By Tom Crouch, Courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum John Brown, an Australian researcher living in Germany, has unveiled a website claiming that Gustave Whitehead (January 1, 1874-October 10, 1927), a native of Leutershausen, Bavaria, who immigrated to the United States, probably in 1894, made a sustained powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine [...]
Here it comes again: the Great Who Flew First Debate. This time it is courtesy of Jane’s All the World Aircraft, considered to be one of the world’s encyclopedic, not-to-be-doubted sources of aviation information and their radical shift in which they de-throne the Wright Brothers and enshrine Gustav Whitehead as the first to achieve powered [...]
Although Veterans Day has the stated purpose of remembering the vets and those in uniform, in reality it means different things to different people. For some it is the half-off sales that surround us. For me, it reminds me of one of those could-of-should-ofs that will always haunt me: I never served in the armed [...]
Last year, while preparing an article celebrating the Navy’s 100th anniversary, we stumbled across the photo below. It reminded us what Memorial Day is all about, something we can’t forget. The photo had a profound effect on us and we thought we’d be remiss if we didn’t share it with our readers. by Budd [...]
The story behind the avenger’s replacement By mid-1944 the U.S. Navy knew that it would take much longer than previously thought for the Allies to win WW II. The Japanese were still putting up very stiff resistance to the American demand for complete capitulation. Thus, it was expected that an invasion of Japan in late [...]
Bent-Wing Beauty You don’t have to inspect a Corsair closely to know that it is a very complex airplane. The characteristics that make it so identifiable—among them, its inverted “gull” wing—must have kept manufacturing people up nights trying to figure out how to build them fast enough to meet the requirements of the War. From [...]
Dr. Alfred Price, a UK-based historian and respected author gives us yet another view of the Battle of Britain, including inside information on the aircraft and tactics. Lots of terrific color photos of the Spitfire, Hurricane, Messerschmitt and more Read it Now
F-8 Crusader pilots are a breed unto themselves who share an intense camaraderie based on the firm conviction that they flew the finest, and probably last, dogfighter ever built. Rear Adm. Paul Gillcrist, USN (Ret.) logged over 2,000 hours in the type, and he puts us in the cockpit for a lighthearted tour of what [...]
