Hans-Joachim Marseille: 17 Kills in One Day — The Star of Africa
Quick FactsNationalityGerman 🇩🇪Aerial Victories158 (151 in North Africa alone)Aircraft FlownBf 109E/FWarsWorld War II (North Africa)Born / Died13 Dec 1919 – 30 Sep 1942 (age 22)UnitJG 27 Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2006-0122, Hans-Joachim Marseille — via Wikimedia Commons...
Mach 3.3, 85,000 Feet, Zero Losses: The SR-71 Blackbird Was Simply Unreachable
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...
Walter Nowotny: 258 Kills, Then He Flew the World’s First Jet Fighter
Quick FactsNationalityAustrian/German 🇦🇹Aerial Victories258 (including 3 in Me 262 jet)Aircraft FlownFw 190A, Bf 109, Me 262 (first jet ace)WarsWorld War IIBorn / Died7 Dec 1920 – 8 Nov 1944 (age 23)UnitJG 54, Kommando Nowotny Walter Nowotny (portrait) — via Wikimedia...
Due costole rotte e un manico di scopa: il giorno in cui Yeager superò la barriera del suono
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...
Otto Kittel: 267 Kills — The Eastern Front Ace Nobody Talks About
Quick FactsNationalityGerman 🇩🇪Aerial Victories267 (4th all-time)Aircraft FlownFw 190A, Bf 109GWarsWorld War II (Eastern Front)Born / Died21 Feb 1917 – 14 Feb 1945 (age 27)UnitJG 54 “Grünherz” WW2 Norway. German uniforms Luftwaffe Polarflieger pilot Fire...
Il motore senza elica: come nacque in segreto l'era dei jet
At dawn on August 27, 1939 — four days before Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began — test pilot Erich Warsitz climbed into a small, unremarkable-looking aircraft at the Heinkel airfield in Rostock-Marienehe and opened a throttle connected to an engine...
Günther Rall: He Broke His Back, Ignored the Doctors, and Scored 275 Kills
Quick FactsNationalityGerman 🇩🇪Aerial Victories275 (3rd all-time)Aircraft FlownBf 109GWarsWorld War II (Eastern Front)Born / Died10 Mar 1918 – 4 Oct 2009 (age 91)UnitJG 52 Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J16509, Günther Rall — via Wikimedia Commons There’s a detail in...
Oh, l'umanità: 34 secondi che hanno posto fine all'era dei dirigibili
At 7:25 PM on May 6, 1937, the German airship LZ 129 Hindenburg — 804 feet long, the largest aircraft ever built — caught fire while attempting to dock at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. In 34 seconds, the largest flying object in history was a wreck on the...
Gerhard Barkhorn: 301 Kills — The Ace History Put in Second Place
Quick FactsNationalityGerman 🇩🇪Aerial Victories301 (2nd all-time)Aircraft FlownBf 109G, Fw 190WarsWorld War II (Eastern Front)Born / Died20 Mar 1919 – 8 Jan 1983 (age 63)UnitJG 52 5-Luftwaffe-pilot-Major-Gerhard-Barkhorn-01 — via Wikimedia Commons He is the...
Records, Silence, and a Mystery That Never Ends: The Life of Amelia Earhart
On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, New Guinea, bound for Howland Island — a two-mile-long coral strip in the central Pacific, 2,556 miles away. They were on the longest and most dangerous leg of an around-the-world flight....
Commenti recenti