History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalityIsraeli 🇮🇱Aerial Victories17 (highest Western jet ace)Aircraft FlownF-4 Phantom II, Mirage IIIWarsSix-Day War, War of Attrition, Yom Kippur WarBorn29 Oct 1938Unit101 Squadron “First Fighter Squadron” Giora Epstein — via Wikimedia...
Aviation World, History & Legends
He failed five times. Each time, he climbed into a capsule smaller than a garden shed, was lifted to 35,000 feet by a balloon the size of a 14-storey building, and tried to navigate the unpredictable jet streams around the entire planet. Each time, weather, equipment...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalityAmerican 🇺🇸Aerial Victories11.5 (WWII ace); also 1st pilot to break sound barrierAircraft FlownP-51 Mustang, Bell X-1, F-86 SabreWarsWorld War II, Korean War (advisor)Born / Died13 Feb 1923 – 7 Dec 2020 (age 97)Unit357th Fighter Group (WWII)...
Aviation World, History & Legends
On New Year’s Day 1914, a crowd gathered on the waterfront in St. Petersburg, Florida, to watch history. A Benoist XIV flying boat — a wood-and-canvas biplane with a pusher propeller and a hull designed to land on water — taxied out across Tampa Bay. In the...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
On 1 May 1960, the Eisenhower administration told the world that a NASA weather research aircraft had gone missing over Turkey. It was a carefully constructed lie — and it lasted exactly four days. On 5 May, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev revealed that they had shot...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalityFinnish 🇫🇮Aerial Victories75 (2nd highest Finnish ace)Aircraft FlownBrewster Buffalo, Bf 109GWarsWinter War, Continuation WarBorn / Died30 Jul 1916 – 25 Jul 1995 (age 78)UnitLLv 24, HLeLv 24 Hans Henrik Wind in Suulajärvi 1943 — via Wikimedia...
Aviation World, History & Legends
On 2 May 1952, a British Overseas Airways Corporation de Havilland Comet lifted off from London Heathrow and flew to Johannesburg. It carried 36 passengers in pressurised comfort at 35,000 feet, cruising at 500 mph — twice the speed of any existing airliner. The jet...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalityFinnish 🇫🇮Aerial Victories94 (highest non-German ace of WWII)Aircraft FlownBrewster Buffalo, Bf 109GWarsWinter War, Continuation WarBorn / Died21 Feb 1914 – 21 Feb 1999 (age 85 — died on his birthday)UnitLLv 24, HLeLv 34 Eino Ilmari Juutilainen —...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
For 462 days, Western aircraft landed at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport every three minutes around the clock. They brought coal. They brought flour. They brought powdered milk and dried eggs and medicines. At the peak of the operation, a fully loaded transport...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalityFrench 🇫🇷Aerial Victories18 (shot down aircraft of 4 different nations)Aircraft FlownMorane-Saulnier 406, Dewoitine D.520WarsWWII (France, Syria, North Africa)Born / Died27 Jul 1913 – 11 Sep 1943 (age 30)UnitGC III/6 Morane D-3801 J-143 — via...
Aviation World, History & Legends
In 1921, no flight school in the United States would take her. Not because she lacked ability — she hadn’t been given the chance to prove it. They turned her away because she was Black, and because she was a woman. So Bessie Coleman learned French, saved her...
History & Legends, Military Aviation
Quick FactsNationalitySouth African/British 🇿🇦🇬🇧Aerial Victories50+ (possibly the highest Commonwealth ace)Aircraft FlownGloster Gladiator, Hawker HurricaneWarsWorld War II (North Africa, Greece)Born / Died3 Jul 1914 – 20 Apr 1941 (age 26)UnitNo. 80 Sqn RAF 33...
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