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Evolution of the Breed – The Curtiss P-40

By the early 1930s, the Army Air Corps was no longer interested in the “ancient technology” of biplane fighters. For a very short while, the Army Air Corp thought they had the ultimate fighter on their hands. The P-40 was sleek and fast and carried an assortment of machine guns above its nose and in […]

The new generation of warbird pilots, restorers & mechanics

Science-fiction writer and aeronautical engineer Robert Heinlein famously said, “A generation which ignores history has no past—and no future.” Warbird aircraft have been a part of American life since airplanes were adapted for warfare during World War I. Almost immediately afterward, the newly-surplus “war birds” that a few years before had served as fighters, bombers […]

Flying for “Devotion” – Behind the scenes with the pilots who brought the story of Ensign Jesse Brown & LTJG Thomas Hudner to life

Arctic cold invaded Jesse Brown’s cockpit as he desperately looked for a place to land his F4U-4 Corsair in the snow-covered mountains of North Korea, near the Chosin Reservoir. It was early December 1950. More than 120,000 Chinese troops had crossed into North Korea and encircled 30,000 troops from the U.S. Marine Corps’ 1st Division, […]

Top Gun Maverick: The iconic ’80s aviation action classic returns to thrill a new generation

Can you believe it’s been 34 years since we first saw Tom Cruise catapult off a carrier deck and up into the danger zone as Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun? We previewed the first Top Gun movie in our August 1986 issue (and correctly predicted that the Tomcat–and Tom Cruise–would become American heroes). […]