The F-102 Delta Dagger The United States Air Force’s first operational supersonic, all-weather interceptor with Mach 1 capability was the F-102 Delta Dagger. Its signature wasp-waisted delta-wing design, manufactured by…
VF-142 F-4B emergency landing A U.S. Navy McDonnell F-4B Phantom II (BuNo 150643) belonging to Fighter Squadron VF-142 Ghostriders appears in the article’s featured photograph. VF-142 served with the aircraft…
Scramble In the event of a threat, military forces need to react quickly for safety reasons. Aircraft scrambling is a part of a military aviation technique used to get an…
The SR-71 Blackbird The US Air Force (USAF) created the SR-71 Blackbird in the 1960s; it was a plane that could fly at a speed greater than three times the…
The B-47 Stratojet The first XB-47 prototype, which was built to fulfill a 1944 need, flew in December 1947 and outperformed its rivals. It had sweeping wings, jet engines in…
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk 2,960 A-4 Skyhawk aircraft were produced by Douglas between 1954 and 1979. Known by their endearing nickname, “Heinemann’s Hot Rod” (after Douglas designer Ed Heinemann), the…
The EF-111A Raven In the 1980s and 1990s, EF-111A Ravens, often referred to as “Fat Tails” and “Spark Varks” (the F-111 is also called the Aardvark), were used as tactical…
The AIM-54 Phoenix The AWG-9 weapons control system and P&W TF30 engines were used by the F-14A Tomcat, which was built in 1968 to replace the controversial F-111B, which was…
The A-10 Warthog October 1975 saw the delivery of the first A-10A in production at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB), in Arizona. Over the years, numerous enhancements have been made…
The F-86D Sabre Dog To counter the growing Soviet threat, the US government and USAF started a massive effort in the late 1940s to establish an effective defense of US…