If you put the B-52 and the B-1B side by side, they look like aircraft from two different eras of strategic thinking. One is a long, high-wing subsonic bomber that entered service in 1955, that’s 71 years ago and the newest B-52’s are now a spritely 63 years old. The …
If it Looks Right, It Will Fly Right – Right ?
There is an old saying in the aeronautical world which goes a bit like this “if it looks right, it will fly right”. Now this dates back to the time when aircraft were designed with slide rules, drawing boards and a bit more “intuition” for want of a better word …
How Do You Fly a Plane Through a Hurricane?
While the president of the United States and the governor of Florida were urging millions of people to evacuate from their homes when hurricane Milton was looking like it could be one of the worst ever to hit the Florida coast, a small band of professionals were heading in the …
F-14 The Last Analogue Fighter – The Deadly Tomcat
The F-14 fighter, one of the most well known fighter aircraft of the 1970s and 80s Cold War period, was also the last major analogue fighter to be made by the US and building upon the experience gained in Vietnam from the use of F4 phantoms and its direct predecessor …
The Rise & Fall of the Harrier Jump Jet
In December 2010, The British Royal Air Force and Royal Navy announced they would retire their Harrier jump jets from operational flights before 2011, in what had been two-month rush job to meet the demands of government cuts due to the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008. This marked …
Why Aren’t Swing Wing Aircraft Made Any More?
From around the mid 1960s, a new type of aircraft led the way in introducing new multi role fighters and bombers both in the United States and in the Soviet Union and then Europe. This hybrid style of aircraft looked to combine the low-speed flexibility and efficient cruise of straight-wing …
F-111 Aardvark, The Aircraft that Defined an Era
During the Vietnam war, one aircraft suffered the least amount of damage, even though it had been on some 4000 combat sorties, only six of them were lost to enemy action. That aircraft was the F-111 aardvark, a swing wing, medium range multi role combat aircraft which started in service …
Zoom Climbs – The Highest Life and Death Jet Flights to the Edge of Space.
On the 31st of August 1977, Aleksandr Fedotov, flying a modified MiG-25RB with the more powerful Tumansky R-15BF2-300 engine’s, reached the record height of 123,523 feet or 37,649m and that record still stands today. This marked the end Of the Super high altitude zoom climbs, a golden age of altitude …
B-58 Hustler – Was it Really That Bad?
During the early days of the Cold War the U.S needed bombers that would be capable of flying from the US mainland all the way to the Soviet Union, quickly and avoiding enemy air defences by flying higher than the Soviet fighters or missiles could reach. Two bombers emerged that …
How Two Dive Bombers Altered the Course of WW2
The first bombs of WW2 were dropped by Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers, during the invasion of Poland, and the last Luftwaffe ground-assault mission against Soviet tanks took place on the 5th May 1945 as part of the defence of Berlin was also by Stukas dive bombers. This “little Bomber“ …