In the 1980s, US President Ronald Reagan extended an invitation to Margaret Thatcher to participate in US advanced military programs, including the Space Shuttle program and the Lockheed F-117A stealth…
The Japanese launched a fairly daring plan in March 1942 to send a flight of two Kawanishi H8K long-range flying boats to inspect the damage they had caused to Pearl…
What is the real reason why pilots wear sunglasses? Sunglasses aid in protecting a pilot’s most important sensory asset: eyesight. To maximize visual performance in the cockpit, a good pair…
Kelly Johnson named Robert J. “Bob” Gilliland chief test pilot when he began designing the advanced SR-71 Blackbird for the US Air Force Lockheed test pilot Robert J. “Bob” Gilliland…
On November 4, 2022, the F-16 was shown to an audience of enthusiasts while escorting a WWII Spitfire fighter—a model that the 349 (F) Squadron of the British Royal Air…
‘Airspeed indicators were on one side, attitude indicators were on the other, altimeter gauges were in the middle, and we couldn’t even tell what time it was. It was a…
Robbie Risner attempted to push 1st Lt. Joseph Logan’s F-86 toward Kimpo by having Logan turn off his engine and sticking his own Sabre’s nose into Logan’s tailpipe Prior to…
The famous “howl” of the Vulcan engine was heard for the last time and anyone who wanted to hear it could stand on a road outside Doncaster Airport where it…
The least visible shape produced at the Skunk Works was a thousand times more visible than the F-117A Nighthawk shape The first operational aircraft in the world built to take…
In 1990, five miles off the USS Independence, a USAF B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber requested permission to do a fly-by. The carrier accepted the request but stated that there was…