By Steve Pace The supersonic North American Aviation F-100 Super Sabre was a follow-on to its subsonic F-86 Sabre. But more importantly, it gave the U.S. Air Force, specifically its Tactical Air Command, the first turbojet-powered fighter cable of supersonic speed in level attitude flight, and this was proved during its very first test flight [...]
By Jay Miller During the heart of the Depression, a stunning number of one-offs and prototype aircraft were designed, and in many cases, built and test flown, under the most humble of circumstances. There were hundreds of these experimental, often homemade, flying machines created not only in hangars, but also in barns, tin sheds, wooden [...]
When we last reported on the University of Maryland students and their impressive Gamera II machine, they had only managed to get few feet off the ground. In this latest video, Gamera II gains 8 feet in altitude using just its pedaling passenger for power! Here’s the scoop, as reported by Claudine Zap of Yahoo’s [...]
Total Vickers Wellington bomber production totaled 11,461 aircraft, built between June 1936-when the prototype first flew- and the end of the World War II in 1945. Just a handful survive and none of these are in airworthy condition. A medium bomber and a reconnaissance aircraft with two 1,585-horsepower Bristol Hercules VI radial engines, the Wellington [...]
You need a sense of humor to survive these days, a fact that hasn’t escaped Italian aircraft designer and builder Ottone Baggio-his recently completed Rooster flow for the first time on December 26th, 2011. “The Rooster has flown!” crowed the crowd at Nervesa della Battaglia airfield, near Treviso in northeast Italy that day. Ottone’s Rooster [...]
THE GHOST OF WW II RAF Halifax bombers may echo around the hangars at Breighton in east Yorkshire, UK, but today, the noises on this revitalized WW II aerodrome are more likely to be of a Kinner R-540, de Havilland Gipsy Major or Gipsy Six, Pobjoy R or Hirth 504. This is now home of the Real Aeroplane Company (RAC) and the largest collection of [...]
IN JANUARY, the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 became the fi rst fixed-wing aircraft to launch a laser-guided rocket during test fl ights at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The weapons testing is part of an ongoing congressionally funded operational evaluation of the AT-6, executed by the Air National Guard and Air Reserve Command Test Center (AATC). The 2.75-inch laser-guided [...]
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) continues to be a good news, bad news saga. Just when the program appears to be overcoming scheduling delays and technical glitches, the Obama administration says it will purchase 179 fewer aircraft than once planned during the years immediately ahead. The Pentagon will seek 13 fewer airframes in its fiscal year 2013 budget [...]
