Share this story In the year 875 AD, a 70-year-old man climbed to the top of a mountain near Córdoba, strapped a pair of wings to his body, and jumped. He was not a madman. He was one of the most brilliant minds in the world. Abbas ibn Firnas was an Andalusian...
Share this story Quick Facts ManoeuvrePugachev’s Cobra PilotViktor Pugachev, Soviet test pilot AircraftSukhoi Su-27 (first demonstration); later performed in MiG-29 First Public Demo1989 Paris Air Show, Le Bourget Angle of Attack90–120 degrees — nose pulled past...
Share this story Quick Facts DateJuly 23, 1983 FlightAir Canada Flight 143, Montreal to Edmonton AircraftBoeing 767-233 (C-GAUN) CaptainRobert Pearson First OfficerMaurice Quintal Fuel Loaded22,300 lbs (should have been 22,300 kg) Altitude at Flame-Out41,000 feet...
Share this story Quick FactsNationalityGerman 🇩🇪Aerial Victories15Aircraft FlownFokker Eindecker E.IIIWarsWorld War IBorn / Died21 Sep 1890 – 18 Jun 1916 (age 25)UnitKEK Douai, Feldflieger-Abteilung 62 Max Immelmann — via Wikimedia Commons Every pilot who has ever...
Share this story Quick Facts DateSeptember 21, 1956 PilotThomas W. Attridge Jr., Grumman test pilot AircraftGrumman F11F-1 Tiger (BuNo 138620) LocationOff Long Island, New York ArmamentFour 20mm Colt Mk 12 cannons OutcomeAircraft destroyed; pilot survived with...
Share this story On November 12, 1996, two aircraft occupied the same point in Indian airspace. In the seconds that followed, 349 people ceased to exist. It remains the worst midair collision in human history—a catastrophe born from language barriers,...
Share this story Over 11,000 built. More nations flew it than any supersonic fighter in history. The Soviets created something extraordinary: a machine so brutally efficient that seven decades later, it still haunts the skies of multiple continents. The MiG-21 Fishbed...
Share this story On September 6, 1976, Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko made a choice that would reshape Western understanding of Soviet aviation. He pointed the nose of his MiG-25 Foxbat toward Japan and flew. What the West would discover in that intercepted fighter would...
Share this story On a spring morning in 1983, Israeli pilot Zivi Nedivi was locked in a dogfight when an A-4 Skyhawk appeared in his six o’clock. The collision that followed should have been fatal. Instead, it became aviation’s most impossible survival story. The...
Share this story On March 13, 2026, a sound not heard since September 1945 echoed across Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport in Queensland. A Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engine — 14 cylinders, 1,200 horsepower — roared to life, and a stubby, pugnacious little fighter...
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