One of the largest aircraft of World War II, the B-29 had state of the art technology, including a pressureized cabin; dual-wheeled, tricycle landing gear; and an analog computer controlled fire control system that allowed one gunner and a fire-control officer to direct four remote machine gun turrets. The $3 billion cost of design and production […]

April 25, 1945: First Lieutenant Raymond L. Knight in the northern Po Valley, Italy, piloted a fighter-bomber aircraft in a series of low-level strafing missions, destroying 14 grounded enemy aircraft and leading attacks which wrecked 10 others during a critical period of the Allied drive in northern Italy. On the morning of 24 April, he […]

On June 26, 1948, the 7th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy, at Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas, received the United States Air Force’s first Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft Corporation (“Convair”) B-36A, a six-engine, very long range heavy bomber. Its mission was to serve as a nuclear-capable deterrent until the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress came into service five […]

He piloted the P-47N Thunderbolt in the Pacific. He loved the N model. He used all of his talent at its controls to take the war to Japan, to the place U. S. airmen called “the Empire.” P-47N pacific Still, Urban L. “Ben” Drew is remembered mostly today for what he achieved in a different […]