Air Warfare
“Flying Fortress” Boeing B-17 Part I
BIRTH OF THE B-17 In the early summer of 1934, the US Army Air Corps released a requirement for a multi-engined medium bomber intended primarily for the coast-defence role. The requirement called for the ability to deliver a 2000 lb (907 kg) bomb load over a range of at least 1020 miles (1641 km) but preferably 2200 miles (3540 km)…
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Private Military Contractors
Evacuation of CIA station personnel by Air America on the rooftop of 22 Gia Long Street in Saigon on April 29, 1975. For many Americans, the 1975 photograph of a helicopter rescuing people from an apartment rooftop in Saigon symbolizes the failure of the Vietnam War. What most do not…
MiG-3
MiG-3s were delivered to front-line fighter regiments beginning in the spring of 1941 and proved to be a handful for pilots accustomed to the lower-performance and docile Polikarpov I-152 and I-153 biplanes and the Polikarpov I-16 monoplane. Even after the extensive modifications made to the MiG-3 in comparison to the…
Air Battle of Kursk, (1943)
Fw 190 A-4: Introduced in July 1942, the A-4 was equipped with the same engine and basic armament as the A-3. Updated radio gear, the FuG 16Z, was installed replacing the earlier FuG VIIa. A new, short “stub” vertical aerial mount was fitted to the top of the tailfin, a…
First Days off Barbarossa – Airwar
VVS deployment on 22 June 1941. First word of the attack arrived in Moscow in the form of a desperate signal from the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, who reported a devastating Luftwaffe raid was taking place against the naval base at Sevastopol. The report was disbelieved by Stalin…
Finland’s Air Force
In the 1930s, two controversies hindered Finnish aircraft acquisition. The first was the issue of whether fighters or bombers should have priority (the need for fighters seeming paramount). The second was the country from which to purchase aircraft. The head of the Defense Council, Carl Mannerheim, favored Germany, and the…
Victory through Airpower WWI
The Germans first attempted to break British morale by launching a series of Airship raids on Great Britain – (only Airships had the range and bomb capacity to attack Britain in 1915; heavier than air aircraft had not been developed enough to be used). By 1917 it was apparent that…