The Fighter That Flew as Both Prop and Jet

The Fighter That Flew as Both Prop and Jet

Aviation militaire

Most fighters carry the engine in the nose and the propeller out front. The Swedish Saab 21 did the opposite: it put the engine behind the pilot and the propeller at the very back, spinning between two slender tail booms. It was an elegant answer to an old problem...
The Mach 3 Interceptor With No Windscreen

The Mach 3 Interceptor With No Windscreen

Aviation militaire

The Republic XF-103 was meant to do something no fighter of the early 1950s could: cruise at Mach 3 — three times the speed of sound — at the edge of the stratosphere, run down a Soviet bomber, and kill it with missiles. To get there, its designers made a...
The Aircraft That Had No Wings

The Aircraft That Had No Wings

Aviation militaire

It is the morning of 18 September 1972, on a Dornier test field beside Lake Constance. There is no cockpit to climb into, no pilot to brief. The machine on the apron looks less like an aircraft than a fat steel cigar laid on its side: a smooth cylindrical body roughly...