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Friday Fighter: Grumman’s F6F Hellcat

by Budd Davisson Okay, so we’ll admit it: just about every successful fighter of WWII was sleeker and sexier than a Hellcat. However, when it comes to fighters, “beauty is in the doing” and the Hellcat could do it. In spades! In terms of what it contributed to victory, it was the uncontested King of […]

Multi-Engine Monday: B-25 Mitchells over the Mediterranean

Wavetop warfare: Skip-bombing and Big Guns When the North American NA-62, officially dubbed B-25, first flew in August of 1940, it was less than a roaring success. The UK and France had just chosen the smaller Douglas DB-7 Boston (A-20 Havoc) attack bomber over the North American design. However, in the years leading up to […]

Lee Lauderback Receives 2019 Bob Hoover Award

After a storied career preserving, flying, and caring for one of the world’s most iconic aircraft, the P-51 Mustang, Stallion 51, Boss Lee (Mr. Mustang) Lauderback has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the Bob Hoover Award of Aviation Excellence. The Award is intended to shine a spotlight on those who are doing outstanding […]

Wingman to the Aces

There are no great aces without great wingmen and young Lt. Floyd Fulkerson from Little Rock, Arkansas, was one of those wingmen. Although he had four confirmed victories, so he was nearly an ace himself, he sees his primary contribution to the war effort to have been the protection of his lead pilots, some of […]

Cold War Wednesday! Sukhoi Su-27

The question on the table is: “Is the Su-27 the best fighter in the world?” Starting a conversation by saying any airplane is the best at anything is right up there with politics, religion and blondes vs redheads vs brunettes for sparking spirited debate. Still, if you read the popular press, the Su-27 is the […]

Monday Mustang Story

One thing we often forget is that war is always fought by kids and, in the case of WW II aviators, that meant they were also extremely inexperienced. When I flew my first fighter, which happened to be the Mustang, I was 29 years old and had nearly 2,500 hours of flight time in a […]

Utility Warbird Cessna’s LC-126

Here’s a question for Flight Journal readers: How many are familiar with the Korean War–era Cessna LC-126? Let’s have a show of hands. Hmm. Not many. If we rephrased that question as “How many are familiar with the Cessna 195?” we’d see lots of hands. This is interesting considering that they are the same airplane—sort […]

Hawk 33 – A Day in the Life of a Vietnam Cobra Pilot

March 20, 1971, was not a good day for American and Vietnamese forces engaged in Operation Lam Son 719. Originally billed as the operation that would prove the success of “Vietnamization,” that the South Vietnamese Army and Marines were capable of taking on North Vietnamese main force units successfully, the incursion into Laos was becoming […]

From the Archive: Mentoring a Thunderbird Pilot

As one of six stars of the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds squadron, Maj. Jason Curtis has all the qualities of an elite pilot. He’s intelligent, focused, personable and flies with unparalleled precision. He’s also humble — and quick to credit those who guided him during his childhood in Kalispell. Curtis, 33, is returning to his hometown […]

The Dragon’s Den

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 […]