History & Legends, Military Aviation
On 6 June 1961, somewhere over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Technical Sergeant James A. Howell of the U.S. Air Force was strapped into the back seat of a specially-instrumented Convair F-106B Delta Dart. The aircraft climbed to 23,336 feet and...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Imagine the worst-case scenario from the Pentagon perspective in 1957: the Soviet Union launches a surprise nuclear strike against NATO. The first warheads land on every U.S. and allied air base in Western Europe within the first ten minutes. Every runway is cratered....
History & Legends, Military Aviation
In 1976, Boeing rolled a strange-looking jet out of its Seattle plant. Two turbofans mounted high above the wings — not under them, where every cargo aircraft in history had put its engines. Stubby, square fuselage. T-tail. A wing that looked too small for the...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
It is one of those records that does not seem possible when you read it on paper. On 22 and 23 May 1958, a U.S. Marine Corps test pilot named Edward N. LeFaivre took off five times from Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, climbed each time as fast as his Douglas...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
The biography of Neil Armstrong is usually told backwards — from the Moon down. But the Moon was the end of the story. The beginning was a Navy pilot flying combat missions over Korea in 1951, getting his jet shot up by anti-aircraft fire, having six feet of wing...
Aviation World, History & Legends, Military Aviation, News
On May 17, 2026, two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets collided midair during the Gunfighter Skies Air Show at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The collision happened in front of thousands of spectators. Both aircraft were destroyed. All four crew...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
In the late 1950s, the Soviet Air Defence Forces had a problem. The American B-58 Hustler had just entered service. The B-70 Valkyrie was on the drawing board. Both could cruise at Mach 2 or above, both could carry nuclear weapons, and both could outrun anything the...
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