4+ day, 21+ hour ago   (727+ words) Canberra PR 9: the best recce aircraft From its first public demonstration at the Farnborough Airshow of 1949, the English Electric Canberra bomber captured the attention of the aviation world. It could outmanoeuvre all the fighters of the time and it could…...

5+ day, 16+ hour ago   (551+ words) And this is precisely where the story becomes even more interesting. Let us begin with the official story, supported by the Testors drawings, the models, and all the related merchandising.The documented story, at least officially, revolves around an extraordinary…...

1+ week, 21+ hour ago   (113+ words) Belenko’s plane had been manufactured between December 1975 and February 1976 and was thus one of the Soviets’ latest, most sophisticated production aircraft. The MiG-25 was not an air-superiority fighter, but rather an interceptor designed to climb at tremendous speeds, fire missiles…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (384+ words) The Lockheed F-117A was developed in response to an Air Force request for an aircraft capable of attacking high-value targets without being detected by enemy radar. By the 1970s, new materials and techniques allowed engineers to design an aircraft with radar-evading or…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (373+ words) The F-4E Phantom II fighter bomber is essentially an F-4D with improved J79-GE-17 engines (900 pounds more static sea level thrust each) and an M61A1 “Vulcan” 20mm cannon. Operational experience gained in Vietnam had a direct influence on the addition of the cannon. The air-to-air…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (240+ words) As told by Yefim Gordon & Dmitriy Komissarov in their book Sukhoi Interceptors: The Su-9, Su-11, and Su-15: Unsung Soviet Cold War Heroes, the first attempt was abortive: a 528th IAP MiG-23 piloted by Maj. Vasiliy Kaz’min scrambled from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy/Yelizovo airport…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (508+ words) Boeing 757 pilot A demanding test After flying the hot F-8 Crusader in the US Navy for a few years, I joined United Airlines. Now and then people ask if I had a scary or even memorable flight. In 33 years with United…...

3+ week, 17+ hour ago   (1000+ words) Mr. William Cobb is a licensed Instrument Flight Instructor in Single and Multi Engine Airplanes who is the founder and director of the Pensacola Aerospace Museum. Mr. Cobb spent from 2008 to 2015 instructing for the U.S. Navy's Initial Flight Screening program. After…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (189+ words) The Su-27’s production began in 1982. In the autumn of 1987 the Flanker became famous when Western aerospace magazines published dramatic close-ups of a 941st IAP Su-27 carrying a full complement of R-27T and R-27ER missiles. These were taken during the widely…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (247+ words) The 747 was the result of the work of some 50,000 Boeing people. Called “the Incredibles,” these were the construction workers, mechanics, engineers, secretaries and administrators who made aviation history by building the Boeing 747 — the largest civilian airplane in the world — in…...