Flight Journal - Page 4 of 282 - Aviation History | History of Flight | Aviation History Articles, Warbirds, Bombers, Trainers, Pilots

COMBAT SURVIVOR - AUGUST 2022

The Legend of Maj. Paul "Pappy" Gunn

Their Finest Hour

Butcher Bird Hellcat & Corsair: A test pilot recalls

Stinson’s Big-Guy L-Bird

Stalin’s Flying Hammer

LATEST

Win the Ultimate WW II Fighter Experience!

Imagine soaring high over the iconic White Cliffs of Dover at the controls of a Supermarine Spitfire, just like the heroic pilots defending England during the harrowing days of the Battle of Britain in 1940. Or crossing the expanse of the English Channel in your P-40 Warhawk, returning from ground attack missions in occupied France. […]

“African Skies”

“African Skies” originated during Robert S. Grant’s childhood after opening a school textbook and discovering Stanley’s meeting with Dr. Livingston. In 1999, quests and interests began bringing him to nations where he recognized horror, hunger and hopelessness. After encountering refugee children in overcrowded camps, tents and tin-side streets, he stumbled face-first upon slavery, child soldiers, […]

America’s Few: Marine Aces of the South Pacific

Written by aviation historian Bill Yenne, “America’s Few” is a new book from Osprey Publishing that delves into the history of U.S. Marine Corps aviation in World War II, following the feats of the Corps’ top-scoring aces in the skies over Guadalcanal. Marine Corps aviation began in 1915, functioning as a self-contained expeditionary force. During […]

Meeting the Legendary Kurt Tank

The FW 190 was truly one of the world’s greatest aircraft designs, but what of the man responsible for it? I had the good fortune to interrogate Kurt Tank when he was captured and taken to London at the end of the war, and he proved to be very interesting. I was already aware of […]

DRACO: The Ultimate STOL Bushplane

Short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft have been in development since the mid-1930s, when the Germans produced the Fieseler Storch. The Storch was famously used to rescue deposed Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini from his 9000ft high mountain-top prison in the Gran Sasso Massif in Italy, and was flown by Hanna Reisch on a trip to […]

Gallery: Laird LCW-300

One of the more exciting periods of aviation development was also the darkest period in America’s financial history. A completely contradictory statement to be sure, but one has only to look at the decade beginning in 1929 to see that the roots of American aviation were, for some unknown reason, wildly nurtured by the black […]

Operation Moolah

During the Korean War, Operation Moolah was an effort by United States Air Force (USAF) to obtain (through defection), a fully capable Soviet MiG-15 jet fighter. Communist forces introduced the MiG-15 to Korea on November 1, 1950. USAF pilots reported that the performance of the MiG-15 was superior to all United Nations (UN) aircraft, including […]

Robin Olds was born to be a fighter pilot and his career began in the P-38, where he made good use of the firepower concentrated in the nose. (Photo by John Dibbs/facebook.
com/theplanepicture)

Lightning Ace! P-38 legend Robin Olds

I knew about Muroc Dry Lake because my father had been involved with building a bombing target there in the late 1930s. It was still there. Considering the ongoing rivalry at that time with the admirals in the surface navy, it didn’t surprise me that the target turned out to be a large wooden replica […]

The amazing rescue of Fango 45

On 8 April 1982, the following crew conversation takes place inside Fango 43, an Idaho ANG RF-4C flying a twilight low-level radar mission over eastern Oregon: PILOT: “Ground speed set at 480.” WSO: “Okay, turn right to heading two-zero-three.” PILOT: “Steady two-zero-three.” WSO: “Okay, come one-half degree left and hold that.” PILOT: “Rawj.” WSO: “Clear […]

Peter Teichman pulls in close to the cameraship
in his Mustang, painted as “Jumpin’ Jacques.” Teichman’s Mustang, his first acquisition for the
North Weald, England-based Hangar 11 Collection,
is unique as it is one of only a few Mustangs with
combat history. It still carries the field repairs from battle scars she received while flying with the 332nd Fighter Group. (Photo by John Dibbs/facebook.com/theplanepicture)

South Pacific Warrior: A rare combat Mustang

“We’d fly over the target, level, and the target would go under the wing. We’d be slowing down, and slowing down, pull up, and just do a wing over. Slightly beyond the target, pull over, and then come straight down. We had a gun sight, but [we’d] just line the target up on the seam […]

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