The Influence of Airpower upon History: Statesmanship, Diplomacy, and Foreign Policy since 1903

5. Statesmen and Airpower in Latin America, 1945-2010

145 5 Statesmen and Airpower in Latin America, 1945–2010 René De La Pedraja Aviation history changed when the United States began production of the F-80 in 1945. The F-80 was the first U.S. mass-produced jet fighter and not just an experimental or pilot model. This subsonic jet fighter immediately made obsolete the world’s vast fleets of propeller planes. The F-80 lifted the bar for aviation performance and forced European manufacturers to surpass or at least to match the characteristics of the F-80 in their competing aircraft. Though other countries tried to duplicate the success of the F-80, the United States itself has never ceased to design and produce newer and better jet warplanes in a seemingly endless quest for ultimate perfection in aviation. Because the production and maintenance of fighter jets signified a quantum leap in technology, only a very small number of world powers possessed the means to manufacture these highly sophisticated machines. The United States, the Soviet Union (Russia since 1992), France, and Britain have generally been the main manufacturers, even though other countries have occasionally produced their own planes. Noteworthy in this group has been the absence of any Latin American country. Although Brazil and Argentina eventually assembled local versions of jet aircraft, the heavy reliance on foreign components, including both the crucial jet engines and the vital electronics, has rendered this seeming independence more apparent than real. For replacement parts and even 146 René De La Pedraja for simple maintenance of fighter jets, the air forces of Latin America have remained dependent on the original manufacturers. The appearance of the first airplanes in Latin America in the 1910s had sparked great enthusiasm for aviation in the region. Young people were fascinated with the novel airplanes, and flying clubs spontaneously appeared in many cities where persons of different social origins shared their common passion for aviation. From the very beginning of aviation history in Latin America, the number of candidates to become pilots and the number of pilots have far surpassed the available planes. Not surprisingly, the appearance of jet fighters in 1945 intensified an already great passion for flying. Blessed with an abundance of pilots, Latin America seemed poised to take maximum advantage of the jet age. Actually, the abundance was not real because the pilots spent most of their time flying obsolete airplanes. Whether because of a shortage of jet fighters or insufficient funds to operate them, the flying hours of Latin American pilots generally fell considerably below the number industrialized countries considered the norm for jet fighter planes. This limited experience forced the Argentine pilots to improvise in the Malvinas (Falklands) War of 1982, not always with positive results. Ultimately the inability to provide proper training and preparation for pilots was symptomatic of the larger underlying problem facing the air forces of Latin America in the years of the jet warplane. During the era of the piston planes, the largest Latin American countries had been able to make modest but solid progress in establishing their first manufacturing facilities. Although some precision items had remained beyond reach, most of the technology was locally available or could be readily acquired. Most important, the costs of propeller planes were modest, and the country that did not want to produce them could acquire the planes in the world market at reasonable prices. Local shops sufficed to provide adequate maintenance and to produce spare parts. An additional attraction of the propeller planes had been their much lower price compared to that of assembling expensive navies. As a substitute for costly battleships, propeller planes seemed to offer a cheap and readily available alternative for coastal defense until 1945. The appearance of the F-80 in 1945 immediately put jet warplanes Statesmen and Airpower in Latin America, 1945–2010 147 beyond the financial reach of Latin American countries.The region simply lacked the funds to acquire these expensive weapons.The cost of keeping up with rapidly changing technology proved prohibitively expensive from the start, and only as earlier models became obsolete did the technology of jet planes filter down to local mechanics. And as the prices of new models of jet fighters climbed, the myth of replacing costly battleships with economical warplanes crumbled. Latin American countries struggled to scrape together the funds to purchase these new “battleships of the skies,” whose prices often exceeded those of pre–World War II...