French Aéronavale F-8 Crusader One term for the Vought F-8 Crusader was “fighter pilot’s fighter.” Although flying the jet was difficult, particularly during carrier landings, Crusader pilots had a great…
The KC-135 Stratotanker The Boeing Company’s model 367-80 served as the basic design for both the KC-135A Stratotanker and the commercial 707 passenger aircraft. The Air Force acquired the first…
The strangest aerial engagement of the Vietnam War What was maybe the most peculiar aircraft combat of the Vietnam War occurred in late February 1968 over the triple canopy jungle…
F-14 shooting down RF-4C A US Air Force (USAF) RF-4C Phantom II was shot down by a US Navy F-14 Tomcat on September 22, 1987, over the Mediterranean during NATO…
The SR-71 Blackbird The US Air Force (USAF) created the SR-71 Blackbird in the 1960s; it was a plane that could move at a speed that exceeded three times the…
The F-15 Streak Eagle was designed to break the time-to-climb records held by the F-4 and MiG-25 by setting new ones The F-15 proved to be a highly useful testbed…
‘The next pass was different. I said to Jim that our F-15 jockeys are the best in the world, let’s give them a challenge,’ Former SR-71 Blackbird pilot, Capt. Steve…
The Eagle’s AIM-7 Sparrow missile was significantly less powerful than the Phoenix missile system. Research revealed that 170 F-14 Tomcats could equal 290 F-15 Eagles in terms of defense The…
Who could blame Vito, when approaching Moscow for the first time, felt his throat dry. Consequently, he reached into his pocket for a cough drop, but instead, he took out…
The survival kit carried by Blackbird’s pilots and RSOs included a few unconventional items, even though no SR-71 was ever shot down The Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft were the…