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IN 1927 A PINEAPPLE MAGNATE SPONSORED AN AIR RACE TO HAWAII. IT DID NOT GO WELL It is said that the first automobile race took place the moment the second [...]

The Boeing 247 was the end result of a battle between company management and its engineers. Unfortunately, the engineers lost. Although enshrined today as 'the first modern airliner'--and it certainly [...]

You probably use one of William P. Lear's inventions every day. No, not a Learjet-unless you're richer than we reckon--but the practical, affordable, compact car radio. It all started with [...]

THE MIG-25 SEEMED TO SPELL TROUBLE FOR THE WEST. THEN A DEFECTOR EXPOSED THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS SOVIET BEAST The spy satellite photos created panic in the Pentagon. They [...]

IN 1943 IT TOOK JUST 143 DAYS FOR LOCKHEED DESIGNER CLARANCE 'KELLY' JOHNSON AND HIS ELITE TEAM OF 128 SKUNK WORKS ENGINEERS AND FABRICATORS TO CREATE THE P-80 SHOOTING STAR. [...]

AS A CHILD OF THE PROPELLER AGE AND A PILOT WHO FOR 40 YEARS FLEW AIRPLANES WITH PROPS, FOR ME THE MARK OF MUSCLE IS NOT A TAILPIPE TWINKLING LIKE [...]

LIKE THE BARRAGE BALLOON AND THE ASSAULT GLIDER, THE TORPEDO BOMBER IS A WEAPON WE WILL NEVER SEE AGAIN. Its fate had been sealed nearly four decades earlier, but the [...]

THE SOVIET'S HAVE TRADITIONALLY HELD PRIMACY AS AVIATION'S GIGANTISM SPECIALISTS. Igor Sikorsky's Ilya Muromets, a vast stork of an airplane famously photographed with two crewmen strolling atop its fuselage, first [...]

NAME THE MOST EFFECTIVE AMERICAN BOMBERS OF WORLD WAR II AND YOU'LL CERTAINLY COME UP WITH THE B-17, B-24 AND B-29, MAYBE THE TWIN-ENGINE B-25, BUT HOW MANY WILL THINK [...]

U.S. NAVY AIRCREWS AND RECRUITERS LOVED THE GRUMMAN F-14 TOMCAT, BUT A CAREFUL REVIEW OF ITS RECORD SUGGESTS THE TOP GUN MOUNT WASN'T ALL IT WAS CRANKED UP TO BE [...]

REPUBLIC'S P-47 WASN'T A SEXY OR GROUNDBREAKING FIGHTER BUT IT POSSESSED ONE ESSENTIAL QUALITY PRIZED BY PILOTS: IT GOT THE JOB DONE AND RETURNED THEM SAFELY HOME WORLD WAR II [...]

THE NORTH AMERICAN B-25 MITCHELL LUAS PRESET FOR THE OVERTURE OF THE PACIFIC WAR AND WAS STILL ONSTAGE RS THE CURTAIN FELL ON THE FINAL ACT. On April 18, 1942, [...]

Unless an aircraft design is irredeemably bad, even the worst of them get corrected, and their fatal flaws become just a bad memory. Which is why the following selection of [...]

PILOTS LOVED THE THUD. EXCEPT FOR TEST PILOTS, WHO WERE PAID TO FIND FAULTS, THE REPUBLIC F-105 THUNDERCHIEF SEEMS TO HAVE HAD NO DETRACTORS. Aviators as well as ground crews [...]

WINGS OF WAR The World War II Fighter Plane that Saved the Allies and the Believers Who Made It Fly by David Fairbank White and Margaret Stanback White, Dutton Caliber, [...]

The article focuses on the challenges faced by the Curtiss-Wright Corp. during World War II, including issues with its P-40 Warhawk aircraft and the problematic SB2C Curtiss Helldiver. Topics include the congressional investigation led by Senator Harry S. Truman into the Helldiver's poor performance, Curtiss's questionable advertising practices, and the concerns raised about faulty engines, particularly the 1,600-hp Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone, which led to crashes and deaths.

THE MESSERSCHMITT ME-110 'DESTROYER' WAS SHOT DOWN IN DROVES DURING THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN, BUT IT WENT ON TO BECOME WORLD WAR II'S MOST SUCCESSFUL NIGHT FIGHTER Gloster Gladiator biplanes [...]

LINDBERGH, EARHART, DOOLITTLE, RICKENBACKER, ROSCOE TURNER, WILEY POST, BERNT BALCHEN, HAROLD GATTY, PAUL MANTZ ... THE DEAN'S LIST OF 1920S AND '30S PILOTS GOES ON, BUT RARELY WILL YOU FIND [...]

WHILE THE UNITED STATES WAS CRANKING OUT CENTURY SERIES FIGHTERS, AL SPECTACULAR BUT NONE PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE IN THE ROLE FOR WHICH THEY WERE INTENDED, THE SOVIET UNION QUIETLY CAME UP [...]

WERE IT NOT FOR A 32-YEAR-OLD U.S. AIR FORCE COLONEL WHO HAPPENED TO BE AN MIT-DEGREED ENGINEER, THE B-52 STRATOFORTRESS WOULD HAVE BEEN A TUPOLEV TU-95 BEAR LOOKALIKE--A A BIG, [...]

WE CALLED HER BETTY. THE RRTERICAN SYSTEM OF NICKNAMING WORLD WAR II JAPANESE AIRCRAFT GAVE FEMALE NAMES TO BOBERS, MALE NAMES TO FIGHTERS. Betty was actually a waitress in Pennsylvania. [...]

As of late March 2023, the Dakota Territory Air Museum, in Minot, North Dakota, is preparing for the first flight of its impeccably restored Republic P-47D-23 Thunderbolt. It is encouraging [...]

The article focuses on the Boeing Stratocruiser, a once-luxurious but ultimately problematic commercial airliner, discussing its history, technical challenges, and reasons for its decline in the aviation industry. It also highlights the unique features of the Stratocruiser, its propeller-related accidents, and its eventual replacement by more efficient jet airliners.

'It' is the Lockheed P2V Neptune patrol bomber, and that opinion comes from Russell Strine, who flies the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's fully restored P2V-7 (which is currently inactive, since airshows [...]

It was a catalogue of aircraft encapsulating several nations' worst aeronautical excesses, in a manner that today might be considered politically incorrect. The Italian fighter was double-ended so it could [...]

THE WORLD'S FIRST PRACTICAL FIREBOMBER WAS A STE ARM AN, A1939 BOEING 75 THAT HAD BEEN CONVERTED INTO A CROPDUSTER. In 1955 a California agriculture applicator, Willows Flying Service, cut [...]

AVIATION HAS GIVEN US MANY HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW MOMENTS--PASSENGER-CARRYING DIRIGIBLES, MAILPLANES, MILITARY GLIDERS, ENORMOUS FLYING BOATS--AND AMONG THEM IS THE CRAFT OF SKYWRITING. Just as there are diehard airship [...]

Generations of Blue Angels and Thunderbirds owe their ability to stroll airshow ramps in smart, sexy flight suits to a wealthy, irascible Australian World War I pilot named Sidney Cotton. [...]

Some restorers confronted with a warbird modified to fill a civilian mission--borate bomber, bizplane, Reno racer--will reverse the mods and return the airplane to its original condition. The German company [...]

At half past noon on July 21, 1948, a Boeing B-29 descended onto the surface of Lake Mead, the Nevada reservoir behind Hoover Dam. In a gentle descent at just [...]

The article explores the history of the Gloster Gladiator, the last British biplane fighter used by the RAF before World War II. Topics include its design, its role in airshows and early combat, its limited effectiveness in modern warfare due to advancements in monoplane fighters, and its legendary defense of Malta during the war.

THE WORLD'S LARGEST AEROSPACE COMPANY GREW FROM A SINGLE SIMPLE, ANGULAR, TWIN-FLOAT SEAPLANE: THE 1916 B&W MODEL 1. MODEST BEGINNINGS William Boeing (right) and pilot Eddie Hubbard stand before the [...]

THE BEECH STAGGERWING IS JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY'S IDEA OF THE ULTIMATE 1930S LUXURY PRIVATE AIRCRAFT. There isn't a 10-most-beautiful-airplanes list published that doesn't include the Staggerwing, and every classic airplanes [...]

BEHOLD THE LOCKHEED U-2, AS PERFECT AN AIRPLANE AS HAS EVER FLOWN. A hastily designed stopgap intended to fly for two or perhaps four years at most, its fragility and [...]

REIMAR HORTEN AND HIS OLDER BROTHER WALTER WERE GERMAN AIRCRAFT HOMEBUILDERS. Their relatively short aircraft-building careers extended from 1933 until the end of World War II, though they did some [...]

Mike Fithian approached his re-creation of a 1912 Etrich Taube with compulsive workmanship and attention to detail. That's because he wanted to build a faithful representation of the airplane his [...]

A mashup replication of one of World War II's more unusual combat aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw-200 Condor, is underway in Germany. The completed airframe, engines and partial cockpit are on [...]

On August 2, 1943, CBS war correspondent Eric Sevareid and a small group of American diplomats and Chinese army officers climbed aboard a Curtiss C-46 Commando transport plane at a [...]

THERE WERE MANY NIGHT FIGHTERS IN WORLD WAR II, BUT ONLY TWO WERE DESIGNED FROM THE GROUND UP TO PLAY IN THE DARK: THE NORTHROP P-61 BLACK WIDOW AND THE [...]

Eccentric solo inventor J. Walter Christie designed vehicles--from race cars and taxis to fire engines and self-propelled artillery--like no others. But his oddball designs influenced some of the 20th century's [...]

THEY CALLED IT THE CURTISS CALAMITY, OL' DUMBO, THE FLYING WHALE AND, MORE RECENTLY, MISS PIGGY. The C-46 Commando was the biggest twin-engine airplane in the world when it first [...]

Had the Harrier's ability to take off and land vertically been truly meaningful, important and uncompromising, every military aircraft manufacturer in the world would be building Harrier-style jump jets. Only [...]

AIRCRAFT QUICKLY BECAME WEAPONS OW WAR, BUT LESS EXPECTED WAS THEIR ROLE AS RESCUERS. Today it seems inevitable that aircraft--particularly helicopters--should be used as angels of mercy, to pluck the [...]

The Arado Ar-234, the world's first jet bomber, too often slips under the casual enthusiast radar. Perhaps because on the ground, with its landing gear down--which is how wartime photographs [...]

The New England Air Museum has restored an airplane that represents a fascinating but pointless path in American aviation I history. The one-of-a-kind 1947 CBY-3 Loadmaster I was Vincent Burnelli's [...]

Not counting bombers, transports and more specialized types, the United States produced just over 100,000 fighter aircraft of 11 different types for use in World War II. Only 674 of […]

The red carpet for great aircraft designers has been trod by names that may not be household fare but certainly are known in every hangar. Kelly Johnson, Ed Heinemann, Jack [...]

The morning of Feb. 19, 1942, dawned hot and humid in Australia's Northern Territory. Some 50 miles north across Beagle Gulf from Darwin--the region's sparsely populated seaside capital--Roman Catholic Father [...]

Of the hundreds of types of aircraft that flew in World War II, every warbirder could come up with a list of the dozen most iconic. Spitfire, P-51, Zero, Stuka, [...]