An aircraft carrier is a floating airbase capable of deploying air power wherever it is needed. During the Cold War (1947-1991), a variety of exciting (and often very dangerous) combat aircraft took to the seas. Many of these oozed charisma, and combined high performance with the toughness to survive deck life. Here are 11 of…
Mach 2 (twice the local speed of sound) is incredibly fast, and few modern aircraft fly much faster. Operating at higher speeds is rare in real-world warfare and entails huge compromises. Despite this, some astonishingly fast planes flying today comfortably exceed Mach 2. A handful of designs prove that extreme speed still matters, surviving decades…
China has gone from 1950s technology in the 1980s to the stealthy combat aircraft of today. No other nation has made such rapid progress in the field of aviation technology in the last forty years as the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The majority of new military aircraft types flown in the last 20 years…
In the First World War, fighter aircraft typically had only two light machine guns. By the Second World War, the firepower available to combat aircraft had increased dramatically. An arsenal of massive cannons firing explosive shells, combined with multiple heavy machine guns and a vast supply of ammunition, made some combat aircraft high-speed flying ‘battleships’. Here…
There’s always someone hogging the limelight. And in the world of aviation history, this often means that superb aircraft are forced to play second fiddle to more famous designs. Here are 10 overshadowed aircraft; most are (arguably) unfairly overshadowed, but in the case of one of them, it was entirely justified. Judge for yourself… 10:…
There’s always someone hogging the limelight. And in the world of aviation history, this often means that superb aircraft are forced to play second fiddle to more famous designs. Here are 10 overshadowed aircraft; most are (arguably) unfairly overshadowed, but in the case of one of them, it was entirely justified. Judge for yourself… 10:…
NATO air planners looking east during the Cold War faced a vast, intimidating armada of bombers and attack aircraft. With superior numbers, the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact nations brandished a massive hammer of both nuclear and ‘conventional’ destructive force. Here are 12 Soviet combat aircraft that kept NATO awake at night: 12:…
A Colorado company displayed at the Air & Space Force Association’s annual conference this week a model of a new very heavy lift cargo jet it is designing. Though still in its aspirational phase, Radia’s WindRunner concept comes at a time when the future of heavy lift cargo capabilities is in question, including within the…