Military Aircraft
Story Stream
Sikorsky's 100-Year Story of Helicopters March 13, 2023
Vice President of the Sikorsky Archives John Bulakowski was not in the room two days before Christmas in 1976 when the call came into the Stratford company from the U.S. Army about the choice of the Black Hawk as its next all-purpose helicopter over ...
When Military Technology Dropped From Sky March 01, 2023
One of the hazards of war is the likelihood that at some point one country’s most advanced weapon will inadvertently fall into the hands of their enemy, revealing all its secrets and enabling the adversary to build their own superior weapon, thereby ...
Theft on the Battlefield February 28, 2023
One of the hazards of war is the likelihood that at some point one country’s most advanced weapon will inadvertently fall into the hands of their enemy, revealing all its secrets and enabling the adversary to build their own superior weapon, thereby ...
How One Collector Amassed Enough Warbirds for Museum October 19, 2022
In this memoir, a man chronicles his enthusiasm for warplanes and the remarkable aviation museum that resulted.Yagen certainly didn’t grow up collecting vintage airplanes—like most of his childhood peers, he amassed piles of comic books and stamps. B...
How, Why Britain Eliminated Harrier Jump Jet August 31, 2022
Retired Air-Vice Marshal Gary Waterfall was one of the Royal Air Force’s most senior and experienced Harrier pilots when he was selected to become the figurehead of the United Kingdom’s Joint Force Harrier from September 2009. It was the start of a h...
Americans Scored Air Wins at Pearl August 26, 2022
On a serene Sunday morning the residents of Oahu enjoyed the dawning of another gorgeous day in paradise. Unknown to them, three converging formations of military aircraft navigated toward their lush island, homing in on the soothing Hawaiian music p...
'Wooden Wonder:' WW II's Bomber Turned Fighter August 12, 2022
Britain in the Second World War faced possibly her greatest domestic challenges by air. Much of the credit for her successes in stemming the Nazi aggression and eventually taking the fight to the Germans must come from the brilliant people who design...
Curtiss P-60: The Plane That Would Be King July 24, 2022
With all due apologies to director John Huston and story author Rudyard Kipling for the 1975 film "The Man Who Would Be King," we’re going to take a closer look at one of the greatest “What ifs/If onlys” of World War II aviation, the Curtiss P-60 fig...
B-17 vs. B-24: Crews Both Think Their Aircraft Best July 20, 2022
The majority of three thousand officers and enlisted men in Eight Air Force heavy bomber crews tallied between 28 May and 5 June 1944 said their aircraft – be they B-17s or B-24s – were the best for the job. When separated into B-17 and B-24 crews, 9...
Panther vs. MiG: Which Would Have Won? May 06, 2022
BY NOVEMBER 1952, the air and ground war in Korea had been raging for two years and five months. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) had committed hundreds of thousands of soldiers to help their North Korean allies.Four Soviet air force fighter divi...
First U.S. Nuclear Bomber Takes Flight March 17, 2022
On March 17, 1947, the North American B-45 Tornado, a fine but often forgotten plane, made its first flight and was fielded for duty a year later, becoming the first U.S. jet-powered nuclear bomber.Digging DeeperAlarmed by the development and deploym...
What If: F4U Corsair vs. Focke-Wulf Fw 190 February 14, 2022
There are many things that make history such a fascinating study. One is the opportunity to second-guess decisions and occurrences with the clarity of hindsight many years after the fact. Another is to contemplate what might have happened if the circ...
'Take It Down!' and Wild Weasels in Vietnam December 23, 2021
The Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missile was already well known to US intelligence when the Vietnam War began. It had brought down Francis Gary Powers in a CIA U-2 spyplane over the Soviet Union in 1960 and an Air Force U-2 during the Cuban missile cri...
This Longer, Stronger Fighter Plane a Hero December 22, 2021
On December 4, 1950, Jesse Brown, U.S. Navy Ensign and the Navy’s first African American aviator, was flying 1,000 feet above the icy Korean mountains in his Corsair when its engine cut out. Brown was strafing Chinese troops near the Chosin Reservoir...
Lovable 'Second Bananas' November 08, 2021
Those lovable "Second Bananas." These are the people and things that aren’t the stars, the ones who don’t get the attention, the ones who don’t get to bask in the limelight. These are the people and equipment that hold things together — often under v...
WW II's Flying Fortress Wasn't All That October 28, 2021
In the minds of many military enthusiasts, there was only one bomber in the United States inventory during World War II. This is not true, of course, but historians focusing on the war in Europe have devoted so much paper and ink to the Boeing B-17 F...
F-15E Gets a Kill ... With a Bomb October 20, 2021
America’s F-15 Eagle has long since secured a position in the pantheon of the world’s greatest fighters. With an incredible air combat record of 104 wins and zero losses, the fourth generation powerhouse we call the F-15 remains America’s fastest air...
Married? That Was a Requirement to Fly This CIA Plane October 11, 2021
The SR-71 Blackbird remains the fastest operational military aircraft in history to this day, despite leaving service more than two decades ago, but its Lockheed predecessor in the A-12 was actually faster.The A-12 that would ultimately lead to the m...
Should U.S. Have Intercepted Terrorists? October 11, 2021
On October 10, 1985, United States military aircraft intercepted an Egyptian airliner over the Mediterranean Sea and forced it to land at a NATO base in Sicily. Among those on board were four Palestinians who had recently surrendered after hijacking ...
German Me-262 a Speedy Stunner, But Too Late July 20, 2021
On July 26, 1944, a lone aircraft streaked across the sky high above Bavaria, Germany. RAF pilot Flight Lieutenant Albert Wall guided his de Havilland Mosquito PR XVI on a long-range photo-reconnaissance mission.Stripped down and carrying no weapons ...
'Bazooka Charlie' Brought Himself to the Action in WW II March 12, 2021
Charles Carpenter, or “Bazooka Charlie” as he’s now remembered, served as an Army pilot in the Second World War, tasked with locating enemy positions from the air for artillery bombardment. Aircraft like Carpenter’s unarmed L-4 Grasshopper were perfe...
