Military

Super Stearman Saturday

Super Stearman Saturday

What do you get when you take any airplane and more than double its horsepower? For one thing you get much bigger grins every time you move the throttle forward for takeoff. The 450 Stearman, the so-called “Super Stearman,” is a classic case in point. Originally born with a puny 220 hp, W-670 Continental radial […]
A P-40 Fighter Pilot’s Inspiration: six year old Georgie Boy

A P-40 Fighter Pilot’s Inspiration: six year old Georgie Boy

The “greatest generation” as a whole did not need a reason to fight. Provoked by a ferocious Axis that threatened to enslave the world, hundreds and thousands of young men answered the call to arms.  Preserving freedom, peace and security for future generations were the primary reason men signed up for service. Others saw it […]
Friday Fighter: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

Friday Fighter: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

One of the all time famous fighters to come out of WW 2, the P-40 was conceived as a pursuit aircraft and was agile at low and medium altitudes. However, it suffered from a lack of power at higher altitudes. At medium and high speeds it was one of the tightest-turning early monoplane designs of […]
Heavy Metal Monday: Focke-Wulf Fw 190

Heavy Metal Monday: Focke-Wulf Fw 190

More commonly referred to as the Butcher Bird by pilots that went up against this fierce fighter, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger (Shrike) was a German single-seat, single-engine aircraft designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1930s. Widely used during WW2 along with its Luftwaffe counterpart, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Fw 190 became the […]
Curtis SB2C Helldiver and Ben Case: Bombing in the Beast

Curtis SB2C Helldiver and Ben Case: Bombing in the Beast

Ben Case and the SB2C Helldiver. We were launched while our fleet was 180 to 200 miles northeast of Manila. My group was assigned to hit Japanese ships in Manila Harbor. As we approached our dive area at 10,000 feet, big, black puffs of smoke from anti-aircraft fire began popping all around us.” Leslie Bennett […]
Pearl Harbor: the Inside Story

Pearl Harbor: the Inside Story

At approximately 7:55 AM (local time), on December 7, 1941, the US Navy was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the US forces were taken completely off guard. 96 ships were stationed at Pearl Harbor, but the Japanese aircraft’s primary targets were the big battleships moored on Battleship Row at Ford Island. The Japanese aircraft […]
The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver

The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver

A carrier-based dive bomber aircraft produced for the US Navy during WW II, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver was a replacement for the Douglas SBD Dauntless. The SB2C was much faster than the SBD and the crew nicknames for the aircraft included the Big-Tailed Beast or just the derogatory Beast, Two-Cee, and Son-of-a-Bitch 2nd Class, (after […]
P-40 – By any other Name

P-40 – By any other Name

The British Commonwealth and Soviet air forces used the name Tomahawk for models equivalent to the P-40B and P-40C, and the name Kittyhawk for models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants. P-40s first saw combat with the British Commonwealth squadrons of the Desert Air Force in the Middle East and North African campaigns, […]
Friday Fighter, P-40 Warhawk

Friday Fighter, P-40 Warhawk

Perhaps the most famous fighter to come from World War Two, the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk developed from the P-36 Hawk, via the P-37. Many variants were built, some in large numbers, under names including the Hawk, Tomahawk and Kittyhawk. The first Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was a P-36 running with a supercharged Allison engine. The blend […]
Martin B-26 Marauder

Martin B-26 Marauder

A twin-engined medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company from 1941 to 1945, the B-26 Marauder first flew on 25 November 1940 piloted by Martin test pilot William Kenneth Ebel, co-pilot Ed Fenimore and flight engineer Al Malewski. The B-26 was first used in the Pacific Theater of World War II in early […]
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