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Video shows Hawker Hunter and other rare jets making spectacular visit in the Mach Loop
2+ hour, 42+ min ago (322+ words) Filmed by our friend Dafydd Phillips in May when a large number UK based frontline jets were in the Middle East taking part in the US-Iran War, the cool video in this post features some rare jets making a spectacular…...
Here’s why a Japanese fighter pilot’s first encounter with the F6F Hellcat was usually his last
3+ day, 3+ hour ago (184+ words) But what was the first encounter between an Imperial Japanese fighter pilot and the legendary Hellcat? ‘Ensign Robert Duncan was deployed on the USS Yorktown in Fighting Squadron 5 in the fall of 1943. This rookie naval aviator was the first to…...
From lawn dart to rocket: the dogfight where a TOPGUN instructor flew a Dutch F-104 against 2 F-5s
6+ day, 2+ hour ago (1460+ words) He was the second of two children and born on 25 January 1940 in Shandon Baptist Hospital in Columbia South Carolina. He, in every way, gave the appearance of a normal, healthy, well-developed kid of average height, slender but not skinny. History…...
The French Air Force Mirage III that buzzed a U-2 flying at 65,000 ft on a mission to spy on France’s nuclear facilities
3+ week, 1+ day ago (424+ words) In complete secrecy, a team headed by Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson at Lockheed’s “Skunk Works” in Burbank, Calif., designed and built the U-2 to fly surveillance missions. With sailplane-like wings suited for the thin atmosphere above 55,000 feet (over 70,000 feet for later…...
Video shows RAF Buccaneer attack aircraft doing a record-breaking short flight of 92 seconds
3+ week, 4+ day ago (336+ words) Designed by Blackburn Aircraft (later Hawker Siddeley Aviation) to a naval requirement for a carrier-based, low-level maritime strike aircraft, the Buccaneer S1 entered service with the Fleet Air Arm in 1962. Filmed in 1994 the interesting video in this post features the latest…...
The USAAF L-4 crew who shot down a German Fi 156 Storch with their Colt. 45 Pistols and scored the last American air-to-air victory over Germany of WWII
3+ week, 6+ day ago (435+ words) The Piper J-3 Cub was vastly popular as a civilian trainer and sport plane before the US Army Air Corps selected the aircraft for evaluation as an artillery spotter/director platform. Military versions of the Piper Cub were known as the…...
B-17 pilot Colin P. Kelly, the US first hero of World War II
4+ week, 1+ day ago (365+ words) Each convoy was escorted by a destroyer division, six or seven destroyers led by a light cruiser. A force of two heavy and one light cruisers, two destroyers and a seaplane tender covered the invasion convoys. At 0550hrs, as civil twilight…...
An average Stuka loss rate of 100 per cent: why Luftwaffe replaced the Ju 87 with the Fw 190
1+ mon, 1+ day ago (292+ words) He told Milch that StG 2 had lost 89 of its crews in just eight months. ‘This represents a yearly average of 100 per cent. If we keep on this way, it will mean the end of the dive-bomber units’. Furthermore, the policy…...
When America’s Top Ace Richard Bong nailed a crocodile With a burst of 20mm cannon fire from his P-38 to protect his comrades trying to rescue a fellow pilot who had been missing in the jungle
1+ mon, 3+ day ago (236+ words) The Pacific Theater of Operations produced the two highest scoring aces in American history, Maj. Richard I. Bong and Maj. Thomas B. McGuire Jr. Both men flew P-38 Lightnings in the Southwest Pacific, and each received the Medal of Honor in recognition of…...
The C-47 secret airline that flew only in bad weather to evacuate Allied Airmen interned in neutral Sweden
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (232+ words) But how could it be done? Flying from Sweden to England meant crossing over or near enemy territory, and German fighter planes patrolled the escape routes, alert to any attempt by the Allies to rescue their flight crews. Brigadier General…...