History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalityAmerican 🇺🇸Aerial Victories40 (US all-time record)Aircraft FlownP-38 LightningWarsWorld War II (Pacific)Born / Died24 Sep 1920 – 6 Aug 1945 (age 24)Unit9th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force Lockheed P-38 Lightning –...
Aviation World, History & Legends
On October 4, 2004 — the 47th anniversary of Sputnik — a small, white aircraft climbed to 112 kilometres above the Mojave Desert, briefly reached space, and returned safely to Earth. It was the third such flight in five days. The pilot was different each time but the...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalitySoviet 🇷🇺Aerial Victories11 (aerial victories + ground)Aircraft FlownYak-1, LaGG-3WarsWorld War IIBorn / Died7 Jul 1916 – 19 Jul 1943 (age 27)Unit586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment...
Aviation World, History & Legends
On December 14, 1986, a strange-looking aircraft — long, thin, with two fuselages, a pusher engine, a puller engine, and wings so flexible they bent visibly under their own weight — rolled down a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California and lifted off. It was...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalitySoviet 🇷🇺Aerial Victories12 (highest female ace of all time)Aircraft FlownYak-1, Yak-1BWarsWorld War IIBorn / Died18 Aug 1921 – 1 Aug 1943 (age 21)Unit586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment Order of the Red Banner...
Aviation World, History & Legends
At 10:56 PM Eastern time on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong placed his left boot on the surface of the Moon and said words that 600 million people — one in five people alive on Earth — were listening to live. The signal took 1.26 seconds to travel from the lunar surface...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalitySoviet 🇷🇺Aerial Victories59 (officially credited)Aircraft FlownMiG-3, Yak-1, P-39 AiracobraWarsWorld War II (Eastern Front)Born / Died6 Mar 1913 – 13 Nov 1985 (age 72)Unit16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment Stamp of Russia 2013 No 1675...
Aviation World, History & Legends
In 1965, Pan American World Airways president Juan Trippe phoned Boeing president Bill Allen and asked whether Boeing could build an aircraft twice the size of anything currently flying. Allen said he would look into it. The two men then did something remarkable for...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
In the summer of 1940, roughly 3,000 RAF fighter pilots stood between Nazi Germany and the conquest of Britain. Against them, the Luftwaffe fielded over 2,600 aircraft and some of the most experienced combat aviators in the world. For four months — from July to...
Aviation World, History & Legends
On October 24, 2003, British Airways flight BA002 touched down at London Heathrow for the last time. As it taxied in, the crew made an announcement: this was Concorde’s final commercial flight. The passengers — who had each paid around £8,000 for a seat — stood...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
The standard defensive manoeuvre for an SR-71 Blackbird when it detected a surface-to-air missile launch was simple: accelerate. At Mach 3.3 and 85,000 feet, acceleration was sufficient. No SR-71 was ever shot down. In over 3,500 operational missions, spanning 24...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
On the evening of October 12, 1947, test pilot Chuck Yeager went horse riding in the Mojave Desert and fell off, breaking two ribs. Two days later, in severe pain and with his ribs tightly taped, he crawled into the cockpit of a Bell X-1 rocket plane, used a sawed-off...
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