The 82nd Aerial Target Squadron (ATRS) based at Tyndall AFB, Florida, operates a fleet of surplus aerial target drones to train fighter pilots in the art of air-to-air combat. Some of these drones, designated QF-4, are now used to tow banner targets behind them to give pilots additional gunnery training. Originally built by the McDonnell [...]
In case you missed it, earlier this year the Northrop T-38 celebrated its 50th anniversary of military service. First flown in March 1959, the Talon entered the Air Force inventory two years later as the world’s first supersonic trainer. Since then, it has served in the U.S. Navy, NASA, Nationalist China, Germany, Portugal, South Korea [...]
A Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver is the first resident in a new restoration hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The Helldiver aka “Beast” was transported from the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage facility in Maryland; this facility will eventually [...]
As everyone knows, few DH 89 Dragon Rapides remain airworthy today. Constructed of wood and fabric, time has deteriorated their glued joints, and timber airframe components have rotted on these iconic 1930s British passenger biplanes. So the arrival of a Dragon Rapide at the EAA’s AirVenture Oshkosh was a delightful surprise. Touching down at Oshkosh [...]
The first C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) to become operational with U.S. forces has arrived at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport in Ohio. The Italian-built C-27J has been called a “Mini C-130” because it houses two engines (instead of four), and its propellers are identical to those of second-generation Hercules transports. Mansfield’s first aircraft (no. [...]
When the 1,000th Boeing 767—a 767-300ER—rolled off the original assembly line, history was marked in two ways. The rollout marks 29 years of service for the venerable wide-body twinjet just as 767 production moves to a new, smaller bay design to improve efficiency. The 767 originally went into service in 1982, and it’s offered in [...]
The largest ever Boeing airliner has made a successful first flight. The 4-hour 25-minute flight was from Boeing’s 747 production facilities at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, to Boeing’s developmental site at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington. This newest version of the 747 took off at 9:59 a.m. and landed at 2:24 p.m. local time. [...]
Having flown 100 combat missions during the brutally cold winter of 1950-51 in Korea on the same type of sorties as those described—I can readily understand the situation. The main difference is that we had to land under marginal weather conditions on wet/icy PSP runways but we faced the same flak and 50 cal guns [...]
