Heroes of the Skies

TV Series – Episode 5 – Robin Olds
(Channel 5, October 18 2012, 8pm)      WATCH TRAILER

In July 1966, North Vietnam’s fleet of MiG-21s is hammering the US Air Force, and the embattled men of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing need a hero to whip them into shape.

Enter Colonel Robin Olds, a Second World War veteran airman, who charges in and commands respect with his unbreakable courage and movie-star good looks. But devising a tactic to beat North Vietnam in the air won’t come easily.

Olds and his men come up with an audacious plan: set a 20th Century Trojan Horse trap high up in the air.

They masquerade their F4 Phantom fighter jets as THUD bombers to lure the North Vietnamese MiGs into open skies, then take them down in a ferocious dogfight.

Dubbed Operation Bolo the top-secret bait-and-switch scheme is hugely complex and one false move could prove deadly for them all.

Olds wins the confidence of top brass and gets the green light. Then on January 2, 1967, the 8th Tactical, led by Olds, provoke a ferocious airborne battle and attempt to change the course of the Vietnam War.