The Blackbird The Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft were the basis for the long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft known as the SR-71, or “Blackbird,” as it was informally called.…
Operation El Dorado Canyon Operation El Dorado Canyon began on April 14, 1986, with a strike group consisting of eighteen US Air Force (USAF) F-111 fighter bombers, supported by a…
The F-14 Tomcat In the 1986 movie “Top Gun,” the F-14 Tomcat had a key part. The Navy required an aircraft to defend its surface fleets from hostile aircraft and long-range…
The SR-71 Blackbird A group of Lockheed members led by Clarence “Kelly” Johnson—then vice president of Lockheed’s Advanced Development Company Projects, also referred to as the “Skunk Works” and currently…
The B-58 Hustler On November 11, 1956, the B-58, the US Air Force’s first operational supersonic bomber, took off. Apart from its delta wing design, the Hustler was distinguished by…
The F-16N Viper The US Navy purchased an F-16N Viper, a version of the F-16 Fighting Falcon used by the US Air Force, to simulate fourth-generation Soviet fighters as adversary…
The AGM-62 Walleye The Martin Marietta AGM-62 Walleye, although designated as an air-to-ground missile (AGM), was actually an unpowered glide bomb guided to its target by a television camera attached…
US Navy’s search for an advanced carrier-based air superiority fighter In an effort to support the Department of Defense’s goal of commonality with the Air Force and its F-111A, General…
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 was more than three…
Nuclear testing At the height of the Cold War, in the early 1960s, nuclear testing was resumed by both the US and USSR. The largest thermonuclear bomb ever dropped was…