The Lockheed SR-71A strategic reconnaissance aircraft could only be intercepted by the MiG-25 until the MiG-31 entered service, making it of particular importance to the Soviet air defense Lt. Viktor…
“We could have been throwing up dust clouds behind us, we were so low. One wrong move and we’d have been splattered over miles of cactus,” Jay Lacklen, former B-52…
OV-10A An Iraqi SAM shot down Bronco BuNo 155424 on February 25, 1991. Major Joseph Small, the pilot, was captured, and Captain David Spellacy, the observer, was killed. The intriguing…
In contrast to other frontline fighters from the past, the Israelis appeared unable to obtain a MiG-29 using clandestine methods. But with the end of the Cold War, it was…
Before swinging back to launch a cannon strike, the MiG-19 broke away from the RB-47H during the maneuver. The aircraft was shot down after two firing attempts The 55th Strategic…
“I came away with one observation—the more recommendations an applicant had from general officers, the less likely were his chances of getting into the SR-71 program. Flying skills rather than…
“The B-52 suddenly snapped nose down ten degrees, a horrendous and panic-inducing loss of control that promised to kill us all in about ten seconds as the moonlit pine forest…
“Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion. I learned later the time from event onset to catastrophic departure from controlled flight was only 2-3 sec. Still trying to communicate with…
“I am the spirit of the Phantom. My spirit will live long in the minds and hearts of those in whom I have captured something. They are the ones who…
“As the plane leveled off, Hunt’s Mesa suddenly appeared above the aircraft on the crew’s radar scopes that displayed the plane’s position well below the mesa rim. The pilot firewalled…