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10 Facts about the B-21 Raider

Named in honor of the Doolittle Raid of World War II, Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider was unveiled December 2, 2022 in Palmdale, Calif., marking the first time the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft will be seen by the public. When delivered to the Air Force, the B-21 will join the nation’s strategic triad as a visible […]

DeHavilland DH84 Dragon

Many British and Commonwealth air routes were established by airlines using de Havilland’s 6-passenger seat, twin-engine biplane, the DH84 Dragon. The Dragon’s first flight (November 1932) pre-dated the better-known DH89 Dragon Rapide (or Dominie in military service) by two years, although both aircraft made their maiden flights at the DH airfield of Stag Lane in […]

Kittyhawk Jungle Rescue

Confined in a microworld of levers, switches, and instruments, Royal Australian Air Force Flight Sergeant James Denman Harvey slid his Curtiss P-40’s eight-piece canopy backwards and looked down. Hammered by tropical heat and skin slippery in perspiration, he studied the surface of a newly captured airstrip called “Tadji.” Harvey and fellow No. 78 Squadron pilots […]

Thunderbolts of the 56th FG

As the most long-lived Thunderbolt group in the ETO, the 56th FG certainly sported some of the most varied camouflage plus squadron and individual markings in England. Upon arrival at Kings Cliffe in January 1943, its first combat-ready P-47C models bore a factory-standard olive drab over neutral gray livery. As the Thunderbolt was the first […]

Night Hunter — the first Corsair equipped with radar

Hunched in the cockpit of an F4U-2 Corsair in the darkest, blackest night he could remember, Second Lieutenant Frank Lang peered at the 6-inch scope in the center of his instrument panel and saw nothing significant to break up the green-yellow line inscribing a circle around the dial.

Bad Kitty! VF-19 “Satan’s Kittens”

VF-19 “Satan’s Kittens” Chew Up the Enemy “I had well over 1,000 hours of time in the air before I entered combat. Most of that was as an instrument instructor flying the SNJ. Instrument flying really teaches you the finer points of flying an airplane. It also makes you focus and for some reason I […]

Su-57 Fighter Profile – between an F-18 and an F-22?

Many advanced aviation designs get mired down temporarily or for the longer term owing to unanticipated complications of the myriad engineering systems involved. Russia’s Su-57 is in such a case, although we can’t count out seeing it eventually go into production. As reported on Thedrive.com, “India’s decision to finally walk away from the joint program […]

Second Chances: Breathing New Life into a California Bearcat

The Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force in Camarillo, CA has recently begun a full overhaul of one of its most prized aircraft, the Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat. Though Bearcats are somewhat common warbirds in the world of aircraft restoration, CAF SoCal’s airframe, BuNo 122674, has a truly unique history and has flown in […]

Nieuport 28 Takes Flight!

The American Heritage Museum in Stow, Massachusetts is honored to announce that America’s oldest, original, and airworthy combat aircraft has returned to the sky. On Saturday, April 2nd, 2022, the museum’s 1918 Nieuport 28 took to sky in southern Sweden with World War I aircraft restoration expert, Mikael Carlson, at the controls. There are 5 […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1905 – Birth of Elizabeth Muriel Gregory “Elsie” MacGill, known as the “Queen of the Hurricanes;” she becomes the world’s first female aircraft designer. 1936 – First flight of the Fokker D.XXI (shown), a Dutch low-wing monoplane fighter. 1945 – Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan’s ports and waterways, begins. The mining runs are […]