Media Archives - Page 15 of 22

General Delivery

From Gliders to the Guinea Short Lines When I was a senior in high school in 1942, I took advantage of the Civilian Pilot Training Program and earned my pilots license flying Waco UPF- 7s and PT-17s off a red dusty Oklahoma airfield near my hometown. As I waited to be called to active duty, […]

Four Down!

The Korean Combat the U.S. Tried to Forget By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver November 18, 1952: The cloud cover was 500 feet above the freezing Sea of Japan; visibility estimated at two miles in blowing snow as the Siberian blizzard howled over the pitching, rolling shapes of the ships forming Task Force 77. On the flight […]

Rare Bird: Pitcairn Autogiro

A piece of Jurassic aviation is reborn “This is a real prehistoric monster in flight. Once the helicopter was built, these autogiros became dinosaurs,” stated the late Jack Tiffany of Spring Valley, Ohio, at the time, co-owner (with Jim Hammond of Yellow Springs, Ohio) of the Pitcairn PA-18 N1267B (c/n G-65), the only example of […]

If Looks Could Kill

WW II’s Most Beautiful and Deadly Fighter By: James P. Busha It has been said that every soldier in every foxhole lives a different life in combat: even though the troops are all fighting the same battle, each soldier and pilot sees only the exact actions in which he is involved. That’s their private war. […]

C3B: The Original Stearman

When the name Stearman is mentioned in aviation circles, the first thought that comes to mind is of the popular World War II PT-13, PT-17 and N2S biplane military primary training planes that introduced thousands of military pilots to flying. However, for the most part, those airplanes were actually Boeing Model 75 Kaydets. The Stearman […]

War’s Ultimate Weapon

By Budd Davisson There’s a certain amount of elitism attached to what we do here at Flight Journal: all of our focus is on aircraft and their pilots. In fact, as you worked your way through the preceding articles to this final page, you probably couldn’t help but glory in the deeds accomplished by those […]

Scooter Memories

Flying the A-4 Skyhawk in Vietnam Although the Phantoms, Spads, and Thuds of the Vietnam War seem to get all the glory, the venerable little Scooter, the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, carried more than its share of the fight to the enemy. It was an airplane that packed more fight per pound into its diminutive airframe […]

Wolfpack Assassin: Confessions of a MiG Killer

By Lt. Col. Everett T. Raspberry , USAF (Ret.), as told to and written by James P. Busha Before I joined the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1955, I was just a “good ol’ boy” from Macon, Georgia. But flying a jet fighter only enhanced some of those Southern traits. Less than 12 years […]

Free Online Drawing: Douglas A-20 Havoc

The A-20 has always been overshadowed by her better known brothers, the B-25 and B-26. Although nearly 7,500 were built and they were used by the USAAF, the Russians and the RAF in the attack and light bomber roles, she just never got her share of glory. Still, on June 6, 1944, there she was, […]

An Icon Aloft

John Magoffin’s Lockheed Vega By Budd Davisson Photos by Scotty Germain The year was 1928 and the concept of the airplane was changing radically. While barnstormers still landed rickety surplus biplanes in pastures to hop passengers, those days were waning fast. Utility was driving designs to be faster and sleeker. But, when the Lockheed Vega […]