditions at air bases, with the sketchy terrain subjecting the landing gear to terrible treatment:we have an idea of the maintenance problems Above all, I had the fact that the industry in charge of this maintenance is located in the antipodes, in the United States.
Korea was an unexpected experience.ally was virtually wiped out by the unforeseen conditions of this war. It had never been thought of making an aircraft robust enough for such a harsh campaign. The most dismaying is that this lesson was hardly assimilated in any case by the USAF:American airmen encountered similar problems ten years later in Vietnam, a difficult country too, but in another way. Again, one of the best reviews of the early years of the Vietnam War was the Skyraider of 1945!
The Korean War ended in July 1953 with an armistice that satisfied no one. Each thought of assimilating certain lessons of the conflict, in the sense that suited them. The Communists looked for a better way to take advantage of their numbers. The Americans study aircraft based on the Korean experience. They succeeded with the Navy's A-4 Skyraider but failed completely with the Air Force's F-104 Starfighter The F-104 is indeed the very type of refined, fragile aircraft...