Share this story He was 31 years old — ancient by fighter-pilot standards — which is how a hard-drinking, twice-divorced Marine named Gregory Boyington got the nickname “Pappy.” He was also, by 1943, something close to washed up: a former Flying Tiger with...
Share this story He was born in Brazil, to a father from Alsace and a mother from Lorraine, and learned to fly at a club in Rio. He would end the war a wing commander in the Royal Air Force at the age of twenty-four, and General de Gaulle would call him...
Share this story It was a little before nine on the night of 18 April 1995, and Captain Brian Udell was flying his F-15E Strike Eagle out over the black Atlantic off North Carolina. Beside him sat his weapons systems officer, Captain Dennis White. It was routine...
Share this story At 11:20 on the morning of 25 January 1966, a Lockheed test pilot named Bill Weaver lifted an SR-71 Blackbird off the runway at Edwards Air Force Base. Beside him, in the reconnaissance systems officer’s seat, sat Jim Zwayer. A few hours later,...
Comparte esta historia. Algunos aviones de guerra se hicieron famosos en combates aéreos, surcando el cielo con sus ametralladoras disparando sin cesar. El McDonnell F-101 Voodoo se hizo famoso haciendo lo contrario: volando bajo, a toda velocidad y completamente desarmado, directamente sobre la gente que intentaba...
Comparte esta historia. Algunos aviones impresionan por su ingenio. El Tupolev Tu-160 impresiona, en primer lugar, por sus enormes dimensiones. Con 54,1 metros (177 pies 6 pulgadas), es más largo que un Boeing B-52, y con las alas extendidas mide 55,7 metros (182 pies 9 pulgadas) de punta a punta...
Comparte esta historia. De vez en cuando, la historia de la aviación nos presenta un avión cuyo mayor logro fue simplemente existir. El Bell P-59 Airacomet es el santo patrón de ese club. Fue el primer avión a reacción de Estados Unidos, un verdadero hito, y sin embargo fue tan...
Share this story Most military aircraft can be summed up in a single job. Fighters fight. Bombers bomb. Attack helicopters attack. And then there is the Mil Mi-24, a machine that looked at the neat little boxes military planners like to draw and cheerfully refused to...
Share this story Ask anyone who was there and they will tell you the same thing: you heard it before you saw it. A low, chopping pulse rolling in over the treeline, whop-whop-whop, growing until it filled the whole sky. For a generation of soldiers, that sound meant...
Share this story Few aircraft announce themselves before they are seen. The Tupolev Tu-95, known to NATO as the “Bear,” is one of them. It is a large, four-engine turboprop strategic bomber, and yet it cruises at speeds normally reserved for jets. That...
Share this story Some aeroplanes are admired. A rare few are loved. The Hawker Hunter belongs firmly to the second category, and it has done so since the day it first slipped into the air in 1951. Ask a British pilot of a certain vintage to name the most beautiful jet...
Share this story Say “four-engine British heavy bomber” to almost anyone and you will get the same answer: the Lancaster. The Avro Lancaster is the one that flew the Dambusters raid, the one still cruising over air shows on a summer afternoon, the one...
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